Sweet and Salty Pie Recipes
Pie Designs
When decorating a pie your imagination and creativity can give it a final touch. Using a simple decoration will give your cooking that special touch.Here we’ll touch some simple techniques which we’ll cover in this website.
Borders
When making a covered pie, securing the top and bottom crust is very important, making a curled edge gives it a decorating touch and seals it well together. Simplest and most effective way is pressing the two crust layers with a fork; you can also do the same with your fingers. Decorating the crust edges of an open pie is not exactly necessary but it gives it a nice touch.
Since some pie crusts are baked over a pan, you can simply join the edges using a moist spoon or fork. Some traditional pies like kidney or lamb pie don’t use a base crust. So you can cut a strip of crust and place it around the outer edge so when you cover it with the crust you can still form a decorative edge with a fork or spoon. And cover with some egg yolk for it to golden nicely. Using a knife you can also cut small slashes into the side giving it a ruffled look.
Decorations
In most recipes we recommend saving some pie crust dough for decorating the edges once you’re finished with them. Originally only salty pies were decorated in order to better recognize them from sweet ones. You can use flowers, leaves and shell shapes when deemed appropriate, there are also various fruit shapes which are used for decorating which help determining the filling.
Using the leftover pie dough roll it out until its 3mm thick, cut it out in the desired shapes. These can be cut out with a knife or if you have cute molds these can be used as well. Frizzled crust cutters are also useful when cutting dough strips.
For cutting the shells start with a thin circle and a scone cutter, cut in a shell shape and make some small lines much like a shell pattern. For placing these decorations on the pie varnish the crust like the recipe instructs sometimes its oil or egg yolks, place the small shell or other decoration on top and varnish that as well.
Crust Strips
Making a stripped pie covering is easy with practice. Roll out the dough over some wax paper; then cut it into long strips using a small sharp knife or a cutting roller if available. If need be a ruler can also be practical. Over another piece of wax paper place the cut strips of dough 1 cm apart from each other, the longer ones in the middle and shorted ones on the sides. Fold every other strip in half and place over the remaining strips horizontally. Fold the strip over the dough fold the lower strips again and place another horizontal strip. Repeat this same process with the other strips. Cool this grid in the fridge until it hardens enough to move it around without it coming undone and place it over the pie and take the paper off. Press the sides down and cut the remaining dough off. Varnish and bake as is instructed.
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