Holiday Desserts: Drab-to-Fab Pumpkin Pie

While pumpkin pie is a Thanksgiving staple and totally delicious, its not the most beautiful dessert - tan, burnt orange.  To give your pie some style, prepare some pie crust cookies to adorn the pie.  Here's how:

Pie Crust Cookies
* 1-2 pie crusts, store bought
*  White sparkling sugar
*  1 egg 
*  Gel food coloring
*  Leaf & pumpkin cookie cutters

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Remove the pie crusts from the package and let them come to room temperature.  While the crusts rest, prepare a simple egg wash of 1 egg and a splash of water.  Whisk very well to ensure the egg wash is a homogeneous mixture.  Divide the egg wash into small bowls.  Using a toothpick, add gel food coloring to each bowl - red, yellow, orange, green.   Cut the pie crusts out with your cookie cutters.  Using a pastry brush, add the egg wash to the cutouts.  Top each cookie with white sparkling sugar to get them a bit more sparkle.  Bake for 10-12 min.  Cookies should have some golden color.  Let cool and arrange on the pie.