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:)

Broccoli Quiches and Too Much Cheeses

First full week of school. Done. Over-cheese in one night. Also done. Well, can one ever have too much cheese? I suppose so, but cheese is one of those amazing animal by-products that has too many varieties, too many flavours, and just overall too good to not have. I could never be vegan. And thank goodness I have selective lactose intolerance.

Back to the point that it was the first full week of school. I have changed my schedule around twice. Love my classes now (well, to as much of a degree as I can love biochemistry). Did you know that you can still get into a class of 90 people when you start at 29th on the waitlist on the first day of classes? I had doubts about that one but now I am in adult psychological disorders and looks like it'll be a good one:) Good prof, super interesting subject, super excited. Except for the $111 dollar USED textbook. $149 for new. That's a bit of an ouchie. Even on Amazon, it's still $104, AT LEAST, for a used copy. Man, if I was an heiress to a publishing company... I CAN RULE THE WORLD!!!! Maybe not, but I can do a lot of things. Like drive across Canada and not sleep in the back of my shaggin' wagon. Or backpack around Europe for months on end. If only right?

Okay, time to come back down to Earth. Last night, my friend Kelsey and I made a delish broccoli quiche. She pointed out that she actually made this decision without the usual "well", "I dunno", "whatever is good", "I'm easy", and so on. I was boggled as to what to make this weekend because I don't really want to do another chocolate post. I love chocolate, don't get me wrong, but having chocolate baking 3 weeks in a row, and then posting it, seems a little much. And because my mom has been with me for the last week, I basically have 3 weeks worth of food in the freezer, which means no making stew of some sort. So I asked Kels, and broccoli quiche it became!

Oh, I forgot to elaborate the over cheese thing. We went to a wine and cheese party after. So many good cheeses and appies there. We were cheesed up, and wined up. It was a good party. Good drinks, good food, good people, good night.

To the recipe we go! The quiche was pretty simple. Just broccoli, onion, potato and your usual quiche suspects. We did learn that, although a pie plate may not be necessary, it certainly can be very handy. We also learned that timing is very important. We started at 5:30 and it wasn't edible until almost 7:30, making 3 very hungry and very impatient gals. But don't worry, it really should not take that long, the only reason it did was because we added too much liquid to the egg mixture.

Overall, this was really fantastic. The Asiago cheese gave a nice zing to the flavour. It was light, it was fresh, it was, in general, a success.

BROCCOLI QUICHE RECIPE!


Total time: 1.5 hours
Total working time: 45 min
Oven temp: 375F

LOVE for butter crust!

CRUST


1 1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup cold butter
1/2 cup cold water
1/2 tsp salt


1. Mix together salt and water--> keep cold!

2. Cut butter into flour until crummy- slightly bigger crumbs like the crumbs at the bottom of a bag of crackers
3. Slowly mix water into flour mixture, 1 tbsp at a time. The 1/2 cup will likely be not enough to form a dough. You want the dough to just come together. So keep adding about 1 tbsp at a time until you get to that point.
4. Refrigerate for 2 hours. (We didn't do this because we just didn't bother. Not necessary, but a good idea because it makes sure your crust doesn't shrink when pre-baked.)
5. Sprinkle some flour on your kitchen counter. Shape your dough into a ball and roll away! The rolled dough should be about a little less than 1/4 inch. Place the rolled dough onto the pie plate or whatever you choose to use. Just make sure if you are using a cake pan like me, make the sides go up high enough and secure enough so it doesn't fall. Mine fell half way through the baking=S
6. Put some dried beans or pie weight on the bake for 25 min. Let cool a bit before pouring the egg mixture in.

Rolling with a bottle of wine:)

C'mon crust, get up there!

Post-baking bean removal.

FILLING

6 eggs
1/4 cup asiago shredded
1 1/4 cup sharp cheddar
1 cup milk (or any type of milk alternative--> I used almond milk)
1/2 of a small onion
1/2-3/4 cup shredded potato
1 1/2 cup broccoli crown cut into 3/4 inch pieces
salt and pepper
1/2 tsp cayenne (or however much you like)
1 tsp basil flakes if you have/like

1. Saute the onion slightly then add in the potato. Salt and pepper meanwhile and cook until just softened.
2. Beat the eggs, beat in the milk, mix in the seasonings.
3. To the egg mixture: mix in the cooked onion and potato, mix in 1 cup cheddar and a hint of asiago.

ASSEMBLE

1. Pour the egg mixture into the cooled pie crust.
2. Dabble the broccoli on top like so:

3. Sprinkle the cheese on top and voila! It's time to bake!
4. Bake at 375F for 45 min.

LET IT COOL A SMIDGEN BEFORE CUTTING IT!

We have to wait?

I want it so bad!

Now? 

Afterwards, you get lovely wedges that are quickly gone. We added too much liquid so it was cooked through but still liquidy, don't worry, I have cut down on the liquid in this recipe.

Still waiting....

Enjoy the cheesiness of broccoli quiche goodness=)