Someone posted a photo of a pear ginger pie on twitter several weeks ago. I loved the idea but thought it could be improved upon with my dad’s favorite almond coconut crust. I made this the other day for my parents. It was a big success and since I used very ripe pears the only added sugar is from the crystallized ginger. My mom thinks I should make cookies out of my crust recipe so I may try that in the future. Coconut flour, corn starch or arrow root can be substituted for rice flour in the filling.

Crust:

2 cups almond meal
1/2 cup coconut flour
1/3 cup coconut oil, melted
3 Tbs crystallized ginger, finely minced
2 Tbs cold water
1/4 tsp salt

Filling:

6 ripe pears, peeled, cored and sliced
1 Tbs rice flour
1 tsp ground ginger

In a large bowl, combine almond meal, coconut flour, crystallized ginger and salt. Mix ingredients well. Add coconut oil and stir until a crumbly dough forms. Add water, a little at a time until dough holds together. You may not need all of it. Split the dough in two and roll into balls. Sandwich each of the dough balls between sheets of parchment paper and flatten out with the palm of your hand until a half inch think. Chill the crusts along with parchment paper in the refrigerator for 15-20 minutes. Preheat oven to 350*F. In another bowl, combine slices of pears, rice flour and ginger. Toss together to coat the pears with the dry ingredients. Using a rolling pin, roll crusts to about an 1/8″ thick. Place bottom crust in pie plate and pour the pear filling into it. Cover with top crust and crimp the edges with your fingers. Cut a few air vents in the top crust and bake for 30-40 minutes until top is golden brown. Allow to cool before serving.