Perfect Gluten Free Crust

So I used an all purpose GF flour that usually has a bitter taste to it- I am telling you- you can not tell that this is a GF crust- it is certainly not the same as a crust made with traditional pastry flour HOWEVER…this shit is BOMB. I mean, the taste was yummy, it was crunchy, it didn’t get gummy…I LOVED IT! Because there is no gluten in the dough, you don’t have to be so precious with it, don’t man handle it for Christ’s sake but you don’t have to worry about your dough toughening up if you over work it.

Perfect Gluten Free Crust

3T cold vegan butter

3T cold coconut oil

1-1/4c Bobs Red Mill GF All Purpose Flour, or your favorite GF mix.

1/4t pink salt

3T maple sugar

4-6T ice cold water

Sift the GF flour, sugar, and salt into a large mixing bowl. Add the cold butter and oil in 1T scoops and cut the oil into the flour using two knives or a pastry cutter. The end result should look like a sandy crumb or meal. There should not be any large chunks of oil, you want smallish bead sized bits of fat encased in the flour.

Add the ice water, 1T at a time using a wooden spoon to mix it in, grabbing the flour as you go. Only add as much water as you need to help it come together to form a ball. Don’t smash the dough, think of it more as collecting it into a ball.

Once a loose ball of dough is formed, transfer it out onto a piece of plastic wrap and work it gently with your hands to form a 1/2 inch thick disc. Wrap and chill for 15-20 minutes. If not using right away you can store it for a couple of days tighlty wrapped in plastic wrap. Let it warm back up a little before using but not quite to room temp. You don’t want it too warm or it can get too soft to handle.

To roll out the crust, unwrap the disc and place it between two good size layers of wax paper (plastic wrap will work OK, but is a little more difficult to work with). Use a rolling pin to gently roll it into the shape of your pie pan. It will crack, don’t worry, you will mostly be pressing this into the pie plate with your hands- you just want to get the dough as even and thin as possible before hand. Any holes or cracks you can patch up with more dough with no problem.

To transfer the crust into your pie dish, remove the top layer of paper and gently lay it over the pie dish face down on top of the crust- use the support of the wax paper to quickly but carefully flip it as center as possible over the pie pan.

Once in the pan, it is mostly about evenly distributing the dough. Gently use your hands to form it into the pan, working the crust up along the sides. Try to get the pie up as uniformly as possible all around. You can leave a straight no fuss edge or I like to make a curve design by pressing my right knuckle in between the pie dough and my left pointer finger knuckle and thumb.

I uniformly press the hell out of it into the pie plate and then let it set for 10 minutes prior to filling.

For a pre-baked crust, put this into a 350 degree preheated oven for 10-15 minutes or until golden brown on the edges. If you are making a pie where the recipe calls to bake the crust and the filling together, pour the filling into pie crust and bake for anywhere from 30-40 minutes, depending on the filling.