Dairy Free Pie Crust

Easy Coconut Oil Pie Crust

2 c. all purpose flour
1 t. salt
1 T. sugar (optional -- I included it for browning purposes)
½ c. coconut oil
¼ c. COLD water


Mix the flour salt and optional sugar together with a fork or whisk in a bowl. Cut in the coconut oil with a pastry blender or two knives. Mine ended up looking like very coarse sand with some smallish pea sized pieces. Add the cold water to the bowl and gently stir the crumbly bits to get it to come together; try not to overwork it and if you need more water add a tablespoon at a time until you can get a ball of dough to stick together, but not be too sticky. Sometimes misting it with a spray bottle helps so that you don't add too much water at one time.

Gather the dough into one lump, divide into two balls and wrap in plastic wrap. Let it rest for at least 5 minutes.* Roll out between two pieces of waxed paper. Place the rolled dough in pie plate, fill and bake.

For a pre-baked pie shell, prick with a fork and bake at 375 degrees for 10 to 12 minutes.

Makes one 10" or two 9" pie crusts.

(I was actually working with 9" cake pans that are a little deeper than the pie plates so I chose to double this recipe to make the two pumpkin pies. I ended up with some leftover dough that I used to make a small freeform tart.)

*I tried freezing this pie crust dough ahead and found that it didn't really work very well; you should make it about an hour before you need to assemble your pie for the best results.