Have you ever been invited to a party and you were supposed to bring a pie and you have totally forgotten and have no time to make one from scratch? Or are you a person who just wants to simplify you life?
Well, I have been in both situations and this is what I have done in cases like these. The tip below makes your pie so special, that no one will ever know it was a store bought pie.
Now I have done this trick even when I have time to bake a pie, and when I just want to make it easy for myself. And during the busy holiday season, this works very well for me.
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Here are the ingredients and the items you will need to create this beautiful pie.
A store bought 9" Pumpkin Pie
Pie Crust (I use Pillsbury brand)
1 egg
Nonstick Jelly Roll Baking Sheet (the best to have)
Table sugar (optional)
Take one of the pie crusts out and unroll. Save the other one for another occasion. Using your pie stamps, press onto the crust. Try to use every inch of the crust with the stamps. Using your rolling pin, roll out the remaining pie crust dough (after you have remove the leaves cutouts, of course) and press the stamps on it again until you run out of dough and making sure they all are the same thickness. Preheat your oven to 450*.
egg wash: beat one egg and a tablespoon of water together.
Place your leaves cutouts onto my favorite nonstick baking sheet and brush them with egg wash. The egg wash makes the leaves shine and it enhances the color of the dough when cooking.
And I can’t say enough about this nonstick baking sheet, it is truly the best. I have purchased the same brand but without the "nonstick" and I hated it because everything stuck to it; but this one I love and it is super easy to clean, so if you’re in the lookout for one, I highly recommend it. When you are cooking these delicate cutouts, it is great to be able to remove them without breaking them because of this "nonstick" baking sheet.
Now back to the recipe.....After you have brush the cutouts with the egg wash, sprinkle them with table sugar (this is optional). If you do add sugar, please note that the sugar browns faster in the oven so keep on eye on them.
Now place them in a 450* preheated oven for 10 to 12 minutes. You must keep an eye on them so they don’t brown too much. Keep checking every couple of minutes.
In the meantime, transfer the store bought 9" pie from the tin container that it comes in into your pie pan. Be careful not to break the crust. If you do, don’t worry, you can cover it with the leaves cutouts. It is good to have a good pie pan otherwise the whole point of making it look good is useless if it is still in the tin pan that it came in, right?
Remove the leaves cutouts from the oven and let them cool for a few minutes.
Once cooled, place the leaves cutouts around the crust of the pie as if to cover the crust. You can create all kinds of designs here, place them as you desire.
Here’s some examples of what you can create. There is no right or wrong way of doing it...just have fun with it.
This is the one I chose to do.
Another good thing about having the leaves cutouts is that you can add a couple of leaves to each slice when you serve it and make each slice look elegant. A win win in my book.
In case you are interested, this wooden cake stand was purchased a while back and I can’t remember where, I’m sorry...but here’s a really good one too.
Here are some sources for other items you might be interested in:
I hope you like this quick tip on how to make a store bought pie look amazing and saving yourself so much time. And perhaps you should sprinkle some water on your face and pretend you have been cooking all day ... ha..ha..ha.
Have a wonderful Holiday with your loved ones and enjoy your pie!
Alicia