Desserts · November 10, 2014

Vegan Key Lime Pie with Coconut Crust

This vegan key lime pie has a delicious coconut crust and a creamy filling that requires no soak time. Perfect for spring and summer potlucks!

Before you even start, I know that key lime pie is totally not is season right now, I know! While everyone else is drowning in pumpkin and apple everything, I’m just reaching for a piece of the long gone summer, trying to hold on to my favorite warm weather dessert.

I’ll admit that I’ve been meaning to make this pie ever since my cousin got married in Florida in August (I know, it’s been a few months. There were tacos to be eaten and stuff to be done!), especially since I hadn’t tried my hand at vegan key lime pie yet. A lot of the recipes I found involved cashew soaking or just freezing the filling, both of which were things I wasn’t really into.

I love cashews in desserts, but for this one, I wanted to ensure that the filling was creamy and dreamy, rather than struggle with getting the cashews blended just right to make them meld into a creamy filling, which often happens when an impatient baker like myself doesn’t let the cashews soak for long enough. Coconut milk was also another option to make a vegan key lime pie, but sometimes I don’t want to buy my millionth can of coconut milk. I just wanted something different!

That’s when it hit me: yogurt! The more I thought about it, the more I loved the idea of using coconut yogurt as the base for the key lime pie filling, especially since it has a built in tartness that this pie would need. I can’t speak to whether or not soy yogurt would work interchangeably with coconut yogurt, but it’s worth a try. Coconut yogurt does still have a good amount of fat in it, but it’s needed to make this pie indulgent without being heavy.

As for the coconut crust, I would highly recommend keeping this instead of the traditional graham cracker crust. Again, I was partially lazy and didn’t want to make a special trip to While Foods for vegan graham crackers (which can be a pain to track down anyway), and I know not everyone has ample access to a store with vegan graham crackers, so I wanted to make the crust easier. Shredded coconut serves as the base, but lends a bit of sweetness to the crust, while still providing a good, solid base for our tart filling.

If you want to get fancy, whip up some coconut whipped cream and dollop it on top of each slice as you serve it. I’m thinking we should throw a wintertime luau complete with Mai Tais and this homemade key lime pie, are you in?

Tips for making this vegan key lime pie

Use unsweetened coconut—To prevent this vegan key lime pie from becoming too sickeningly sweet, you need to use unsweetened shredded coconut. This is easy to find at any grocery store, and is likely in the baking section!

Use freshly squeezed lime juice—I know the bottled lime juice is nice to have on hand, but freshly squeezed lime juice is so much better. If you’re going to bother making this vegan key lime pie, go all the way and use real limes.

Chill before serving—Key lime pie needs to be chilled in the fridge before being served. If you skip this step, the pie won’t hold its shape and your slices will likely turn to mush on your plate. So yeah…chill it!

Use pure maple syrup—Real maple syrup is key here. Don’t buy the artificially flavored stuff, or else your pie will 1) taste gross, and 2) won’t hold together well.

More vegan pie recipes on Heart of a Baker: