Homemade Apple Pie: Gluten, Nut, Dairy, & Egg FREE #Recipe (2024)

FAQs

How do you keep a gluten free pie crust from falling apart? ›

To successfully make a gluten-free pie crust that won't fall apart, add one egg to your dry ingredients before adding any water. Fully combine the egg and then add only the amount of water you need to form the dough.

Too much water makes pie crusts tough, ESPECIALLY gluten-free crusts. An extra tablespoon or two can make your crust rock hard. Try to use the least amount of water listed.

Q: Are apple pies vegan? A: Most apple pies contain butter, milk and sometimes eggs, so are therefore not vegan.

To put it simply, it's a Yankee thing. Reportedly a practice dating back to the 17th century, the tradition eventually spread to what we now consider New England (apple country) and the Upper Midwest (dairy country) when our ancestors began to populate the territory of the United States.

Any good pie crust recipe is about controlling that gluten development. “The fat coats the proteins and prevents gluten formation,” Sharma says of Parks's technique of using a higher ratio of butter and squashing it into large pieces (instead of pea-size ones).

Vinegar, buttermilk, lemon juice, and vodka all change the interaction of the liquid and gluten in the dough. But the difference between a dough with acid in it and one without (when made with the same technique) is infinitesimal. In other words, no ingredient can cure poor execution.

Gluten-free flours often contain fine starches, so they absorb more liquid than conventional flour. To address this, gluten-free recipes usually call for more liquid and produce looser batters. They may also call for a larger quantity of leavening, like baking powder, to help add volume and lighten the texture.

A: First, don't just reach for more flour—too much extra flour will make the crust tough, and won't treat the real problem, which is that your butter is too soft. I recently read in Weller's cookbook A Good Bake that it should take no more than one to two minutes to roll out a pie crust.

A layer of mashed vegetables works well, like in a shepherd's pie. Try kumara instead of mashed potato, or add carrots like in this golden shepherd's pie. Bread makes a good alternative to pastry when using a pie maker or muffin tins. You can also make pie crusts out of rice, or tortillas.

The beeswax commonly used on harvested fruits contains shellac (or E904), which is a glazing agent made from the secretion of female lac bugs. Therefore, vegan customers are not able to buy oranges.

What apples to avoid in apple pie? ›

There are a few apples that don't make the cut. While great for snacking, Gala, Fuji and Red Delicious are the most common apples that won't hold up in the oven and will give you a watery-mushy pie, tart or cake.

Beer and Wine

Isinglass, a gelatin-based substance derived from fish, is used as a clarifying agent in some beer and wine. Other non-vegan ingredients sometimes used are casein (from milk) and egg whites.

While gluten-free pastry is more delicate to handle, the most frequent reason for cracking is that there is insuffi cient moisture in the pastry. When making shortcrust pastry you mix the fat into the flour until it has the appearance of breadcrumbs, then add the liquid to bring together the dough.

You'll know if your pie dough is too dry if it cracks, crumbles, and doesn't come together easily when rolled into two ball shapes. The culprit here is likely too much flour (see our note above about weighing the flour), but it can be easily corrected.

Gluten-free pastry is much more fragile than regular pastry, so it is likely to tear and crumble as you transfer it to the tart shell. Just patch it up and push the pastry into the mould of the tin, making sure there is an even thickness and there are no cracks.

Again, this is usually a result of fat being worked in too much, which can easily happen if the ingredients weren't cold enough. (Refrigerate those dry ingredients before you start!) If it's too late and the pie dough is crumbling as you roll it out, try adding more water AND more flour.