Ever have one of those days when the phone won’t stop ringing, UPS and FedEx are both at the door, the dogs are barking at every.single.noise, the email inbox is overflowing, the to-do list is a mile long and it’s all just overwhelming?
Whew. Me, too. And you know what I do when that happens? I stop the whirling mess by baking pie.
To make this pie, you’ll need either one 8 or 9″ pie crust OR two 5″ pie crusts. I buy 5″ pie pans at Sur La Table. It’s my favorite size pie to share with the neighbors. The pans are just a couple of bucks each, so if it doesn’t get returned, no big deal. Of course, it increases the chances of me dropping by with pie again if the pan does get returned. 😉
I’m including my basic pie crust recipe and wanted to share a couple of pointers with you. You’ll only need half of this recipe to make one big crust or two little ones. So what to do with the other half of the recipe? Well, you could make more pies…OR you can freeze the pie crust. I freeze crust two ways: flattened into discs, wrapped in plastic wrap or rolled out and placed in a pie pan and frozen. Either way, you’ll be that much closer to homemade pie the next time the urge hits. I keep discs of frozen crust most often but during the holidays I spend a bit of time making crusts and rolling them out into pie pans then freezing. This makes baking a pie for a gift super quick and easy. It”s the convenience of a store bought crust but with better ingredients and flavor!
One last tidbit before the recipe: this pie could be easily made raw vegan/Living Foods by switching out the crust. The fillings are raw vegan and this is the crust I would use to make it raw.
Johnna's Basic Pie Crust, gluten-free, dairy-free, egg-free, vegan
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cups of Johnna’s Favorite Gluten-Free Flour Blend
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 3 T . granulated white sugar or coconut sugar , which will make your crust a darker color
- 1 t . guar gum
- 1/4 cup shortening (I use palm shortening OR coconut oil, not liquified)
- 1 1/2 sticks of Earth Balance Vegan Butter Substitute , cold and cut into small pieces
- 1/2 cup very cold water* (I believe this is the trick to a good pie crust, water and butter must be cold)
- *I start with ice water and measure out 1/2 cup after the water has been with ice for a few minutes.
Instructions
-
Mix flour, salt and sugar together.
-
Add shortening and break up with a pastry cutter.
-
Next add the butter substituteand mix with pastry cutter.
-
Begin adding the cold water, just a little at a time until you reach the texture of pie crust dough.
-
Divide dough into two equal balls and chill between two sheets of plastic wrap for 30 minutes.
-
Roll out 1 ball of dough for one regular size pie crust. Freeze other half of dough for use later.
Johnna's Basic Pie Crust, gluten-free, dairy-free, egg-free, vegan
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cups of Johnna’s Favorite Gluten-Free Flour Blend
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 3 T . granulated white sugar or coconut sugar , which will make your crust a darker color
- 1 t . guar gum
- 1/4 cup shortening (I use palm shortening OR coconut oil, not liquified)
- 1 1/2 sticks of Earth Balance Vegan Butter Substitute , cold and cut into small pieces
- 1/2 cup very cold water* (I believe this is the trick to a good pie crust, water and butter must be cold)
- *I start with ice water and measure out 1/2 cup after the water has been with ice for a few minutes.
Instructions
-
Mix flour, salt and sugar together.
-
Add shortening and break up with a pastry cutter.
-
Next add the butter substituteand mix with pastry cutter.
-
Begin adding the cold water, just a little at a time until you reach the texture of pie crust dough.
-
Divide dough into two equal balls and chill between two sheets of plastic wrap for 30 minutes.
-
Roll out 1 ball of dough for one regular size pie crust. Freeze other half of dough for use later.
[…] baked a pie crust today. The recipe for the crust is already available here. I’m filling it with my new no-bake pumpkin pie filling. It’s creamy and custard-y, […]