Gluten Free Cabbage Pie

This recipe is an adaptation of the favourite pie from my childhood, my great-aunt used to make so delicious. It has a rich yeast dough and a very simple, juicy 3 ingredients fresh cabbage filling. I used the original techniques in cabbage filling preparation, with the only change to use food processor for cabbage shredding, instead of manual one.

For the soft and fluffy dough for the pie I used my favourite Well and Good Crusty bread mix, which I have used many times before to bake different savoury and sweet pastries (bacon pasties here,  mushroom pasties here and poppy seed pastries here).

My great-aunt always told me that the softer the dough, the better any bake will be. It is more difficult to work with the soft and sticky dough, especially the gluten free varieties, but the resulting deliciously soft pastry, with airy and fluffy texture, with an amazing springy effect in a bite, is definitely worth the extra effort. Compared to any regular gluten free yeast bread, or other yeast dough, this pastry does not go stale when cooled down, and even on the second day does not become too hard. With several seconds in microwave, the pie is back again, as if freshly baked from the oven.

For those of you who does not have at extensive experience with gluten free yeast dough, I recommend to start with the original recipe from the Crusty bread mix printed on the box, with changing 90ml of water for 2 eggs for the whole portion of the dough, and 45ml for half of the portion for 1 egg.

Ingredients:

dough

the whole box of Crusty Bread mix makes enough dough for 2 pies (I usually use half of the dough to make a pie, and another half to make sweet scrolls)

• 400g flour mix from Crusty Bread mix box by Well and Good (all ingredients from the box)
• yeast sachet from the box
• 50g tapioca flour
• 400ml warm water
• 2 extra large eggs
• 40g unsalted butter, softened or melted (for the best results I use Lurpak butter soft)
• 2 table spoons granulated sugar (20g)

cabbage filling for 1 pie

• half of medium size cabbage (500g)
• 2-3 table spoons unsalted butter (20g)
• 1 table spoon sugar (10-15g)
• salt and coarse black pepper to season

Originally I gave the exact quantities of sugar, salt and pepper, but it always depends on the cabbage and type of salt you use. Always taste the filling and adjust salt and sugar to your taste.

extra

• butter for the pan and filling
• egg for egg wash

Preparation:

• discard outer leaves of fresh cabbage
• cut cabbage into medium size chunks

• place cabbage into the bowl of food processor and process it on medium speed for 30-40 seconds, or until cabbage pieces reach lentil size

• transfer cabbage into a wide bowl
• add boiling water

• let it rest for 15 min

• drain cabbage and rinse it in warm water, just to take the heat out, but not to cool cabbage completely

• when your hands can tolerate the temperature of cooked cabbage, squeeze as much water out of the cabbage as you can
• add butter, sugar, salt and black pepper
• mix the filling, taste the seasoning, the filling should be seasoned well
• put the filling aside
• depending on your needs prepare half or full portion of the dough

Dough preparation can be seen in details here.

• sift both flours into a bowl
• add sugar and yeast, mix with a whisk
• add warm water, egg and butter
• mix the dough well (I like to do it by hand, but use any method you like) Well and Good has step by step video on their site, see here

I make my version of the dough more wet and sticky, compared to the one in the video. It gives better tasting and softer pie, but it is harder to work with this dough, and you might prefer to use Well and Good recipe and preparation.

• you can start to use the dough after mixing it
• divide the dough in 2 unequal parts, one bigger for the bottom of the pie, and the other one, for the top
• use provided rice flour to dust the surface

• grease Pyrex baking dish (or any other pie baking dish)
• roll or spread the larger part of the dough on a baking paper
• turn it over into the baking dish
• spread the dough evenly (I find it is easier to spread the dough in a baking dish with wet finger tips)
• add cabbage filling
• add some extra butter on top of the filling
• cover with the second piece of the dough
• pinch the dough together
• make an incision in the centre

• use egg wash to brush the surface
• cover the dough with the wet towel and let it rise until it doubles in size (I use not very warm water and it takes around an hour for the dough to rise, I put baking dish on a wire rack, placed on the top of the sink, filled with warm water)
• brush with egg wash the second time

• bake in preheated to 170C fan forced oven for 50-55 min

• brush pie with butter

• turn it over to a wire rack
• cover with a dry towel and let it rest for 20min
• transfer to a serving board

Enjoy warm on its own, or serve with a salad or broth.

Cabbage filling can be used to make different pastries made with different types of dough. It goes well with the puff pastry made purely with buckwheat flour without using any gums or other binding agents. I have finalised the recipe, and  now work on finishing touches to preparation technique.