Gluten Free Pie Crust Tips - Eating Gluten Free (2024)

FAQs

Why does my gluten free pie crust fall apart? ›

Ingredients and Substitutions:

You also want to make sure this flour blend has xantham gum. Xantham gum is what helps hold the flour and pie ingredients together, and mimics what gluten does. Gluten is like glue, and is why doughs stay together. Without xantham gum, it will be crumbly and fall apart.

What does that vinegar do? The most common answer — that it affects gluten development — isn't actually that useful. If you had a mass spectrometer at home, you could measure the teensy difference vinegar makes in the tensile strength of gluten strands in the dough, which in theory makes it a bit more tender.

Mix the Additives in Before the Wet Ingredients

Without it, gluten-free products can be dry and crumbly. There is a way to compensate for this however — use xanthan gum. Some bakers also use gelatin or agar. If you're using additives, mix them thoroughly with the dry ingredients before adding the wet.

Keep it covered. Use a generous sized piece of waxed paper or plastic wrap to cover the dough. This will prevent it from drying out and will act as a surface to work on when you're rolling it out.

Add xanthan gum to gluten-free flour. It enhances elastic qualities that gluten-free flours lack, making it easier to work with and less likely to crumble. Add plenty of water to the gluten-free flour to prevent the pastry from becoming too dry when rolling out.

Apple Cider Vinegar – Superpower your Gluten-Free Kitchen! Apple cider vinegar is often used in baking, but why? It is a great leavening agent, but it also has powerful flavour enhancing properties. I find it adds the perfect amount of depth of flavour, and helps activate baking soda creating a lovely airy texture.

The sticky effect created by gluten can be simulated to a certain extent by adding gums, such as guar gum or xanthan gum. These gums are only added to recipes in small amounts (such as 1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon per cup of flour) and are already included in many commercial gluten-free flour mixes.

On the one hand, many experts consider almost all types of vinegar — including vinegar created from gluten grains — to be safe on the gluten-free diet, because the vinegar distillation process breaks down and eliminates the gluten protein fragments.

The three most common binders are xanthan gum, guar gum and psyllium husk powder. Each one works in a slightly different way to help create the structure we need to hold baked goods together.

How do you make gluten-free dough rise better? ›

Eggs are natural leaveners that help boost the rise and volume of bread. Eggs also add moisture, flavor, and protein to gluten-free bread recipes. If you select a gluten-free bread recipe that includes eggs, you have a better chance that the resulting bread will have good color, more volume, and softer texture.

While conventional wisdom has taught us not to overmix our batters, we've found most gluten-free batters simply need to be stirred for longer. If you're worried this will turn your muffins and cakes rubbery, have no fear. Gluten-free recipes need to have more structure.

Potatoes, milk, and butter are all naturally gluten-free. So if you're on a gluten-free diet, you can eat mashed potatoes without worry! But keep in mind: You may need to skip the gravy, if wheat flour is the thickening agent!

Unlike gluten doughs, gluten-free bread doughs should not be overworked, and doing so can sometimes make them a bit rubbery.

If your pie dough breaks and crumbles when you try to roll it out, it's probably too dry. This is a relatively easy fix. Just sprinkle some cold water over the dough with your fingers and work it in—gently! —until the dough comes together.

Use Psyllium Husk Powder as a binder for better Gluten Free Bread. Without gluten, bread dough lacks elasticity and the "stickiness" needed to hold together. Binders like xanthan gum, psyllium husk, guar gum and to some extent flaxmeal and chia seeds are used to perform the function of gluten.

Gluten is a binding agent that keeps food together, so if you elect not to use it, the result is often crumbly baked goods that fall apart when you touch them.

Your dough might be too dry or unevenly hydrated.

When dough doesn't have enough water, or if it's not properly hydrated (more on that below), it will feel and look dry and be prone to cracking.