[Sca-cooks] Pie Shapers: Was Speaking of Beets

[Terry Decker]

One of the great skills of a baker is to be able to cut and form dough by 
hand to produce decorations for breads and other bakegoods (I haven't 
practiced enough to be anywhere near good).  The little that I have found 
makes me think molds were used where freehand decoration wasn't practical 
(as with ginger bread) or where standardization was required (as with the 
Eucharist).

Using molds with a pie shaper or for a pie cover would probably work, but I 
haven't seen anything to suggest it occurred.  It's an interesting question.

Bear

> When we made chewets in Ivan Day's course last April he used a pie 
> "former"
> or "shaper" around which we pressed the dough to make specific sizes and
> shapes.  Of course, experience with years of shaping coffins would tend to
> lead to uniformity.  As to the top, I've seen lovely designs done by hand,
> but that doesn't mean that the design wasn't cut out using cutters for
> leaves, etc., which he or someone else at another course demonstrated.
>
> Alys Katharine