Pastry, Having Traumas!

[~Trish~]

We've recently changed to a gluten free diet on recommendation from our Dr and I am now attempting at making our own pastries ect that are gluten free.

I've been using the "Roberts" brand of gluten free flour when a recipe calls for it and so far have not had issues until it comes to a pasta/pastry recipe.

I've tried to make tortillas and last night short crust pastry for some turnovers but the pastry/dough turns out very very crumbly and not pliable at all.

I even used the orgran pastry mix last night and still no difference.

Is there something I'm doing wrong? Possibly something I can add to the recipe??

Thanks in advance for replies

[Becks85]

I haven't used Roberts before, but I'm guessing you need to add something to it. Have you tried adding xanthan gum or guar gum? Since gluten-free foods lack binding agents, you need to add something to hold doughs together. As a rule, guar gum is generally added to wet ingredients, and xanthan gum is added to dry ingredients (you can use a combination of both, too). From what I've read, you use 1/2 - 1 tsp. per 1 cup of gluten-free flour, but I think it depends on the recipe and you may have to do some testing (info from "Bake Deliciously" by Jean Duane). More specifically, many websites (here's one: Open Original Shared Link) state that Xanthan gum and guar gum should be used in the following way:

1 tsp in pizza or bread recipes

1/2 tsp in cake recipes

1/2 or less in cookie recipes

I've never used guar gum, but I've had success with xanthan gum. Hope this helps!

[purple]

We've recently changed to a gluten free diet on recommendation from our Dr and I am now attempting at making our own pastries ect that are gluten free.

I've been using the "Roberts" brand of gluten free flour when a recipe calls for it and so far have not had issues until it comes to a pasta/pastry recipe.

I've tried to make tortillas and last night short crust pastry for some turnovers but the pastry/dough turns out very very crumbly and not pliable at all.

I even used the orgran pastry mix last night and still no difference.

Is there something I'm doing wrong? Possibly something I can add to the recipe??

Thanks in advance for replies

My tortilla recipe has sour cream in it and pastry has eggs and cream cheese (only have made mini pot pies, but others have tried it as a pie).

[~Trish~]

Thank you both so much! I am now going to give the recipe a try adding either of the "gums" and seeing how they go. Thanks

[~Trish~]

It worked!! I added a teaspoon of xanthum gum to the pasta dough mix before mixing it all together and it made the pastry sooooo much better!!

Thank you sooo much