Trying to avoid most grains is still a bit new to me and I’m afraid I feel very much as I did three years ago when I started to embark upon this gluten-free vegan baking journey. At times I am a bit overwhelmed and frustrated but I am also comforted by the fact that I have enough similar experience to know that it just takes time and eventually it will all work out. Part of the biggest hurdle I wanted to at least attempt was to create a good tasting Pumpkin Pie for Thanksgiving that was safe for me to eat at this point since have slowly added small amounts of raw honey back into my diet. A grain and egg-free pie crust was my first thing to conquer!
Now if you are vegan, you can easily replace the raw honey with maple syrup, no biggie. Just keep in mind that because it is not as thick as honey, you might not need as much ice water in the end. Keep an eye on it and use your best judgment. I trust you. I also used almond meal, not almond flour (the difference is the flour is blanched and finer ground). I buy my almond meal at Trader Joe’s if you are looking for a good place to buy or you can use almond flour in it’s place. You might need to only use the 1/4 cup only (no extra tablespoon). Allergic to nuts? You can use all coconut flour (do keep in mind that the more coconut flour you use, the more soft the crust remains) OR try replacing the almond meal with buckwheat flour.
As you can see, the dough doesn’t like to play nice. It rolls out rather beautifully as you can see above though it is prone to crack a bit. Fear not because it is a very forgivable crust as well. What I wanted to do with my pumpkin pie (as you will find out soon!) was to create Pumpkin Pie Bites. I rolled out my dough, cut out large circles and then filled a muffin tin with the dough cut-out. Yes, it did break apart as I carefully tried to transfer it into the muffin tin but as you can see from the picture on the right it all worked out A-Okay. How so? Magic!
Okay so I just used my fingers to gently press the dough back together. Time-consuming? Sorta but it’s GRAIN AND EGG-FREE PIE CRUST! I’m okay with the patience of patting crust dough down…
Grain and Egg-Free Pie Crust
- Prep Time: 25 mins
- Cook Time: 10 mins
- Total Time: 35 mins
- Yield: 10 Mini Pie Bites or 1 whole pie crust 1x
Ingredients
Dry Ingredients:
- 1/2 c. coconut flour
- 1/4 c. almond meal + 1 Tbsp.
- 3 Tbsp. arrowroot powder
- 1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
- 1/4 tsp. sea salt
Wet Ingredients:
- 1/2 Tbsp. ground chia seeds
- 1/2 Tbsp. ground psyllium
- 3 Tbsp. warm water
- 1 tsp. raw apple cider vinegar (or lemon juice)
- 4 Tbsp. coconut oil, melted
- 1 Tbsp. raw honey (or maple syrup for vegan option)
- 2–3 Tbsp. ice cold water
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Grease a muffin tin (for pie bites) or a pie pan.
- In a small bowl, combine the ground chia seeds, psyllium and warm water together. Allow to thicken for 5 minutes.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients.
- Add the coconut oil until it is spread throughout the flour mix. Add the vinegar, honey and chia/psyllium mix. Slowly add the ice water, 1 Tbsp. at a time, until a nice dough forms.
- Roll out between two pieces of parchment paper until 1/4″ thick and transfer dough to your pie pan OR take the dough from the bowl, place into the pie pan and press down with your fingers until a pie crust is formed.
- Bake for 5 minutes (if using muffin tins) or 10 minutes (if using pie pan). Transfer to the freeze and chill for 20 minutes before adding your filling.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 mini crust
- Calories: 110
- Sugar: 2g
- Fat: 7g
- Carbohydrates: 9g
- Fiber: 4g
- Protein: 2g
You are more than welcome to just transfer the rolled out dough into a pie pan instead of the muffin tin OR you can take the dough crumbles without making a smooth dough and press it into your pie pan with your fingers. You choose. It just depends on how much frustration you can handle. Enter smiley face.
Here is the final product that I was rather pleased with. I will share the recipe with you at the end of the week, fear not, little ones. Again, I am still so new to this so it might need a few tweaks here and there but overall I was actually happy with the flavor.
If you are looking for a good ol’ fashioned gluten-free vegan pie crust, the base from my PopTarts is an excellent choice!
A fantastic crust, I believe! I made this crust for smaller tartlets & they turned out great & were very delectable!
Mmmmmmmm,….I loved your unique crust! By thewayfaringbaker, I love all of your recipes!
Hi. What’s the importance of arrowroot powder? I see so many recipes that call for that, yet I always nix them because I don’t have any, nor do I know what kind of flavor it adds or where to buy it…. Please fill me in. Also, is there any substitution for ground psyllium, and how do you grind chia seeds? Thanks for clueing me in! 🙂
This mini pie crusts are so cute! Do they come out of the muffin tin easily?
Brown Rice Syrup would also be a great sub for the honey as it has the same consistency and could be replaced tablespoon for tablespoon <3
Great Idea I love all the ingredients, the crusts look cute and firm, like they are holding up real well. I have tons of roasted and raw pumpkin.
the crust looks great! coconut flour has been growing on me lately. not so much on hubbs. he is like as if we don’t eat enough other coconut things :))
You totally read my mind. I just defrosted some kabocha squash I’d pureed last year to make a grain free sugarless (boo) pie! You’re such a genius.
You and your purees. I really need to catch on with that. What flours do you use, coconut?
I just puree any root veggie and sometimes spinach and freeze in portions that way I can just grab what I want and toss in whatever feels good at the time. I did try one yesterday with coconut flour and sweet potato, baked in discs on both sides and ate it all. I have used almond flour for tortillas but it was too heavy so next time I’ll probably use half almond and 1 Tbsp coconut or some such. Seriously kitchen time should be play time, right? I’m thinking about a savory pie, i.e. no sugar, more spice only in a crust.