I mentioned last week on my Facebook page, that I was craving granny’s old fashioned apple pie: the good old simple pie crust with lots of grated apples and cinnamon.
I thought if I try to create my first pie crust recipe it would be great to make a simple, basic pie crust that is easy and quick to prepare and could be the basis of lots of future pies, quiches and so on. Of course, my basic pie crust should also be gluten-free, as whole grain as possible and it wouldn’t hurt to make it vegan (egg- and dairy-free) for my friends…
I thought if I try to create my first pie crust recipe it would be great to make a simple, basic pie crust that is easy and quick to prepare and could be the basis of lots of future pies, quiches and so on. Of course, my basic pie crust should also be gluten-free, as whole grain as possible and it wouldn’t hurt to make it vegan (egg- and dairy-free) for my friends…
Following some web search it seemed that this time my task is a simple one: I found a recipe that fit my wishes in the gastro section of The New York Times. I thought, this has to work… The recipe called for whole grain flours and yes, some straches, too, that are necessary to replace the eggs.
I baked it in the afternoon, and sure: the dough was very easy to work with. Taste and texture was not so much up our alley: too much millet, too crispy crust. I thought that I could turn this into the perfect pie crust with one slight change. However, this turned out to be a more complex problem: we’ve been eating apple pies with our friends for the past week straight. 🙂
Finally, my persistence lead to results – my diet- and allergy-friendly pie crust that everybody loves: not too much millet or buckwheat, not too crispy when fresh and it turns nicely soft in a couple of hours after baking. Moreover, this crust is made in a food processor in seconds, can be kept in the fridge for 1-2 days and is also freezable! Its texture is very much like clay, and it doesn’t stick to your hands: pressing this pie dough into a baking pan could be a fun task for kids, I enjoyed it really much… 🙂
I baked it in the afternoon, and sure: the dough was very easy to work with. Taste and texture was not so much up our alley: too much millet, too crispy crust. I thought that I could turn this into the perfect pie crust with one slight change. However, this turned out to be a more complex problem: we’ve been eating apple pies with our friends for the past week straight. 🙂
Finally, my persistence lead to results – my diet- and allergy-friendly pie crust that everybody loves: not too much millet or buckwheat, not too crispy when fresh and it turns nicely soft in a couple of hours after baking. Moreover, this crust is made in a food processor in seconds, can be kept in the fridge for 1-2 days and is also freezable! Its texture is very much like clay, and it doesn’t stick to your hands: pressing this pie dough into a baking pan could be a fun task for kids, I enjoyed it really much… 🙂
Photos were taken of a smaller pie made from half the dough described in this recipe: I try to keep my flour consumption low while experimenting. 🙂 The “not so perfect” pie crusts were all eaten, of course: we had them as a snack with some home-made marmelade.
Ingredients for a 26 cm/ 10 inch baking form (crust bottom and top):
100g millet (flour)
100g millet (flour)
35g buckwheat (flour)
35g cornmeal
50g brown rice flour
60g corn starch
40g tapioca/manioc starch
1/2 teaspoon of salt
50g olive oil
approx. 150g water
1 teaspoon of apple cider vinegar
800-1000g apples
2 tablespoons of xylitol or other sweetener to taste
2 teaspoons of ground cinnamon
I make millet- and buckwheat flours by grinding whole, hulled millet and buckwheat with a small coffee/spice mill. To make the pie crust really quickly, you’ll need a food processor.
- Measure the solid ingredients into a food processor: flours, starches, salt. Mix by pulsing a couple of times.
- Mix the liquid ingredients in a cup: water, olive oil, apple cider vinegar. Add liquids to solids in 2-3 steps and work through with the food processor. This should result a dense, clay-like dough that does not stick to your hands: if too wet, add some more cornmeal or -starch.
- Make two dough balls, cover them in foil and set aside to rest for an hour.
- Wash and coarsly grate the apples. I do not peel them as I like more fiber and some red color in my pie filling. Adding xylitol and cinnamon can wait until the crust base comes out of the oven, as otherwise xylitol would suck out the moisture of the apples.
- Preheat the oven to 180 C / 360 F. Press half of the dough with the palm of your hand to cover the bottom and sides of the pan. Bake for 10 minutes.
- Meanwhile, mix sweetener, cinnamon and apples: tastecheck, as some apples are sweet enough on their own.
- Roll out the other half of the dough (or you could also make a grille pattern). I turned the rolled out dough onto a piece of household foil as it’s much easier to transfer it this way compared to rolling it up: gluten free dough breaks easily.
- Fill pie crust with grated apples, cover with dough and bake for 15-20 minutes. Enjoy!
Slightly crunchy when fresh, this pie turns nicely soft in a couple of hours or until the next morning: I used some powdered xylitol for decoration.
As this is my basic pie crust recipe, I thought I’d specifiy the carbohydrate content of the dough, as well. So the portion described in this recipe contains approx. 250g carbs, which means 125g CH/pie bottom or top. This info might come handy when baking other pies. With the apples this pie had approx. 350g carbs altogether, which makes 30g CH/serving if cut to 12 slices.
I know, the carb content is slightly much for my recipe, but I wanted to make this crust available to as many people as possible: this way it’s also nutfree, and I might still return to lowering the carb content. Until then, you can use this crust only on the bottom and bake your apples in nice-looking slices if you wish for a low-carb dessert.
As this is my basic pie crust recipe, I thought I’d specifiy the carbohydrate content of the dough, as well. So the portion described in this recipe contains approx. 250g carbs, which means 125g CH/pie bottom or top. This info might come handy when baking other pies. With the apples this pie had approx. 350g carbs altogether, which makes 30g CH/serving if cut to 12 slices.
I know, the carb content is slightly much for my recipe, but I wanted to make this crust available to as many people as possible: this way it’s also nutfree, and I might still return to lowering the carb content. Until then, you can use this crust only on the bottom and bake your apples in nice-looking slices if you wish for a low-carb dessert.
I hope you try and enjoy this recipe! 🙂
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