Gluten Free Pie Crust Recipe

This gluten free pie crust is a flaky, buttery single crust made with 1¼ cups gluten free all-purpose flour blend, ½ cup cold butter, a little salt and sugar, and 3 to 5 tablespoons of ice water. It makes one 9 inch pie shell. Plan on about 1 hour 40 minutes, most of it chilling in the fridge while you get on with the filling.

Three things make it work. The flour blend has to contain xanthan gum. The butter goes in cold. And you roll the dough on parchment, so it never has to stretch, which is exactly what gluten free dough refuses to do.

Which Gluten Free Flour Works for Pie Crust

Use a measure for measure style gluten free all-purpose blend. Read the label first. You are looking for xanthan gum near the end of the ingredient list. It does the job gluten would normally do, holding the dough together so it rolls into a sheet instead of crumbling. Bob’s Red Mill 1 to 1 Baking Flour and King Arthur Measure for Measure both contain it. The Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free All Purpose Baking Flour in the blue bag does not.

If your blend has no xanthan gum, whisk about ½ teaspoon into the 1¼ cups of flour. Almond flour or coconut flour on its own will not work for this recipe. Neither will bind. Coconut flour also drinks up far more water than the recipe calls for, and the dough turns to dry crumbs.

Cold Butter Is Where the Flakes Come From

Whisk the flour, ½ teaspoon salt and the sugar together first so the salt is spread evenly. Leave the 1 tablespoon of sugar out for a quiche or a savory pie. Nothing else changes.

Cube the stick of butter small, straight from the fridge, and cut it in with a pastry cutter or your fingertips until the mix looks like coarse crumbs with pea sized pieces of butter still showing. Those pieces melt in the oven and leave little steam pockets, which is what makes the crust flaky. Soft butter is a different story. It blends right into the flour, and the crust bakes up dense and greasy. If the butter starts to feel soft and shiny under your fingers, put the bowl in the fridge for 10 minutes.

Bringing the Dough Together With Ice Water

Drizzle in the ice water 1 tablespoon at a time, tossing with a fork after each spoonful. Most batches need 3 to 5 tablespoons. Go slowly. Stop when a handful squeezed in your fist holds together without crumbling but does not feel wet or sticky. Too dry? It cracks when you roll it. Too wet, and it sticks to the parchment, so dust in a little more flour blend.

Flatten the dough into a disc, wrap it tightly and chill for at least 30 minutes, or up to 2 days. Do not skip it. Gluten free flours, rice flour especially, absorb water slowly. A dough that sat for half an hour is smoother, cracks less at the edges and bakes up without that sandy texture.

Gluten Free vs Regular Pie Dough: What Changes

Regular pie crust gets tough when you overwork it, because kneading builds gluten. That cannot happen here, so you can press and patch this dough as much as you need. The catch? It does not stretch. Pull it and it tears, and it softens fast as it warms up in your hands and on the counter. So the rules flip: handle it as much as you like, but keep it cold and roll it on parchment rather than lifting it with your hands. It also browns more slowly. Watch the bottom, not the clock.

Rolling It Out on Parchment and Into the Pan

Dust a sheet of parchment with the same flour blend, set the disc on it and roll from the center out into a 12 inch circle, turning the parchment a little every few strokes. Cracks at the edge are normal. Pinch them closed and keep going.

Slide your hand under the parchment, flip the dough into a 9 inch pie pan and peel the paper away. Ease the dough down into the corners instead of stretching it over them, patch any tears with scraps, and crimp the edge with your fingers or a fork.

Blind Baking a Gluten Free Pie Shell

For a pre-baked shell, chill the crust in the pan for 15 minutes first. That keeps the butter firm so the sides do not slump. Heat the oven to 375°F (190°C) while it chills. Line the crust with parchment, fill it with pie weights or dry beans and bake for 15 minutes. Lift out the weights and paper, then bake another 10 to 12 minutes until the edges are golden and the bottom looks dry and matte, with no shiny raw patches.

For pies that bake with the filling in, such as pumpkin or a fruit pie, skip the blind bake and follow that pie’s own oven time and temperature.

Cracked Edges, Slumped Sides and Other Crust Fixes

• Dough cracks all over as you start rolling: it is too cold from the fridge. Let the disc sit on the counter 5 to 10 minutes and try again.
• Dough crumbles even when warm: it is too dry, or the flour has no xanthan gum. Work in water a teaspoon at a time.
• Crust tastes gritty or sandy: the dough did not rest long enough for the flour to hydrate. Give it the full 30 minutes, or longer.
• Sides slid down during blind baking: the shell went in warm. Chill it 15 minutes in the pan and fill the weights right up to the rim.
• Crust is greasy and dense: the butter was soft when it went in. Keep everything cold and stop cutting while you can still see pea sized pieces.

Making the Dough Ahead and Freezing It

The wrapped disc keeps in the fridge for up to 2 days. For longer, freeze it well wrapped for up to 3 months and thaw it overnight in the fridge before rolling. For a double crust pie or two single crust pies, double every ingredient and divide the dough into two discs before chilling.

Pies to Bake in This Gluten Free Shell

The shell works for sweet and savory pies. Bake it filled with a pumpkin pie or sweet potato pie for Thanksgiving. Blind bake it for a coconut cream pie or a lemon pie, or use it under a cherry pie in summer. For a dairy free version, use cold, firm vegan butter sticks in place of the butter and pair it with a dairy free filling like this vegan pumpkin pie.

One check before you fill it: the filling has to be gluten free as well. Many fruit pies are thickened with wheat flour, so swap it for cornstarch or tapioca.