raw strawberry pie

a few weeks ago, jo, hoodes and i assembled a strawberry pie. i saw the recipe in domino mag a while ago, and have been meaning to try this fresh, summery dessert! i love recipes that can do double duty...a big batch of the crust can be modified and used to make homemade larabars. here is my adaptation of this adaptation :)

ingredients:

- 2 pounds fresh strawberries, tops removed, quartered (the more strawberries the better.)

- 1 tbsp fresh squeezed lemon juice (1/2 lemon)

- 1/4 cup brown sugar

- 2 cups almonds, ground

- 1 3/4 cups pitted medjool dates

method:

1. in a bowl, combine strawberries, lemon juice, and brown sugar. Mix well and put in refrigerator.

2. grind the almonds and put them in another bowl and start working on dates. (if you are like me and without a food processor, you could go ghetto and 'grind' the almonds a la peanut butter jar lol!) Remove pits, flatten the dates and mince them into little bits. Place minced dates into the bowl of ground almonds.

3. use your hands to mix and knead the dates and almonds together into a dough. Form a ball.

4. place the date-almond ball into a pie pan (if you are worried about things sticking, put a little bit of canola oil on the pie pan and grease thoroughly) and mold it into the pie pan as best as you can. Take the strawberries out of the fridge, and using a slotted spoon, pile berries into the crust, leaving liquid behind. (you can use the liquid later in a sparkly drink or perhaps reduced down to a glaze..?)

5. place pie in the fridge to set for two hours.

6. enjoy the awesomeness of fresh strawberries, lemon juice, and sweet sweet dates!

happy (rainy) summer!