It took me some time to figure it out but my culinary Christmas gift to myself was to figure out a way to get sloppy gluten free dough to behave and adorn my festive veggie pot pies.

Before cooking, the consistency of my gluten free, dairy free dough is not at all like regular dough, it’s more like muffin or cake batter than dough but this is one of the necessary constraints I’ve found that results in gluten/dairy free baked goods that taste as great as possible.

Replacing the gluten often means replacing the elasticity of home-made bread or pizza dough with a variety of ingredients like xantham gum, corn or portato starch, tapioca flour and double acting baking powder … all of which seem to react better in a less dense dough recipe.

All this to say that I had a penchant for pot pie for Christmas and promised my mother I would make them at our family get-together … however it never occured to me how I would manage to get gorpy, sticky, un-kneadable dough to lie properly on top of hot, steaming bowls of vegetable pot pie.

After trying various unsuccessful techniques, much to the amusement of family and guests, I finally discovered the magic of wax paper … by simply spreading the dough onto a small square of wax parchment I was able to deftly flip the dough onto the top of my individual-serving pot pie dishes and effortlessly peel away the paper to reveal a scrumptious dish ready for the oven.

Having prepared my pot pie filling in advance, I only needed to bake the serving bowls for 10 – 15 minutes at 450 degrees to produce a lovely golden brown and fresh-baked crusty bread on top of piping hot bowls of vegetables in a steamy, savoury broth … but not without making a huge experimental mess in the process of course.