The Best Gluten-Free Crust Recipe – With or Without Dairy!
Want to make your own GF pie crust? Jessie DeMarco, nutritionist and chef, presents her favorite pie crust recipe, along with hints on how to get the best, flakiest texture.
Jessie’s Go-to Gluten-free Pie Dough
Pie dough can be one of two things: meditative, or infuriating. When making gluten-free pie dough, we have to do a few extra things to ensure the flakey crust we look for in the perfect pie. We also use a few different flours to achieve the best texture and taste.
Yield: 2 Crusts
Time 15 Minutes
2 cups Brown Rice Flour
1 cup Potato Starch
1 cup Tapioca Starch
1 tsp. Xanthan Gum
1 tsp. Salt
10 tbsp. COLD Butter
1 each COLD Egg
4-6 tbsp. COLD Buttermilk
Directions:
- Cut the butter into very small cubes or use a box cheese grate to grate the butter into very small pieces, then place in freezer.
- In a medium size bowl, mix all dry ingredients using a whisk until fully combined.
- Whisk the buttermilk with the egg until combined.
- Add the butter to the dry ingredients. Use a fork or a pastry cutter to cut the butter into the flour mixture until all you have are very small pea-sized peices of butter suspended in flour.
- Add the egg and buttermilk mixture and mix by hand until the mixture has just come together and can form a ball.
- Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2 hours or overnight before using with your favorite pie filling (the dough can also be frozen at this point for up to 2 months).
**You can substitute Spectrum butter substitute and coconut milk or almond milk to make this recipe dairy free.
**Add 2tsp vodka in with the liquid ingredients to heighten the flaky texture during baking due to alcohol evaporation.
Helpful hints from Jessie about baking without dairy:
Dairy, such as milk and butter, add crucial fats to baked goods that provide texture and allow them brown and crisp. From my experience, the best dairy-free substitutions are Spectrum Butter Flavored Shortening in place of butter, and full-fat coconut milk in place of milk. Spectrum works great in pie dough, cookies, cakes and breads. You can also use your favorite dairy-free yogurt mixed with water in place of buttermilk. If you can’t tolerate coconut milk, you can use almond milk, however because of the lower fat content in almond milk, your baked good may be less brown, more grainy, with a dry texture.  Depending on the recipe, as well as your preferences, you can ensure browning by egg washing or sugar dusting the top or your piecrust, muffin, scone or bread.
About the Author:
Jessie DeMarco is a chef and nutritionist. She has a bachelor’s degree in nutrition from The University of Saint Joseph, and an associate’s degree from the Culinary Institute of America. Jessie lives with celiac disease herself, and works with clients to bridge the gap between diagnosis and everyday life, by helping to transition their kitchens, favorite recipes, and lifestyles.
