Perfect Pie Crust (Well... Almost Perfect!)

This recipe was a bit of a challenge, but since my hubby loves pie,

I was highly motivated to come up with something workable.

PIE PASTRY

2 1/2 cups rice flour

1 1/2 cups tapioca starch

1 tsp xanthan gum

4 Tbsp sugar1 tsp salt

1 1/2 cups lard - cut into cubes

2 eggs

1 Tbsp vinegar

1/2 cup water

METHOD:

-Combine dry ingredients together.

-Cut in lard until the size of small peas.

-Whisk eggs, vinegar and water together and stir into flour mixture until just blended. Do not over blend. Because rice flour does not absorb liquid the same way as wheat (it does not absorb as much or as fast), the dough may be a little wet looking at first, but in a minute it absorbs the extra.

-Now the handling of the dough... typically gluten free pastry is very hard to handle, however, I find this dough fairly workable. You can simply press the dough into a pie plate or you can roll it out. The following instructions are how I roll out this dough. This is not a tidy process, and it really helps if you hold your tongue in the corner of your mouth while you work. :-)

1. Start with a round piece of dough on a well floured cutting board - I use tapioca starch on the board.

2. Roll out the dough on the board, keeping the general round shape. Of course, if your dish is a different shape than a pie plate, roll out your dough accordingly.

3. Take a pancake flipper and slide it under the dough on the board. Do this all around your piece of dough to loosen it completely from the board.

4. Hold the board over the pie plate and start the dough sliding off the board onto the pie plate. Go slow because if you get it in the wrong place, it will probably fall apart while you attempt to straiten it.

5. Finish letting the dough slide off the board.

6. Straiten the dough - fitting it to the dish. Trim the edges.

7. You now have pie shells ready to fill. Use the same method for the top crust of the pie, wetting the edge of the bottom crust so that they will stick together. Crimp edges and cut slits in the top. The same method works for pot pie or deep dish pie.

Rhubarb Pie With a Twist

My birthday was on August 1st. I turned the lovely age of 34!

We also had to go to a wedding that day so birthday stuff kind of got put on hold for a couple of days. That was just fine!

On Monday, my husband kindly ordered Chinese food for supper to give me a break from cooking (from a restaurant in our town that will coat their ginger beef with only corn starch on request :).

In the afternoon, I got to thinking that I would really like a rhubarb pie for desert. I haven't made one yet this year and it is one of my favorites! So, because it was my birthday, I thought I would splurge and make some pies. They were delicious (!!!) served with my daughter's homemade dairy free ice cream (I've got to post that recipe soon while it is still hot out). I vacillated over making a custard pie or a regular one... but I finally decided to try out an idea that I had (using an extra ingredient) with the regular rhubarb pie recipe...

RHUBARB JELLO PIE

Pastry for a 2 crust pie (either for a mix or using the recipe that I will be posting separately so it is easy to find :)

4-5 cups rhubarb, cut into small pieces

1 1/2 cups sugar

pinch salt

4 Tbsp corn starch

1/2 small package of jello (I used strawberry, but cherry or raspberry would be good )

METHOD:

-Prepare GF pastry according to directions.

-Put all other ingredients into a mixing bowl and toss to mix and coat the rhubarb.

-Turn fruit mix into the pie shell.

-Roll out top crust according to directions, flute edges and cut slits in the top.

-Sprinkle the top crust with sugar. Bake on bottom shelf at 350 degrees for 45-55 min.

-Serve with whip cream or ice cream - it is heavenly warm!