Vegan Pecan Pie

This absolutely delicious vegan pecan pie is a knock-out recipe and a perfect way to welcome those toasty and warm flavours of the Autumn. This is my go-to recipe to impress friends or family with a vegan version of a classic dish and they can never tell it’s vegan.

A sumptuous harmony of sweet flavours including maple, cinnamon and vanilla are balanced beautifully with the bitter note of molasses, browned butter and a pinch of salt! A final touch of orange carries the flavour over the edge.

Let’s talk about the CRUST! Skip the end of these recipe notes for a photo tutorial. This is my go-to flaky crust recipe for most pies, tarts, etc.! The vinegar is there for that extra level of flakiness as it will evaporate in the oven and leave you with a delicate but buttery crumb. It’s a little bit of fuss but I wanted the crust to be as indistinguishable from a non-vegan crust as possible and to be comparable to a quality pastry shop pie. If you’re curious about my other pie recipes then click here to look through my pie archive!

If you’re trying to save time there are plenty of shop-bought crusts available (at least in the UK/Europe), such as this Jus-rol short crust pastry that is naturally vegan! Alternatively you could try any other simpler crust recipe found online but just remember that the pie has to be baked for an extra 30 minutes with the filling inside so “raw” or crumbly crusts won’t work.

Let’s talk about the filling!! Most of the ingredients are self-explanatory but I’ll discuss a few of the key ones. The main thickening agent of this recipe is the cornstarch (or cornflour in the UK). This ingredient is super important to this recipe so make sure you buy cornstarch and not corn flour or corn meal or any other variant. If you can’t find cornstarch you can also use arrowroot starch.

My go-to quality vegan butter is the “vegan block” by Naturli (based in the UK) that I would thoroughly recommend for desserts and bakes where the quality of the butter is important! Not all vegan butters brown but this one definitely does so that’s why I use it! If you’re not sure if your butter browns or not then you can just skip that step! Do however melt the butter in the pan anyway as you’ll be mixing in other ingredients later.

The main ingredient in the filling is coconut milk from a can. Now this might be a little controversial as some people HATE the taste of coconut – I’m personally not offended by it but I don’t love it. It is essential you use a can of coconut milk as we need all that extra coconut cream (fat) to make the filling richer. If you’re really averse to the flavour of coconut then I would recommend substituting some of the coconut milk (the watery part) with other neutral or complementary liquids such as soy milk, orange juice or a different plant-based cream.

Now onto the recipe!!

Vegan Pate Sucrée (Sweet Shortcrust) tutorial:

Sieve together the flour, sugar and salt in a mixing bowl. Add chilled, chopped butter to the bowl.

Using a cold metal whisk, mix together the butter and flour until it resembles bread crumbs. Do not take too long as we don’t want the butter to melt into the flour. Chunks will stick the whisk but persevere through the exercise and with some elbow grease you’ll eventually get there! 

Add the ice cold water and vinegar to the mixture and mix together with a wooden spoon until the mixture is completely homogenous and comes together in ball. Try not to handle the pastry too much.

Wrap the pastry in clingfilm or foil and chill for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, flour a clean surface with flour and get your rolling pin ready!

Take the pastry out of the fridge and start beating it with the rolling pin to loosen it up. Try to avoid causing large cracks in the pastry. If it is cracking too quickly it may be too cold – wait 3-5 minutes for it to soften slightly. Now roll out the pastry to 3mm thick. The best way to roll it out is to roll across the whole disk with the rolling pin and then rotate it 45° and roll again once. This way the whole pastry should be one even layer. 

Once the pastry is thin enough, flop the pastry over the rolling pin and place it into your pie dish or flan tin. Gently push it down into all of the corners and use your thumbs to press the dough against the walls of the dish. Using a knife or pizza cutter, cut away any excess dough so you’re left with a clean 1.5 inch deep crust base.

Poke a few holes in the crust with a fork to prevent bubbles when baking. Cover this with clingfilm again and place back in the fridge for 20 minutes. Pre-heat the oven to 160C.

After 20 minutes, place a layer of parchment on top of the pie crust and weigh it down with baking beads. Bake for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, take it out and remove the baking beads and parchment. Bake for a further 15 minutes until slightly golden. Do not allow the pastry to brown too much as we will be cooking it for a further 30 minutes with the pecan filling shortly.

For this recipe you will need:

• 10 inch pie dish
• baking beads (or dry rice/lentils)

Onto the full recipe!

2 from 1 reviews

Vegan Pecan Pie

September 6, 2020

Servings: 12

Prep: 30 min

Total: 3 hr

Difficulty: Medium

Print This

The best ever vegan pecan pie! A sumptuous harmony of sweet maple, cinnamon and vanilla balanced beautifully with the bitter flavours of browned butter, molasses and a pinch of a salt!

By: Project Vegan Baking

Ingredients

• Crust:
• 250g flour plus extra for dusting
• 150g vegan butter (and extra for greasing)
• 1 tbsp cold water
• 2 tbsp icing sugar
• 1 tsp white wine vinegar
• ½ tsp salt
• Filling:
• 40g vegan butter
• 220g pecans + 20g for decoration
• 120g light brown sugar
• 80g maple syrup
• 30g cornstarch
• 1 can full fat coconut milk (400g - both the milk + cream if they’ve separated)
• 2 tsp vanilla extract/paste
• 2 tsp grated orange zest
• pinch of salt + cinnamon

Directions

• Step 1 Crust: Add flour and butter to a mixing bowl and mash together with a cold metal whisk until it is the consistency of breadcrumbs (you can use your hands but your body heat might start to melt the butter).
• Step 2 Add the water, white wine vinegar, salt and sugar and keep mixing/kneading until it is in a smooth ball of dough (do not over work). Wrap this in cling film and rest in the fridge for at least 30mins.
• Step 3 While you wait, set up the tart tin by greasing it with the extra margarine and then coat it in a dusting of flour (using a sieve). Shake of the excess.
• Step 4 Cover a clean surface with a dusting of flour and unwrap the pastry. Use a rolling pin to roll the pastry out to about 3mm thick.
• Step 5 Roll the pastry onto the rolling pin and drape over the tart case. Push the pastry into all corners of the case. Trim the edges and pre-heat the oven to 160C (325F).
• Step 6 Prick holes in the bottom of the pastry using a fork and then wrap case with cling film and place it in the freezer for 15 minutes.
• Step 7 Unwrap the pastry then get a piece of non-stick baking paper and put it on the pie crust. Weigh it down with ceramic baking beans/lentils/rice.
• Step 8 Bake in the over for 20 minutes. Remove the lentils/beans and then cook for another 10mins (until it is lightly golden brown).
• Step 9 Take out of the oven to cool while you work on the filling.
• Step 10 Filling: Leave the oven pre-heated to 160C. Put the chopped pecans on a baking sheet in the oven to roast for 10 minutes.
• Step 11 Meanwhile, put the coconut cream/milk in a microwavable bowl and microwave for 30seconds so that the cream melts into the milk. Whisk the cornstarch into this cream mixture.
• Step 12 Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Cook, stirring occasionally, until golden-brown bits form (not all vegan butters brown so it’s best to check beforehand).
• Step 13 Take the chopped pecans out of the oven and toast in the pan for 2 minutes. Add the brown sugar, maple syrup, coconut mixture, vanilla paste and salt then whisk until fully incorporated. Keep stirring on low-heat until the starch thickens the mixture.
• Step 14 Pour the pecan mixture into the pie crust, decorate with extra pecans and then bake for 20-30 minutes or until the pie filling shakes like jelly (firm but with a little jiggle). Take out the oven to cool for a couple hours.
• Step 15 Serve at room temperature.