I was sick of pie crust that didn’t turn out well.
Either it was too “flaky” and crumbled in fear at the first touch of a knife, or it was made of iron and didn’t crumble at all.
There had to be a happy medium.
So I went looking for pie crusts. I went on Pinterest, my favorite food blogs, the food network blog, allrecipes, anything. I tried gluten-free recipes and recipes that I converted to gluten-free as I went along. I tried recipes that were “guaranteed” to work (liars). I tried six different recipes, and all of them failed.
I came to the conclusion that I suck at making pie.
I can accept the fact. After all, I handle the rolling pin like it’s a giant hammer, the words “roll from the center out” mean very little to me, and I rarely have the patience to wait for the crust to sit in the refrigerator for four hours.
So if you’re an expert pastry chef, congratulations: I’m sure you’ll succeed at every single recipe you try. But I needed a recipe that I, in all my bad pastry-managing skills, could succeed at.
In other words, the below crust recipe is prepared to be beaten, whipped, torn to pieces, overmixed, heavily dusted with flour, flipped, twisted, chopped, smashed, squeezed, and pinched. Miraculously, it is still prepared to come through, flaky yet firm.
The secret? Cream cheese.
So enjoy the recipe below. Let your kids roll it out. They’ll probably do a better job than I did. The great part? It doesn’t really matter whether or not you roll from the center out. This crust can handle it.
- 1 cup cream cheese
- 11 tablespoons butter, chopped into ¼ inch cubes
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup rice flour
- 1 cup cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon xanthan gum
- SCROLL BELOW RECIPE FOR STEP BY STEP PICTURES.
- In the bowl of your electric mixer, beat together the cream cheese, butter, sugar, and salt.
- Add the flours and xanthan gum.
- Mix it all together with your hands (using your hands is very important. Just get in there and go for it. It’s kind of a nice feeling, really). Don’t over mix. Mix just until the dough comes together. Note: it will take some time for the dough to come together.
- Form into 2 balls, one of which should be slightly larger than the other, and flatten the balls onto 2 separate sheets of plastic wrap. Wrap tightly in the plastic wrap and chill for at least 1 ½ hours.
- Once the dough is chilled, put a sheet of wax paper on your work surface and tape it there so that it doesn’t move around. Dust the wax paper very lightly in cornstarch.
- Put the larger disk of dough on the wax paper and sprinkle the top very lightly in cornstarch. Roll it out until it forms a circle large enough to overlap the edges of your pie plate by quite a bit. You may notice in the pictures that my pie crust doesn’t overlap that much. This is because I used a large pie plate instead of a normal sized pie plate. You’ll have plenty of overlap on a normal-sized pie plate.
- Take the tape off of the wax paper and put the pie plate right next to the rolled out crust. Quickly flip the wax paper, with the crust, into the pie plate. No biggie.
- Peel the wax paper off and move the crust around as necessary to fit it into the pie plate. Don’t cut the overlapping edges off. Instead, tuck them gently underneath themselves so that the jagged edge is hidden. Shape the crust edges.
- Pour the filling into the crust.
- Now for the fun part. Take the other, smaller disk of dough and roll it out on a new sheet of wax paper (also lightly dusted in cornstarch). Lightly dust the crust as necessary so that it doesn’t stick to the rolling pin.
- Roll until the crust is about 12” wide.
- Now, you do want a lattice top, right? If you don’t, just flip the circle of crust onto the top of the pie and shape as necessary.
- But if you do want the lattice top, read on.
- Cut the 12” disk into strips, each about ½” wide. Gently lift the first strips up one by one and place it on the pie. Add another few strips, all parallel to the first strip, until the pie is partially covered.
- Then, take a nice long strip of dough and arrange it perpendicular to the other strips, on the very edge of the pie. Gently lift up every other end and slide the strip underneath so that it forms an under/over/under/over pattern.
- Once this is done, gently slide it towards the center of the pie, going slowly so you don’t break any of the strips.
- Once it reaches the center, get another strip and repeat the same process, sliding that strip up until it is just next to the first strip. Cover ½ of the pie and then do the other half in the same way.
- Once you have the entire pie covered, neatly trim the ends and shape them with the edge of the crust, as necessary.
- Refrigerate the pie for about 15 minutes. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
- Remove the pie from the refrigerator and coat with egg wash. For information on exactly which egg wash recipe yields exactly the look you want, check out this article. For the pie in the pictures I used an egg yolk/water mix.
- Anyway, cook it for about an hour until the crust is golden and gorgeous. Eat it.
beat together the cream cheese, butter, sugar, and salt.
beat together the cream cheese, butter, sugar, and salt.
Add the flours and xanthan gum.
Add the flours and xanthan gum. It’s snowing!
Mix it all together with your hands (using your hands is very important. Just get in there and go for it. It’s kind of a nice feeling, really). Don’t over mix. Mix just until the dough comes together. Note: it will take some time for the dough to come together.
mix it together with your hands.
the dough will eventually come together. Believe me.
Form into 2 balls, one of which should be slightly larger than the other, and flatten the balls onto 2 separate sheets of plastic wrap. Wrap tightly in the plastic wrap and chill for at least 1 ½ hours.
2 balls of dough. 1 bigger, 1 smaller.
Once the dough is chilled, put a sheet of wax paper on your work surface and tape it there so that it doesn’t move around. Dust the wax paper very lightly in cornstarch.
Put the larger disk of dough on the wax paper and sprinkle the top very lightly in cornstarch. Roll it out until it forms a circle large enough to overlap the edges of your pie plate by quite a bit. You may notice in the pictures that my pie crust doesn’t overlap that much. This is because I used a large pie plate instead of a normal sized pie plate. You’ll have plenty of overlap on a normal-sized pie plate.
roll it all out, folks.
Take the tape off of the wax paper and put the pie plate right next to the rolled out crust. Quickly flip the wax paper, with the crust, into the pie plate. No biggie.
flip the dough into the pie plate.
Peel the wax paper off and move the crust around as necessary to fit it into the pie plate. Don’t cut the overlapping edges off. Instead, tuck them gently underneath themselves so that the jagged edge is hidden. Shape the crust edges.
Pour the filling into the crust.
Voila. Crust with filling.
Now for the fun part. Take the other, smaller disk of dough and roll it out on a new sheet of wax paper (also lightly dusted in cornstarch). Lightly dust the crust as necessary so that it doesn’t stick to the rolling pin.
Roll until the crust is about 12” wide.
Now, you do want a lattice top, right? If you don’t, just flip the circle of crust onto the top of the pie and shape as necessary.
But if you do want the lattice top, read on.
Cut the 12” disk into strips, each about 1/2” wide. Gently lift the first strips up one by one and place it on the pie. Add another few strips, all parallel to the first strip, until the pie is partially covered.
Then, take a nice long strip of dough and arrange it perpendicular to the other strips, on the very edge of the pie. Gently lift up every other end and slide the strip underneath so that it forms an under/over/under/over pattern.
There you have it. The first strip.
Once this is done, gently slide it towards the center of the pie, going slowly so you don’t break any of the strips.
Slide the first strip gently towards the center…
Once it reaches the center, get another strip and repeat the same process, sliding that strip up until it is just next to the first strip. Cover ½ of the pie and then do the other half in the same way.
There we have it. Halfway!
Completely covered.
Once you have the entire pie covered, neatly trim the ends and shape them with the edge of the crust, as necessary.
Refrigerate the pie for about 15 minutes. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Remove the pie from the refrigerator and coat with egg wash. For information on exactly which egg wash recipe yields exactly the look you want, check out this article. For the pie in the pictures I used an egg yolk/water mix.
Anyway, cook it for about an hour until the crust is golden and gorgeous. Eat it.
This pie crust was fantastic! Out-of-this-world delicious and easy to make! You are my hero! I’m serious. I am “famous” amongst my family for making the perfect glutenous pie crusts, and I have searched high and low for a gluten free one that we would enjoy eating, not just tolerate. And you did it! The remarks were, “This is even BETTER than your regular crust”.
I’m so glad to hear that it worked for you, Jill! And even more glad to hear that it was up to par with your gluten crust. 🙂
I agree with Jill. This crust is fantastic. I hav made it twice this week….first in an apple pie and then as a crust for samosas. It was wonderful to work with and very forgiving for both dishes. I have a question….have you experimented eith tapioca starch or potato starch? I used potato starch today just to roll out the dough. It is mor gritty and I thought it was easier to use for that purpose than corn startch. I admire your efforts and enthusiasm. Keep up the good work!
Very excited to try this recipe. From the photos it looks like the best GF pie crust I’ve seen yet!
This looks fantastic, but I can’t have dairy ;-( Does anyone have ideas on not using the cream cheese?
I made this for a friend’s mother and she was in heaven… the non-gluten free people had it and were very impressed…I did find it ultrasoft to work with…but the flavour and texture were the best I have had..still bit grainy but I will make again! thank you
I’m glad it worked for you, Lynn!
I made this recipe in a food processor and swapped out the cream cheese for neufchatel cheese. Simply pulsed ingredients until just combined, then worked it a bit more with my hands until the crust became nice and cohesive. The pie turned out beautifully and tasted great 🙂 It was one of the few times a gluten free baking recipe did not make me want to cry once it was finished. Thank you!
Glad it worked well for you, Nicole (not crying after baking is always a bonus)!
can this pie crust be cooked and saved for another day, maybe a week later?
can this pie crust be baked and saved for another day, maybe a week later?
Do you use Bob Red mills type flour or do you have to use the superfine type like Authentic Foods type ? Just wondering if it matters some recipes state your crust will be gritty if you use the BRM type.
I think Bob’s Red Mill flours will work just fine, Diana! Just so long as you do include the starch called for in the recipe…If you use just rice flour the crust will be too gritty and won’t hold together as well.
Hi! I am using king arthurs flour and it’s not just rice flour but has tapioca starch. I assume it will be okay but have you heard of that being an okay flour brand to use? I am not gluten free but a family member is so i am new to this whole thing. I have made regular cream cheese pie crusts and they are pretty good. Cream cheese is a good binder and adds moisture so this should be good considering all the other crusts i have tried are crumbly and difficult to roll out like you said. Thanks for the recipe! Will update with how it turned out! 🙂
If you’re using King Arthur’s GF flour mix I think that would work just fine. If it’s just one type of flour, and not a mix, you’ll have to use some kind of combination. I usually use a starch–rice flour combo. But King Arthur’s Mix should work well in this recipe!
Hello,
I Just wanted to say I tried this yesterday for Thanksgiving. Originally had another recipe I was going to use, but so glad I chose yours! I literally could not tell the difference at all between a regular and your GF crust. The cream cheese is something I have never heard of using before and that was a huge game changer for me when making GF pies. Thanks again! This is amazing and everyone loved it! They kept talking about the crust.
SO GLAD to hear your family liked it, Ashley! Yeah, I was so excited when I discovered the cream cheese trick–no more melty butter crusts!