According to Monash University, a low FODMAP serving of cream cheese is considered less than 1.41 ounces. You could have 1 large slice or two small slices of this pie and still be in the green here.
This is maybe my all-time favorite pie crust. I love cream cheese in any dessert, although normally I prefer it front and center and not just hidden in a crispy, flaky dough.
What I might love most about this crust is how forgiving it is when you’re molding it into a disc and rolling it out. Much more than with an all-butter crust, and sort of like a shortening crust, it feels and behaves like almost a playdough consistency. Taking it in and out of the fridge or freezer to cut shapes, it’s much easier to hold a little shape and cut a leaf or whatever before it begins to melt around your hand, losing whatever detail you’ve achieved so far.
Below is a good example of what this dough starts to look like once a little cream cheese is pulsed into the flour mixture. This is about the size I like to tear pieces of cream cheese into to get it food-processor-ready.
Here’s what the food processor starts to look like once you add in your butter (first two photos below) and pulse to combine. You should be able to pinch it and have it retain its shape like I’m doing below! As you can see, I’ve been very good and gone to zero nail salons since the quarantine began.
At this point, you’ll now be turning the doughy, crumbly mixture in your processor into a big mixing bowl. Drizzle 3 tablespoons of your lactose-free milk or half & half across the top and stir with a wooden spoon or fork, adding additional milk and turning up and stirring after each tablespoon addition – until it looks like the first picture below.
This dough should feel a little damp and pliable, sort of like playdough in that it’s pliable but not too sticky. Now turn this dough out in 2 even batches onto 2 sheets of wax paper.
Use your hands to form each pile of crumbly dough into a disc in the 4 steps pictured below! It doesn’t need to be perfectly round, I’m just neurotic and I knew I was gonna be taking pictures.
Use the wax paper each disc is sitting on to gently wrap up the pie crusts and stack on top of each other, then slide into a gallon ziplock bag or wrap tightly in saran wrap. Allow the 2 crust discs to rest in the refrigerator for at least an hour before rolling out.
After your crust is rested, pull out the discs and follow my directions for rolling out in the recipe card below! Here are a lot of pictures to use for reference if this is one of your first times making a crust like this. See how the crust cracks a little in the second picture as I roll it out? Totally normal. I just keep pressing it together lightly with my hands until I’ve gotten the thickness and shape I can work with.
Here’s how I begin to roll up the crust I use for the top pie crust, onto my rolling pin to transfer it to a cutting board, making it easy to vent or lattice and just slide right onto my filled bottom crust later. Remember to keep putting everything you’re not using into the fridge until you’re ready for the next step – while you’re finishing the filling, put both crusts back in the fridge! While you’re filling the bottom crust, put the top crust back in the fridge until you’re ready to slide it on!
Here’s how I assembled and crimped the edges (with a fork) for my strawberry & peach pie – my very favorite summertime filling to pair with cream cheese pie crust. Recipe coming soon! Leave a comment or contact me to request this pie filling be my next recipe I post. I just need a reason to get organized! Your craving for this pie could be that reason. We could be the ultimate team.
Don’t… decide now. Think about it.
GOT CRUST HOLES?
Below, you can see I had a little hole I needed to fill in my crust. I used the scraps from where I trimmed the edge of the bottom crust, to the left, to patch it up – no problem. I took a little water onto my fingertip and brushed it across the patch until it looked like my middle picture here. There are absolutely no leaks in my pie every time I do this (an average of once per pie, tbh).
Here (below again) you can see the foil bands I cut out for the edge while I waited on a real silicone protector to arrive!
Gluten Free Cream Cheese Pie Crust
A flaky, buttery, tangy, delicious crust that’s as forgiving as a shortening crust – but way more flavorful. MAYBE Brookey’s favorite pie crust.
8
servings1
hour2
hoursIngredients
2 1/4 cups gluten free baking flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
12 tablespoons butter (or 1.5 sticks)
6 ounces cold cream cheese, cut or ripped into small pieces
6-10 tablespoons lactose-free milk
- Hardware
9-inch pie plate (glass preferred)
rolling pin or bottle of wine
wax paper
gallon ziplock bag or saran wrap
Directions
- In a food processor, pulse together gluten free flour, sugar, salt. Add cream cheese in two batches, pulsing each time until combined. Add butter in three batches, pulsing a couple times after each addition – and after the last addition, until the mixture resembles coarse, powdery crumbs (see my pics above). You can do this in two batches if you need to, just make sure to dice up the butter and cream cheese in accurate half-batches and wrap in wax paper in the fridge until ready to use.
- Drizzle 3 tablespoons lactose free milk or half & half over the top and pulse, adding additional milk and pulsing 1-2 tablespoons at a time – until it looks like my pictures above where I’m pinching it like it’s playdough. It will be like playdough, but a little drier and crumblier.
- Turn dough in 2 even batches onto 2 sheets of wax paper on the counter. Form each of these roughly equal half-batches into a flat, circular disc-like shape like pictured above in this post.
- Wrap the edges of the wax paper beneath the crust discs around the crust and cover wax paper packages tightly with saran wrap, or toss both discs in a stack into a gallon ziplock bag and put into the refrigerator to rest for at least 1 hour.
- One at a time, pull out rested crust and unwrap onto a well-dusted surface of gluten free flour.
- You may need to let this crest rest on the counter for up to 10 minutes. Check the crust disc with your hand to see if it’s warmed up a little and pliable – but you still want it quite cold! Just warm enough to start slowly rolling out with your pin without it tearing too much.
- Slowly roll out your crust disc, being careful to gently roll in all directions to make as even of a circle shape as you can. Try to get the crust to be about a 12-inch circle, and about 1/8 – 1/4 inch thick. I like a thicker pie crust, so this is also kind of up to preference in this range.
- Now pull out your second pie crust disc and let it start resting on the counter in the wax paper while you fit your first crust into your pie dish.
- Roll crust loosely onto rolling pin to get it off the counter, rolling out carefully into a 9-inch glass pie plate. Let the sides of the crust hang over the edges of the pan and press gently into the pan with your fingertips until crust is evenly fitted into the dish and there are no air bubbles underneath.
- Put pie dish with rolled crust fitted to it into refrigerator while you repeat steps 6-7 with the second dough disc.
- Leaving the second crust on the counter and taking the pie plate with the first crust out of the fridge, place the pie plate over the rolled out crust on the counter and use an unclicked ballpoint pin or butter knife to gently trace the outline of the outer edge of the pie plate onto the crust. So you’ll be able to tell where to place your upper crust to make it even when you assemble your filling and cover with this crust to bake.
- Slide a thin cutting board or baking sheet under the crust you’ll use for the top pie crust under it and place both bottom and upper crusts into the fridge until you’re done with your pie filling.
- If cooking with a cooked pie filling like my blueberry pie recipe, allow this filling to completely cool before pouring into the bottom crust.
- Cut a few vents, make a lattice-style crust, or use cookie cutters to make vent shapes into top crust (you really only need a few small vents or shapes, sometimes I just do way more for fun or if I have a particularly beautiful fruit I’m working with).
- Take out bottom crust with filling, cut excess dough from around the edge of the dish and brush the remaining edges of the crust with water or milk to seal with the top crust.
- Slide vented crust onto filled pie, press down onto the edges all around the circle to seal or crimp into desired edge shape (I just pressed down and sealed with brushed moisture for my pictured recipe) and cook in oven according to pie recipe – or using my generic pie baking recipe card below!
How to Bake a Pie
- Cook Time: 3-4 Hours
- Servings: 8
- Difficulty: Easy
- Ingredients
- 9 inch pie plate, preferably glass
- a baking sheet the pie plate can fit on
- a pie crust protector band or lots of foil cut into 2 very long strips about 4 inches wide
- 2 pie crust discs (see: my cream cheese and all-butter pie crust recipes)
- 5-7 cups pie filling
- melted butter or lactose-free milk or half & half
- sanding sugar (optional)
- wax paper
- Instructions
- Position a rack in the lower third of the oven with no racks over it, or at least very far above it so a pie can very comfortably fit and be lifted out safely.
- Roll out pie crust according to instructions and pictures in either of my pie crust recipes.
- Add filling to the bottom crust that is fitted to the pie plate and trimmed about an inch over the edge of the glass rim.
- Slide vented crust onto filled pie, press down onto the edges all around the circle to seal or crimp into desired edge shape (I just pressed down and sealed with brushed milk for my pictured recipe). Put whole pie into the freezer to rest while oven preheats to 425° (25-30 minutes).
- Cover the edges of the crimped, sealed crust with a crust protector (if metal, butter it lightly – silicone no need) or an oiled, wide band of foil. You can use 2 bands of foil and crimp the edges together on either side of the crust to be extra gentle with your edges.
- Cook for 30 minutes at 425°, with no baking sheet underneath – straight on the rack. Slip a baking sheet under the pie at 30 minutes and reduce oven temperature to 350°. Continue to cook for about 30 more minutes, taking out when crust is deliciously golden brown and thicky fruity juices bubble up through the vents.
- Let cool for 3 to 4 hours and slice and serve at room temperature. Also delicious cold out of the refrigerator the day after, but slices can be rewarmed to preference in the microwave or a 350 degree oven for about 10 minutes.
