Pantry Basic Recipes 2 (or A Good Pie Crust)

Over the years I've gotten away from doing pie crusts.  I just hadn't had good luck with gluten free crusts which is amusing since gluten causes problems in crusts.  But since I was on the experiment spree I decided to try again.  I started with this base recipe and made a few changes.

http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/gluten-free-pie-crust-recipe

The changes are shown below.  I used my own flour mix and I've broken it down here so that you can make just enough for the recipe.  I really, really hate having leftovers of custom mixes that I may not use again so I'm not going to do it to you.

1 1/2 Tbsp tapioca flour

2 1/2 Tbsp potato starch

1/2 c. sorghum flour

1/2 c. garbanzo bean flour

1 tablespoon sugar

2 teaspoons Instant ClearJel (optional; not packed in a gluten-free facility)

1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum

1/2 teaspoon salt

5 Tbsp lard

1 Tbsp Spectrum butter flavor shortening

1 1/2 tsp Egg Replace mixed with 2 Tbsp water

2 teaspoons lemon juice or vinegar

I used lard rather than butter because of Munchkin's allergies.  And because my best pie crusts in the past occurred when using animal fats.  I only used the Spectrum in this recipe because I didn't have enough lard on hand.  (I ended up making a double batch.)

The crust came out good if not quite as flaky as I prefer.  I plan to try to fix that next time by rolling the crust, then folding it over and rolling again.  If I do this a few times it should have the effect I like.  And while Munchkin didn't like the pie I made with this, he did like the crust.  So I'll be using this one again with another pie this week.