Dairy Free Pie Crust?

[sdrival]

I'm baking a pumpkin pie for Christmas and I'm making the crust myself. I found a gluten free recipe that uses white rice flour instead of wheat flour, but I also want to make it dairy free so I want to substitute the butter in the recipe as well. The best substitute seems to be Earth Balance or a soy butter, but the store I shop at has a limmited selction of butters and margerine and the ones I've looked at still have buttermilk in them so I'm thinking I'll have to go another route.

I guess the next best thing seems to be vegetable shortening, but my recipes also calls for a fair amount of vegetable shortening so if I replace the butter with shortening I'd basically just be doubling the amount of vegetable shortening that the recipes calls for which doesn't make any sense to me.

So now I'm thinking I should use vegetable oil, but I'm also finding websites that say coconut oil is a better butter substitute for baking than plain vegetable oil. So my question... what do I use to substitute the butter without messing up my pie crust? I'm not an expert baker and I've never made a pie crust before so any help wpuld be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

[Takala]

If I were you, I would make a few test pie crusts before the holiday so you can see if they work or not. I would also, if this is your first time baking any sort of pie crust, follow a set recipe.

The other thing you can do is just bake the pumpkin filling as a pudding, top it with pecans, and skip the crust. That is what we do here because we use coconut milk and the filling is already so rich, it would be superfluous to add calories in the form of crust to it.

As for the butter substitutes, you can use vegetable oil, fruit oil such as grapeseed, coconut oil, or even lard if you want to avoid dairy.

When searching for gluten-free pie crusts that did not use butter, I searched for vegan recipes to make it an easier search.

Here is a gluten free Vegan recipe from nourishingmeals blog, that does not use egg, either, but it will give you an idea. I haven't tried this, but it claims to be flakey. I do know that sorghum flour is a nice thing to put in baked goods. this is a double crust recipe :

gluten-free Sorghum Vegan Pie Crust

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Same blog, single crust recipe with sorghum and ground pecans and coconut oil

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No Roll, Pat in Pan, Gluten Free Vegan Pie Crust from Gluten Free Easily

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The flour mix was rice, cornstarch, and almond meal. It's easy to grind almonds in a blender.

Here is another Gluten Free, Pat In the Pan, almond flour pie crust with grapeseed oil from Elana's Pantry (a variation on this is the one I would be most likely to use. I would add some cinnamon to it ) This recipe makes a single crust. You can substitute maple syrup or honey for the agave, or even a bit of brown sugar and water, if you don't have any. Almond flour does not need xanthan gum in this recipe. If you cannot find almond flour, you can grind your own in a blender, but they will be more mealy. However, you could then use a cup of almond meal and then a half cup of some other gluten-free flour, anything from sorghum to rice/cornstarch.

Bonus. Recipe for chocolate cream filling on same page, gluten-free and dairy free. whoo !

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This recipe is a version of Bette Hagman's "Donna Jo's Dream Pastry" it calls for butter but all shortening, or half shortening, half lard could be used (makes double crust) Bette Hagman's recipes always have a high probability of working. Get her cookbook to use as a reference, if you can.

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Gluten Free Girl's (Shauna's) Pie Crust (warning, has oat flour, some celiacs react, may want to substitute) uses butter, or butter substitute, and lard, makes 2 crusts. Shauna's recipes also tend to work, altho they are a bit more complex, because she is very precise with her measurements, I would bookmark her blog and read it regularly, just for all the amazing cooking tips

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[MelindaLee]

I would suggest the Vinegar Pasty from Betty Hagman:

Vinegar Pastry by Betty Hagman. This makes two crusts.

1 c white rice flour

3/4 c tapioca flour

3/4 c cornstarch

1 t xanthan gum

3/4 t salt

1 T sugar

Combine all of the above. Cut into it: 3/4 c shortening.

Blend together:

1 egg, lightly beaten

1T vinegar

Add this to the flour mixture.

Add ice water, 1 T at a time, and toss with a fork until it holds together when squeezed without being crumbly or sticky. Divide in 2 and wrap with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 min. At this point you can freeze it.

Roll out between pieces of rice-floured wax paper or plastic wrap, remove the top one and invert into the pie plate. Finish and bake as usual for your pie recipe. Bake all the scraps as well, spread them with jelly, and pretend they're poptarts.

I have had good luck thawing this after months of freezing, and gluten-eaters don't know there's anything different from regular crust.

I made this for pie at Thanksgiving...it was AWESOME!!

[Ginsou]

I would suggest the Vinegar Pasty from Betty Hagman:

Vinegar Pastry by Betty Hagman. This makes two crusts.

1 c white rice flour

3/4 c tapioca flour

3/4 c cornstarch

1 t xanthan gum

3/4 t salt

1 T sugar

Combine all of the above. Cut into it: 3/4 c shortening.

Blend together:

1 egg, lightly beaten

1T vinegar

Add this to the flour mixture.

Add ice water, 1 T at a time, and toss with a fork until it holds together when squeezed without being crumbly or sticky. Divide in 2 and wrap with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 min. At this point you can freeze it.

Roll out between pieces of rice-floured wax paper or plastic wrap, remove the top one and invert into the pie plate. Finish and bake as usual for your pie recipe. Bake all the scraps as well, spread them with jelly, and pretend they're poptarts.

I have had good luck thawing this after months of freezing, and gluten-eaters don't know there's anything different from regular crust.

I made this for pie at Thanksgiving...it was AWESOME!!

I agree with Melinda on this recipe...it is the one I use all the time.....a great starter recipe for those who have never made a gluten-free pie crust before.

[betsyw]

I agree with Melinda on this recipe...it is the one I use all the time.....a great starter recipe for those who have never made a gluten-free pie crust before.

I saw this on a TV show. The filling (which I am not including as it has cream), is not cooked, so I expect you could substitute any uncooked filling after this is made. I will try this soon, but the TV show cooks said it was very easy.

* 6 ounces ground almonds

* 1 egg white

* 2 ounces caster sugar (superfine)

Work the ground almonds, egg white, and sugar into a paste and knead into a ball. On a sugared surface, roll out to a round large enough to line an 8-inch nonstick flan tin, 1/4-inch thick and leave to dry for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Place the rested pastry in the tin and decorate the edges with the finger and thumb technique. Line with foil (but no baking beans) and bake blind for 20 to 25 minutes. Watch carefully to avoid scorching. Leave to cool.

[MelindaLee]

I saw this on a TV show. The filling (which I am not including as it has cream), is not cooked, so I expect you could substitute any uncooked filling after this is made. I will try this soon, but the TV show cooks said it was very easy.

* 6 ounces ground almonds

* 1 egg white

* 2 ounces caster sugar (superfine)

Work the ground almonds, egg white, and sugar into a paste and knead into a ball. On a sugared surface, roll out to a round large enough to line an 8-inch nonstick flan tin, 1/4-inch thick and leave to dry for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Place the rested pastry in the tin and decorate the edges with the finger and thumb technique. Line with foil (but no baking beans) and bake blind for 20 to 25 minutes. Watch carefully to avoid scorching. Leave to cool.

Sounds yummy! I will have to try that for cheesecake pie!

[wahmmy]

I've been wanting to try the vinegar recipe, will have to. I was going to also suggest using extra virgin coconut oil as a butter replacement. Might work.

[MelindaLee]

I would suggest the Vinegar Pasty from Betty Hagman:

Vinegar Pastry by Betty Hagman. This makes two crusts.

1 c white rice flour

3/4 c tapioca flour

3/4 c cornstarch

1 t xanthan gum

3/4 t salt

1 T sugar

Combine all of the above. Cut into it: 3/4 c shortening.

Blend together:

1 egg, lightly beaten

1T vinegar

Add this to the flour mixture.

Add ice water, 1 T at a time, and toss with a fork until it holds together when squeezed without being crumbly or sticky. Divide in 2 and wrap with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 min. At this point you can freeze it.

Roll out between pieces of rice-floured wax paper or plastic wrap, remove the top one and invert into the pie plate. Finish and bake as usual for your pie recipe. Bake all the scraps as well, spread them with jelly, and pretend they're poptarts.

I have had good luck thawing this after months of freezing, and gluten-eaters don't know there's anything different from regular crust.

I made this for pie at Thanksgiving...it was AWESOME!!

I have gotten lazy. I figured out I could throw everything in my Kitchen Aid and mix it. It doesn't get tough like gluten pasta does.