Saporific

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
2. Coat a 9-inch pie or tart pan with cooking spray, and generously dust with rice flour. (I find it easier to dust with a flour sifter, since it seems to clump a little.)
3. Mix all dry ingredients in large bowl of an electric mixer. Add butter pieces and mix until the the mixture resembles a crumbly, coarse meal.
4. Add the egg and juice, mixing on low speed until the dough sticks together. Using your hands, form the dough into a ball and place on wax paper. Top with another sheet of wax paper.
5. Gently and evenly roll out the dough to the desired diameter. Remove the top sheet of wax paper and invert the dough into the pie or tart pan. Remove the other sheet of wax paper and crimp edges. To prevent the crust from bubbling up, poke a few holes in the bottom with a fork (or possibly use pie weights, though I somehow don’t have those!)
6. Partially bake the pie crust for 10 minutes. Cool on rack while preparing the filling and topping. Turn up the oven to 400 degrees.
7. For the filling, slice apples into large bowl and toss with lemon juice. In small bowl, mix dry ingredients, sprinkle over the apples, and toss. Mound the apples into the prebaked crust and dot the top with small pieces of butter.
8. For the topping, combine dry ingredients, then cut in the cold butter until it resembles cornmeal. Spoon over the apple filling and pat down so it doesn’t fall off.
9. Cover pie with aluminum foil and bake for 30 minutes in the center of the oven.
10. Remove foil and turn the oven temperature down to 375 degrees. Bake for 30-40 minutes more, until filling is bubbling and top is golden. If the edges are browning too quickly, cover just the edges with a pie shield or thin strips of foil. Cool on a rack before serving.

Instructions

For the crust:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9-inch tart or pie pan with cooking spray, and dust with rice flour.
2. In a food processor or mixer, combine flour, sugar, and xanthan gum. Add butter and pulse or mix on low speed until the texture is crumb-like. Add the vanilla and mix well.
3. Press the mixture into the bottom and up the sides of the prepared pan.
4. Bake on center oven rack for 18 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on rack in pan. (Remove sides only after completely cooled, preferably after being filled.)

For the vanilla custard filling:

1. In large bowl of an electric mixer, beat egg yolks at medium high speed until they’re foamy. Add sugar a little bit at a time while mixer is running, until the mixture is thick and light yellow. Lower speed, add salt and corn starch, and then beat until well blended.
2. Meanwhile, bring milk to a boil in a medium, heavy saucepan over medium heat.
3. Once milk has barely boiled, gradually add the milk to the egg mixture while the mixer is on low. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl, and then mix on medium speed until well blended.
4. Return the milk and egg mixture to the saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly with a whisk. (It may get foamy, but don’t worry.) Once it comes to a boil and thickens, lower the heat and cook on low heat for one more minute, while still continuously stirring. (The foam should miraculously disappear into the now-thick custard.) Remove custard from heat and whisk in butter and vanilla. Taste it, because it’s yummy.
5. Transfer custard to a bowl to cool, covering the custard with wax paper or plastic wrap to prevent a skin from forming on the surface. Cool in the refrigerator until ready to use.
6. To assemble, evenly spread cooled vanilla custard into cooled tart crust. Arrange berries on top however it pleases you.