Excuse me if I toot my own horn a little bit here, because I am pretty excited about this one. After much experimenting, I have managed to create a low carb, gluten-free pastry crust that holds together and yet still manages to be tender and flaky. With no eggs. Not one single egg, not even half an egg. Not even a few drops of egg white. While I have nothing against eggs in general, this is actually a huge breakthrough for me. If you have ever worked with low carb, gluten-free ingredients, I think you will agree that this is no mean feat. Because when it comes to pastry crust, the lack of gluten presents an enormous challenge. Gluten may not be good for us, but it has some amazing properties that are really hard to simulate in its absence. It provides the glue that holds conventional pastry crust together while still allowing it to be tender. My beloved almond flour isn’t nearly so cooperative in that regard. It doesn’t have all these magical little protein strands that bind to each other while the butter melts, so most almond flour pastry recipes call for eggs to hold the crust together. Until now…
Again, I have nothing against eggs in general. In fact, I love them and eat them almost daily in some form or another. But eggs don’t belong in a true pastry crust. Sorry, eggs, you are delicious, but you have a tendency to make the crust very heavy and decidedly un-flaky. Eggs or egg whites may help hold the crust together, but it will be much more leaden in texture. It definitely won’t have that melt-in-your-mouth tenderness.
In the absence of gluten and eggs, I knew I needed some help getting the almond flour to hold together. I would love to have an all almond flour crust, but I tried that a few times and the results weren’t pretty. So I went with a little teeny weeny bit of starch, in the form of some gluten-free all purpose flour. I used as little as I could get away with, so as not to raise the carb count too much.
I was very pleased with the results. The dough is still quite fragile and has to be handled with care. But one great thing about the absence of gluten is that the dough patches back together really easily and can be re-rolled without the loss of too much tenderness. It worked so well for these hand pies, because the circles of pastry were small and easy to work with. I also made a few of them into tarts and was impressed with how well the dough baked up, without getting too soggy on the bottom. And I have also tried it out as one large pre-baked crust (for a coconut cream pie, and I will post that recipe in a few days). Because it’s so fragile, it’s tricky getting it into the pie pan without a lot of cracks and tears, but again, it patches back together so nicely.
I have a few ideas of how to strengthen it without losing the tenderness, so I think there may still be some tweaking to be done. And I haven’t yet tried it as a top crust for a large pie, so I can’t quite say how it will perform there. But for now, I am extremely pleased to have a delicious low carb almond flour pastry crust. I have so many recipe ideas for this crust, I hardly know where to begin!
Strawberry Hand Pies – Low Carb and Gluten-Free
Ingredients
Filling:
- 1 cup strawberries, finely chopped
- 2 tbsp Swerve Sweetener or granulated erythritol
Crust:
- 1 cup almond flour, Honeyville
- 1/4 cup Gluten-Free All Purpose Flour, I used Bob's Red Mill
- 2 tbsp Swerve Sweetener or granulated erythritol
- 1 tsp guar or xanthan gum
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 cup butter, well-chilled and cut into small chunks
- 2 - 4 tbsp ice water
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
- For the filling, combine chopped berries and erythritol in a small bowl and let sit.
- For the crust, combine almond flour, all purpose, erythritol, guar gum and salt in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse to combine.
- Sprinkle butter over and pulse until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
- With processor running on low, add ice water 1 tbsp at a time until dough begins to clump together.
- Cover work surface with a large sheet of parchment paper and sprinkle with almond flour. Turn out dough and form into a disk.
- Sprinkle with additional almond flour and top with another piece of parchment, then carefully roll out in all directions to form a 10 inch circle.
- Remove top parchment and use a large circular cookie cutter, about 2 3/4 inches in diameter, to cut out as many circles as possible. Gently lift circles with a knife or offset spatula and transfer to prepared baking sheet.
- Re-roll scraps to get as many pastry circles as possible. You should be able to get 9 or 10.
- Avoiding any juices collected at the bottom, spoon a small amount of berries onto one half of each circle, leaving 1/2 inch edge for sealing.
- Gently fold the other half of the pastry over and seal edges. Use a fork to crimp.
- Use a sharp knife to cut small slices into the top of each hand pie to release steam.
- Bake 16 to 18 minutes or until pastry is light golden brown. Let cool completely on pan before serving.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional Disclaimer
Please note that I am not a medical or nutritional professional. I am simply recounting and sharing my own experiences on this blog. Nothing I express here should be taken as medical advice and you should consult with your doctor before starting any diet or exercise program. I provide nutritional information for my recipes simply as a courtesy to my readers. It is calculated using MacGourmet software and I remove erythritol from the final carb count and net carb count, as it does not affect my own blood glucose levels. I do my best to be as accurate as possible but you should independently calculate nutritional information on your own before relying on them. I expressly disclaim any and all liability of any kind with respect to any act or omission wholly or in part in reliance on anything contained in this website.
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I wonder how many of these beauties I could safely eat for breakfast….
Oh my, oh my…I must make. About how big is one pie?
They were definitely on the small side, about 3 inches in width. But worth it!
Ok, got a lot of mouths to feed so I’m making these for just me. 😉
Wondering do you have a cookie dough that looks like this ,but made from cream cheese and powder sugar? the cookie looks just this only strawberry jam in the center. Thank you
This doesn’t have strawberry jam, it has strawberries, fresh. I am sure you could put some cream cheese and powdered sugar in the center as well.
Excellent job, Carolyn! Mastering pastry for low carb or paleo lifestyles is definitely a challenge. I was able to do it, but I use my own blend of almond flour and straight starch and protein flours not in a ready made blend. Glad just 1/4 cup of Bob’s GF AP flour worked for you! You did a fab job keeping the carb count down per serving! BRAVO!
You really are the queen of low carb and gluten free baking Carolyn! I’m constantly astounded by what you can accomplish! I would not have thought this possible, but they look amazing! Chicken pot pie – here I come!!!
Omgoodness!! Yes!! Just…yes!!!
You’re my co-queen lady. That bacon ice cream cake took the…cake. 🙂
Love these hand pies… So summery and delish!
I just did some crawfish pies similarly not long ago. We call ’em fried pies here in Texas, even if they are baked. 🙂 These look delicious, Carolyn. I’ll be trying them one of these days.
Yay, it’s not just me! When I saw the pic, I said ‘FRIED PIES!’ like my grandma use to make. RIH. Wow I so love this site!!
Oh Carolyn, I have a ladies night this weekend, and these look perfect. I’m excited.
These look awesome! I’m going to make them this weekend to go with our raw milk ice cream. Thanks for the inspiration!
Strawberry hand pies?! OH MY! Where can I get 3? 😉
Thank you for all these recipes! Please consider making a biscuit recipe, my life is not the same without them lol
also, does the gluten free baking mix affect your blood sugar?
I would say, Yes, Mercy. Bob’s GF flour contains, among other things, potato starch and tapioca flour. Per Dr. William Davis of “Wheat Belly” fame, products labeled “gluten-free” shouldn’t be consumed by anyone because of their effect on blood sugar.
Carolyn’s recipe sounds delicious, but I’ll have to hold off trying it until I can decide how to sub for the GF flour. (I do have a few ideas.)
I will disagree, Sharon, at least in the degree that it is only 1/4 cup of the flour and adds only 2 g of carbs per serving. The total number of carbs I stated in the recipe is correct. Almond flour and coconut flour are labeled as gluten-free as well, do you avoid them? The statement you gave from Dr. Davis in your comment is erroneous if the total carbs don’t amount to much. I actually test my blood sugar and these pies did not raise it (assuming you stick to one serving…which is the case for almost anything low carb).
If you choose to not eat grains and such, that’s up to you. Dr. Davis may recommend it and I certainly don’t eat a lot of them myself, but they are useful in minimal amounts in baking. But to say this recipe would raise blood sugar? Not true. Thanks for your feedback!
Thanks for your quick reply, Carolyn.
Luckily, I don’t have to check my blood sugar (although I probably should; could possibly be insulin resistant).
I do use almond flour and coconut flour as replacements for wheat and “carb-y” flours, although their use is not foolproof. I also use ground flax seed! It seems that everything that’s GF gets labeled (which is a good thing!), but I do avoid multiple-ingredient products so labeled, because of those flours. (Generally, I like to use single ingredients, and not premixed).
GF flour mixes may be OK in small amounts (such as your recipe), as long as serving recommendations are observed, but I’m still concerned about the effects over time.
As for the egg-free issue, have you tried chia or flax eggs?
Thanks for your recipes *and* your blog. 8^D
I have used chia and flax as binders and they’re great…but not what I want my flaky pastry! As for myself, I am not concerned about small amounts of legumes or grains (except wheat, because it has changed so much in the GMO era) over time, because these things became cultivated in the first place because humans were eating them in their wild state. I just think that they were never meant to be the staple in our diets that they’ve become. As long as they don’t raise my blood sugar when I keep them to the minimum, I am not worried about occasionally consuming them. For most of my recipes, I try to stick with almond and coconut, but pastry is really tricky! 🙂
You are a dough scientist and have made an amazing discovery 🙂 I love hand pies and could eat way more than I should 😉
I’m picking free raspberries Friday morning. Do you think I could make this with raspberries instead of strawberries?
Yup, I do! just cut them up a bit so they are smaller and you can fold the dough around them.
I was looking for something to make to bring over for dinner with my friend who has gluten intolerance. This will work so well since she loves strawberries 🙂
Great recipe!
Great! Thanks.
If I do not have a gluten intolerance, would Gluten Flour work just as well?
Probably.
thanks for this recipe Carol! I read somewhere that you could also chill the flours that you are using along with the chilled butter. Sounds logical to me. I think I’ll give this a try once I find the Bob’s Red Mill product that you used. It shouldn’t be too hard to find.
☺ Sandi
Most gluten-free sections carry Bob’s Red Mill GF flour.
I found it at my local ShopRite today.
oops, I meant Carolyn!
One word…quiche. Thanks for this recipe!