I need to bring pies to a kosher dinner for Thanksgiving, meaning non-dairy. I used margarine last year in place of butter in my favorite pie crust recipe. It tasted OK, no one complained, but I thought it was just a bit… blah. It didn’t have a great amount of flakiness. It was cool that it really didn’t shrink in the pan at all while pre-baking, but I just wasn’t happy with it.

Does anyone have any recommendations for a non-dairy pie crust they like? Or maybe a brand of margarine they prefer baking with?

Cheers!

You could try using half crisco to increase the flakiness.  Another idea would be to use schmaltz or another animal fat (Rose has 2 or 3 crust recipes in the P&PB;that use animal fat).

Another option might be to use a vegetable oil crust.  I prefer butter, but I have a southern friend who just loves to use vegetable oil instead (like canola).  It’s apparently fairly common in the south. (?)  I’m sure you can find several versions if you do a google search.

Good old-fashioned vegetable shortening might be your best bet. I find that margarines (even stick margarines) just have too much water in them for pie crust.

Butter flavored Crisco (with fake butter flavor) might be your best option.

Another option (if you can find it) is chicken or goose fat (usually found in Kosher markets). Chicken might be too strong of a flavor for a sweet pie, but I have had a sweet pie crust with half goose fat and half shortening; it was actually quite good.

Most oil pie crust recipes I’ve seen contain milk and I know that won’t do for you.  An all-shortening crust is probably the way to go.  If you do use butter-flavored Crisco, though, only use it for about half the amount of fat and use plain shortening for the other half; otherwise, you will have an unbearably fake “chemical” taste to your crust.

Please keep in mind that Crisco Butter flavor is dairy, and therefore can’t be served with a meat meal. Also, if you use anything dairy in the pie that also cant be served with a meat meal!!!

cala99 - 13 December 2007 05:53 PM

Please keep in mind that Crisco Butter flavor is dairy, and therefore can’t be served with a meat meal. Also, if you use anything dairy in the pie that also cant be served with a meat meal!!!

Is it dairy?  The container says “All-Vegetable”.  (I don’t know, I’m asking - does natural butter flavor mean it qualifies as dairy?)

Patrincia - 13 December 2007 06:13 PM

Is it dairy?  The container says “All-Vegetable”.  (I don’t know, I’m asking - does natural butter flavor mean it qualifies as dairy?)

I’m no expert (but I won’t let that stop me), but Kosher.com lists butter-flavored Crisco as “OU Dairy”.  That means it’s considered dairy for Kosher purposes.  (OU is Orthodox Union, the biggest Kosher supervisor in the US).

Thomas - 14 December 2007 09:50 AM

I’m no expert (but I won’t let that stop me), but Kosher.com lists butter-flavored Crisco as “OU Dairy”.  That means it’s considered dairy for Kosher purposes.  (OU is Orthodox Union, the biggest Kosher supervisor in the US).

That’s good information to know ... thank you, Thomas!