This gluten free pie crust recipe makes a lovely tender, flaky pie crust. I use it often to make pies and tarts for my family who don’t even need to eat gluten free. They don’t know it’s gluten free unless I tell them!
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So, whether you’d like a covered apple, peach, pear, or raisin pie a single-crust pumpkin pie, pecan pie, tarts, or even a savoury meat pie, this crust will be your best friend! You don’t have to compromise on the quality of your pie crust because you’re baking gluten free!
Gluten Free Pie Crust Ingredients
Making The Gluten Free Pie Crust
Cutting in the Lard
As with all pie crust, it’s important not to handle the dough too much. When you cut the lard into the flour mixture with a pastry cutter, you want to leave it in tiny balls about the size of peas. Combine the egg mixtures into this flour mixture very gently, so the fat is just evenly distributed but no more. It’s the little bits of fat popping with the heat during baking that make the “flakes” we want in our pie crust. If you overwork the dough or use a food processor, your crust won’t be as tender or flaky as it could be.
Refrigerating the Dough
Because this dough will be very moist and sticky, it’s important to refrigerate it for at least an hour before rolling it out. Not only will it become easier to work with, but also you’ll be handling it less and keeping it tender and flaky. I like to mix my crust dough the day before I plan to actually make the pies. That way, I’ve broken up the tasks of pie making into smaller, more manageable ones, too.
Rolling out the Dough
Then, when you roll the dough out, use lots of flour to keep it from sticking. This can be more of any of the flours used in the recipe.
Blind Baking
Blind Baking
This recipe makes a soft dough. It’s not suitable for blind baking, meaning that it doesn’t work well to bake as an empty crust. The sides will sink down if there’s no filling to hold them up. However, for all of your filled pies and tarts it’s awesome!
Video
The video (following the recipe) is a little longer than the ones I usually make, but I thought it was important to show you in detail the steps for this special pie crust.
Pie Crust Recipes
Once you’ve decided to make this amazing gluten free pie crust, you’ll need a recipe to go with it. If you’d like to start off not needing to roll out complete pie crusts, Gluten Free Butter Tarts are a decadent treat!
When you’re ready for a whole pie, try
For a savoury main dish pie, try Tourtierre.
The Best Gluten Free Pie Crust
Pie Crust
Ingredients
- 1 large egg separated
- juice of half a lemon
- cold water
- 2 cups tapioca flour (or 1 cup tapioca flour plus 1 cup arrowroot or potato starch)
- 1 cup chickpea flour
- 1 cup white rice flour plus more for rolling
- 1 tablespoon fine sea salt
- 1 pound 454 g pure lard
Instructions
- Separate the egg, putting the white into a mixing bowl and the yolk into a 1-cup measuring cup. To the yolk, add the juice of half a lemon and enough cold water to bring it up the one cup mark. Chill this in the refrigerator while combining the flours. Leave the egg white at room temperature.
- Whisk together the flours and salt.
- Cut lard into the flour mixture until it is in lumps about the size of peas.
- Whisk the egg white until it is foamy.
- Add the yolk mixture to the flour mixture and stir about 7 or 8 times.
- Pour the foamy egg white over all and stir a few more time until the dry part is just barely all incorporated.
- Chill this dough in the refrigerator for an hour or overnight.
- On a well-floured surface (Use any of the flours used in the recipe), roll out the dough for pies or tarts.
It’s all about the lard in pie crusts right?! Chickpea flour is a new twist on a gluten-free pie crust. I will have to pass this along to my GF family members to try out this season. Looks great.
Yes, lard seems to be the secret! The chickpea flour doesn’t have a strong flavour, and the crust doesn’t have the pasty taste that a lot of gluten free baked good have.
This is a great option for family gatherings- my aunt is celiac and loves pie! Thanks!
I’m happy to share it with your aunt! I’m sure she will enjoy it!
Excellent work Cathy! I’m always impressed by the work that you go through to put together these recipes. Good food experimentation is always appreciated by me (and by anyone gluten-free, no doubt!). The combination of flours sound really interesting – especially the chickpea flour, which I’ve had in a number of baked goods and really enjoyed. Cheers!
Thank you, Sean! When you’re restricted to gluten free foods, the motivation is pretty high to create good ones!
LARD, I have high cholesterol and high blood pressure is Crisco OK to sub?
You could try Crisco, but I don’t think your pastry will be quite as good. I would encourage you to study the latest research on fats and cholesterol. It’s looking like lard isn’t the culprit after all. 🙂
Can the chick pea flour be replaced by another flour, except almond?
The chickpea flour can easily be replaced with soy flour in this recipe.
Cathy thank you, this recipe looks delicious and I’m excited to try it 🙂 I’m also wondering about the lard. I’ve had to eliminate dairy and most animal fat from my diet. Do you think I could substitute coconut oil? Thank you for sharing!
You could try coconut oil. I would recommend trying to have it in a slightly soft but solid form similar to lard as you form the crust. I’m concerned about the crust becoming too soft. It might also become hard when refrigerated. I’d be very interested to hear how it turns out, though!