Gluten-free, vegan, peach pie and crust

The final product! Looks, smells, and tastes delicious!

Gluten-free baking is a tricky, tricky, thing. Flours taste weird, things don't rise like they do with normal all purpose flour, sometimes it is really dense, and sometimes it turns out just right, like this pie and pie crust.

millions of peaches, peaches fo me!

I have been figuring out pie crusts for almost a year. I made a ton of pies last year with fresh pumpkin from our garden, preparing for Thanksgiving and wanting it to be perfect. The pie crust I used was ok. It tasted gluten-free and I didn't really enjoy it. It was a weird consistency and it was so funky. So, I gave pie making a rest until I saw rhubarb at the store and realized I had never had rhubarb, and more specifically, a strawberry rhubarb pie before. So I was set on a mission to create the perfect pie crust for this delicious sounding pie.

dry ingredients for the pie crust. 

The first time I made the pie, I did make a strawberry rhubarb pie. The crust was a bust. I added too much liquid, which made me add more flour to try and balance it out. I ended up having a TON of pie crust, and it came out super thick. I don't really like thick crusts... I would prefer a nice little layer of crust and mostly fillings with my pies. So, while it tasted good, I ended up mostly eating just the filling of the strawberry rhubarb pie. My partner loved it and ate it all.

Finally a good gf, vegan pie crust!

The second time I made a pie, I made it with apricots and the pie crust, after paying more attention, turned out perfect. I didn't make so much and I also made it thin enough that when I held up the pie pan to the light, I could see the light through it. Not like there were holes, but the crust was thin enough that I could see that there was a light on.

peaches cooking down, releasing their delicious juices!

So, of course, I had to make another pie to make it even better. I am really into pies lately. I especially like this pie because, well, it's pretty darn healthy for you. The replacement of coconut sugar is so much better than plain ol' granulated sugar. So my project was a peach pie, because oh my goodness, the peaches look heavenly.

sweet crust drops

This pie crust isn't all that sweet, so I added a little sweet crust drops on top of the pie. This was like what you'd put on top of a crisp. But, it wasn't filled with oats. It was the perfect sweet top to add to the tart strawberry rhubarb filling.

close up of the topping on the pie before baking.

I hope you enjoy this pie crust as much as I do. It really is my new go to pie crust. And it takes minutes to put it together.

Gluten-free, Vegan Pie Crust
Serving: 1 9-inch pie dish

1 1/2 c. brown rice flour
1 tbs. arrow root
3/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. coconut sugar
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 c. refined coconut oil, solid
1 1/2 tbs. vanilla extract
3 tbs. agave nectar
6 tbs. water

In a bowl, combine dry ingredients. With the mixer on low, gradually add in coconut oil a tablespoon at a time. Once the mix is crumbly, add in vanilla, coconut nectar and slowly add in water a tablespoon at a time until the dough all comes together and forms a ball.

Remove from bowl and form into a ball shape and flatten into a disk. Oil  bottom of pie plate, place disk into pie plate, using either the heel of your hand or pastry roller, press out into the bottom and sides of the plate; then use your hands to form crust and crimp edges. With a fork poke a few holes in the bottom of the crust. 

Preheat oven to 350°*. Place crust in freezer until it hardens up (usually about 15 minutes).

Bake for 5-6 minutes.

Pie Filling

5-6 peaches
1/4 c. coconut oil (solid)
6 tbs. coconut sugar
1 tbs. vanilla extract
2 tbs. arrowroot
1tbs. water

Place filling ingredients, excluding the arrowroot/water in a pot over medium heat, stirring frequently. After the peaches have cooked down, mixed together the arrowroot and water to form a slurry.

Pour arrowroot/water mixture into the peaches. Keep on the heat and stir until the mixture thickens (you'll be able to feel it, so keep stirring and mak sure it is evently combined and thickened.

Pour into pie crust.

Topping

1/4 c. coconut sugar
1/4 c. brown rice flour
2 tbs. coconut oil

Using a fork, mix together ingredients until they form a crumb like consistence. Place spread out on pie before baking.

Bake pie for 30 minutes. Let cool before placing in fridge. If you don't have enough patience as me, place pie in the freezer to help speed along the setting up of pie.

Enjoy at room temperature, or heated with a dollop of ice cream.

* I baked my pie in our grill (because it was 9.30 IN THE MORNING and it was already over 85 degrees in the house), which is like a conventional oven. Infrared is what they call it I think. I ended up baking it about 10 minutes shorter than I would have in the oven because it started to boil it over. So I just transfered it to the oven in the house and let it heat up the oven and continue to bake for the remainder minutes. I have to admit that I was a little nervous that it would taste like chicken since that's what we grill, but it doesn't. It tastes like peach pie and it is freakin' delicious. 

The oven for the pie. aka. the grill!

Pie siting on the grill

 

Spinach bake and fried eggs

Sheesh. This past week has been hectic! After last Tuesday, I woke up at about 1.30 in the morning with the most excruciating pain in my stomach. It felt like I was getting stabbed in my stomach. I woke up at 5 in the morning Wednesday and was sick. Not just the sniffles sick, but SIIIIIICK. And it wouldn’t stop. I asked myself many times, “how the hell is all this in my body? Why hasn’t it stopped?!” Needless to say, I didn’t eat or do any cooking on Wednesday. I stayed on the couch half the day, and when I wasn’t on the couch, I was in the bathroom.

The verdict? Norovirus. It’s awful. AWFUL! I was only sick Wednesday, and went back to work Thursday, although I didn’t really eat anything because I was to traumatized at the event of Wednesday, I didn’t dare touch a piece of food. So that was Wednesday and Thursday. The rest of the week? Well, let’s just say life got the best of me. Between the giant blizzard that dumped more than a foot of snow in 24 hours, to driving down to Phoenix for my partner’s fencing tournament, it’s been crazy. And now it’s Friday and I am ready for the weekend

But I am back! Sorry I was gone for so long. It’s Friday (YAY!) and it’s going to be about 70 degrees here in Flagstaff (BIGGER YAY!). I wore shorts today to embrace the warm weather and by doing so, hopefully telling the Universe that this is the weather that I want for the rest of the spring and summer.  

Tonight I decided to try something new! I grabbed three bunches of spinach from the store and cleaned the hell out of the spinach. Spinach is AWFULLY dirty, and it takes forever to clean. You can't really tell, but that water, is FILLED with sediment and dirt. 

I haven't been consistent with eating since I got so sick last week, and we've been so busy, that I made it a REQUIREMENT for me to cook tonight, because I needed to cook. One of my bosses has six chickens, and him and his lovely wife, who I consider very good friends, gave me some eggs. These eggs are so beautiful! There's white, brown, and even green! They taste so good... When you crack them open, the yolk is all orange and large. So. Good.

I am pretty sure that when you add butter (or something similar to butter) with onions, spinach, and garlic in a pan cooking, it just smells so good. We left work after three hours and decided to go fly fishing! I actually didn't fly fish, but I helped put together a fishing rod!

We didn't make this a vegan meal, because I REALLY wanted cheese. Aged cheese, of course, so I don't end up getting sick all over again, and let me tell you, this was a good idea. The sharp cheese from England was perfect with this dish. It added a great taste to it. 

I think you could eat anything with fried eggs. I have been on a roll with fried eggs. I want them on everything that I can have them on. I like them more than scrambled, probably because with fried, they don't have a weird texture like scrambled eggs have.

I also make the best freaking asparagus in the world. I don't really know the measurements. I cut them, I put olive oil on them, added a couple shakes of garlic salt, and pepper. You bake them till they get crunchy like french fries. They really are so good. My partner hates asparagus, but he loves mine! So that means I have something good up my sleeve!

 This was a great and different dinner. We both liked it. I think the eggs helped! :)

Spinach Bake and Fried Eggs:

3 bunches of spinach
1/2 red onion, diced
5 cloves of garlic, minced,
3 tablespoons of vegan butter (I use Earth Balance)
1/2 cup of cheese (vegan cheese, normal cheese, whatever your heart desires)
1 cup of vegetable stock
1 1/2 tsp of flour
4 eggs (two per person)

Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees.

Clean the spinach. Clean it REALLY, REALLY, REALLY well. Spinach is tricky and holds a lot of sediment, so I cleaned mine about four times. Once it's cleaned, you're going to de-stem it. I did this by simply pulling and twisting the bottom part of the spinach bunch. I am sure if you were to use baby spinach, you wouldn't have to do this.

Place the clean and de-stemmed spinach in a pot on medium heat and just cook it until it shrinks. This will take about 2-3 minutes. Once it's shrunk, place the spinach in cold water to shock it (stop it from cooking) and then drain it again.

Heat the "butter" in the pot until it melts. Start dicing up the onions and garlic. Once you're done, add all the ingredients into the pot and let it cook. Once the water from all the ingredients starts to leave (things will start to stick to the pot), add the flour and stir. Once incorporated, add half the stock and stir. Let it simmer, and if it is still really dry, add the rest of your stock. While things are simmering  you can grate some cheese if it isn't already grated.

Once all your ingredients have come together nicely, add the cheese, stir, and then place in an oiled 8x8 pan. Place in the over for about 30 minutes and cook until the top is a little bit golden brown.

In order to keep the bake warm, turn off the oven while you start frying the eggs. We ate two eggs each, and it was delicious. The yolk mixed perfectly with the spinach bake. Although, my "bake" doesn't mean that it's stiff. This was a little runny and I think it was perfect. I don't think it would be good if it was like a cake consistency.

Sorry the pictures are crappy. I couldn't find my camera, so I used my phone, and the light in our kitchen is pretty dim once the sun sets a little. But, it's still tasty!

Enjoy!