Gluten free sweet almond pastry recipe
This is our gorgeous almond pastry. Inspired by the more traditional pate sucree or sweet French pastry, we’ve replaced the flour with almonds. We just love sorghum flour but appreciate it can be hard to get hold off. You can get it online and from some good health stores. You can use soya flour instead. Do contact us for other substitutes if you need to. We’re happy to try things out and let you know. For instance, we reckon sweet chestnut flour would work here too-..
This sweet shortcrust pastry is so easy to work with. although it lacks the stretch of its gluten-based cousins, you can roll this out and patch any joins together as you go; it’s very forgiving. Just be sure to liberally dust everything with soya, sorghum or tapioca flour.
This pastry can be used in tart bases, tartlets and pies.
Ingredients
40g butter, chilled and cubed, plus extra, melted, for brushing
40g ground almonds
35g icing sugar, sieved
20g sorghum flour
20g tapioca flour
1 x free range egg yolk, plus 1, beaten
1/2 tsp guar gum
1/2 tsp salt
Finely grated zest of 1 orange
1/2 tbsp whole milk
Tapioca flour, for dusting
Method
Whizz the butter, almonds, icing sugar, sorghum flour, tapioca flour, 1 egg yolk, guar gum, salt and orange zest in a food processor until a soft dough is formed. mix with milk if necessary. Wrap the dough in clingfilm and chill in the fridge for 1 hour.
You can use a kitchen aid/Kenwood or rub in by hand. If doing the latter leave the egg yolks aside. Beat them with a fork and stir in to your rubbed in mix using a rubber spatula.
Dust your hands, rolling pin and work surface liberally with tapioca flour, knead the dough briefly, then form it into a ball. Roll it out and use to line your tin. It’s quite a delicate pastry, but don’t worry if it breaks: you can use your fingers to smooth the joins together. Once in the tin, press the dough up the sides. Prick all over with a fork and bake for 8 minutes, until golden brown and firm to the touch. Brush with beaten egg yolk and bake for a further 2 minutes. Leave to cool.
Add your chosen filling and bake again until your filling is cooked.
Adapted from Honeybuns Gluten-Free Baking by Emma Goss-Custard, published by Pavilion. Recipe photography Cristian Barnett. For further information about this and other recipes from our book, do take a look at our Book FAQ’s.
If you’d like to try another recipe from our baking book, try our lemon and ginger shortbread Snowy Hills recipe here.
