- Share This Post
- 3
- Pin It
- 8
-
Sparkle (1)
I love pie. Especially beautiful as well as delicious pies. If you want to master the art of the lattice crust, you've come to the right place.
Even when I see a sign that has the word pie in it, I just want to lick it. Here I am at BlogHer ‘10 next to the Mmm…Pie sign at the Voices of the Year Gala and Art Auction for the Gulf.
Besides eating pie, I have made pies for years. At first, I made pie crusts from scratch and when I “graduated” to pre-made crusts, it afforded me the opportunity to get more creative. The lattice pie crust has always been a great hit, but it is often a mystery to people as to how it’s made. Now it is a mystery no more. There’s no need to be intimidated, this recipe can be made by a pie novice.
My favorite pie for a lattice crust is a four berry pie. You will need the following ingredients:
- Two 12-ounce bags of frozen mixed berries (strawberry, raspberry, blueberry and blackberry)
- One box of ready-made pie crust (contains two crusts)
- One cup of sugar
- 1/4 cup of flour
You can also add 1 tbsp of lemon juice for tartness, but I usually just throw in a few cranberries because it’s the time of year where I have extra cranberries around.
The filling is super easy to make. Let the berries thaw and pour out about 1/3 of the juice (mmm, anti-oxidants to drink while you’re cooking). Mix sugar and flour together and add to the fruit. Unroll the bottom crust and fit it into a 9” pie plate. Pour in the berry mixture and set the pie aside. If excess crust hangs over the edge of the pie plate, trim it to the edge of the plate with a knife. If you are baking right away, preheat the oven to 375F now.
On a floured surface, unroll the top crust. I use a scalloped edge cutter, but a pizza cutter would also work fine. This pastry wheel was from Michaels but you can also find it on Amazon.
Flour the cutter and cut the crust straight down the middle. Then make parallel strips that are about 3/4” apart. You can make the strips wider, but I prefer lots of lattice. Take your time, don’t rush the cuts or else they will tend to wander.
Take a crust strip from the center and lay it in the center of your pie. Then skip over the next strip and lay the following one next to the first one. Leave about a 1/4” to 1/2” between the strips on the pie. Don’t worry, there’s plenty of crust to go around. When you are done, you should have used about half of the strips.
Now comes the fun part -- weaving. Lift the end of the center strip on your pie and gently fold it back halfway across the pie. Skip over the next strip and do the same for the following one. Make sure the folds are all at the center of the pie.
From the remaining strips, take the center strip and lay it across the pie just next to the folded back strips. Then, fold the strips back over the newly laid strip.
Take the opposite set of strips and fold them back until the reach the cross strip.
Now lay the next strip across. Again, keep the spacing 1/4” to 1/2” apart.
