Making a traditional pie crust may seem daunting. And, making a grain-free pie crust may seem even more daunting. However, as a modern pioneer, making your own homemade pie crust is an essential homestead life skill! Thankfully, these two grain-free pie crust recipes are super easy to make and can be whipped up in a flash! One pie crust recipe creates the perfect hardy crust for sweet fall pies or fruit pies. The other pie crust recipe is more light and thin, perfect for heavier pie fillings like a fudge brownie pie or a cookie dough pie. Whichever one you choose to make, both are the perfect pie crust recipe for learning how to make a pie crust from scratch in the homestead kitchen!

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Homestead Lifeskill: Making Pie Crusts

I used to not like making pie crusts at all. I loved pies, but the thought of having to make a pie crust first, then the actual pie, just seemed like too much work. It became even more discouraging when I made a pie crust only to have it fail and have to make another one. Let’s just say that happened quite often!

So, how did I overcome my pie crust failures? I made them A LOT! I decided the only way I was going to get better at making pie crusts is if I made them more frequently. That’s when I set the goal for myself to try making every type of pie there is (which meant making a lot of pie crusts!). You can read more about my personal pie challenge in this No-Bake Dairy-free Peanut Butter Pie recipe!

Let’s just say, since I made almost one pie a month for just about two years in a row, I got pretty good at making pie crusts! I have even tried many different kinds of gluten-free and grain free pie crusts too! Find out which ones I liked by checking out this Grain-free Fudge Pie recipe.

Now let’s get onto the two pie crusts that I use the most, my grain-free pie crust and my grain-free pastry crust.

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Grain-free Pie Crust Recipe

We will start with a multi-purpose pie crust. This grain-free pie crust is a hardy, easy to make pie crust. It is flakey, flavorful, and works wonderfully for fruit pies. It uses three different types of flours: tapioca flour, cassava flour, and coconut flour. If you don’t have cassava flour on hand, you can easily replace it with more tapioca flour or arrowroot flour.

Even though the crust contains coconut flour, it does not have a coconut taste at all. It is a very versatile crust, that goes well with a variety of pie fillings. This crust is a hardy crust and it pairs well with lighter pie fillings. Here are some of my favorite pie fillings to use with this crust:

• Blueberry pie filling
• Quiche
• Pumpkin pie filling
• Sweet potato pie filling
• Apple pie filling
• Peach pie filling

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Pie Crust Recipe Tips

This grain free pie crust is fairly straight forward and simple to make. While the original recipe does have you roll out the pie crust, I have found that I can get away with just patting it into the pie plate as well. Here are a few tips to ensure that your pie crust turns out beautifully!

• Cold Butter– Make sure you use cold butter! You can even put the butter in the freezer while you get the rest of the ingredients ready. Cold butter makes the dough stiffer and less sticky.
• Dairy-free?– I have not tried making this pie crust with coconut oil. If you do want to try making this pie crust dairy free, I would suggest putting a 1/2 cup of coconut oil in the fridge so that it gets hard before adding it to the recipe.
• Pulse the Dry Ingredients– Pulse all of the dry ingredients before you add the butter and egg. That ensures that everything gets mixed properly.
• Get Crumbs- You must pulse the mixture after adding the butter but before adding the egg so that nice crumbs form.
• Pulse Patiently– Once you add the egg, it will take a few pulses to form into a ball. If the dough doesn’t form a ball right away, don’t worry, just keep pulsing!
• Rolling Tips- Rolling out the pie crust may seem like the hardest part, but here are a few tips: 1) flatten the dough ball slightly with your hand before using the rolling pin, 2) roll out the dough once from every angle to help get a more circular shape
• Crimping– For crimping the edges of the pie crust, I put the pointer finger and middle finger of my left hand on the outside of the crust and use the pointer finger of my right hand to press the dough into a curve between my other two fingers on the outside.

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Hardy & Simple!

I am sure you will love this grain-free pie crust! It pairs excellently with any fruit pie along with a variety of other pie fillings! The pie crust is hardy, flakey, and contains simple and wholesome ingredients.

Where to Find the Ingredients:

• Bob’s Red Mill tapioca flour
• Anthony’s coconut flour
• Otto’s Naturals cassava flour
  

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• Bob’s Red Mill ground flax seeds
• Redmond Real Salt
• Supplies: 9″ glass pie plate, Cuisinart food processor, unbleached parchment paper

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Grain-free Pastry Pie Crust Recipe

Now let’s look at a pie crust that can be used as a pastry crust! This pastry pie crust sprung up from a desire to make a pie crust that went better with chocolate or pudding pies. I found that the multi-purpose pie crust I mentioned above worked best for fruit pies or more savory pies.

I wanted something more delicate to pair with my sweet and savory pie fillings. It also had to be a lighter, thinner crust that could be used for hardy pie fiilings. Here are a few pie fillings that I think that this pie crust goes well with:

• Fudge pie
• Chocolate pudding pie
• Brownie pie
• Vanilla pudding pie
• Banana pudding pie

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Pastry Crust Recipe Tips

I think this pie crust is even simpler to make than the previous grain free pie crust! It doesn’t use a food processor and you don’t have to roll it out either! This grain-free pastry crust is super fast and easy to make and it requires minimal ingredients!

Here are a few recipe tips:

• Ingredient Order- The order in which you add the ingredients matters: first melt your butter, then add the dry ingredients, then add the egg and vanilla last.
• Too Dry– If the dough seems too dry, you can add a little bit of water until you can roll it into a ball.
• Too Wet– If the dough seems too wet, add some more tapioca flour a little bit at a time until you can handle the dough. The dough will also absorb moisture as it sets too.
• Dairy-free?- You can substitute coconut oil for the butter to make this pie crust dairy free!
• Consistency– The consistency of the dough should be moist but not too sticky, you should be able to handle the dough without it sticking too much.
• Patting Tips– For patting the dough into the pie plate, start by pressing it out in the middle of the pie plate. Work from the center out, pressing the dough up the sides.
• Crimping– Depending on how well you press this dough out, you may have enough to crimp the edges like the previous pie crust.

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Light & Simple!

I have made this grain-free pastry crust so many times that I basically just do it from memory now! It is a really easy pie crust to make and I use this pie crust for most of my pies.

Where to Find the Ingredients:

• Bob’s Red Mill tapioca flour
• Anthony’s coconut flour
• Simply Organic vanilla extract
• Redmond Real Salt
• Supplies: 9″ glass pie plate

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These two grain-free and nut free pie crust recipes are just in time for the holiday baking season! Now you can go whip up some delicious pies with these hassle-free pie crusts! Hopefully these two recipes have provided you with a way to master that homestead life skill of making your own pie crusts from scratch. I would enjoy hearing what pies you make using these pie crust recipes, so feel free to comment below!

And make sure you’re signed up for our modern pioneer newsletter community so you don’t miss any allergy-friendly pie recipes to use these pie crusts for!

by Alexa

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