Vegan Pie Crust

This easy Vegan Pie Crust Recipe creates a crispy, buttery pie crust perfect for your next vegan pie. You can master this easy flaky crust using only 7 ingredients. It begins with the perfect vegan pie dough, made with my favorite secret ingredient!

You’ll love filling this pie crust with a Vegan Chocolate Pie Filling topped with Vegan Meringue. It’s not only delicious, but it’s beautiful too!

A pie crust fresh from the oven with the fluted edges nicely golden.
A pie crust fresh from the oven with the fluted edges nicely golden.

One of the most important parts of any pie is having a perfect pie crust. That’s not rocket science. But the really tricky part is making a simple pie crust that results in a flaky crust, suitable for any pie filling.

This recipe walks you through step-by-step so you can make a delicious vegan pie crust from scratch!

This is my time-tested vegan pie crust recipe. In fact, I’ve been using (and refining) this recipe for years.

What Makes This Recipe Shine?

  • Using both vegan butter and vegetable shortening creates a flaky crust with the best buttery flavor
  • Adding vodka makes the batter extra flaky because most of the alcohol evaporates in baking, leaving behind the best crust texture
  • Keeping the ingredients cold helps to bake a perfect crust time and time again!

Pie Crust Ingredients

You can find the full printable recipe, including ingredient quantities, below. But first, here are some explanations of ingredients and steps to help you make this recipe perfect every time.

This vegan pie crust is made with only a few simple ingredients:

  • Flour — You can also use all-purpose flour or whole wheat pastry flour (not the same as whole wheat flour)
  • Salt — salt brings out the flavor in this crust.
  • Sugar — I’m recommending a bit of sugar because sugar helps to prevent the formation of gluten in the flour, making for a more tender crust.
  • Fat — We’ll use a mixture of vegan butter and shortening. The butter adds the best flavor, but the shortening adds the flakiness.
  • Liquid — You have to have liquid in the dough to hydrate the flour and bind everything together. In addition, the liquid and the fat creates steam in the baking process, creating lift in the baked crust. I recommend a combination of chilled vodka and water. See more on why I’m using vodka below.
Pouring the custard into the prepared pie crust for this amazing Vegan Pecan Pie!

Use Cold Ingredients in Pie Crusts

Keeping your pie dough ingredients — like the fat and liquids — as cold as possible prevents the fat in the unbaked pie from getting soft. If the fat gets soft and melty in the dough before baking, you can say bye-bye to a flaky crust.

However, using chilled fat helps it stay intact in the dough. Then as the pie bakes, the lumps of fat melt in the oven and produce steam. That steam helps creates micro-layers of flakiness. I think this may have been what my sisters called me when I was a kid, but I digress.

So, think of it this way, a warm dough will yield a hard, greasy crust, whereas a cold dough will yield a tender, flaky vegan pie crust.

How to Make Vegan Pie Crust

First things first, I like to use a food processor to make my pie crust. It makes it easier to get the vegan butter evenly distributed throughout the flour.

Here’s the dilemma: If you over-process your dough, it can overwork the gluten in the flour, resulting in a chewy crust. You also want big bits of butter throughout the crust, because that’s what makes it flaky. So, just be sure to use the processor in short bursts.

The ingredients for a vegan pie crust are in a food processor
Pour the dry ingredients for your vegan pie crust into a food processor.

Step One: Mix Dry Ingredients

Combine the flour, salt and sugar in the food processor and give it a few pulses to combine.

I’ve made this vegan pie crust recipe using both all-purpose (unbleached) flour and whole wheat pastry flour. It works both ways. So you can replace the flour below with 100% whole wheat pastry flour or some combination of the two and still achieve a nice, flaky vegan crust.

Step Two: Cut in the Fat

Store both the vegan butter and vegetable shortening in the fridge (or even the freezer) for about 30 minutes prior to making your crust. Why? Because you want bits of fat distributed throughout the dough and working with cold fat helps achieve that.

Flour in food processor is topped with chopped butter and chopped vegetable shortening with more chopped butter beside it.
Add vegan butter and vegetable shortening to the mixed flour ingredients.

Chop the cold vegan butter and shortening, and then add these slices to the flour mixture. After a few pulses, the fat should be equally distributed throughout the dough.

Step Three: Add Liquid

When you add liquid to all-purpose flour it immediately begins activating the gluten. That’s one reason I’m using equal parts of water and vodka. I learned about this trick from 101 Cookbooks. Heidi recommends including a little vodka because it helps make the pie dough to be more malleable and flakier.

A food processor is full of crumbly pie crust mixture. A glass of ice water and bottle of vodka sit next to it.
After mixing the fat into the crust, the pie crust is still course and crumbly.

To chill the water and vodka, pour it into a glass with ice. Then measure it out and pour it over the crust.

Sprinkle the cold vodka over the pie dough and stir until combined. Next, add the chilled water, 1 tablespoon at a time, until the dough is slightly tacky and sticks together.

Step Four: Cover and Chill

This is a double pie crust recipe, so once your dough is ready, divide it in half and roll the dough into discs. Then wrap it in plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes or up to 3 days. Or you can freeze it where it will last up to 2 months!

I love having a disk of frozen pie dough in the freezer for those spur of the moment times when I want to make a pie.

A bowl shows some dough mixture with a red spatula. A ball of dough wrapped in plastic sits beside the bowl.

Divide the pie dough recipe in half and wrap in plastic wrap and chill before rolling.

That chilling step is important because it helps create a firm dough and makes rolling it much easier.

Step Five: Follow your Pie Instructions

The next step is to follow your specific pie recipe instructions. For example, a vegan pumpkin pie will call for an unbaked vegan pie crust. In that case, you would roll out the dough, place it in the pie pan, and crimp the edges. Once the filling is ready, pour it in the unbaked pie shell and bake it all together.

Alternatively, a chocolate pudding pie usually calls for a baked pie crust. In that case, you would roll out the dough, place it in a pie pan, crimp the edges, prick the bottom of the pie with a fork, and bake the crust. I oftentimes will add pie weights to the crust while baking it so that the crust doesn’t develop bubbles as its baking.

Don’t have pie weights? Add a sheet of parchment paper over the unbaked crust and top that with some dried beans. I’ve done this and it works!

How to Roll Pie Crust

To roll out pie dough, begin by lightly flouring a surface or you can roll the dough between two sheets of waxed paper.

Either way, just remember to be gentle when rolling your dough. Using a rolling pin, always start from the center of the disc and roll out away from the center. This requires turning the dough frequently. So roll, and turn, then roll and turn. You get the idea.

For a standard 9″ inch pie pan, roll the dough 11–12″ in diameter. Yes, I keep a ruler in the kitchen. Or you can get a pie rolling sheet that gives dimensions.

Then transfer the dough into the pie pan and trim and flute the edges.

Is Crisco Vegan?

Basically, shortening is a fat that is firm at room temperature. Most shortenings, such as Cristco, are made from vegetable oil and are therefore vegan. However, read the label to make sure your shortening is made without animal products like lard. Shortening is often recommended for pie crusts because it helps make them crispy and flaky.

Marly’s Tips

  • The first thing to remember when you’re making a flaky pie crust is you want to use as little liquid as possible
  • I use a combination of both vegan butter (Earth Balance) and vegetable shortening. The vegan butter creates a buttery flavor in the pie crust
  • Use a vegan butter that’s firm when cold. If it’s overly spreadable, it will not work for a pie crust.
  • Using shortening is an easy way to make a flaky vegan pie crust. However, you can substitute coconut oil
  • You can substitute vinegar if you prefer not to use vodka
  • Once the dough balls are prepared, you can freeze the dough at that point. Simply place them in a sealed container or in a freezer bag and freeze up to 1 month. Before rolling, allow them to sit on the counter and thaw, about 45 minutes to an hour.

How Do You Make a Flaky Pie Crust?

Pie dough involves pockets of fat surrounded by hydrated flour. We’ll be using a food processor to cut the fat into the flour and then roll it out to make a pie crust. While that crust is baking, it gets flaky because of the layers of fat and hydrated flour throughout the dough.

The best trick to making a flaky vegan pie crust is to minimize the amount of moisture used, while still having enough stickiness to roll it. Using minimal liquids helps create the flakiest pie crust possible. That’s why my favorite trick involves alcohol.

Vodka adds moisture to the pie dough, allowing it to be malleable enough to work with. Of course, most of it bakes off in the oven, leaving a nice, flaky crust.

Vegan Pie Crusts

There are lots of different vegan pie crusts. Let’s discuss some of the options you have for your next vegan pie. For example:

So, you see, there are lots of vegan pie crust recipes, including some healthier versions too.

That’s our post for Vegan Pie Crust. Use the recipe below to make your own and stay tuned because there are some pretty fabulous pie recipes coming your way this week.

A baked pie crust in a pie pan.

Foolproof Flaky Vegan Pie Crust

Learn how to How to Make Foolproof Flaky Vegan Pie Crust with this quick pie crust recipe with accompanying video and even a few step-by-step photos. This recipe creates pie dough for 2 9-inch pie crusts.
5 from 6 votes
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 10 minutes
Resting Time: 30 minutes
Total Time: 45 minutes
Servings: 18
Calories: 145kcal

Ingredients

  • 2 ½ cups unbleached all-purpose flour , divided
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
  • 8 tablespoons (1 stick) vegan butter cut into slices
  • 4 tablespoons vegetable shortening cut into pieces
  • ¼ cup cold vodka
  • ¼ cup cold water

Instructions

  • Pour 1 1/2 cups flour, salt, and sugar into a food processor and pulse until combined, about 2 seconds.
  • Add vegan butter and process until just combined. Add the shortening slices and pulse until dough collects in clumps, about 15 seconds.
  • Add remaining cup of flour and pulse until mixture is evenly distributed (4 to 6 quick pulses). Empty mixture into a medium bowl.
  • Sprinkle cold vodka over the dough and stir until combined. Add water, 1 tablespoon at a time until the dough is slightly tacky and sticks together.
  • Divide dough into two even balls and flatten each into a 4-inch disk. Wrap each in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes or up to 3 days. These dough balls can be frozen too. Place in freezer bags and freeze up to 1 month. When you're ready to make the pie, set it out on the counter to thaw for about an hour before rolling.
  • From this point, follow the directions for your pie recipe. Some pie recipes will require pouring the custard into an unbaked pie crust whereas others will require baking the crust prior to pouring in the custard.

Recommended Equipment

(The products above contain sponsored links to products we use and recommend)

Notes

If you choose not to use vodka, simply replace that with cold water, but use as little as possible.
You can substitute vinegar if you prefer not to use vodka.
Calories: 145kcal | Carbohydrates: 14g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 8g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Sodium: 170mg | Potassium: 18mg | Sugar: 1g | Calcium: 3mg | Iron: 0.8mg

The nutrition information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator and should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.

A pecan pie with a slice removed in a glass pie dish. The words, "How to make foolproof & flaky Vegan Pie Crust" is at the top.

Enjoy!

This post was originally published in 2015 and was updated to include new photos, new text, and an updated recipe in 2020.

63 Responses to Vegan Pie Crust

  1. Avatar thumbnail image for MarlyNicole Reply

    Have you ever tried this with gluten free flour? I cannot find or create a decent pie crust that is vegan AND gluten free. Unfortunately I have a lot of restrictions to my diet and I am desperate to have a normal-ish pie for thanksgiving this year.

    • Avatar thumbnail image for MarlyMarly

      Hi Nicole! Yes, I have tried this with gluten-free flour and it works! I use a 1:1 gluten-free baking flour, like Bob’s. I also love using my oatmeal pie crust which is gluten-free if you use GF oats. I hope this is helpful!

  2. Avatar thumbnail image for MarlyLeah W Reply

    5 stars
    Hi Marly – thanks so much for this recipe. I’ve made this crust with your lemon meringue pie recipe a couple of times now, and my family is just blown away by the quality of the pie. “You’d never know it was vegan!” It’s been a request for several family events at this point.

    This may not be related to this particular recipe and more to my pie crust technique, but I find the pie crust shrinks a lot when I bake it. Any tips to prevent the crust from shrinking too much?

    • Avatar thumbnail image for MarlyMarly

      Hi Leah. I’m so glad you like this recipe. It’s one of my favorites, too! When I’m blind baking a crust, I try to have a thicker crust around the edge, so I can wrap the crimps around the edge of the pie pan. I hope that makes sense! I find even just a little bit of the dough pushed around the edge of the pan is helpful. I also refrigerate the crust for about 30 minutes before baking and I use pie weights. Those weights can prevent the crust from shrinking while baking without anything on the inside. One last tip, I don’t find this necessary when I’m baking a crust with filling, but for blind baking, I will make the crust with an extra tablespoon (or two) of vegetable shortening. I hope this is helpful!

  3. Avatar thumbnail image for MarlyShara Reply

    5 stars
    This is my favorite GO-TO vegan pie crust!

  4. Avatar thumbnail image for MarlyJo Moore Reply

    Is this REALLY your time-tested recipe that you’ve refined over the years? Because it doesn’t work. There’s NOT ENOUGH FAT. When I compared this to my usual non-vegan recipe, it was exactly the same except for the total amount of butter and shortening, but I told myself, “Maybe, just maybe there’s something magical about vegan butter that will make this crust work without all that fat.” Nope. I should have listened to myself. Funny how at least two other vegan blogs got it right when I decided to go on the hunt again. It makes me wonder whether the rest of your chocolate meringue pie recipe will work.

    • Avatar thumbnail image for MarlyMarly

      Hi Jo. This is my time-tested recipe that I use every time I make a pie that calls for a traditional crust. I’m sorry it didn’t work for you.

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