The potato crust for tourtiere was one of the delightfully, successful gluten-free adaptations of my Christmas favourites. This crust adapted from Kingston’s Chez Piggy cookbook written by restaurant and bakery owners Rose Richardson and Zal Yanovsky is amazing. We used it for the tourtiere topper at the bakery and cannot believe I have not come across something similar elsewhere. It is a bit more work having the potatoes cooked and cooled but not if you think about it with your dinner prep the night before. Since it translated so well with gluten-free flour I now use it for all my savoury crusts. It is a delight to roll and work with.

Getting everything together for the tortiere takes time and even more of it now that I move more slowly – haha – but seems well worth it when you can sit and enjoy time with family while it bakes by itself in the oven. I make a double batch and have enough for 2 dozen small tarts, a large pie and a small pie for just the two of us to try. The tarts are great for any potluck gathering because they can be served to both the allergic and non-allergic crowd without apology.

tortiere-with-potato-pastry – Click here for pdf version

Tortiere

• 2 cups carrots, sliced tsp butter or olive oil
• 1 large onion, chopped, about 1 1/4 cups
• 1 rib celery, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 1/2 lb ground pork
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp savoury
• 1/4 tsp cloves
• 1/4 tsp black pepper
• 1 Tbsp fresh parsley, chopped or 1 tsp dry
• 1 1/2 cup mashed potatoes

Potato Pastry:

• 1 cups GF all purpose flour*
• 1/2 cup GF bread flour
• 1 tsp xanthan gum
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup cold butter
• 1 cup cold mashed potatoes
• 3 – 4 Tbsp milk

1. For the filling cook carrots in a little water until they are tender crisp, set aside, reserving 1/2 cup of the cooking liquid to add to the meat mixture later.
2. Brown ground pork with bay leaf until it is no longer pink, then remove from pan and drain on paper towel.
3. Cook onion in butter in same pan for about 5 minutes then add celery and garlic and continue cooking until soft.
4. Add back pork then stir in salt, savoury and cloves with 1/2 cup of water from the carrots and continue simmering for about 20 minutes until most of the liquid is evaporated.
5. Add cooked carrots, potatoes and fresh parsley, stirring until mixed.
6. Cool to lukewarm while making pastry.
7. For the pastry mix butter, flour, baking powder and salt with a pastry blender or your clean hands until lumps are the size of peas.
8. Mix in cooled potatoes and milk to form a dough. This dough is lovely to work with.
   Divide dough into 2 pieces, roll into circles on plastic wrap to keep from sticking and line a 9 or 10 inch pie plate or 2 dozen mini tarts reserving enough for tops..
9. Pour in cooled meat filling, wet edge of bottom crust, cover with top and seal and flute edges.
10. Bake at 375°F about 1 hour, until crust is browned and filling is bubbling.