Let's Talk About Gluten Free Pie Crust

I love pies.  

Well, I should say that I love to eat pies and hate to make pies.  It is not the pie filling. I hate to make pie crust.  My friend Amanda, also known as Goddess of Pies, says the secret is cold butter.  She makes the most beautiful pies, and I believe her completely.....I still hate making pie crust.
  
When I ate gluten, finding pie shells was not a problem.  There are so many options for yummy fresh and frozen pie dough.  It used to be easy for me to bypass the part I didn't like, and skip straight to the fun part: the filling.  That's what I love preparing: pumpkin, apples, cherries, strawberries!  That's before you even consider the savory pies!  

Since giving up gluten, I have tried a variety of frozen pie shells.  I have tried complete frozen pies (ick) and just the shells (still ick), and neither made me go back for seconds.  You know a pie is bad when a week later there is still some left.



I got some of Bob's Red Mills new Gluten Free Pie Crust at our local grocery store (Dave's market), and I'm sure you can find it at most health food stores.  I usually go to Amazon for my flour needs, since I like to buy in bulk.  I don't do that for my first try of a product, that way I don't end up with a bunch of mixes that I hate. This mix is going on my Amazon list.  It is definitely worthy of buying four at a time.

I was given advice from the Goddess of Pies to use my food processor, instead of a fork, to make up the pie crust.  This saved me from cursing the gods for the invention of forks.  So I put an entire bag of mix and  20 Tbsp of butter, yep 20, into the processor and pulsed a few times.  I think I pulsed about 10 times, but I did not count.  Next, I added 6 Tbsp of water: one Tablespoon at a time until the dough came together.  I split the dough in half, put it in plastic wrap, and refrigerated the dough for two hours.  These instructions are on the package.  

The dough came out of the refrigerator looking perfect.  It rolled out very easily, between two sheets of parchment paper, and looked like heaven.   It was smooth and slightly shiny, probably due to butter content.

I had just bought a set of tiny cookie cutters, so I had to use those.  I also had a bunch of apples that looked lovely in the store, but turned out to all be bruised when I got them home.  I didn't peel my apples, which turns out is a big mistake. If I had peeled the apples, I think this pie might have been perfect! 

Apple Pie:

• 8 Braeburn Apples (I used 10, but there were many bruised spots taken out)
• 1/4cup plus 1 Tbsp Sugar
• 1 Tbsp fresh Lemon juice
• 1/4 tsp Salt
• 1/4 tsp Nutmeg
• 1/8 tsp cloves
• 1 tsp Cinnamon
•  1/8 cup Milk

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 420 degrees.

Take out one of your refrigerated dough (1/2 of prepared package).  Roll out 2/3 of the dough in a circle for bottom crust.  Gently place in a 9-inch pie tin and refrigerate. 

Cut apples into 1/4 inch slices.  Toss in a large bowl with 1/4 cup sugar, lemon juice, salt, and spices to coat.

Put apple mixture into prepared crust.  

Roll out remaining 1/3 and cut into strips.  Lay over apples in a lattice pattern. 

As you can see I cut out some small cookie shapes, but they didn't stand out.  It's probably not worth the extra effort. 

Brush top dough lightly with milk and sprinkle with extra 1 Tbsp sugar.  I used a Madagascar vanilla bean infused sugar, and it added an extra pop to the flavor.

Bake in center rack for 20 min.

Reduce the temperature to 375, and bake for 25-35 min. 

The pie is done when the crust is a golden brown color, and the filling is bubbly and yummy.

Remove from oven, and let rest on a wire rack for at least an hour before eating.

Let's just say that this pie did not last the week.  I think it was gone in a couple of days!  It was pure goodness.  Next time I am going to try this with coconut sugar instead of cane sugar.  

With the other half of the dough I made Turkey Pot Pies.  I found this great recipe here: 

http://blog.bobsredmill.com/gluten-free/sallys-turkey-pot-pie-gf/

There is a lot of butter in this dough, and I didn't want to have crust on top and bottom.  I followed directions except I put the filling in three medium sized, aka husband sized, glass containers.  I rolled out the crust 1/4 inch thick, and used those cute tiny cookie cutters to create a vent in the pie.

At the end of the day, I had a ton of comfort food.  Who doesn't love a good pot pie with a yummy flaky crust?  The taste is buttery, which is not surprising.  It is smooth, easy to work with, and gluten free!
I highly recommend this mix if you, like me, want something that is easy to make and tastes great.  In the future, I will play around with the mix to see if I can cut down on the calories (butter), but for now I am a happy girl.

Gingerbread Cookies - The Start Of A Christmas Cookie Extravaganza!

I went gluten free just over a year ago.  It was right before Christmas.  When I think of Christmas, I think of cookies.  My favorite are sugar cookie cutouts and gingerbread.  When I was young, my mother and I would bake for a week and give our cookies out as gifts.  This is an expensive way to gift, but always filled with love and laughter.

Cookies fighting for the right to frosting! 

Last year I wanted to use my brand new Ninja cookie cutters, so I gave sugar cookies a try.  Let me remind you, I was very new to gluten free baking, and  I made some of the most portly ninjas ever seen.  These guys were fat and didn't taste very good. They were a mess!  I was so distraught I didn't even take a picture.  I was sure that there were no yummy cookies in my future!

This year, with a lot of baking success under my belt, I decided to try gingerbread men, ahem, ninjabread men!  I know the secret of gluten free baking (using a mixture of whole grains and starches), and I was prepared for another disaster of overweight ninjas, but still hopeful they would turn out good.  I was shocked when they turned out great!  

I started with finding a recipe that someone else did all the hard work of perfecting. I found it on The Gluten Free Spouse,  a  great blog with recipes I have tried before.  The original recipe can be found here: http://www.theglutenfreespouse.com/2010/12/gluten-free-gingerbread-cookies.html

I modified it to fit what flours I had on hand, and added a little bit of extra starch since the dough was very sticky.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup potato starch (*See update at bottom of post: use 3/4 cup for a softer cookie)
• 1 cup white rice flour
• 3/4 cup tapioca flour
• 1/2 cup sorghum flour
• 2 teaspoons xanthan gum
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon ground ginger
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 8 tablespoons unsalted sweet cream butter (1 stick)
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup unsulphered molasses
• 1 egg
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350 

Start by whisking the flours, xanthan gum, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and spices together in a bowl. Mix until everything is evenly distributed.

In a large bowl cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.  

Mix in molasses, egg, and vanilla.  Mix until well incorporated.  

Add 1/3 of the dry mixture at a time.  I have a very powerful hand mixer, but a stand mixer is your friend here.  The dough is quite thick and slightly sticky.

When the dough is completely combined, split into thirds, pat down to about an inch thick, cover in plastic wrap, and put in the refrigerator.  

There was a slight amount of flour visible on the dough, but it didn't affect the finished cookie.

I refrigerated the dough for two days, mostly because I didn't have time the next day to make cookies.  With this dough, you want to refrigerate for at least a few hours.  

The cookies looked so cute going in to the oven.  I was cautiously optimistic. 

Turn the dough out on a floured rolling mat or sheet of parchment paper.  I also used a sheet of parchment paper on top of the dough, so that my rolling pin had no chance of sticking to the dough.  I used a 4mm (1/8 inch) guide on my rolling pin, and used ninjabread men cookie cutters. 

Gently transfer to baking sheet (I also lined these with parchment paper), and bake at 350 for 8 min. 

I was so pleased with how these little guys came out!

Note: This dough was quite challenging to roll out.  I had to enlist the help of my husband.  I think the dough being refrigerated for so long made it hard to work with, but refrigeration also helped the ninjas to keep their shape.

Gingerbread does not change color much, and if you are seeing a lot of darkening in your cookies they are probably burnt.  If you like very soft cookies, then I would try baking for 6 min.  Mine came out with a crunch on the outside and softer middle.

I even did a few little cookies, for the same time (8min),  and they turned out great.

Cool the cookies completely.  This is where you have a glass of something yummy, eat a cookie, and relax.  

The small candy canes looked like they might hang off a glass, so I poured a glass of mead as a reward for a job well done. 

Once the cookies are fully cooled mix up some frosting. I just winged the frosting part.  I used about 1 1/2 cup of sifted powder sugar, about 1 tsp of milk, and about 3 tsp of water.   Really just slowly add water, mixing well with every addition, until the sugar paste is a good consistency. 

These were the best of the bunch.  

 I mixed my frosting a  bit too runny, so when I try this again I will err on the side of too little moisture.  I think a better frosting consistency would yield a more clean cookie.  With that said, I think they turned out really cute, and I couldn't wait to bite off their little heads! 

Not perfect, but darn cute.

It is my opinion, and my husbands, that gingerbread is better after sitting for at least a day.  Really any spice cookie gets better then next day, and is wonderful on the third.  The spices come out and really give your mouth a punch.  This recipe made a few dozen cookies, so 2/3 went straight into the freezer.  Gluten free cookies freeze really well.  I freeze all of my fresh gluten free baked goods in the same way:

1. Put unwrapped in freezer, usually on a baking sheet;
2. once frozen solid, transfer to ziplock baggy or vacuum seal bag; 
3. Remove as much air as possible, and seal. 

By freezing then sealing, your baked goods retain their shape, and unfreeze better.

Happy baking, and let me know what you think!

*UPDATE: The cookies are really flavorful two days later.  They loose the soft cakelike texture and almost melt in your mouth.  I am really liking the texture that falls away, but if you want a cookie that is soft in the middle, use 1/4 less potato starch.  You will probably need to use more flour, for dusting, when rolling the dough out.