Flaky Pie Crust

For any special occasion where a pie is the star of the desserts, there is nothing quite like a homemade flaky pie crust. Typically the most luxurious of homemade pie crusts contain butter, but fortunately there is an easy vegan substitute! The key to this vegan flaky pie crust is chilling your vegan butter over and over throughout the process. Most vegan butters (like the Earth Balance I use here) have a lower melting point so they come to room temperature much faster than standard butter.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup vegan butter (Earth Balance)
• 1, 1/4 cups whole wheat pastry flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup iced water

Take your half cup of “butter” and cut it into small chunks to freeze.

(Before)                                                          (After)

Cut your cold “butter” into your flour until it the butter is cut into pea-size pieces.

(Before)                                                           (After)

Mix in your iced water into your flour and butter, just until combined. To keep your water as cold as possible, add two ice cubes and remove the cubes right before mixing in. If the ice cubes have melted a lot, be careful not to dump all the water in – just add water until moistened and the dough can hold together.

Take the dough and wrap it in plastic saran wrap until ready to use. If you’re making your dough far in advance you can freeze it. If you really want to be prepared, roll out the dough (after chilling again!) into an aluminum pie pan so when you’re ready to bake your pie you can pull the pie shell out of the freezer and be ready to go!

If you’re using the dough immediately be sure to chill again before you roll out the dough, and then chill again after you roll the dough and form it in your pie pan. The vegan butter melts very quickly, and to get the flakiness you will want to have the dough chilled as long as you can before baking.

©2009 Sound Eats