The One Kitchen Tool You Need When Working With Gluten-Free Pie Dough

While a conventional pie crust recipe calls for the flaky, decadent combination of wheat flour, butter, and shortening, gluten-free pie dough is now more accessible than ever thanks to numerous flour alternatives. While the substitute is easy, the dough itself has a different raw consistency that may prove hard to work with. Luckily, there's a simple kitchen tool that can help you handle a sticky gluten-free pie dough — and it's a pantry mainstay you probably always have on hand.

Cling wrap like this Glad Press'n Seal will help you roll and transfer the dough to a baking pan without it sticking to surfaces, your hands, or the rolling pin. You can use the same cling wrap you envelop the disc of gluten-free dough to chill it as one of the protective layers. Simply unwrap the clingy plastic from around the dough disc, stretching it back to its original sheet. Then, you can use it to flip the disc back onto a wood board also covered with a sheet of plastic wrap. The plastic wrap will shield the rolling pin and surface from the sticky dough, allowing you to smoothly flatten the dough to the desired circumference. To transfer the dough into the pan, peel the top layer of cling wrap from the dough, and use the bottom foundation of cling wrap as a hands-free method to flip the pie crust into the pan. Finally, peel the cling wrap off of the inverted dough and crimp the crust with your fingers.

Plastic wrap is the key to handling sticky gluten-free pie dough, but there are plenty of other tips to follow for a flakey and moist crumb that holds its shape. The ingredient swap for wheat flour in baked goods has come a long way. Gluten-free flour mix by C4C, for example, is a cup-for-cup swap that's been around for over a decade, consisting of a blend of potato, tapioca, and rice flours. Now, many mainstream purveyors provide cup for cup gluten-free flour, like this one from King Arthur Baking Company.

While you can use the swap in any pie crust recipe, certain techniques will improve the texture of the final product. For the best gluten-free pie crust, use your hands instead of the food processor. Hand-mixed dough is a gentler and more effective way to distribute the cold butter throughout the flour. While a dash of vinegar might instill flakiness, sour cream is the one ingredient for a flakier gluten-free pie crust that also keeps the pie moist. You should use ice cold water sparingly in a sour cream gluten-free pie crust, adding it one teaspoon at a time until the dough comes together into a ball or disk for chilling.