Makes one 9 inch pie
You know how vegan recipes are always like “This ain’t your grandma’s puddin’ pie!” Well, this is your grandma’s puddin’ pie, only it’s vegan! Smooth, cool and creamy pudding in a classic graham cracker shell.
Because of its classic simplicity, this is a great recipe for the pie making n00b. To make life even easier, you have our permission to use storebought crust here. For added grandma love, serve with vegan whipped cream and shaved chocolate. You can make your own whip, but there are also two brands that I can recommend. There’s Healthy Top, which is nut-based and shelf stable, so it’s perfect if you need to have it shipped. And there’s also soy-based Soyatoo, which you can find in the dairy case at most Whole Foods stores. I recommend the boxed kind, though, not the bottle. The nozzle sometimes doesn’t work and there’s nothing more disappointing than a bottle of whipped topping that doesn’t work.
You can use a pastry bag fit with a wide tip to pipe perfect little swirls around the perimeter of the pie, or simply top each slice with a dollop. Strawberries or raspberries make the perfect sweet garnish.
If you’re making your own crust, use 1 3/4 cups cookie crumbs (chocolate, vanilla or graham), add 4 tablespoons oil or melted margarine, 3 tablespoons sugar and 1 tablespoon non-dairy milk of your choice. Press into a shallow 9-inch metal pie tin and proceed with the recipe.
This recipe is in Vegan Pie In The Sky. Amazon just put up a preview, so click to look inside!
1 prepared 9 inch cookie crust, storebought or homemade
3 cups almond milk, divided
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/3 cup sugar
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
Pinch salt
3 tablespoons semisweet chocolate chips
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Preheat oven to 350 F. Bake the crust for 10 minutes, remove from oven and let cool.
In a small (2 quart) sauce pan, combine 1 cup of almond milk and the cornstarch. Use a fork to whisk until the cornstarch is good and dissolved. Whisk in the remaining milk, the sugar, cocoa powder and salt. It’s okay if the cocoa is a bit clumpy at first, it will dissolve eventually.
Bring mixture to a boil, whisking occasionally. Keep a close eye because once boiling, you want to lower the heat and bring to a slow rolling boil. Whisk consistently until mixture is thickened, which should be about 7 minutes.
Add chocolate chips and mix to melt. Stir in vanilla. Pour the pudding into the prepared pie shell and let cool for about 15 minutes on the counter, just until it stops steaming like mad. To keep a skin from forming, place a circle of parchment paper over the filling. Refrigerate and let set for at least 3 hours.
Will arrowroot work in place of the cornstarch in this recipe? I know the general rule is that it’s ok. But since my first attempt at this recipe didn’t work out, I am being super careful with the 2nd attempt!
Honestly, I have trouble with arrowroot in pudding recipes. It doesn’t seem to thicken up as well. What was the trouble with the first attempt?
WOW this is SO GOOD. It’s incredibly easy to make, too. The directions are written perfectly for a noob like me. I love this!
Well, I made 1 mistake for sure. I added the arrowroot to all 3 cups of almond milk at the same time. Two seconds later I saw that it’s supposed to be added to 1 cup first. As far as the boiling, I think I followed the directions well, but I suppose I could’ve had it at the wrong heat. I was afraid too much of it would stick to the bottom so I was whisking it a lot.
Oh, and the main point was that the pie was all liquid-y the next morning when I took it out of the fridge.
So I bought cornstarch and made the pie and it is PERFECT. Corn intolerance be damned! If you can’t make arrowroot work well in puddings, there isn’t a chance of me doing it. 🙂
Just made this (used coconut milk instead of almond and an extra scoop of choc. chips), came out excellent! The parchment trick definitely works too. I used a chocolate oreo crumb crust and that was a hit. I fed it to some friends and did not tell them it was vegan- no one was the wiser and I only managed to rescue 1 piece for leftovers!
Hi, Isa. I’m a bit pie-phobic (but I have your book and it’s calming me down). This recipe is going to be my dipping my toe in the icy water pie. I’m all set with ingredients, except that I only have glass pie plates, not metal. Will that work?
I prefer metal for this because it tends to be shallower. If your pie plate is shallow it should be fine, but you may also need to use a few extra crumbs for the crust if not.
Okay, so I have my brand spankin’ new copy of Vegan Pie in the Sky and I am a total pie noob (well, pie making noob. I’m a friggin’ expert when it comes to pie eating). Two things: 1) I had a little extra pudding after filling the crust…does that mean I didn’t let it thicken enough? 2) I misread the directions and put the parchment paper on just a couple of minutes after pouring in the filling. Did I just screw up my first pie ever? :-/
1) Hmm, not necessarily. Is your pie tin small? Anyway, just put the extra in a cup and you’ve got free pudding! 2) Nah, it’ll be fine.
The pin tin is 9 inches… I bought a pre-made graham cracker crust (because I’m janky and lazy). I’ll let you know how it turns out! The pie was planned to be a midnight snack for a Twin Peaks marathon. 😀
Oh yes, that makes sense, those storebought ones are fairly small. I want a Twin Peaks marathon!
Okay, the pie is awesome. And I totally ate it while watching Cooper dive into a piece of inferior non-vegan pie.
Also, had the tempeh & chard scramble from ‘Vegan Brunch’ with roasted butternut squashed on the side and it was de-effing-lish!! I don’t know what the weather’s like in Omaha, but it was a much needed boost on a cold, wet, nasty IL evening. Thank you for your always awesome recipes! 🙂
I made this and thought it was awful. I mean I’m vegan but I’m not stupid.
I made this as a test for Thanksgiving. My very picky grandson ate 2 pieces one right after the other, and my bf ate a few slices also, what was left for me was so so delicious. Super easy and super yummy=a big big win, and a place on the Thanksgiving dessert table.
2nd comment on this awesome recipe – made the pie. Then had to make another because they ate the first one before the party I was planning on serving it at. Everyone loved it. So rich and decadent. My mother said, “I’m so glad you decided to serve the rest of us a “real” dessert”. Then my milk allergic son had a huge piece in front of her. Next, I used the pudding recipe to make the BEST chocolate creme brulee. Perfect for the holidays!
This pie is SO delicious! I’ve tried recipes before that people just raved about (I’m talking to YOU , HH’s Black Bean Brownies!) and I found them to be completely inedible. My tastebuds like richness, calories, fat – basically standard american diet flavors. This pie delivers on that front, and I would feel 100% confident serving it to a room full of omnis.
This pie was just ok. First, the cookie crust needs way more Earth Balance than listed, at least 1/3 up to a 1/2 cup. When my sister tried it, the first thing she said was, “This is vegan, right? I can tell,” which is the exact opposite of what I wanted to hear. Husband liked it ok, mom was neutral, one nephew liked it, and one hated it. On the bright side, this was only one of at least a dozen dessert recipes that I’ve made from the site that has gotten less than stellar reviews.
I’m going to make this for Thanksgiving, it looks so good! But, the amount on the semisweet chocolate chips didn’t look like enough. In you book it shows 1/4 c. semisweet chocolate chips instead. Can’t wait to try it.
Love your recipes!!! Thanks so much!
Oh I ended up adding an extra tablespoon ultimately. But it will work either way, just a tad richer with the extra amount.
Mine turned out more like Jello than pudding. Too much cornstarch?
I’m no Betty Crocker, but I’m not a terrible baker, either. Had a hard time with this pie. Had to make it twice after burning the filling the first time. Hoping my house smells less like burnt chocolate tomorrow! And hoping that it tastes good. I felt like my leftover filling tasted vegan. :/
Just made this- the filling was awesome! I seriously just wanted to eat it as pudding and call it a day. 🙂 Can’t wait to try the pie tomorrow after cooling.
Isa the best way to answer the arrowroot thickening question is to give a description of how thick the filling should be before pouring into the crust. The consistency of a pudding? Or does that happen i the oven? Details please!
I meant “does that happen in the refrigerator?. 😉
Love this pie so much! Am making it again tomorrow for some company I forgot was coming- I love that I have all the ingredients just laying around waiting to become pie-licious. Too easy, too easy.
Thank you Goddess of vegan powers. My boys now love vegan food more than their vegan mum! We were all excited about cupcakes, the cookies and now pies. I think they actually forget they are meat eaters most of the time now.
Yeah, this will make the perfect dessert for our holy evening family dinner. with biscott-cookie crust. there are not a lot vegan cookies in stores around here. hope that matches the day. and thanks for sharing some of your recipes around here. i absolutely love the cookies from vciycj!!! merry christmas!
Thank you, thank you, thank you for this receipe! I don’t eat dairy and as someone with thyroid issues, I don’t eat much soy, so this receipe is greatly appreciated. This is the second time I made this and it was even better – I used coconut milk this time…YUM!
Yes, thank you for this recipe! Absolutely delicious and virtually guilt free! Love it!
To Evan, and others who might be wondering. I only realised as I was stirring the boiling mixture, that I didn’t know exactly how thick it should become! It had definitely thickened after 7 minutes, but it wasn’t as thick as a pudding, which I thought it should be, so I kept cooking. It didn’t get much thicker though, so eventually (after maybe 15 minutes or more) I poured it into the crust and let it cool as described. And yes, then it got much thicker, and really puddingy.
I wonder if you can add some peanut butter?
I’m going vegan for Lent and can’t wait to make this for the boyfriend for our upcoming anniversary. I’m glad to finally find something delicious that does not contain soy but I am allergic to almonds too so I’ll have to sub coconut milk as usual, which is fine by me 🙂 Looking forward to it!
Umm, This looks awesome. My husband can’t have milk and is dying for chocolate pudding pie for his birthday. I’m so trying this. One question about the vegan whipped cream… Do you have a recipe or is this something I can just buy. I didn’t know it existed.
I just made two of these for Pi Day (March 14th = 3.14). Mine and my husband’s coworkers should be pleased.
The pie looks awesome, anyone have a different product (or recipe) for vegan whipped cream? The Soyatoo has fractionated palm oil, the Healthy Top has cashews, which I can’t have. So many good-looking vegan recipes have soaked cashew cream, sigh, I’m sure it’s good if you can have it.
Look up the Rad Whip recipe on here, just use another 1/3 cup coconut milk instead of the cashews.
So, I made this for Easter dessert, using chocolate almond milk instead of plain and tossing some bananas in for good measure, and OMG. **&^^#(!@&$)*_!@PE#!()@&@!( <—- that's the incoherence with which I am rendered. Yes. This is beautiful, and you are a goddess, and I'm gong to steal the last slice (which I had to sneak out of my cousin's house under cover of tupperware) right now for dinner. That is all.
This is one of those recipes from the book that I have been saving for a day where I won’t be eating pie alone, as I know I could probably devour the entire thing myself. Luckily, I have a group of non-vegans coming for dinner tomorrow night, and I plan to serve this for dessert. I do have one question, though. When you say to place a circle of parchment paper over the filling, do you mean a cut circle that will lay directly against the filling or a larger piece of parchment that will cover the crust as well and not actually touch the filling?
Ahhh another recipe that will live on my thighs…
You just saved my tail. I ruined another recipe I was supposed to bring to a picnic today. I literally have nothing in my house, but all of your ingredients, I had! And it looks and tastes sooooo great. Life saver!!
Also, Isa: I didn’t have choc chips and used peanut butter instead. And regarding twin peaks? I think Netflix has it streaming. ;P
Didn’t have the motivation for a crust so i covered the pan with granola, honey and coconut oil x)
then i lined the top of the pudding with thinly sliced bananas
can’t wait it to finish cooling!
These look good, is worth to pay close attention to the blog.
I made this pie today! My favorite. It turned out so good! I used a ready made keebler crust (feeling lazy). My dad, my boyfriend, and my sister all tried it and they loved it too. Chilled pies like this are so refreshing on a summer day! I am so posting a picture of mine to my blog.
Thank you so much for this recipe. My Dad made the non vegan version of this pie once a week all through my childhood. I decided to make it tonight and it’s just perfect. I can’t wait to call my Dad tomorrow and tell him. Thank you so much! You totally rule!!!!