Nutty crust from Alton Brown

It never ceases to amaze me what I get from watching Alton Brown and Good Eats! Way back when he did the episode on nuts, I figured it was going to be like the mushroom show... nice but not for me. I am allergic to most tree nuts, mushrooms as well. Found out the hard way, my mom makes killer brownies with black walnuts and sometime in my teen years while eating one, my mouth felt like it was on fire. Sans nuts since.

I quip now, I'm allergic to my own kind. ;)

But when AB talked about nuts and what they are botanically and culinarlly, I began to wonder if there were other nuts I could try without having a reaction to them. I did find some. After watching "Sometimes You Feel Like a Nut" I researched macadamia nuts further. A few years earlier I had tried them with no reaction, so wanted to know a little more about them. After finding out they grow on evergreens and knowing I'm fine eating pine nuts, I figured it was ok to eat these as well. Thus far, no volcanic reactions. Yay!

Thanks to AB inspiring me to learn more about macadamia nuts, I ventured to try the recipe for them offered in the episode. The crust for the mahi-mahi looked very enticing. But even more so was it could be morphed into a pie crust.

Mmmm... pie.

And what type of pie would be fitting for a fine crust such as this?

Coconut creme, of course.

The crust is, well, easy as pie to make!

AB's Macadamia Nut Crust

Ingredients
5 ounces (approximately 1 1/4 cups) roasted macadamia nuts, ground
1/2 cup panko (Japanese-style bread crumbs)
1/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons butter, melted

Mix all of the dry stuff together and add the butter. Then press into the pan of your choice. Bake for 20-25 minutes at 375 degrees.

The filling was something I whip up, a combo of a few pie recipes. Basically, a straight custard with coconut milk, coconut extract and shredded coconut added. This time I added some rum extract to the mix. Didn't really taste it, oh well another experiment for another day.

But the crust was a knockout! I've made this pie with pie dough crust, vanilla wafer crust and now macadamia nut crust. By far the winner is the macadamia nut crust. It offers a nice crunch to the pie. The nuts add a toasty goodness as well.