Sauerkraut Pie may sound bizarre but don’t be afraid. It’s reminiscent of coconut cream pie and is surprisingly good!
Sauerkraut Pie
By Sue Lau | Palatable Pastime
There’s a running joke about if you have an unruly uncle who came to dinner but you want to get him out of the house before the sweets and coffee are served, make sauerkraut pie. He’ll be out the door and down the street before you can say “Bob’s your uncle who just left!”
Heh. Little do people know what they are missing. There is this mass wave of hysterical fear that comes over people when they hear the word kraut…and then….pie. And I get it. You know, there was a time once before I ever tasted sauerkraut pie too. I was quaking in my boots. “Squinched my eyes real tight and opened my mouth like I was about to chug cod liver oil.”
Actually, I do like trying new foods. But that doesn’t mean I have no fear, especially when it came to sauerkraut and sugar in a crust.
But every blue moon when trying new foods, there comes a new taste that is a revelation to you. Or would be if you actually knew there was kraut in the pie, because if you were to eat it unbeknownst, you might pause and wonder if that was coconut you just ate.
And that is the mark of a good pie.
Of course, you can’t just cook any old sauerkraut dessert recipe you come across on the internet…
(…ahem)
Sauerkraut Pie

There are ways of coaxing the dessert-ness out of a piece of fermented cabbage, and I haven’t seen it in another recipe online. So yes, I really am giving up one of my secrets here. And if ten years from now all the sauerkraut pie recipes include that secret instead of the oncoming train-wrecks that I come across now, that is the elevation of cuisine. I’d much rather you figure out how to prep sauerkraut for a recipe and maybe come up with a different thing I want to try as well.
It’s called “no secret recipes”.
So while like Dakota Fanning in the Spielberg “War of the Worlds” movie, when her erstwhile father leads her out of her destroyed home, telling her that she “is going to want to look, but she is not going to”…you may want to skip a step or do something differently, but you’re not going to do that, because you need to trust me and besides.
You don’t want to file your pie in the trash as a Pinterest fail, do you?
O.k.
So now that we have that cleared up, you can feel comfortable trusting me about the pie and enjoy it as one of your Oktoberfest dessert recipes. Then come back and tell me if you liked it. So until tomorrow-
~Sue
You might also like:
Homemade Sauerkraut
Homemade Sauerkraut starts with a head of cabbage and walks you through the fermentation process to ready to eat kraut.
German Chocolate Sauerkraut Baked Donuts
German Chocolate Sauerkraut Baked Donuts have a delicious secret ingredient that only you will know about unless you tell. They’ll never know.
Sauerkraut Cabbage Rolls (Slow Cooker)
Sauerkraut Cabbage Rolls, made in a slow cooker, are styled after the cabbage rolls made at the Waynesville Ohio Sauerkraut Festival.
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Pork and Sauerkraut in the Crock Pot
Pork and Sauerkraut in the Crock Pot is a very traditional (and some say lucky) way to go forward in the new year with a first meal.
Sauerkraut Pie
Sauerkraut Pie
Ingredients
Pie:
- 1 single pie crust (prepared)
- pie weights and parchment paper (optional)
- 1-1/2 cups drained sauerkraut
- 3 cups water
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
Custard:
- 3 large eggs
- 1-1/2 cups granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon coconut essence
- 1/2 cup cooled melted butter
- pinch salt
- 1 cup heavy cream
Instructions
- Measure out drained kraut.
- Heat water in a saucepan with sugar, stirring to dissolve; bring mixture to a boil. DO NOT SKIP THIS STEP OR CHANGE IT. Thank you.
- Add kraut to water and blanch for two minutes, then drain and rinse with cold water.
- Squeeze kraut dry with your fists and then chop finely.
- Preheat oven to 350ºF.
- Place pie crust in a deep dish glass pie plate and crimp edges the way you like.
- Cut a parchment circle to fit the bottom of the crust and top with pie weights.
- Par-bake crust at 350ºF. for ten minutes, then allow to cool; remove weights and paper.
- Whisk together the eggs, sugar, vanilla, coconut extract, cooled melted butter, heavy cream and salt.
- Stir in dry chopped sauerkraut.
- Pour mix into the crust.
- Top crust edges with a crust guard or crimp foil around it.
- Bake pie at 350ºF. for 60-70 minutes or until a knife slipped into the pie is removed clean.
- Cool completely before slicing and serving.
Notes
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This sounds amazing! I love sauerkraut!
Thanks!
I love sauerkraut but the husband doesn’t. I’ll sneak the ingredients in and make it when he’s off for a few hours.
I’ll bet he thinks it’s coconut.
I’m such a kraut fan, I think this sounds very interesting and I’ve got to give it a try. Thanks for sharing this one.
I hope you like it!
Wow, this is such a unique recipe, but I totally believe it’s delicious! I’ve tried sauerkraut in all kinds of recipes, and even made sauerkraut truffles earlier this month! I’m definitely going to try this!
I have had saurkraut pie before. The last 2 times I have had, It was North of Duluth, MAN at Betty’s pies. They have great food there. I have tried to duplicate the recipe, but to no avail. I hope this recipe is like hers.
I first tasted sauerkraut pie in 2011 in Alaska. I thought it was wonderful! I made your recipe today and it is delicious, although I think in the future I will reduce the amount of sugar and butter. I doubled the recipe and had filling for two deep dish 9-inch pies and had enough filling left over to bake in a pan without a crust! Thanks for sharing.
Hi. I write about food for Yummly and other publications, and this recipe is slated to go in an article I’m writing for them about sauerkraut. Anyway, I wanted to let you know that I comb through a zillion blog posts looking for decent recipes, and you are the only one I’ve found whose food writing I genuinely love. You are a great writer. Thank you for making my day. And this recipe sounds both bonkers and delicious, I cannot wait to give it a try. Thank you!
Hope you enjoy the pie. I know it sounds weird but it works.