Quick Gluten Free Phyllo Dough – Gluten Free Filo Dough

This gluten free phyllo dough recipe (or gluten free filo dough) is so easy to make compared to traditional recipes! Fortunately, for those of us on a gluten-free diet, we finally have an advantage in baking without gluten. Gluten is not our friend in attempting to create a flaky crust. Flakiness is what is needed in phyllo dough. This is my first attempt at creating a gluten free phyllo dough recipe. I began with my tart crust recipe and made it more flaky and crispy. Phyllo dough can be used with sweet or savory fillings, such as pastries, croissants, meats or cheese fillings and more. Yum, right? For a filling I used gluten-free custard which I use in my gluten-free cream puffs and for crème brûlée. What will you use for a filling? The crust turned out flakier than any crust I have ever made! I was so pleased. All those interviews with all of those gluten-free experts and chefs really really paid off. One of my Facebook fans stated that this pastry dough turns out an amazing pie crust. Enjoy and be creative!

Quick Gluten Free Phyllo Dough – Gluten Free Filo Dough

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Yield: Enough to line 1 10-inch tart pan

Quick Gluten Free Phyllo Dough – Gluten Free Filo Dough

You can spend hours rolling out dough into several layers with butter, or you can use this quick and easy method to make gluten free phyllo dough.

Ingredients:

  • 1/4 cup sweet rice flour
  • 1/4 cup tapioca flour
  • 1/4 cup potato starch
  • 1/4 cup cornstarch (Bob's Red Mill's is GMO-free) (or potato starch for corn-free)
  • 1/4 cup sorghum flour
  • 3/4 teaspoon gluten-free baking powder (Rumford, Clabbergirl, Featherweight)
  • 1/8 teaspoon sea salt or salt
  • 2 teaspoons xanthan gum +1 tsp. guar gum (or all of one or the other)
  • 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, cold, cut into pieces (or dairy-free margarine)
  • 1/3 cup shortening, refrigerated or frozen
  • 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
  • 1/4 cup gluten-free non-fat Greek yogurt (FAGE brand is GF.), (or a gluten free non-fat plain yogurt or non-dairy substitute)
  • Tapioca flour/starch for dusting
  • Egg white for brushing (egg replacer and water works for non-dairy)

Instructions:

  1. In a bowl, add all dry ingredients together and whisk thoroughly.
  2. Add butter, shortening, vinegar and yogurt.
  3. With a pastry cutter or 2 knives, cut the wet ingredients into the dry until you can mold it like clay with your hands. If the dough is too wet add more starch (corn or tapioca); if the dough becomes too dry and begins to crack, create a well in the center of the dough and add 1-2 drops of cold water. Room temperature water works well, too.
  4. With your hands form it into a ball; refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
  5. Roll dough according to your recipe.
  6. To fill your gluten free phyllo dough, preheat oven to 350°F.
  7. Generously dust a flat clean surface with tapioca starch.
  8. Cut dough into 10 equal parts. Leave one part out and refrigerate the others until needed. There is no need to cover the dough, as it does not dry out easily.
  9. Flatten a piece of dough on the surface and dust the top with tapioca starch.
  10. Roll the dough out to about 1/8" thick or less; lift dough from underneath with a sharp knife; dust surface again and turn dough over; cut into a 4x4" square.
  11. While holding the dough piece in your hand, viewing it as a diamond shape, brush some egg white on the inside edges of one side of the dough - one of the triangles in the diamond. This will help keep it sealed once closed.
  12. In one half of the square near a corner, add a little over 1 tablespoon of custard or your desired filling; fold the other side over the top of the filling creating a triangle shape; and pressed edges to seal. You may use a pastry edger to create scalloped edges.
  13. Add parchment paper to a baking sheet; spray parchment lightly with olive oil; bake for 15 minutes.
  14. Increase temperature to 375°F and bake for an additional 12-16 minutes (depending upon how brown you want them).

Tips

You can freeze the shortening for as little as 20 minutes or for several hours. If you freeze it for hours you may have to dig it out of the container. Either way works in this recipe.

If the dough cracks upon folding just dab your finger in a little room temperature water and dab some on the dough.If the crack is larger, dab a little tapioca starch on top, too.Minor cracks, not holes, will disappear when brushing on the egg white.

If you are looking for a less flaky crust, substitute some of the shortening for butter, or roll it thicker.

Butter adds flavor and shortening adds flakiness.

Many phyllo dough recipes call for adding melted butter inside the pastry dough. It causes the top of the crust to become quite wrinkled. Without butter, the pastry is quite smooth.

Visit Carla’s Gluten Free Online Store.

20 Replies to “Quick Gluten Free Phyllo Dough – Gluten Free Filo Dough”

  1. Facebook Comment – May 1, 2013:

    “I just made your Gluten Free Phyllo Dough and I am super happy with it and how it tastes! I made Spanakopita with it and they are lovely! Now I can make mini tourtiere pies, mushroom triangles and fruit trianges! I am going to use the dough to make cornish pasties too – TX so much it really is great!”

    ~ L.J.P.

  2. Gave this recipe a try this weekend. Only modifications made were all guar gum and rolled out to use as a spinach pie bake topper in a 9×9 pan. The dough never rose and remained a grainy texture – like a graham crumb crust texture. Any ideas where things went wrong? Thanks!

    1. Hi Lori,

      You may have mixed or kneaded the dough too much. If you rolled this dough out, I would have imagined that used too much starch. I suppose the use of quite a bit of starch was the only way that you were able to roll this dough out to 1/8-inch thick and transfer it to a pie plate. I usually just press it into a tart pan, etc. Did you use FAGE non-fat greek yogurt? This is what I used. Let me know the answers and we can go from here to correct things.

      Meanwhile, I have a wonderful new gluten free pie crust recipe: http://glutenfreerecipebox.com/gluten-free-pie-crust-double/. It calls for superfine rice flour, but the dough is so easy to handle! I also have a shortbread crust using the same flour blend recipe: http://glutenfreerecipebox.com/gluten-free-shortbread-crust/.

      Carla

      1. That’s probably true. I had to use quite a bit of tapioca to keep things from sticking to the wax paper. We’ll give it another try sans the extra tapioca.

        I used a Kroger brand greek yogurt. It’s not bad for taste and texture (I ate the remainder of the container).

        Thanks for your thoughts!

  3. I will replace the rice flour with millet flour. I use butter for shortening or safflower oil.
    Any suggestions for me?

    Thank you.
    glad I found your page.

    1. Hi Beverly,

      Butter makes things soft, moist, and flavorful. Shortening makes things lighter and flakier. Oil makes things moist. I do not suggest using oil in this recipe to substitute the shortening. If you’re going to use butter instead of shortening, perhaps experiment with adding a bit of baking soda. It will also help by increasing the browning.

      Carla

  4. Hi Carla!
    I just thought I would share that I have found that the Butter flavored Crisco works really well in the gluten free recipes. You have the flavor and the benefit of shorten.
    I have been looking for a good pie crust and thanks to you I think I just found it. can’t wait to try it.
    Thanks for all you do you are a wonderful help.

    1. Laura,

      Thanks for sharing! I stopped using Crisco, and now use palm shortening, just for the health benefits. However, I am sure this will help others.

      The dough is bit soft, and I haven’t had any luck by adding additional gums. I wouldn’t suggest this for a double crusted pie, but a single should work well. I use a pastry scraper to lift the dough more easily. Hope that helps.

      Let us all know how you like it.

      And you are very welcome!

      Carla

      1. Hi Carla,
        I have a problem and I’m hoping you might be able to help me. I have just moved to Grand Junction, CO and I can’t seam to find any sorghum flour here. I have found all of the others. Is there anything that you know of that I could use in place of it? Thank you for your help in this.

        Laura Mae McKinney

        1. Hi Laura,

          The following flours may work for you: white rice, brown rice, millet, or buckwheat flour. The rice flours are the lightest and buckwheat being the heaviest, but any of them will work, with just a little different results. I think millet is probably the closest, though. But millet does have a light unique flavor, unlike the others.

          Carla

          1. Carla.
            Thank you so much I will try it. I did find some online and ordered it , but I am still going to try this way too. Thanks again.
            Laura

  5. Before going gluten free I used to use phyllo dough to make Baklava. Do you think this recipe will work well for that? I’ll have to try it!!

    1. Tracy, I have never made baklava, regular or gluten-free. The baklava that I have tasted are very flaky, and I think this would make an excellent substitute dough. However, the dough tends to stick easily once rolled. I suggest using a pastry dough scraper. Check this one out on eBay for only $4.29 and free shipping: http://www.ebay.com/itm/350424079842?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649#ht_694wt_1185 Let me know if it works for you. Happy New Year!

      ~ Carla

  6. Carla,
    What’s a good substitute for the corn starch? Over here we usually use tapioca flour, but if your recipe already calls for it then I think more would make it too rubbery. Can I make it without the corn starch? We have arrowroot starch here, but I’m not sure how that would work. It is mainly for gravies, etc….
    Thanks!
    Caryn

    1. Hi Caryn,

      I plan on improving this recipe and was thinking of adding more sweet rice flour for more of a stretch to prevent any cracking upon folding. However, cornstarch is used here to add more crispness. I would try substituting the cornstarch with 1/8 cup sweet rice flour and 1/8 cup tapioca starch. Please let us all know how your experiment turns out! Good luck!

        1. Angela, I would not substitute the cornstarch for anything else, if I had the choice, but if you are corn sensitive, then by all means give it a try. Cornstarch has a tendency to make things a bit crispy.

    1. Hi Christina,

      No. You cannot use an all purpose gluten-free flour. This recipe includes several flours and starches that lend to the flakiness, stretchiness of the dough and browning (though I should have cooked it a bit more). Tapioca and sweet rice flour really are key here. If you wish to experiment with an all purpose flour I would suggest adding egg if you are not going to use these flours. Add a the rest of the ingredients and follow the rest of the instructions. You’ll have to play with the amounts. I haven’t tried it myself, but it may work, but you will not get the flakiness from that recipe as you would this one. Let me know if you try it.

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