Gluten-free Pie Crust

I pulled this photo of my Gluten-free Pie Crust from my Instagram feed. C’mon over and follow me there. At mr.farmers.daughter I post daily about life (good and bad), recipes (successes and failures) and the reality of living on a small plot of land where we grow our own. I’m always striving to improve and these pie crusts are no different than anything else I do in life.

I’ve been trying to perfect a gluten-free pie crust for the last 14 years. They have always been edible but I’ve rarely been utterly satisfied by the recipe or my handling of the dough. Gluten-free baking has improved by leaps and bounds in the last five years. With all the flour mixtures and so many bloggers like moi out there, I learn from many different people and I hope that someone somewhere can eventually learn from me.

As I mentioned before, I LOVE PIE. So, I’ve tried, time and again to find a recipe that’s easy to handle, strong enough to flip into a pie plate and will bake up to perfection. I finally found it!

Most gluten-free desserts require some sort of adaptation and pie crust is no different. I suggest you give yourself some grace if you’re making it for the first or even the fifth time. If it falls apart, I assure you there is a way for you to handle it without it ripping or cracking. I use large flexible cutting mats to turn the dough into the pie plate but you may need to find another strategy. Even if the dough cracks, this recipe is soft enough that you can usually press the dough back together again. Just make sure there are no tears in the bottom of the crust for juices to leak underneath.

Gluten-free flours eliminate one of the weaknesses of wheat flour pie crust. You can knead them as much as you want to and it will never build up gluten and make the dough tough. I take solace in that difference because I have worked wheat flour pie dough to the point of being unusable. It’s impossible to do that here. Score one for gluten-free baking, it just might be the only point we get.

You can use this recipe for any application needing a pie crust. I have even frozen them, unbaked in the pie plate, for up to 2 months wrapped securely in plastic wrap and foil.

UPDATE: If you’d like to use this recipe for a savory pie crust, simply reduce the amount of sugar to 1 Tbls. and proceed as directed.

Gluten-free Pie Crust

 

Author:

www.mrfarmersdaughter.com

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Ingredients

• 2 cups gluten-free flour (I use America's Test Kitchen mixture)
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 t. salt
• 2 T. sugar
• 1 T. apple cider vinegar
• ½ cup cold unsalted butter
• 4-5 T. cold water

Instructions

1. Place all dry ingredients in food processor.
2. Cut butter into 1Tbls. pieces.
3. Combine beaten egg and AC vinegar in measuring cup.
4. With food processor running, add butter one piece at a time until it runs smoothly.
5. Add egg/vinegar mixture and pulse to combine.
6. Add water by drizzling into processor while running.
7. Stop as soon as the dough comes together.
8. Turn out onto floured counter and knead to smooth out dough.
9. Divide into two sections and roll out to size between two pieces of plastic wrap lightly coated with oil.
10. Slide large, flexible surface under rolled out dough and plastic wrap.
11. Remove top layer of plastic wrap, place pie plate lightly on top, upside down.
12. Quickly flip pie plate, dough and flexible surface right side up.
13. Prepare dough in pie plate as usual.

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