Pillsbury Gluten Free Products

Recently, there have been an influx of gluten free options on the market, which is both good and bad. It’s good because for people like myself, who cannot digest gluten, we now have more options. It’s bad because those of us who have a problem with gluten, have more options. We are no longer relegated to the safety of fruits, veggies, and meat. We have choices now that are just as processed and mass produced as everything else. Everything in moderation right?

Imagine my surprise the other day, when walking through the store, I see, in what looks like a butter tub, pie crust and chocolate chip cookie dough. Intrigued, I bought the pie crust, to see what I could make of it. I’m not a baker, and I’ve been intimidated to try making a gf pie crust, so I picked one up figuring I’d play with it.
The first thing I made was an apple pie. I picked up some apples at the farmers market, and they weren’t really pretty, so I decided a pie was the best place for them. I don’t really like apple pie as much as the others, but I had them, and figured what the heck.

I have to say, I’m pretty impressed. It was flaky and delicious. And the best part is, now to get a decent pie crust, I don’t have to drive clear over to Whole Foods in Arlington.

So what else will it do? I picked up another one the next time I was at the store, and had big plans for hand pies. The only problem was they moved things around on me, and instead of a pie crust, I brought home cookie dough. I’ve never been so disappointed to make cookies in my life. That being said, the cookies were pretty good, for a scoop and bake variety.

The next time I went to the store, I made SURE I picked up two pie crusts and hey, they make a pizza crust! Why not?

Remember those sweet potatoes I made the other night? Well, I made some for us the next night, along with an orange and garlic marinated pork tenderloin. So I took the leftover meat and diced it up, and mixed it with the potatoes for a filling. Then I took some of the pie crust and rolled it out, and filled it, then tried to fold the dough over and close it up. I remembered that gf dough, is not like regular dough in that it won’t stretch, and it doesn’t fold. It tears and breaks. So I had to top the crust with the filling, then top with more dough and brush with an egg wash.

I then baked them in a 425 degree oven and they turned out fantastic.

I’ve been gluten free for over two years now, and I truly don’t miss a lot. One thing I have missed however, is chicken pot pie. I even bought an extra large muffin pan to make them. I like the individual ones, and not just the ones with a topper. I like the whole thing to be contained.

Here’s what I did

I sautéed an onion (diced) and two cloves of garlic. (Also diced)
Then I sprinkled them with about one tbs of gf flour and after that cooked for a min, I added the chicken breasts. (3)

Then I topped with enough chicken broth to come 3/4 of the way up and about 1/8 cup milk. I also salt along the way. Each step, really, I throw in a little salt, but salt to your taste.
Once the chicken has cooked through, or mostly, dice it up and return it to the pot along with two cups frozen veggies. I had intended on sautéing carrots and celery in here, but I was out, so I just grabbed a bag of frozen mixed veggies out of my freezer.

I then made a slurry with corn starch and water and drizzled some in and let this go on the stove while I prepared the dough.

Again, I rolled it out and tucked it into my large muffin cups. I filled them up and topped with more crust. I think the whole tub of crust would have done all 12 of these, but I only wanted todo six in case it was a miserable failure.

Again I brushed with an egg wash and stuck it in the oven

While this was baking, I decided to hedge my bets a little and took the leftover chicken mixture and added the rest of the chicken stock (the kind that comes in the box that you can pour) and a couple cups of milk.

Now I have a cream of chicken soup too! If you haven’t noticed by now, I REALLY REALLY want fall to get here. I need fall food, and to wear boots. Tall boots, with straps and maybe some kind of fur.

So I pulled my pot pies out of the oven and they were beautiful!

Ok great, how do I get them out?

I inverted them on a baking sheet.

Doesn’t that look awesome?
Seriously, this made me so very very happy.

I could do the back stroke in that. Couldn’t you?

I like this crust. It’s tasty, and if you’re familiar with the quirks of working with gluten free dough, it’s very easy to work with.
I’ll let you know about the pizza crust, as soon as I’m done with loving this pie.