Gluten-free Apple Pie and 20 Recipes for Festive Gluten-free Holiday Treats

Like many people, I associate the holidays with delicious desserts and yummy baked goods. As a child, holidays meant ovens warming the house, delicious smells filling the rooms, counter tops brimming with wonderful treats. Homemade desserts and baked goods bring these things and more to the holidays. They bring smiles to the faces of friends and guests and family. They bring joy to the heart.

However, for people with gluten-sensitivity or celiac disease, making tasty desserts and baked goods comes with extra challenges. Not only do they need to avoid wheat and flour, they need to find recipes that match the taste and texture and goodness of favorites that are now off-limits.

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In fact, these challenges have inspired us to include links to some of our best loved and most delicious gluten-free holiday recipes. To help you bring delicious desserts and baked goods to your holiday table, here is a recipe for a delicious gluten-free apple pie, followed by links to some of our best loved gluten-free desserts and baked goods.

This pie crust recipe comes from King Arthur Flour

Great Gluten-free Apple Pie

Gluten-free Pie Crust Ingredients (Makes 1 crust):

• 1¼ cups King Arthur Gluten-Free Multipurpose Flour
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• ½ teaspoon xanthan gum
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 6 tablespoons cold butter
• 1 large egg
• 2 teaspoons lemon juice or vinegar

Apple Pie Filling Ingredients:

• 6 cups thinly sliced, peeled apples (6 medium)
• ¾ cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons King Arthur Gluten-Free Multipurpose Flour
• ¾ teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice

Directions:

Heat oven to 425F. Be sure to double crust ingredients for a 2 crust pie.

Cut the cold butter into pats. Then, in a large mixing bowl, work the pats into the flour mixture till it's crumbly, with some larger, pea-sized chunks of butter remaining.

Whisk the egg and vinegar or lemon juice together till very foamy. Mix egg and vinegar mixture into the dry ingredients. Stir until the mixture holds together, adding 1 to 3 additional tablespoons cold water if necessary.

Shape into a ball and chill for an hour, or up to overnight.

Allow the dough to rest at room temperature for 10 to 15 minutes before rolling.

Roll out on a cutting board clean table that is heavily sprinkled with gluten-free flour.

Invert the crust into the un-greased 9-inch glass pie plate. Press firmly against side and bottom.

Add filling.

Roll out the second pie crust, cover pie and pinch crust edges into ridges until closed.

Tip: The egg yolk makes this crust vulnerable to burned edges, so always shield the edges of the crust, with aluminum foil or a pie shield, to protect them while baking.

Tips for Better Baking:

1. Baking on high heat at the beginning will help prevent sogginess on the bottom of the crust.
2. For best results, use a metal pie pan. Aluminum works best. Bake at 425°F on the bottom rack of your oven for 20 minutes, then reduce the heat to 350°F, move your pie to the middle rack, and continue to bake until the crust is golden and the filling is bubbly (40-45 minutes total baking time).
3. Brushing the crust lightly with milk and sprinkling it with sugar will help the crust to brown better, and will also give a nice sparkle and sweet crunch to your finished pie.

Here are links to some of our best loved gluten-free desserts and baked goods (Note: King Arthur Gluten-Free Multi-Purpose Flour will work well in place of regular wheat flour most of these recipes, so feel free to substitute as you like):

• Holiday Pumpkin Bread (Gluten-Free)
• Orange Walnut Bread (Gluten-Free)
• Pumpkin Pie
• Banana Nut Bread #3 (Gluten-Free)
• Gingerbread #2 (Gluten-Free)
• Decadent Gluten-Free Triple Chocolate Chunk Cookies
• Quick Cranberry Coconut Cookies (Gluten-Free)
• Molasses Spice Cookies (Gluten-Free)
• Snickerdoodles (Gluten-Free)
• Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies (Gluten-Free)
• Soft Sugar Cookies (Gluten-Free)
• Frosted Pumpkin Bars (Gluten-Free)
• Sugar & Spice Madeleines (Gluten-Free)
• Lebkuchen (German Ginger Cookies - Gluten-Free)
• Three Ingredient Gluten-Free Pie Crust
• Danish (Gluten-Free)
• Pumpkin Cheesecake with Butter Pecan Crust (Gluten-Free)
• Apple Crisp #2 (Gluten-Free) 
• Tasty Apple Crisp (Gluten-Free)