It is so much fun to be creative with pies. My daughter and I started playing around with crust cutouts a number of years ago at Thanksgiving, and have not stopped since. There has definitely been a lot of trial and error, especially with soft pies like pumpkin. We have had epic fails where the cutouts have sunk into the pies, or there was a little chunk of butter in the cutout that melted while baking leaving shapes that were not intended.
For me I have found that using store bought crust works best for the cutouts. I haven’t perfected my homemade crust enough to use for cutouts, only for a standard pie crust. The cutouts just don’t hold their shape well enough. You can use either, that is just what I have found works best for me.
With a soft pie like a pumpkin pie or the chocolate chess pie shown below, the cutouts need to be baked separately and added to the pie after baking. We have tried adding them once the filling starts to set, but the cutouts don’t get brown enough.
I had only been using cookie cutters until recently and realized there is such a thing as pie punches. I could not wait for this adorable set to arrive and quickly found an excuse to bake a pie. Look how cute this set is! I also purchased some autumn themed pie punches that will be adorning my pies next Thanksgiving.
This Chocolate Chess pie was so easy to make, the pie recipe itself and the cutouts. You can find that recipe and others in my blog as well.
If you are planning on putting cutouts along the edge of the pie, do not flute the edges.
Since this pie was a soft pie, I had to bake the cutouts separately. I rolled out a store bought crust, dipped the punch in a little flour, and cut out my shapes.
I lined a cookie sheet with parchment paper and baked them in a 350 degree oven until they started to brown. Keep an eye on them, and take them out when they look how you want them to look. Mine took about 10 minutes.
It is best to add the warm cutouts onto a warm pie if possible as they will stick better. For the Chocolate Chess pie I wasn’t able to time it perfectly, so I added cooled cutouts onto the hot pie by brushing the backs with a pastry brush dipped in cold water.
For this pumpkin pie I was able to stick the cutouts onto the pie while they were warm and more pliable.
With a more solid pie like apple, you can place the cutouts on the pie before baking. However, some smaller cutouts can still sink in or lose their shape.
With a pie like blueberry, I wouldn’t recommend adding small cutouts directly on the filling unless you have something like a lattice top covering the pie. I have had many a cutout sink into blueberry pies. If I didn’t have a lattice top I would have baked the leaves separately.
You can also do them separately if you really want to control the color of the cutouts, as pie crust can get really dark while baking sometimes.
The “pie” is the limit with crust decorations, be as creative and playful as you want.
And always remember, pie fixes everything!
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