It's December. Yup, just like that--December. Most of the time I get to a new month and think "Wow, I can't believe it's ______ already!" but this month, I'm ready. Bring on the winter wonderland. I'll just cuddle up in this little house baking all weekend.

First up: pie! Pie is an essential to any bakers repertoire, no matter how you slice it (ha!). Making the perfect pie crust is the bane of many baker's kitchen life, and making a pie crust that's also paleo is even rougher. I can still hear my dad scoffing as I pull out a food processor to make pie crust. "The butter gets all warm!" he would say, pulling out the pastry cutter and a chilled bowl. Hmph.

Well, paleo bakers, I'm here to say: "Rejoice! The food processor is in!" and this crust will go from start to finish in 20 minutes flat. It comes out of a pie dish beautifully and while you might not expect a nut-based crust to stick together, this one holds solid. You could eat a slice of this buttery crust sans-plate, if you were really desperate.

Almond Flour Pie Crust

Paleo, Gluten-Free, Grain-Free | Caitlin Sherwood

A simple, easy pie crust for any type of pie.

Serves: N/A | Total Active Time: 25 minutes

Ingredients:

1 3/4 cups almond flour
1/4 cup coconut flour
pinch salt
2 tablespoons coconut oil, cold + more for greasing the pie pan
1 egg

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 350°F. In your food processor, pulse the almond flour, coconut flour and salt together until well distributed and no coconut flour clumps remain. (Do not over-process, it will turn into nut butter!)
Add the coconut oil and egg. Pulse the food processor for several more minutes, until all of the oil and egg are incorporated and the dough turns into a loose crumb (depending on the temperature of your kitchen, it may also form a ball).
Grease a 9-inch pie pan with coconut oil. Press the dough into the pan, to form a 1/8 inch thin layer, working the dough up the sides of the pan. (Tip: use a smooth water glass or jar to roll out the dough in the bottom of the pan. Use your fingers to shape the scallops around the edge of the pie). Tip: alternatively, roll the dough out between 2 pieces of parchement paper until it's a 1/8 to 1/4 of an inch thick. Place in fridge for 5 minutes. Then, peel off top piece of parchment and transfer dough into pie pan, fitting to pan. For top crust, repeat the same process but shape top crust as desired after removing from fridge (cut strips for lattice, use a cookie cutter, etc).
Place the crust in the middle wrack of your oven and bake for 8-10 minutes, or until just golden.

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This combination of almond, chocolate, and dried cherries made it’s first debut on the long-gone blog I wrote in college. That blog has long since been folded.

The original was a cookie bar — made without eggs, because my mom never seemed to have eggs in the fridge, so my signature cookie bar recipe was a bit like a soft shortbread made with brown sugar for a more classic chocolate chip cookie taste. It called for dried cherries, chocolate, and white chocolate.

Luckily, before I hit “delete” on that site, I printed off all of my favorite recipes, and glued them into a black notebook. My cookbook.

In 2014, three years later, when I picked up blogging again, recreating a healthier version of those cookie bars was high on my to do list. These bars call for almond butter and almond flour, which build the dense, fudgy base. Eggs keep everything together. And honey gives a sweet edge where refined sugars did heavy lifting in the original. I skip white chocolate these days, because why eat white chocolate when you can eat dark chocolate?! But, if variety is the spice of your life, feel free to use half white chocolate and half dark chocolate (1/4 cup each). I use the dried cherries from Costco for this recipe, however if you can’t find dried cherries you could also use dried cranberries (I have often seen cranberries sweetened with cherry juice, which would mimic cherries in this recipe quite well).

Grain-Free Chocolate Cherry Cookie Bars

Published June 26, 2014 by Caitlin Sherwood

Serves: 16 | Active Time: 50 minutes

Ingredients:

1/2 cup almond butter

2 tablespoon butter, melted and cooled

1/4 cup honey

2 eggs

2 cups almond flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup dark chocolate chips or chopped up dark chocolate bar

1/2 cup dried cherries

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°F, and line a 9x9 inch baking dish with parchment paper.
In a medium-sized mixing bowl, combine almond butter, butter, honey, and eggs. Stir until smooth.
Add almond flour, baking soda, and salt. Stir to make a stiff batter.
Fold in chocolate and cherries until evenly distributed.
Press better into an even layer in the baking dish, and then bake for 20-25 minutes. Cookie bars should be golden and slightly puffed.
Allow to cool 10 minutes. Slice into 16 squares and serve. Store in airtight container at room temperature or in fridge.