How Do You Successfully Incorporate Coconut Oil into Pie Crusts?

Christine Gallary
Christine GallaryFood Editor-at-Large
Christine graduated from Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, France, and she has worked at Cook's Illustrated and CHOW.com. She lives in San Francisco and loves teaching cooking classes. Follow her latest culinary escapades on Instagram.
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updated May 1, 2019
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Q: How do you successfully incorporate coconut oil into pie crusts? My crust recipe requires that you refrigerate the dough for 30 minutes (you can also freeze it up to three months before using).

As soon as I did that, the coconut oil coagulated and I ended up with tiny pebbles of coconut oil in my crust as I rolled it out. I ended up picking them out and tossing them aside, as they were ripping holes in my crust. Obviously there is enough that did get incorporated, as the crust is amazing with a mix of coconut oil and butter-flavored Crisco (apologies to the purists out there), but I am wondering how to avoid this issue in the future?

I am an avid pie baker living in China. Butter is costly, and I don’t trust the butcher to give me “clean lard.” Manteca is not an option either. (I can bring back Crisco and oil in my duffle bags.) Any suggestions?

Sent by Barbara

Editor: I would recommend trying to roll the crust out, placing it in the pie dish, and then refrigerating it so that the coconut oil coagulating is not a problem.

Readers, what would you recommend she do, or are there other fats you would recommend for pie crust?

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