Decorative Pie Crust Ideas

Course Desserts, Pie Crust, Pies & Crisps

Notes

Decorative Pie Crust Ideas Get inspired with these creative Decorative Pie Crust Ideas. Are you a pie lover? We love pie! What we love even more is a beautiful pie. If you eat with your eyes before your mouth (like I do) you’re going to love this list. We’ve found a fabulous list of 25 decorative pie crust ideas perfect to spruce up your next pie. So go ahead, try your hand at one of these fun decorative pie crust ideas and wow the crowd at your next gathering.

Follow along with us as we form the decorated top crust… Once the crust was rolled out, we lightly pressed an inverted pie plate onto its surface to see where the edges of the “latticed” top crust would be. Then we used a heart-shaped cookie cutter dipped in flour to cut out alternating rows of hearts. Important! Do this on top of a floured sheet of parchment paper so that it’s easily transferred atop the filled pie. Make sure to save the cut-out heart pieces. Those are going to go along the edge of the crust.
This gets a little tricky now, but lift the parchment sheet over the filled pie, and slide off the “latticed” crust over the top. Don’t worry if it’s not perfectly centered. You can gently pick it up and readjust.
Roll up the bottom and top crust edges to form the crust. Brush the entire top, including the crust, with a beaten egg. The egg wash along the edges of the crust are what adhere the cut out hearts to the edge crust. Try to position the hearts lining the edge on the inside of the pie. Don’t let them hang over the edges. This will keep them from falling off in the oven. Once the hearts are lined along the edge, brush surfaces with egg wash again, and sprinkle with coarse decorating sugar.

Make sure that the oven is perfectly preheated to ensure that the crust doesn’t melt before it sets. Bake according to the recipe’s direction, checking frequently to make sure that the crust doesn’t burn before the filling starts to bubble. If the crust is browning too quickly, simply loosely cover the edges – or the entire pie – with aluminum foil






Once you’re comfortable with pie baking, you can start to have a little fun with decorating your pie crust. Adding a special touch to your pies is the perfect way to personalize it for a special occasion or holiday, and to express your creativity. There are three essential ways you can get creative with pie crust – by embellishing the pie’s edges, adding a little flare to the top crust, or with a fun lattice.
Decorative Edges After you’ve mastered the traditional crimped edge, you can start experimenting with other decorative edges. From the photo above, clockwise, here are a few ideas: Large scallop – Similar to the basic crimped edge, except you form the dough around your rounded index finger and not just the tip to create large scallops. Cutout shapes – Use cookie cutters to cut out pie crust into whatever shape you like (stars, hearts, leaves, etc.). Keep them about 1-2 inches in diameter. Adhere them to the crust with egg wash. Shaft of wheat – Use kitchen shears to cut the dough at a 45 degree angle ever 1/2-3/4 inches. Pull apart each section in opposite directions and pinch each into point. This would be perfect for Thanksgiving pies. Crosshatch – Use the tines of a fork to create a criss-cross pattern on the dough’s edges.
Don’t feel limited to what you see here. There are numerous ways you can customize your pie crust edges. Get creative! To create the ruffled edges on this pie, cut out long 1-inch strips of pie dough. Brush your pie crust edges with egg wash and then place the strips on top, ruffling them on top of each other as you go. A pie’s edges are not the only way to add decoration. Pies with a double crust, like a fruit pie, provide another blank canvas for adding a special touch. Try cutting out shapes in the top crust (stars, hearts, circles etc.), leaving them off entirely, or using them elsewhere on the crust. On this pie, I cut out hearts and then transferred the crust to the top of my pie. Adding the hearts back into their vacant spots adds another dimension.
Creative Lattices Topping the pie with a lattice is a simple and beautiful way to decorate your pie. While the standard lattice needs no embellishment, feel free to play around with other more creative options. For this pie, I cut each lattice strip in thirds and braided them before placing them on top of the pie filling. You can also experiment with different sizes of lattice strips and other fun patterns. One last thing to note: pie crust is best worked with when cool. If your kitchen is hot and you handle it too much, it will warm up and become tricky to work with. If needed, place dough back in the fridge as needed. For example, for the braided lattice I worked with only a few strips at a time and then placed them in the fridge until I was ready to assemble my pie.


Stenciled Pie Crusts are Easy to Do and So Formal Looking Give your holiday baking a distinctive flair that shows you really “cook with love.” It takes time and practice but the end result is worth the effort! Once you get the knack of it, the project really is not that difficult. Your family and friends will never believe you did it yourself! The project requires an egg wash to start. Roll out your pie crust. I use a silicone baking mat or parchment paper under the pie crust to make it easier to move later. It also helps make clean up easier. Roll the stencil with a rolling pin to give it some indentations and then brush the egg wash on lightly over the stencil. Place a light dusting of flour on the pie crust and add your pastry stencil over the top. The design is up to you. This one from Amazon has a floral design. Once you have the top nicely brushed with the egg wash, sprinkle it with cinnamon sugar. Another quick roll of the rolling pin and the crust is ready to transfer to the pie and bake.
	Stenciled Pie Crusts – DIY Feeling a bit crafty? Anyone can do this DIY Stenciled Pie Crusts project- all it takes is an extra minute to apply cinnamon sugar or powdered food colors on your rolled out pie crust top then bake as usual.

Decorative Tops: Double crust pies offer an opportunity to decorate more than the edge trim of the pie. Decorating options include anything from simply decorative slits for venting to elaborate sculptured additions made from additional crust cut outs. Pies can also be made to look more attractive by coating the top crust using one of the following effects: Brush lightly with milk or cream to give the pie a richer color. Brush with egg whites to glaze the crust. Sprinkle lightly with sugar to give the crust a sparkle and add crispness. Some common decorative pie toppings that are used are lattice tops, diamond tops, and spiral tops. Shown below are instructions on how to accomplish the decorative tops.
	Lattice Top: Prepare the bottom crust as shown above in the double pie crust instructions. Roll out the top crust and cut into ½ inch strips.
	Place the filing in the bottom crust and then place approximately 6 strips across the top of the filling. To weave the cross strips into the first 6 strips, fold every other one about half ways back on the pie. Place a strip across the pieces that are not folded back and then unfold the folded strips.
	Fold back the strips that were left unfolded before and place another strip across the strips that are not folded back. Unfold the strips and continue on in this manner, alternating the folded strips.
	Repeat the same procedure on the other half of the pie.
Lift each strip and moisten the edge of the crust in that area with water and then press the strip back down to seal it at the edge
When the strips are all placed across the filling, trim the ends 1/8 inch shorter than the overhang of the bottom crust.
Moisten the entire edge of the crust and then turn the overhang from the bottom crust up over the ends of the strips so the edge of the crust is flush with the edge of the pie plate.
Seal the bottom crust and strips by fluting the edges in the desired manner. Bake as instructed by the recipe.
Diamond Top: Prepare the top in the same manner as the lattice top, only instead of placing the second set of strips perpendicular to the first strips, place them diagonally to the first strips. Placing the strips diagonally instead of perpendicular will form a diamond pattern rather than the squares. Seal the edges as shown above on the lattice top.
Spiral Top: Prepare the bottom crust as shown above in the double pie crust instructions and trim edges flush with the rim of the pie plate. Roll out the top crust in a long narrow strip. Cut the crust into long strips that are 3/8 to 1/2 inch wide.
	Place the filling in the bottom crust. Starting with one strip in the center of the pie, begin to twist the strip and coil it around the center of the pie. Continue to twist the strip as you coil it around or it will begin to untwist. Work out towards the edge of the pie. Continue adding strips in one continuous length by moistening the ends of each strip and pressing together to attach to the previous strip.
	Continue adding strips and coiling out towards the edge until the entire pie is covered. Work carefully so that you do not let the strips touch the filling until you are putting them into place. This will prevent getting filling on the strips in locations you do not want. Moisten the edge of the pie with water and then place a slightly wider strip tightly twisted around the edge. Press to seal
	Sprinkle the crust lightly with sugar to give it sparkle and to add crispness. Bake as instructed by the recipe