Cream Cheese Pastry - Gluten-Free

I love making savoury hand pies, and this is my go to recipe for that, and for any other type of pie.  I had a favourite multigrain pie crust recipe from my old copy of Ken Haedrich's Country Baking, but I changed it a lot.  Gluten free flours don't have the sticking-togetherness of wheat flours because they have no gluten.  To adjust for that, I have added cream cheese in addition to the butter.  Since gluten free flours also don't absorb as much fat, I played around with the amounts until it worked to my satisfaction, and this is the resulting recipe.  You'll note that I have the amounts in both volume, and by weight.  I recommend weighing because it is very easy to pack the gluten free flours when you are measuring by volume.  Any kitchen scale will do.

Cream Cheese Pastry - Gluten-Free

Makes enough pastry for one double crust 9" pie

Ingredients

• 7/8 cup (85 grams) Gluten-Free Oat Flour (I used Only Oats Brand)
• 7/8 cup (108 grams) Gluten-Free Masa Harina (not corn flour)
• 3/4 cup (73 grams) Potato Starch (this is different than potato flour)
• 12 ounces cold butter cut in 1/2" cubes
• 12 ounces cold cream cheese cut in 1/2" cubes
• 1 egg yolk
• 3 - 5 tablespoons cold water

Method 

• Weigh out the flour, or spoon it into a measuring cup.  Never scoop oat flour out of the package with a measuring cup.  It will compact, and you will get more flour than you need.  

• You can do this by hand, but I usually use a food processor for this part.  Put the flours, and potato starch into a food processor, and mix for about 30 seconds.  You want the flours well blended.
• Add cubed butter and cream cheese to the flour mix in the processor, and pulse until mixture resembles a coarse damp meal.  Largest pieces should be no larger than a split pea.
• At this point you could continue with the food processor, but I prefer to put the mixture in a bowl and add the rest by hand.
• Mix the egg yolk with 3 tablespoons of cold water, and sprinkle this over the mixture, using a fork tines to help press the the dough together.  If it is still dry, add another tablespoon of water, this time packing the dough with your hands.  
• When the dough pulls together in a damp ball, divide it in half, flatten each half into a disk, cover with plastic wrap or waxed paper, and chill for at least 30 minutes before rolling out.
• Use in any pastry recipe, but I recommend rolling the pastry between sheets of waxed paper. 

I use this recipe as a topping for my individual chicken pot pies.  Here's one that's baked: