SS&GF: Simply Sugar and Gluten Free

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I’ve been playing around with gluten-free pie crust recipes for the last week trying different combinations of flours, liquids, and fats until I found one I liked the best.

That’s the great thing about pie crusts. You can easily change the recipe to suit your tastes and specific dietary needs.

I used a mixture of my gluten-free flour blend, sweet rice flour, and psyllium husks to make pie crust without xanthan gum that rolls out easily and allows you to make a beautiful, crimped edge. It also gives the pie crust some flexibility so you can stretch it into the edges of your pan without any major tears. I also find that xanthan gum makes pie crust too tough and not flaky, which is no good.

This recipe makes enough for a deep 9-inch pie pan or a 10 or 11-inch pie pan. Here are some tips for modifying this recipe, choosing ingredients, and making a perfect pie crust for your specific dietary needs:

Flour: Use Authentic Foods Sweet Rice Flour. It’s finely ground and doesn’t taste gritty in the final product. Psyllium husks make the crust more supple so you can easily roll it out and flute the edges.

Fat: I used butter. I love the taste of butter in my pie crust and if handled properly the crust is perfectly flaky. If you need a dairy-free recipe, use chilled non-hydrogenated vegetable shortening. Vegetable shortening has a higher melting temperature than butter so it can create a flakier crust. You can also use a combination of butter and shortening if you want the flavor of butter and the flakiness of vegetable shortening.

Liquid: I used ice water. You can also use egg, heavy cream, or a dairy-free heavy cream substitutesuch as unsweetened MimicCreme. They all have a slight effect on the final product.

Savory or Sweet: The recipe below makes a Pate Brisee, or savory crust. I like the contrast of a savory crust with a sweet pie. If you want a Pate Sucree, or sweet dough, add 1/4 cup of coconut palm sugar to the flour.

Mixing: I used my KitchenAid 5-Quart Mixer because it doesn’t heat the fat the way a food processor does. You can also make this by hand. If you use a food processor, make sure to stop mixing when you can still see large chunks of fat.

Shaggy Mess: This is what you’re looking for when making a pie crust. You want big pieces of fat throughout the dough, which makes the crust flaky. Once the dough is taken out of it’s mixing vessel, you’ll have to pull it together with your hands and press it into a disk. If the dough comes together while you’re mixing, it’s over-mixed and your crust won’t be as tender and flaky.

Keep it Cold: Work quickly and keep your dough cold. The fat should melt in the oven, not while you’re mixing it or rolling it out. Joe gave me a marble pastry board last Christmas and I love using it to roll out pie crusts.

Rolling Out the Dough: Lightly flour the dough with sweet rice flour. Roll out the dough between two pieces of parchment paper or waxed paper, peeling the paper back and laying it back across the dough every once in a while to give the crust more mobility. Flip the dough over several times during the rolling process, too, and pull that paper off and reapply as well.

Transfer the Dough to the Pie Pan: Peel away one piece of parchment paper. Use your rolling pin to help transfer the dough to the pie pan so that the side still covered with parchment paper is facing  up. Gently peel away the top layer of parchment paper and work the dough into the pan.

Repairing Cracks: Dip your finger in cold water and patch any cracks.

What kind of pie are you making this holiday? Have any pie-making tips? Share your ideas – I’d love to hear them.