Great Pie Crust Recipe (and Pie Crust Cinnamon Rolls Too!)

Posted May 31, 2007

I thought I would share my pie crust recipe with everyone. Dealing with this new diagnosis has not been easy, but realizing that I could still bake a cherry pie (or any pie for that matter) was really exciting. Though it was not as easy as working with wheat flour, I embraced the new challenge.

(can't seem to get this image to post, I made it 150x135 pixels. Advice welcome!)

Four Flour Pastry

"The Gluten Free Gourmet"

By Bette Hagman

Ingredients

2 cups Four Flour Bean Mix (listed below)

1/4 cup sweet rice flour

1 tsp xanthan gum

1 tsp baking powder (gluten free)

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp sugar

1/3 cup margarine or butter

1/3 cup Butter Flavor Crisco

1 small egg or 3 tbsp liquid egg substitute

1 tbsp vinegar

3 tbsp ice water

Sweet rice flour for rolling

Four Flour Bean Mix (exchanges cup for cup with wheat flour)

FOR 9 CUPS:

2 cups Garfava bean flour (I used Garbonzo)

1 cup sorghum flour

3 cups cornstarch

3 cups tapioca flour

FORMULA: (If you want to make a different amount)

2/3 Part Garfava bean flour

1/3 part sorghum flour

1 part cornstarch

1 part tapioca flour

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flours, xanthan gum, baking powder, salt and sugar. Cut in the margarine and Crisco in small pieces until you have shortening the size of lima beans (not cornmeal).

Beat the egg with a fork and add the vinegar and ice water. Stir into the dry ingredients, forming a ball. You may refrigerate to chill, but it is not necessary.

Divide dough into two halves and roll the first half out onto plastic wrap dusted with sweet rice flour. Transfer to a pie tin by inverting the plastic wrap. Add the pie filling and roll out the second half of the dough. Place the second crust over the filling, seal the edges, and bake as directed for the filling used.

For a baked pie shell, prick the pastry with a fork on the sides and bottom. Bake in a preheated oven for about 12-14 minutes. Cool before filling. Makes on 2-crust pie or 2 pie shells.

MY NOTES:

I used Garbonzo flour for the Garfava flour (it's a mix of Garbonzo and Fava bean flours anyway) and it worked out great. I mixed up 9 cups of the flour and put it in the (well cleaned out) container that I used to keep my flour in. I feel "whole again."
I also used a dairy free margarine.
I used wax paper instead of plastic wrap since I could only imagine that going horribly wrong.
It took a long time for me to find the sweet rice flour, but I did some searching through these forums and someone suggested Mochiko Sweet Rice Flour and said it could be found at any asian or global foods store. I found it in the first one I went to!
When I was rolling out the pastry, I made sure to put sweet rice flour on my rolling pin sock and on the wax paper.
If the dough does not form nicely into a ball, add more ice water sprinkling tsp by tsp until it forms a ball.
Minimize handling of the dough since you want to keep it cool.
I used 1 can of Comstock Cherry Pie filling.
I used a non-stick gray pie pan since I was told those do better then the typical glass ones for gluten free crusts.
I put tin foil loosely around the edges to cover the crust for the entire time the pie was baking and the crust turned out perfect.
PIE CRUST CINNAMON ROLLS! There will most likely be leftover dough. I ate some of it, just to see what it tasted like. Then ate some more to be sure I liked it of course! Then I rolled out the rest in a rectangle about an 1/8" thick, spread some of the dairy free margarine over the dough and generously sprinkled a sugar and cinnamon mix over the entire rectangle. Starting at the long end, I rolled the dough up into a short roll (It may be crumbly, but it's okay) and rolled the outside in cinnamon and sugar too. Then I cut the roll into 6 cinnamon rolls and placed them in an oven safe container to cook along with the pie. These may finish cooking earlier so keep an eye on them.