To ensure a perfect pie crust, refrigerate all utensils and ingredients for about 30 minutes before you begin making the pie crust. Melting butter, means a crumbly pie crust that resembles a crisp rather than a crust. To prevent that, we will be refrigerating everything multiple times.

Place the flour, salt sugar, and xanthan gum into a bowl and mix to combine everything together.

Cut the butter into half inch cubes by dividing it into quarters the long way, and cutting the quarters into half inch cubes.

Place the butter on the flour mixture, and place the bowl with the ingredients back in the fridge for another half hour. This step is essential as you do not want the butter to melt. Cooling down the flour will help to keep everything cold, including the butter. Another important thing to mention is that the butter would begin to melt after being exposed to the heat of your hands.

After the cooling stage is over, coat every cube of butter with the flour mixture. It is important to continue to coat the butter with the flour mixture in every step of the way to ensure a flaky pie crust.

Press each cube of butter between your fingers until they are very thin, and coat them with flour again. You want the pieces of butter to be about the size of a quarter in diameter, but they do not have to be circular, and a little thinner than the thickness of a quarter. Toss the butter with the flour mixture to ensure that all the pieces of butter are coated again. If during this process you begin to feel that your hands are getting too warm and the butter begins to melt as you touch it, place everything back in the fridge without covering it to prevent water pooling over the crust due to condensation.

Once all the pieces of butter are at the right size, they are well coated with the flour mixture, and all the ingredients are cold, create a well in the center of the mixture. Beat the egg, and place it into that well that you have created.

Using the help of a fork, equally distribute the egg among the mixture by stirring it into the flour/butter mixture while taking care to not break the butter pieces any smaller. If you see a clump of dough while the rest of the ingredients are dry, gently break up that lump without breaking the butter, and distribute it among the mixture.

Begin to add the milk 1 tablespoon at a time, and gently mix the dough using your hands without overworking it. If you see any clumps beginning to form, break them up to release the moisture into the rest of the dough. If at any stage you begin to feel that your hands are beginning to warm up, the butter is melting when it touches your hands, and the dough is feeling a little warm, cover everything with a plastic wrap and place it into the fridge for 10 minutes.

To know that the dough is ready, it should not feel dry and fall apart as you lift it. If it does, add a little more milk into the dry spots and gently fold it together. Another way to tell if the dough is done, is if you combine it together, it holds together well, nothing falls apart, and it does not stick to your hands. If the dough is sticky, you can fix that problem during the folding process by sprinkling extra flour onto the dough as you roll it. Once the dough is ready, wrap tightly with shrink wrap to prevent it from drying, and refrigerate for 30 minutes to an hour.

The folding process requires 3 folding steps.

Sprinkle the counter with Chantal’s all-purpose gluten free flour blend. Place the dough onto the flour sprinkled counter. Sprinkle the dough with a little bit of flour. You do not want to sprinkle too much flour as it will dry out the dough. Using a rolling pin, roll the dough into a rectangle of about a ¼ inch thickness. As you roll the dough, continue to move it from one place to the other and turn it to ensure that the bottom of the dough is constantly being coated by flour. This step will prevent the dough from sticking to the counter. You might also need to lightly sprinkle the top with some flour every now and then to prevent the rolling pin from sticking to the dough.

Once the dough is rolled out to a rectangle, quarter inch in thickness, begin to fold the long way by folding one side into the center of the rectangle, then folding the opposite side into the center of the rectangle, and last fold this entire shape in half ass if you are closing a book. Wrap tightly with plastic wrap and place into the refrigerator for 10 minutes.

Roll the dough again onto a lightly floured surface into a rectangle, quarter inch in thickness. Fold it into a letter shape. Wrap in plastic wrap and place back into the fridge for 10 minutes.

For this last fold, you will repeat the steps done in the first fold. Roll, fold into a book shape, wrap with plastic wrap, and place back into the fridge for 30 min to 1 hour before using.

After the dough has fully chilled, now it is ready to use in any pie recipe that you can imagine. All you have to do is divide it in half and roll each half to the desired shape.

It is important to note that you will need to refrigerate the dough for 30 min after rolling it and shaping it into the pie pan before baking. To do so, wrap it with plastic wrap to prevent it from drying and refrigerate.

The final refrigeration would be after you have placed the filling into the pie and covered it with the crust. You will need to refrigerate it for 30 minutes to an hour while covered in plastic wrap.

Follow the baking direction for your pie and enjoy!