Gluten Free, Refined Sugar Free Apple Pie – Pretty Delicious Life
I have to say, making this gluten free apple pie recipe for you all was truly a treat for me. My mom passed this recipe down to me years ago from my Grandmother, who had it passed down to her from my Great Grandmother and it’s been such a long time since I’ve made an apple pie so I was beyond excited to make this recipe. Of course, my Great Grandmom’s recipe is certainly not gluten free or refined sugar free so I had a few tweaks to make there, but that was truly a breeze. I’ve found a gluten free flour that I have discovered makes the most amazing pasta dough, so I was happy to test it out here and see how it holds up when it comes to pie crust. I am happy to report, it worked beautifully!
Baking pies has been something I’ve loved doing for years. In college, I helped a few friends bake and sell pies during the holidays and I even made a boatload of blueberry pie for my best friend’s wedding a few years ago. In fact, a guest noted that my pies tasted like Jesus himself came back to life and baked a whole slew of pies. Do with that what you will, he was of course intoxicated because we were at a wedding, but, ya know. They were really great pies! (Guess this means I need to post the recipe soon, huh?)
Anyway, enough of that.
Technically apples aren’t the friendliest if you’re following a low FODMAP diet, but now that I’m working on adding new foods back in, I know I can tolerate apples and I’m so excited to have PIE again! I’ve noticed I do better with cooked apples than I do with raw and the same goes for veggies, so I am just chalking that up to raw foods simply being rougher on my digestion.
When you’re making the crust, do your best not to over work the dough and make sure your butter is COLD. The original recipe called for Crisco, but that certainly is not gut friendly and butter worked out very well as a substitute. I also recommend preparing your gluten free apple pie filling the night before. This way the apples can “sweat” their juices out, making for a pie that bakes evenly and doesn’t get soggy. Don’t skip chilling your dough! Especially since we’re using butter, not Crisco, you really want to make sure the dough is nice and cold when you roll it out so you don’t run into loads of sticking incidents. If you have pie weights, pre-bake the crust at 350F for about 15 minutes. This step isn’t necessary, but I found it helpful.
Last quick note, if you want to make this recipe vegan friendly, simply swap the butter for quality vegan butter.
Did you get a chance to make this gluten free refined sugar free apple pie recipe? Don’t forget to leave me a love note in the comments and let me know what you think! And don’t forget to tag your images #PDLrecipes on Facebook and Instagram so I can see how your creation turned out!
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. I may receive commissions for purchases made through links in this post, but rest assured these are all products I personally use and very highly recommend. I will never link to anything on this site unless it is something I love!
Ingredients
For the Crust
2/3- 1 cup butter, cold
2 cups gluten free flour, sifted
3/4 tsp salt
4-6 tbsp cold water
For the Filling
8 medium apples (I always use a mixture of Cortland + Granny Smith)
1 cup granulated monkfruit
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
2 tbsp gluten free flour
4 tbsp butter
For Chai Spice Filling
1/4 tsp each of ginger, nutmeg, clove, allspice, and cardamom
Note: I used the original recipe measurements to write this recipe, but ultimately I ended up doubling the recipe in the end. I had a bit more dough than necessary but I wanted a nice, thick crust. You do not have to double this recipe, but I would recommend doing so if you have a larger pie pan.
- Prepare the filling the night before. If you are able, I highly recommend preparing the gluten free apple pie filling ahead. This allows the apples the opportunity to lose some of their juices so your pie won’t become soggy.
- Peel, core, and slice your apples. Add to a large mixing bowl, then cover with gluten free flour, monkfruit, salt, and cinnamon. Add chai spices if using.
- With your hands, mix and toss apple slices to fully cover in cinnamon sugar mixture. Set aside in the fridge, ideally overnight.
- Make the crust. In a large mixing bowl, sift 2 cups of gluten free flour, then mix in salt.
- Cut in butter using two knives. Make sure your butter is COLD! Cross cut in the butter to break down any lumps. Be mindful not to overwork the dough.
- Add in cold water 1 tbsp at a time until dough holds together. If you added too much water, just add a bit more flour and vice versa until a smooth dough ball forms. It is easiest to mix and kneed this dough with your hands.
- Divide dough into two parts and allow to chill at least 1 hour.
- When you are ready to roll out the dough, ensure your surface and rolling pin are WELL floured, and make sure you have enough extra flour on hand in case the dough gets sticky.
- Roll out dough balls completely, then roll back onto your rolling pin and drape over a pre-greased pie pan.
- Bake the pie. When you are ready to bake the pie, pre-heat oven to 350F. Pre-bake crust for 15 minutes. This step isn’t necessary but I found it helped my crust bake evenly. Make sure you have pie weights for this step!
- Once crust is pre-baked, crank oven up to 450F. Add filling to pie crust, top with butter pieces and then top with top crust layer. Traditionally, I make one layer of crust to drape over top of the pie and I will poke holes in it using a fork.
- Bake pie for 15 minutes at 450F, then lower the heat to 350F, cover in foil and bake for 50 minutes or until crust is golden brown.
Gluten Free, Refined Sugar Free Apple Pie
Ingredients
For the Crust
- 2/3 butter cold
- 2 cups gluten free flour sifted
- 3/4 tsp salt
- 6 tbsp cold water
For the Filling
- 8 medium apples I always use a mixture of Cortland + Granny Smith
- 1 cup granulated monkfruit
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 2 tbsp gluten free flour
- butter
For Chai Spice Filling
- 1/4 tsp each of ginger nutmeg, clove, allspice, and cardamom
Instructions
- Prepare the filling the night before. If you are able, I highly recommend preparing the gluten free apple pie filling ahead. This allows the apples the opportunity to lose some of their juices so your pie won’t become soggy.
- Peel, core, and slice your apples. Add to a large mixing bowl, then cover with gluten free flour, monkfruit, salt, and cinnamon. Add chai spices if using.
- With your hands, mix and toss apple slices to fully cover in cinnamon sugar mixture. Set aside in the fridge, ideally overnight.
- Make the crust. In a large mixing bowl, sift 2 cups of gluten free flour, then mix in salt.
- Cut in butter using two knives. Make sure your butter is COLD! Cross cut in the butter to break down any lumps. Be mindful not to overwork the dough.
- Add in cold water 1 tbsp at a time until dough holds together. If you added too much water, just add a bit more flour and vice versa until a smooth dough ball forms. It is easiest to mix and kneed this dough with your hands.
- Divide dough into two parts and allow to chill at least 1 hour.
- When you are ready to roll out the dough, ensure your surface and rolling pin are WELL floured, and make sure you have enough extra flour on hand in case the dough gets sticky.
- Roll out dough balls completely, then roll back onto your rolling pin and drape over a pre-greased pie pan.
- Bake the pie. When you are ready to bake the pie, pre-heat oven to 350F. Pre-bake crust for 15 minutes. This step isn’t necessary but I found it helped my crust bake evenly. Make sure you have pie weights for this step!
- Once crust is pre-baked, crank oven up to 450F. Add filling to pie crust, top with butter pieces and then top with top crust layer. Traditionally, I make one layer of crust to drape over top of the pie and I will poke holes in it using a fork.
- Bake pie for 15 minutes at 450F, then lower the heat to 350F, cover in foil and bake for 50 minutes or until crust is golden brown.
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