The Sunday Recipe: Paleo Apple Pie Fail

November 7, 2021 at 6:00 am (Recipes)

I really wanted to work on making an apple pie that was gluten free and lower sugar so I went looking for a pie crust that uses almond, coconut, and/or tapioca flour. I found a crust that sounded good at https://www.foodrepublic.com/recipes/holy-grail-status-perfect-paleo-pie-crust-recipe/ and gave it a try. I don’t have a recipe for you this week because I honestly don’t deem it worth trying again. I really didn’t like it. It was edible, but that was the best I can say for it.

I followed the directions, using my food processor. I molded it into a disk and wrapped in plastic wrap then refrigerated it for exactly 20 minutes, per the recipe. I placed it between two sheets of parchment paper and tried to roll it out, but it immediately just started crumbling. I eventually gave up, dumped it into my pie plate and just pressed it in. I should have blind baked it to avoid a soggy bottom but I didn’t and I had one.

I also used palm shortening, which could have affected the recipe, but the creator allows for a variety of fat contents. The recipe itself says to weigh the ingredients and measure, but doesn’t give the weights, just the measurements. The problem with this is that I have had almond flour packages that said ¼ cup was 15 grams and others that said ¼ cup is 28 grams. Big difference. That could have had something to do with how the crust turned out for me.

The recipe also gives instructions on blind baking but doesn’t really apply the use of the crust to pies, which tend to bake at a higher temperature than the creator gives for blind baking. I did not blind bake, just filled with the standard Betty Crocker recipe for a deep dish apple pie, exchanging maple syrup for the sugar, and tapioca flour for the wheat flour.

It smelled heavenly. And the edges didn’t taste horrible, just not what I’m looking for. I’d rather make a tart using my standard almond flour crust, if I’m going to go in this direction anyway. I really want a gluten free pie crust I can roll out, make a two crust pie, and have it rival a regular pie. Maybe that’s asking too much of alternative flours. But I’ll try some other recipes before I give up.