Vegan Pie Crust
Here’s my guide on how to make foolproof flaky vegan pie crust! Learn my secrets, get my recipe, watch the accompanying video, and even step-by-step photos.
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Whether you are baking a seasonal holiday dessert or a cozy weekend treat, a great pie starts from the ground up. You don’t need dairy, lard, or complicated techniques to achieve a decadent, melt-in-your-mouth pastry.
If you’ve ever struggled with a plant-based crust that turned out tough, greasy, or completely crumbly, you’re not alone. This step-by-step guide walks you through how to master an easy vegan pie crust that bakes up into a golden, flaky vegan pie crust every single time.
In this Post
Why This Is the Best Vegan Pie Crust
Achieving a bakery-quality pastry without animal products comes down to a few key principles of baking science:
- The Flakiness Factor: The secret to a legendary flaky vegan pie crust is temperature control. Keeping your ingredients ultra-cold prevents the fats from melting prematurely. When those cold pockets hit the hot oven, they melt and create steam, resulting in delicate, micro-layers of flakiness.
- The Method: Utilizing a food processor allows you to cut the fat into your dry ingredients rapidly, distributing it evenly without overworking the flour’s gluten. If you don’t have one, simple hand-mixing instructions ensure you get the exact same results.
- Smart Fat Choices: Combining plant-based stick butters (for rich flavor) with vegetable shortening or a coconut oil pie crust variation gives you the ideal balance of structure, tenderness, and taste.
Ingredients & Substitutions
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.
Before you begin, gather your core components and set up your workspace with a rolling pin, parchment paper, and plastic wrap.
- Flour: Unbleached all-purpose flour provides the ideal gluten structure. For a slightly nuttier, wholesome twist, you can swap a portion for whole wheat pastry flour.
- Salt: A touch of salt balances the richness of the fats.
- Sugar: A small amount of sugar inhibits excessive gluten development, ensuring your vegan pie dough stays tender rather than tough.
- Vegan Fats: A split of vegan butter and shortening yields the ultimate flaky texture and rich flavor profile.
- Liquid: You need moisture to bind the dough. A mix of chilled water and a splash of cold vodka hydrates the flour without activating too much gluten (the alcohol bakes away, leaving behind pure flakiness!)
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!
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.
Step-by-Step Instructions: How to Make Vegan Pie Crust
Step 1: Combining the Dry Ingredients
Add your flour, salt, and a pinch of sugar into your food processor. Pulse two or three times just to distribute everything evenly.
Step 2: Cutting in the Fat
Cut your plant-based butter and shortening into cubes and chill them in the freezer for about 20 minutes before starting. Add the cold fats to the flour mixture and pulse in short, quick bursts until the fat pieces resemble the size of small peas. You want visible pieces of fat left intact!
Step 3: Adding Ice Water & Forming the Dough
Transfer the crumbly mixture into a mixing bowl. Drizzle your chilled water (and optional vodka) over the mixture one tablespoon at a time. Gently stir with a spatula until the dough is just cohesive and slightly tacky when pinched.
Step 4: Chilling and Rolling
Divide your vegan pie dough in half, shape each half into a flat disk, and wrap them tightly in plastic wrap. Chill in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes to let the gluten relax and the fat firm up. Once chilled, unwrap the dough, place it between two sheets of parchment paper, and use your rolling pin to roll it smoothly into an 11–12 inch circle.
Pro-Tips for Preventing a Crumbly Crust
- Keep Everything Cold: If your kitchen runs warm, place your food processor bowl and rolling pin in the fridge for a few minutes before you start. Warm dough leads to a greasy texture, while cold dough leads to flakiness.
- Add Liquid Sparingly: Only add as much chilled water as necessary to bring the crumbs together. Too much moisture makes the dough tough, while too little makes it unmanageably crumbly.
- Don’t Skip the Chill: Letting the wrapped dough rest in the fridge is non-negotiable; it solidifies the fat pockets so they perform correctly in the oven.
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.
Frequently-Asked Questions
Is pie crust vegan?
Traditional pie crusts rely heavily on dairy butter or lard. However, this easy vegan pie crust swaps those animal fats for plant-based alternatives like vegan butter, shortening, or coconut oil to deliver the exact same classic flavor and flakiness.
How do I keep my vegan pie dough from crumbling?
If your dough is breaking apart and won’t hold its shape, it’s likely too dry. Sprinkle your mixture with an extra teaspoon of chilled water, gently press it together, and give it a few minutes to absorb the moisture before rolling.
Can I freeze vegan pie dough?
Yes! Wrap your shaped dough disks securely in plastic wrap and place them in a freezer-safe bag. They will keep for up to 1 month. When you’re ready to bake, thaw the disk in the refrigerator overnight or let it sit on the counter for 45 to 60 minutes before rolling it out with your rolling pin.
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:
- This Oatmeal Pie Crust is simple to make and undeniably flavorful
- You can create your own Oreos crust, like this one using Golden Oreos, Vegan Banana Cream Pie
- Here’s a healthy, raw pie crust using nuts and dried fruit that is more like a vegan tart: Chocolate Pie Pastry Recipe
- Or you can make a vegan graham cracker crust like this one, Vegan Cheesecake recipe
- You can’t go wrong with a flaky crust like this one. This Vegan Pecan Pie recipe shows how to bake your crust with a custard.
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.
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Foolproof Flaky Vegan Pie Crust
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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
Nutrition
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.
Enjoy!
This post was originally published in 2015 and was updated to include new photos, new text, and an updated recipe in 2020.
About the Author
Hi! I’m Marly McMillen. I’m the founding editor, author, recipe developer, vegan home chef, and food stylist behind Namely Marly. I’m so grateful to you and every member of my audience for your support and dedication. More about Namely Marly ›
63 Responses to Vegan Pie Crust
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Can I use tequila in place of the vodka?
I have never used tequila in the pie crust, but I feel confident it would work. It might add a slight flavor to the crust, but I think that could be interesting. If you try it, let me know how it goes.
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.
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!
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?
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!
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.
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.
Hi, Marly! I’m about to try this recipe, and it’s VERY similar to the American’s Test Kitchen double-crust vodka pie crust recipe (which has worked famously for me) except for the percentage of fat. The ATK recipe calls for 12 tablespoons butter and 1/2 cup shortening, whereas yours calls for 8 tablespoons vegan butter (I’m using Earth Balance) and 1/4 cup vegetable shortening. That’s quite a difference: 20 tablespoons fat vs. 12. I’m certainly game to give it a go, but I was wondering why your recipe calls for 40 percent less fat and how it still works for the same amount of crust. Thanks!
Hi Jo. I’m not familiar with the ATK pie crust recipe. I got the idea for adding vodka from a cookbook I read a long time ago. I adapted this recipe over the years and this has been my go-to favorite for years. I hope you enjoy it as well!
I’ve never made a pie crust before and for some reason, this recipe grabs me (I swear it’s not the vodka, but…)
My first project is going to be a vegan vegetable pie -so here’s a newb question:
Is there any reason I shouldn’t use this recipe?
And general advice if you don’t mind:
Should I bake the crust first to stop it from getting soft on the bottom?
TIA!
Hi Greg. Any recipe that includes vodka gets my immediate attention, too! 🙂 I actually made a vegan pot pie and I used this pie crust recipe and it worked like a charm! Also, I did not prebake the pie crust before adding the filling. I recommend using one of the dough discs as a bottom crust and the other as a top crust. I also brushed plant-based egg wash alternative over the top to make the top crust and the edges nice and golden in color. I hope this is helpful, but feel free to let me know if you have more questions.
Used 1/2cup rum and 1/4 cup distilled vinegar,instead ,no water and cultured vegan butter .Then half succanat and half cane sugar. And some extra flour for dusting and whoa! ,Best pie crust ever!
Hi Kathleen. I like your adjustments and I’m so glad it came out perfectly for you!
Great tasting and simple recipe for dairy free gluten free pecan pie. I’ve made it three times already. Thank you.
Thanks, Wade. So glad you like this recipe. I almost always have some in my freezer. You know, for those moments you want to make an impromptu pie! 🙂
Hi Marly,
Can you use gin instead of vodka? I’m trying to avoid buying a whole bottle and instead use what I have! Or if not, what kind of vinegar do you recommend? ACV? Thank you!
Hi Chelsea. There are a lot of similarities between gin and vodka, but gin has more flavor (it’s made with juniper berries) which may come through in the pie crust. I would recommend going with vinegar, such as apple cider vinegar (as you note). It has the mildest flavor in my opinion.
This is the first vegan pie crust recipe that has really worked (in terms of being flaky and super tasty)! I followed the recipe exactly, but did everything by hand. Thank you 🙂
Hi Darla! So glad you liked this vegan pie crust recipe. I’m so glad to see you made it by hand too!
Do I have to use shortening? Can I replace with all vegan butter?
Hi Mette! Yes, you can use all vegan butter. Or you can do coconut oil as well. I’ll add these as notes to the recipe.
I made this without the sugar But everything else the same, and by hand with a manual dough cutter, it came out perfect for chicken pie and chicken pot pie!!
Alcohol does not completely “burn off” in cooking. While I know that 1/4 cup of vodka is unlikely to cause problems for anyone when distributed through an entire recipe, it is important to stop this fallacy.
https://oasas.ny.gov/news/alcohol-and-cooking
The USDA has tested this and compiled this chart that is widely used by those with addiction problems and those who treat them.
(Editor’s note: The link listed above was changed from what the commenter originally submitted because that link quit working. The link above seems to be pointing to the same information as was intended by the commenter).
Hi CarolAnn. Thank you for your very kind note. I agree that it’s important to give accurate information. My dad was an alcoholic and eventually gave up drinking in his 60’s. I’ll reference this article from The Spruce Eats discussing how alcohol burns off in cooking. Please note, they also reference the USDA chart as well. Here’s a quote from that article: “…take a liquor that is 100-proof. This means it is 50 percent alcohol by volume. So a baked and/or simmered dish with 2 ounces (1/4 cup) of 100-proof liquor cooked for 1 hour will have 12.5 percent alcohol content remaining, about 1/4 ounce. Divide that by the amount of servings, and the quantity goes down proportionately (.0625 ounces per each of 4 servings).”
Typically vodka is more like 80-proof so these numbers can be reduced as a result. Obviously, it will depend on the amount of time the pie crust is baked, but for pies like pumpkin pie or pecan pie, they’re in the oven over an hour.
I hope this information is helpful. Thanks again. Marly