Recipes
by natalyahardan

Vegan Apple Pie

Why should you make this vegan apple pie?

It’s bursting with warm, fall flavors.

The apple filling is gooey.

The vegan pastry is crisp and flakey.

The recipe is vegan, gluten-free, and can be made sugar-free.

Need I say more? Get ready to fall in love! Yes, I know it’s a cheesy pun, but it had to be said.

What makes the perfect apple pie?

Apple pie is actually a pretty simple dessert to make, but there are 3 key things that can make or break the recipe.

  1. The crust. It has to be crispy and flakey, which is easy to achieve with traditional pie crust ingredients (flour, butter, sugar, water, salt). So, naturally, I set out to perfect a flourless, butter-free and oil-free crust, and was pleasantly surprised with the results! It is in fact possible to make a flourless vegan pastry crust that doesn’t contain butter or oil. You can then brush the top with a combination of almond milk and maple syrup to replace an egg wash. This step is optional, but can help the top come out flakey and perfectly crisp!
  2. The apples. Well, obviously. Everyone seems to have their own personal favorite variety of apples for making apple pie. Mine is Granny Smith! Granny Smith apples work great because they not only hold their shape well compared to other varieties of apples, but they’re also tart, which helps balance out the sweetness of this dessert. Some apples make the dessert too sweet or too mushy. No one wants that.
  3. The spices. Fall spices are my absolute favorite. They’re just so warm and cozy. And addictive! For this vegan apple pie recipe, I used a combination of cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger. But you can certainly add more spices like cardamom and allspice. Cinnamon, though, is definitely the main one here. If you’re going to choose just one, go with cinnamon!

How to make vegan apple pie?

Because apple pie is traditionally made with butter (for the crust) and egg (for the egg wash), it isn’t naturally vegan.

But, worry not. These ingredients are super easy to replace, making this recipe simple to veganize and healthify!

To make the apple pie filling, this recipe calls for:

To make the pastry crust without flour, butter, or oil, this recipe calls for:

To replace traditional “egg wash” (optional step), this recipe calls for:

How to make a pretty top crust?

The top crust can be as simple or as fancy as you’d like it to be!

If you’re feeling lazy, you can simply lay the crust on top of the pie, crimp the edges, and cut a few slits in the middle in order to allow the pie to breathe.

If you’re feeling fancy, you can do a lattice (shown in the photos), or you can take it up a notch and make some of those beautiful leaf cutouts!

Whatever you decide to do, the taste will still be delicious.

Do you prefer a crumble on top of your apple pie? 

No problem! You can definitely skip the top crust, and instead use the crumble from my Vegan Apple Crisp recipe.

How do the leftovers keep? 

This recipe is definitely best the day you make it! While the filling keeps well, the crust will lose some of its crispness. If you don’t mind that, then go ahead and enjoy the leftovers!

This pie can stay on the counter for about two days. If you plan to keep it longer than that, keep it in the fridge for up to a week, or freeze it for up to 2 months.

Serve this Vegan Apple Pie warm with some Vegan Vanilla Ice Cream!

If you try this recipe, let me know! Leave a comment, rate it, and don’t forget to tag your photos with @healthiir on Instagram! I’d love to hear what you think.

Vegan Apple Pie
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Vegan Apple Pie

Recipe by healthiirCourse: DessertDifficulty: Medium
Servings

8

servings
Prep time

45

minutes
Cooking time

1

hour 

Ingredients

Directions

  • Apple Pie Filling
  • In a large mixing bowl, add the apples, date sugar, lemon juice, lemon zest, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger. Mix to combine, and set aside to macerate for 45 minutes. (During this time, you can make the pie crust).
  • When the apples are ready, they’ll look a bit broken down. Add the arrowroot, and stir to coat. (Your pie crust should have been pre-baked by now, see step 10).
  • Pie Crust
  • Preheat the oven to 350F. Add almond flour, oat flour, arrowroot, date sugar, and salt to a mixing bowl, and mix.
  • Add water to the mixture, a little at a time, and mix. The dough should be able to hold together if you squeeze it.
  • Transfer the dough to a piece of parchment paper, and roll it out, keeping 1/3 of the dough set aside for the topping. If the dough sticks to the rolling pin, add a little almond flour. If the dough is too crumbly to work with, you can transfer it back to a mixing bowl and add a little bit of water.
  • When ready, pick up the parchment paper, flip the dough onto the fluted pie tin, and peel away the parchment.
  • Without tearing the dough or stretching it too much, use your fingers to gently press it into the corners and up against the edges of the fluted pie tin (to shape).
  • Using a sharp knife, trim off the excess dough.
  • Pre-bake the crust for about 10 minutes before adding the filling. To pre-bake the crust, you’ll want to fill up your crust with pie weights to ensure the crust holds its shape and stays firmly nestled against the fluted pie tin. I didn’t have pie weights so I used un-cooked beans!  
  • While the crust is pre-baking, roll out the remainder of the dough, then cut it into strips to make a lattice.
  • Once the crust is pre-baked, remove it from the oven, remove the pie weights, and set aside to cool for another 10 minutes.
  • Once cooled, transfer the apple pie filling into the pie crust, and top with the dough strips for the lattice. Check out this tutorial on how to create a lattice pie crust. Remember, though, because this crust isn’t glutenous, it will behave differently, so be careful not to tear it!
  • Vegan Egg Wash
  • Add almond milk and maple syrup to a small bowl, and mix.
  • Use a pastry brush to gently brush the top of the pie.
  • Bake on 350F until golden! This took 1 hour in my oven.

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