With a light flaky crust and tart cherry filling, this bright and flavorful gluten-free cherry pie will be a new favorite at your dinner table this holiday season. Or any time of the year, for that matter.

My gluten-free cherry pie recipe was shared in the 2017 holiday addition of Gluten Free & More Magazine.

I have two favorite pies, the first is key lime pie. I love the sweet mixed with the tart, which is probably why you can guess my other favorite – gluten-free cherry pie.

Having a gluten-free cherry pie in my house is dangerous. I will eat it until it’s gone and I won’t share a bite. You’ll see my doing drive-by bites with a fork (you’ve done this, admit it!), eating it for breakfast, snack, lunch, and afternoon snack. You get the idea.

You’re going to appreciate how straight forward this recipe is. You can following the recipe as is, or use canned cherry pie filling. Also, if you don’t keep the flours called for on hand you can use a gluten-free flour mix.

Bobs Red Mill works best in my gluten-free pie crust recipe, just omit the xanthan gum called for in the gluten-free pie crust recipe as Bob’s Red Mill 1-to-1 gluten-free flour blend already has it included.

If you’re still interested in baking up this stunning cherry pie, read on. I have some tips and tricks to set you up for success.

Gluten-free cherry pie can be intimidating. If you’re not interested in making gluten-free pie crust from scratch you can purchase pre-made pie shells from the store and still use this gluten-free cherry pie filling recipe. I encourage you to make your own gluten-free pie crust though as it’s less expensive to make and you know exactly what’s going into the crust.

Tips for making a great pie:

• Read the recipe steps and make sure you have all ingredients on hand before you begin.
• Make sure all ingredients are cold before you begin.
• If you use a flour blend with xanthan gum, omit it from the recipe
• Don’t overwork the crust dough, it will toughen and cause cracks when you transfer it to the pie pan.
• If the pie crust dough is too soft, chill for 30 minutes before rolling it out.
• For a decorative top – cut out lattice strips and weave over the top of the pie, or use cookie cutters for fun shapes.
• Save time by making a streusel topping instead of a crust for the top.
• To help prevent a mess in the oven, place a baking sheet under the pie pan while it cooks.
• Let the pie cool completely before slicing.

Now that you know what you’re doing, you can dive right into baking!

How do you make pastry roses?

Honestly, the roses on top of this pie were an accident. A fun accident, but still an accident. When I put the pie plate on top of the pie crust to cut around the edges for a clean look there was dough left over. Instead of brushing it to the side, I rolled it out of the way and discovered a cute little swirly rose.

I then rolled the rest of the dough into more roses and placed them on top. I had a cookie cutter for the leaves already and added those in for aesthetics. No dough was wasted and my pie had a lovely little feature to it.

Here are the exact leaf cutters I used. They are called Leaf Set Plunger and Cutters (affiliate link to amazon).

One thing I hope you’ll understand is that a gluten-free cherry pie doesn’t have to be perfect to be pretty (life lesson, here). A golden crust with a juicy filling is enough to feature a gluten-free pie as a center piece.

Do you have to egg wash pie crust?

Some people use an egg wash on the crust to give it a glossy coating or to help it brown. I don’t. When I bake pies I start with foil over the crust for about half the baking time, then I remove the foil and let the gluten-free pie crust brown while it finishes baking. The crust will cook and start to brown under the foil, but it’s this process of keeping it covered upfront that helps keep it from darkening too much while the filling bakes up.

If you use pre-made filling with this gluten-free pie crust recipe you can leave the foil off. The filling will already be soft so you’re mostly baking the pie crust.

If you love cherry desserts you’ll also want to make my gluten-free cherry cobbler and my gluten-free cherry pie dessert shots. Both are cherry-licious.

Have questions about this recipe, or other recipes on my site? Leave a comment and I will get back to you.

Happy Baking,

Chrystal

Yield: 1 9" pie

Gluten-Free Cherry Pie

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With a light flaky crust and tart cherry filling, this bright and flavorful gluten-free cherry pie will be a new favorite at your dinner table this holiday season.

Prep Time 30 minutes

Active Time 50 minutes

Total Time 1 hour 20 minutes

Ingredients

For the cherry filling:

• 5 cups sour cherries, washed and pitted
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice (fresh or bottled)
• 1 teaspoon gluten-free vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3 tablespoons cornstarch (or tapioca starch)

For the pie crust:

• ¾ cup rice flour
• ¼ cup + 2 tablespoons tapioca starch
• ¼ cup + 2 tablespoons potato starch (not flour)
• ½ teaspoon salt (omit if using salted butter)
• 1 teaspoons xanthan gum
• ½ cup butter (1 stick), cold - cut into small pieces
• 3-4 tablespoons milk, cold

Instructions

Preheat oven to 375°F. Place a baking sheet on the rack in the center of oven.

For the cherry filling: Heat cherries in a medium saucepan over low heat until they start to soften. Add sugar, lemon juice, vanilla, and salt.

Boil for 2-3 minutes or until the juices are released. Add cornstarch and continue to cook until the cherry mixture begins to thicken. Remove from the heat and let cool for 10 minutes.

For the pie crust: In a medium mixing bowl, combine rice flour, tapioca starch, potato starch, salt, and xanthan gum.

With a pastry cutter, cut butter into flour mixture until the butter is small, no larger than the size of a pea.

Add milk and combine. Use your hands to work the milk into the dough. Add additional milk if needed.

Knead dough until it comes together. Form a ball with the dough.

Place the dough ball onto a large piece of parchment paper and shape into a disc. Cover with a second piece of parchment and roll out into a 10-inch circle.

Peel the top piece of parchment paper off, and invert into a greased pie pan. Flute the edges. Use your fingers to repair any tears in the crust, if needed.

Once the filling is cool, pour into the crust.

Top with the second pie crust, or lattice (crust cut into strips and woven).

Cover the top of the pie with aluminum foil, to prevent the top from browning too soon.

Place pie on the baking sheet and bake for 40-50 minutes or until the crust is cooked, removing the foil after 25 minutes to allow the top to brown.

Remove the pie from the oven and cool before cutting.

Notes

If you can’t find sour cherries, use sweet cherries + ¼ cup fresh lemon juice, or replace the filling with 60oz. of pre-made allergy-friendly cherry pie filling.

If you don't have the flours on hand, replace the rice flour, tapioca and potato starch with 1 1/2 cups Bobs Red Mill 1-to-1 Gluten-Free Flour.