November

With Halloween behind us (and I hope it was enjoyable and safe for everyone!) it is now November and time to start thinking about Thanksgiving! Yes, Thanksgiving is all the way at the end of the month, but it may take a little time to put together a Thanksgiving meal that is allergy-friendly but maintains many of the traditional elements associated with Thanksgiving dinner. With that in mind, I am working on pie crust recipes. I have one that I have tried a few times, and I would be happy to get a little input from others. So, for your eating pleasure, here is the rough draft of my pie crust:

Pie Crust
1/4 C shortening or margarine
1/2 C sugar
2 C oat flour
1/4 C rice milk

Use a pastry blender to blend the shortening and sugar until it looks like crumbs. Add oat flour and mix well. Finally add rice milk and mix until the dough sticks together in a ball. The consistency of the dough should be similar to sugar cookie dough.

Place the ball of dough on a surface dusted with oat flour. Roll it into a circle approximately 12 inches in diameter. Gently lift the crust into the pie pan. Trim edges. If you need to precook your pie crust, bake it for 12 to 15 minutes in a 350 oven.

I made this recipe this evening and I filled it with cherries mixed with sugar and cornstarch (6 cups cherries, 1 1/2 cups sugar, 1/4 cup cornstarch). Since the filling was rather wet, but the pie needed to cook with the filling in it, I only pre-cooked the crust for about 7 minutes. Immediately after removing the crust from the oven, I filled it with the cherry mixture and popped it back in for about an hour, until the filling was bubbly in the center. It turned out pretty well.

The other little tip that might be helpful is that when you roll your dough out, it is easiest if you roll it onto a flexible, movable surface, such as a Silpat or some plastic wrap. That way, when you've got it the size you want, you can more easily move the dough into the pie plate. Another option is to roll it on a hard surface (dusted with oat flour, of course) and when you're all done, place a piece of plastic wrap over the dough. Then pick up the edge of the dough (and plastic wrap) and roll it onto your rolling pin so that the plastic wrap is toward the rolling pin. Then you can simply unroll your dough onto the pie plate.

Enjoy!!