Healthy Sweet Nut Crust

I've never been much of one for pie dough. We never had shortening or lard on hand, the traditional fats of choice, and butter or margarine never seemed to work for me. The dough was too crumbly, and when I added more water than called for, this didn't help at all. I've used shortbread, graham crumb, and chocolate crusts for my pies instead. But this is a new crust I tried and I love it. It basically has two ingredients. The procedure here seems long, but that's only because I explained everything at length - really all you need to do is blitz in a food processor! You can use any nut you wish, but I like almonds. It's simple, healthy, vegan, and goes with a variety of pies. I used it for my wild berry tart the other day.

Healthy Sweet Nut Tart
1/2 cup pitted dates
water
1 cup whole, natural almonds
feel free to add a dash of spice, a splash of extract, or something else to add some additional flavor

Put the dates in a small saucepan, cover with water, and bring to a boil. Turn heat off and allow to cool so the dates will plump up and absorb all the moisture.

Drain all the liquid off. Reserve this liquid - it is amazing. It can be drunken warm as a hot date tea, as sweet as juice but with no added sugar. Or add some cocoa powder and make hot chocolate. It can be used to sweetened a variety of tings - baked goods, savory items, etc. etc. The liquid can be reduced to make date syrup or date honey, used as maple syrup or honey in baking (and cheaper!). 

Put half the dates in a food processor with all the almonds and begin to process until mixture comes together. The almonds will break into small pieces and the dates will bind them together. The almonds do not need to be finely ground, actually, I prefer them in larger pieces. If the mixture is not sticky, add some more dates. 

You may not need all the dates, but now you have dates that are already pre-plumped for another recipe, just store them in the fridge. 

Press mixture into one eight or nine inch round pie or tart pan, two four inch round pie pans, or a bunch (I'd estimate eight to twelve) baby tart pans. Place in the freezer to firm up, then add your desired filling!