Gluten Free Short Crust Pastry Dough

Gluten Free Short Crust Pastry Dough is a gluten free way to make the pastry dough used in most Guyanese pastries. Use this recipe to make gluten free versions of your favorite Guyanese desserts.

Gluten Free Pastry Dough

When I first discovered my gluten sensitivity in 2015, I was devastated that I would no longer be able to enjoy Guyanese pastries like, cheese rolls, pine tarts or cheese pies. Although I didn’t make these often they were some of my favorite things to bake and eat.

Through trial and error I created the perfect gluten free short crust pastry dough that mimics the dough used in traditional Guyanese pastries. It is so good you won’t believe it is gluten free!

Why You’ll Love This Gluten Free Short Crust Pastry Dough Recipe

• Desserts for Everyone: As someone with gluten sensitivity, it’s so frustrating to not be able to eat anything on the dessert table. When you use gluten free pastry dough, everyone wins! Those who can’t eat gluten get to indulge, and those without dietary restrictions won’t be able to tell the difference.
• Better Than Storebought: Gluten free dough isn’t as accessible as ready-made regular pastry dough. Make your own gluten free pastry dough so there’s no need to go on a wild goose chase!
• Versatile: Once you learn how to make gluten free dough, you can use it to make everything from Guyanese Cheese Pie to Pine Tarts.

Ingredients for Gluten Free Pastry Dough

This 5 ingredient recipe is made simple with pantry staples.

• All Purpose Gluten free flour: I used Betty Crocker All Purpose Gluten Free Flour
• Butter: very cold stick of butter
• Eggs: Use whisked eggs as a binder.
• Ice cold water:
• Pinch salt:

See recipe card for quantities.

How to Make Gluten Free Short Crust Pastry Dough

Combine Flour and Cold Butter

Similar to when making traditional pastry dough, you will need really cold butter. I cut the butter into the flour using a fork, but you can also use a pastry blender if you have one.

Add Eggs to Gluten Free Pastry Dough

Unlike regular pastry dough, I used eggs to bind the gluten free flour. The eggs I used for this recipe were pasture raised and had a rich yellow color, which in turn gave the dough a deep rich color.

Depending on the size of the eggs you may also need to use two to three tablespoons of ice cold water to pull together everything into a soft smooth dough ball.

Form Dough Ball and Chill Dough

Then turn onto a clean surface and gently squeeze together to form a dough ball. Place pastry dough in a ziploc bag. Squeeze all of the air out of the bag, seal up and refrigerate for an hour before using.

Storage

Store your gluten free pastries in a zip top bag to preserve the freshness. Refresh day old pastries by popping in the microwave for 20-30 seconds before eating. After 3 days these pastries were really dry, so I would try to enjoy within 2 to 3 days!

Tips for the Best Gluten Free Dough

• Use your favorite gluten free flour. Not all gluten free flours are created equal but for this pastry dough recipe, I’ve tried a few different gluten free baking flour and they all yielded similar results. For this recipe I am using Betty Crocker Gluten Free All Purpose Flour, but I’ve also used King Arthur Measure for Measure Flour, Bob’s Red Mill 1 to 1 Gluten Free Flour and Krusteaz All Purpose Gluten free flour. All of these worked to make a tasty pastry dough, but I prefer the taste and texture when using the Betty Crocker Gluten Free All Purpose Flour the most.
• Do not use your hands to integrate the butter into the flour. Using your fingers as this adds warmth to the butter and affects the overall end results.
• The dough is best when rolled between parchment paper as no additional flour is needed for dusting. When I tried rolling the dough without the parchment paper, the cheese rolls had a grainy taste from the flour used for dusting. Like most gluten free baked products these are best enjoyed fresh.

How to Use Gluten Free Pastry Dough

This gluten free pastry dough is versatile. You may use it with any of the traditional fillings to make amazing Gluten free Guyanese pastries that taste very much like the real thing!

I used the filling from my Guyanese Cheese Roll recipe and added it to the gluten free pastry dough and made perfect gluten free cheese rolls. I added 1 teaspoon of arrow root flour to the filling to prevent it from spilling out of the dough during baking.

Frequently Asked Questions