It finally struck me that coconut oil in its raw form (un-melted) is almost the same consistency as shortening, so I should use it in pie crusts. Pie crust recipes are almost always insufficient to fill my 9-inch deep dish pie plate (9” interior diameter, 10 1/2” total diameter), so I came up with this recipe. It works perfectly to even have a little left over crust mix. When my kids were little, they liked to take the leftover pie crust mix and press it into the bottom of ramekin dishes and make their own, personal pies. Now I use the extra to decorate the top of the pie.
It takes longer to incorporate the coconut oil into the mix with a pastry cutter than shortening, so you get a little arm workout to boot. When using the recipe as a pie crust bottom, I don’t worry about the little flecks of white coconut oil that remain. But I use the food processor if the crust will be visible, like for empanadas, which are on my to-do list.
Here I’m showing the dry ingredients in the food processor and, using the manual method, how the dough will start to bind together as you add the water (I clumped it together in my hand).
Pie Crust for 9” Deep Dish (double if you want top and bottom)
1 3/4 C flour
1/4 t salt
4 T butter
4 T coconut oil
6-7 T ice water
Stir flour and salt, then blend in butter and coconut oil using a pastry blender until you have uniform tiny pieces. Combine 1 tablespoon of ice water into the mixture at a time, until the mixture is moist enough to clump it together into a ball.
Sprinkle flour on your surface and flatten the dough ball on it. Sprinkle flour on top and roll out to beyond the size of your pie plate. Roll the crust onto the rolling pin and place over the pie plate. Press crust into plate and crimp edges with fingertips.
