Easy Vegan Pie Crust

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Here’s how to make a basic vegan pie crust that can be used for any pie recipe. Flaky, short, and delicious!

Pate Brisee, shortcrust, or basic pie crust,  or  whatever you want to call it. This is the pie crust recipe you can make over and over for any of your pie baking needs. Pastry dough, like play dough, can be sculpted into a beautifully decorated pie, or simply a rough and ready informal pastry. Basic shortcrust pastry dough is what we, here in the U.S. are used to for our pies. Learning how to make an easy vegan pie crust is something you can keep in your baking arsenal that you will use for any occasion. 

How to make Easy Vegan Pie Crust

The easiest way to make a pie crust dough is by using a food processor. The food processor cuts the butter or shortening into the flour very efficiently and it is my favorite method. Alternatively, you can use a pastry cutter, or rub the butter or shortening into the flour by hand. Doing so by hand will warm up the fat and may make it difficult to achieve the ideal consistency in the ready dough, and the dough may stick a little more when you roll it out. 

Step 1 – Tip the flour, sugar, and salt into the food processor and pulse until combined. 

Step 2 – Add the vegan butter or vegetable shortening that has been chilled and cut into small pieces. 

Step 3 – Pulse the mixture until a coarse meal has formed. When presses together, it holds. 

Step 4 – With the machine on, stream the cold water into the feed tube, a little at a time until the pie dough comes together. This could be 2 tablespoons or up to 4 depending on the moisture already present. Don’t over mix, and use the pulse if you’re concerned about over mixing. 

Step 5 – Tip out the dough onto a clean work surface and form a disk. Wrap the dough in a reusable food wrap and chill in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour, or up to a month.

Using Easy Vegan Pie Crust in a Pie recipe

Once you’re ready to use your pie crust, I suggest rolling it out between 2 pieces of parchment paper. This way, you don’t have to use your hands to move the dough around whilst rolling out. Therefore the heat of your hands won’t cause any extra stickiness and there is less likelihood of  tearing. Rolling the dough out between parchment also makes turning the dough into a pie plate much easier. 

The easiest way to decorate the edges is to pinch the edges between two fingers on your left hand. Then pressing it in with one finger from your right hand. Once the dough has been prepared in a pie plate, put it directly into the fridge or even the freezer until you are ready to use it. 

You can blind bake this crust at 350 Degrees F for 30 minutes, being sure to add some pie weights to keep it from shrinking. I don’t typically bake blind, unless the filling is not being baked (like a curd or cream based pie).