What Did I Do Wrong

[Chrissyb]

I made two gluten-free dessets this year my first year both tasted ok but didn't turn out like they were suppose to.

1st mess Pamela's Fruit Betty w/ Crumb Topping,

1C Pam Baking and Pancake Mix

1/3 C brown or white sugar ( I use lite brown sugar)

1/3 C butter (I used earth balance)

1/4 tea cinnamon (opt.)

2 C fruit cut up

You mix the Pams mix with the sugar then mix in the butter until is ressamble coarse bread crumbs. Pour 3/4 in bottom of lightly greased pie plate and cover with fruit then top with remaining crumbs. Bake at 350 for 30 min.

Ok so I did all that and it came out looking great, I did this on Wednesday night. Put it in the oven on Thrusday to warm up some took in out and it still looked great, went to spoon some and ick it looked like peaches swmining around in unbaked cake mix. WHAT DID I DO WRONG. My son said it tasted great though.

2nd mess Easy Pie curst,

1/2 Stick butter (earth balance)

1 C Pamela's baking/Pancake mix

2-4 Tab sugar (lite brown sugar)

Melt butter in pie plate, mix in baking mix and sugar, press into plate, Refrigerate for 20-30 min. Fill and bake as usual .

Very easy right even a monkey can do it, well maybe I should be a monkey. After mixing in the pie plate I could not get it to press together well enough, it would not stick or go up the sides of the dish. After working with it the best I could I finally got it to cover the whole bottom and some of the sides and put it in the fridge.

I used the recipe from Living Without Mag for the Coconut Pumpkin pie and that part was great just a little to much for my pie dish so it went over the side, which didn't have crust any way. Now I don't know if this crust is meant for pies that have to cook a long time or not but my curst came out very brown. It didnt tast burnt, it still had that underlined shortbread taste but it was very brown. WHAT DID I DO WRONG AGAIN.

Luckly it was just my husband, son and myself so I wasnt trying to prove to anybody that gluten-free was just as good as full of gluten. I was just a little frustereded. I want to do some baking from Living Without for Christmas but not with these results so can somebody please help me. When cooking with Earth Balance to you have to make some adjustments. This will be the frist year I use a flour mix and I was going to use the one in Living Without for cookies

4 C superfine brown rice flour

1 1/3 potato startch

2/3 tapioca flour/startch

If it says flour/startch which should you use.

Sorry I know this has been long but just want to get this right. Thank you so much for all your help.

I am so struggling with now with being gluten-free/DF and learning how to cook that way and still cooking for my family too, my husband not so bad but my picking teenage son who tells me you it that mom ick.

Again, Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Chrissy

[lizard00]

gluten-free baking is certainly a challenge!!

I'm not a baker naturally... I CAN bake, it's just not something I was ever into. But for the pie crust, all the recipes I've seen require cold butter and ice water. And also at least an egg... which can easily be replaced. I couldn't tell you why the cold butter and ice water are necessary, but on all the cooking shows and in all the recipes, they say they are essential for good pastry.

As for the tapioca starch/flour, they are the same thing. You might see it in the store as tapioca flour or tapioca starch. But this is one time where they are the same thing and you don't have to go on a wild goose chase!

Sorry I couldn't help you more, but we do have a few bakers on here who hopefully will give you some better responses. At any rate, don't give up! Sometimes, we just have to laugh at our creations!

[MNBeth]

OK, my only guess on the fruit Betty is that it needed to bake longer. That's just a guess, but most similar recipes I have bake more like 45 min to an hour.

I happened to try the same pie crust recipe this week, and found, as you did, that it simply made too little to cover the pie pan. Fortunately I had made too much gingersnap cookie crust for my other pie, so I threw that in w/the Pamela's, and then had enough. Still wasn't crazy about it, though. I think I'll go back to more traditional pastry crusts. (Traditional pastry crusts being the type that use cold butter/shortening and ice water and sometimes egg. The one we're talking about is a crumb-type crust, more cookie-like than pastry.)

Anyway, Chrissy, I don't think you were the problem in either case. The Pamela's crust one might work out fine if you increased the amounts by about half. Or maybe even double it if you like a substantial crust. Presumably the recipe author is using smaller pie pans.

Hang in there; seems like there's little to do with all this but lots of trial and error!

[missy'smom]

The fruit crumble might have been fine the day you baked it and then soaked up the fruit juices as it sat and became soggy.

I agree with the advice from the others about the crust. You may find that the Earthbalance reacts differently than butter and you may want to use part or half or more Spectrum shortening in your pie crust for better results. I do that with my apple crisp topping too. It has no flavor so a bit of Earthbalance helps in things that you want a bit of that buttery flavor. Keep the Earthbalance as cold as you can while working with it in a pie crust or crisp topping. If you keep the Spectrum in the fridge after opening it, it gets a little too hard so you may want to bring up the temp. a bit before working with it. Earthbalance works very well in many recipes but is different from butter in the way it reacts in baking, especially in pie crusts. In general you'll find better results with the Earthbalance in things like muffins, quick breads and cookies that call for margarine rather than butter.

[ang1e0251]

I went back to traditional pie crusts after trying a couple of gluten-free recipes. I knew better, they had butter in them and other things that I know can be a problem. The problem with butter in cooking is it's low melting temperature. THat's why in cookies and pie crusts they can brown too quickly. When baking cookies always allow at least half shortening to half butter, as in chocolate chip. A traditional pie crust is always best with pure shortening. It doesn't require an egg. I made peach pie this week and used my old recipe from the back of the Crisco can but with gluten-free flour blend and everyone liked it. It calls for shortening, flour, salt and water. The tricks to pie crust are;

1) cut the shortening into the dry mix until it's the shape of peas, Do Not Overwork

2) the water must be very cold, I use ice water

3) fold the water into the mix, Do Not Overwork!! The shortening must stay in little lumps so "explodes" while baking. That's what creates a flakey crust that won't get soggy.

4) roll out but again don't overwork it, roll it once and be done. Never knead it. I love pie crust because it requires you to be lazy!

If you have a double crust pie, brush the top with milk or egg white then spinkle with sugar. If it is a fruit pie, dot the fruit mix with butter before adding top crust, makes the flavor pop in your mouth!

Hope this was helpful. It's a great pleasure to make a great pie. That smell filling your house is the best comfort in the world.

[purple]

I went back to traditional pie crusts after trying a couple of gluten-free recipes. I knew better, they had butter in them and other things that I know can be a problem. The problem with butter in cooking is it's low melting temperature. THat's why in cookies and pie crusts they can brown too quickly. When baking cookies always allow at least half shortening to half butter, as in chocolate chip. A traditional pie crust is always best with pure shortening. It doesn't require an egg. I made peach pie this week and used my old recipe from the back of the Crisco can but with gluten-free flour blend and everyone liked it. It calls for shortening, flour, salt and water. The tricks to pie crust are;

1) cut the shortening into the dry mix until it's the shape of peas, Do Not Overwork

2) the water must be very cold, I use ice water

3) fold the water into the mix, Do Not Overwork!! The shortening must stay in little lumps so "explodes" while baking. That's what creates a flakey crust that won't get soggy.

4) roll out but again don't overwork it, roll it once and be done. Never knead it. I love pie crust because it requires you to be lazy!

If you have a double crust pie, brush the top with milk or egg white then spinkle with sugar. If it is a fruit pie, dot the fruit mix with butter before adding top crust, makes the flavor pop in your mouth!

Hope this was helpful. It's a great pleasure to make a great pie. That smell filling your house is the best comfort in the world.

Sounds great! Which gluten-free flour do you use...mix??? xanthan gum??? Thanks for info!

[ang1e0251]

I will have to get back to you on Monday. My recipe for the flour mix is at home and the computer is at my shop. I can tell you it's a Bette Hagman blend.

[RiceGuy]

I haven't seen the ingredients list for Earth Balance in a while, but if it has any water in it, that would change things. Anyway, I've always used oil for pie crust, even before going gluten-free, and they always turn out good. If you want to use a solid fat though, try coconut oil.

For the crumble stuff, I find chopped walnuts work better than flour, and sometimes I like adding finely shredded coconut. You can toast the coconut first, if you like.

[ang1e0251]

Sorry it took me an extra day but I forgot the recipe yesterday. Here is the flour recipe;

6 cups white rice flour

2 cups potato starch

1 cup tapioca flour

Mix it and use in recipes one for one.

Yesterday I read another thread on pie crusts. They had this recipe and added 1 t. xanthum gum and one t. sugar. I haven't tried it that way but I would agree with the sugar. Sugar in the crust can add a bit of flavor but just a little. I like the combination of salty crust and sweet filling flavor.

You cannot fold this crust around your rolling pin to roll into the pie pan. It's not quite that flexible. Just roll it in waxed paper or saran and plop into pie pan.

Happy pie making and eating!