Here are our top tips for making gluten free pastry at home:

• Always follow the recipe – you need to be careful weighing and measuring your gluten free ingredients to make sure you get the blend just right.
• Use a little more water than normal – too little water will make gluten free pastry hard to manipulate when you’re making it, and crumbly, dry and cracked when it’s been baked. Keep a little extra water handy to sprinkle on your dough until it’s the right texture and can be shaped easily into a lump.
• Avoid over mixing – over mixing can make your pastry hard and cracked. Mix your gluten free ingredients gently with a fork or pastry blender rather than using your fingers or a kitchen mixer.
• Let your pastry rest – gluten free pastry needs more time for the flour to absorb the water so that it can become stretchy and rollable. Leave it for at least an hour after mixing or put it in the fridge overnight for the best results.
• Roll out between baking sheets – because gluten free pastry is not as elastic, it can be difficult to roll out, and you may find it fragile and hard to handle. You can avoid these problems by rolling your gluten free pastry between two sheets of baking paper. This allows you to lift it, flip it and turn it with ease.
• Use smaller pieces – given that pastry made with gluten free ingredients can be hard to handle, you might want to start by using smaller pieces, for individual pies and tarts, to avoid struggling with large sheets.
• Keep it cool – always use cold, solid fat, such as refrigerated butter or lard, rather than a spread or soft butter. Only work with the dough that you need and keep the rest of your pastry cool in the fridge for later.