Buttery, Flaky Gluten Free Pie Crust
Looking for a gluten-free pie crust recipe that will give you that perfect buttery flavor and beautifully, flaky layers? I’ve got you covered! I would even go so far as to say I like this recipe better than any traditional recipes I have made with wheat-based flours.
This recipe makes enough pie dough for one 9 inch double-crust pie or two 9 inch single crust pies. It can be frozen to save for future use.
- Yield: One 9 inch double-crust pie or two 9 inch single crust pies. 1x
- Category: Desserts
- Diet: Gluten Free
Ingredients
3 1/8 cups (375 g) DIY Gluten-Free Flour Blend (I strongly encourage you to weigh your flour)
2 TBS maple sugar or white granulated sugar
3/4 tsp xanthan gum (this is in addition to what is in the DIY GF Flour Blend)
1/2 tsp salt
2 sticks + 2 TBS (250 g) unsalted butter, cut into 1/2 inch chunks. Use cold from the refrigerator
1/2 cup + 2 TBS (150 g) cold water (I suggest making ice water and pulling the ice out right before you pour it in the mixing bowl)
Instructions
- In a large bowl, whisk together the gluten free flour blend, sugar, xanthan gum, and salt.
- Add the chunks of cold butter and toss in the flour to coat. Make sure the butter is cold straight from the fridge!
- Working quickly, cut in the butter with a pastry blender, smearing them into the flour. You should have various sized pieces of butter ranging from course sandy patches to flat shaggy shards to pea sized chunks. This mix of sizes helps you get those nice layers and the flavor of butter. Give the bowl a good shake/toss to make sure all the pieces of butter are coated. Because this recipe calls for so much butter, this takes a bit of time. Be patient and stick with it!
- Take the ice out of your water. Make a well in the middle of the flour/butter mixture and then pour in the water. Mix well with a rubber spatula until the dough starts to come together. If your dough still look a bit shaggy and dry, that’s okay! Don’t add more water. You just need to gently squeeze and knead the dough. Push it up against the side of the bowl until it comes together more. The final dough should hold together in a ball but not look perfectly smooth and fully hydrated. You want to still be able to identify some of those bigger pea sized bits of butter that have now been worked in.
- Wrap the ball of dough in plastic wrap and tap it with a rolling pin to shape it into a flat disc. This helps make the rolling out process easier. Place in the fridge to rest for 30 minutes. This allows the butter to chill again as well as gives the gluten free flours a chance to hydrate. You can take it out of the fridge when the dough feels quite firm when you press it with your finger.
- When you bring the dough out of the fridge, keep it wrapped in the plastic wrap and tap it with your rolling pin all along it’s length a few times to help make the rolling process easier. Dust your counter with some kind of starch (corn, tapioca, arrowroot) to prevent sticking.
- Flour rolling pin and roll the dough into a roughly 6 by 18 inch rectangle. The exact measurement doesn’t matter all that much, but you are looking for a good sized rectangle. Have the long side of the rectangle toward you. Let’s get to laminating and making those layers! Begin by doing a tri-fold, starting from the right: Fold the right side of the dough over the center and then fold the left side over the first fold, lining up the edges and pressing the layers down. Ever folded up a towel into a tri-fold? It will look the same! Rotate the dough 90 degrees and roll it out again into a rectangle, then do the trifold again. Roll out into a rectangle, rotate 90 degrees, and roll into a trifold. You want to do that tri-fold at least 3 times, more if you have time. I usually shoot for 4.
- You can gently form it back into a disc after your final fold up and chill, or you can go ahead and roll it out now. Remember, this is enough dough to make one double-crust pie or 2 single crust pies, so you will need to split the dough into half before rolling out for your dish.
- Bake as instructed in the chosen pie recipe.
Notes
This pie crust holds up well in the fridge for up to a week and in the freezer for 2-3 weeks. Around the holidays, I like to make the raw dough and form it into my pans, wrap the whole dish well with plastic wrap, and tuck it into the fridge a few days before I need to do my baking. It helps spread out the holiday baking tasks. Just make sure you allow it to come to room temperature before you use it. If you press it with your finger, it should leave a little indent but it should still feel firm and not super soft.