Traditional Flakey Pie Crust

The flakiness comes from two primary ingredients- Water and Butter. Just like these 2 ingredients make the flakiness in traditional baking, they also do in gluten free baking.  For best results butter needs to be soft, room temperature by resting outside of the refrigerator vs microwaving.  If the butter melts, then the water and fat components will combine and you will end up with a hard heavy crust instead of a light and flakey one.  Which brings us to the next important bit of information.  When adding the butter, it is important that you handle the dough just enough to make the fat consistent through out. You don't want the butter fully incorporated as the water is. If the butter melts or is over incorporated, the possibility  of flakiness is gone.

Flakey Pie Crust

1/2 cup Tapioca Starch

1/2 cup Rice Flour

1/3 cup Sorghum or Coconut Flour

1/4 TSP Xanthan Gum

1 TSP Salt

2 TBSP Sugar

*  *  *  *

1/2 cup Butter, room temp

5 TBSP Cold Water 
*  *  *  *

1 Egg White

1) Grease 9" pyrex pie pan, then place all dry ingredients of list 1 in a bowl and mix them together well.

2) Take cold water mix it into the dry ingredients by pressing into the mix with a fork.  When the mix resembles sand, stop.

3) Drop butter into the mixture by nickle-quarter sized clumps.  Take a pastry dough mixer and cut into the dough until there no longer seems to be any of the water/sandy looking mix left.  You DONT want it to be brought together in a ball.  Might take 1-2 mins.

4) Lay out a sheet of saran wrap or two if one is not wide enough-  and dump the contents of the bowl on it.  With out pressing, spread it to about an 8" circle- cover it in another saran wrap, and gently roll to 11" circle.  If the dough splits, push it together.  The dough is forgiving and will go back together, just be sure to roll only once.

5) Remove top saran wrap and using the bottom saran wrap pick up the circle and lay it over your greased pie pan. Gently press into the pan.  If pieces brake off in transfer, just press back together-  no big deal. Form edge of crust as desired.
6) Bake the crust at 400 for 10 minutes then let it cool fully. 

7) Once the crust is fully cooled, using your fingers or back of a spoon, spread the final egg white over the whole crust and bake again at 400 for 6 minutes. 

8) Use this with any pie filling taking about 15-20 minutes off the baking time, or covering the pie with a tin foil tent for the entire baking time.

For a 2 crust pie follow the same instructions with these amounts:

3/4 cup Tapioca Starch

3/4 cup Rice Flour

1/2 cup Sorghum Flour

1 1/2 TSP Xanthan Gum

1 1/2 TSP Salt

3 TBSP Sugar

*  *  *  *

2/3 cup Cold Butter

1/2 cup (+/- ) Cold Water
*  *  *  *

2 Egg Whites

Follow baking instructions for bottom crust above, then follow baking instructions for pie recipe you are making being sure to coat the top crust with eggwhite. 

Apple Pie

What would Thanksgiving be without Apple Pie?!  My husband for one, would rebel against Thanksgiving if Apple Pie was not on the menu, so Apple is a must in this house.  This is our favorite Apple Pie recipe. Besides the fact that it is not from a can, the best part about this recipe is that every bite is relatively all apple.  It has no gel-like filler and as a result no extra sugar.  As for this recipe, it is pretty darn easy and absolutely worth it!

Apple Pie Filling

4-5 Fuji or Gala Apples

4-5 Granny Smith Apples

*  *  *  *

2/3 to 1 cup Sugar

2 1/2 TBSP Tapioca Starch

1 - 2 tsp Cinnamon

1/4 tsp Nutmeg

Large Pinch Salt

*  *  *  *

Pastry for 2 crust pie

1 TBSP White Sugar

1) Peel and slice apples.  I slice them 1/8 inch or 3-4 millimeters thick. Place them in a large ziplock bag and set aside.  (If you are using a 9 inch dish and like your pie to be just level with the side of the dish, use 8 apples.  If you are using a 9 inch dish and like your pie to be over filled, use all 10 apples.)

2) In a bowl combine the 2nd list of ingredients. If you are using 8 apples and like your pie subtly sweet, use 2/3 cup sugar; if you are using 10 apples and like your pie subtly sweet use 3/4 cups sugar)

3) Pour mixture over the apples in the ziplock bag.  Seal bag and massage mixture til apples are evenly covered.

4) Pour into a glass baking dish and bake 400 til apples are soft and syrup has begun to collect in the dish (about 15-20 minutes).  Then remove pan from oven and pour into uncooked pie pastry and cover with second crust.  Be sure to cut vents in the crust (to let the steam escape and your crust bake) and sprinkle the 1 TBSP white sugar over the top.

5) Bake 400 for about 30-35 minutes or until pie crust looks done.

Pecan Pie

I LOVE the Holidays!  It is a wonderful time filled with meaningful and delicious baking. There is great reason to bake and even better reasons to eat what you bake.  In my mind it is the greatest time of the year for pies. Pies, when done right, are the BEST kind of dessert.  This year the favorite pie was Pecan Pie. I did not really stick to one recipe, but looked over several and then made a twist of them all.  And of course it would not be my kind of pecan pie if I did not use my trademark- Agave Nectar.

I think the most frequent complaint on a Pecan Pie, is that the sweetness is way too sweet. In my opinion, it is a turn off if all I taste is sugar.  Pecan Pie should not be flooded with a taste overwhelmed by sugar, it should be a subtly sweet pie that showcases the pecans, because after all it IS Pecan Pie. . .RIGHT? Corn syrup is very frequently used in combination with sugar as the primary ingredients.  I am not a fan of corn syrup or sugar.   SOO the changes I have made focus on taking away the sugar drenched taste that the typical Pecan Pie boasts, while increasing the Pecans to offset the sweetness.  The end result was a dreamy blissful pecan delight! 

Pecan Pie

1/2 cup Chopped Pecans
1/2 cup Maple Syrup

1/2 cup Agave Nectar

1/4 cup Brown Sugar (lightly packed)

2 TBSP Melted Butter

1 1/2 TSP Vanilla Extract
2 TSP Molasses

1/4 TSP Salt

4 Eggs

*  *  *  *

1 pie crust

Pecan Halves

1) Combine the first ingredients.
2) Pour into unbaked crust.

3) Top filling with enough pecan halves to fully cover.

3) Bake 350 For 40-50 minutes.  Check at 40 minutes and then increase by increments of 5 minutes if not done. You will know it is done when the filling swells to be dome like and when you touch/tap it has firm touch through the center.  As it cools, however, the dome appearance will go away.  In my oven it generally takes 50 minutes, but my oven really does not vent moisture very well, extending the time it takes to bake wetter goods.