Gluten Free Pie Crust Recipe (2024)

FAQs

Why is my gluten-free pie crust so hard? ›

Too much water makes pie crusts tough, ESPECIALLY gluten-free crusts. An extra tablespoon or two can make your crust rock hard. Try to use the least amount of water listed.

Xanthan gum.

This acts as a binder (essentially a gluten replacement) and prevents the pie crust from being too crumbly and from tearing or cracking when you roll it out and use it to assemble the pie crust. It allows you to easily crimp the edges, create a lattice or anything else you might want to achieve.

Choose all-purpose flour or pastry flour. Don't skip or reduce the salt; it's critical for flavor. Various types of fat work well; choose your favorite. Add just enough liquid to hold the dough together.

Xantham gum is what helps hold the flour and pie ingredients together, and mimics what gluten does. Gluten is like glue, and is why doughs stay together. Without xantham gum, it will be crumbly and fall apart.

Because gluten-free batters contain more liquid than traditional versions, they typically take longer to bake. If you remove them from the oven too soon, you may develop a gummy, mushy texture.

If you can let the gluten free bread dough rise overnight in a cool — not warm — place, the slower rise will provide a stronger cell structure and more of a sourdough flavor when baked the next day. A refrigerated overnight rise is a great way to get a longer proof without weakening the bread's structure.

Very finely ground psyllium husks help improve the structure of gluten-free dough even more and allow it to retain moisture. If you can't find finely ground psyllium husks in the shops, you can also grind them yourself in a spice of coffee grinder.

The three most common binders are xanthan gum, guar gum and psyllium husk powder. Each one works in a slightly different way to help create the structure we need to hold baked goods together.

A little acid goes a long way: Add a little acid to your dough. Whether it be fresh lemon juice or apple cider vinegar, acid retards gluten development. One teaspoon will do the job, and it can replace some of the water you add. The more pieces of butter, the better: Be sure to leave pea-sized pieces of butter.

What is better for pie crust butter or shortening? ›

Butter made a tastier, flakier, sturdier crust by far. This isn't to say that shortening and lard aren't useful ingredients. Shortening is a great way to get incredibly tender desserts. It's part of what makes these pumpkin whoopie pies so delectable.

Cookies, pie crusts, pastries and breads: You can swap freely between bleached and unbleached flour depending on what you have on hand for treats like pies, cookies, eclairs, cream puffs, puff pastry, and yeast breads.

Owing to the challenge of gluten-free flours to form a protein network that provides structure and strength to dough, breads produced in the absence of gluten tends to be flatter, denser, crummier, less chewy and less tasty.

Gluten-free baking is a lot harder than traditional baking because gluten protein is what gives baked goods their structure. Bread without gluten or any gluten substitute will be thick and crumbly when it comes out of the oven.

Making a comparable crust

Free From Heaven states that gluten-free pastries are much more delicate to work with than glutinous pastries because they are prone to cracking due to a lack of moisture, and often the solution would be to add more liquid to the gluten-free dough.

Tough pie crusts are typically the result of working the dough too much (again, gluten). You don't need to make sure it's a perfectly uniform ball. “As long as the dough is mostly holding together, you don't need to spend a lot of time kneading it,” Susan Reid wrote for King Arthur Baking.

Gluten-free baking is a lot harder than traditional baking because gluten protein is what gives baked goods their structure. Bread without gluten or any gluten substitute will be thick and crumbly when it comes out of the oven.

Lighten up your batters

So, you'll need to add a little more air into your batters while you're mixing. Sift your gluten-free flour blends before adding them to recipes to lighten them up and work in air (this is especially important for almond flour, since it tends to clump).