“Pies can sense your fear,” my sous-chef used to say.
For five years I worked in high-end restaurants, and, like me, most of the cooks in those kitchens had graduated from culinary school. Still, even in a Michelin-starred setting, with years and years of professional cooking experience collectively under our belts, pie and tart doughs were something even we could mess up on a good day.
During that time, I shaped and blind-baked hundreds of tarts, knowing that even the tiniest air pocket between the dough and tart mold could result in a tear. If I was nervous, the pies—and my sous-chef—would be able to tell, because I’d take a little longer, which meant the dough was at risk of becoming overworked, too warm, and ultimately too ugly to serve. But there was power in repetition, and I did things over and over again until I could make each tart quickly and flawlessly.
What’s most essential to achieving pie perfection isn’t just making a lot of pie, however. It’s also about having confidence in what you’re doing, which you’ll gain by grasping the science of pie dough—how fat, gluten, and water interact.
The cardinal rules of pie dough: Keep it cold, work fast, and don’t overwork your dough.
Now, those same rules apply regardless of whether you’re using butter or a vegan alternative—but, as I discovered in the course of researching this article, understanding pie dough science is even more crucial when you’re trying to swap a vegan fat source into a recipe that’s designed for butter. Different kinds of plant-based fats behave differently in pie doughs, but with the right approach, you can make any of them work.
What makes a great pie crust?
I’m here to tell you, perhaps unhelpfully, that the key to making the best vegan pie crust is pretty much the same as what makes any pie crust great. The best crusts are flaky and tender, the result of pockets of steam created by the emulsion of fat and water in butter, lard, or shortening as the dough bakes. While many bakers preach about the importance of limiting gluten when working with delicate pastries and crusts, you do need to have enough gluten for the dough to hold its structure. Gluten and fat are your friends, and knowing how to work with both will help you when baking.
What is gluten?
Without water, there can be no gluten. Gluten is composed of numerous proteins, which are rigid when dry and begin to form a chain when water is added to flour. Kneaded or not, gluten begins to form the moment water and flour meet. Gluten’s two main proteins, gliadin and glutenin, are tangled and straightened out by kneading, which strengthens the bond between the two, giving a dough its elasticity and plasticity. In other words, gluten is what allows a dough to stretch while it’s being kneaded or rolled out. While artisan breads and loaves require high gluten strength, tender pastries like cookies, biscuits, and cakes benefit from limited gluten development. Many pastry recipes suggest resting your dough for anywhere from an hour to overnight in order to allow the gluten to relax.
Okay, what about fat?
The kind of fat you use—and its water content—will also factor into how much gluten develops in your crust, and therefore the elasticity, structure, and texture. In order to create the small pockets of fat necessary for flakiness, pie crusts are typically made by pressing cold, cubed butter into pea-size pebbles with the dry ingredients—or by pulsing the mix together in a food processor. Coating flour in fat prevents it from absorbing too much water and breaks gluten into shorter strands, limiting gluten formation.
But not all fats are created equal. American butter is 80% fat, 18% water, and 1–2% milk solids. Vegan butter’s makeup is similar; looking at the vegan and regular butter side by side, both are around 80% fat. More concentrated fats, such as vegetable shortening and coconut oil, are almost 100% fat and have less than 1% water.
How I tested
To find the best fat for vegan pie crust, I tested Epi’s Favorite Pie Dough with three different plant-based fats: vegan butter, vegetable shortening, and coconut oil. I replaced the amount of butter in the recipe with the same amount of each of the vegan fats and then followed the recipe otherwise as written: I made the dough by pulsing together the dry ingredients with fat, drizzled in water and apple cider vinegar, and chilled each dough for an hour before blind-baking each pie shell for 30 minutes.
The results
While this particular recipe worked well with vegan butter, both vegetable shortening and coconut oil performed poorly. This doesn’t mean that you can’t make a great pie crust with those fats, though—with a little tweaking, you can make coconut oil and vegetable shortening work.
Vegan butter
The plant-based butter that I tried reminded me of the sunflower oil–based margarine my mother bought when I was growing up: neutral-tasting and a buttery yellow. Despite being soft to the touch when cold, the vegan butter was the easiest to work with of the fats I tried, and it performed similarly to regular butter when rolling the dough out and baking. My pie dough was easy to crimp, and it kept its structure nicely as it cooked.
The baked crust was flakier than the versions made with shortening and coconut oil, but not as flaky as one made with dairy-based butter. The flavor of the baked dough was ever so slightly bitter, likely because the ingredients of the vegan butter I used included flaxseed and olive oils, which have a low smoke point and are more prone to rancidity. When I poured the rich, espresso-infused filling of this Black-Bottom Hazelnut Pie into the crust, however, it was even harder to detect, and I suspect that most people wouldn’t notice.
Vegetable shortening and coconut oil
The two other doughs, one made with vegetable shortening and the other with coconut oil, were both difficult to roll out, impossible to crimp, and led to dry, crumbly crusts that did not hold their shape.
The pie crust recipe I was using was formulated for butter, though, and it only called for ¼ cup water for 2½ cups flour. While that amount of water may be fine for a source of fat that contains 18% water, I suspected it was not enough for fats that had less than 1% water.
Coconut oil 2.0
With this in mind, I tested coconut oil and shortening again, but with a recipe that was specifically meant for shortening. This recipe also called for ¼ cup (and up to ⅓ cup) of water, but for much less flour and fat: 1½ cups flour and ½ cup fat. Right away, I noticed a difference—both doughs were better hydrated and came together much more easily.
My coconut oil had become liquid in the warmth of my kitchen, so I chilled my coconut oil for 15 minutes and then proceeded with the recipe. This dough came together quickly, and, using a dough scraper, I broke the firm coconut oil into smaller pieces in the bowl with the dry ingredients. I then incorporated the water, bringing the dough together with a rubber spatula, and wrapped it tightly in plastic. I refrigerated the dough for an hour, and although it had firmed up significantly, it was still pliable and easy to roll out. This crust was tender and held its shape, but it was more crumbly in texture and not as flaky as the one made with vegan butter. While this crust was enjoyable, coconut oil can be expensive and I would choose vegan butter or vegetable shortening not only because they’re more budget-friendly, but because they also produce flakier crusts. If you prefer a crust that doesn’t taste like coconut, select a refined coconut oil.
Vegetable shortening 2.0
Even when chilled, shortening is incredibly soft. To prevent the shortening from melting too quickly, the recipe has you chill your dry ingredients for 15 minutes before you start. Just as I did with the coconut oil, I used a dough scraper to break the shortening into smaller pieces with the dry ingredients and then incorporated the water using a rubber spatula. This dough also rested in the refrigerator for an hour and was very soft. I generously floured my kitchen counter and rolled it out with a well-floured rolling pin, making sure to slide my hands underneath frequently to make sure the dough wasn’t sticking. This tender crust was incredibly crisp and flaky and held its shape beautifully. I think anyone—even omnivores—would be pleased with this crust, and I would make it again. Was it better than the crust made with vegan butter? Neither were particularly flavorful, but vegetable shortening certainly had the edge when it came to texture.
The takeaway
You can make a great vegan pie crust regardless of the kind of plant-based fat you have on hand. But it’s important to use a recipe formulated for the kind of fat you’d like to use—otherwise, you’ll need to adjust for the amount of water, which can be a tricky business for all but the most experienced bakers. Because the amounts of fat and water in coconut oil and vegetable shortening are so similar, they can be used interchangeably in a recipe that calls for shortening. While they didn’t work well in Our Favorite Pie Dough, they worked spectacularly in Ken Haedrich’s Old-Fashioned Shortening Pie Dough. If you’re looking to veganize a beloved all-butter pie crust recipe, I recommend using vegan butter, as that will perform just as well as regular butter. It’s a win-win situation, and all you have to do is pick your fat.
And just remember: This Thanksgiving, don’t let your pies sense your fear.
