We’re coming up on KCRW pie season, which means our special kind of pie mania is approaching. Every year at the contest, I’m always interested to see the entries in the Vegan Pie category. It is a particularly challenging category because butter is often relied on not just for flavor but to create flakiness in the case of the crust, or binding with flour in the case of creamy filling. But I think people forget that a classic fruit pie is vegan except for that buttery crust, which is the easiest part of the pie to tweak. Several plant butters make an excellent crust. And perhaps it’s heresy to some pro bakers who pride themselves on using all-natural ingredients, but I first learned how to make pies with Crisco when I was a child.
I would love to hear from bakers who have perfected their vegan crust. Reach out to me on Instagram @kcrwgoodfood. What plant butter are you using? Coconut oil? Earth Balance? Miyoko’s? For the deepest dive, I recommend watching local baker Nicole Rucker (of Fat & Flour) in Miyoko’s YouTube series on using European Style Cultured Vegan Butter. Nicole explains the science of fat and takes you through making a Cherry Crumble Pie.
There is a new vegan butter that professional bakers can access made by Tourlami. Unfortunately, it isn’t available in retail, but the ingredients are a mixture of cocoa butter and coconut oil. People can experiment with making their own version. In the audio segment I (Evan) incorrectly stated that Tourlami was founded by two women and one of them worked at "Madison Park" - Tourlami is solely founded by Susannah Schoolman. Schoolman is also the CEO. She does not work for Eleven Madison Park - they buy Tourlami butters from her. In addition the correct pronunciation of Tourlami is Toor-Luh-Me. I apologize to Susannah for the errors.
I reached out to Jennifer Yee of Baker’s Bench, who has been lauded for her vegan croissants. I asked her how she would go about trying to make a home version of Tourlami. She said that although she hasn’t done this, she would begin by carefully melting together 75% coconut oil and 25% cocoa butter slowly in the microwave, then letting it sit out at room temperature until it solidifies (you want it “out of temper”), then refrigerating it. Cocoa butter has a higher melting point than coconut oil, which is what you want for a good crust or to bind a filling. Experiment with the ratio until you hit your sweet spot. Here is another recipe that adds almond milk curdled with vinegar and lecithin to the mix.
And for nut pies, like pecan, you can swap out the eggs and butter for tofu to bind your nuts and sugar. But the most important part of making a vegan pie is taste, so if you’re planning on entering KCRW’s PieFest, practice and taste over and over.
