Gluten free apple and blueberry pie

I love pie. Apple pie, cherry pie, savoury pie, all sorts of pie. It's my guilty secret. So it's been the worst since I developed an intolerance to wheat because I haven't for the life of me been able to find anything even close. And yes I have snuck the odd slice of delicious gluten filled deliciousness every now and again on special occasions but ohh did I pay for it. Bloating... don't get me started on the bloating.

Pre Bake :)

So I was intrigued when I started using doves farm flour in recipes. It didn't taste weird or have that odd cornflour texture some gluten free flour has. It was just like normal flour if a little temperamental. So I decided to try making some pastry and honestly I cannot be happier if I tried! and I know all my gluten free friends out there will love this recipe because it is a game changer. For me anyway :)

Ingredients

Pastry

200g FREEE doves farm pastry

100g butter

Water (approx 4 tbsp)

1 egg for a wash

Filling

1 large Granny Smith apple

125g blueberries

caster sugar to taste (I used two tbsp but I like my apples sharp)

Method

Now this pie is not for the faint of heart. If you've worked with pastry before it should be fairly straight forward if a bit infuriating to work with but I feel like there is certainly a knack to it. It is definitely worth it though because this tastes amazing and for once doesn't have a disintegrating or sand like texture or that weird gluten free taste. It really does taste like normal gluten filled pie.

Ok lets start...

1 Lightly grease a 20cm wide pie dish.

2 Add the flour and butter to a bowl. I find its best to used cubed chilled butter. Rub the ingredients together between the tips of your fingers to combine into a bread crumb consistency.

3 Add cold water to the mixture a tablespoon at a time until it starts to form a soft dough. Then using your hands bring the dough together

4 Wrap in cling film and let it sit in the fridge for 15-30 mins

While that's chilling. You can make the filling.

5 Peel the apple, core and slice. I cut my apple into quarters and then width ways sliced 1cm thick slices.

6 Add the apple to a saucepan with 2-3 tbsp of water, the blueberries and sprinkle the sugar over. Cook on a medium heat for 5-10 mins or until the fruit is soft the blueberries have bled into the apple and it's a gorgeous purpley red.

7  I then put the filling through a strainer (A colander will do. That's what I used. They're less of a ball ache to wash afterwards) over a bowl to drain off the excess liquid. You do not want to put a wet filling into a pie.

8 Put the filling into a heatproof jug and put the fridge to chill slightly while you roll out the pastry.

Now is also a good time to put the oven on at Gas 4

9 The pastry should be ready to roll now. First cut off a third and put it to the side for the decoration.

10 And here comes the tricky part. Honestly learn from my mistakes and do not treat this like your run of the mill pastry and roll it out with some flour. No.. this need a little love and support. So break off a couple of sheets of cling film and sandwich the pastry between them on the counter. Remember to use fairly large bits as the pastry will spread. Then using a rolling pin roll the pastry out. The cling film stops the pastry from ripping and falling into bits.

11 Then transfer your pastry into the lightly greased pie dish. In the end I put the dish into the pastry upside down and then flipped the two over. There will be ripping and breakage but this pastry is very forgiving so press it back together and push into the tin. And then cut away the overhanging pastry.

    TIP : Unlike other pastry this doesn't seem to shrink in the oven so don't be tempted to compensate for the shrink and leave the pastry overhanging. Just cut it right to the dish.

12  Add the filling.

13 Next step is to roll out the remaining pastry the same way you rolled out the other pastry. I daren't try a full top because I think it would just fall apart as you tried. So instead I went crazy with a cookie cutter and got creative.

14 Then mix an egg in a cup and brush a thin wash over the pastry. Finish with a sprinkle of sugar.

15 Bake in the oven for 30-40 mins or until the pastry is crisped and turning brown.

And enjoy. I had mine with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and it was delish :)