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What is a proper gluten free Thanksgiving without some lovely gluten free pie? And what is that pie without just the right gluten free pie crust? Making pie means asking Very Important Questions this time of year. Should you blind bake the crust before filling it, or shouldn't you? Which crust recipe is best? I'm here for you, with my version of The Right Answers. We have made quite a bit of gluten free pie on this blog, and there is even more in my books, but I have been getting lots of pie questions lately. So let's take some time out for a simple pie: gluten free custard pie. The filling is a simple but delicious custard, and it gives us a chance to talk about gluten free pie crust.
The recipe below is for a single pie crust. If you're making a double crust pie just double the recipe. Whatever you do, most of all I recommend NOT processing your butter until it's the size of the proverbial “small peas.” That almost always leads bakers to overprocess the butter. And that means your pie crust will not be light and flaky. Light and flaky pastry, gluten free or not, comes from cold chunks of butter surrounded by flour. When the cold butter hits the heat of the oven, it expands and puffs out the flour around it, creating a light and flaky pastry or crust. It's a little bit of chemistry, and it depends most of all upon architecture. So don't overprocess that butter!
You'll see that, for this pie, a do blind bake the crust. All that means is that I bake the crust at a higher temperature (375°F) for 10 minutes before filling it and completing the baking. The reason for that is that this is a custard pie. For that custard filling to set up properly, it needs to be baked at a much lower temperature (325°F), and for quite a while (about 45 minutes). And 325°F just isn't the right temperature for a pie crust if you want it to be light and flaky. So, we blind bake. But for a double crust fruit pie, like apple pie, I generally don't blind bake the bottom crust.
If you have other Thanksgiving pie questions (or just other Thanksgiving questions in general), ask them in the comments below. I know many of you have emailed me with your burning questions and as much as I want to answer them all individually, I'm (as always) woefully behind on answering blog emails as they do tend to pile up and Thanksgiving is less than a week away. I do my level best to respond to everyone, but since time is of the essence, for now ask below!
Gluten Free Custard Pie
Ingredients
- 1 recipe gluten free pie crust
- 2 cups (16 fluid ounces) milk
- ⅔ cup (133 g) granulated sugar
- ⅜ cup (54 g) gum-free gluten free flour blend, (36 grams superfine white rice flour + 12 grams potato starch + 6 grams tapioca starch/flour)
- ¾ teaspoon kosher salt
- 3 (75 g) egg yolks, at room temperature
- 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
- Coarse sugar (like Sugar in the Raw), for sprinkling
- Freshly grated nutmeg, for sprinkling
Instructions
- Make the pie crust dough according to the recipe instructions, through and including blind baking the crust.
- Allow the blind baked crust to cool briefly while you make the filling.
Make the custard filling.
- In a medium-size heavy-bottom saucepan, place the milk, sugar, flour blend and salt, and whisk to combine well. Have the egg yolks set beside the stove in a deep, medium-size bowl. Bring the milk mixture to a simmer over medium heat, whisking occasionally. Slowly drip the hot milk mixture down the side of the bowl with the egg yolks, whisking constantly. This tempers the eggs (brings them up to a higher temperature gradually) so they do not scramble.
- Return the entire mixture to the saucepan, and cook over medium heat, whisking constantly, until the custard thickens (about 2 minutes). Stir in the vanilla. If there are any lumps at all in the custard, smooth it out in a blender (I always have lumps – and I’ve tried it every which way – so I always blend the custard).
Assemble and bake the pie.
- Pour the smooth custard filling into the blind-baked pie crust. Tap the pie flat on the counter to burst any air bubbles in the custard. Sprinkle the top of the custard filling evenly with coarse sugar and freshly grated nutmeg.
- Place the pie on a baking sheet and in the center of the preheated oven. Lower the heat to 325°F, and bake, undisturbed, for about 45 minutes or until the pie jiggles slightly when shaken from side to side and/or a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. The jiggle should be a structured one (like Jello), not a loose one. The filling will bubble and puff as it bakes, but settle as it cools.
- Remove the pie from the oven and allow it to cool to room temperature before placing in the refrigerator to chill until firm (at least 2 hours and up to overnight). Slice and serve chilled.
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Where can I buy unflavored whey protein isolate?
I ordered mine from amazon. When I did a general search for it though I found some at GNC and other ‘vitamin’ type stores. Make sure you get one labeled unflavored and not ‘natural’. I picked up a ‘natural’ one at whole foods and when I read the ingredients ‘natural vanilla’ was one of the ingredients. Thankfully I read it before buying it. I wouldn’t want my garlic bread sticks or pizza to taste like vanilla…natural or not.
This will work http://www.amazon.com/Foods-Whey-Protein-Isolate-Packaging/dp/B0015AQL1Q/ref=sr_1_1?s=hpc&ie=UTF8&qid=1385319718&sr=1-1&keywords=now+foods+whey+protein+isolate