Cherry Pie in a Vegan Whole Wheat Crust

“Summerthyme” is the right “thyme” for fruit pies! As soon as fresh cherries appear in the grocery store, I grab a bag full of them and rush home to make my Cherry Pie in a Vegan Whole Wheat Crust.

Recipes for fruit pies are common, and I wouldn’t be posting one if mine weren’t different from many of them. Perhaps the biggest difference is that I use a whole wheat crust. When I’m cooking, I take every opportunity to use whole food ingredients rather than refined. I don’t even keep all-purpose white flour in my pantry! Instead, my go-to baking flour is whole wheat pastry flour — though sometimes I use oat flour or gluten-free flour if I’m baking for people who avoid gluten.

My Mom’s Pie Crust Recipe – But Better!

I feel very nostalgic about my pie crust recipe, because it’s a modification of the recipe that my mom shared with me when I was in high school. Her recipe used some ingredients that I avoid:  all-purpose flour, dairy butter, and an egg. As mentioned previously, the flour substitution was easy and obvious. The substitution of Earth Balance for dairy butter was also easy and obvious. But the egg, which was apparently added to make the dough cohesive and to increase its flexibility, was not so obvious. First I tried using a chia egg, which is made by combining 1 tablespoon of ground chia seed with 3 tablespoons of water. The resulting gelatinous mixture worked fine, but the finished crust had tiny dark specks because of the chia seed. It was not what I was aiming for, because I wanted a uniformly-colored, golden-brown crust. So next I tried aquafaba, which is the liquid that comes along for free when you buy a can of chickpeas. The aquafaba worked perfectly, and I ended up with the bonus of some chickpeas for a protein-packed salad or other tasty dish.

Begin Binding Your Filling Before Baking

Have you ever baked a fruit pie and discovered that the filling was too runny? Many recipes instruct you to pour the uncooked filling into the pie shell and put it directly into the oven. But taking some time to begin binding the filling on the stovetop before baking your pie will ensure that you get a juicy, but not overly runny, pie filling. You’ll want to remove it from the stovetop before it’s fully bound, because the process will finish in the oven. Just heat it on the stove long enough for the liquid to begin thickening. Besides, you will need to chill the pie dough in the refrigerator anyway, so that is the perfect time to bind your filling.

Chill the Pie Dough

I learned the hard way that you don’t want to skip chilling the dough before rolling it. Chilling the dough allows time for the gluten strands in the flour to relax, which makes the dough easier to roll out and keeps it from shrinking while baking.

I also prefer to pre-bake the pie shell to help ensure that the bottom crust comes out crispy.  A metal pie pan will help to ensure a crisp bottom crust, although ceramic pie pans look beautiful when it’s time to serve this delectable dessert.