Easy WFPB Pie Crust

Name: Easy WFPB Pie Crust
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 10 min
Total time: 20 min
Ingredients: 3 Cups Oat Flour; 1 Teaspoon Salt; 6 Tablespoons Nut Butter; 1/4 Cup Maple Syrup; 1/2 Cup + 2 Tablespoons Water

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Learn how to make this WFPB Pie Crust for your next plant-based pie. This vegan pie crust is five ingredients and ready in just 10 minutes. Turn any pie recipe plant-based with this easy crust recipe.

Baked blueberry pie, featuring the sugar-topped pie crust.

If you're eating a plant-based diet, you might find yourself adapting non-vegan recipes to be healthier and more plant-based. At a certain point, it is almost second nature - use non-dairy milk, make a flax egg instead of adding a real egg, etc.

But some recipes a bit more alteration in order to work. Especially if you want to make healthy swaps. It's usually straightforward to swap vegan butter for regular butter, but what if you don't want to use vegan butter?

Enter: this WFPB Pie Crust.

A blackberry pie crust sprinkled with sugar.

This crust is totally whole food plant based. No vegan butter, no white flour, no refined sugar.

For the longest time I thought it would be impossible to create a pie crust like this.

But, I was wrong! This plant-based crust acts like a normal crust. You can roll it out. You can create a lattice top. You can use it in a galette. You can even make a savory version and create pizza dough!

An apple galette in process, ready for the crust to be folded.

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Why I love this WFPB Pie Crust
Ingredient Notes & Substitutions
How to make WFPB Pie Crust
Troubleshooting Common Issues
FAQ & Expert Tips
Recommended Tools
Recipes using this plant-based pie crust
Tried this recipe?
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Why I love this WFPB Pie Crust

Dietary needs - this pie crust is vegan, eggless, gluten-free, dairy-free, oil-free, and refined sugar free. That's right! No vegan butter, no white flour, no sugar, AND made with whole foods.
Easy gluten free pie crust that works just like a regular crust - For the longest time I thought it would be impossible to create a pie crust that acts like a store bought crust that uses butter and sugar. Turns out, I was wrong. The secret ingredient, water, is the key to getting a workable crust.
Only five ingredients - it's just like a normal pie crust. You don't need 20 ingredients or weird gums and powders to make this crust
Versatile - use it as the base for your pie, roll it and cut it into a lattice, make a galette, maybe even a vegan pop tart(!)

Baked blackberry pie, featuring a lattice crust.

Ingredient Notes & Substitutions

Oat Flour: sometimes I recommend using homemade oat flour in my baked good recipes. I don't recommend it for this pie crust - you want a fine flour to create a smooth and sturdy dough - so, opt for store bought. That said, homemade oat flour will still work, the crust will just have a coarser texture
Salt: be sure to use fine table salt
Nut Butter: This is the fat source that is replacing the butter (or vegan butter) you would find in a traditional pie crust. I use cashew butter because it has the most neutral tasting flavor. You can also use almond butter.
Maple Syrup: I find that this pie crust needs a bit of sweetness, so instead of sugar we'll use maple syrup. I don't recommend substituting date syrup in this crust, or else the dough will be too sticky
Water: water brings the dough together. Cold water is ideal, but room temperature water is fine.

How to make WFPB Pie Crust

Step 1. In a large bowl whisk together the oat flour and salt.

WFPB Pie crust step 1 - mix the oat flour and salt.

Step 2. Add the nut butter and maple syrup and use a fork to incorporate.

WFPB Pie crust step 2 - mix in the nut butter and syrup.

Step 3. Add the water and mix until a dough forms. If the dough seems dry, add a few more tablespoons of water - the exact amount of water needed will depend on the absorbency of your oat flour and consistency of your nut butter. Divide the dough in half.

Step 4. To roll out, place the dough between two sheets of parchment paper and roll to approximately 12" wide. Repeat with the other half of the dough.

WFPB Pie crust step 4 - roll out using parchment paper.

Step 5. Proceed with the pie per your recipe's instructions. For use in the base of the pie, arrange in the pie pan and ALWAYS par-bake for 10-12 minutes. Blind baking with pie weights is not necessary. For a galette, there is no need to par bake.

WFPB Pie crust step 5 - use as directed.

Troubleshooting Common Issues

My dough is falling apart

This pie dough is surprisingly easy to work with. If it breaks apart, simply press it back together!

If you find that the dough is so crumbly that it is constantly falling apart, add cold water, a tablespoon at a time, until the dough is workable. Be careful not to add too much water at one time or else you might make the dough too sticky.

My dough feels too wet

If the dough feels like a cookie dough, you can add more oat flour, a tablespoon at a time, to help make the dough more workable.

Depending on exactly what you are doing with the dough, you may want a slightly wetter texture. For example, when making a galette you want your dough to be a bit more sticky, so that you can fold the edges without breakage

FAQ & Expert Tips

Make it nut free

To make this pie nut-free use tahini or sunflower seed butter instead of nut butter in the crust.

Tahini and sunflower seed butter have a stronger flavor than cashew or almond butter, so you may notice a more earthy flavor in the crust.

Do I need to blind bake this crust?

This crust will not puff up like a regular pie crust, so you don't need any pie weights for a blind bake. BUT when using this crust for the base of the pie, you do need to par bake! If you don't bake the crust for 10 minutes ahead of time, the crust will be soggy. (Note that for a galette, you do not need to par bake.)

Assembling a lattice

If you're making a lattice for your pie I recommend assembling it on a sheet of parchment paper instead of over the pie.

How to create a lattice

Because the pie filling is soupy I recommend making the entire lattice on parchment paper and then transferring the completed lattice to the top of the pie

Step 1. Roll the pie dough to 10"-11" long and slice into ½"-1" strips as noted in your recipe. It doesn't matter if the edges are uneven because they will likely be sliced off when you place the lattice on the pie.

Step 2. Lay 4-7 strips vertically, spaced the same distance as your strips are wide apart on a sheet of parchment paper. Use the longer strips in the center of the lattice and the shorter strips on the ends.

Step 3. Slide your longest remaining strip horizontally under ever other strip of the vertical pieces. Line this strip up in the middle of your lattice, since it's the longest. Avoid folding the dough completely to prevent breakage.

Step 4. Slide your next longest piece of dough on one side of the strip you did in step 3. Slide it under the opposite strips from step 3, so the this piece rests over the pieces the strip from step 3 rests under.

Step 5. Repeat step 4 with the remaining strips, weaving the strips over and under one another, sliding the shorter pieces on either slide of the longest piece you placed in the center in step 3.

Can I make this dough ahead of time?

I don't recommend making the dough ahead of time. Oat flour is very absorbent and will create a dry/crumbly dough when left sitting.

The good news is that this crust only takes 10 minutes to make, so you don't need to allocate tons of prep time for the crust.

I only need the crust, not the top, what do I do?

Since this crust does not store well, I recommend halving the recipe if you only need the bottom crust for your pie.

What do I do with leftover pie crust?

My favorite thing to do with extra crust is to make a mini galette! If you've got the pieces already rolled out, simply press them together, put some fruit in the middle and fold the edges in. Brush with egg wash and sprinkle with sugar as desired, then bake for about 30 minutes. Delicious!

A baked galette, highlighting the browning on the wfpb pie crust.

Recommended Tools

I used a marble rolling pin, similar to this one to roll out the dough.
Bench scraper with a ruler to measure and a pizza cutter to slice the lattice.
My favorite mixing bowls.
Parchment paper to prevent sticking

An unbaked blueberry pie with an intricate lattice made from WFPB pie crust.

Recipes using this plant-based pie crust

Tried this recipe?

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