A pie that everyone at our Thanksgiving table can eat?? Yes please! The stipulations for Thanksgiving included no meat, no dairy, no eggs, and no nuts (of any kind). Trying to find a vegan dessert recipe that didn't involve any kind of nut proved to be a challenge so I settled on making a pie. It must be said that this was only my second time ever baking a pie (the first being a few weeks ago when I made a completely homemade pumpkin pie--not vegan for those interested). I'm not a baker or much of a cook for that matter. I throw things together every once in a while that works out wonderfully, other times we have to order pizza for dinner instead (more often than not). Somehow, this pie worked!
I couldn't find a vegan fruit pie recipe I liked (aka - seemed easy enough for me to follow), so I created my own. I used bits and pieces from several recipes I found online to get measurements and an idea of what I should use. I was a bit nervous about making a pie from scratch, but once I saw the dough come together easily, I was much more confident.
I wound up using a cherry pie recipe for the filling. I was slightly unsure how it would go with raspberries, but gave it a try. I used 4 cups of fresh raspberries and 1/2 cup of frozen raspberries (no reason other than I had an opened bag of frozen raspberries I wanted to use. I did thaw and drain them before using). One thing I would do differently is making sure the fresh raspberries were completely dried after rinsing. I rinsed them thoroughly, but didn't let them sit long before using them in for the filling. This caused the pie to be slightly watery before cooking and "ate up" (as my seven year old said) some of the crust.
The lattice topping turned out as expected when kids help with it. I also had to add additional cooking time because the crust took longer than expected, but that extra time in the oven was worth it! The filling turned out perfectly sweet (and not one bit watery), while the crust had a nice, light flavoring and soft, almost chewy texture to it.
I made this pie for our daycare Thanksgiving feast (with leftovers coming with us on Thanksgiving Day to grandparents houses), but I definitely had to dive in as soon as it was cool! I'm not much of a pie person, but this hit the sweet spot!
Crust
2 1/2 cups of flour
1 tbsp cane sugar (I like Full Circle Organic Pure Cane Sugar)
pinch of sea salt
1 stick of vegan butter
Ice cold water (as needed)
Soften butter. In a bowl, mix flour, sugar, and salt together. Add in softened butter and mix. Add in water carefully. The dough shouldn't be wet, just enough so there's no dry flour remaining. The dough should easily come together in ball. Divide the ball in half and wrap tightly in cling wrap. Refrigerate for 30+ before baking (you can easily make this the day before and let it sit in the refrigerator overnight).
Filling
4 1/2 cups of raspberries (I used a mix of fresh and frozen, but this works with either. Make sure they are well drained)
3/4 cups cane sugar
4 tbsp corn starch
1 tsp vanilla
2 tsp cinnamon
In a bowl, add the raspberries, sugar, corn starch, vanilla, and cinnamon. Raspberries should be well rinsed, drained, and dry before mixing. Stir until well mixed. The raspberries will become almost soup-like.
Make the Pie:
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees (F).
Take the dough out of the refrigerator (it should be firm but easily manipulated). Spread one half out into the pie pan, bringing the crust up and slightly over the edges. Once the dough is evenly spread throughout the pan and over the edges, pour in the filling.
Using the remaining half of the dough, create the top of the crust. I chose to do a lattice top (this explains how to do it well), a traditional top, or get creative (one child suggested using our cookie cutter letters to put our names as the top).
Bake at 375 degrees for 50 - 60 minutes.
Enjoy!
