This is a how-to for making a super creepy 100% edible zombie face cherry pie. Sure to creep all your guests out, including yourself! I had a hard time turning my back to this guy while making him. So Happy Halloween and enjoy!

Step 1: Collecting Necessary Items!

These are just some of the key items I used in making this creepy pie, but obviously if you find something in your kitchen that works better than what I had, use that too!

For the Pie Crust

2.5 Pounds of All Purpose Flour
4 Ounces of Granulated Sugar
1 Teaspoon Salt
1 Pound of Unsalted Butter, Room Temp
1 Egg
1 Tablespoon Vinegar
2 Cups of Ice Cold Water

For the Cherry Filling

3# Frozen Pitted Cherries
1/2 Cup Granulated Sugar
1/2 Cup All Purpose Flour
1 Teaspoon Vanilla
1 Teaspoon Salt
1 Teaspoon Ground Cinnamon

**Author Note: I used flour to thicken this filling instead of a corn starch you typically see because I wanted a more goopy cloudy look to the filling so it mimicked coagulated blood. Using corn starch would give the filling a more clean, glossy see through look if that is what you prefer to use!

Equipment

Large Bowl
Small Bowl
Whisk
Spatula
Large Saucepot
Measuring Spoons
Liquid Measuring Cup
Scale
Rolling Pin
Fork
Paring Knife
Ring Cutters
Chopstick
Pie Dish

Step 2: Making the Pie Dough!

In the large bowl, combine all of the dry ingredients from your pie crust list. Whisk them together until combined.
After all your dry is mixed together well, add your room temp butter.
Squeeze the butter together into the dry mix creating smaller and smaller pieces of butter.
Continue using your hands to squeeze and rub together the butter and dry ingredients until you have pea sized chunks of butter/dry mix. Then create a well in the middle of the mix.
In a smaller bowl, combine all of the wet ingredients from your pie crust list and whisk them together until completely combined.
Pour the wet ingredients into the well you created in the dry mix.
Then gently toss together the dough until it becomes flaky and combined. A little bit of dry is not a bad thing. You don't want to over mix your dough and cause it to become too tough. The dough will combine further when you roll it out. The less you mix the dough the more tender it will be.
Cover and refrigerate until it is time to roll out the dough.

Step 3: Making the Cherry Filling!

Combine all the ingredients for the Cherry Filling into a large sauce pot and place on the stove top on medium heat.
You want to continuously stir and cook this filling low and slow to prevent scorching on the bottom of the pan.
Cook until the mixture becomes thick and bubbly and the dry ingredients have fully dissolved to make a smooth filling.
This took about 15 minutes on my stove top but that may depend on your own equipment so use the photos provided for reference!
Cover and chill until you need the filling.

Step 4: Rolling Out the Shell!

Measure out about 1/2 pound of pie dough for your bottom pie shell.
Roll it out to your desired thickness. I like mine on the thin side so I went with a quarter inch thickness.
Gently place the rolled out dough onto your pie dish and press down into it so that it fills all the pie dish, with no air bubbles showing.
Trim most of the edges that are hanging over the side of the dish, leaving just a little hanging over about 1/2 an inch.
Use a fork to poke holes into the bottom of your pie shell to prevent bubbling of your crust.
Then pour cherry filling into the shell.
Put aside a very small amount , about 2 Tablespoons tops, of filling juice for the very end. You'll use it as glaze on some of the details after the pie has finished baking!

Step 5: Creating Some Bone Structure and Top Crust!

So for this part, you are going to use some of the extra pie dough you have to make little mounds and pinches to place under your top crust. This will help give your face some structure to work with. Place these mounds and pinches in places where your face is naturally higher. Your forehead, nose, cheek bones, and chin.
Then after you place these pieces in your pie you will take another 1/2 pound amount of dough and roll out your top crust, the same as you did your bottom crust.
Gently place the top crust over the pie and trim the edges to match your bottom crust edges.
Fold that extra dough hanging over the edge under to give it a nice clean, thick edge to make your fluted sides with.
Then take two fingers and pinch a bit of dough to flute the edge, and repeat all the way around. You can get creative here and do what ever edge you like for your own pie!
Your pie face should start to resemble Jigsaws mask from Saw!

Step 6: Adding the Eyes, Mouth, and Nose!

For the eyes, start out by rolling out two small spheres and placing them in the eye socket area,
Then create a medium sized oval that will become the teeth.
Use your paring knife to carve out some detail in those pearly whites and place the piece where the mouth should go.
Don't worry about gluing any of this down. The butter in your dough will melt it all together as one when baking. No need to make a giant mess with loads of egg wash.
Next up take a little bit of pie dough and roll it out thin like you did for your pie crusts. Use a circle cutter to cut out a circle. Then use your knife to cut that circle in half.
Use these halves to create the upper and lower mouth of your zombie by placing it above and below your teeth piece. Be sure to position them so that you are showing some of those teeth off for a more gruesome opened mouth zombie.
For the nose, I just molded together a thick triangle and used the chopstick to create nostrils and placed it on top of the mound where the nose would go.
To finish out the eyes I used the same technique as I did with the mouth. Take a little bit of pie dough and roll it out thin like you did for your pie crusts. Use a circle cutter to cut out a circle. Then use your knife to cut that circle in half.
Use these halves to create the upper and lower eye lids, as seen in the photos.

Step 7: Adding Details!

After the main components of the face are on, you can start to have fun with it. Use your paring knife to make cuts and tears in the skin. Poke all the way through in some places where you think it will look cool to have cherry filling ooze out of it as it bakes. I also added extra flaps and small pieces of random dough for skin and used my fingers to tear away at pieces as well.

***One big note from after I finished and I learned. You don't have to worry about blending the pieces together as much as I first thought. A lot of the pieces will just melt together when baking and you wont even notice the seams. So I probably didn't need to spend as much time on the detail as I did the first time around!

Step 8: Egg Wash, Sugar, and Bake!

After you are content with the detail on the face its time to get baking!
Using one egg and half a cup of water whisked together for egg wash, brush your pie thoroughly with the wash.
Lightly sprinkle a layer of granulated sugar over the top to give your finished pie a nice golden crispy finish when baking.
Then place pie in the oven at 350F for 45 minutes.

Step 9: Mid Baking Details!

After the 45 minutes bake time, I peeked in on my pie to see how it was going. It wasn't nearly as oozing as I'd hoped for so I took my paring knife out and added a couple more deep gashes to help it along and returned it to the oven for another 20 minutes to finish the bake time.

Step 10: Finishing Touches!

Total time in my oven was an hour and 5 minutes, but that could be different depending on your own oven at home. So just look out for nice bubbling filling and a golden crispy crust finish. And you are good to go!

If you still aren't happy with the amount of gore on your zombie face, you can also use the little bit of cherry filling we set aside in a previous step to add a little extra bloody smear on the finished product. I didn't really use much, just a smudge or two on his nose and lips.

Introduction: Zombie Cherry Pie