Real Recipes From Real Home Cooks ®

painted pie crust decorations

(1 rating)
Recipe by
Marcia McCance
Stone Mountain, GA

Saw this at Martha Stewart -- for this one, you don't work the color into the dough, you simply paint it on top! This makes more delicate colors. Using an egg yolk, makes deeper colors -- using an egg white makes lighter colors -- depends on the effect you desire to create. http://dreamers.marthastewart.com/profiles/blogs/colored-leaves-dough-cut-outs-make-a-decorative-pie-crust-rim Martha says: It makes any pie dazzle and creates a lot of conversation at dessert time.

(1 rating)
method Bake

Ingredients For painted pie crust decorations

  • 1
    egg yolk
  • 3 or 4
    cake decorating colors or regular food colors from the store will work fine. green. yellow. purple. red. orange.
  • 1 or 2
    plunger cookie cutters
  • 1 or 2
    paint brushes (sable would be the best, but any fine art brush should do)

How To Make painted pie crust decorations

  • 1
    Make cut outs from left over dough scraps. (roll them out, cut them with the plunger cookie cutter to get 3-D effect -- or can use any cookie cutter or stencil or free hand shapes which you then engrave with the back of a knife -- the dull edge.)
  • 2
    Break the yolk which you have placed in the middle of your plate, and mix a little of the colors into the yolk like an artist’s palette.
  • 3
    Brush one or more colors onto the raw dough leaves. Chill to firm them up a little. This will make it easier to press them onto the rim of the pie crust without losing the detail.
  • 4
    Flatten the rim of the pie crust and moisten it with water (wide brush is easiest). Press the leaves onto the shell rim. Fill shell with pie filling and bake according to recipe.
  • 5
    ALTERNATIVE: For a crimped edge shell (no top crust) without additional decoration Martha says she’ll bake individual leaves separately and place them on top of the baked pie or set one or two on the individual servings -- or on the scoop of ice cream or on top of a dollop of whipped cream.
  • 6
    To make baked shapes -- place on cookie sheet and bake 350 for 10-15 minutes -- until done. Then place on pie, or on individual servings, as desired.
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