How to Make a Gluten-Free Pie Crust

I love Step-by-Step photos for recipes, don't you?  Here are step-by-step photos and directions on how to make a delicious, buttery-rich, gluten-free pie crust that tastes fabulous and is light, flaky and tender.  Plus it's just plain FUN to make!

One of the great things about this pie crust is that it contains no gluten.  What that means is that you can "play with the dough" more than you can with a pie crust that is made with wheat.  If you "fiddle around" with a wheat pie crust, it will get as tough as nails.  But this gluten-free crust is great for "baking beginners" (and advanced bakers) because this pie crust dough is incredibly easy to work with because there is no gluten in it!  If you follow the step-by-step pictures and directions, you'll get GREAT results!

Light and Flaky (Gluten-Free) Pie Crust

Dry Mix Ingredients:
1 cup potato starch (potato starch NOT potato flour!)
1 cup millet flour
1 cup tapioca starch/flour
1/2 cup coconut flour
1/2 sorghum flour or brown rice flour (see note below)
1 tablespoon sugar (I use organic cane sugar)
1 1/4 teaspoon sea salt or Himalayan salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder  
1/2 teaspoon xanthan 
Cut in:
1 cup cold butter (one-half pound of butter) cut up into 1/2 inch cubes 

• I used salted butter since that is what I had in my frig, if you use unsalted butter, increase the sea salt to 1 1/2 teaspoons
• For a dairy and gluten-free pie crust, see my note below

Wet Ingredients:
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
2 large eggs (measures out to 1/2 cup)
1/4 cup good tasting olive oil (or other oil that you like) 
1/4 cup ice cold water

Gimme Gluten Free Method:
In a large mixing bowl, mix together the dry ingredients until well blended.  Add the cold cubed butter and mix together on low speed in your mixer until the butter is mixed in.  There can be some little pieces of butter that are the size of small peas, that's okay.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the apple-cider vinegar, eggs, olive oil  and water until well blended and frothy.  Pour over the "Dry Mix" and beat on low speed until everything comes together and the dough starts to pull away from the sides of the mixing bowl. 

Mold the dough into a ball then flatten it.  Divide the dough into three equal pieces.  

Form each piece  of dough into a small ball.  Each ball will make one pie crust.  


 









Place the ball of dough on top of a large piece of waxed paper and flatten the dough.  At this point it might be a good idea to chill the dough, covered, for about 15 minutes.  The butter needs to stay cold. 

Roll out the flattened, chilled dough, between two sheets of waxed paper.  
 







 


Rolling out pie dough is such fun!  The rolled out pie dough looks beautiful.
 








Grab your pie plate and place it gently on top of the dough.  Is your rolled-out pie dough big enough for your pie pan?  Roll out the dough a little bit more if you need to.

 Peel off the top layer of the waxed paper and reveal your gorgeous pie dough.

 Take your rolling pin and place it at the top of your dough.  (Look at the picture) and roll the dough, which is on top of the waxed paper, towards you.

Place the pie plate on the counter.  Unroll the pie crust, but, this time as you unroll it over your pie plate; be sure to have the waxed paper on top. Gently unroll directly onto the pie plate.  Peel off the waxed paper.

Trim and shape the edges as you desire.  Patch up any holes.

Prick the pie crust with a fork all over.  Chill the crust in the refrigerator while you are preheating your oven if you want to bake a pie right now. 

•  If you want to bake your pies later, simply freeze the unbaked pie crusts.  After they are frozen; wrap each pie crust in plastic wrap and foil.  Double wrapping your pie crusts will ensure that they stay fresh and don't get "freezer burn."
• When you want to make a pie, simply bring your frozen pie crust out of the freezer and set it on your counter; then preheat your oven.   By the time your oven is preheated, the pie crust will be thawed and ready to pop onto a baking sheet.  So simple and easy.

How to Bake Your Pie Crust:  
Since this recipe is so new, I have only experimented with Pumpkin Pie!  (Hey, this gluten-free pie crust recipe is HOT OFF THE PRESS!)

Here's how I made our Holiday Pumpkin Pies: 
1.  Preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit.
2.  After the oven is fully heated, put the chilled pie crust on a baking sheet.  Bake for 20 minutes or until the edges are just faintly looking golden brown.  Cool the crust for at least 15 minutes on a wire rack; then fill with the prepared pumpkin pie filling. (See Holiday Pumpkin Pie for the recipe ~  Yum!)

Note:  This recipe makes three single-crust pies.  (Or one single-crust and one - double crust pie.)  Now, you may think, "I only need one pie crust."  But if you are going to make pie crust, then for heaven's sake - MAKE PIE CRUST!  Make it easy on yourself! It is so much more fun and just as easy, to make three pie crusts at that same time ~ and you will thank yourself when you pull out of the freezer, your beautiful, home-made, ready-made pie crusts!  

Oh, I just thought of this... what if you don't have room in your freezer for the pie crusts?  Just do this:  When you divide the dough into three parts and turn each part into a ball; simply flatten each piece of dough (see photo above) then wrap each flattened "pie dough round" with plastic wrap.  Be sure to wrap the pie dough well, so it's air-tight.  It will keep nicely in your refrigerator for a couple of weeks!  Then you can roll it out when you want ~ It is lovely to have a ready-to-roll-out pie crust on hand!  Let it set on your counter for about 10-15 minutes before you roll it out - you can preheat your oven during this time ~ Yahoo!

Question:  Lynn, why do you partially bake the crust before pouring in the pumpkin pie filling?

Answer:  Partially baking a gluten-free crust is absolutely necessary if you want a flaky, light crust.  If you choose to skip this step, your crust will tend to be on the soggy side.  You do not want that!
Question:  I have made other gluten-free pie crusts and they tasted good, but sometimes they are "gritty."  What causes this?
Answer:  Rice flour.  It is really hard to find a silky-smooth brown or white rice flour.  I used sorghum flour in my pie crust, but you can use brown rice flour, if you prefer - just be sure that the flour is smooth and not gritty. If you have a vita-mixer or other heavy duty blender you could grind your rice flour to make it smooth.
Question:  Will I get good results if I change your recipe?
Answer:  AAAAAUUUGGGGHHH!  Why would you risk it?  You want GREAT RESULTS, right?  I'm not saying another word about this... not one!  (I'm biting my lip...) 

Note:  You can make my gluten-free pie crust dairy free by using the Earth Balance Vegan Buttery Sticks.  Cube the Buttery Sticks, place them in the the freezer for one-two hours.  Proceed with the recipe as usual. 

Okay, Ya'll ~ Happy Baking!  

Be sure to try my recipe for Holiday Pumpkin Pie!  

Enjoy the Holidays!

 HOT OFF THE PRESS ~ December 22

 Another NEW pie recipe...

Individual Homemade Blackberry Pies!