Sunday, 29 January 2012

Adventures with Gluten-Free Pie Crust Making


Gluten-free Hong Kong Style Egg Tart

My new tub of margarine!
I have officially eaten too much pie crust. 3 days in a row of pie crust making and eating. Definitely running low on margarine. Yes, I made these with margarine. I'm much too lazy to buy butter. Oops. This week was quite the adventure as I fuss with this gluten-free thing. Well, it really wouldn't be a fuss if we didn't decide to make pot pies. No, not the kind with the stuff that makes you go all, you know. The kind that's warm and comforting. And that's supposed to melt in your mouth. Well, it didn't. At least not the crust. The knife wouldn't even get through it! This was on Monday. So I decided that I had to figure out this whole yucky pie crust thing.


Apparently, the trick with gluten-free pie crusts is less water. Water makes it hard. Find ways to reduce it.
Vege pot pie fail
Wednesday- 4 in 1 pie crust
Tuesday fail
Here is the summary of all the things I tried:

Monday: 1 1/2 cup GF flour mix, 1/3 cup butter, too much water    --> yuck!
Tuesday: 1 1/2 cup GF flour mix, 1/2 cup butter, too much water    --> yuck!
Tuesday: 1 1/2 cup GF flour mix, 1/2 cup butter, too much almond milk    --> yuck!
Wednesday: 1 1/2 cup GF flour mix, 1/3 cup butter, less water    --> yuck!
Wednesday: 1 1/2 cup GF flour mix, 1 tbsp psyllium husk, 1/3 cup butter, less water   --> yuck!
Wednesday: 1cup Gf flour mix, 1/2 cup almond flour, 1/3 cup butter, 3 tbsp water     --> not too shabby! But a bit tough to roll.
Wednesday: 1 cup Gf flour mix, 1/2 cup almond flour, 1 tbsp psyllium husk, 1/3 cup butter, 2-3 tbsp water    --> WE GOT A WINNER!!!

The reason for adding the psyllium husk is to make the dough more rollable. Something about it's hydrophilic (love for water) characteristic that allows it to hold the crust together. It is still a bit finicky to work with, just make sure you don't add all the water at once, then you will be just fine.

I know you can't read it, but it's my scribble of recipes.
So, here is the successful recipe, which I then tried a full recipe with the making of Hong Kong style egg tarts. SOOOO GOOD!


GLUTEN-FREE PIE CRUST

1 cup GF flour mix
1/2 cup almond flour
1 tbsp psyllium husk
dash of salt
1/3 cup butter
2-3 tbsp water

1. Mix together all the dry ingredients.
2. Cut in the butter until nice and crumbly.
3. Add water in 1 tbsp at a time. Be careful, don't add too much water!
4. Refrigerate for an hour or so.
5. Flour your working surface and roll away!

Bake this with any of your favorite recipes, or on its own at 400F for 12-15 min.


HONG KONG STYLE EGG TART (蛋撻)


Lopsided, but so tasty!


These may be, again, another one of my childhood favs. No one can resist a good egg tart. Never thought about making it myself until this week's over-pie-crusting. Figured I might as well make something special out of it right? These are supposed to have a smooth, creamy inside. I used to scoop out the insides with a spoon then eat the tart. My grandma does that too. It's one of those hereditary things, runs in the genes!


Working time: 20-30 min depending on pie crust making experience
Total time: 35-45 min
Oven temp: 400F
Makes: 12 deliciousness


Egg filling


1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup hot water
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1/3 cup evaporated milk (I just used almond milk)


1. Combine water and sugar. Stir until sugar completely dissolved. Set aside.
2. Beat eggs until no lumps or bumps visible--> nice and smooth, but don't make it bubble up!
3. Add vanilla, evaporated milk and sugar water mix to the eggs.


Pie crust


Use any pie crust recipe you like, just do a 1:3 confectioner's sugar to flour ratio.
Ex. for 1 1/2 cup flour, add 1/2 cup confectioner's sugar.


Putting it together!


1. Fill a muffin pan with the pie crust, just like pie thickness (0.5cm thick) and 2.5cm tall.
2. Pour in the egg filling into the pie crusts until 3/4 up
3. Bake at 400F for 12-15 min.


*I used the mini pie maker my sister's boyfriend and his mom got me for Christmas. Making it easy as 1-2-3!
And it even had a smiley face:)

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