Pie Crust

Up until now, I've been using Donna Jo's Dream Pastry from Bette Hagman's book More from the Gluten-Free Gourmet for my pie crust.  It is a great recipe, good-tasting, tender and flaky, but the dough is very delicate and hard to handle -- I always had to do a lot of patching once I got it into the pan because it broke apart so much in the transfer from surface to pie plate.  Recently my daughter-in-law got me a new GF cookbook called Life Tastes Good Again by Kirsti Kirkland and Betsy Thomas.  It had an intriguing pie crust recipe in it that I just had to try.  In the book it's called Best Gluten Free Pie Crust, although they explain that it's original name is "The Best Pie Crust You've Ever Eaten Because It's Amber's Recipe and She's Perfect," which made me laugh.  The biggest difference in this crust is that there's no water added, which makes it way easier to handle.  In fact, it handles just like regular pie crust!  And it turns out tender and flaky.  The flavor is a tad different, probably because of the cream cheese, but still very good.  Because of the ease in handling, this has become my new favorite.

Pie Crust

1-1/2 Cups Bob's Red Mill all-purpose GF flour
1/2 Cup gluten-free flour mix (I usually use basic or featherlight)
1/2 tsp xanthan gum
2 Tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
6 oz cream cheese, softened
1 Cup real butter, softened

Whisk together flours, xanthan gum, sugar and salt.  Set aside.  Use an electric mixer on low speed to mix the cream cheese and butter together.  Add the dry ingredients and mix just until the dough clumps together.  Divide the dough into 2 discs, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 30-60 minutes.

Sprinkle some GF mix on a clean surface.  Roll each disc into a circle that is 1/8 inch thick.  Transfer to pie pan.  With your fingertips, pinch the top of the dough to make ridges all around the top of the crust or just press it all around with the back of a fork.  Chill 20 minutes before filling.  Fill with your favorite pie filling and bake as that pie recipe directs.  Makes one double crust or two single crusts.

If pre-baking:  Preheat oven to 375.  Prick the bottom of crust all over with a fork.  Line the inside of crust with aluminum foil.  Fill it with pie weights, uncooked rice, or beans.

Bake for about 25 minutes or until very lightly browned.  Lift foil and weights out of the shell and bake until browned, 10-15 minutes more, checking frequently to prevent over-baking.  Remove from the oven and cool completely before adding filling.


If you would like to have the Bette Hagman recipe, leave me a comment and I'll put it in a separate post.