If you want to learn to make pies that will have everyone singing your praises, you first need to learn how to make a foolproof pie crust. Making a delicious and perfect vegan pie crust without butter is not at all difficult–in fact, it couldn’t be easier. In this post I’ll guide you, step by step, through the process of making a perfectly flaky and dairy-free pie crust from scratch that will be worthy of your best pie fillings! The entire process takes just minutes, which will have you wondering why you ever used those store bought pie crusts
Why you will love this recipe
It’s easy and fun. Pie making might appear, to the new cook, a difficult process. But in reality a pie or a tart is one of the easiest desserts to put together. Fillings usually take minutes to make, and it is no different with this easy vegan pie crust. Just remember two things–keep everything as cold as possible, and work as quickly as you can. As always, you will get better with practice. The vegan pie crust is delicious, flaky and buttery without butter. And it has the perfect texture. I’ll share with you my best tips, gleaned over years of pie making and countless pies. That way you can skip over the newbie mistakes and turn out great-looking and great-tasting pies from the get-go. Way better for you than a store-bought vegan pie crust. It might appear much easier to just run to the store and use a premade pie crust. But with this recipe you can put a foolproof pie crust together in less time. You know what’s actually in this crust and, best of all, it tastes way better. You can also use this crust for both sweet and savory pies. You get two crusts. You can freeze the leftover pie crust for another day, or use both crusts to make a double crust pie, like this vegan strawberry pie or vegan apple pie.
Pro tips for a flaky crust
Keep everything as cold as possible when working on the pie crust. Cold is your friend when it comes to pie crust making. That’s because your pie crust dough has little bits of butter dispersed throughout it and when the crust hits the hot oven those pockets of butter will melt, creating flaky layers. If you handle the ingredients too much with your warm hands or work in a hot room, the butter will melt even as you are mixing the dough, depriving your crust, and you, of that flaky joy. You can’t control the weather, but what you can do is keep everything that will come in contact with the ingredients, and the ingredients themselves, as cold as possible up until the moment you are actually making the recipe. If possible, refrigerate the bowl and the fork you will use to mix the pie dough 30 minutes before you begin. Make sure you keep the vegan butter refrigerated until the time you are ready to add it to the flour. Cut the butter in cubes and use it immediately. If you have a marble or granite countertop that remains cold, use that as the work surface to roll out the pie dough. Or refrigerate a baking sheet for 30 minutes and then use that to roll out the dough. Use cold water from the fridge to mix the dough and add ice cubes to it, if possible, to make sure it is extra cold. If your filling is not ready after you have rolled out the pie crust and put it in the pie plate, refrigerate the pie crust immediately and keep it there until the filling is ready to go in. Cut the cold vegan butter into the flour with a fork or a pastry cutter, not with your hands. Your hands are warm, so use a sturdy fork or pastry cutter as you cut the butter into the flour–which is just a fancy way of saying you will break the butter cubes into smaller pieces until they are evenly dispersed through the flour. Don’t make the butter pieces too small or too large. In the past pie crust recipes would ask bakers to ensure the pieces of butter were the size of peas. While you can’t ensure that every piece of butter in the dough will be of a uniform size, it’s a good guideline to use. Some of the pieces could be a little larger than a pea, some a little smaller, but you don’t want very big pieces or very small ones. If you can see yellow bits of butter dispersed through the dough as you roll it, you did it right! Add water slowly to the flour when mixing the pie pastry dough. The perfect pie dough should not be too dry nor too wet. A dry pie dough will be almost impossible to roll out without breaking into pieces. And a wet pie dough will cause the butter to melt, and will also be hard to roll out. So add water into the pie dough a tablespoon at a time, while mixing with the fork to make sure you are moistening the dough evenly. Stop when it still looks like the pie dough is slightly dry, but there is no dry flour remaining, and see if it holds together when you form a ball. If it does, place it in cling wrap, wrap it up, then use your fingers to shape it into a disc as best as you can. Keep moving the dough as you roll it. This will ensure that the dough hasn’t stuck to the surface. Flour the surface and the rolling pin as needed. Fold the dough gently before lifting it into a pie plate. Fold the rolled dough over once and then, if you want, one more time, before you lift it into the plate. Once the folded dough is in the plate, unfold it gently and fit it into the pie pan. Some pie makers roll the crust around the rolling pin, starting at one edge, before lifting it to the pie plate and unrolling. Refrigerate the pie shell once it’s in the pie plate and until you get your filling and, if it’s a double crust pie, the top crust ready. Use a milk and oil wash to improve the color of the baked pie. Before baking the pie, it’s a good idea to brush some nondairy milk or fat over the pie crust to improve the color. Most bakers use an egg wash or a combination of egg and milk, but I find that a vegan wash made by combining a tablespoon of soy milk or another non dairy milk with a teaspoon of vegetable oil works just as well.
How to make vegan pie crust
Place the flour in a bowl. Add salt and mix. Then add in the cubed vegan butter.
Use a fork or a pastry cutter to “cut” the butter into the flour. This is fancy speak for breaking the butter into pea-sized bits so it mixes evenly through the flour. See pro tips above for more details. Drizzle ice cold water, a tablespoon at a time, into the flour-butter mixture while mixing with a fork. Stop as soon as the dough begins to come together and there’s no dry flour remaining in the bowl.
Divide the dough into two. Wrap each half tightly in plastic wrap, shaping the dough into a disc with your hands as you do so. Refrigerate the dough for at least 15 minutes before rolling it out. This will give the butter time to harden up again before you bake it.
Roll out the crust. Flour a cool work surface, like a marble or granite countertop. Alternatively use a large baking sheet placed in the fridge for at least 15 minutes. Place one disc of the pie dough on the surface. Using a floured rolling pin, roll it into a circle two inches larger than the diameter of the pie plate.
Transfer the crust to the pie plate. Fold the crust in half and, if you wish, fold it once more. Lift the folded crust carefully and place it in the pie plate. Unfold gently and fit it into the pie plate.
Tuck any overhanging dough under the edges. Don’t trim away the excess dough! This is tasty stuff and you want all the flaky crust you can get! So just tuck the excess in until you have an even edge. Then use your fingers to flute the edges in a decorative pattern. Or press the tines of a fork into the edges.
Refrigerate the pie crust for 15 minutes before baking. This will help the butter harden up again and ensure a flakier crust. Bake the pie according to directions. This will vary slightly for different pie fillings but should roughly be around 50 minutes to an hour. For my strawberry pie, which is a double crust pie, I bake the pie at 425 degrees for 20 minutes. Then I reduce the heat to 400 degrees and bake for 30 more minutes.
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