I do not miss eating meat and poultry products at all except for the lard in my pie crust recipe. Hydrogenated vegetable shortening is not a healthy switch and butter crusts are also high in saturated animal fats. I have been reading about the health benefits of coconut oil which is a natural saturated fat. This week I bought a 2 pound jar of Nutiva Coconut Oil for about $17.00 at our grocery store. That is a lot pricier than lard but now that I do not buy meat, it fits in my budget. I never liked coconut as a child, particularly the dry desiccated coconut on cakes and in cookies. I tried a little of the Nutiva Coconut Oil on a piece of bread and it was delicious! Here is a recipe for pie crust with coconut oil. It does have a mild coconut taste so consider that when deciding what filling you use. I made our yearly rhubarb custard pie (not vegan) and the crust was flaky and complementary in flavour.
For 2 nine-inch crusts:
3/4 cup non-hydrogenated coconut oil (you can use up to half the amount in butter)
2 cups white, unbleached flour
1 teaspoon salt
4-9 tablespoons ice water (I needed 7 today)
Measure the oil and if it is soft and runny, put it in the fridge for 10-15 minutes. Don't leave it in too long or it will become rock hard. In the meantime, measure flour and salt in a bowl and place ice cubes in a small glass of water.
Add the fat and cut it into the flour with a pastry cutter until the fat is the size of small peas. Add 4 tablespoons of ice water and mix together. Keep adding water a tablespoon at a time until you have an easy to handle ball of dough that is not too sticky. Divide in half and roll out to fit a 9" double crust pie or 2 single 9" pie crusts. Bake as directed in your recipe of choice.
Note: Today is hot and the coconut oil was very soft. Keeping the ingredients cold was important and in the end the pie crust was very easy to handle.
