Coconut Oil Pie Crust

My pastry go-to, coconut oil pie crust is even easier to make than a butter version and can be rolled out right away if you’re in a bit of a rush. It’s a little more crisp and less flakey than butter crust, but tastes great and holds up well to any filling. You don’t need to worry as much about extremely cold ingredients for vegan pie dough, either.

Use this for any sweet or savoury fillings, just as you would for any pie crust. Try a honey apple pie or try it as an easier alternative to hot water crust for this vegan savoury pie. If you prefer not to use store-bought pastry, it’s good in place of puff pastry for things like mushroom pot pie, too.

Ingredients

Ingredient Notes and Substitutions

• Flour: as written, this is a spelt flour pie crust (with light/sifted spelt flour). While you shouldn’t really sub spelt for plain flour, normal white flour can almost always be subbed for spelt with no changes to the recipe. Use plain flour if preferred.
• Coconut oil: if you don’t want a slight coconut flavour, use refined coconut oil.
• Sugar: pictured is beet sugar, but I would usually use coconut sugar (I photographed this right before moving, and keep beet sugar on hand for exfoliation!). Use any dry sugar – cane, beet, coconut, even maple. For a savoury pie, omit the added sugar.

Step by Step

Step 1: whisk the dry ingredients to combine, then rub in the oil until it’s in pea-sized crumbs.

Step 2: add the water a tablespoon at a time, stirring briefly between each addition, until the pastry holds together when pressed.

Step 3: split the dough into two pieces and form discs.

Step 4: wrap the pastry in beeswax wrap or damp tea towels and set aside to rest for a few minutes while you prepare a filling for your pie.

Step 5: roll one disc of pastry out to fit your pie tin, aiming for about 3mm (⅛-inch) in thickness.

Step 6: place the bottom crust into a pie tin, leaving the overhang for now.

Step 7: roll out the second half of the pastry and add it over the pie, or make a lattice crust.

Step 8: finish your pie by crimping the edges or sealing with a fork, and bake as directed.

Recipe Notes

There’s no need to use plastic wrap for your dough. Beeswax wrap is ideal, though it can be pricey, so if you don’t have any, a slightly damp tea towel will do the trick.

Lightly flour the work surface – you don’t want to dry out the dough – but keep moving it as you’re rolling it out to prevent sticking. If you find that the dough is resisting a bit, simply turn it over and let it rest for a couple of minutes before continuing.

Use up to 50% wholegrain flour in the dough but note that it will be more prone to tearing. Just patch it up and keep rolling.

Dough scraps shouldn’t be re-rolled more than once unless you want very tough pastry. You can bake the scraps with a little cinnamon sugar or brushed with honey for about 10 minutes at 180°C (350°F) for pie crust ‘cookies’ (my aunt Joyce, pie queen, made these all the time when I was a kid, and they are fantastic).

Make sure you give yourself enough space for crimping if that’s what you plan on doing – you’ll need about 3cm (~1-inch) overhang on the bottom crust. For fork sealing, you don’t need as much.

How to Store

Storage: keep the dough in the refrigerator, well wrapped or in a sealed container, for up to three days. Warm the dough up for about half an hour, as it’s too hard to roll out when very cold.

Freezing: place the discs of dough in an airtight container and freeze for up to a month. Thaw in the refrigerator and then keep out at room temperature for about half an hour before rolling out.

Expert Tips

• Don’t over mix: while this is the case for most baking, it’s especially true for pie crust. If you over mix it, you’ll end up with tough, chewy pie, so work with light and quick hands.
• Use cold ingredients: they don’t need to be frozen or the flour chilled beforehand, but you should use ice water and make sure the oil is solid, not soft or melted.
• Go easy on the water: like any pie dough, you need just enough water to bring the dough together, and all flour will act a little differently. Once the dough can be pressed together without crumbling into sand, it’s ready.

More Vegan Staples

Vegetable Broth
Oat Milk
Coconut Whipped Cream
Vegan Chocolate Ganache