Basket Weave Pie Crust

Ever since I was doing research for my first from scratch pies around Thanksgiving time, I wanted to do a basket weave top crust.  I think it is just so beautiful!  I didn't do it then because I was just focused on the crusts turning out okay.  We were also hosting Thanksgiving and I didn't have a whole lot of extra time.  Since then I made David an apple pie for his birthday but it had a crumble on top instead of a crust so my most recent strawberry pie was the lucky guinea pig.

I like this simple pie crust recipe and used this recipe for the strawberry filling.  Now onto the basket weave!

First you place your bottom crust in your pie plate as you would for any pie and add your filling.  Next you lay out your second crust on a floured surface and roll it out.  Then you cut it into about 1" strips, give or take.

I used a crinkle cutter but you could use a regular old knife here.

Next you take every other strip and lay them across your pie:

Now for the fun part.  You fold every other strip back and lay a strip perpendicular to the rest:

Unfold all of the pieces back into place:

Then fold every other strip (that wasn't folded before), rinse and repeat:

Eventually it will look like this:

Next you can cut or, like I did, fold the edges under (don't want to waste a morsel of that buttery, flaky crust!) and crimp your edges:

Brush with egg white, sprinkle with extra sugar and bake away:

This pie was so beautiful that I didn't want to cut it.  David and I both loved the way the filling bubbled up through the basket weave and I'll admit, I kind of felt like Betty Crocker when I took it out of the oven.  It made me want to find a checkered towel and go set it out on a windowsill somewhere.  It was so much easier than it looked and I think most of my pies will have a pretty basket weave on top from now on!

What is your favorite thing to do with the top crust of a pie?  Ever given the basket weave a try?

~Sarah

Flashback!  Here's what we were up to one year ago today: "Family Reunion Fun"

And two years ago today: "HOT Family Reunion"

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