Gluten Free Apple Pie
A gluten free apple pie with a buttery shortcrust gluten free pastry and a sweet and tangy apple filling, spiced delicately with cinnamon. This recipe serves six. Can easily be adjusted for other fruit that is not too juicy, such as pears and cling peaches.
Not gluten intolerant? Easily adaptable for normal pastry –even store bought! Now there’s a thought!
The pastry is a challenge to work with but worth it! – cooking time does not include chilling time.
Ingredients
For the pastry:
170g plain gluten free flour (I always use FREEE by Doves Farm plain gluten free flour)
1 tsp xanthan gum
1 medium egg
1 tsp water
110 g unsalted butter, (cubed)
Pinch salt
1 tbsp caster sugar (for sweet pastry)
For the filling:
700g apples – weight before peeling and coring (around 6 medium apples or 5 pears if using pears)
2tbsp golden syrup or honey for the pear pie
50g dark brown sugar
80g caster sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tbsp cornflour
The pear version
For finishing – optional if you get more creative as we did (see notes after 11 below).
- 1 small egg (beaten)
- 1-2 tsp caster sugar
Delicious
Method and Notes
The trick with the pastry is not to let the butter get too warm – if you find it getting too soft just refrigerate for 15min and carry on from there.
- First make the pastry. Add the flour, xanthan gum, salt and sugar to a large mixing bowl and stir together.
- Cut the cold butter into cubes and then add to the bowl. Using your fingers, rub the mix together until it resembles breadcrumbs.
- Crack the egg into a bowl or mug and add the cold water. Whisk together until just combined. Then add to the mix and use a fork to start to ‘mush’ the mixture together. You’ll see it starts to form a sticky dough – this takes some time and effort. Resist the urge to add any liquid.
- Once it becomes harder to use the fork to mix, use your hands to bring the mixture together into a smooth dough. You should be able to pick this up easily without it being too sticky. It is very crumbly and has to be pressed to form a ball.
- Wrap the dough in clingfilm and chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes. This is an important stage – you need the dough to chill a bit, so it is easier to roll. When you’re almost ready to roll the dough, make the filling.
- Peel and core the apples. Slice them into 5mm-thick discs and place in a large bowl. Add the dark brown sugar, caster sugar, cinnamon and cornflour and stir well. Set to one side while you roll the pastry.
- Pre-heat the oven to 180’C / Fan 160’C / Gas Mark 4. Split the dough in half. Roll half of the chilled dough between floured clingfilm to 4mm thickness. Using the rolling pin, lay the rolled-out pastry over the pie dish and gently press it in. Trim the edges and prick the bottom a couple of times with a fork.
- Stir the apple mixture and then turn out into the pastry so it is filled evenly and comes up to the top of the dish, if not a little higher. Brush the edges of the pie with a little of the beaten egg.
- Take the second bit of pastry and roll it out to 4mm thick. Place it over the top of the pie and use your fingers to press the edges together. Trim any excess pastry then use a fork to press down the edges to look pretty.
- Cut a small cross in the centre of the pie and then brush the pie top with the beaten egg. Sprinkle with caster sugar and bake in the centre of the oven for 35-40 minutes, until golden on top and the apples inside are tender. Keep an eye on the pie during cooking – if you find the pastry starts to catch around the edges, cover them with some foil.
- Remove the pie from the oven and leave to cool for around 10-15 minutes before serving.
- Once cooked we added some blueberries on top with caster sugar and bruleed the sugar.
- With the pear pie we drizzled melted dark chocolate over and served it with a chocolate sauce made with dark chocolate and cream – with some Cointreau just for fun.
This pie can be kept in the fridge and reheated in the oven, but you might find the pastry goes a little softer – heat it at 200C for 10min to keep the texture. But it is best eaten fresh from the oven. Can also be enjoyed cold.