March 25, 2010

 

Multi-Purpose Pastry Dough

“That’s the ultimate recipe!”  Those were the words of my son when he realized I was using this recipe to make several delicious foods.  I’ll show you one of them here, but more ideas will be coming.  Here’s a teaser:

pastry dough pocket 
This is not a typical pastry dough.  For one, it’s gluten free, and you have to accept the fact that gluten-free pastry doesn’t act like gluten filled pastry.  You can’t produce (at least not that I know of) a pastry dough that is both flaky and flexible.  My gluten-free pie crust works well as a bottom crust for pie, but not as a top crust.  It would fall apart.

This recipe is not flaky like the pie crust recipe.  It uses melted butter rather than chunks of cold butter typically used in pastry dough.  However, it is smooth, flexible and pretty easy to work with.  It’s really quite fun to have a ball of gluten-free dough that you can press, squeeze, roll, cut, fill, and fold.  Give it a try and get creative.

I originally made this recipe using 8 tablespoons of butter.  I was able to cut it back to 6 tablespoons and have it turn out well, but it does turn out a little more dry.  Depending on what you’re making you can use either amount and adjust the amount of milk.

Gluten-Free Workable Pastry Dough

Combine the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl.  Using a fork, beat together the milk and egg.  Add the milk mixture and melted butter to the dry ingredients and stir with a fork.  It will look crumbly, but everything should be wet.  If needed, add a little more milk.

pastry dough crumbly

Now use your hands to form the dough into a ball and work it a little until it is smooth like this:

pastry dough ball

The dough is now ready to be rolled out or can be wrapped in plastic wrap and stored in the refrigerator.  Roll the dough out on a silicone mat, pastry mat or piece of parchment paper.  Use a piece of plastic wrap on top of the dough to keep it smooth.

pastry dough rolled out

Experiment with thickness.  Rolling it very thin makes it more likely to break when folding or transferring.  About 1/16 – 1/8 of an inch works well.  The things I've made with this have been baked at 350 degrees for 15 - 20 minutes.

I promised to show you one way I used this dough.  It won’t thrill many of you, but if you have kids, they’ll like it. 

Pigs in a Blanket
I made these as a snack the other day when my son had a friend over.  On his way out, the boy grabbed another one and told his mom he loved them!  She said she’d have to get the recipe.  They’re not gluten-free eaters.


I used Hebrew National beef franks and cut them into halves or thirds.  I then cut the dough into rectangular strips and rolled up the hot dog pieces like this:

pigs in blanket dough

Place them on a baking tray and bake at 350 degrees about 15 minutes. Time depends on the thickness of the dough.

pigs in blanket baked

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Comments:
Thanks for posting this!
 
love it! I currently use cream cheese in mine instead of egg/milk to "glue" it together... I will have to try your version and compare! Though we don't have hot dogs here....I will have to make "brats in a blanket" - haha it really is a funny name!
 
Linda - you are such a genius when it comes to gluten-free baking! This looks great. Definitely going to try it out!
 
Linda,

These look GREAT!! Have you tried subbing some of the butter with shortening to see if that helps to add "flakiness?"

I just bought a Calzone mold yesterday (I am severely "pastry challenged") that I think I will use your recipe to test-drive it, thanks for sharing!

BTW, I just bought a 4-pack of 2-lb. bags of Arrowhead Mills Millet Flour on Amazon's Subscribe and Save for about $13 with free shipping!
 
I can't wait to try this...my daughter has been wanting pizza rolls ! Thank you.
 
This looks great. I can think of all kinds of great foods to make with this.
 
I have been struggling with gluten free pastry dough! This will save my life :) It looks as though it rolls out nice and is not overly sticky (almost like non GF pastry dough?!). I'm going to have to give your recipe a try. Thanks!
 
You are my HERO! I can not wait to make these and see the other brillant things you come up with! My 3yo LOVES ravioli, and I have yet to find a great blend for the patry...WOO HOO! I am so thankful I found your blog!
 
Okay, Linda, you might have me rolling dough again with this recipe! ;-) Pigs in a blanket ... always a fun party food. I want to make them just so Son can enjoy them. I'll try subbing cornstarch for potato starch (I can eat potatoes, but don't do well with potato starch in mixes usually), but I have the other ingredients. :-)

Thanks!
Shirley
 
My kids will love the pigs in a blanket! Thanks for the versatile dough recipe Linda... I can't wait to try it.

Cheers!
Cinde
 
Wow! How will I keep up with all your amazing creativity :) Yummo!
 
Adventures of a GF Mom ~ No, I haven't tried shortening. I generally don't like using it. If you try it, let me know how it turns out.
 
Looks great, Linda! I laugh because I have been working on a dough for years and never thought to use gelatin. My pigs in a blanket might be happier now!
 
Hi Linda,

I'm really excited about this recipe! I haven't attempted anything with pastry yet because, well... it scared me. But your recipe looks very doable for me!

I'm also now driven by the photo of pigs in a blanket... an old "pre-gluten free" addition.

Can't wait to try it!

~Aubree Cherie
 
Hi this looks great. R.E substitution, what would you recommend instead of sweet rice flour we cannot get if freely in the U.K.

Thankyou

Gail
 
Anonymous ~ Try increasing the brown rice flour, and if you think of it, let me know how it works.
 
Thank you for posting this Linda. I used it to make some spanish pastries I have been missing so much! Oh, I also substituted the sweet rice flour for potato starch because the sweet rice flour is so expensive and I didn't have any on hand... It worked out great. Thanks so much for all of your recipes. I use them ALL the time! I don't know what I would do without your baking recipes!
 
The more I use this, the more I like it! The last time I even substituted some olive oil for part of the butter -- not all of it, just part, because that was all the butter I had left! It worked well, though. Made a wonderful, tasty crust! Thanks!
 
I just purchased a new product by KING ARTHUR FLOUR, GLUTEN FREE MILTI PURPOSE FLOUR. I have a chicken pot pie, waiting to go in the oven I baked a small sample of the pastry before I bake the pie . firmer that regular pastry,I used, YOU CAN'T BELIEVE IT'S BUTTER, and it is delicious.
 
Can´t find millet flour in Cancun. I have some sorghum but is my last cup. Do you think I could use more brown rice instead? and the starches: is it possible to sub cornbread instead of potato??
 
Ilus ~ I've not tried the recipe with those substitutions so I can't say for sure, but I think brown rice flour and corn starch would be reasonable substitutes. (Assuming you mean corn starch and not cornbread.) :)
 
I've made this dough twice now and I can't get it to roll out easily. It gets flakey when I roll and it and won't stay together very well when I try to work with it. It seems like it's not wet enough but both times I've added extra flour. Could it be too wet?
 
My guess would be too that it's not wet enough. Does it hold together when you press it into a ball? It could also have to do with the actual rolling. Are you using a piece of plastic wrap on top when you roll it? If not, try that. Feel free to send me an email about it. glutenfreehomemaker (at) gmail (dot) com.
 
I'm sensitive to the sweet rice flours and potato starch. Anyone have some good alternatives or substitutes?
 
Vivacious ~ I would try additional brown or white rice flour in place of sweet rice, and corn starch or tapioca starch in place of the potato starch.
 
Are you supposed to dissolve the gelatin in the milk mixture prior to mixing? If not, what purpose does the gelatin serve?
 
The gelatin becomes wet enough when you mix in the milk, egg, and butter. Gelatin acts as a binder like gums do to replace gluten, and it adds protein.
 

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