Whether you have celiac disease, wheat allergies or gluten intolerance, desserts present special challenges. Pies and cakes, in particular, generally rely on flour to give the dessert structure. Pie crusts traditionally use white flour, an ingredient processed from the wheat grain. Yet, the wheat-free baker has several options, including alternative flours and flourless crusts.
Flour Crust
Flours that may contain wheat include white, whole wheat, graham, bran, spelt, semolina, durum and triticale. When baking pie crusts, use flours not derived from wheat, such as those ground from corn, rice, sorghum, nuts, potatoes, oats or beans. Premixed gluten-free flours are also available. Colorado State University's Extension Service notes that adding tapioca to wheat-free crusts enhances crispness, while using more than one kind of flour makes the crust stronger.
Cookie Crust
The Celiac Sprue Association recommends using gluten-free wafer cookies to create a pie crust. Look for these pre-made goodies in specialty shops and online, or ask your ask your supermarket to stock them. Crush enough wafer cookies to make 4 cups of crumbs. Combine them with ½ cup melted margarine. Press the mixture into a pie pan and bake at 400 degrees F for 8 minutes. Gluten-free chocolate wafer cookie crusts work especially well for chilled desserts like chocolate mousse and "grasshopper" pies. Use lemon wafer crusts for lemon or fruit pies and vanilla wafer crusts for banana and custard pies.
Nut Crust
Nut crusts add protein and texture to a pie without the digestive issues that traditional crusts bring to people who cannot tolerate wheat. Use hazelnuts, almonds, walnuts, macadamia nuts or pecans; suit the nut to your tastes and to the pie filling. To create the crust, combine 4 cups finely chopped nuts with 1/3 cup brown sugar. Add ½ cup cooled, melted butter to the sugared nuts. Press the mixture into a pie pan and freeze for 10 minutes. Bake at 400 degrees F for 20 minutes, or until lightly browned. The crust is suitable for either chilled or baked pie fillings.
Crustless Pies
To present the idea of a pie when you don't want to prepare a wheat-free pie crust, simply add extra structure to the traditional filling. Oatmeal, potato starch, mashed potatoes, mashed rice or any of the gluten-free flours listed above stiffen pie filling so that it will be firm enough to serve. Add about 1 cup of any of these ingredients to your pie filling recipes and bake as directed in a pie tin. Adjust the recipe to make the crustless pie moister or firmer, as needed.
Fillings
Sometimes pie fillings present as much of a pitfall for the wheat-free baker as the crust itself. Packaged pudding mixes, a common ingredient in some custard and cream pie fillings, may contain wheat-based whey, starch, proteins or other additives. Other possible wheat culprits used in some recipes include prepared fruit fillings, canned fruit, malted milk, candy, cottage cheese and chocolate. Read labels carefully to ensure a truly wheat-free pie.
References
- Rush University Medical Center: Wheat Allergy Diet
- Celiac Sprue Association: Gluten-Free Diet: Grains and Flours
- Colorado State University Extension: Gluten-Free Baking
- Carnegie Mellon University: The Dinner Co-op: Nut Crust
- "You Won't Believe It's Gluten-Free"; Roben Ryberg; 2008
