Gluten-free Apple Pie
My family is pretty lucky in that we don’t have any major food allergies or intolerances. In fact, I don’t know if my kids could envision their lives milk- or nut-free. But I was recently asked to make a gluten-free pie and if nothing but curiosity, I wanted to give it a shot.
TL;DR:
All 3 options worked and tasted pretty damn good, to my genuine surprise
Chilling the dough really helped with rolling
Rolling between two pieces of wax paper was an absolute revelation (mind blown!)
I found a dizzying variety of gluten-free flour options at our small neighborhood market, and thanked providence for keeping me from venturing to Whole Foods for my first gluten-free voyage. I looked at a dozen ingredient lists, checking for xantham gum which impersonates gluten in these mixes, as I learned. I picked up two options to try, see below.
In attempt to be objective, I used the same apple filling for all variations and also baked little crust medallions on their own. And as I was working with the dough, I had a pleasant realization that since there was no fear of developing gluten in the dough (mind blown again), I could actually slow down and handle the dough as much as I felt like.
So this is how it all went down:
1. Rice-potato-tapioca flour medley. I wanted to try a version that stayed true to the pie crust ethos: flour, butter, nothing fancy. However, after doing a bit of research, I decided to add an egg (note that French tart pastry – pate sablée – does use an egg yolk, so I felt like I wasn’t deviating too far from a traditional shortcrust.) I rested the dough in the fridge and the chill certainly helped keep it together when I was rolling it out later. This dough was quite light in color and the resulting crust was a bit pale for my likings. My sample medallion was rather bland too, but when I tasted the pie, I was surprised at how closely it resembled a gluten-full version!
2. Almond-coconut mix. For this one, I followed the skeleton of glutted-free recipes I found online: gluten-free flour, butter, egg, sour cream, sugar. The resulting dough was more challenging to handle, even after chilling, so I had to roll it thicker and patch it up after transferring to the tin. It baked very nicely and had a great nutty flavor though! The test medallion was a delicious little shortbread cookie, and the pie was certainly tasty.
3. Grandma’s recipe using rice-potato-tapioca medley from option 1. Since I was experimenting, I wanted to give my grandma’s old recipe a go, substituting only the flour. I wish I could say that I learned this recipe from her, but all I have are some jots on a piece of scratch paper, dictated to me over the phone by my sister. It’s non-traditional to say the least: a stick of melted butter, a bit of mayo, one egg, sugar (no amount cited), enough flour so it doesn’t stick to your fingers. This is the recipe I started baking with many years ago and it’s still a family favorite. I wanted to see how it would hold up, and it did just that. The dough was pretty delicate, similarly to almond-flour mix, but the test medallion had the best flavor of the three.
So which was the winner?
I resisted calling it right away. Especially since my impressions from the test medallions were at odds with those of the complete pies. I had a taste of each, then again after a couple hours, and again the next day to test for sogginess. I had a few other taste testers too, who (mostly) agreed with my decision. In the end, being mindful of the original goal, I have to declare #1 as the winner. It most closely resembled and tasted like a traditional pie and with some minor flavor adjustments will be the recipe I use in the future.
