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.