Easy step-by-step tutorial for an easy vegan pie crust made with coconut oil instead of butter. 5-ingredients and 10 minutes to the perfect vegan 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 that I don’t even need to give you a bunch of tips and tricks to get it right, 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!
How To Make A Vegan Pie Crust
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 like you can see in the picture above.
Then add some ice water and process until it forms a dough (above). 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 into a giant circle that is big enough to cover your pie dish.
Carefully lift it up being careful not to tear the dough and place it over your pie dish, tucking it in along the base. 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 is this pie crust for?
The pie dish you can see in our photos is 9-inches round. However, there is always a bit of extra dough that I cut off, so I think this would be enough for a 10-inch pie dish as well. And of course if your pie dish is smaller, then you’re definitely covered.
I used this pie crust for my super delicious vegan pumpkin pie and it was amazing!
It’s everything a pie crust should be, perfectly crisp and it holds its shape perfectly in baking.
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 fridge for at least 30 minutes.
Then top it with baking paper and add the pie weights. 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. All the tips apply to this crust recipe just as well as to her recipe.
Enjoy! xoxo
Vegan Pie Crust with Coconut Oil
Ingredients
- 1 cup + 2 Tbsp All Purpose Flour (145g)
- ¼ cup Coconut Oil (55g) Solid
- ½ tsp Salt
- 1 Tbsp White Granulated Sugar
- 3-4 Tbsp 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 lift it up and place it over your pie dish, tucking it in along the sides of the pie dish to fit properly.
- Take a scissors and trim off any excess dough.
- 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.
Can this crust be frozen and used later?
Hi Joe, yes it can. I would freeze the dough in a ball, then thaw in the fridge and then bring it up to room temp before rolling out again.
It was delicious crust! Easy to make and tastes amazing. Will make again, thanks for sharing!
I doubled this recipe to be used in my strawberry and peach pie and it was just wonderful! The flavour of the crust alone was perfect. I’ve always had trouble with pie crusts as it would get tough because I would handle it too much, so this time I used a homemade cake/pastry flour substitute (a mixture of all-purpose flour and cornstarch) in order to limit gluten development. I’m so glad I found this recipe, as I noticed most vegan pie crust recipes call for half a cup or more of coconut oil for just a single pie crust and I’ve been trying to cut down on using oil. I’m so happy with the results, and this shall now be my go-to pie crust recipe.
Thank you and stay healthy!
So happy to hear it was a success! Thanks so much Belles!
Can I make this pie dough ahead and freeze it for about a week? When I’m ready to use it, how exactly do I handle it? Thanks Millie
Hi Millie, you can do that, just thaw it overnight in the fridge and then roll it out as normal.
I have gluten-free friends have you made this with gluten-free flour
Hi Stella, I haven’t made this with gluten-free flour and I’m not sure how it would work out. If I was going to try I would use a gluten free all purpose flour blend, but I have no idea how well it would work or if it would work in this particular recipe.
Did u ever make it gluten free wanna make it tomorrow
This was fabulous! Thank you! I actually made it in my vitamix blender by first freezing my coconut oil for about 10 to 15 minutes and then it incorporated nicely into my dry mixture by pulsing it in my blender. Very quick, easy and delicious! I also added 1 tablespoon more of sugar.
Five stars!
Thanks so much Courtney!
Ah, we need to get a food processor here. The crust mix stopped our Vitamix blender. We hauled out the old Mixmaster. That may work, otherwide by hand.
Hi John, yes I wouldn’t think this would work in a blender. Either a food processor or by hand if you don’t have a food processor. Hope you got it sorted out! 🙂
So I double this recipe to make a two crusted pie?
If you need two crusts then yes you would double this recipe.
Can I use whole wheat pastry flour instead of all purpose?
Hi Heidi, you might be able to, but I haven’t tested it so I’m not 100% sure.
it needed more than the recommended amount of oil. i used an extra tablespoon to make the dough.
Can I make your vegan pie crust in a blender? I don’t have a food processor.
Hi Linda, I might be more inclined to just do it entirely by hand in that case. If you use your hands to combine the coconut oil with the flour until it reaches a crumbly texture and then add the water and mix in, I think it would work fine.
So glad to see that someone else prefers to weigh ingredients. The cup system rarely works for me. I’m a vegan newbie but as a chef I’m finding everything really easy and tasty thanks for great recipe.
Yes, it’s so much more accurate! Thanks for posting Ruth! 🙂
Can I use vegan butter? If so, how much.
Yes I think that would work, same amount as the coconut oil.
We love the fact that you don’t have to refrigerate the dough for 30 minutes. And you can make a few and freeze them for another pie.
Just put apple pie in the oven..I wondered if the 10 minutes at 425 and 30-40 minutes at 350 works for coconut oil based pie crust. ?
I have 20 more minutes at 350..
Hi Jane, if you’re baking the pie crust, we have some directions in the blog post for how to do that. For using the unbaked pie crust with filling, then it would work the same as any other unbaked pie crust and you would just follow the directions for the particular pie you’re making. 🙂
Hi, Just wondering if Earth’s Balance or a vegan butter might be an ok substitute for the coconut oil. If not, what else might work? Thank you. 🙂
Hi Sydney, I think it would work fine! All the best! 🙂
Should dough chill/rest in fridge before rolling out?
No, just add flour to stop it sticking and roll it out right away.
I pre-baked my pie crust for filling and it shrunk. Did this happen to anyone else? I had to throw it out 🙁
I’m so sorry to hear this Cathryn. The best way to avoid this is to chill the pie crust in the fridge for 30 minutes before baking.
Hello Alison,
I would like to use this recipe but adapt it to make a coconut custard bars
I think it can be done
What do you think?
Thanks!!
Mary
Hi Mary, I have no idea at all, sorry! But let us know how it goes if you try it that way! 🙂