The Perfect Gluten Free Pastry

A friend once gave me a recipe for a really good gluten free pie crust that I have used over and over again. Over time the recipe has been tweaked in different ways to play with the texture and make a nice soft flaky pastry. I have also made changes to the method and I think I have perfected the recipe for a perfect pie crust.

Ingredients for a double crust pie

2 1/4 cups rice flour (I use a combination of brown and white)
3 tsp honey
1/2 tsp of salt
1 1/2 tsp xanthan gum
1 cup softened butter (room temp)
ice cold water

1. Stir together dry ingredients.
2. Cut butter and honey into dry ingredients with a fork so you have small pieces or "flakes" of butter through the dry ingredients. Place butter and flour mix into the freezer until butter is frozen.

3. Once butter is frozen add water 1Tbsp at a time until the mixture comes together into a smooth dough. It is better to have a slightly wet dough than a dry one. A dry dough will crumble and not come together smoothly and crack when you try and roll it out.

4. Wrap the dough as 2 separate disks in plastic wrap and place in the fridge for 30 - 60 minutes to allow the flour to absorb the water.

5. Using parchment paper roll out one disk at a time leaving the remaining in the fridge until needed. Roll a 1"4 inch thick circle. To make a very flaky crust fold the circle onto itself in thirds like a pamphlet (ie fold the top third down to the middle and the bottom edge up over the top). Then fold the dough in half like a book.

Roll dough out.

Fold top third down.

Fold bottom third up.

Fold in half like a book.

6. Roll the dough out again into a circle 1/4"-1/2" thick, slightly larger than the pan you will be cooking your pie in. Carefully transfer the crust to the pie pan and press into place. Trim edges of crust to fit into pan. If you have any tears or thin spots use any scraps of dough and press pieces into crust and smooth into place. 

  

7. To avoid crust from shrinking once baked place unbaked crust in freezer for 10 - 15 minutes. Dock the crust to avoid bubbles from forming.  

 8. Bake crust according to recipe. For some pies like lemon meringue or banana cream you will want to blind bake the crust first. To do this you will line the pie shell with parchment and fill the parchment with either pie weights or dry beans, this prevents bubbles from forming in the crust while you are baking without a filling in it. For other pies like fruit pies you can skip the blind bake and bake with the filling inside.

I have tried this recipe with all different temperatures of butter and found that since you do not develop the gluten's, because there aren't any, it is easier to work the butter in warm and then freeze the butter. Using a fork pressed through the butter to create "flakes" makes a tender crust and the folding method adds the flaky layers.