Best Gluten Free Pastry Flour for Flaky Pies and Tender Tarts

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Wheat does not = Flour       it's only one  of many flours

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    What if we used other flours besides wheat not just because we can't tolerate wheat, but because they out preform wheat in taste, function and nutrition in certain areas? What if they weren't a substitute, but exactly what we wanted for the job? This is a radical idea, but we're getting closer to realizing that wheat isn't flour, it's just one type of flour, and doesn't always do the best job.
    
​    I love the versatility and ease of my gluten free all purpose flour mix. It makes superior to wheat, no kidding, baked goods. Especially, baked goods where you don’t want the gluten to form as in: cakes, muffins, cookies, tea breads, and quick breads. I use it with confidence in a one to one substitute for wheat flour in most recipes.                    
    While my gf all purpose makes ok pastry, and can be used in a pinch, I felt the need to develop a pastry flour that I could count on to perform reliably.  I’m proud to say I’ve done it, and best of all it’s such a simple straightforward ratio, I love it.
    I need a pastry flour that works for either flaky or tender doughs. It needs to brown, stand-up without being tough, and not crumble. It needs to taste mild, like white flour, and not be grainy or too starchy. In fact, I wanted people to not even notice it's not wheat unless told. I just want them to think it's  the best pastry they’ve ever eaten.
    Tall order, but I’ll let you in on my thinking on how I came to my pastry flour mix that fits all of the criteria. 
    I like a two parts protein flour to one part starch flour in my gluten-free mixes. The protein flour provides structure, and the starches moisture and glue. I also add a gum for  an extra hold things togetherness.
    My all purpose mix uses sorghum flour as its structural protein component. I use it because of its health and nutritional benefits, its mild flavor, and because it doesn’t have the grainy grit of rice flours. I use potato starch as the starch, because it lends moisture, and a tender quality while having as much ability as corn starch to stabilize. Potato starch also tolerates higher baking temperatures. It's a resistant starch, that when cooled is an excellent prebiotic. Have you noticed that glue and gluten sound alike?
    I knew only using potato starch was what needed to change to make a good pastry flour. I decided to add tapioca starch and ground flaxseed to the mix. Tapioca helps to add crispness to crusts, and chew to baked goods.  
    When I first started playing around with gluten free baking,
I made some terrible inedible experiments by using an excess of tapioca flour, so I’d backed off from including it in recipes.
I recently added it to an oatmeal cookie recipe with good results, an added chew and crisp, so I was willing to give it another chance in the pastry flour.
    I added flaxseed meal, instead of my usual xanthan gum for several reasons. One: I was curious if xanthan gum was really needed to hold things together, or if flaxseed would do the job just as well. Two: Flaxseed is a more straightforward ingredient than xanthan gum. I’d have no idea how to make it, whereas I’ve grown flax and it grows locally. Three: Flaxseed significantly adds to the nutrition of the baked good, whereas xanthan, while it has a place,  doesn’t.
   I can't tell you how pleased I am by this mix. It holds together, is flaky when wanted, is relatively easy to roll, not like wheat, but with the right rolling tricks you get where you're going. It's mild, not gritty. There's nothing to make you resistant, only a great crust for your next pie. 

More about the best gluten free pastry doughs 

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other  Posts about revisionist baking Methods

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ratio for pastry flour

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2 parts sweet white sorghum flour
½ part potato starch
½ part tapioca starch
1/16  part ground flaxseed

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In cups and grams

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 4 cups sorghum flour  
(552 grams)
1 cup potato starch
(152 grams)
1 cup tapioca starch
(113 grams)
2 tablespoons flaxseed
​(18 grams) measure and then grind

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Flaky Pie Dough teaser 

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2 ⅓ cup /315 grams gluten-free pastry flour
½ teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
8 ounces/ 2 sticks/ 225 grams unsalted butter, chilled and cut into ½ inch pieces
2 large eggs- lightly beaten

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“The pie is an English institution which, planted on American soil, forthwith ran rampant and burst forth into an untold variety of genera and species.”
Christopher Crowfield (Harriet Beecher Stowe)