Easy step-by-step tutorial for an easy vegan pie crust made with coconut oil. Just 5-ingredients and 10 minutes to the perfect pie crust.
Wanna make a vegan pie? Well you need a good vegan pie crust!
This one is so easy it’s ridiculous. And it uses coconut oil so if you’re living somewhere where it’s hard to get vegan butter then this is even better.
This recipe is so simple I’d say it’s pretty much foolproof!
A lot of pie crusts do cutesy little puckered folds at the top, which looks lovely, but sadly I am not up to the task. My clumsy fingers do not do the fine artsy stuff with the baking things. So I just made it straight up along the sides, which I thought looked fine and certainly did the job.
This recipe is just 5 ingredients and about 5-10 minutes and you have a lovely vegan pie crust to use with any pie that you please.
It’s everything a pie crust should be, perfectly crisp and it holds its shape perfectly in baking.
This recipe tends to work best when you need an unbaked pie crust. Add the filling and bake! It’s a little more tricky to blind bake the crust, but we have some tips for you about how to do that below.
We use this pie crust for our vegan pumpkin pie (pictured below) and our vegan quiche recipe and both work great.
How To Make A Vegan Pie Crust
You will find full instructions and measurements in the recipe card at the bottom of the post. This is a summary of the process to go along with the process photos.
- To make this easy vegan pie crust, throw some flour, salt and sugar into a food processor and pulse to combine.
- Then add some coconut oil (solid, not melted) and pulse until the mixture is crumbly.
- Then add some ice water and process until it forms a dough.
- Remove the dough from the food processor, form it into a ball and transfer to a floured surface. Get out the old rolling pin and get to work rolling it out.
- Roll it into a giant circle that is big enough to cover your pie dish.
- Roll it up in your rolling pin and then carefully unroll it on top of your 9-inch pie dish.
- Or just carefully pick it up and place the giant circle of dough over your pie dish.
- Carefully tuck it in along the base and sides of the pie dish. Then you simply trim off any excess dough hanging over the sides with a scissors.
- Place your pie crust into the fridge while you make the rest of your pie, whatever that may be!
What Size Pie Dish?
The pie dish you can see in our photos is 9-inches round. And if your pie dish is smaller, then you’re definitely covered.
Need A Baked Pie Crust?
It’s a little more tricky to pre-bake this pie crust because without the filling on top, it can shrink or puff up. So you need to get some pie weights. You will need at least 2 packs of these pie weights. You will also need to chill your pie crust in the freezer for at least 30 minutes.
Then top it with baking paper or foil and add the pie weights on top. Bake it in the oven at 400°F for around 15 minutes so that the sides are golden brown, and then remove the baking paper and pie weights, prick the bottom of the crust with a fork (to allow steam to escape and stop it from puffing up) and bake for a few more minutes until the bottom is lightly browned as well.
For heaps of great tips for blind baking a pie crust (blind baking just means without a filling), check out this great article from Sally’s Baking Addiction.
Enjoy! xoxo
Did you make this recipe? Be sure to leave a comment and rating below!
Vegan Pie Crust with Coconut Oil
Ingredients
- 1 cup + 2 Tbsp All Purpose Flour (145g)
- ¼ cup Coconut Oil (55g) Solid
- ½ teaspoon Salt
- 1 Tablespoon White Granulated Sugar
- 3-4 Tablespoons Ice Water
Instructions
- Place the flour, sugar and salt into the food processor and pulse to combine.
- Add the coconut oil (must be solid, not melted) and pulse until the mixture is crumbly.
- Add 3 Tbsp ice water and pulse to combine. It should look like a dough now and if you break off a piece and roll it in your hands it should easily roll into a ball. If it doesn’t then add the remaining Tbsp of ice water and pulse to combine once again.
- Remove the dough from the food processor and transfer to a floured surface.
- Roll the dough into a big round ball.
- Using a rolling pin roll it out from side to side into a a giant round that can fit over your pie dish.
- Carefully roll it up in your rolling pin and then unroll it over your 9-inch round pie dish. Or just lift it up and place it over your pie dish, tucking it in along the bottom and sides of the pie dish to fit properly.
- Take a scissors and trim off any excess dough around the edges.
- Place your pie crust into the fridge while you prepare your pie filling.
Notes
- This recipe works perfectly for a 9-inch round pie dish.
- If you’re making a savory pie and would prefer to omit the sugar then you can do so.
- Nutritional information is for ⅛ of the recipe.
Is this a sweet tasting crust? I’m looking for a recipe for a pot pie.
Hi Lisa, it’s more suited to desserts yes. We have made a vegan pot pie and used puff pastry for the topping, I have not made a homemade pot pie crust as yet. All the best!
Alison, thank you for the recipe. Can I leave out the sugar? Does it do anything besides adding sweetness?
Joy of Cooking has an oil based pie crust recipe that you pat in the pan.
A friend, who is a chemist and a lovely baker, uses her own gluten free, rice free flour blend. She lets the dough rest before she bakes, for a better baked texture.
Hi Susan, yes you can leave it out, it’s just for flavor balance but is not essential. 🙂
I’ve tried this before and it worked great I can’t remember though do you grease the pie tin or not? (Trying pie #2 ;))
Nvm did it without seemed fine haven’t cut into it yet but the sides weren’t glued to the pan..so.. good sign xP
I usually do spray it with some non-stick spray just in case but it’s also usually fine without it.
I just made this but it is very crumbly and won’t roll out. However it seems to hold ok when rolled in a ball. The coco oil was a little soft as hot day here. Does it need to be rock solid? I’ve put the ball in the fridge for a bit. Any ideas?
Thanks so much!!!
It sounds like it’s too dry Rachel, I would add a bit more ice water. 🙂
Mine was also very crumbly. I had doubled recipe for an apple pie. I’m certain my measurements were correct. I ended up adding 6 additional TBsp. ice water, 2 at a time. It seemed to do the trick and rolling it out was a breeze. The crust was delicious. I will try using this recipe for a tart shell also.
Thanks for sharing and the feedback Erica. 🙂
Made this pastry today, very easy and short and tasty! I made apple pie, and jam tarts with the off cuts.
Wonderful! Thanks so much for posting Suzanna! 🙂
Wow! I made this with no substitutions around Thanksgiving. I have been very nervous about baking since becoming vegan but this recipe was simple and delicious! Not too sweet. Very flaky and even better than my previous Crisco pie crusts! I did need to add closer to 5 or 6 tablespoons of water to get it to form a dough. I baked it for about an hour and fifteen min on 350 and it turned out perfectly! The instructions say closer to 45 min, but I found my pie needed much more time than that. Perhaps the kind of flour may have added to that time. I used a gluten free blend.
Hi Grace! I do think the gluten-free blend would account for those differences as gluten-free flour does tend to absorb more moisture than wheat flour and also can impact baking time. I’m so pleased to hear that it worked out great though with gluten-free and I think that will be very helpful info for other readers. Thanks so much for sharing. 🙂
Will almond flour work with the solid coconut oil?
I don’t think almond flour would work no. For gluten-free try a gluten-free all purpose flour blend.
Can you use olive oil as a sub? Got the coconut oil I mean…
Instead of *
I don’t think so. Coconut oil is replacing butter in this recipe and coconut oil is solid at room temperature (like butter) so I don’t think a liquid oil would do the trick here.
That’s okay! Thanks for the recipe I tried it and it worked well! Thanks it was well enjoyed (:
I’m rolling this out now and reusing the pieces that are left over and they’re getting very elastic. Will this effect the outcome?
Hi Nicole, if you mean the dough is quite stretchy, that’s fine! Hope it works out great! 🙂
I just made this pastry for a vegan galette and it was amazing! The crust was crispy and flaky and yet tender. I put the coconut oil in the freezer for a little while (I´ll probably put it in the fridge next time) and then I chopped it up into little pieces, which I found worked well. However, the dough was very dry even after adding the extra Tbs. of water. Next time I think I will increase the amount of coconut oil for a richer and easier to work with pastry.
This recipe looks great! I’m planning on making small tarts for Easter and was wondering how far in advance I can make this dough?
You can make it up to the point of it being a big round ball of dough, and then cover in plastic wrap and freeze. Thaw overnight in the fridge and then use it. If you’re not freezing it then I honestly have no idea, but a day or two in the fridge should be fine.
Hi do you think the crust will still come out ok if I use a gluten free all-purpose flour like King Arthur measure for measure flour etc. It is supposed to substitute in a regular recipe. I wouldn’t care but my son and hubby are going gf and we are vegan now but love love pumpkin pie..
I think it should work, the only issue I foresee is that I have found gluten-free flours to be very hard to roll out, they are just much more breakable. So far I have only tried it with a pizza base, not with this particular recipe, but in that case I had to spread it out carefully with my fingers, I was not able to roll it, as it would just break if I did. So I would imagine this would be the same. So what I would do with this is put the whole ball of dough into the pie dish and then use your fingers to press it down over the whole bottom and sides of the dish. As I said though I haven’t tested this pie base for gluten-free so this is just my best guess. Do you have time to test it first? It might be best to run a test version before the version where you need it to be perfect. All the best! And let us know how it turns out! 🙂
Hi Alison thanks for the response. I have never worked with gf flour before so I did not know that about it as far as rolling out. Yes I have time so I guess I will try it next week and if not, just use regular flour. Thank you for the help.
Hi, I’m a GF vegan 🙂 Just get some xanthan gum and add half a teaspoon to your flour for the recipe – it gives GF flour recipes a bit more bounce and less crumbly dryness!
Hope this helps
Thanks Nell! 🙂
Thanks, tried it twice and it comes out perfectly!
Also, thanks a lot for giving measurements in grams. As a European, I find the whole cup-system really inaccurate and a hassle to convert!
Fantastic! So happy to hear! Yes, I find it so much more accurate to weigh things out too. 🙂
Thank you Alison! Excited to make it soon!
Great! Let us know how it turns out! 🙂
Wow, thanks, I love an easy recipe!! 🙂
I’m totally with you on that one! Love the easy stuff. 🙂