Vegan Pastry Dough

Making a tasty plant-based pastry dough was something I struggled with for a long time. All my early attempts turned out very dense, or the oil leaked from the flour and caused a lot of shrinkage and a terrible texture.

My experiments eventually led to a version I am incredibly pleased with – one that resembles a classic French-style pie dough…in other words, flaky, crispy, and light. Fat is a critical element in creating a dough this light and crisp. The fat will ‘shorten’ any gluten that is formed while making the dough – this is what creates that lovely texture. Just be sure to work with light hands and avoid mixing the dough too much, which creates too much gluten and results in a bread-like consistency.

The key technique is similar to making puff pastry. I roll out the dough into a rectangle, then do a series of book folds while adding oil to the dough’s surface before each folding.

This dough is appropriate for savory or sweet pies. Add 1-2 tablespoons of icing (powdered) sugar to the dry ingredients if making a sweet pie. Adding spice to the dough is also a nice variation. I sometimes add ground ginger or ground turmeric to create an unusual-colored dough.

Difficulty: simple- to moderate
Yield: makes one large 24-cm pie or one small double-crusted pie