Now given that, I have something I am proud of regarding cooking-- my pies. I am good at pie crusts. I have always felt it takes a light hand to turn out a good pie crust. Too much mixing, too much working with it and a tough crust is the result. It has a lot in common with good writing or painting.
In particular I am currently proud of a pie crust I just turned out for a family week-end. I made two apple pies using our own apples which meant no spray. The one with regular flour came out fine but nothing unusual. But because one of our family is gluten free, I've been interested in gluten free recipes. I wasn't too sure how you'd ever do a good gluten free pie crust as gluten free flours are different. Well I made one last week, and it was not only good but it was the easiest pie dough I have ever worked.
Bob's Red Mill
www.bobsredmill.com
Easy-as-pie-crust (gluten free)
Ingredients:
1 1/2 C. GlutenFree All Purpose Baking Flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 C. (stick) margarine
4 to 6 TB. cold milk
Combine flour and salt, cut in margarine with pastry blender until mixture resembles coarse meal. Sprinkle milk, one T at a time while blending until all ingredients are moist. Using wax paper, place dough on one sheet, flatten with palm, place another sheet over top and roll out to desired size. Remove top sheet, invert into pie pan.
If baking crust alone-- 15-20 minutes 400 F. With filling-- 400º F for 10 minutes, reduce heat to 350º for 40 minutes.
I doubled those ingredients and used it with my favorite apple pie recipe (always I like extra dough more than barely enough). I did sprinkle a bit of sugar over the crust before baking since I was unsure about the flavor of the gluten free flour but next time I'd not bother with that. The crust was tender, flavorful. I have never had a pie crust work so easily and think for our own pies, even though we don't need gluten free, I would go this route again. Next time though I'll give real butter a try.
