versatile gluten-free pastry dough, for fruit pies as well as savory pies, how-to video included 🎬

April 2021 note – important update for U.S. readers: do to a difference in ingredients, I had to change the flour used in order for the recipe to work well.

For over six years, dear neighbors, I rarely baked any “tarte aux pommes”, or apple tarts. My usual pie dough, which is fine for savory pies and quiches, just didn’t fit the bill. My taste buds remembered something totally different! It was an overcooked wrap that led me to this track. For several months, I tried out different combinations of ingredients, taking lots of notes in my recipe booklet, and even getting my guinea-pig’s husband’s contribution for blind taste tests (yes!) until I reached this final version, a pretty versatile one, as long as you include the following three ingredients:

– psyllium to bind the dough (more efficient than chia and with absolutely no taste, unlike flaxmeal)

– cassava flour, to be combined with one or several other gluten-free flours, of your choice

– some grated green apple (Granny Smith variety)!

This dough also requires some shortening / fat content, and here again one has a choice: olive oil, margarine, ghee butter, coconut oil, I have tried them all. This dough, quite neutral tasting, has the advantage of being pliable enough to make fruit turnovers, and so I am pretty happy with it.

Here is the recipe, followed by a how-to video 😊

Ingredients for a 22 cm / 9” diameter pie

– ¾ cc (=½ TBSP) psyllium husks (not powder), left to soak up 3 TBSP water

–50g cassava flour OR, if you live in the U.S., 20g cassava flour + 30g tapioca starch/flour (and a reminder: tapioca flour from S

– 50g other GF flour: either only rice flour (the simplest option, which works pretty well), or mixed in with teff flour (more for a savory pie), sorghum flour (for a sweet pie), or buckwheat flour*

– a pinch of untreated sea salt + ½ tsp pure cane sugar for a sweet pie dough (quite optional)

– 3 TBSP good quality virgin olive oil / coconut oil / non hydrogenated margarine OR 2 TBSP virgin olive oil / margarine + 1TBSP ghee butter

– half of an organic Granny Smith apple, or about 120g, which will be peeled and finely grated just before adding it to the other ingredients

*Of course, I invite all of my dear neighbors to experiment with the flours they like. However, in this pie dough, I would personally stay away from corn flour (very dry), chestnut flour (too strong tasting), lentil flour (gives sticky dough), and coconut flour (which absorbs too much moisture)!

How to:

1. Add water to the psyllium husks in a small cup and allow a gel to form while you weigh and mix the flours (with a fork) in a flat base mixing bowl.

2. Add the pinch of salt, the sugar if desired, the psyllium, the olive oil or shortening. Finely grate the raw apple over the bowl (you should get about 50g of grated apple, more like apple soup actually!) then start mixing everything with the fork, and finish combining the dough with your hands.

3. Form a ball and let it rest for at least half an hour in the fridge.

This dough may also be kept in the freezer until you need it – very convenient!

Baking:

Baking is done at a 200°C / 395°F temperature, placing the dish on a low rack.

Once the dough has been rolled out between 2 non-stick surfaces, such as parchment paper and plastic film or a silicone pad, place it into a pie baking dish*, prick it, and, depending on the recipe, you can :

– bake it with the filling from the start

– if the filling is very wet or likely to yield a lot of juices as it bakes, you might want to start with 5 to 10 minutes of blind baking before adding the filling.

* if you prefer your pastry dough on the crispy side, please note that a metal baking pan with seems to work better than a ceramic one .

I am slowly, but gradually getting better at editing my videos. These « technical skills » of mine never cease to amuse our children 🤨 . Thankfully, I have my trusted guinea-pig turned cameraman to give me his unconditional support 😘 !

Below are some examples of pies I have made using this recipe: