This gluten free pie crust recipe has been consistently turning out amazingly delicious – even for folks who aren’t usually gf. As usual, ingredients are listed first – but important instructions, tips and a video link on rolling it out follow the recipe.
Ingredients:
1/2 cup water
2 Tbsp golden flax meal
6-7 Tbsp soft or melted butter
1 egg
1 Tbsp vinegar (plain white or apple cider)
1 tsp salt
2 cups rice flour (white or brown) – divided to add one at a time
Kitchen supplies for making the crust: mixing bowl, both dry and liquid measuring cups, tablespoon (Tbsp) and teaspoon (tsp), wire whisk, wooden spoon. Supplies for rolling out the crust and making a pie: 8-9″ pie plate(s), one or two paper towels, wax paper, rolling pin, additional rice flour (at least 1/4 cup), whatever type of filling you plan to use.
Mixing up the pie crust: I’ve listed the ingredients in “order of appearance”. So, starting at the top, pour a generous 1/2 cup of room temperature water into the mixing bowl. Cold water will not work well here because we want the flax meal to quickly absorb the water. Dump both tablespoons of golden flax meal into the water and give it a quick stir with the whisk.
Next add the softened butter, egg, vinegar, and salt to the water-flax mixture. **If you forgot to let the butter come to room temperature, please take a little time here to soften it on the stove, in the microwave, or even in an oven proof bowl while your oven preheats.** Stir all these ingredients together with the wire whisk. Unless the butter was completely melted (which I don’t really recommend), you are going to see the butter form curds or little lumps. Don’t worry – we’ll take care of those in the next step. If you skimmed these instructions and used cold butter, I feel your pain. Not to worry, the pie crust can still be salvaged. You can watch me mix up pie crust and fix that problem in this video link right here.
Once you have the above ingredients stirred together, add one of the cups of rice flour. Use the wire whisk to stir this around until the flour is totally incorporated and the curds of butter have disappeared into the mixture.
Next you will add the second cup of flour. Use a wooden spoon to stir this one in because the dough will be too stiff for the whisk and you’ll end up with a mess. If you didn’t really read these instructions and now all the dough is stuck in the whisk, just use a butter knife and some gentle tapping on the inside of the bowl to work it our of the wires.
At this point, you should be able to form the dough into a ball, which you can divide in half to make two pie crusts. Here’s a link where I will show you the easiest way to roll out pie crust.
Additional tips: If you watched my videos, you already know that the ball of dough you created can be used to make two pie crusts – either bottom crusts for two cream or custard pies, or a top and bottom crust for a fruit pie. Most pies – all of them that I can think of except pumpkin pie – start out with the oven temperature at 350 degrees. I usually preheat the oven while I make the crust.
If you are making bottom crusts that need to be pre-baked before you add a cream or custard filling (think coconut cream pie or chocolate pie), after you have the raw pie crust placed in the pie plate, you should vent the bottom by pricking it with a fork several times before baking it. This allows steam to escape and keeps the bottom of the pie crust level instead of creating a big bubble.
If you are making a pie with a top and bottom crust, you will need to vent the top pie crust so that steam from the filling can escape while baking. I usually use the tip of a knife to make tiny slits in the crust. You can make four or five slits in a circle at the center of the crust or add a few more to make a decorative shape if you are feeling extra creative.