How to Decorate a Pie to Look Like an Owl

Do you want to add a little pizzazz to your pie? Are you worried your dessert willl look a little drab, but you don't want to spend hours attempting an elaborate recipe? Then this is the tutorial for you! And it's easier than you think.

1. Enough pie dough for a double crusted pie- you can whip up your own or use pre-made dough
2. Enough pie filling of your choice to fill one pie (this particular pie is an apple-cranberry, but you can choose whatever filling you prefer)
3. Two chocolate chips
4. A knife for cutting shapes out of the dough
5. Optional: Cookie cutters- they make some of the shapes easier to cut out, but if you don't have them, you can simply use your knife
6. Basic baking utensils

Start by rolling out your bottom crust on a floured surface and place it in the pan. Be generous with the flour, sticky dough makes the process a miserable mess.

To avoid tears and place it evenly in the pan, I like to flour the rolled out dough, fold it in half, and place it in the pan before unfolding it again.

Trim any excess dough, and add it to your second portion of dough reserved for the top crust.

Note: You don't want your dough to get too warm while you're working. I placed the pie pan and bottom crust into the freezer while I worked on the next steps, which you should also do if you find the dough becoming soft and sticky.

Aim for about 1/4 of an inch thick.

1. Find something round and just a little bit smaller than your pie pan to use as a template- I used a plate.
2. Cut half-way around the circle, then remove the plate.
3. Very carefully, cut a curved bow-shaped arch all the way across the semi-circle as shown in the photos. I like to mark where I'm going to cut before I actually cut all the way through. Note: If you do happen to make a mistake, just restart, re-roll, and re-cut.
4. Remove the face piece from the rest of the dough.

1. Cut two medium-sized circles out of your dough to form the eye sockets. Don't discard the circles you cut out, we'll need them for the next step.
2. Taking the circles you just cut out, cut even smaller circles out of both, and place them in the eye sockets (Don't discard the dough rings- we'll need them for the eyebrows)

Note: I didn't want my dough to get too warm, so I placed the face and eyes in the freezer here.

Taking the leftover rings from the eyes, fold one in half over itself, then carefully twist and pull until you've formed an eybrow. Repeat with the other one.

Use your knife to cut out a triangle for the beak.

Start by leveling off one side of your rolled out dough for a nice straight edge. If you have a suitable cutter, you can use it here (I used part of a chicken-shaped cutter), otherwise just cut out two feathery "tufts" with your knife.

For this step, I used an acorn-shaped cutter. If you have something similar, use that. If not simply cut out soft feather-like points with your knife.

Whichever way you choose, you'll need enough feathers to cover about 55% of the pie.

Pour your filling into the bottom crust.

1. Place the face on the top half of the pie.
2. Place the eyes in the sockets.
3. Position the eyebrows above the eyes.
4. Add the ears.
5. Add the beak.
6. Starting at the bottom, layer the feathers. Work your way up until the entire body of the owl is covered.

Bake as required for your particular crust and filling. Follow a recipe if you're using one.

Note: Check half way through the baking time to make sure nothing has fallen off...like one of my ears did...

Add one chocolate chip to both eyes to make pupils.

I hope you had as much fun making your owl as I did mine!