Classic apple pie is a sweet, comforting dessert that’s perfect to enjoy anytime. Not only is my recipe for homemade apple pie wonderfully easy and delicious, it happens to be completely vegan! Follow my simple step-by-step instructions and photos to make the best apple pie recipe with a flaky, eggless and dairy-free crust from scratch.
Table of Contents
Why this recipe works
Traditional pie crusts call for butter and cold water, but my proven method is even easier and produces a perfectly flakiest crust.
My secret is to use vegan-friendly and healthy olive oil to add just the right amount of fat to the crust dough. The result is a crisp crust that’s terrific for filling with sweet, tender apples.
You can cover the top of the apple pie completely with the vegan crust dough, or make a decorative lattice pie crust. Either way this dessert is guaranteed to impress!
Make this apple pie tonight, and then try these other apple recipes:
How to Make Eggless + Vegan Apple Pie Crust
This scrumptious apple pie starts with a simple dough that’s both dairy-free and eggless.
1. First, in a sieve over a large bowl combine 1 cup of whole wheat flour, ½ cup of all purpose flour, and ½ teaspoon of salt.
2. Sift the ingredients together into the bowl.
3. Next, add ¼ cup of olive oil.
4. Use your fingertips to combine the olive oil and flour to create a breadcrumb-like texture. This is essential for achieving that perfectly flaky, crisp pie crust.
5. Add water to the bowl a splash at a time, and continue using your hands to work everything into a dough.
6. You want just enough water to bind the mixture together and create a tight dough. Do not knead! Gently bring the dough together to form a ball, and cover.
Making the Apple Pie Filling
7. Next, prep the apples by peeling, coring, and slicing.
8. Place the apple slices in a large bowl. Then add ¼ teaspoon of ground cinnamon, ¼ teaspoon of ground nutmeg, 2 tablespoons of demerara sugar (or brown sugar, or granulated white sugar or raw sugar), and 2 tablespoons of whole wheat flour.
9. Use a spoon to combine well, so that all of the apple slices are coated.
Making Apple Pie
10. Now it’s time to make the pie! Start by lightly flouring a clean work surface, and then divide the dough in half – or four equal parts if making two small pies. Set aside all but one section of the crust dough.
Preheat your oven at 180 degrees Celsius (356 degrees Fahrenheit) for 15 minutes before you begin baking.
11. Use a rolling pin to roll the dough out into an even layer that is about ¼ inch thick. Be sure to dust the rolling pin with flour as needed to prevent it from sticking.
12. Next, roll the flattened dough up and over the rolling pin. The dough will still be faintly sticky, therefore it’s important you continue lightly dusting with flour.
13. Thoroughly grease a pie pan before carefully transferring the dough to the dish. Use your fingers to gently push the crust into place.
14. Add an even layer of the apple filling to the crust.
15. Top the apple slices with a few drops of olive oil or dots of vegan butter. This will help to keep the fruit juices from bubbling up and over the crust while the pie bakes.
16. The pie is ready to cover! You can either completely cover the pie with another layer of crust dough, or cut strips to create a lovely lattice design.
If you want to cover with a solid piece of dough, simply follow the above steps to roll out another section of dough into an even layer. Then, place the dough on top of the pie, and gently crimp the edges together with the pie crust.
Use a knife to make a small slit, about an inch or so long, in the center of the dough to allow steam to escape.
Read on for my photos and tips for making a lattice crust topping, and keep scrolling to see a full video that demonstrates these steps!
Making the Lattice Pie Crust
17. It’s very easy to make a pretty lattice pie crust using the eggless and dairy-free pie dough.
After rolling and slicing the dough into even strips, lay them one at a time across the pie. Work to gently intertwine them, as I show in the video below.
18. Lastly, use a pastry brush to lightly brush soy milk (or any plant-based or non-vegan milk of choice) onto the pie crust. Sprinkle on a bit more raw sugar and ground cinnamon.
19. Bake the apple pie in a pre heated oven at 180 degrees Celsius (356 degrees Fahrenheit) for 50 to 60 mins, until the crust is golden. It took exactly one hour in my oven.
But as oven temperatures vary, it can take less or more time in your oven. Keep an eye on it, and be sure to remove promptly to keep from burning.
20. Serve the apple pie warm or at room temperature. It is delicious to enjoy plain, or with a generous helping of vegan ice cream or eggless vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.
Storing suggestions
To keep leftovers for up to a week, cover the pie with plastic wrap and store in the fridge. You can even freeze for about a month. Before serving, warm the pie in the oven.
FAQs
I personally like sweet apples that do not become a mush after baking. They can be crisp or not, but they should be sweet tasting. If you like some tartness in your apple pie filling, then Granny Smith or Golden Delicious are good options. From some sweet apple varieties, Honeycrisp, Braeburn, Pink Lady are nice choices.
If you live in India, then Shimla apples, Kashmir apples and Kinnaur apples are some of the options. You can always mix and match two to three varieties of apples for the pie filling.
Yes – not only powdered jaggery but you can add maple syrup, coconut sugar or palm sugar or brown sugar in place of demerara sugar.
Of course. If you plan to add butter, then check my All Butter Pie Crust Recipe.
Yes, you can make the apple pie with only whole wheat flour. There will be some denseness in the pie crust but it will still taste good. You will need to add some more water while combining the crust dough as whole wheat flour needs more water.
Simply skip the nutmeg.
Yes you can do that.
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Apple Pie (Eggless & Vegan)
Ingredients
For the pie crust
- 1 cup whole wheat flour – 120 grams
- ½ cup all-purpose flour – 62.5 grams
- ¼ cup olive oil or sunflower oil
- ⅓ cup water – at room temperature or add as required
- ½ teaspoon salt or as required
For apple pie filling
- 2 apples (medium-sized) – peeled, cored and sliced
- ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon (cinnamon powder)
- ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg or grated nutmeg (nutmeg powder)
- 2 tablespoons whole wheat flour
- 2 tablespoons demerara sugar (or brown sugar or raw sugar or white sugar)
- 1 to 2 teaspoons oil or vegan butter – to top the filling
Other ingredients
- 1 to 2 pinches ground cinnamon (cinnamon powder) – for sprinkling
- 1 to 2 pinches raw sugar or brown sugar or white sugar – for sprinkling
- 2 to 3 teaspoons soy milk or any nut milk – for glazing
Instructions
Making pie crust
- Seive or mix all the dry ingredients together – whole wheat flour, all purpose flour and salt.
- Add the olive oil and with your finger tips combine the oil in the flour evenly to get a breadcrumb consistency. This step should be done properly and this results in giving a flaky texture to the crust. The whole mixture should look like breadcrumbs.
- Add water in parts binding the whole mixture together. Don't knead. Gather everything and form a dough.
Making apple pie filling
- Peel, core and slice the apples.
- Mix the ground cinnamon, ground nutmeg, demerara sugar and whole wheat flour into the apples.
- Preheat your oven at 180 degrees celsius (356 degrees Fahrenheit) for 15 minutes.
- Grease your pie pan with olive oil.
Assembling pie
- Divide the dough into two or four equal parts depending on the size of your pie pans.
- Take one portion of the dough on a dusted work surface. Use a rolling pin to roll the dough out into an even layer that is about ¼ inch thick.
- Place one of the rolled pie crust gently on the greased pan and press it towards the bottom and the sides.
- Arrange the apple filling evenly on the bottom pie crust.
- Top the apple slices with a few drops of olive oil or dots of vegan butter.
- Cover the pan with another rolled pie crust and fold the edges of the top crust over and under the bottom edges. Flute the edges.
- Cut through the top pie crust with a fork or knife from top so as to allow steam to pass while baking.
- You can also cut strips from the rolled dough and create a lattice pie crust as shown in the video below.
- Brush with soy milk or any nut milk and sprinkle raw sugar and ground cinnamon from the top.
Baking
- Bake in a preheated oven at 180 degrees Celsius (356 degrees Fahrenheit) for 50 to 60 minutes or until the crust has become golden and crisp.
- Serve the apple pie warm or when at room temperature.
Storing
- You can refrigerate or freeze the pies. Wrap the apple pies when they completely cool down in a cling film or store them in an air tight container and refrigerate or freeze.
Video
Notes
- Apples: Any sweet tasting or a tart-sweet apples work great in an apple pie without it becoming a mush. I personally like sweet apples. Some good apple choices are Granny Smith, Golden Delicious, Honeycrisp, Braeburn and Pink Lady. For the Indian variety of apples, use Shimla, Kashmir or Kinnaur apples. You can always mix and match two to three varieties of apples.
- Demerara sugar: You can add powdered jaggery, maple syrup, coconut sugar, raw sugar or palm sugar or brown sugar.
- Fats: Sunflower oil can be added instead of olive oil. You can also use a neutral flavored oil.
- Flour: You can use whole wheat flour completely in the recipe. There will be some denseness in the texture of the crust but the taste will be good. You will need to add some more water while making the crust dough as whole wheat flour requires more water.
- Scaling: You can halve or double the recipe easily.
Nutrition Info (Approximate Values)
This apple pie recipe post from the archives (September 2013) has been republished and updated on 20 December 2020 with newer step-by-step photos, video and faqs.
First tried few months back. It was amazing. Very tasty. Now we make it very often.😊
All your recipes are really good.
Thank you and glad to know. Thanks for your kind words.
Can I use fryer for baking the dish? What would be the time and temperature setting?
You can try. I am not sure about the time, but you can consider a moderate temperature of 180 degrees Celsius.
what a delicious dessert!! your perfectly clear instructions make it so easy and enjoyable 🙂
Amazing
Hi, you have mentioned usage of 6 inch diameter pan for apple pan, can we use a square one?
yes, you can use a square pan.
Looks very interesting. Will try this weekend. Can i use powdered jaggery instead of demerara sugar?
yes, you can use powdered jaggery and thanks.
Hi Dassana, can I make one pie of eight inch tart with this recipe. Also can I use butter instead of olive oil?
yes lopamudra, you can make one large pie of 8 inch. yes, butter can be used instead of oil. make sure butter is cold and then cut it in cubes. add the cold butter to the four and with a knife cut the butter in the flour. or alternatively, with your fingertips break the butter in the flour till the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. if the butter starts melting, then keep the bowl in the fridge till the butter solidifies.
This recipe was really easy and the pie tasted very good. What would happen if I used only whole wheat instead of adding maida? Please advise.
tannaz, you can use only whole wheat flour too. a slight denseness will be there in the pie crust, but will still taste delicious. just add some more water while combining the crust dough as whole wheat flour needs more water.