Ingredients for Gluten Free Pie Crust

Almond Flour

Almond flour is a naturally gluten free flour that taste amazing! Its perfect for all different types of desserts. It is light and fluffy and the flavor is nutty and sweet. However, sadly it is expensive, 2lbs is typically around $10 at Walmart and amazon.

Gluten Free All Purpose Flour

These recipe calls for both almond flour and all purpose flour. The almond flour can be a bit crumbly we do half almond and half all purpose flour to help hold things together. You can use any gluten free all purpose flour for this recipe.

Sugar

A little white sugar in this recipe helps flavor the crust by sweetening it just a little making it complementary to our sweet pie filling. A little sugar will go a long way for our pie crust so we don’t need a lot. You could also use Monk Fruit Sweetener or honey as a substitute if needed.

Cold Butter

Cold butter is extremely important. The colder the butter the better. I freeze my butter for pie crusts. Keeping the butter cold keeps the water that’s in the butter from absorbing into the flour too soon. We want the steam from the water in the butter to make lots of air pockets in order to create glorious flakes in our crust. If you let the butter get warm the flour will absorb the water and you will get a dense crust.

Apple Cider Vinegar

With regular flours the acids in apple cider vinegar slow down the gluten production and keep the dough from becoming elastic like. Because we are using gluten free flour already this ingredient isn’t as needed but I still like to add it. I think the ACV and the butter together create better air pockets and help make a soft and flaky crust. Remember to use COLD apple cider vinegar, if your liquid is cold your butter will also stay cold.

An Ice Cube (optional)

You can either place your ACV in the freezer for 20 minutes or so in order to get it cold or you can place an ice cube in it. I usually use an ice cube but its up to you. You will not be putting the ice cube in the dough. Its just to make your apple cider vinegar cold.

Salt

Enhance the flavor with good salt like Redmond Real Salt. If you are looking for a unrefined natural salt with multiple minerals and electrolytes harvested in the United States of America, then look no further. Redmond Real Salt is full of flavor and nutrients and harvested out of the ancient seabed deep beneath Central Utah.

How To Make Gluten Free Pie Crust

Mix Dry Ingredients

In a food processor (or by hand) mix together the almond flour, all purpose flour, sugar and salt. Pulse a few time to get them mixed together.

Add Cold Butter and Apple Cider Vinegar

Now cut the cold butter in cubes and add them into the flour, pulse in the food processor or use a fork or your hands to mix the cold butter in without it melting. Add a teaspoon at a time of the apple cider vinegar till the dough looks like little beads.

Form and Refrigerate

Dump the bead like dough onto a clean surface or parchment paper and form into two discs without overworking the dough. Cover in a air tight container or zip-lock bag and place in the refrigerator for1 hour.

Roll Out and Place in Pie Pan

Roll out on a piece of parchment paper or wax paper with a little bit of flour. The parchment paper will make it easier to place into the pan as the dough if very fragile. Roll our till to 9 to 10 inches round and place your pie pan on top. Flip the pie crust over with the pan underneath it. It will break a little. Because it has no gluten it will not hold together very well. Don’t work about that. Just take the pieces that fall of and mold them back into the pie pan till every crack is covered again.

Bake

Bake according to your pie filling recipe and enjoy!

Gluten Free Pie Crust

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Additional Time: 1 hour

Total Time: 1 hour 10 minutes

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Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups almond flour
• 3/4 gluten free all purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 ice cube
• 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
• 4-6 tablespoons cold water
• 1/2 cup cold butter (1 stick)

Instructions

1. Combine, water, apple cider vinegar and ice cube in a small bowl to get cold.
2. Add almond flour and all purpose flour, sugar and salt to your food processor. Pulse to mix together.
3. Cut you cold or frozen butter in cubes and add to food processor. Pulse a few time till it it starts to combine with the flour mixture.
4. Add water/cider mixture 1 tablespoon at a time while continuing pulsing the food processor till you dough starts to look like little beads.
5. Place dough on floured surface and bring together and divide into two discs.
6. Wrap discs in plastic wrap or a zip-lock bag and place in the refrigerator for at least an hour.
7. Roll out dough and place in pie pan. Gluten free dough does not hold together very well. It will crack and that's okay. When you place it in the pan it will likely fall apart. Just piece it back together and fill in any cracks once its in the pan. Follow your pie recipes for baking instructions

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The post The Best Gluten Free Pie Crust (almond flour) appeared first on Embracing The Home.

Ingredients For Pecan Pie

Pecans

You can use pecan pieces or pecan halves for this recipe. I use the pieces. The pieces make it easier to chew in my opinion. If you do use pecan halves I suggest dividing the the pecan and chopping half of them while keeping the rest to make a pretty design on the top of the pie.

Can you substitute pecans with other nuts?
Yes you can! I had a friend who was allergic to pecans and so she always made a walnut pie for the holidays. I’ve seen recipes for walnuts pie, sliced almonds pies, and even macadamia nut pies all with the same ingredients as pecan pie recipes.

Brown Sugar

You can use brown sugar or white sugar for your pie but I like the molasses flavor from the brown sugar. I think the brown sugar and pecans pairs so beautifully together, along with the honey of course.

Butter

Butter is important to both the texture and the flavor. One day I would like to try this recipe out with coconut oil. I think the texture would stay the same and the slightly nutty flavor form the coconut oil would fit right in with the other flavors. I have yet to try coconut oil as a substitute so if you try it let me know how it turns out in the comments.

Honey

I use honey instead of corn syrup for my pecan pie. I love the flavor of honey and it just so happens to be way healthier than corn syrup. I’ve seen recipes also use maple syrup, but I have yet to try it. I do think it would be wonderful.

Eggs

The eggs help keep the sugar and honey from caramelizing too much and making the nuts candy hard and un-chewable. They also help hold together the pie so that it not a crumbly mess.

Vanilla & Salt

Vanilla and salt for flavor! You don’t need much to enrich the flavor of the this pecan pie and you could add more of either on to make a bold statement. Maybe adding a little extra salt for a salted caramel pecan pie, or adding more vanilla for a sweeter undertone.

Flour OR Cornstarch

Just a tablespoon or so of some flour or cornstarch keeps the filling from becoming runny. Just a little goes a long way, we don’t want a cake like texture. I go back and forth all the time with using flour and cornstarch. They both do the job, as to which one you use is purely preference.

How To Make Honey Pecan Pie

Step One: Make Pie Crust

Make your pie crust! I usually make my crust a day or even a week before I’m making my pie. I keep the crust in the back of the fridge till I’m ready to make my pie.

Step Two: Melt Butter, Sugar and Honey

In a sauce pan heat up butter, honey and brown sugar until the sugar is melted and it starts to bubble. You don’t need to boil and caramelize you filling yet, this step is just so the these three ingredients are completely combined. Take off heat and let cool down.

Step Three: Prepare Pie Crust

While the hot filling is cooling is when I roll out my pie crust and mold it into the pan. Place your prepared pie pan in the refrigerator while you mix the other ingredients together. We want our pie crust to stay cold.

Step Four: Mix All Ingredients Together

Once the butter, sugar and honey mixture has cooled down add the eggs, flour, vanilla and salt and mix thoroughly. Add the pecans. Pour the filling mixture into your prepared pie pan and bake!

Step Five: Bake

Bake the pie at 400 degrees for 10 minutes. We want the crust to get hot quickly at a high temperature so that the butter can do its work in making a flaky crust. After the first 10 minutes reduce the temperature to 350 degrees and bake for another 30 minutes. At this time also place foil or a pie shield over the edge of the crust so that it doesn’t burn.

Step Six: Let Cool

Before you can enjoy your pie let it cool down for 4 hours before serving. During this time the filling is going to cool and settle. If you serve to early you will have a runny pie. Serve with some caramel syrup, whipped cream, eggnog or vanilla ice cream and enjoy!

Quick Tip! How to Make a Foil Crust Shield

Honey Pecan Pie

Yield: 1, 9 inch Pie

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 40 minutes

Additional Time: 4 hours

Total Time: 4 hours 55 minutes

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Ingredients

• 1/2 cup butter
• 3/4 cups brown sugar
• 1/2 cup honey
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 tablespoons flour or cornstarch
• 1 1/2 pecans

Instructions

1. Make Pie Crust. Classic Pie Crust - Gingerbread Pie Crust
2. Melt Butter, Sugar and Honey. In a sauce pan heat up butter, honey and brown sugar until the sugar is melted and it starts to bubble. You don't need to boil and caramelize you filling yet, this step is just so the these three ingredients are completely combined. Take off heat and let cool down.
3. Prepare Pie Crust. While the hot filling is cooling is when I roll out my pie crust and mold it into the pan. Place your prepared pie pan in the refrigerator while you mix the other ingredients together. We want our pie crust to stay cold.
4. Mix All Ingredients Together. Once the butter, sugar and honey mixture has cooled down add the eggs, flour, vanilla and salt and mix thoroughly. Add the pecans. Pour the filling mixture into your prepared pie pan and bake!
5. Bake. Bake the pie at 400 degrees for 10 minutes. We want the crust to get hot quickly at a high temperature so that the butter can do its work in making a flaky crust. After the first 10 minutes reduce the temperature to 350 degrees and bake for another 30 minutes. At this time also place foil or a pie shield over the edge of the crust so that it doesn't burn.
6. Let Cool.Before you can enjoy your pie let it cool down for 4 hours before serving. During this time the filling is going to cool and settle. If you serve to early you will have a runny pie. Serve with some caramel syrup, whipped cream, eggnog or vanilla ice cream and enjoy!

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The post Honey Pecan Pie Made To Perfection! (no corn syrup) appeared first on Embracing The Home.

Ingredients For Gingerbread Pie Crust

Flour

Use All-Purpose flour for this gingerbread pie crust recipe. I do not suggest using any whole wheat for this crust recipe. You could substitute with an All-Purpose, 1:1 ratio of gluten free flour or almond flour.

Cold Butter

Cold butter is extremely important. The colder the butter the better. I freeze my butter for pie crusts. Keeping the butter cold keeps the water that’s in the butter from absorbing into the flour too soon. We want the steam from the water in the butter to make lots of air pockets in order to create glorious flakes in our crust. If you let the butter get warm the flour will absorb the water and you will get a dense crust.

Blackstrap Molasses

Molasses creates the texture and classic flavor of gingerbread, along with the ginger of course.

There are a couple different types of molasses. Blackstrap molasses is very strong so we don’t need a lot of it. If you add to much your crust will become bitter. For light molasses or regular molasses you might want to add a little bit more then this recipe calls for. I only ever use blackstrap so I’m not sure how much more you would want but probably not to much more. If anyone tries regular molasses let me know in the comments how much you use and if it turned out.

Blackstrap molasses can be difficult to find in stores but you can buy it from Azure Standard or Amazon online.

To Read more about why I always cook with blackstrap molasses read “The Benefits of Blackstrap Molasses“

Cinnamon, All-Spice, Ginger and Salt

To make this crust really taste like gingerbread we can’t forget our spices! Cinnamon, All-Spice and Ginger are the classic gingerbread flavors. You could also add Nutmeg or substitute All-Spice with Cloves at a 2:1 Ratio (1/2 the amount of cloves).

Sugar

Because our molasses is a strong and can be a little bitter I add a little extra sugar compared to my perfect classic pie crust recipe. The we don’t want the crust to be too sweet but just sweet enough to complement out pie filling.

I use organic cane sugar from Azure Standard for just about everything and it works just as well as regular granulated sugar. You could also substitute for Monk Fruit Sweetener at a 1:1 ratio.

Apple Cider Vinegar

The acids in apple cider vinegar slow down the gluten production and keep the dough from becoming elastic like. If your dough is worked too much the gluten molecules will activate and your dough will become tough. Apple cider vinegar will slow this down to insure a tender, flaky pie crust. Don’t worry, your crust will not taste like vinegar. Remember to use COLD apple cider vinegar, if your liquid is cold your butter will also stay cold.

An Ice Cube (optional)

You can either place your ACV in the freezer for 20 minutes or so in order to get it cold or you can place an ice cube in it. I usually use an ice cube but its up to you. You will not be putting the ice cube in the dough. Its just to make your apple cider vinegar cold.

5 Tips You Don’t Want to Skip

(Especially number 4)

Tip # 1: Cold butter.

The colder the butter the better. I freeze my butter for pie crusts. Often I cut the butter in cubes and then freeze before adding to my flour. Keeping the butter cold keeps the water that’s in the butter from absorbing into the flour too soon. We want the steam from the water in the butter to make lots of air pockets in order to create glorious flakes in our crust. If you let the butter get warm the flour will absorb the water and you will get a dense crust

Tip # 2: Cold Apple Cider Vinegar

The acids in apple cider vinegar slow down the gluten production and keep the dough from becoming elastic like. If your dough is worked too much the gluten molecules will activate and your dough will become tough. Apple cider vinegar will slow this down to insure a tender, flaky pie crust. Don’t worry, your crust will not taste like vinegar. Remember to use COLD apple cider vinegar, if your liquid is cold your butter will also stay cold.

Tip # 3. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

By now I hope you realize we want things to stay cold. After you mix all the ingredients making your dough but before you roll it out make sure you refrigerate for at least one hour. This will help solidify the butter again after it is worked into the flour. Don’t let your dough sit on the counter for too long, always put it back in the refrigerator.  Once I’ve rolled out my pie crust and placed it in the pie pan I always put them back in the refrigerator until I’m ready to put the filling in. If the filling is in the crust and the oven is not preheated yet, I put it all back in the refrigerator. Keep it cold.

Tip # 4: Do Not Overwork.

I believe this is the number one reason people have tough, dense pie crusts. When you overwork your dough the butter melts and the gluten actives. So if you remember anything from this post, remember this. Do No Overwork The Dough! This often happens when we try to make the fancy, pretty crust we see on Pinterest. But don’t worry, you can still make the pretty crust, I have a tip for that as well.

Tip # 5. Freeze Your Decorative Pie Crust

When making a fun decorative top for your pie we often work it too much, melting the butter and activating the gluten molecules resulting in a tough, dense pie crust. Follow these steps. Mix your dough according to the recipe, refrigerate the dough for 1 hour, roll out the dough on wax or parchment paper for easy transporting. Freeze for 10 minutes. Cut out your pretty shapes and place them back in the freezer till you are ready to assemble them on your pie.

If you have scraps from the cut outs that you want to use place them in the freezer as well for 10 minutes before working them again. Don’t combined them into a ball to roll out again but instead try to layer them on top of each other then roll out. Again, don’t overwork. The shapes you make with the scraps wont turn out as well as the first set. They have been worked more, so that is just how it is.

How To Make Gingerbread Pie Crust

Step One: Freeze or Refrigerate Ingredients.

First combine the apple cider and the ice cube in a small bowl. You want to use cold ingredients to make your pie crust. If you don’t have an ice cube you can simply place the bowl in the freezer for a few minutes till it is cold.

Step Two: Combine Dry Ingredients

Add flour, sugar, cinnamon, all-spice, ginger and salt to your food processor. Pulse to mix together.

Step Three: Add Cold Butter

Cut your cold or frozen butter in cubes and add to food processor. It can be hard to cut frozen butter so sometimes I cut the butter then place in the freezer for 10-20 minutes before adding to the flour mixture. I want the butter to be as cold as possible before this step because this is when it is most worked. Pulse a few time until it it starts to combine with the flour mixture.

Step 4: Add Molasses and ACV

Add molasses and the apple cider vinegar 1 tablespoon at a time while continuing pulsing
the food processor till you dough starts to look like little beads. Don’t overwork.

Step Five: Refrigerate Dough

Place the crumbly dough on floured surface and bring together into a disc. Again, don’t overwork. do not knead the dough. Just simply combine together and form into a disc.

Wrap dough in plastic wrap or a zip-lock bag and place in the refrigerator for at least an hour. I have also used a Pyrex glass container to store my dough but the zip-lock bag is my favorite to use. I often make my dough the day before I plan on making my pies. You can leave your dough in the refrigerator for up to a week and it will stay good. You can also place it in the freezer for up to 6 months.

Step Six: Make A Pie!

Unlike a classic pie crust we are not going to roll out the dough all the way. The molasses makes the dough a little sticky and easily fall apart when lifted up. So, roll the dough out. If the dough seems to be tear then go ahead and mold it up onto the sides with your hands. Try not to overwork.

Follow your pie filling recipe for baking instructions.

Side Story: So my daughter got upset when playing outside with her big brother and immediately, without any prompting, as shes is still crying, started helping me finish making my pumpkin pie. She was soon happy again. This just goes to show baking truly does make everything better!

Gingerbread Pie Crust

Yield: 2 Pie Crust

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Additional Time: 1 hour

Total Time: 1 hour 10 minutes

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Ingredients

• 2 Cups Flour
• 4 Tablespoons Sugar
• 1 Teaspoon Salt
• 1 Cup Butter
• 2 Tablespoons Blackstrap Molasses
• 1 Teaspoon Cinnamon
• 1/2 Teaspoon Ginger
• 1/2 Teaspoon All-Spice
• 2 Tablespoons Apple Cider Vinegar
• 1 Ice Cube (optional)

Instructions

1. Combine apple cider vinegar and ice cube in a small bowl to get cold.
2. Add flour, sugar, cinnamon, ginger, all-spice and salt to your food processor. Pulse to mix together.
3. Cut you cold or frozen butter in cubes and add to food processor. Pulse a
   few time till it it starts to combine with the flour mixture.
4. Add apple cider vinegar and molasses mixture 1 tablespoon at a time while continuing pulsing the food processor till you dough starts to look like little beads.
5. Place dough on floured surface and bring together and divide into two discs.
6. Wrap discs in plastic wrap or a zip-lock bag and place in the refrigerator for at least an hour.
7. Unlike Classic Pie Crust you will roll out dough just a little then use your hands to mold into pie pan. Follow your pie recipes for baking instructions

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