Vegan butter or margarine may not be readily available everywhere. So, this recipe uses
oil instead and makes it possible for those of you in that situation, to still be able
to enjoy a good flaky delicious pie crust.
Into a large mixing bowl, I am adding the flour, baking powder and salt. Baking powder
is not an ingredient that you would normally use in shortcrust pastry but I have used it
in this recipe to keep the texture a little bit lighter as the oil alone with tend to
make it dense.
Give the dry ingredients a mix and then add in the oil. Start working with your fingers
and mix the oil around. Then, similar to making shortcrust pastry, gently rub in the flour
and oil mixture with your fingers to create something that eventually looks like fine
breadcrumbs. What’s great about this oil-based crust is that it is certainly a lot easier
to work with. You don’t need to take so much care as to not let the butter melt as
it is the case with traditional shortcrust pastry.
In this recipe, I am using aquafaba. That’s the fancy name for bean juice or chickpea
brine. It’s the liquid that you collect from a can of beans, like chickpeas, white
beans or butter beans. I’ve made my own aquafaba as I boil the beans from dry. So,
after they are cooked, save the water in which they have been boiling. You can reduce this
water to make it thicker.
For this recipe though, we don’t need it to be too thick. So, the amount you’ll need
will depend on the flour and the oil that you are using. I have used 6 tablespoons but
you may need a little bit more or less.
What we want to achieve is a rather soft non-sticky dough. So, press the moistened flour mixture
to form a dough. You can do this on the board if it is easier instead of in the bowl. But
do not knead this mixture. Work as little as possible with it to form the dough. Once
a smooth ball is formed, you can proceed to rolling it out or you can place in a closed
container and keep it in the refrigerator for about 15 minutes before using it. This
will firm it up a little bit and produce a slightly better texture when baked.
By the way, you can also make this dough in advance and either freeze it or keep it for
a day in the refrigerator. Then, just take it out and allow it to soften enough to be
rolled out.
The amount of dough in this recipe is enough for a 24-cm or 9-inch pie pan, or slightly
larger. Roll out the dough to the size of the pan plus the depth. To transfer the dough
into the pan, you may need to slide a thin knife underneath it first in case it is stuck
to the board. Then loosely wrap it around the rolling pin and then unwrap it onto the pan.
If the dough breaks, just fix it by pressing the pieces together. Shape and press the dough
into the pan so that it fits snugly and then you can trim off any excess dough.
You can re-roll these little bits and use them for smaller pans or cut out shapes from them to
decorate the pie.
If you want to flute the edge, you can do this by lifting the dough from the edge and
then pressing in on either side with the first two fingers of the other hand. Work in this
way, all around.
To help the dough bake well and not puff up, prick it with a fork. You can also put some
parchment paper on top of the crust with some weight onto it like dried beans, rice or some
baking beads to prevent it from puffing but I did not do this with this one and it does
not seem to puff too much.
The crust itself will require 25 to 30 minutes to bake at 180 degrees Celsius or 350 degrees
Fahrenheit. But for some recipes, you may need to only partially bake it before adding
the filling, then bake it again. So, you can use this crust with your own fillings.
I have some upcoming delicious pie recipes using this crust, like this popular Mauritian
custard pie to which I’ve added a little twist. So, I’ll see you soon for these recipes.