Vegan Oat Cider Pie Crust - Lower Fat and
Can Be Made Gluten-Free

Vegan Oat Cider Pie Crust is the perfect ~ and perfectly simple ~ pie crust recipe you've been looking for! Most store bought pie crusts, including vegan pie crusts, contain palm oil (high in saturated fat), excess sodium, and 'natural flavorings' ~ all ingredients I prefer to minimize or completely avoid as much as possible.

Sometimes, a good buttery tasting pie crust is the perfect complement to your pie. At other times, something a bit more simple, perhaps adding a bit of nutty crunch can be a better match. I like the latter with pies like my awesome Vegan Pumpkin Pie, or Healthy Vegan Squash Pie (recipe to come), or other pies using a batter. The former type of crust is best with fruit pies, like my Apple Cranberry Crisp Pie that we had for Thanksgiving. I've never spent much time trying to make a good flour crust, but perhaps I'll keep that on my things to cook (or bake) bucket list.

This recipe was inspired by the Low Calorie Pie Crust at Skinny Fitalicious, found here. I love the addition of apple cider in a pie crust, especially as part of the fall / winter diet. I also used some flour in addition to the oats, however, it can be made entirely with oats similar to the original recipe. I also included a couple other variations, including ways to make the crust more 'buttery' tasting, adding ground nuts and/or liquid lecithin, and by adding dates in lieu of some of the oil.

Vegan Oat Cider Pie Crust Recipe

Vegan Oat Cider Pie Crust Ingredients

1&1/2 cups oats, ground
1/4 cup + 1 Tbsp. (maybe more) flour ~ white whole wheat, whole wheat or unbleached all purpose
1/4 cup oil ~ extra virgin olive oil, high oleic sunflower oil, or a blend, which is what I used
4-5 Tbsp. cold apple cider (or use water)
1&1/2 Tbsp. organic cane sugar, coconut sugar, or a blend (a granulated sugar works best)

Vegan Oat Cider Pie Crust Steps

Preheat oven to 350º F. Lightly grease a 9 inch pie baking dish.
Grind oats in a food processor or blender until resembling stone ground flour
Place in a bowl, add flour, then stir in oil with a fork until combined, and oat flour is crumbly
Add sugar. I actually used a little coconut sugar and a little regular sugar. The original recipe called for only 2 teaspoons of coconut sugar. I upped my sugar a bit, using about 1&1/2 tablespoons total, half coconut and half granulated sugar. Use less if you prefer.
Add in very cold or iced apple cider 1 tablespoon at a time, mixing until it comes together as a dough. It may be a little sticky but should come together in a ball. Add more flour if too sticky. Or, if not sticking together add a bit more cider or water.
Press evenly into pie dish, and smooth it out with the back of a spoon.
Bake 10 minutes until crust is lightly golden brown. Remove and set aside while preparing batter.

Vegan Oat Cider Pie Crust Variations

Here are some possible ways you can modify your Vegan Oat Cider Pie Crust.

Use all oat flour, grinding 1/2 cup of the oats more fine than the other cup. If you prefer, you can skip this step, and just use all oat flour, either store bought, or grind your own all to the same coarse to fine consistency, depending on if you like a more coarse crust.
Use almond flour in lieu of the wheat flour.
To reduce the total oil, add 1 tablespoon of ground flax seeds with the oat and flour mixture. Sub ground pecans or walnuts for the flour. Add a little more cider or water as needed, one tablespoon at a time until the crust sticks together when pressing it.
My next experiment is to add about 4 Medjool dates to the oat mixture, blending in the food processor after first grinding the oats. Either reduce oil to 2 tablespoons, or if wanting to make this crust totally oil-free, try adding a tablespoon or so of almond butter.
Swap out 2 tablespoons of the oil for liquid soy lecithin for a more buttery flavor. I use Fearn Liquid Soy Lecithin. It has a nice deep orange hue, and is a good source of choline, which is beneficial for the brain and the liver, and more.