This is by far the best gluten free dairy free AND egg free apple pie recipe you’ll EVER get your hands on. No odd grainy texture like you usually get with gluten free recipes. Its encased in a beautiful short, crisp gluten free vegan pie crust.
You can learn how to make my foolproof vegan and gluten free pie/tart crust by subscribing below, to get the guide straight to your inbox, for FREE!
Master the art of baking GF, DF & Vegan
Baking Free From 101
This vegan apple pie is filled with beautifully spiced and flavoured peanut butter, cinnamon and apple pie filling. It’s just to die for.
The textures too are just devine. Soft, thin apple slices coated around a thin, lightly sweetened crunchy peanut butter and cinnamon syrup. The perfect balance. You couldn’t possibly tell this was gluten free, let alone vegan!
Those who don’t follow a gluten free/vegan diet won’t even be able to taste the difference.
And best of all, it's extremely easy to bake. Ok I’ll stop now, let's get into how to actually make it!
Apple pie from scratch
So here I’ll go through how to make vegan apple pie, through this super simple apple pie recipe.
- To start, we need to make the easy gluten free dairy free apple pie crust. Begin by combining gluten free plain flour, xanthan gum and dairy free butter. Mix these ingredients together with a spoon to start, so the butter is coated with flour.
- This is important to do before crumbling it together with your fingertips as the butter will coat your fingers. Doing this therefore, provides a thin barrier, preventing this from happening.
- Once the dough has reached a crumble-like consistency slowly add a tablespoon at a time of ice cold water, until the dough starts to come together - mixing after each addition.
- Divide the dough in 2 and wrap the dough in cling film/plastic wrap and refrigerate whilst making the tart filling.
My baking 101 guide goes over this in more detail with visuals! Subscribe to get the guide to your inbox!
Master the art of baking GF, DF & Vegan
Baking Free From 101
The Gluten free apple pie filling recipe
Now unlike traditional apple pies, I’ve added in an extra special ingredient to this vegan apple pie filling.
Peanut butter - the crunchy kind and works like magic!
The added texture of the peanuts, pears so beautifully with the cinnamon and apple. And the flavor it brings, ties the whole pie together.
It really is a wonderful addition that brings your pie to another level. I highly recommend you try it. Of course if you have a peanut allergy I suggest you sit back on this one, but you could substitute for any other crunchy nut alternative.
To bring the filling together simply peel and thinly slice your apples and transfer to a bowl with brown sugar, cinnamon, crunchy peanut butter, mixed spice, gluten free flour, xanthan gum and cornflour.
This is probably the easiest pie filling recipe you’ll ever find. It's primarily just apples! Which brings me onto my next segment.
What are the best apples for apple pie?
For the recipe I used gala apples, as I personally prefer apples that aren't too sweet. But rather adds freshness to the tart which balances beautifully with the sweet crunchy caramel like sauce surrounding the apples. And encased in a perfectly crisp gluten free pie crust.
Other apples
If you can’t get your hands on gala apples that’s ok! My second favorites for apple pie are granny smith and pink lady apples.
But to be perfectly honest, any would go absolutely well. Having the wrong sort of apples at home could never stop me from making this beauty, and neither should that be the case for you!
The other elements of the pie will bring out the flavor from any apple you choose and will produce a masterpiece either way!
How many apples for apple pie?
For this recipe, you’ll need just 4! Now I’m enthusiastic about this, because mainly every other apple pie recipe asks you for 1.5kg! Now I don’t know about but I don’t have that many laying around, do you!?
So anyways, I thought it’s best to keep it minimal to make life a little easier. Since you do need to peel every single one of them!
For me I found this was the perfect amount to fill my tart pan, and produced the perfect ratio of pie filling to crust.
How to make a pretty apple pie crust
The traditional top/lid of an apple pie is a lattice. But now I’ll be completely honest with you, I couldn’t make a lattice if my life depended on it. Trust me I have TRIED, and did not go well.
But did that stop me from making a pretty tart? Hell no! I looked through my baking draw and found a small round cookie cutter and butterfly cutter and had the most brilliant idea.
I’d just cut out small circles and butterflies. Layered it on top of the pie, making sure to fill all the gaps around the pie pan and all around the top. And bobs your uncle I had just created the prettiest, original apple pie!
AND SO CAN YOU. If you're like me, not a fan of a lattice, have a look at what else you’ve got around. Be original. Try something new. Follow those principles; make sure all the gaps are filled. And you're sorted.
Or just stick the traditional lattice or plain pie lid, either way you're going to be getting a pretty darn tasty pie at the end of it! 🙂
How can I make this healthy?
The best thing about this pie, is that you can make some really quick and easy substitutes to make this a healthy vegan apple pie. Simply substitute the brown sugar for …g honey with ½tbsp cornflour.
For the pie crust, I can suggest a healthier alternative would be to substitute your butter for other vegan butter alternatives that work brilliantly in baking.
However, I haven’t yet tried this out myself, but if you do give this ago, please let me know how you get on in the comments below x
TROUBLESHOOTING
Making the pie dough, but accidentally added too much water?
- If you’re now left with an extremely wet dough, it’s not the end of the world. Simply add a spoonful of gluten free flour at a time, until the dough begins to come together again.
- If it is way too wet, in the sense that you have accidentally poured in a cup of water in the dough, start another dough in a separate bowl with ½ the recipe's measurements. Then instead of adding ice cold water to the second batch simply add the wet dough, draining the excess water if you can. If it is still wet follow the above steps.
I would suggest following this method, instead of starting from scratch again, to prevent wasting all those ingredients.
The Recipe
What's in a vegan apple pie?
Heres the ingredients :
The best vegan AND gluten free apple pie
Equipment
- Bowl x 2
- Rolling Pin
- Peeler
- Knife
- Pie/Tart tin
- Round and Butterfly Cookie cutter(optional)
Ingredients
Pie Crust
- 400 g GF Plain flour
- 235 g Dairy Free Butter
- 1 teaspoon Xanthan gum
- 55 g Caster sugar
- Ice cold water (Tbsp a time added as needed)
- 1 tablespoon Dairy free milk (to glaze)
Apple Pie Filling
- 6 Apples
- 75 g Light Brown sugar
- 40 g GF Plain flour
- ½ teaspoon Xanthan gum
- 10 g Corn flour
- 1 tsp Mixed Spice
- ½ teaspoon Cinnamon
- 5 tablespoon Crunchy Peanut butter (refer to notes)
Instructions
Pastry
- Combine the butter, flour, xanthan gum and sugar to a bowl. Mix until butter is fully coated with flour.400 g GF Plain flour, 1 teaspoon Xanthan gum, 55 g Caster sugar, 235 g Dairy Free Butter
- Then with your fingers rub the butter in until breadcrumb consistency. You then want to add a tablespoon at time of ice cold water, mixing after each addition until the dough comes together. Be careful not to add to much waterIce cold water
- Divide the dough in 2, one for base the other for the top. And wrap the doughs in clingfilm while you make the filling.
Filling
- Peel and thinly slice all the apples and place into bowl. To that bowl add all the remaining ingredients and mix until full combined and apple are fully coated. Set a side6 Apples, 75 g Light Brown sugar, 40 g GF Plain flour, ½ teaspoon Xanthan gum, 10 g Corn flour, 1 teaspoon Mixed Spice, ½ teaspoon Cinnamon, 5 tablespoon Crunchy Peanut butter
- Roll out the pastry between 2 sheets of clingfilm and roll until it has reached just larger then the size of the bottom of the pan. [Were rolling the dough between clingfilm to prevent dough from tearing and sticking to the table]
- Transfer the rolled dough to the tart pan, removing the top sheet of clingfilm before hand and flipping it over so the non-clingfilm side of the pastry goes into the pan.
- Once the pastry dough is fitted well in the pan remove the top layer of clingfilm, and trim away excess dough. If you need to you can use any excess dough to patch any holes/tears.
- Pour apple filling into the tart pan and start by making the pie cover. This can either be a lattice, a plain pastry lid to cover the top or a patterned top.
Pie Top
- To make my pie top I cut out small 2" circles from my remaining pastry and overlapped several on the top of the pie filling to cove the whole lid. I then got a small butterfly cookie cutter and cut out mini butterflies from the rolled pastry to fill any gaps on the top of the pie.
- Finish by brushing on dairy free milk on the top of the pie to give it a golden brown shine as it bakes.1 tablespoon Dairy free milk
- Bake for 1hr or until pastry is cooked and golden brown.
- Slice and enjoy!
Notes
Nutrition
Your Thoughts
As always, I’m really excited to hear your thoughts on this vegan apple pie. And if you have any questions at all leave me a comment below and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can x
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Anna says
Sounds like super delicious, thank you for sharing, must try! 🙂
Leena. says
It really is!
Shelley says
OMG! I never thought about adding peanut to apple pie. Definitely going to try this recipe ?
Leena. says
It really is incredible!