Gluten Free Pie Crust

Gluten free pie dough in a white pie dish.

5 from 1 vote

Make this gluten free pie crust at home using only a few ingredients and no special equipment that results in a beautiful, flaky pie crust that is perfect for your favorite pies and tart fillings.

Using an easy folding technique called lamination for a beautiful gluten free dough that when baked is flaky, delicious, and doesn't fall apart.

Prep Time30

Chill time1

Total Time1 30

Course: Baking

Cuisine: American

Diet: Gluten Free

Servings: 9" Pie Crusts

Calories: 1585kcal

Author: Amanda

Ingredients

Ingredients for gluten free pie crust

360 grams Gluten free All Purpose Flour AKA Gluten free plain flour
1 tablespoon Sugar Omit the sugar if you don't require a sweet crust.
1 teaspoon Xanthan gum if the flour blend contains xanthan gum reduce this to ½ teaspoon
¼ teaspoon Salt
250 grams Cold unsalted butter cut into cubes
110 grams Cold water extra if needed

Instructions

How to make gluten free pie dough

Add the flour, sugar, and xanthan gum, into a large bowl and mix together.
Place the cubed butter into the bowl and coat all the pieces with flour. Using your fingers, press the butter into the flour until the cubes of butter are around large pea-sized, leaving some pieces of butter slightly larger (work quickly as you want to keep the butter cold and not melt during this step). See images in the post above for reference if needed.
Add the cold water a few tablespoons at a time and mix into the butter and flour mixture. Continue this until the dough comes together well but is not wet and sticky (I used 100 grams of water, if it is too dry slowly adding additional water if needed).
Do not knead the dough, as we want to see chunks of butter within the dough see image 4 in the post above.
Squeeze the dough together to make a rectangular shape. Wrap in plastic wrap and place the dough in the fridge to rest and chill for around 1 hour.

How to laminate the pie dough

Roll out the dough onto a lightly floured surface. Brush any excess flour off the top of the dough.
Fold the the dough into thirds like a letter. Rotate the dough and roll out into a rectangle shape again, and then repeat the letter folds. Repeat this one more time.
Roll out the dough until it is around 10 inches long and 1 inch thick.
Divide the dough in half and shape into a disk. Wrap each disk well with plastic and place them in the fridge for at least 1 hour, longer if the kitchen is warm. Each disk will cover a 9-inch pie dish, or you can use both one for the bottom pie crust and the other for the pie top.
The dough can be kept in the fridge for up to 3 days or in the freezer for up to 3 months.
If the pie dough has been resting for more than 2 hours or overnight you may need to let it rest for around 15-30 minutes, depending on how warm the kitchen is at room temperature before rolling it out.
The dough is now ready to use. I have included images and directions in the post above for rolling out the dough to use in a 9-inch pie dish, par baking, and fully blind baking the gluten free pie crust.

Notes

Tips:

Tip #1: Use cold ingredients - I cut the butter into cubes and water into a jug and then place them in the fridge for an hour before making the dough as it ensures they are nice and cold.
Tip #2: Weighing the ingredients - Using a digital scale makes all the difference in baking and I use it in all my recipes as it's the most accurate. If you don't have a scale you can easily purchase one cheaply online.
Tip #3: Don't knead the dough - We are just mixing it together with our hands or a spatula when adding the cold water. The dough will be using the lamination method to ensure a flaky pie crust, and we need chunks of butter in the dough before starting this process and don't want the butter melting.
Tip #4: Chilling the dough - The dough is chilled a couple of times in this recipe. It is necessary for various reasons, as the butter needs to remain cold to achieve a flaky texture and not turn out greasy. It also makes the dough easier to work with. Chilling before blind baking also helps prevent it from shrinking in the oven.

Nutrition