Hoot Owl Pastry

Impress your friends and family with this adorable hoot owl pie! You can choose any flavor of pre-made fruit pie filling. I used cherry.

Here's what you'll need to make this pie. Allow yourself about 3 hours from start to finish.
4 cups all-purpose flour, 1/2 tsp salt, 1 cup vegetable shortening, 1 egg, ice water.
2 cans pie filling (20 oz each)
large mixing bowl, pastry blender, large, deep dish pie pan, small leaf cutter (used for fondant) and rolling pin.
you will also need the lids from spice container about 2" wide and lid from vanilla bottle about 3/4" wide to cut holes for eyes.

In a large mixing bowl add 4 cups flour. Add 1/2 tsp salt, mix with fork. Add 1 cup vegetable shortening. blend well with pastry blender. In a cup mix 1/2 cup ice water with 1 egg. add this to flour mixture and mix with hands. turn onto a floured countertop.

Using a rolling pin, roll out the dough to a large circle about 15" diameter. approximately 1/8" thick. If the dough is sticking to the counter, place a bit of flour between. Turn the pie pan upside down on pastry. using a knife, cut around 1" larger than pie pan. Roll pastry onto rolling pin and transfer into pie pan.

open cans and place pie filling over bottom crust in pie pan

using the remaining pastry dough roll out again onto floured surface and cut out small leaf shapes. Start at the bottom (closest to you) edge of pie and place 5 or 6 leaf shapes in a row. place a dab of water on the top edge of each leaf so the next row will stick. overlap the next row as shown. continue adding rows until the pie is 3/4 covered.

Roll out more pastry. My pie pan is 12" wide so I cut a 10" wide section with a rounded top and straight bottom edge. Cut large eye holes with lid from spices then cut small eyes from pastry using small lid from vanilla. place onto pie, overlapping the top layer of "feathers". place small pastry circles inside large holes.
Dab a bit of cold water around edge to seal.

Overlap leaf shapes over top edge and place 2 leaf shapes together for each ear. stick to outside edge of crust near the eyes. cut lines in a leaf shape for each claw, stick these to bottom edge.

Bake in a pre-heated oven for 50-55 minutes at 350 degrees.