How to Make a Nut Pie Crust to Upgrade Your Holiday Dessert Game

A perfectly buttery pie crust might be the best part of a homemade pie. Yes, the filling is important, but I'm all about that tender, flaky crust. If you can relate, there's an easy way to make the crust in your favorite pie recipes even better: by adding nuts! Made just like regular pie crust, nut pie crust recipes add chopped nuts to really enhance the texture and flavor of your pies. Whether it's a crunchy pecan pie crust for your pumpkin pie or a walnut crust for blueberry pie, your dessert game is about to get an upgrade with these easy, yet gourmet nut pie crusts.

How to Make a Nut Pie Crust

There are two ways to make nut pie crusts: as a pastry with nuts mixed in with flour or like a graham cracker crust using just nuts (instead of crackers), butter, and sugar. The flour method gives you a pie crust very similar to a regular pastry. (Note: if you've got a gluten intolerance, it's easy to swap in your favorite gluten-free flour mix.) Or you can make your nut pie crust without any flour or rolling required for a gluten-free option that's also less fuss.

How to Make a Nut Pie Crust Pastry

In the nut pie crust used in our recipe for autumn maple-pear pie, you choose between adding ground walnuts or pecans to your pastry dough. You can alternatively add 3 Tbsp. finely chopped pecans (or your favorite nut!) to our single-crust pastry. For a more forgiving nut pastry, give this rustic blood orange tart with salted pecan crust a shot.

1. Stir together flour, ground nuts, and any desired spices or seasonings. Cut in butter using a pastry blender ($15, Target) until the pieces are pea-size.
2. Gradually add cold water until dough forms.
3. Roll out dough on lightly floured surface and transfer to pie plate ($5, Bed Bath & Beyond). Parbake (a short bake in the oven to brown the crust before filling) if your recipe calls for it.

How to Make an Easy Gluten-Free Nut Pie Crust

You can enjoy this simple nut crust in our indulgent candy bar pie recipe. For more detailed instructions on making a walnut pie crust, visit our sister site Allrecipes. This gluten-free pie crust can easily become a Keto-friendly recipe by swapping the sugar for an approved sweetener such as stevia.

1. Combine ground nuts of choice, melted butter, and sugar.
2. Press the mixture into a pie plate ($5, Bed Bath & Beyond) and bake in 325ºF oven for 10 minutes. Cool completely before filling.

Where to Buy Nut Pie Crusts

If you need to make some holiday pies and are on a time crunch, you can check your local grocery store for pre-made nut pie crusts. Brands such as Diamond of California offer both walnut pie crusts and pecan pie crusts that are ready to be filled.

Once you've got your nut pie crusts ready, it's up to you to add delicious fillings to the blank canvas. Any recipe from berry pies to no-bake pie can be swapped with a nut pie crust. A sweet potato pie in a pecan crust or a caramel-chocolate pie in a walnut crust sound pretty amazing right about now.