Years ago, I discovered a dessert recipe that quickly became a mainstay in our home. Because salted caramel and apples are meant to be together and their union should happen in my stomach. Amen.

Soon, we’d tweaked this recipe and turned it into a full pie drizzled with my homemade salted caramel sauce, instead of using the candies it calls for. Also, we discovered that adding cardamom takes it from “yum” to “holy awesome sauce.”

And when it was confirmed that I am, in fact, gluten intolerant (duh), my sweet husband took it upon himself to figure out how to make it gluten-free. Thankfully, it wasn’t too hard, albeit rolling out gluten-free dough is quite different than regular dough and, well, there was a lot of swearing.

But the pie was fantastic!

And now, because the holidays are coming and I tend to post pictures when I make pie and I know someone’s going to ask for the recipe, I thought I’d share it with you. Because you really do need this pie in your life.

Gluten-Free Apple Pie Recipe

Let’s get started, shall we?

Dough

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose gluten-free flour (we use this stuff)
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 cup (2 sticks) cold, unsalted butter (I frequently use salted and it still tastes good)
• 1/2 cup cold sour cream (plain yogurt also works)

Directions

1. Whisk dry ingredients together in a large bowl.
2. Using a cheese grater, grate cold butter into the bowl. Mix it in with your fingers until it’s the consistency of wet sand. (You can also cube the butter, but my pastry chef brother-in-law taught us the grating trick and it works so much better.)
3. Stir in the sour cream (dough will be super wet), turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface. Knead the dough a few times until it comes together.
4. Place a sheet of plastic wrap or parchment paper over the dough and use a rolling pin to roll it into an 8″ by 10″ rectangle. (Using a rolling pin straight on this dough is super frustrating. You can also just use your fingers to form the rectangle.) Dust both sides of the dough with flour and fold it into thirds as though you’re folding a letter.
5. Rotate dough 90 degrees and roll it out to 8″x10″ one more time. Fold it in thirds again. Wrap it securely in plastic (we stick it in a large freezer bag) and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

While it’s chilling making the filling (Oh my gosh, that rhymes. Pardon me while I giggle and high five myself.)

Filling

Ingredients

• 6 cups apples (about 5 medium apples)
• 5 tsp fresh lemon juice
• 1 ½ tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp cardamom
• 2 drops cardamom essential oil (optional)
• ¾ cup sugar
• 2 Tbsp gluten-free flour

Directions

1. Clean the bowl you used for the dough so you can make the filling in it.
2. Peel and slice the apples (about 1/2 inch thick).
3. Put them in your large bowl and add the rest of the ingredients, stirring well to combine.

Let it sit while you roll out the dough.

Put it all together

Preheat the oven to 375ºF.

Take the dough out of the refrigerator and cut it into two equal pieces. Sometimes I go so far as to weigh each piece to make sure they’re equal, but I find that I’m pretty close just by eyeballing it.

Roll one piece of dough into a circle (or as close as you can get it) on the surface you used earlier. Remember to cover the dough with plastic wrap and roll over that to make your life way easier. Or use your fingers.

Once it’s rolled out, place your pie plate upside down in the center of the dough. Very carefully, slide one hand under dough and put one on top of the pie place and flip them so the dough ends up on the plate. I use something called a Roul’Pat when I roll out dough and slide my hand under that and then carefully peel it off of my dough.

Pat the dough into place on the pie plate and fill in any holes with dough that’s overlapping on the edges, as I’ve found it tears easily. Once your satisfied with how it looks, carefully pour in the pie filling. Scrape the bowl and drizzle any remaining juices over the apples if you can resist just spooning them into your mouth.

Repeat the rolling out process with the second piece of dough and carefully transfer the dough to the top of the pie. Again, I use my Roul’Pat and place it upside down on the pie and peel it off.

Using your fingers, pinch together crusts and cut off excess around the edges. (I like to roll that out and cover with melted butter, cinnamon and sugar for a pie cookie treat.) Make vent holes in the top crust, either with a fork or knife or cookie cutter. You have creative license here.

This is usually where I hand it off to my husband to finish so it looks pretty. My efforts usually look … sloppy.

Cover the top of the pie with foil and place it in the oven. Bake for 40 minutes, remove the foil and bake an additional 20 minutes.

Remove and place on a cooling rack. Resist cutting into the pie before it’s cooled at least 30 minutes as it will be atomic. Pie is so much better when you’re tongue isn’t burned.

Drizzle with caramel sauce and top with fresh whipped cream. Or just enjoy as-is.

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