TIP OF THE DAY: Make A Spring Pie

[1] Celebrate spring with your pie crust (photo courtesy The Topless Baker).

[2] This flower and leaf set has cookie cutters in multiple sizes. Get it on Amazon.

What’s a spring pie?

It’s any pie that celebrates spring, which begins today.

To make a pie special for spring, use flower and leaf cutouts on the crust, as in this example from The Topless Baker (photo #1).

We are huge fans of The Topless Baker, whose cakes and pies are such works of art that he should have a museum exhibition.

Check out his Instagram feed and his YouTube channel.

You don’t have to be a gifted pastry artist like Matt Adlard, the 26-year-old “topless” Brit.

Just take a leaf cookie cutter and a flower cookie cutter (photo #2), and do your thing. The larger the cookie cutters, the faster the decorating.

You may not know it yet, but you do have an inner pie artist.
 
 
WHAT KIND OF PIE SAYS “SPRING?”

Whatever kind of pie you like: apple pie, cherry pie…you can even make a savory pie like pot pie.

Rhubarb*, that beloved spring pie ingredient, typically appears in April but you may find some now. Here’s a recipe for Strawberry Rhubarb Pie.

Spring fruits include apricots, blackberries, black mission figs and strawberries, all ready to be baked in a crust.

If you want to bake a pie without a top crusts (cream pie, key lime pie, ice cream pie, no-bake pie), use the flowers and leaves to decorate the rim.
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*Botanically, rhubarb is a vegetable, a member of the sorrel family (see the difference between fruits and vegetables). Be sure to cook only the stems; the leaves are mildly toxic (they contain oxalic acid).