GF Pastry

Yummy!

 Almost a year after going gluten free, I feel like we are finally coming to a successful recipe collection. One thing that was sorely missing was pastry though. Thankfully Mennonite Girls Can Cook has come to the rescue!
This pastry was flaky, it held together and it tasted fabulous (and even tasted not so bad raw!).

I used all butter instead of shortening since I didn't have any, and it still turned out great!! I was finally able to make my favourite Chicken Pot Pie again! And the kids actually ate supper without fuss :) And I'm super excited to be able to make pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving!


INGREDIENTS
1/2 cup tapioca flour
1/2 cup cornstarch
1/4 cup potato starch (NOT potato flour)
1 cup sweet rice flour
dash of sugar
1/2 tsp salt
rounded teaspoon of xanthan gum
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup shortening
1 egg
1 tbsp vinegar
4 tbsp ice water
sweet rice flour for rolling


Blend well together the flours, xathan gum, salt and sugar.
Cut in butter and shortening
Beat egg , add vinegar and ice-water.
Stir into flour mixture forming a ball. (Add a little more water if too dry)
(You may knead this a bit since rice flour crust can stand handling.) Knead until you have a smooth soft ball.

It looks like 'real' pie dough!!

Refrigerate dough for 1 hour or more to chill.
Roll out between wax paper or saran wrap dusted with sweet rice flour. Peel off top layer of wax paper/saran wrap , flip over onto pie plate and then carefully peel off the other layer of wax paper and fit pastry into pie shell -- for single crust pie or for double add filling and then top with top crust .
Bake at 375' until lightly browned.

Finished product

Taco Pie

I love any type of meal that can be served from one dish. Things that I can prep earlier and then throw into the oven 30 minutes before supper. This taco pie certainly fits that bill.
It's gluten free (of course) and quite tasty. I've made it two nights in a row, but the first night I followed a different recipe for the 'filling' and I wasn't happy with it. It was good, but forgettable. I knew I needed to make it again right away with changes so that it would be memorable and I would then remember to make it again later! The crust recipe is from Here, but I wouldn't make her meat recipe again. Like I said, it was good but not great. As soon as I bit into the original version of this pie, I had a lightbulb moment. Refried beans! That's what this needed. So without further ado....Taco Pie! (Which of course was gobbled up before I took a picture, that's what happens when a tasty supper is pulled out of the oven with 4 adults and 2 children looking on! Just imagine a taco pie and that's what it looked like!)

Crust:
1/4 Cup Butter
2/3 Cup Milk
1 Tbsp. Taco Seasoning
2 1/2 Cups Instant Potato Flakes (as I've said before, not a huge fan of instant anything, but when cooking gluten free sometimes we have to make do!)

Melt butter in a small pot. Add milk. Bring to a boil and add taco seasoning. Mix well. Remove from heat and add Potato Flakes. At this point you may need to add a few Tbsp. of water to get it to mix properly. You want a 'doughy' type of consistency, but you do want all the potato flakes mixed in.

Press into a pie plate. Bake just the shell at 350F for 10 minutes. Remove and let cool (or if you are in a hurry add the filling right away and just bake. Prebaking/cooling just allows the crust to firm up a little bit, but it's not a complete must-do!)

Filling:
1 lb. Ground Beef
1 Recipe of Refried Beans

Cook and drain beef. Cook refried beans. Mix together. Scoop into shell. Bake at 350F for approx. 25-30 minutes or until the crust starts browning.
Remove from oven and top with cheese, lettuce and tomatoes. Serve with sour cream.

What's On The Table?

Yup...Peach Pie for breakfast...so good! And coffee of course.
H & W Produce has a good sale on peaches right now so I bought a bunch and of course instantly made pie!!

By the way...cherries are now $12/case. Im not sure which locations have them but the west end one had them yesterday!

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Chicken Pot Pie

Ever since discovering lard free pie baking I have been on a pie frenzy! I have 9 years of pent up pie baking to get out!
This recipe is extremely economical, it only took 2 chicken breasts and it made enough to feed us for 2 meals and everybody was full! In our house thats a huge win!

My pie plate is really deep so if you are working with shallow dishes make sure you have enough pie dough for at least 2 pies since this is a big recipe!

Ingredients
2 Batches of Lardless Pie Dough (or enough of your favourite recipe to do a top and bottom pie)
3 Cups of Chicken Broth (I made mine using 3 heaping tsp. of Better then Bouillon by Superior Touch and 3 cups of water)
2 Chicken Breasts, cubed
4-5 Carrots, chopped
1 Green Pepper, chopped (mine was small, from my garden!)
3 Large Potatoes, cubed
3 Tsp. Butter or Margarine, heaping
2 Tbsp. Flour, heaping
1 Cup Milk (I used Plain Coconut Milk but any type will do!)
Pepper, to taste
Dried Onion, to taste
Celery Salt, to taste
Add whatever veggies/ spices you want this is just what I had on hand and what I knew my veggie-hating family would eat!

Boil carrots, pepper, potatoes and chicken in the broth until cooked through. In a seperate pot melt the butter and add the flour, pepper, onion and celery salt. Cook for a minute or two then add milk. Cook until it thickens...watch it closely it thickens fast!
Add milk mixture to veggies and chicken and stir to combine. Cook for a few minutes to let it thicken. Brush the bottom pie crust with egg white to prevent it from going soggy. Pour mixture into pie crust and place (if you want to) top crust on. Note: I made the big one covered and a little one with some leftover dough uncovered and it thickened up a lot more uncovered. But both tasted good! Cover edges of crust with tin foil if its a topped pie.
Bake at 375 F for 30 minutes, remove tin foil and bake another 10 minutes until golden brown.

You will notice there is no picture...it was too yummy smelling and I lost all thought of picture taking!

Raspberry Pie

Without LARD!!! This is the easiest pie dough I have ever made and it turned out flakey and light :)
I love to make pie but hubby cant eat really fatty things like lard or shortening so I only make it once or twice a year. A friend posted on Facebook that she wanted to make pie but was out if shortening and it got me thinking. There had to be a way!
I came across several recipes and this one seemed the simplest. I had to throw my first try in the garbage because I followed the recipe exactly :( Once I realized it needed less flour then it actually called for it was smooth sailing!
I have a deep pie plate so I made two recipes to make a covered pie.

Best raspberry pie Ive had in a long time...possibly ever!

Pie Dough Ingredients
1/2 Cup Oil
1/4 Cup Milk
1 1/2 Cups Flour
1/8 Tsp. Salt
Mix together and roll out. I did find it was stickier then regular pie dough so I rolled it between two pieces of plastic wrap (wax paper or parchment paper would work too).
Bake as you would your regular crust.

Raspberry Filling
4 Cups Fresh Raspberries
1 Cup Sugar (I used cane sugar)
1 Tbsp. Lemon Juice
1/4 Tsp. Cinnamon
1/4 Cup + 1 Tbsp. Corn Starch (I used Arrowroot flour but Tapioca would work too)
Milk or Cream for brushing the top before baking.
My berries were really squished and juicy so I also added 1 1/2 Tsp. Xanthan Gum. I really should have added more because it was quite runny.
Bake at 425 F for 15 minutes then at 375 F for 25 minutes or until golden brown.

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