Creamy and deliciously lemony no-bake vegan lemon pie with ginger cookie crust. Made with homemade vegan condensed milk. Insanely good!
This vegan lemon pie started out as an idea for a lemon meringue pie.
But I must confess to not yet being brave enough to attempt the meringue part. Even though I have made vegan meringue, successfully, it’s not quite the same type of meringue as what you put on top of a lemon meringue pie, so I’m still daunted.
When thinking about it though I just knew I wanted to make a vegan lemon pie using vegan condensed milk. That recipe has been used in a ton of desserts on this blog now, it’s just awesomely versatile so I knew it would be good for this too.
So my hesitation in going the full monty with a lemon meringue pie instead became a fabulously delicious vegan lemon pie with a ginger cookie crust instead.
I had no idea when I set out to make this if it would work out or not, but the results were super impressive. It is pure creamy dreamy vegan lemon pie bliss!
You can either bake the vegan ginger cookies from scratch and then use those in this recipe, or you can use a store-bought vegan variety, either one will work great.
If you can’t get (and don’t want to make) vegan ginger cookies, then you could switch it for some golden oreo cookies (like in our vegan banana cream pie) or make a date and nut crust (like in our vegan cheesecake) or a pretzel crust (like in our vegan caramel pie). Those would work great here as well.
Crush them up, mix with a bit of melted vegan butter and press down into your pie dish for the base.
Then you need to whip up a batch of vegan condensed milk and then make some whipped coconut cream. Squeeze some fresh lemon juice and whisk it into the condensed milk. Add some lemon extract and lemon zest for extra lemon flavor, and then fold in the whipped coconut cream.
Pour this out over your ginger cookie crust and then allow to set for several hours (or overnight). Decorate with lemon zest and you have a lemon pie to remember!
The filling firms up very nicely in the fridge, but it’s still sort of a mousse-like texture. If it’s a bit too much on the soft side, then let it firm up in the freezer for a bit before serving.
Also, the stiffer you can get your whipped coconut cream, the better for this recipe. So if you open your cans of coconut cream to scoop off the cream from the top and it has hardened nicely in the fridge then you know you are going to get some really great whipped cream from those. If it hasn’t, you can still whip it, but it’s hard to get it very stiff. If this happens, then add in ¼ tsp of xantham gum as a fix. It will thicken it up very fast! So go slow.
Storing and Freezing
Keep the pie stored in the chilliest part of your fridge (covered) so that it remains nice and firm and consume within a week.
It’s also freezer friendly if you’d like to freeze it.
More Vegan Pie Recipes
- Vegan Chocolate Pie
- Vegan Banoffee Pie
- Vegan Pecan Pie
- Vegan Peanut Butter Pie
- Vegan Key Lime Pie
- Vegan Chocolate Tart
Did you make this recipe? Be sure to leave a comment and rating below!
Vegan Lemon Pie
Ingredients
For the Crushed Cookie Base:
- 9 ounces Vegan Ginger Cookies (255g)
- ½ cup Vegan Butter (112g) Melted
For the Lemon Pie Filling:
- 1 ½ cups Vegan Condensed Milk (360ml)
- ½ cup Lemon Juice (120ml) freshly squeezed
- 2 Tablespoons Lemon Zest
- ½ teaspoon Lemon Extract
- 2 ½ cups Canned Coconut Cream (600ml) hardened cream only from 2 14-ounce cans, chilled overnight in the fridge*
- ¼ teaspoon Xanthan Gum Optional
For Decorating:
- Lemon Zest
Instructions
- Prepare the crushed cookie base by crushing the ginger cookies in the food processor or by placing into a ziplock bag and rolling over it with a rolling pin until the cookies are crushed into small pieces.
- Melt the vegan butter and then pour it over the crushed cookie pieces and mix in.
- Pat down into a pie dish, working it up along the sides as best you can and then place into the freezer to set.
- Prepare your vegan condensed milk as per the linked recipe.
- Pour this out into a bowl and set aside.
- Add the coconut cream (separated hardened cream at the top of 2 chilled cans) to the bowl of a stand mixer, leaving the watery parts behind. Starting at slow speed gradually increase speed until the cream is whipped. For best results in this recipe, you need the cream to be very firm and well whipped with stiff peaks. If yours is a bit on the softer side, add in a ¼ tsp of xanthan gum and whip again. It will thicken fast.
- Squeeze the lemons and grate the lemon zest.
- Add the lemon juice, lemon extract and lemon zest to the bowl with the condensed milk and whisk with a hand whisk to combine. Then fold in the whipped coconut cream.
- Pour this over the crushed cookie base and place into the fridge for a few hours to set. If it’s still a little on the soft side, let it firm up in the freezer for a bit before serving.
- Decorate with lemon zest and serve.
Notes
- Vegan condensed milk: We used one full batch of our homemade vegan condensed milk. If you want to make it from scratch using our recipe then make it using soy milk or rice milk powder so that it’s nice and thick for using in this pie. You can also use store-bought vegan condensed milk.
- Vegan whipped cream: If you want to use a different vegan whipping cream then the amount to use would be 2 and ½ cups before whipping. Very light and airy vegan whipping creams may not work great as the pie may not set properly.
- Gluten free: The filling for this pie is gluten-free, so if you wanted to make the whole pie gluten-free, just use a gluten-free cookie for the crust.
- Prep time does not include time spent setting in the fridge and freezer.
- Storing: Keep the pie stored in the chilliest part of your fridge (covered) so that it remains nice and firm and consume within a week. It’s also freezer friendly if you’d like to freeze it.
This looked so delicious, but the recipe did not work for me. The lemon juice curdled the condensed milk, so the mixture turned out lumpy and grainy.
This is my favorite pie recipe!! I’ve made it many times and it’s such a crowd pleaser. It’s the perfect balance of sweetness and lemon, and the ginger snap crust is genius. Thank you for creating this masterpiece of a recipe!! 🙂
Thanks for the awesome review Kat!
Sooooo, idk how I did it but Ie managed to turn the coconut cream into butter, otherwise the recipe is realy nice and lemony (the first time I made it I didn’t make coconut butter).
Hi George, oh gosh sorry to hear that about the coconut cream! I have managed to whip it into something that looked like cottage cheese in the past myself so I know about it! 🙂 The trick is to keep a close watch while it whips as there can be a lot of difference between brands. So glad it tasted good and lemony when you made it before though!
Is the canned coconut cream unsweetened?
Yes! 🙂