Trick r Treat Pie
Posted on October 05 2016
Trick r Treat! My homage to one of the greatest Halloween flicks of all time, this pie features the character "Sam" - a delightful little scamp from Hell, and patron saint of the holiday. He is normally seen sporting a burlap sack mask, but I thought he looked a bit spookier au natural. What do you think?
Anyhoo, here's how to make him...
Time to create:
- 1 hour to make the top design
- 20 minutes to bake
Ingredients:
- Pre-made pumpkin pie (or your own)
- Pre-made roll out crust
- Flour
- Egg white
- Vanilla
- Red, Green and Blue food colouring
Supplies:
- Food-safe paintbrush
- pastry brush
- Sharp knife
- Fondant sculpting tools (optional)
- Cutting board
- Tinfoil
- Cookie sheet
- Reference image
- 2 small glass jars
Step 1 - Set up your work station
I used my laptop to view my reference images, but if you are fussier about your technology, you might want to use a printout.
Step 2 - Mix your "paint"
I used a teaspoon of vanilla and two drops of red, green, and blue to create my black ink wash. The vanilla helps the pigment stick to the dough and smells great.
Step 3 - Unroll the dough and stack two layers on top of each other
Sprinkle some flour on a cutting board and then unroll your dough and stack two layers on top of each other. Same deal if you are making your own dough from scratch like a proper baker. Show off.
Step 4 - Cut out the base shape
Work out how large you want your head to be by holding up a plate or other round object to your pie pan, then cut out both layers of dough.
Step 5 - Rough in the head
Looking at your reference image, cut out the outline of the head on both layers.
Step 6 - Transfer bottom layer to sheet and egg wash
Peel off one layer and place on your cookie sheet.
I realized later that a non-stick spray would have been better than flour on the tinfoil to ensure an easier time removing it later. Brain-logged for next time!
Give it a thorough brushing with your egg whites. If you are fussy about contamination like me, you'll want to use pasteurized egg whites so you don't have to worry about getting salmonella death goo all over yourself. But maybe you are a sane person. In which case, don't worry about it!
Step 7 - Cut out top layer details
Decide where the "high" areas of your design are, and cut these out of the second layer of dough on the cutting board.
Step 8 - Blend layers together with egg white
Using your fingers or a fondant tool and plenty of egg white, blend the layers together.
Step 9 - Cut out eyes, nose and mouth
Build up more layers around the eye sockets and nose, then cut out the eye holes, nose holes, and mouth.
Step 10 - Finish the fine details
Using your reference image as a guide, add additional details and texture until you are happy with the sculpt.
Use the egg white to keep the dough from drying out as you work.
Step 11 - Paint in the shadows
Now use your vanilla wash with a food safe brush to shade in the dark areas and add depth.
Step 12 - Bake the head for 10 min at 400
Since we are using a pre-made pie, we'll want to pre-bake our head for about 10 minutes before applying it. I set the oven to 400, but this part is not an exact science.
Step 13 - Add some chocolate to show through holes
To make the eye holes and nose holes shine, add some chocolate melts to your premade pie in the area directly under these holes.
Step 14 - Transfer head to pie
Caaaaarfully remove your head from the tinfoil and place it onto the pie over the chocolate melts.
Step 15 - Carve out mouth hole
Use a knife to carve out the mouth hole.
Step 16 - Add tiny stitches
With your dough scraps, add tiny "stitch" details.
Step 17 - Add teeth
Add some little teeth.
Step 18 - Do a second layer of shading
To add more depth, do a second coat of vanilla wash now, making some areas darker than others.
Step 19 - Bake for 10 min at 400
Reheat the pre-baked pie for 10 min at 400. Just enough to finish cooking the head and melt the chocolates.
Step 20 - Ploof up and serve!
Done!
Add whip cream. Curse when it melts. Wait for the pie to cool. Add whip cream again. Serve!
Hope you enjoyed the first of my "Spooktober" pies... Keep your eyes on this station for three more horrifying pies coming this month!
If you liked this recipe/tutorial, please tweet, pin, instagram, etc. with the buttons below, and leave me a comment. As always I love to hear your feedback, ideas for future pies, and if you take a stab at making this design or something else with this technique, lemme know and I may feature you on the Ins-pie-ration page!
Thanks for reading, and see you next Wednesday :)
π > ∞
Jessica (aka @ThePieous)
0 comments