Gluten-Free Dutch Apple Pie (aka Breakfast)

It is the season for apples around here, or "app-ies" as Cassie calls them. So we are doing our best to consume as many different varieties and versions as we can. Pie anyone?

Making pie is always a good idea. But, like so many great ideas, it doesn't always turn out the way you picture it in your mind. That should never stop you from trying, though. I mean after all, what's the worst thing that could happen? Bad pie? Come on! (Actually, I did make a truly awful pumpkin pie once. I left out the sugar by mistake. It was like eating an… unsweetened version of a pumpkin pie... weird, right? We ended up sprinkling sugar over the top and it actually turned out pretty tasty. See? Redemption! Pie is still good even when it is bad.)

The hardest part about homemade pie is the crust. My mom does wonderful things with pie crust. Things that involve ice water and lard and pastry cutters. It's all very intimidating but tastes like angel wings in buttery heaven when it's done. (Also, remind me not to make analogies any more).

When you make gluten-free pie crust  it is a bit different. If making a homemade pie is a labor of love, then making a gluten-free homemade pie is a profession of deep and resounding commitment. You have to remember a few things when you are baking gluten-free; the flours don't act the same when you knead them, they don't taste the same, and they don't have... um, gluten. A GF pie crust can be crumbly, or tough, or just not right. In fact, making gluten-free pie crust is like making a bad analogy: sometimes it just falls apart. 

But, in the same way my mom can work magic with regular pie crust, my mother-in-law can make great, buttery, flakey things happen with gluten-free pie crust. And that is saying something. Eating this pie was like... well, it was like eating a seriously delicious piece of apple pie.

Here’s the recipe!

Gluten-Free Pie Crust

(recipe from Aunt Sally - thank you!)

1 stick of butter

1 16 oz pkg cream cheese

1 ¾  -  2 cups gluten-free flour

With a pastry cutter, combine butter cream cheese and 1 ¾ cups GF flour. Keep adding flour 1 TBSP at a time if it seems too moist. Divide dough in half and roll out between two sheets of plastic wrap.

Apple Pie Filling

(adapted from Farm Journal’s Complete Home Baking Book)

1 cup sugar

1 tsp ground cinnamon

½ tsp ground nutmeg

1 TBSP cornstarch

6 cups sliced apples

Combine ingredients in a mixing bowl, then pour into a pastry-lined pie pan.

GF Dutch Crumble Topping

(adapted from Farm Journal’s Complete Home Baking Book)

1 cup GF flour

¾ cup sugar

½ cup soft butter

Combine flour and sugar in bowl. Cut in butter until mixture is crumbly, using pastry cutter. Sprinkle crumbs over apples.

Bake in 400 degree oven 45 - 50 minutes or until apples are tender. Cool before serving.