Oat Flour Pie Crust

You had to know this was coming, right?

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I finally made my first totally-from-scratch-I-feel-like-I-should-just-start-living-in-my-apron pie, and I was pretty proud of it.

I was not so proud when, 4 days later, I found that the pie was starting to mold and I had to throw it away.

This is the bad thing about only having 2 people in the house: unless it’s a batch of cookies (which go faster in this house than nachos on college game day), we have a hard time finishing desserts that have more than 4 servings.

And I guess that’s mostly my fault because I like to bake. And cook. And I usually do a little of both every day, if I can.

I think that’s a good thing most of the time, but it also means that I’m usually baking something new every few days. And that doesn’t leave us time to get through my last dish before a new one is here, smelling good and tempting us away from the perfectly delicious pie I made a few days ago.

If the only solution is to stop baking, that’s not going to happen. Maybe I need to learn how to make a half pie?

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If you can eat a pie in 2-3 days or have some people to share it with, you should definitely use this crust as the base.

Pie crusts themselves aren’t the healthiest thing in the world, and I don’t think they should be. They’re meant to be flaky and buttery and rich. But I couldn’t help mixing in a little oat flour. I like the hint of sweetness it gives to baked goods, and that extra depth of flavor was a great combination with the sweet and tart strawberry rhubarb filling.

You could definitely use all regular flour here, too, or a mix of all purpose and whole wheat. The crust will be great either way.

 

Oat Flour Pie Crust

  • 1/2 cup plus 2 Tbsp all purpose flour
  • 1/2 cup oat flour
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp sugar
  • 8 Tbsp (1 stick) butter, cold and diced
  • 3 Tbsp ice water, plus more if needed

Mix flours, salt, and sugar in a medium bowl.

Add the diced butter and cut into the flour, using your fingers or a pastry blender, until the dough resembles cornmeal.

Add the ice water and mix together with your hands until you can form the dough into a ball, adding more water if needed (and if you add too much water, just add a little more flour).

Form the dough into a ball, wrap it in plastic wrap, and let it set in the fridge for at least 30 minutes before using. You can also leave it in the fridge for a few days or freeze it for a few weeks, if you want to make the dough in advance.

Once you’re ready to bake, take the crust out and unwrap it.

Place it on a floured surface and sprinkle the top of the dough with flour.

Roll out with a rolling pin until the crust is about 2 inches bigger than your pie dish.

Drape the dough over your pie dish and press it into place. Trim the excess around the edges and crimp or tuck the edges to fit the dish.

29 comments

  1. Maybe you could make mini pies? That oat crust sounds fantastic! We have issues occasionally finishing dessert around here also…which usually culminates in my being forced to throw things away before I decide to eat the whole thing. Sigh.

    • mini pies are a good idea! i just need to get little pie tins or something to bake them in.

  2. I know what you mean about not having people to eat your baked goods. That usually prevents me from even starting! It’s a horrible situation, really.

  3. I’m the same way! I bake and bake! Usually I end up giving about half of it away. This pie crust sounds awesome- I love what oats do to baked goods :)

  4. i definitely bought myself a mini pie pan, but haven’t used it yet! can’t wait :) did you keep it in the fridge?? i’m surprised it got moldy that quickly :( LOVE the idea of oat flour in a crust… i’ll be remembering this!

    • no, I didn’t, and I should have! I just forgot about it and it was covered on the counter.

  5. I agree on the mini pies. Plus everything is cuter when it’s tiny. I have some adorable mini pie dishes from le cresuet that I absolutely love.

  6. We are the SAME way… they go bad before we can finish them. I always bring leftover desserts to work – my coworkers (and my hips) thank me for that! hah

  7. I’m always looking for a healthier crust since the commercial ones are so fatty and unhealthy. This looks great!

  8. Thank goodness I have a job where my co-workers like my baked goods.. because Marshall and I have the same problem when I bake things! This crust looks and sounds like I could pull it off. Thanks for the recipe!

    • It’s definitely nice to know we’re not the only ones with this “problem”. We like our sweets – we just can’t always eat them all ourselves!

  9. I’m in the same boat as you; I love to bake but my fiance and I can never finish everything. I try to balance it out by cutting most recipes in half or freezing some dough and saving it for later. Do they sell small pie dishes? I wonder. I’ve never looked but that might solve your problem :-)

    PS… this crust looks great.

  10. ha we don’t have that problem …i make a full sized dessert and we (usually) manage to finish it off. I’m ashamed lol.

    for the oat flour can i just blend up oatmeal in my food processor?

    • :) Well, there are SOME things that we don’t have trouble finishing :)

      Yes, you could totally make your own oat flour! I have some already ground, but it’s easy to make in a food processor/blender.

  11. brandi love!

    i just caught up on A LOT of posts. like ridiculously embarrassed to admit it was double digits. however, all i can say is your posts are always so lovely and put me in such a good mood. especially that strawberry rhubarb pie – simply delicious!

    and i am sooooo loving the new color in your kitchen! and maggie. and the fact you ate lettuce for a snack. my weirdest snack was uncooked pasta. i LOVE crunchy, uncooked pasta.

    hope you are doing well my dear – much loveeeee!!

    hearts,
    holly

    • Thank you friend! we’re loving the kitchen, too :)

      and PS: I used to eat RAW pasta, too!!!

  12. Our baked goods SHOULD go bad before we have time to eat them up, but unfortunately that never happens. I say unfortunately because it takes some major overeating to eat up all the baked goods. :-)

    Your crust looks wonderful.

  13. Wow! That looks incredible. From scratch is always so much better. I am sure I wouldn’t give mold a chance to grow with this beautiful thing staring at me!

  14. hi,

    i was wondering if you can make this with coconut oil instead of th butter, also, if i can use honey or coconut nectar or other sweetener besides th sugar. thanks for your help.

    • You could definitely use a different sweetener. I would think the coconut oil would work fine, but I haven’t tried it so I’m not sure. You could sub in Earth Balance, if you’d rather have a vegan butter substitute.

  15. YOU CAN FREEZE PIE!! JUST SLICE THE REST OF YOUR PIE AND WRAP INDIVIDUAL SLICES IN WAX PAPER AND STORE THEM IN AN AIRTIGHT ZIPLOCK BAG. WHEN YOU WANT A PIECE OF PIE, TAKE IT OUT, LEAVE THE WAX PAPER ON AND PUT IT ON A PLATE. MICROWAVE FOR ABOUT A MINUTE AND IT’S LIKE HAVING A PIECE OF FRESHLY BAKE PIE.

  16. This crust just did not work for me. sticky and not enough dough. I had to alter the recipie just to make it work and by the time its done its a different recipie

    • I’m so sorry! I wonder why…I’ve made this crust at least 10 times and it’s never done that for me.

  17. How would it work to use all oat flour for a crust? Has anyone tried that? I know it would really change the texture…

  18. Going to try Oat Flour Pie crust and add a little Ground Flax seed! Try using Muffin Pans for your mini Pies, I see a lot of people doing that:-)

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