Coconut Oil Pie Crust- two ways

I love pie, and pie crust may be my favorite thing about pie. Although I don't eat it daily, and pie is not particularly health food, I thought it would be fun and interesting to experiment with making pie crust that did not involve using vegetable shortening (Crisco). My favorite recipe for pie crust uses a combination of butter and shortening. I began with it and started substituting. 

I thought both versions of the coconut oil pie crust were very good. The first version, made with half butter and half coconut oil, was probably indistinguishable from my regular pie crust. The second version was also very good; it just didn't have quite the same flavor that you get by adding butter. No flavor difference, really, from any all-shortening pie crust.

If I had to choose, I would say that the first version might have been just a little bit flakier. My husband preferred the taste of it, too. I liked them both. 


Coconut Oil Pie Crust #1
Makes single crust for 9" pie

4 tablespoons unsalted butter, very cold
4 tablespoons coconut oil, cold
1 and 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon (heaping) table salt
1 teaspoon sugar
3 to 4 tablespoons ice water

Measure butter and oil and keep refrigerated. Place flour, salt, and sugar in the bowl of a food processor and pulse a few times to combine. Dice the butter and coconut oil (which will be a solid when cold) and add to food processor. Pulse for a few seconds until the butter and oil are about the size of peas. With the machine running, slowly pour the ice water down the feed tube and pulse until dough begins to form a ball (you may not use all 4 tablespoons). Empty dough out onto a floured surface, roll lightly into a ball, gently flatten dough into a disc and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for half an hour (or up to 24 hours).

When ready to use dough, remove from refrigerator (let sit at room temp for a few minutes if refrigerated for too long to roll well), roll it out on a floured surface, transfer to pie plate, prick all over with fork, and bake at 400 degrees until golden brown (if preparing for prebaked shell; or follow recipe instructions if using for a baked filling). 


I also made this crust using all coconut oil:

Coconut Oil Pie Crust #2 
To do: substitute the 4 tablespoons butter and 4 tablespoons coconut oil in this recipe for 8 tablespoons coconut oil, very cold. Then proceed as written.


Cook's notes: 

• Cold coconut oil has a different texture than cold butter. It kind of "shatters" more than "dices" when preparing it to cut into the flour. Just do your best to get it into uniform pieces. It works out. :) You can also use coconut oil that is just solid, "scoopable" out of the jar. 

• The coconut oil I used was unflavored and unscented, so it did not give any flavor to the crust. Although I haven't tried using the less processed (more natural) flavored oil for pie crust, I would think it would be delicious for some pies. 

We love these parties!

You might also enjoy: 

Homemade Chocolate Pudding with Pie Crust Dippers 

and Homemade Apple Pie:

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