Dairy-Free Buttery Pie Crust + Cinnamon Roll Pinwheels (for Kids!)
 
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
 
When I was little, my mom would churn out pie crusts like this one for the holiday season, and I would wait patiently for the scraps to make these flaky cinnamon roll pinwheels. Please note that the Prep time does not include the dough chilling time. This is a great make-ahead crust recipe.
Author:
Serves: 2 9-inch pie crusts
Ingredients
Dairy-Free Buttery Pie Crust
  • 2½ cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 tablespoon sugar
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup (2 sticks) dairy-free buttery sticks (I use Earth Balance Soy-Free Buttery Sticks), cut into small chunks
  • 6 to 8 tablespoons ice water*
Cinnamon Roll Pinwheels
Instructions
Dairy-Free Buttery Pie Crust
  1. In a food processor or large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, and salt.
  2. Add the buttery spread and either pulse your food processor or use a pastry cutter or whisk until coarse meal forms.
  3. Gradually add enough ice water until moist clumps form. You don't want the dough to be too wet, but it should come together without feeling too dry.
  4. Gather the dough into a ball and divide it in half. Form each half into a ball and flatten into disks. Wrap each disk in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or overnight.
  5. Lightly grease one or two 9-inch pie pans.
  6. On a floured surface, roll out one of the disks. Use your pie pan to measure, so that it will fill out the pie pan with some overhang.
  7. Gently fold the rolled out dough in half and place it in one half of a prepared pie pan. Unfold so that the dough is now evenly in your pie pan. Gently press the dough into the pie pan.
  8. If you're making single crust pies, trim the excess dough, so that you have just about ½ inch of overhang. Reserve the dough scraps. Tuck the overhang underneath (to make it thicker and even) and then crimp the dough edge. Depending on your pie recipe instructions, you'll want to Blind Bake this dairy-free buttery pie crust or add your filling and bake it.
  9. If you're making a double crust pie, add your filling and top it with the second piece of rolled out dough using the same fold over method to transfer it. Then trim the edges of both layers (reserving the dough scraps), press them together to seal, and crimp. Cut slits (or shapes) in the top pie crust and bake according to your pie recipe instructions.
Cinnamon Roll Pinwheels
  1. Place the sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl and stir to evenly combine. (this makes enough for a ½ batch of pie crust; so if you made the full batch of this recipe, but only need 1 pie crust, you can use the rest to make these).
  2. Bring the leftover pie dough scraps together into a ball. Roughly shape it into a rectangle.
  3. Roll the dough out on a floured surface to about the same thickness as the pie crust, but in a rectangle shape. Trim the edges to get an even rectangle (kids can use a butter knife).
  4. Slather dairy-free buttery spread all over the dough (leaving a ½-inch border on the long end furthest from you), then sprinkle it generously with the cinnamon-sugar.
  5. Starting from a long side that is closes to you, tightly roll the dough up and try to pinch the end to seal. Sometimes it doesn't seal very well, but that's okay. Cut the roll into ¾-inch slices and place the slices on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.
  6. Repeat with any scraps that you trimmed away.
  7. Bake at 350ºF (we would usually throw them in with the pie) for about 25 to 35 minutes, or until they appear cooked and just lightly browned. The time varies based on how done you like them, how thick you rolled them, and if you have other goodies baking in the oven at the same time.
  8. Serve as is, sprinkle with powdered sugar, or let them cool completely and frost with that creamy spiced buttercream.
Notes
*8 tablespoons is ½ cup. I usually just measure out ½ cup of ice water, and add it as needed rather than measuring out each tablespoon.
Recipe by Go Dairy Free at https://www.godairyfree.org/recipes/dairy-free-buttery-pie-crust