I do love pies but it’s been difficult to find a good pie crust that’s gluten free, egg free and sugar free. A friend once gave me a recipe for an olive oil pie crust but it didn’t taste very good to me. So I’ve been searching and I think I’ve found the perfect substitute. Hope you’ll agree. However, instead of using a strong tasting olive oil, I’ve combined it with half milder olive oil and half mild avocado oil. It’s easy to make, just need to plan ahead!
You’ll need:
1/4 cup mild olive oil
1/4 cup avocado oil
1/2 cup non-dairy milk (more or less)
2 3/4 cup all purpose gluten-free flour
1 teaspoon salt
One hour before you start making the crust, put the oils (mixed together) in the freezer. If you’ve planned well ahead of time, you can also put the mixture in the refrigerator overnight or longer in a closed container. This is the step that makes the crust flaky.
When the oils are solidified, measure the flour and salt into a mixing bowl and fluff with a fork (or if you own one, with a sifter). Add the oil and using a fork, combine with the flour mixture until you have pea size pellets of flour. Add the milk piecemeal, stirring the mixture after each addition, until the flour mixture is all combined and sticking together (which is why you may need a little less or a little more milk).
This makes 2 crusts so split the dough in half and put each ball into a plastic bag, flatten a little so it doesn’t break apart when cold and difficult to roll, and refrigerate for 1 hour.
About 15 minutes before you take the dough out of the frig, preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Roll out the dough (I used plastic wrap to cover my counter and the top of the dough rather than flour) to roughly a quarter inch, remove the top layer of plastic wrap, lift on the plastic wrap and flip the rolled crust into your pie plate or baking container. This crust can be slightly crumbly so don’t worry if you have to patch it a little. Repeat if you’re using a top crust.
Blind bake for approximately 15 minutes. Cool slightly before adding filling and top crust. Then bake as you would a normal pie. If using just as a top crust, place on top of cold filling and bake. For a single crust pie, increase oven temperature to 425 and bake until golden brown, about 15-20 minutes.
cookingwithoutallergens 