It took me nearly 4 years since I stopped eating gluten before trying the best flaky gluten-free pie crust, and this one was it. It has already been 5 years since I was diagnosed with IBS and coeliac. And that meant no more delicious pies and all the yummy pastries. At least not for some time. In those 4 years, I kept on trying to create a gluten-free pie crust that would resemble the real gluten one. But there was always something going wrong, either too crumbly or too hard. And one day magic happened, I found the secret ingredient to making a super flaky gluten-free pie crust. And that meant all those yummy pies were to be back in my life!
Flaky Gluten-Free Pie Crust Recipe
This gluten-free pie crust is extra flaky, flavorful and the right balance of tender and crispy. For a gluten-free crust, it is quite stretchy and holds well the fillings. It is really the best pie crust I've ever tried, maybe even better than the gluten ones. And my friends who tried it, couldn't even tell that it was gluten-free 😉
How to make this Gluten-Free Pie Crust.
It actually super simple crust to make. It takes 5min to prep it and then 30min to refrigerate. And you have a pie crust! The most important word you will need to remember for this crust to work is "cold". Yes, everything needs to be chilled before using it, even your bowl where you will mix the ingredients. The only thing that doesn't require chilling in this recipe is the flour 😉
But for the detailed step-by-step instructions, scroll at the end of this page.
What flour to use to make it?
I like to use my universal homemade gluten-free flour blend. Which is a mix of the following flours :
3. Sweet Rice Flour (Glutinous Rice aka Sticky Rice)
4. Tapioca Flour (tapioca starch is the same as tapioca flour)
5. Xanthan Gum
If you can’t make that one, you can try with any gluten-free flour mix (just make sure it contains xanthan gum because that helps in binding the dough). The final result using different flour mix might vary slightly, depending on what flours your mix contains.
To find the recipe for my gluten-free flour mix click, HERE.
*make-ahead tip:
Unrolled pie crust, wrapped in a plastic foil can be kept in a refrigerator for up to 3 days. Before using the pasty allow it to come to room temperature before rolling it out for pie. If you are not ready to use your pie crust in the upcoming days. Place it in a freezer bag, and freeze for up to 3 months. When you want to use it, thaw the pastry overnight in the refrigerator.
If you want to store a pie crust that has already been fitted to a pie plate or tart pan. Roll out the pie crust, and fit it to a freezer-to-oven pie plate or tart pan. Place the pastry and container in a freezer bag and freeze as directed. In order to bake frozen pastry shells without thawing, make sure to use a freezer-to-oven pie plate. You may need to add 5 or 10 minutes to the baking time.
*Fodmap tip:
*To make sure that your flour mix is fodmap friendly I recommend that you make your own gluten-free flour mix, I always make this one. Or always read the ingredients of the store-bought gluten-free flour mixes. Make sure your mix doesn’t contain soy flour, chickpea/besan/gram/garbanzo bean flour, lentil flour, coconut flour, amaranth flour, or lupin flour.
*If you are making it dairy-free, choose milk that is low fodmap, (the ones to avoid are, soy milk (made from the soybeans) or oat milk.
*As a general rule always read the labels of the ingredients that you use as there can be sneaky FODMAP's in any product. To educate yourself of which foods are high in FODMAP's I'd strongly recommend downloading Monash Unversity FODMAP Diet App
*gluten-free tip:
If you are celiac or highly sensitive to gluten, buy certified gluten-free baking powder. Baking powder is naturally gluten-free, however, depending on the manufacturing place and process it could be cross-contaminated.
Flaky Gluten-Free Pie Crust
Ingredients
- 250 g gluten-free flour
- 100 g cold unsalted butter
- 140 g lactose-free sour cream (cold)
- ¼ teaspoon baking powder
- about 1 to 2 tablespoon ice-cold water (as necessary)
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon sugar (optional for sweet pastries)
Instructions
To make the pie dough
- Start by cutting the butter in cubes.
- In a bowl mix the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar (if using). Add the butter cubes and work the flour into the butter with your hands. Flatten each chunk of butter between your thumb and forefinger. Add the sour cream and mix to moisten the dry ingredients with the sour cream. Knead the dough together adding ice water by the teaspoon only if necessary for the dough to hold together. Place the dough onto a sheet of plastic wrap, and press into a disk as you close the plastic wrap around the dough. Place the dough in the refrigerator to chill for 30 minutes.
- Once the dough has chilled, place it into a lightly floured piece of unbleached parchment paper. Sprinkle the dough lightly with more flour, and roll it out into a rectangle that is about 1 inch thick. Now fold the dough over on itself
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