Gluten-free pie and tart dough with NO corn, potato or soy

Have you ever had a gluten-free pie that was visually promising but tasted like sawdust or cornmeal? I have, and it has made me not want to ever eat most commercially-available gluten-free pies. They just make eating pies...depressing.

So I pulled out an old pate sucree recipe from Sent Sovi, a restaurant I worked at more than 10 years ago under Chef David Kinch, now of Manresa. As a tart dough, it is fantastic. Not so much a pie dough, though. But when converted into a gluten-free dough, it performs miracles...and tastes great!

There's one trick to using this dough - a trick that cannot be skipped in order to make successful pie dough. CHILL THE DOUGH!  Yes, after the dough has been rolled out into a circle, it must be chilled. Once chilled, it can be handled and turned into the pie of your dreams. Enjoy!

Pie or Tart Dough - makes enough for 1 regular sized pie

• 4 oz COLD Butter or butter substitute
• 2 T Sugar OR Rapadura
• 1 Pinch Salt
• 1/2 C Glutinous Rice Flour (do not use conventional rice flour - too coarse!)
• 1/2 C Light Buckwheat Flour
• 1/4 C Tapioca Flour
• 1/4 C Teff
• 1 t Guar Gum
• 1/3 C Buttermilk OR water plus 1T vinegar
• 1/4 t Vanilla or Almond Extract

Basic Apple Pie Filling:

• 6 or 7 apples, preferably a mixture of varieties, peeled, cored and sliced
• 1/4 C sugar or rapadura
• 1/2 t cinnamon (plus any other apple pie spices you like)
  
• 1/4 t salt
• 2 T tapioca flour
• 1 t vanilla
  

Combine dry ingredients in bowl of food processor. Pulse for about 15 seconds. Add in cold butter and mix until dough resembles cornmeal. With the processor on, pour in wet ingredients.  Turn onto a lightly floured board and knead until the dough forms a ball. Since it is gluten-free, don't worry about over-working the dough. You can't!

Allow to sit for a few minutes so that the water can be absorbed.

Meanwhile, make the apple pie filling. Combine dry ingredients. Toss dry ingredients with apples. Add vanilla. Allow to sit for at least 20 minutes.

Roll out dough to desired shape/size between two sheets of parchment paper or plastic wrap. Place in refrigerator and allow to set for at least 10 minutes. NOTE: YOU Cannot skip this step. The only way to handle the dough is to chill it down.It will tear and be almost impossible to handle if you do not chill it first.

Here's a tutorial I did for How2Heroes.com on how to make the dough, and, if you like, use it to make a tart shell:

Once dough is chilled, remove one side of plastic or parchment and place on top of tart ring or pie tin. Leaving top plastic or parchment on, press the dough into the tin. Remove plastic/parchment and press in dough, making sure to fill in holes.

If you are going to use this as a tart shell for a no-bake filling, you can bake this now. Because there is no gluten in the dough, it can be baked right away - no need to rest. Bake in 350 degree F oven until golden, about 15-20 minutes.

If you are going to use this as a pie dough, place filling on dough lined shell. Take another piece of similarly rolled-out dough and lay over filling. Crimp edges. It is okay if there are tears in the dough - this dough is very forgiving! Pierce top with knife about 6 times to allow steam to escape.

Bake 30-45 minutes in 350 degree oven or until filling begins to bubble. Allow to cool. Dough maintains firmness after baking and holds together even better over the following two to three days.

If you cut it up before it cools completely, it gets a little messy. But it still tastes great.

If you want to watch how I do this in video (yay!) take a peek at the How2Heroes video:

Comments

[Ellen]

This looks excellent. Great tutorial. Thank you for the recipe and pics!

[H.Peter]

Fantastic looking gluten free PIE!!! Well done.
Chapeau, Madame.

[Linda]

I like the different flours you use in the crust. I hope to try it some time. Thanks for the recipe.

[lisaiscooking]

I love the color (from buckwheat flour?). The pie looks delicious!

[Cake and Commerce]

Thank you everyone! Lisa, the color is mostly from the teff, and when I use it, the rapadura. The buckwheat I use is very light in color - and flavor. Ellen, I'm glad you found the photos helpful!

[Jen]

Thank you for this! I will give it a try. Can you post (or link to) the gluten-free pate sucre recipe? I would like to make a decent gf tart.

[Cake and Commerce]

Jen - this is the gluten-free Pate sucree recipe. To get to the regular recipe, substitute in wheat flour for the GF flours and replace the buttermilk with cream. There you have it!

[Jean Layton]

Truly lovely, both in pictures and in combination of flours. Got to try this one out as soon as I'm back from Blogherfood.
Thanks for creating it.