Gluten Free Vegan Apple Pie

Takes 80 minutes. 8 servings.

A vegan and gluten free apple pie, but with all the butteriness and flakiness of the regular kind. I very much stumbled onto this recipe through a video where I try to bake things WITHOUT using a recipe. The inspiration came from a giant fruit box that my mum sent me for my birthday, and a need together rid of as many apples as possible. Check out the video below to see how I made it!

Vegan butter

The vegan butter I used was from Natruli, and is made from a blend of coconut, almond, rapeseed and shea. I found that it worked incredibly well, but I know some other vegan butters might have a different reaction to being worked into pastry so be mindful of that. But as long as you make sure you get a block kind, not a spread you will be able to make it work.

Almond Flour

This was really a lucky spur of the moment decision. The almond flour gave the pastry a buttery flavour that maybe vegan butter lacks. Almond flour is also great for making pastries have a lighter feel - which is always needed in gluten free baking. It's also great for giving moisture to the bake, so no dry and dense pastry for us! The only downside to almond flour is that it is high in fat content, which means it can go off quicker. It's best to store this apple pie in the fridge, in a container if possible to get a longer shelf life. But I don't think you will want to store it for long....

I N G R E D I E N T S

For the filling

• 4 apples, diced

• 1 tbsp caster sugar

• 120ml water

• 3 tsp cornflour

• 1 tsp cinnamon

For the pastry

• 250 grams of gluten free flour

• 50 grams of almond flour

• 1/2 Tbsp caster sugar

• 1/2 tsp xanthan gum

• 1/8 tsp salt

• 130 grams of vegan butter

• 30ml water

M E T H O D

1. Dice the apples into cubes.

2. Add apples to a saucepan with the caster sugar and cinnamon.

3. In a seperate bowl, mix together the water and cornflour until dissolved, and then add to the saucepan with the apples.

4. Stir everything together and then cook over a medium heat, stirring frequently, for about 20 minutes or until the mixture thickens. Take the mixture off the heat and let cool before adding to into the pastry.

5. While the apples are cooking, you can make the pastry.

6. Combine the gluten free flour, almond flour, caster sugar, xanthan gum, and salt in a large bowl.

7. Cube the cold vegan butter, add to the flour mixture and rub together with your fingers.

8. Once the pastry is like bread crumbs, and in the water and knead until a smooth dough forms. If you are struggling to form a dough, add another splash of water.

9. Cover the dough and chill in the fridge for 20 minutes. Preheat the oven to 180° celsius/bake.

10. Once the dough is chilled, roll it out onto a piece of gladwrap/cling film. This will make it easier when moving it to the tart case.

11. Gently place the dough into the tart case (I use an 18cm in diameter tart case). If it has cracked - don't worry! You can patch it up with spare pieces of dough.

12. Prick the dough several times with a fork, then place in the oven to bake for 15 minutes or until beginning to turn golden.

13. Once the pastry has cooked, removed from oven and add the apple filling. If you would like, use the extra pastry to lattice over top, or for any other decoration.

14. Cook for another 15-20 minutes at 160° celsius/bake, or until the top pastry has baked.

15. Remove from the oven, and let it cool slightly before cutting into.

16. Enjoy with some vegan vanilla ice cream!