LC Pie Crust Thread

[Kevinpa]

I am always striving to bring the carb counts down in foods while trying to make them as tasty as possible. Earlier this year I did some experimenting and came up with a carbalose/resistant wheat starch crust that I was very happy with.

I plan on doing some more experimenting in the next couple week and will using this thread to post my results and things I learn in the process.

Feel free to join in on the fun.

I will start this out by listing the recipe for the carbalose/resistant wheat starch crust and then go from there.

1/3 c. + 1 T. shortening (I used crisco green with no trans fats)
3/4 c. Carbalose flour
1/4 c. resistant wheat starch
2 T. + 1 t. cold water
Cut shortening into flour until the particles are like small peas.
Sprinkle in water, 1 T. at a time tossing with fork until all flour is moistened and pastry is clinging to the side of the bowl.

Roll out between 2 lightly dusted(WPI) sheets of wax paper.


Prick crust all over with a fork and bake 350° for 16 min.

In this following picture you can see the layers of flakiness in this LC crust. Counting 8 serving it adds only 2.25 carbs for a single crust and 4.5 carbs for a double crust pie. You can easily compare the taste to any high or low carb crust.

[Kevinpa]

This morning I took the basic general recipe and lowered the carbs by using a nut flour/ wpi 5000 / RWS combination. The following is the recipe and results.

1/3 c. + 1 T. shortening (I used crisco green with no trans fats)
1/2 c. Wheat Protein Isolate 5000
6 T. almond flour
2 T. resistant wheat starch
1 T. + 1 t. cold water
Cut shortening into flour until the particles are like small peas.
Sprinkle in water, 1 T. at a time tossing with fork until all flour is moistened and pastry is clinging to the side of the bowl.

Roll out between 2 lightly dusted(WPI) sheets of wax paper.


Prick crust all over with a fork and bake 350° for 18 min.








As you can see this version has a few layers but the almond flour takes away the flakiness and adds a crumble to it. This could be good or bad depending on what you are looking for. The taste was great and it was very low carb. Also note that the water was reduced by 2 T.(I am guessing because of the oils in the nut flour).
A single crust is 7 carbs making it less than 1 carb per slice if your cutting 8 slices.

Just as a side note, I fried 2 over easy eggs and plated them on 2 serving of this crust for a 3.5 carb egg and pastry crust breakfast....Yum!

[LowCarbConvert]

This is good. With the holidays coming up, it's time to get the kinks worked out of all the baking experiments.

I'd like to make up a large batch of Linda Sue's "apples" and make an apple pie.
Need to order more Carbalose.

Kevinpa, your crusts look great!

[Mule_Freak]

Hey Kevin, Can you tell me if you wanted to use this crust recipe but wanted to use it for say like a quiche how would you do that or could it be done?
Guess what I am saying is I think (trust me I am no way a cook) a crust for a quiche is not baked? maybe it is? but don't you put the uncooked filling in an uncooked pie crust? Sorry so many questions, but daggone it your the pro here. Could this crust be used like that? I do hope this make sense, Thanks

[Kevinpa]

Sherrie, any of the crusts I have or will be making are not meant to be baked first. Any of these are meant to have a filling in them. I am just baking them by themselves so I can see the texture and taste.

If you are wondering if they will hold up to a filling....the answer is yes.

[Pam]

Kevin, nice looking crust. I'll have to try it. I just baked a pumpkin pie using Tater Head's pie crust recipe, below. It's really good! Thanks, Tater!

Tater's Pie Crust

Pie Crust, makes two crusts:
2 cups carbolose flour, (Makes two) plus extra for rolling dough
1/2 cup Crisco (green can) cubed/frozen
1/4 cup butter (cubed/frozen)
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup ice water, 1 T at a time

In a mixing bowl cut the Crisco/butter, salt and baking powder into the flour with a pastry cutter until it's size of peas. Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of ice water over the mixture and mix just until the dough is moistened. Repeat by adding 6 to 8 tablespoons water (one at a time) until all the dough is just moist and holds together.

Divide the dough in half , form a round flat disk, place in plastic baggy and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. Roll in-between plastic wrap into a circle to fit a 9 to 10-inch pie plate. Place back in freezer for a minute to firm back up, then peel back plastic , place on pie plate and peel back the rest of the plastic wrap.

[Kevinpa]

Pam, I tried a straight carbalose crust several times and for my taste carbalose has too much bad tasting fiber in it to stand alone. One of the things I found that resistant wheat starch brought to the party was its ability to dilute carbalose's bad tasting fiber.

[Sassay]

Kevinpa...I'm a terrible baker but will have to try this. I have question though, is there a difference between carbalose flour and carbquick? Guess I will have to order that resistant wheat starch...Thanks!

[Kevinpa]

Originally Posted by Sassay

Kevinpa...I'm a terrible baker but will have to try this. I have question though, is there a difference between carbalose flour and carbquick? Guess I will have to order that resistant wheat starch...Thanks!

Yes there is a difference Sassy. Carbquik actually has carbalose as one of its ingredients.

I will say this though, in my first set of experiment with crusts I made several carbquik/resistant wheat starch crust and they turned out rather well.
They just were not my final favorite.

I will be making a carbqiuk crust in this thread so you will see the difference.

[eshlemania]

Kevinpa,
Is there something I can use instead of the resistant wheat starch? After I ordered from Netrition last week, I wished I had ordered the rws, but it was too last then.

Thanks,
Bev

What is resistant wheat starch and what does it do?

[Kevinpa]

Originally Posted by eshlemania

Is there something I can use instead of the resistant wheat starch?

I know of no sub for this product. I accidently used resistant corn starch once when I wasn't looking at the label and the results were totally different.

Basically it is a tasteless fiber which allow you to effect the texture of your baked goods without effecting the taste.
Like I said above though, in the case of carbalose, RWS's neutral taste allow you to spread thins the bad taste of the fiber already in carbalose which becomes prominent in things like pie crust.

I guess all I can suggest is to try a 1/4 recipe straight carbalose crust and see what you think.

[CarolynF]

Kevin..That first picture made a believer out of me..I'm ordering some of that resistant wheat starch..

[christyjo]

I used the crust recipe to make blackberry pie (for non-LC guests). I did use some dry tapioca to thicken the filling, but no one knew the difference, awsome stuff. Thanks Kevin

[sungoddess]

Kevin, Kevin Kevin.... you are a dream come true. The piecrust looks spectacular.

Now if I just can make a marshmallow creme that tastes like the real stuff and a sweet pastry dough for my favorite Christmas pastry of all times, I will be set for life.

I am going to test drive my pumpkin pie with this crust this weekend.

[scott123]

Kevin, how did the dough handle? Is the dough sticky? Did it roll out easily? Did it stay together when you transfered it to the pie pan?

Btw, this ratio of 5000/almond flour/rws could probably be successfully applied to cookies. From the pictures, it looks like an excellent candidate for a cookie base. With a textural sugar sub (isomalt or polyd) I'm picturing sugar cookies, chocolate chip cookies, pb and shortbread. Snickerdoodles too. The strong taste of the carbalose pretty much precludes it from delicately flavored cookies such as sugar cookies and shortbread.

[Bfranke]

I am watching this thread with interest as I make Kolaches for Christmas. I have tried a few things, but no good results yet. Since the dough bakes up flakey, the pie crust just might work.
Bette

[jackieba]

Thanks Kevin. I like your Carbalose based crust but this looks like what I was searching for do things like quiche with less carbs than the Carbalose crust. My attempts with almond flour alone always came out way too delicate but I never mixed with the wpi 5000 and resistant wheat starch.

[Kevinpa]

Originally Posted by scott123

Kevin, how did the dough handle? Is the dough sticky? Did it roll out easily? Did it stay together when you transfered it to the pie pan?

Btw, this ratio of 5000/almond flour/rws could probably be successfully applied to cookies. From the pictures, it looks like an excellent candidate for a cookie base. With a textural sugar sub (isomalt or polyd) I'm picturing sugar cookies, chocolate chip cookies, pb and shortbread. Snickerdoodles too. The strong taste of the carbalose pretty much precludes it from delicately flavored cookies such as sugar cookies and shortbread.

Scott the first time I did this crust I used the same amount of water as the carbalose crust and the dough was way too wet to handle. the 2nd and 3rd attempt using 1 T. water it was sticky but manageable.

[tyler43836]

Originally Posted by LowCarbConvert

This is good. With the holidays coming up, it's time to get the kinks worked out of all the baking experiments.

I'd like to make up a large batch of Linda Sue's "apples" and make an apple pie.
Need to order more Carbalose.

Kevinpa, your crusts look great!

I was thinking the same thing!

Kevinpa, does the crust hold up well with filling when baked? or is it better as a no bake cheesecake type crust?

[scott123]

Kevin, you might want to think about pressing the dough into a disc and chilling it. Chilled pie dough is much more manageable. If it's chilled, you probably won't have worry about dusting with WPI.

Also, since this combination of flour subs isn't bringing a great deal of flakiness to the table, you might save yourself some time/effort by melting the crisco and mixing it into the flour rather than worrying about cutting it into specifically sized pieces. I'm sure the results will be comparable.

[Kevinpa]

Originally Posted by tyler43836

I was thinking the same thing!

Kevinpa, does the crust hold up well with filling when baked? or is it better as a no bake cheesecake type crust?

Tyler, any crust I present in this thread will be suitable to bake a filling in and should hold up like any normal crust would.

[metqa]

Originally Posted by scott123

Also, since this combination of flour subs isn't bringing a great deal of flakiness to the table, you might save yourself some time/effort by melting the crisco and mixing it into the flour rather than worrying about cutting it into specifically sized pieces. I'm sure the results will be comparable.

I made the mistake of thinking that and ended up with inedible dough leather. The flakiness comes from the oils holding the flour particles just slightly apart from each other, And they can only do this well if they are slightly solid. If the shortening is liquified, then all the flour just settles to the bottom and makes a cement like monster.

Cutting the shortiening into the flour doesn't mean cutting it into specific pieces like with a knife, but macerating the solid oil with something like a fork or a pastry tool while it is being mixed into the flour, so the flour coats the every tiny little piece of oil and stays separated until baking.

[Kevinpa]

Originally Posted by metqa

I made the mistake of thinking that and ended up with inedible dough leather. The flakiness comes from the oils holding the flour particles just slightly apart from each other, And they can only do this well if they are slightly solid. If the shortening is liquified, then all the flour just settles to the bottom and makes a cement like monster.

Cutting the shortiening into the flour doesn't mean cutting it into specific pieces like with a knife, but macerating the solid oil with something like a fork or a pastry tool while it is being mixed into the flour, so the flour coats the every tiny little piece of oil and stays separated until baking.

metqa, I think Scott is well aware of what cutting butter into a crust does for it. I believe he was only refering to the last crust mentioned which did not have much flakiness to it at all and how it might make a good cookie dough.

[BB in MN]

Do you think I could make this recipe (which is an old very favorite of mine) using your piecrust recipe instead of the crescent rolls?

Italian Zucchini Crescent Pie

Recipe By: Pillsbury 100 prize winning Bake-off recipes Classic #75
2 tablespoons butter or margarine
4 cups thinly sliced zucchini
1 cup chopped onions
2 tablespoons dried parsley flakes
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano leaves
2 eggs, well beaten
8 ounces (2 cups) shredded mozzarella cheese
1 (8-ounce) can refrigerated crescent dinner rolls
2 teaspoons prepared mustard

1.Preheat oven to 375*F (190*C).
2.Melt butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add zucchini and onions; cook and stir 6 to 8 minutes or until tender. Stir in parsley flakes, salt, pepper, garlic powder, basil and oregano.
3.In large bowl, combine eggs and cheese; mix well. Stir in cooked vegetable mixture.
4.Separate dough into 8 triangles. Place in ungreased 10-inch pie pan, 12 x 8-inch (2-quart) baking dish or 11-inch quiche pan; press over bottom and up sides to form crust. Firmly press perforations to seal. Spread crust with mustard. Pour egg mixture evenly into crust-lined pan.
5.Bake for 18 to 22 minutes or until knife inserted near center comes out clean. Cover edge of crust with strips of foil during last 10 minutes of baking if necessary to prevent excessive browning. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

Makes 6 servings.
Nutru.= for 1/6 pie..Cal 280 pro 10g carb 22g fat 17g chol 110mg
sodium 830mg potassium 360mg - usda protein, vit c, vit a, thiamine 15%,
riboflavin 10%, niacin 6%, calcuim 20%,iron 10%



Thanks
Beth