As American as...

Apple Pie!

I found this gluten free/vegan apple crumble pie (say that 3 times fast) recipe a short piece ago and have been dying to try it out. I haven't yet but couldn't resist the day appropriate posting. The recipe is as follows:

1 recipe vegan/g-free pie crust*
6 apples, peeled and cut into slices (tart apples are best but any will do)
2 tsp cinnamon
2 Tbsp sugar
1 vanilla bean (or 1 tsp vanilla)
2/3 c rice flour (or rice flour mix)
2/3 c chopped pecans (umm, yum!)
2/3 c brown sugar
a big pinch of salt
4 T Earth Balance, melted

Preheat oven to 350. Combine apple slices, 1 tsp cinnamon, 2 Tbsp sugar, and scrapings from vanilla bean (or 1 tsp vanilla) in a bowl, then set aside. Roll pie crust out and place in your pie plate. Combine rice flour, pecans, brown sugar, salt and remaining 1 tsp of cinnamon in a bowl. Pour over melted Earth Balance and stir until everything is fairly combined and clumpy. Spread apples over pie crust in pan, and sprinkle crumble topping over. Bake 30-40 minutes until crust edges are lightly browned, apples are softened, and topping is golden. Serve hot with ice cream, or cold for breakfast ;)

*Pie Crust*
1 c plus 2 Tbsp rice flour mix
1 tsp xanthan gum
a pinch of salt
1 T sugar
1 stick Earth Balance (1/2 c), sliced and frozen for about 20 mins
1/4 c cold seltzer water
2 tsp apple cider vinegar

In the bowl of your food processor, mix the flour, xanthan gum, and salt and sugar. Add the butter and pulse, until crumbly. Mix together the seltzer and vinegar, and pour in by tablespoons, until dough comes together. If you use all the liquid, and the dough feels too sticky, just dump it into a bowl, add about another tablespoon of flour mix, and work it into the dough until its smooth. Divide the dough in half, flatten on floured (with rice flour or sweet rice flour) pieces of wax paper into two disks, sprinkle with more flour, fold up and stick in the freezer while you prepare your fillings.

Enjoy your BBQ today and stay safe!

Love you, mean it

Emily



P.S. crust recipe from Hey, That Tastes Good. Pic and filling recipe from Wellsphere (which was a post based on a recipe from the Joy of Cooking.

My First Gluten Free Pie (of the season)

I always find the first pie of the season to be extremely difficult to do successfully. Too wet, too dry or just...not. The combination of flours (this video is ADORABLE, by the way) is extensive and seems to take a subtle feel and intuition. For some reason I have no desire to make pie outside November-February and I find that every time I take this hiatus I press the restart button and need to hone in on my pie making ability. 

Something to note about gluten free pie is that the dough doesn't look the same; Most gluten free baking, for that matter, looks nothing like typical wheat flour baking. Its one of those things that Gluten Free people realize early on: if you're expecting it to taste (or look) the same, you'll always be sorely disappointed, but if you think of it as a completely different entity with its own perks, tastes, and quality you'll enjoy every bite. (unless your pie crust was as dry as my first batch- woops!)

I used Gluten Free Girl's recipe this time and I'm looking forward to going through my rolodex of pie recipes to improve and maybe this year I'll write down what I did...

Here is the Gluten Free Girl recipe, 

and after I work on my own recipe i'll post that one. 

This was actually a sweet potato pie. I find pumpkin takes a lot of sugar to make it actually taste good, and sweet potato can go without much else but a tablespoon or two of agave.

 

love you, mean it.

Barton