How to Pretty Up Your Pie With Pastry Cutouts

Here are ideas for simple pie crust cuts that add extra visual appeal to our favorite homespun dessert.

How to Make Pastry Cutouts Step by Step

For simple decorations, you can use scraps of leftover homemade pie crust or ready-made refrigerated pie dough. If your decorations are extensive, you might want to make an extra portion of pie crust so you have enough to go around.

1. Roll out pie crust on a floured surface to 1/8-inch thick.
2. Dip your cookie cutter — or knife, pastry wheel, whatever you're using to cut out shapes — in flour. Then cut out shapes from the crust. You could use a pastry wheel to cut out "diamonds." Or personalize a pie with mini alphabet cutters.
3. To add color to cutouts, mix together raw egg yolk and food coloring — and paint your shapes.
4. Use a paring knife to draw veins on leaf cutouts. (You can also find pastry punches from online retailers that cut the pie dough and imprint designs in one go.)
5. To "glue" the cutout shapes to the pie crust, dab the bottoms with water or egg wash.
6. If you like, brush the pie with egg wash and sprinkle some coarse sugar over the top so the crust shines!

SparkleKat used our recipe for Easy Homemade Pie Crust to create this show-stopping berry pie.

Quick Guide: How to Make Pie Cutouts

Smart tip: Use cutout shapes to hide cracks on pumpkin pies.

Did your pumpkin pie crack? No worries — happens all the time. But you'll be prepared to save the day by cutting out and baking pie crust leaves to camouflage any imperfections. You can press the leaves lightly into the warm filling just as you remove the pie from the oven, or melt a little apricot jelly with a touch of water to create a "glue" to adhere the leaves to the pie.

Related:

• How to Make Pie Crust From Scratch
• Browse All Pie Recipes