Gluten Free Pie Crust Tips - Eating Gluten Free (2024)

FAQs

Why does my gluten free pie crust fall apart? ›

Ingredients and Substitutions:

You also want to make sure this flour blend has xantham gum. Xantham gum is what helps hold the flour and pie ingredients together, and mimics what gluten does. Gluten is like glue, and is why doughs stay together. Without xantham gum, it will be crumbly and fall apart.

Mix the Additives in Before the Wet Ingredients

Without it, gluten-free products can be dry and crumbly. There is a way to compensate for this however — use xanthan gum. Some bakers also use gelatin or agar. If you're using additives, mix them thoroughly with the dry ingredients before adding the wet.

What does that vinegar do? The most common answer — that it affects gluten development — isn't actually that useful. If you had a mass spectrometer at home, you could measure the teensy difference vinegar makes in the tensile strength of gluten strands in the dough, which in theory makes it a bit more tender.

Add xanthan gum to gluten-free flour. It enhances elastic qualities that gluten-free flours lack, making it easier to work with and less likely to crumble. Add plenty of water to the gluten-free flour to prevent the pastry from becoming too dry when rolling out.

Apple Cider Vinegar – Superpower your Gluten-Free Kitchen! Apple cider vinegar is often used in baking, but why? It is a great leavening agent, but it also has powerful flavour enhancing properties. I find it adds the perfect amount of depth of flavour, and helps activate baking soda creating a lovely airy texture.

On the one hand, many experts consider almost all types of vinegar — including vinegar created from gluten grains — to be safe on the gluten-free diet, because the vinegar distillation process breaks down and eliminates the gluten protein fragments.

The sticky effect created by gluten can be simulated to a certain extent by adding gums, such as guar gum or xanthan gum. These gums are only added to recipes in small amounts (such as 1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon per cup of flour) and are already included in many commercial gluten-free flour mixes.

Dissolving leaveners in liquid prior to adding to dough will give a better rise to the product. Gluten-free baking at high altitude requires less liquid and either a higher oven temperature or a longer baking time. Start with omitting 2 tablespoons of liquid and increasing the oven temperature by 25° F.

Eggs are natural leaveners that help boost the rise and volume of bread. Eggs also add moisture, flavor, and protein to gluten-free bread recipes. If you select a gluten-free bread recipe that includes eggs, you have a better chance that the resulting bread will have good color, more volume, and softer texture.

Use Psyllium Husk Powder as a binder for better Gluten Free Bread. Without gluten, bread dough lacks elasticity and the "stickiness" needed to hold together. Binders like xanthan gum, psyllium husk, guar gum and to some extent flaxmeal and chia seeds are used to perform the function of gluten.

Why does gluten free food fall apart? ›

Gluten is a binding agent that keeps food together, so if you elect not to use it, the result is often crumbly baked goods that fall apart when you touch them.