A warning first: This section is somewhat technical. If you’d rather skip on over this part for while, that’s perfectly fine.
3:2:1 – The Pie Crust Ratio
Now that we’ve looked at all the ingredients individually, let’s take a second look at how the ingredients work together. The main ingredients, by weight, in my Easy Peasy Gluten Free Pie Crust are as follows:
250 g. starch flours
80 g. grain flour
192 g. shortening (or 226 g. butter)
113 g. water
These may seem like random numbers to you, but they actually match up very well with the 3-2-1 pie crust ratio that bakers have been using for centuries.
330 g. flour
220 g. fat
110 g. water
This amount of ingredients will make enough dough for two single-crust pies (think pumpkin pie) or one double crust pie (think apple pie). If you want more dough you can easily scale up the recipe using the basic ratio. My recipe uses 110 g. as the base unit and that is multiplied by 3, 2, and 1 to get the amounts, by weight, of each of the ingredients. To scale the recipe up, just increase the base unit from 110 grams to something more.
Tweaking the 3-2-1 Pie Crust Ratio for Gluten Free Pies
If you use the 3-2-1 ratio to develop or troubleshoot your own gluten free pie crust recipe, there is still some work to be done. As I mentioned above, gluten free pie crusts need a specific mix of gluten free flours. I’ve found that a mixture that is 75% starch flours and 25% grain flour, by weight, works very well. Another way of saying that is to use 3 parts starch flours and 1 part grain flour. If you can’t use brown rice flour, just subtitute another gluten free grain or bean flour that has a neutral flavor profile and absorbs liquids similarly (i.e. that means don’t use almond meal or coconut flour if you want to get the same results that I do!!!).
Here’s an example of the calculation:
330 g. total flour = (330 g.)(75%) starch flours + (330 g.)(25%) grain/bean flour
330 g. total flour = 247.5 g. starch flours + 82.5 g. grain/bean flour
You also need to calculate the amount of xanthan gum. This is pretty easy! Just divide the total weight of the flour (in grams) by 100 to determine the weight of the xanthan gum in grams. Round to the nearest gram.
330 g. total flour / 100 = 3.3 g. Xanthan gum
One teaspoon of xanthan gum weighs 3 grams, so I’ll need 1 tsp. of xanthan gum for this particular weight of flour.
This recipe also needs salt. If you are using volume measurements, then add 1 tsp. of salt for a double crust recipe. If you’re measuring by weight, add 10 to 12 grams of salt.
And that’s it. The pie ratio.