Old Fashioned Blueberry Pie

on Aug 31, 2022, Updated Nov 12, 2022

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Learn how to make a tasty, homemade blueberry pie with a dairy-free all-butter crust! This 100% vegan, old fashioned pie recipe has a flakey, golden brown crust and jammy blueberry filling. It’s fun to make, and even more fun to eat!

Serve with a scoop of vegan vanilla ice cream on top and enjoy the sweet comfort that only a homemade dessert can bring!

Blueberry Pie was the first pie recipe I learned how to make, vegan or otherwise. Before that, I stuck to crumble recipes like this one and this one because they’re faster and seemed a little less intimidating than making pie dough from scratch. But eventually I decided to give it a try. Not just because I wanted pie and vegan pies can be hard to come by (even here in LA) but also because the idea of spending an afternoon making a cozy, old fashioned dessert seemed like a fun baking project.

My first attempt was tasty but not especially pretty looking. I didn’t mind though because I found the whole experience of baking a homemade pie from start to finish to be very enjoyable. It helped me slow down and concentrate, in a relaxing way, and it left me feeling calm and cozy. There’s nothing like the smell of a freshly baked pie cooling on the counter to make you feel at home!

I hope making this recipe will give you that same feeling! I can’t wait to hear you think 🫐🥧☺️

What is Blueberry Jam Pie?
Ingredients
How to make a great vegan pie crust
More Homemade Desserts to Try:
Old Fashioned Blueberry Jam Pie Recipe

What is Blueberry Jam Pie?

It’s an old school, no-fuss pie recipe made vegan and dairy-free. The crust itself only has 5 ingredients, flour, salt, sugar, vegan butter and water. It’s rolled out and draped into a pie dish like this one (10.5″ Dia. x 2.36″ H) and it’s filled with a tasty blueberry jam filling. The filling is made with frozen blueberries – it’s actually better to use frozen rather than fresh – and some blueberry jam. The jam deepens the blueberry flavor and it also helps to thicken the pie filling into an irresistibly, well, jammy consistency that provides a sweet contrast to the buttery crust. The filling gets a little cornstarch, a sprinkle of sugar and a splash of vanilla and then it’s topped with a second layer of pie dough.

Instead of a complicated lattice design on top, I opt for using a cookie cutter to create cute star shapes in the pie dough. Then I place the stars on top in a slightly overlapping pattern and the result is a festive pie that looks good enough to eat!

Ingredients

You only need 9 simple ingredients to make this vegan blueberry pie recipe!

Frozen Blueberries
Blueberry Jam
Cornstarch
Vanilla Extract
Flour
Salt
Sugar
Vegan Butter

How to make a great vegan pie crust

Making vegan pie crust might seem intimidating, I know it was for me at first, but it’s more forgiving than it may seem. Like I mentioned, the dough only contains 5 ingredients and it can be prepared in about 15 minutes.

Tips for Making Vegan Pie Crust:

To make a vegan pie crust, combine flour, salt and sugar in a bowl. Then mash in cold vegan butter (I used Earth Balance sticks) and mix until large pea-shaped pieces of butter remain. Then make a well in the center and pour in the water. Mix until a crumbly dough is formed.

Make sure the vegan butter is nice and cold because cold butter = flakey pie crust.

Don’t mix the butter all the way in to the flour, you’ll want to leave it in large pea-sized pieces. This will create little pockets of steam in the oven resulting in an extra flakey pie crust. If the pieces of butter are too small, the crust won’t be very flakey.

Let the dough chill out a little! Wrap it tightly and chill for at least 1 hour. The longer the better though so 2 hours, 4 hours or even overnight is great. You can also double wrap the pie dough and freeze until ready to use.

Don’t roll the pie crust out when it’s too cold. You want the pie dough to stay cold, but if it’s rock hard and difficult to work with, it’s probably too cold. Allow the dough to warm up to just under room temperature after you take it out out the fridge. At that point it should be easy to roll and flip.

It’s floppy and soft and hard to flip, it’s too warm. Visual indicators include a glossy sheen on the dough or on your hands after working with it. If this happens, no big deal, just stop and let it chill in fridge for about 5 minutes and then continue.

Sinking or shrinking pie crust is often result of only rolling the pie crust to the edge of the pie dish. Instead of measuring it to fit exactly, roll it out to about 14 in, or 2+ inches of overhang. An easy way to make sure you’ve rolled the dough out enough is to flip over the pie plate like the photo below.

Then transfer the dough into a pie dish and drape the dough down into the bottom edge of dish. Allow the excess to hang over the side.

Fold the excess underneath itself to create a thick rim around the edge of the dish. Cover and refrigerate for 5-10 minutes to harden and then use your fingers to crimp the edges into a wavy pattern.

Vegan Blueberry Pie Tips

FROZEN BERRIES are actually better than fresh here because fresh fruit contains more juice. Frozen fruit also happens to be more cost effective and its available all year round 🙌

Roll with purpose! And by that I mean, start with the rolling pin in the center of the disk of dough. Roll forward, then backward, then to the side and then to the other side. Then rotate the dough 90 degrees and repeat.

Flip your crust often. When rolling out the pie crust, make sure there’s a good amount of flour on the worktop so that the dough doesn’t stick. A great trick I learned from watching The Preppy Kitchen is to flip the dough over every fourth rotation to prevent sticking. This helps a lot!

Which vegan butter is best for making pie crust?

Not all vegan butter is created the same, as I showed in this taste test and baking experiment. For this vegan pie crust recipe I had the best results flavor and texture-wise when using Earth Balance sticks (not the kind that comes in a tub) It gave the crust delicious buttery flavor and even my non vegan friends were unable to tell it was vegan! I also tested this recipe with Melt sticks, the dough was a bit easier to roll out because Melt tends to be a little bit softer, even when cold. So if you’ve struggled with making pie dough in the past and are worried about cracks, try using Melt. It’s really user friendly and it created a tasty, albeit less flakey and flavorful end result compared to Earth Balance.

Pick a tasty blueberry jam 🫐 Blueberry jam is one of the key components in this pie crust recipe so using a tasty one will take you far! The wild blueberry preserves from Bonne Maman is delicious and my favorite for this recipe.

More Homemade Desserts to Try:

Old Fashioned Blueberry Jam Pie

By: Nicole Vranjican

an old fashioned blueberry pie recipe made vegan! Flakey all-butter crust filled with blueberries and topped with decorative stars.

Prep: 30

Cook: 1 10

Resting time: 4

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Equipment

1 10.5" pie dish (10.5" Dia. x 2.36" H)
1 Rolling Pin

Ingredients

Vegan Pie Crust

2.5 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp kosher salt, I use Morton's Kosher Salt
2 tsp cane sugar
2 sticks cold vegan butter , 1 cup, sticks not tub
6-7 tbsp cold water

Blueberry Pie Filling

5 cups frozen blueberries
2/3 cup blueberry jam, I used Bonne Maman
2.5 tbsp cornstarch
1.5 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp cane sugar

Toppings

1-2 tbsp unsweetened soy milk
2 tbsp turbinado sugar , optional but so yum!

Instructions

Make the Pie Dough

Start by cutting the vegan butter sticks into small cubes. Cover and refrigerate until ready to use.
Next, combine the flour, salt, and sugar in a bowl. Whisk to combine and then add the cold butter cubes.
Use a fork to mash the butter into the flour. You can also use clean hands to gently squish the butter and flour together to incorporate.
Stop mixing when a shaggy dough appears with some chunky pieces of butter in pea and almond sized shapes.
Tip: If the pieces are too small/uniform the crust won't be as flakey.
Make a well in the center of the bowl and add the cold water. Start with 6 tbsp and add another if needed. Mix for just long enough to bring the dough together into a crumbly mixture (it doesn't need to stick together yet) and then turn it out on to a lightly floured countertop.
Gently knead the dough just long enough to bring it together and then stop. You don't want to over work the dough at this point or the crust won't be tender and flakey. Shape the pie dough into a ball, working quickly so that the butter doesn't get too soft.
Tip: If at any point the butter starts to get soft, melty or shiny, place the whole bowl in the fridge for 5-10 minutes to prevent the butter from softening too much.
Cut the dough into 3 pieces. Form 1/3 into a small disk and wrap tightly with cling wrap. Then combine the remaining 2 pieces and form into a larger disk. Wrap tightly and refrigerate both disks of dough for at least 1-2 hours.

Make the Blueberry Pie Filling

Combine the frozen blueberries, blueberry jam, cornstarch, sugar and vanilla in a large mixing bowl. Toss well and set aside.

Roll Out the Dough

Place a cookie sheet on the center rack of the oven and preheat to 425 degrees.
Unwrap one of the pie dough disks and allow it to come to just under room temperature so it's easy to roll out without cracking.
Then lightly flour the the countertop and a rolling pin and roll the dough into a 14 inch circle. I start with the rolling pin in the middle of the disk and roll forward, backward, to the side and then to the other side. Then rotate the dough 90 degrees and repeat.
Tip: Flip the dough over every fourth rotation to prevent sticking. This helps a lot!
For a perfectly flakey crust, roll out the dough then fold it in half. Fold in half one more time to create a stack and then roll it out into a 13-14in circle. This stacking and rolling process will create more layers!

Assemble

To transport the pie crust, roll it around the rolling pin to help lift it off of the counter. Then unroll it into a pie dish (10.5" Dia. x 2.36" H) and let it drape down into the bottom edges of the pan.
Gently press the dough into the walls of the pie dish and make sure there are no gaps and make sure there's some overhang to prevent the pie crust from shrinking while baking.
Trim off the excess dough if it's more than 1 inch of overhang and then tuck the pie crust under itself on the top lip of the pie plate to create a thick rim.
Then use your fingers to crimp the edge of the pie crust to create a pretty design. I think crust is better on the thicker side so that's my preference. It also cooks more evenly with the rest of the pie.
Once it's to your liking, cover with a clean kitchen towel and place the pie crust in the fridge while you work on rolling out the smaller disk and any remaining scraps that you trimmed earlier.
Roll it out to 1/4in thick and use a star shaped cookie cutter to create 8-12 pretty star shapes.
Next, spoon the blueberry filling into the pie crust. Use a slotted spoon to keep as much of the blueberry juices in the bowl as possible to prevent a soggy pie.
Then place the stars on top of the pie. Lightly brush each star with soy milk, sprinkle with turbinado sugar for sparkle and crunch and finish by lightly brushing the crust with a little soy milk too.

Bake

Bake at 425 for 15 minutes then, while leaving the pie in the oven, reduce the heat to 375 and bake for 1 hour or until deeply golden brown. The blueberry juices will by liquidy and bubbling around the edges and the kitchen should smell amazing at the point 🙂

Chill to Set

The filling needs to set or it will be soupy and seep out all over the place when you try to slice the pie, so allow the pie to cool completely, at least 4 hours.