This is hands-down the best pecan pie I’ve had in years, if not of all time. I never liked the wet, eggy, lumpy layer so many pecan pies have, so don’t expect that. This is gooey, chewy and candy-like, packed with delicious sugars and fats.
I tried a couple of different pecan pie recipes before I finally came across this recipe for “The Best Vegan Pecan Pie.” And let me tell you, this one really lives up to its name. I tweaked the original recipe to make it a bit more traditional, and I swear to you, it is the only pecan pie recipe I will ever need again. It’s that good.
Best Vegan Pecan Pie
Recipe type: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 8
Ingredients
- 1¼ c flour
- ½ tsp salt
- 6 Tbsp shortening, chilled
- 1.5 Tbsp vegan butter, chilled
- 3-5 Tbsp ice water
- 1.5 c pecan halves
- ½ Tbsp vegan butter
- pinch of salt
- 10 saltines, crumbled
- ½ c water
- 2½ Tbsp vegan butter
- 1¼ c sugar
- ¼ c light corn syrup
- 2 tsp vanilla
- 3 Tbsp applesauce or pumpkin puree
- 3 Tbsp corn or tapioca starch
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425°F.
- In a medium bowl, sift together flour and salt.
- Using a pastry cutter, cut in shortening and butter until pea-sized.
- Sprinkle with 3 Tbsp ice water and stir until dough comes together in a ball, adding more ice water as needed. (Use as little water as possible and handle the dough as little as possible, so as not to end up with a tough crust!)
- Roll out dough on a lightly floured surface.
- Transfer to 9" pie plate; trim and shape edges as desired.
- Prick crust with a fork and fill with pie weights; bake for 5 minutes.
- Remove pie plate from oven and set aside.
- Reduce oven temperature to 325°F.
- In a heavy skillet on medium heat, melt butter.
- Add pecan halves and salt and toss, stirring occasionally until pecans are toasted. Take care not to burn them!
- Turn off heat and set aside.
- In a small bowl, stir together crackers and water.
- Let water absorb, then put mixture in a food processor with vegan butter, sugar, corn syrup, vanilla, applesauce or pumpkin puree, and starch.
- Process until mixture is relatively smooth.
- Pour mixture into saucepan over high heat and bring to a boil, stirring constantly.
- When mixture boils, lower heat slightly and cook for 2 more minutes, stirring to make sure nothing burns to the bottom of the pan.
- Fold in pecans.
- Remove pie weights from crust, then pour filling into crust.
- Bake for 50 minutes.
- Cool fully, a couple of hours, before slicing and serving.
66 comments
Beth says:
Dec 9, 2012
I love pecan pie and holidays without it have been so sad! I will definitely be trying this out for Christmas.
Teal p says:
Dec 27, 2012
This lives up to its reputation.chewy and deliciously caramely. Daughter and her partner loved It .He ate three pieces! Note:this only half filled a 9″ deep dish pie shell. Use a shallow 9″or perhaps even an 8″ she’ll.
Kate says:
Dec 27, 2012
This pie is FANTASTIC!!! Made it for Christmas Eve dinner for my friend who misses pecan pie. Wow. It was so good that even though we were super full, we enjoyed every bite!
Thanks so much for this recipe. I will absolutely be making this over and over again. It tastes so good and it’s super shiny and pretty.
claryn says:
Dec 28, 2012
Yay! So glad you liked it, Kate 🙂
Leslie says:
Jan 7, 2013
So glad I found this blog. I am newly vegan and while I am loving it, I wondered if it was possible to ever enjoy pecan pie again… Apparently, it is, along with some other great recipe ideas. Thanks!
claryn says:
Jan 21, 2013
Congrats on going vegan, Leslie! Though I’m at risk of sounding like a broken record, I really do believe any food you miss can be made vegan — some recipes just require a little more trial and error than others!
LizAnn says:
Jan 28, 2013
I have made this pie twice now and it has been a big hit. My family is also gluten free, dairy, soy, and egg free. For the filling, I used GF crackers the first time and GF vegan bread crumbs the second. Both turned out great and were gobbled up by my kids who have really missed pecan pie since going egg free. Thanks for posting this recipe!
claryn says:
Jan 29, 2013
Awesome! Glad to hear it was a gluten-free success 🙂
tealnina says:
Jan 28, 2013
Yummy, though in one place the filling broke through the crust and turned into a hard “glue” that had to be chizzled off of the plate. no matter the tast is well worth it.
claryn says:
Jan 29, 2013
Yep, as with most fruit and sugar-heavy pies, you want to be careful not to tear your crust so your slices slide out of the pan easily.
samantha laverde says:
Mar 16, 2013
This sounds so tasty I will be trying to make it tommorrow for dessert, I don’t think that it should be only for holiday’s. I make pies all the time for desserts or treats and everyone eats them up fast. Thanks for the recipe, I’ll let you know how the family liked it.
Karen says:
Mar 28, 2013
This recipe looks very interesting! Just wondering if anyone has used it to make tarts… and if so, how long did you bake them for? I hope to give it a try this weekend. Will report back with the results if I do!
Karen says:
Mar 31, 2013
Replying to myself… the tarts turned out amazingly well! Baked the tart shells at 425F for 5 minutes and then removed them from the oven. Then baked the filled tart shells at 325F for 20 minutes. Next time I will not bother combining the nuts and the filling – will just put the nuts (chopped extra because of the tart size) in the shells and then pour the filling over them. But they are SO TASTY! Thank you for this recipe!!
claryn says:
Mar 31, 2013
Glad you liked them, Karen, and thanks for sharing your tips on cooking time!
Barb Noon says:
Sep 12, 2013
I’ve been looking around for a vegan dessert to take to our vegetarian group this month, and thought about pecan tarts. I will give Karen’s version of your pecan pie recipe a try!
claryn says:
Sep 12, 2013
Great! Hope you like it, Barb.
Jane says:
Dec 19, 2017
how many did you get out of the recipe? did you use the same crust? Thank you!
Margie Brimer says:
Oct 21, 2013
Made two of these tonight! I love this recipe. Just like the real deal!!
claryn says:
Oct 23, 2013
Hey, vegan food is real food! 😉 Thanks for the feedback, Margie.
Brittany says:
Oct 27, 2013
This is AMAZING!! Just made this and we devoured a piece as soon as it cooled! Tastes so great- I can’t wait to serve it at Thanksgiving.
Melanie says:
Oct 30, 2013
Do you think I could use coconut oil instead of shortening?
claryn says:
Nov 3, 2013
I do! You’ll have to be extra careful to keep the coconut oil and pie dough cold, though, because coconut oil has such a low melting point. Alternatively, you might try a recipe for a coconut oil pie crust instead, like this one: http://bakingbites.com/2012/11/coconut-oil-pie-crust/.
Rachel says:
Nov 21, 2013
I’m mid-way through this pie, and I’m in awe. I modified the flavors a little bit with dark corn syrup, a touch of molasses, bourbon and cinnamon, but the saltines thing is BRILLIANT. Now I need to manage to get it in the oven before I eat all of the pecan mixture–it smells divine. Thanks!
claryn says:
Nov 26, 2013
Awesome! I bet your twist is great, Rachel 🙂
Heidi Hillenbrand says:
Nov 24, 2013
I cannot thank you enough for this recipe! The whole family LOVED it, as did I. Really have been proving to the family that vegan does not equal boring, they all are quite amazed!
claryn says:
Nov 26, 2013
Aw, I’m glad to hear it, Heidi! And good on you for being a “vegan ambassador” to your family, too!
Mike says:
Nov 26, 2013
Awesome recipe. I made it the other day and it was DELICIOUS! I even added a layer of vegan chocolate chips at the bottom and it came out very, very tasty!!
Mike says:
Nov 26, 2013
I used a store-bought pie crust though. But I can’t tell you HOW GREAT this filling was!!! YUM!
claryn says:
Nov 26, 2013
Hey, you still made a pie, and that’s nothin’ to shrug at. Glad you liked the recipe, Mike 🙂 I’d never have thought to add chocolate to pecan pie, but man, I bet that combo was delicious!
Sarah Joey Johnson says:
Nov 28, 2013
Pecan pie is my favorite dessert- especially my Tennessee grandmother’s pecan pie. My fiancé is a vegan truck driver, and will be on the road today (Thanksgiving), so I wanted to send him with a few festive eats. This pecan pie is AMAZING. I have tried so many vegan dessert recipes and (to me, a non-vegan) they have tasted like rubber. This recipe was so simple and absolutely delicious. Thank you SO much for helping me achieve vegan dessert greatness! Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!
Sarah Joey Johnson says:
Nov 28, 2013
Oh, I wanted to add that we had no corn syrup, so I used organic pure maple syrup instead- turned our great. I’m bringing one of these pies to my Tennessee-side of the family’s gathering, I’ll let you know what the verdict is!
claryn says:
Nov 30, 2013
…and I look forward to hearing how your family receives it! 😉
claryn says:
Nov 30, 2013
Aw, you’re so sweet! Glad to hear you liked the pie, and happy holidays to both of you 🙂
Dan says:
Dec 1, 2013
I brought this to Thanksgiving dinner and shared with several friends. It was a hit! (Especially with the vegans!). Thanks for saving my Thanksgiving.
Leanna says:
Dec 23, 2013
This was my first time ever making pecan pie.. first time making a pie for that matter! I made a different crust cause I didn’t have pie weights..(not even sure what those are).. but everything still turned out great! It looked horrible though.. like a big pile of poop.. but it was DELICIOUS POOP!! I am willing to attempt the crust the next time.. I also wanted to know how to find out the nutritional information per serving.. I also traded white sugar for coconut sugar since I didn’t have any of the other..lol Thank you for this recipe 🙂
V. Bookout says:
Dec 28, 2013
I am not vegan. Have children that are, so I tried this recipe. I loved it. Better than our traditional southern pecan pie recipe. Being a cook, I can not help but tweak it a bit but, it was great as written. My entire family ate it up.Thank you!
claryn says:
Dec 31, 2013
Glad you liked it, V!
Vegan Pecan Pie | Calculated Fondue says:
May 15, 2014
[…] adopted from the wizards at Hell Yeah it’s Vegan! I choose this one because the egg substitute was something readily available in my parent’s […]
Jenni from Toronto says:
Sep 14, 2014
Made this recipe for a group of non-vegan friends and it was a huge hit! They were skeptical that it would be good, but it definitely won them over. I subbed brown rice syrup instead of corn syrup, added a drizzle of maple syrup instead of the extra 1/4 cup of sugar, and a tablespoon of bourbon to give it a little something special.The filling held it’s form perfectly, and the sliver of pie that was left made a great breakfast 🙂 I’ll be taking this to many potlucks and dinner parties! Thanks for helping make plant-based eating delish!
claryn says:
Sep 14, 2014
Awesome!! So glad to hear it, Jenni. I like your substitutions, too!
Ess says:
Oct 14, 2014
Oh my gawd. I just made this for Thanksgiving and it was SO good! I am seriously impressed, and it tastes even better than traditional pecan pie (ok, so I might be a bit bias because I’m vegan, but seriously!). Everyone ate it up so quickly – we even gave a piece to our tenant (he thinks vegans only eat lettuce and cardboard and are starved of protein), and he loved it! I love planting vegan seeds, one slice of pie at a time. 🙂
Thanks so much for sharing this recipe, I will def be making this again – so delicious! Legit the BEST pecan pie ever! 🙂
Kittery says:
Nov 26, 2014
I wanted to take this for thanksgiving so I made a test pie first. It came out beautifully! Just wonderful. If it weren’t for the texture being more “caramelly” than the traditional pie, you’d never know it was vegan. I will say that I’m not sure what it was about mine, but after cooling there was a yellow residue on the top of the pie. I’m wondering if some of the butter substitute separated out during cooking? It tasted great but did have the weird yellow stuff. Next time I will blot with a paper towel as it cools to make sure anything weird is gone. Maybe try a different butter substitute. The crust seemed to shrink quite a bit as it cooked, so my pretty much perfect edges ended up looking like a hot mess, but that’s ok.Now on to caramel apple…
Jane says:
Nov 27, 2014
What I would like to share is the magical transformation that the sugary ingredients mix made when I boiled them in the saucepan for 2 minutes! When I first saw the liquid that food processing the ingredients together made, I thought, “Oh, liquid sugary mixture.” After I boiled on the stovetop, the ingredients (and my thinking) went from liquidy to “Oh, this is EXACTLY how I remember pecan pie filling to be!!!!!” It’s amazing-looking! The 2 pies I made (from doubling the recipe) are baking in the oven as I type. I’m sure they will be just delicious!!!! Thanks!!!!! (Why isn’t it letting me rate the recipe as 5 star? It is!)
Susan Booth says:
Dec 25, 2014
This was soooo good! When my husband (who can’t have eggs or dairy) asked for pecan pie I thought no way. It would never come out without the eggs. I was wrong!
C.L. says:
Feb 18, 2015
This looks so good and I can’t wait to try it. Is there any way I can do this w/o a food processor?
Courtney says:
Nov 20, 2015
I want to try and make these into mini pecan pies. I have only made one pecan pie in my life. I am not sure how long you would cook a mini one or how to tell when it is done? Any thoughts on how long it would take? Thanks so much!
Karen says:
Nov 22, 2015
Hi Courtney – By “mini-pie”, do you mean tart – as in: you’d made a dozen or more tarts to equal one pie? If yes, look at my post above from Mar 31, 2013. I made these into tarts and they were awesome. Good luck! 🙂
Beth says:
Nov 28, 2015
Hi Courtney! I just made mini pies out of this for Thanksgiving! It came out great! I think my mini pies were in the oven for about 40 minutes. I just kept checking on them. They came out great! I used muffin tins for my pies. Only thing was since I wasn’t at home I didn’t have my equipment: no pie weights (or uncooked beans)-so I used some tin foil balls in the middle of the pies. It still puffed up a bit, but I just pushed the crusts back down and then when I put the filling in it was fine. Everyone loved it!
Courtney says:
Nov 29, 2015
Thanks Beth and Karen! I made them in slightly bigger than muffin tins and I think I undercooked it slightly. But they turned out amazing! People loved them! I used somr left over filling over the Apple pie bars to make it a caramel apple pie. So good! Appreciate your guys responses!
Lana says:
Nov 25, 2015
Hell Yeah it’s awesome pie and Hell Yeah It’s Vegan!! This is the second time I’ve made this pie–once last year and now again I came back to it remembering how great it was. It is so good and such a special treat! it has turned out wonderfully both times. I’ve followed the recipe for the filling exactly as written and for the crust I’ve used pre-made so I cannot comment on that portion of the recipe. Also, just to note, I used pumpkin purée (canned pumpkin) for the pumpkin/applesauce option; and I used corn starch for the starch option rather than tapioca starch. Thank you for a great recipe. Two thumbs up!
Kasia says:
Jan 23, 2016
I’d love to make this heavenly pie but corn syrup is very difficult to get in Poland 🙁 Any idea how I could replace it..?
claryn says:
Jan 24, 2016
Hi Kasia! If you already have a sense of what corn syrup is like, you could try substituting whatever kind of similar liquid sweetener is readily available in Poland. I have no idea what your options are, but my initial suggestions would be golden syrup, brown rice syrup, light agave nectar, or cane syrup.
Jenni Mechem says:
Mar 15, 2016
This is SO GOOD!! Unbelievably chewy and dense but and just gooey enough but not goopy. Takes a while but so easy to make. We used a store-bought crust, and added a layer of Nutella to the bottom, as a compromise between my flexibly-mostly-vegan daughter and the non-vegan one who was cooking it. (Nutella is not vegan)
The saltines are genius! Come Passover I’ll try substituting matzoh, with a matzoh-meal crust and agave or maple syrup instead of corn syrup (not kosher for Passover if you’re strict about it). Would it work with arrowroot or potato starch rather than
cornstarch? (also not kP)
Thanks for the awesome recipe! So happy to find another way to forego eggs in pies & thickened desserts.
claryn says:
Mar 16, 2016
You can definitely replace the corn starch 1:1 with potato starch; I actually do this all the time. I don’t doubt there’s a way to do it with arrowroot, but I haven’t tried it myself!
Olga says:
Jun 18, 2016
Could not find vegan butter in Canada (Québec). Had to use something called baking sticks by earth balance. I hope it’ll be okay. It’s my first time making a pie. The filling had a bit of a weird smell, but was definitely sweet. I guess we’ll see how it will turn out. My hubby likes his pecan pie lightly frozen. Any idea how long I can keep it in the freezer before it becomes one unbreakable piece?
Thank you
Briana says:
Aug 13, 2016
If I use EarthBalance butter, will that weird butter taste come through? I find that the EarthBalance flavor is hidden in some recipes but prominent in others.
Bree says:
Nov 17, 2016
Just made this as a trial run for Thanksgiving, and it was so good! I never had non-vegan pecan pie, but this is spectacular, and I don’t feel that I’m “missing out” on anything. In fact the way you describe it, “wet and eggy”… blechh no thanks! This one’s a keeper. I used Earth Balance in the tub, was kind of worried it might not turn out, you know how tub vs stick can be tricky sometimes, but it came out perfect. Although it might be a little softer than you describe, maybe not quite as chewy and candy-like. It just barely and very slowly oozes off the edge of the crust when you put a slice on the plate. But is still very thick and sticky. Will probably make the same way next time. One thing I will change is use a smaller pie pan next time, maybe even a tart pan, or roll the dough out to a smaller diameter. My standard 9” pie pan with crust all the way up and over the rim left quite a bit of excess crust, with the filling only going up about “halfway”. So mine wasn’t the prettiest, but still delicious and hey that’s why we do trial runs! Thank you so much for sharing! This is one for the recipe file 🙂
Miriam says:
Nov 22, 2016
Question: I’ve made it on Tuesday and will serve it on Thursday. Does it need refrigeration in the interim?
It looks and smells fantastic!
Brittany Love says:
Nov 1, 2017
Hi there. This sounds delicious. I’m having a hard time finding vegan and gluten free saltines for my pie. Do you think if I used about 1 cup of almond flour and 1/2 cup of water that it would have the same effect as the saltines? I am really desperate here! Please help and thank you for this recipe.
Nicole says:
Nov 22, 2017
I tasted the filling after I put it in the food processor and it was divine and filled with a wonderful Carmel flavor. I noticed after I boiled it it turned into a much more gelatinous texture than liquid like. Is this correct? I almost had to press it to shape the form of the pie crust. It had already turned into this texture just when it came to boil.
claryn says:
Nov 22, 2017
It’s hard to say without being in your kitchen with you! It’s definitely true that the cooked filling should be gelatinous (you’ve cooked some starches and sugars, both of which will have thickened the mixture), but on the other hand, it shouldn’t actually be stiff — that would indicate that it was overcooked (and might end up crunchy rather than chewy if you bake it the full length of time). Fingers crossed that that’s not the case for you!
Nesha says:
Nov 23, 2017
Went to the store and forgot to get cornstarch Is there anything i can use to substitute?
claryn says:
Nov 25, 2017
Tapioca starch and potato starch can be substituted 1:1 for corn starch. I’m sure there are other ways to thicken this pie (i.e. agar or arrowroot), but those are different beasts that would require some testing! Let us know if you tried a different method.
Beatrice says:
Nov 27, 2017
I made two for this Thanksgiving and they were a GREAT success! We all loved them, I served them to non-vegan people (who accepted to have a Vegan Thanksgiving party) and they were astonished by how good they are…their statements: ” Better than the non-vegan one”!!!
Thank you for sharing it!
claryn says:
Nov 28, 2017
This is my favorite kind of story, Beatrice! Thanks for sharing 🙂
Jane says:
Dec 19, 2017
I want to make these into “tartlets” for a party- how would you recommend i do this?