If you have been searching for a buttery flaky gluten free pie crust that holds together, look no further. Our Pastry Flour makes an easy and perfect shell for any type of pie that you might fancy. 

This pie crust takes a bit of time chilling – because with pie crust, the colder you can keep it the better. However, the steps are easy, it uses very few ingredients, and it turns out AMAZING!

We have been experimenting and trying some new things out from our other pie crust recipe. We love both for making gluten free pies, but love having a variety to choose from. 

Follow along our step-by-step visual guide on how we make our Pastry Flour pie crust. 

Ingredients:   

• Sun Flour Mills Pastry Flour
• Xanthan Gum
• Salt
• Granulated Sugar
• Butter – unsalted
• Ice Cold Water + Vodka  – you don’t have to use vodka, you can use all water

Step-by-Step Instructions:   

Step 1: 

Gather all the ingredients: Sun Flour Mills Pastry Flour, xanthan gum, salt, sugar, butter, water+vodka

Step 2:

Put your pastry flour in a large mixing bowl and have your dry ingredients ready (xanthan gum, sugar, salt).

Step 3:

Add all dry ingredients into the bowl. 

Step 4: 

Mix the together all the dry ingredients with a whisk until well incorporated. 

Step 5:

Break your butter down – there are several ways you can choose to do this.   1) Grater: We decided to freeze our butter and grate it using a cheese grater.    2) Pastry Cutter: You can use a pastry cutter to break down the butter into the dry ingredients.   3) Food Processor: With the dry ingredients already in the bowl of the food processor, use the shred attachment and feed frozen butter into the food processor. 

Step 6 :

Make sure all the butter makes it into the the bowl with the dry ingredients. 

Step 7: 

Incorporate all the butter into the dry ingredients, either with your hands, pastry cutter, or food processor.

Step 8:

The mixture should look dry and crumbly like pebbly sand.

Step 9 :

Add your ice cold water by the tablespoon to the mixture, stirring it in after each addition. We chose to use a mixture of equal parts water and vodka. The reason for this was because alcohol has a lower freezing point than water, and we could get the dough a little cooler than most. Alcohol also keeps the dough more supple. ***You can use just water for this step if you don’t have/want to use vodka.

*We used about 1 additional tablespoon of water to get the right consistancy

Step 10: 

Once you’ve added your water mixture, form the dough into a ball. The consistency of the dough should be wet enough to hold together, not too sticky, and a little flaky feeling.

Step 11:

Lay down a sheet of plastic wrap.

Step 12:

Wrap your pie dough in the plastic wrap and place in the fridge for at least 30 minutes. Remember we want to keep this dough cold.

Step 13: 

After the dough is done chilling. Prep your hard surface for rolling. Lay down a sheet of plastic wrap and sprinkle with more pastry flour. 

Step 14:

***This step can be nerve wracking and you will think you are a failure – but you are not, it will come together!*** When you first start rolling your dough out – do not use a rolling pin. Start with flattening the dough with your hands. If it completely crumbles and looks like a pile of rubble it is going to be fine – I promise! The dough needs to warm up a bit to fully incorporate into a nice sheet. Work with the dough with your hands for a bit until it feels like it is coming together. Once you feel like it has come together you can use your rolling pin (flour it with pastry flour to prevent sticking) to roll it to the thickness you would like your pie crust. This dough yields enough for a 12 inch pie crust. (We made a 10-inch tart crust and had leftovers for decor/little hand pies)

Step 15:

Invert your greased pan on top of your rolled out dough and carefully flip the entire stack over so the plastic wrap is on top and the pie pan is right side up on the bottom. Peel off the plastic wrap and gently set the dough down into the pan. 

Step 16: 

Carefully press your dough into your pan. If you are using a pie pan you can flute or add your decorative crust. We cut across the top of our tart pan for a clean finish. 

Step 17:

Use a fork to poke several sets of holes into the base of the crust. 

Step 18:

Cover your pie crust in aluminum foil and a pie weight (we used cornmeal – you could also use pie weights, dried beans, rice, etc). Blind bake your crust in a 350 degree oven for 12-16 minutes. 

Now your crust is ready for its filling! You choose what goes inside to enjoy!

For our additional pie crust recipe click here.