This month we are featuring various pies in a healthier version, but healthy doesn’t have to be plain—
let’s introduce some pretty pie techniques! Pies can have a beautiful golden crust, neatly crimped around
the edges with straight slits cut to allow steam to escape and be quite beautiful. But for those times when you want to upgrade a bit more, here are some wonderful ideas!
To attain your perfectly pretty pie crust, you need your dough to be pliable and well chilled. Our basic crust recipe can be the perfect beginning to a truly beautiful pie, with some care. The crust needs to be well chilled with the right consistency created by mixing the dough properly, as the instructions are given.
It’s important to not overwork your dough. Tough dough, from overworking, might be easily cut into shapes, but it will not give you the texture and finished look you want. Also, refrain from adding too much flour as that can also create a dry, tough dough that will not work into a pretty pie.
The lattice crust design can be cut with a straight pizza wheel or give it a little extra pizzazz by using a crimped pastry wheel. It’s quite a simple crust to design, as you can see in this short video.
There is no exact way to design your pie crust, let your individuality shine through for the perfectly pretty pie.
Some possibilities are to cut decorative designs such as these.
There is no limit to the designs you can create! A bonus that you receive from the cutting or decorative: you often end up with less pie crust, yielding a pretty pie that is also lower in fat!
For some ideas on crimping techniques, see Crust Crimping.
Be sure to sign up for our emails — we’ll let you know when we update our site and will have special offers available soon, too! If you have a special pie design you’d like to share, or a question or comment, please use our comment section (below) Enjoy those pretty pies!