Pies ready for the football, you will need a pie crust! Life in a food intolerant house will always need preparation, even for a simple thing like a pie and sauce. I generally make individual pies starting with the dough the night before and also preping the filling. See my Beef Onion and Guinness Pie filling.

Ingredients

5 cups gluten free flour extra for dusting
2.5 tsp xanthan gum
1 tbsp caster sugar
1/4 tsp salt (reduced sodium)
200g unsalted butter
4 tbsp oilve oil
2 egg 70g
4-8 tbsp water
6-8 Ice cubes

Instructions

Cut butter into small cubes and place in the freezer for 15 – 30 minutes.

Beat the eggs with a fork and add some ice cubes and water, let it get ice cold while preparing the dry ingredients.

Combine the flour, xanthium gum, sugar, salt in the bowl or a food processor. Pulse 5 – 6 times to combine. Add the butter and pulse 12 -14 times or until the mixture resembles coarse meal with some pea size pieces of butter.

With processor running, add ice egg mixture 1 tablespoon at a time until the mixture just barely starting to clump together. If you pinch some of the crumbly dough together and it holds then you have enough water, if not add more a little at a time. You do not want to add any more water than is absolutely necessary. Add the oil slowly.

Remove the dough from the machine and form into a disk, it may be easier to put the dough mixture into a zip lock bag and then shape it as it will be still be quite crumbly.  Refrigerate for at least one hour or for as long as 2 -3 days. Remove dough from fridge 5 minutes before rolling.

Cut the dough into 2 pieces you should have about 1.3 kg of dough. (min 480g for the lids and the rest for the bases). Put the lid dough to the side covered. If warm a warm room, put back in the fridge.

Grease the pie tins.

Divide up the base dough into 8 potions (I do weigh them out) and press each portion into a pie tin. Add your filling. Keep one tin without filling so that you have a template for the lids.

For the lids, divide the dough into 4. To roll the dough, lay a piece of baking paper on a work surface. Lay the chilled dough and lay on another piece of baking paper. Roll the dough till it is approx 2mm thick. Using the pie tin as a template, cut the same size as the rim, remember to to get 2 lids per dough portion. Put the lids with the paper into the fridge to chill before placing on the pies. Keep rotating the lids in the fridge while making the next 2.

Remember to use some egg wash to stick the bases and lids and cut slits for the steam to escape.

Trim the edge of the pie crust.

To Pre-bake (or Blind Bake) a pie crust

Sometimes a recipe will call for a pre-baked or blind baked pie crust, here’s how to do that.

Freeze the pie crust in the pie plate for at least 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 180˚C.

Place a piece of baking paper (or foil) in the bottom and up the sides of the pie crust. Fill with dried beans, rice or pie weights. (I prefer dried black beans as they help distribute the heat better and are much less expensive than pie weights. I use the same beans over and over.) Bake the crust for 20 minutes. Remove the weights and baking paper, poke a few holes in the bottom of the crust using a fork and return to the oven for 10 minutes or until golden brown.

Let pie crust cool completely before filling.

Variation – Chocolate Pie Crust

Add 1 1/2 tablespoons cocoa powder to the dry ingredients and proceed as above.  The dough may require just a tad more water.  Make sure to brush off all the excess flour blend after rolling to keep the dark colour.

Servings

This makes 2 pie base and top or 4 bases without tops, or 8 small complete pies.