A Long Road to Cherry Pie, Part II

As it turned out, I didn't make apple pies for Easter, since I was out of apples.  Great job planning, Mare!  

But I did make the cherry pies, and they were wonderful.  Not as good as with cherries frozen fresh off the tree, but still awfully tasty.  

Even following the detailed directions given in the following recipe, the crust still did not transfer well to the pie plate.  I think I may have forgotten the xanthan gum, however.  In the future, I will continue as I have in the past, and roll it on parchment or plastic wrap and use that to transfer it.  Or I will pat the bottom crust into the pie plate and only have to roll the top crust.  Without the gluten, one doesn't have the problem of the overworking the crust and making it tough. 

I did, however, like the idea of using cookie cut outs instead of attempting to transfer an entire top crust.  That pretty much eliminates the trouble of having the top crust fall apart and look messy.  If a bottom crust needs patching up, nobody sees it, but not so a top crust.  


As I stated in the first part of the Cherry Pie Saga, The recipes are from the Art of Gluten Free Baking.  The cherry pie recipe is here and the more detailed crust details are here.

Gluten Free Cherry Pie

For Filling

2 cans tart cherries, drained

3/4 c granulated sugar

1/4 tsp salt

2 tbs GF flour blend

Place the pitted cherries in a large bowl. Add sugar and salt and mix to combine. Add the flour and mix just to combine. Set aside at room temperature while you make your crust.

For Crust
2 1/3 c GF flour blend (if your mix does not contain xanthan gum, add 1/4 tsp /cup of flour
1 tbs granulated sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 c unsalted butter or lard, cold and cut into pieces
1 tbs vinegar (I use apple cider vinegar)
5-7 tbs cold water
extra tapioca flour for rolling out dough

Place flour, sugar, and salt into a large bowl. Mix together with a spoon until combined.  Add butter pieces to the dry ingredients mixture. With fingers, start rubbing together the butter and the dry ingredients. Do this until the resulting mixture looks like wet sand mixed with pebbles.

Add the vinegar and rub into the mixture.  Add water a tablespoon at a time, rubbing into the mixture. You want to add enough to create a dough that holds together well, but isn’t wet.  

Divide the dough into two fairly equal pieces, shape into disks, and wrap each disk separately in plastic wrap.  Refrigerate the disks for 20-30 minutes (or until the disks are cool and firm but not hard).

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees.

Generously sprinkle work surface with tapioca flour.  Slowly roll disk to a  12“ circle.  If the dough sticks to the rolling pin, add more tapioca flour.

NOTE (from the original blog): the dough should be cool but not too cold. It should roll fairly easily and should not break while you’re rolling it.  Don’t worry if it breaks a bit–just smooth the dough over the break point.  If it seems too cold and you’re really having to work hard to roll it, step back and let it warm up a little bit before you continue. Alternately, if the dough is floppy and seems to be “sweating,” it is too warm and should be refrigerated for awhile longer.

Prepare to move your dough by sprinkling tapioca flour over the entire surface of the pie crust dough.  Put the rolling pin on top of one side of the dough. Wrap the other side around the rolling pin until you’ve gotten all of the dough onto the pin.  Work slowly and carefully, but, if a little bit breaks, you will be able to easily fix it by pressing the dough together once the crust is settled in the pie plate.

Lift the pin with the dough rolled around it and hold it so as you unwrap the crust it will be centered.  Gently unwrap the dough into the pie pan so the pan.  And again, working gently, press your dough into the bottom of the pie plate. Work slowly, starting in the middle and then work to the edges.


Pour filling into dough-lined pan and place the filled pie pan into the refrigerator while you’re working on your top dough. 

Here's the recipe I had hoped to use for the apple pies and still may sometime.  The original is here.

Apple Pie filling

6 large, firm but ripe apples of your choice, cored and thinly sliced
1/2 c sweetener of choice (I use evaporated cane juice crystals)
3 tbs GF flour blend
1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp grated or finely slivered lemon peel
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg

1/8 tsp salt
2 tbs unsalted butter, cold and cut into small pieces

Place all ingredients except butter in a large bowl. Mix thoroughly, so that all apples are coated with other ingredients.  Dot with butter