The Best All-Butter Gluten-Free Pastry (no xanthan gum)
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This homemade All-Butter Gluten-Free Pastry Recipe is so easy to work with and incredibly versatile. We use three alternative flours to achieve the perfect crisp texture and incredible buttery taste. It’s delicious as a crust for fruit pies, tarts and mince pies or for savoury quiches. Plus there is no xanthan gum in this recipe so everyone can enjoy it.
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One of my most frequently asked questions is ‘How do you make the perfect gluten-free pastry?’
Let me tell you, gluten-free pastry is so much easier to make than you think. It can seem intimidating as it’s confusing knowing which brand of flour is best and whether we should add xanthan gum or not.
Well actually there is a better way. We use three particular alternative flours so you can make this pastry whatever country you are baking in as it is not brand dependent. Plus there is no xanthan gum in this recipe so if you are intolerant or don’t like using it then rest assured - you simply don’t need it here.
Despite the minutiae of detail I’ve given you below making gluten-free pastry is actually pretty simple. I can’t wait to ignite your love for gluten-free pie baking and give you bags of confidence in making any pastry recipe you like.
Why You’ll Love This Gluten-Free Shortcrust Pastry
- There is no complicated technique.
- Only 3 alternative flours are used.
- No xanthan gum!! Read More >>> Why I never bake with xanthan gum – this ingredient is not my favourite.
- Easy to roll out with no cracking.
- Gorgeously buttery taste. The pie crust alone is a treat before you’ve even filled it!
- Beautifully crisp texture.
- So versatile - can be used for sweet or savoury recipes.
Ingredients needed
- Sweet rice flour – this is the important flour to use. It gives the pastry excellent structure. It’s unique binding properties give the pastry elasticity so it’s easy and forgiving to roll. Also it’s quite neutral in taste so will go with everything.
- Sorghum flour – adds a crisp bite to the pastry and a lovely earthy flavour.
- Tapioca flour – a smooth soft flour which also helps bind the ingredients but also gives a lovely golden colour and crust when baked.
- Butter – this is how we achieve our beautifully buttery flavour.
- Eggs – we use a whole egg for a rich taste then an extra egg white on top helps to avoid a crumbly pastry.
- Salt – just a pinch.
Flour substitutions
The sweet rice flour and the tapioca flour are non-negotiable flours here I’m afraid – they provide very unique roles in the texture and colour of the pastry. The sorghum flour is a great all-rounder and makes the perfect triumvirate but it can be substituted.
My favourite substitutions for the sorghum flour are the following:
Buckwheat flour – lovely with fruit pies or quiche.
Chestnut flour – perfect for seasonal baking like mince pies and complimentary with rich flavours like this stilton tart.
How do you make gluten-free pastry?
If you have made pastry before then you will find this recipe a cinch. There is no complicated technique, lengthy resting time or expensive equipment. Just a mixing bowl, a balloon whisk, baking parchment, rolling pin and your hands.
- Whisk together the sweet rice flour, sorghum flour, tapioca flour and salt.
- Slice the cold butter directly from the fridge and rub into the pastry until the texture is quite shaggy.
- Make a well and pour in the whisked egg + egg white.
- Bring the dough together in the bowl then tip it out onto a floured surface and knead for a minute or so until the dough becomes a cohesive smooth ball.
- Wrap in baking parchment and rest for an hour in the fridge.
- Roll the pastry out between two sheets of floured baking parchment to the size required.
- What you do next with the pastry will depend on what you are making.
Pro Baking Tips
Now that you know the loose method let’s get into the nitty gritty details to ensure your pastry is perfect every time.
Butter
- Keep the butter cold. Take it out of the fridge just before you slice it and place it into the flour. Tuck each slice of butter into the flour one at a time rather than dumping it in all at once. Cold butter means that as it melts during the bake which means a tender pastry. Warm butter means greasy tough pastry.
- You don’t want to turn the butter and flour into breadcrumbs. The butter should have some larger pieces and a rough craggy texture.
Eggs
You will need an extra egg white for this recipe but save the egg yolk. It’s perfect to use for either sealing the pastry during the blind bake if that’s what your recipe requires or for an egg wash on the pastry crust.
Bringing the dough together
When you have added the eggs, start bringing the dough together with floured hands. Once it more or less holds together in a very shaggy ball, then tip out onto a floured surface and gently knead together for a good couple of minutes. The gluten-free flours will absorb the liquid from the egg, and it will start to become smooth, not sticky or crumbly. Once you can roll it between your palms into a nice smooth ball then wrap in parchment paper.
Resting
The pastry needs to rest in the fridge for at least 1 hour before rolling out so the flours can relax into each other and absorb the liquid which makes it a stronger pastry. Plus the butter needs to chill.
Flouring
Use tapioca flour for flouring the surface, your hands and for rolling out the pastry. I recommend a flour shaker so that it dusts the worktop lightly and evenly.
Rolling
- After the chill the best tip is to roll the pastry out between two sheets of lightly floured baking parchment. It makes rolling the pastry out so much easier, it doesn’t stick to the rolling pin and means no fuss in transferring the pastry to a pie dish.
- Use a long wooden rolling pin.
- If you need to roll your pastry into a round then turn the baking parchment round a quarter after every roll.
- Roll the rolling pin in deft smooth movements from the centre out to ensure a nice even pastry surface.
- The pastry should be about 5mm thickness (too thin and the pastry will be difficult to handle).
- When your pastry is the right size, use your rolling pin to help lift it over the pie tin if that’s what you’re making.
- If you’re making small individual tarts then this is the point where you use your pastry cutter to achieve the right sizes.
Patch that pastry
Cracking can happen when you go to transfer your pastry wherever it needs to go, especially if you are a nervous first timer and aren’t working quite as deftly. Don’t fret at all – gluten-free pastry is more fragile. Just patch up the breaks or cracks with the excess pastry. No one will be any the wiser.
Second chill
Once you have rolled the pastry and placed it in your pie or tart tin then chill it a second time for 30 minutes before the bake. This will mean your butter gets cold again and your pastry will be crisp but tender.
How much pastry does this make?
This amount of pastry that this recipe makes is enough for an 8 inch double crust pie. Or for 12 mini tarts made in a regular sized muffin tin.
However, I do not halve the recipe if I’m just making a single crust as it’s easier to make if sticking to these quantities.
If you have leftover pastry then you can freeze it or keep it in the fridge for up to 3 days. However, I like to use it to make jam tarts.
How can you use this gluten-free pastry?
- As a crust for pies, fruit tarts or savoury quiches
- Mince pies
- Jam Tarts
More gluten-free recipes you'll love
- Gluten-Free Puff Pastry
- Gluten-Free Mince Pies
- Gluten-Free Sausage Rolls
- Gluten-Free Apple Pie
- Gluten-Free Cheese Quiche
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The Best All-Butter Gluten-Free Pastry (no xanthan gum)
Ingredients
- 120 g sweet rice flour - glutinous rice flour
- 110 g sorghum flour
- 60 g tapioca flour
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
- 200 g unsalted butter - cold from the fridge
- 1 egg + 1 egg white - medium sized, lightly whisked together
Instructions
- In a large mixing bowl whisk together the sweet rice flour, sorghum flour, tapioca flour and salt.
- Slice the butter very thinly directly from the fridge and add to the flour.
- Rub the mixture between fingertips until roughly shorn. The mixture does not need to resemble breadcrumbs. It’s okay that the butter is still in largish pieces. It should look quite shaggy in the flour.
- Make a well in the centre and pour in the eggs.
- Bring the dough together using your hands.
- Turn the pastry out on to a floured work surface and knead for about two minutes until the dough comes together into a smooth ball which is no longer sticky.
- Cut the pastry into two, one half slightly larger than the other.
- Roll each half into balls and flatten slightly to make two thick round discs. Wrap each in baking parchment.
- Place in the fridge for 1 hour to chill before rolling out.
- Cut two large pieces of baking parchment, around the size you need to roll the pastry out to. Flour them on the inside and place one of your chilled pastry discs between the parchment.
- Using a long rolling pin roll out the pastry until it is about 5mm thick.
- The pastry is then ready to use.
Video
Notes
- Butter - Keep the butter cold and use it directly from the fridge.
- Rubbing the butter and flour – you want to end up with the butter in largish pieces and a rough craggy texture.
- Eggs - You will need an extra egg white for this recipe but save the egg yolk. It’s perfect to use for either sealing the pastry during the blind bake if that’s what your recipe requires or for an egg wash on the pastry crust.
- Flouring - Use tapioca flour for flouring the surface, your hands and for rolling out the pastry. I recommend a flour shaker so that it dusts the worktop lightly and evenly.
- Rolling - After the chill the best tip is to roll the pastry out between two sheets of lightly floured baking parchment. It makes rolling the pastry out so much easier, it doesn’t stick to the rolling pin and means no fuss in transferring the pastry to a pie dish.
- Don’t worry if you pastry breaks when you transfer it, gluten-free pastry is more fragile. You can patch it up with your pastry scraps.
- Once you have rolled the pastry and placed it in your pie or tart tin then chill it a second time for 30 minutes before the bake. This will mean your butter gets cold again and your pastry will be beautifully flaky.
Ingredient measurements
- Please note when you see ‘grams’ listed as opposed to ‘millilitres,’ or any other term of measurement, that is not incorrect. I weigh all of my ingredients, including liquids, for accuracy.
- US customary measurements for the ingredients provided are based on a conversion calculator. This recipe was tested with metric measurements and I recommend using a digital scale to weigh ingredients for the most accurate results. READ MORE >>> Why you should always weigh vs measuring with cups
I only have white rice flour can this be used.
My son-in-law is sensitive to Xanthan Gum so trying to find other recipes.
Thanks
Dawn
Hi Dawn, I'm afraid not as sweet rice flour is a starchy flour and has the elasticity you need for this recipe. However, I have been having some success recently with using chickpea flour in place of the sweet rice flour if that is any help.
Oh my gosh! I am in heaven! I haven’t had apple pie in I don’t know how many years! I tried your pastry recipe tonight and used my mom‘s apple pie filling recipe. I can’t thank you enough for this pastry recipe. Yes it was delicate and a little fragile to work with but your instructions were superb and I ate two pieces tonight. I am so grateful. Hello from Ontario Canada.
I'm so happy to hear that! Nothing beats mom's apple pie and that's great to hear the pastry worked out for you!
Thanks for this recipe. I have a bag of sorghum flour I'm worried will go off soon. Could I make a big batch of this pastry and freeze balls do you think?
Hi Lucy - yes this pastry freezes very well. Double wrap in plastic wrap and aluminium foil to avoid any spoilage. Freeze for up to 2 months. Defrost in the fridge for 24 hours.
Are you sure the butter gets kneaded into the dough? This will be my first attempt at gluten-free pastry and kneading the dough seems counter-intuitive. Looking forward to giving it a try.
Yes you need to incorporate the butter into the dough, you pull it together in a kneading style to become a cohesive ball.
Hi!
Really excited to make this! I've never made pastry from scratch before, but your other recipes are a god send so I'm going to trust the process... I want to make smaller pies (about muffin tray size) for Halloween with a little bit of of the crust on top for decoration (either with your pumpkin recipe or maybe some stewed fruit). Do I need to blind bake the pastry first if I do this? How long should I cook it for now that the size is smaller than the original here? or is there a way you know it's "done" by looking at or feeling it?
Thanks so much!
Hi Sarah, no the pastry does not need to be blind baked if you are baking mini pies/tarts. You don't want the filling too wet though. They will take about 20-25 minutes in the oven. The pastry on top will look golden and crisp and you can see if the underneath is baked by lifting one of the tarts up and having a look at it - you want it to be dry, crisp and just turning golden.
Hi Sarah, what oven temp for tarts?
It really depends on what filling you are using in your pastry. I bake my custard tarts at 190°C / 170°C fan / gas mark 5 if that helps at all.
Hi Kim, my apple pie is made. It's the first ever pie I have made in my 61 years. It looks and taste delicious! Thank you for your pastry recipe.
I'm so happy you enjoyed the recipe Wendy!
Can this be used for crossiants?
Unfortunately not, this is very much a pastry rather than a croissant dough.
Have you a recipe or pastry suitable for making Tarte Tartin please?
There isn't one published at the moment.
Georgina, once again, thank you, my first attempt at gluten free pastry and was really delicious. Few cracks appeared in base after blind baking which meant I lost a little of my egg mix but it baked pretty quickly so didn't affect end result apar from appearance. I filled my quiche with allotment goodies, chard, garlic, onion, broad beans, courgette, tomatoes and stilton, not from the allotment. Going to now have a go at a gooseberry flan. Hoping thicker pastry will banish my cracked base!!
Denise
Hi Denise, I'm so happy the recipe worked well for you - thank you for your feedback!
Hi,
Made several baked items with this pastry and it is wonderful, husband loves it so it has to be good.
Hi there. Is sweet rice flour the same as glutinous rice flour ?
Hi Kim - yes it is!
Hello Kim, I am making an apple pie. Do I need to bake blind first and if so, how long?
Hi Wendy, no you don't need to blind bake it. You might like to check out my recipe for Gluten-Free Apple Pie for the tips.
Lovely pastry. Finally made a gluten free pastry that is not cardboard. I misread the recipe and used white rice flour instead of sweet rice flour but it came out very well - crisp and not at all soggy or board like. Used to make a quiche and it all went down very well! Thank you Georgina for the recipe.
Such a pleasure - I'm happy you enjoyed the recipe!
This is a fabulous recipe!
I have been looking for a simple GF pastry for years, and have tried many, including creating my own, all with the result of most of it going in the bin. Now finally, we have a recipe that works and is delicious. It pays to chill it as suggested, especially before it goes into the oven, and to keep some tapioca flour to hand to dust the baking parchment with - I also needed a long fish slice to ease up some pieces.
It works equally well in sweet and savoury, hot and cold, and I felt very clever (and very grateful to Georgina) when my quiches and apple pie were roundly applauded at a recent al fresco post-lockdown lunch!
I've since made this again, using teff flour as I'd run out of sorghum, to make pasties. They were good, certainly far better than previous efforts, but not quite as satisfying as the sorghum-based recipe.
Thank you, thank you, thankyou!!
Hi Michelle, thank you for your lovely feedback and you are more than welcome. I like the sound of using teff flour!
Hi Georgina - I want to make this pastry, I am searching for a good gf pie crust. I need to source the sweet rice flour and assuming glutinous rice flour is the same thing? I have just found one on Amazon at about £1.80 for 500g, the best price so far. It looks like an Asian import, do you think this would be OK to try or do you have a recommendation please? Also re sorghum. I can get this online but do have buckwheat already. Will this give the same quality of pastry?
Many thanks
Sandra
Hi Sandra, I know I answered your query elsewhere but just in case other readers are interested in the answer. Yes, sweet rice flour and glutinous rice flour are the same thing. You can use the Asian imports but they are not certified gluten-free so bear that in mind if that is a factor for your health. Yes, you can use buckwheat instead of sorghum. It will be delicious but a different flavour. Sorghum is a more well-rounded flavour and buckwheat is a lot more earthy - it depends on what you are using the pastry for to whether buckwheat is the right choice. I have a post on the flavour profile of buckwheat for your interest >>> The Ultimate Guide to Buckwheat Flour
Hi Georgina we found the sweet rice flour in an Asian shop doesn't say may contain so bit concerned looking to find sweet rice flour sorghum flour elsewhere also hard to find tapioca flour. can you help. Also Can you make this pastry in a mixer.
The sweet rice flour (often called glutinous rice flour) which you find in Asian supermarkets is usually okay for coeliacs as there is rarely a chance for cross contamination. But I understand if you feel safer purchasing from an approved source. I have updated the post to give suggestions of the brands I like from Amazon (you can find this in the body of the post for the actual links- below the section on ingredients) but they are from a company called yourhealthstore.co.uk. I haven't tried this pastry in a mixer but I don't see why not. It's very easy to do by hand and less washing up.
I don't have any sorghum flour but I have the others and a bag of chestnut flour left over from Christmas.... could that work? Husband has requested cherry pie for the weekend!
This is so good. Until now I'd never eaten a half-decent gluten-free pastry, let alone made one.
Thank you! Yet another of your recipes working like a dream.
I've used it to make mince pies and they went down a storm — I know a mince pie fiend and she said she wouldn't have known they were gluten free unless I'd told her.
I would love to do a big savoury pie. Would you recommend blind-baking it first?
Yes - perfect for mince pies. No, I wouldn't worry about blind baking with mincemeat.
Thanks so much for sharing this recipe. I used it to make a BLT quiche and a Pink Pearl Apple Custard Tart. My family loved the crust! I immediately made 2 crusts with chestnut flour and froze them. The question is, what’s the best way to thaw the dough out?
That's lovely to hear - gosh that Apple Custard Tart sounds wonderful!!! The best way to thaw out the pastry is to place it in the fridge overnight. Check that it has completely defrosted then remove it from the fridge about half an hour before you want to roll it out so it becomes a little more malleable.
I used this pastry recipe to make an apple pie. The recipe was very easy to follow. As described, the pastry is fragile and it definitely works better to roll it between two sheets of baking paper. I had a couple of breaks when putting the pastry lid on but it patches really easily and even I couldn't see the joins after a little smoothing. The pastry is tasty, very buttery, and it tasted just as good cold as it did hot. It tastes like 'real' butter pastry, and is not bland or over-salted or over-sugared like some bought gluten-free pastries. Thank you.
That's great Annie! Thank you so much for your feedback. I'm so happy you enjoyed the recipe!!
I am not really a pastry person. The filling has always seemed the point to me. Never understood all the flaky crust hype. However I must say this is a flaky crust. I rarely made pie crusts before being gluten free. None since. But wanted to make a gallette. Had to sub buckwheat for the sorghum. Would millet have worked as substitute for sotghum? Husband and son loved it. Crust actually outshown the filling as the peaches were under ripe. Very flaky. Will do again for pears or apples soon.
Hi Ellen, that's great to hear! I know what you mean about pastry but I have really grown to love it. Yes, you could also substitute millet for the sorghum. Pears and apples sound great!! I made a lovely Blueberry Galette with the pastry last week too.
I'd give this recipe more than 5 stars if I could. I've used it in a chicken pot pie, pumpkin pie and for jam tarts. So delicious. I won't ever need to look elsewhere for a pastry recipe again. Thanks!
That's great to hear - thank you Fatima!!
This sounds great, but I’m allergic to eggs. Any thoughts on that?
Answering myself, I made this with. the Plant Based Egg and it came out great. Nice and crispy and flaky. https://freelyvegan.com/the-plant-based-egg/