How to Make Stuffed Sandwiches with a Pie Mold

Wanna make your kid’s lunch seriously cute and super fun? Make their sandwich with a pie mold!

I have a few of these pie molds — a heart-shaped one I got at Target (it’s no longer available in the store or online but I found a similar one on Amazon) and some empanada molds. I like to whip them out from time to time to make sandwiches for my boys. Sometimes I decorate them and sometimes I leave them plain. Either way they’re adorable and the kids love them!

(packed in a PlanetBox Rover lunch box)

See? Here’s a lunch I made for Valentine’s day. Cute right?

Now let me show you how to use one of these pie molds to make a sandwich:

Start by getting your mold out. Here’s what mine looks like opened up. One thing to note: most of these photos show the pie mold connected together, but I can also take the two pieces apart. This actually makes the process of making these sandwiches much easier so if you can separate the two halves without breaking your mold, I highly recommend doing that.

The first thing you’re going to want to do is cut your bread. The outer rim of the pie mold is made to do this, so just center it over a large slice of bread and press down like you would with a cookie cutter.

It works best to use a softer style of sandwich bread for this technique. I’m using white bread in the photos, but I normally make these with a whole wheat bread and it works fine. Really grainy hippie bread will probably not work, so keep that in mind.

Pop the cut pieces out of the pie mold, and then press down hard on each piece of bread with the inside of the mold to get an idea of where the sealed edges will be. If your bread is a little dry, you can put it in the microwave for about 5 seconds and it will be a bit more pliable.

This is what the cut pieces will look like when you’re done.

Place one of the pieces of bread back in the mold and add your sandwich filling. I’ve found that gooshier fillings work better for these sandwiches. Some ideas: peanut butter and jelly, soft cheese mixed with grated veggies and herbs, or the egg salad I’m using here. When you’re adding the fillings use the pressed edges as a guide and take care not to get the fillings on the edges that are going to be smooshed together because you wont be able to get a good seal. Also be careful not to use too much filling because this can tear the bread.

Top the bottom part of the sandwich with the second piece of bread.

Now close the pie mold and press down really hard on it to seal the edges of the bread together. (If the edge of the pie mold hurts your hand, place a small plate on top of it and press down on that.)

This is where it’s helpful to separate the two halves of the pie mold. You can seal the sandwich OK when they are connected together, but it’s much easier to apply even pressure all the way around the sandwich if there isn’t a hinge getting in the way.

At this point there may be some extra bread squishing out the sides of the mold. Trim this off with a sharp knife or kitchen shears so your sandwich will look tidy.

Ta da! Now you have a pretty, easy-to-hold, delicious sandwich to add into a lunch box!

(packed in a PlanetBox Rover lunch box)

In addition to making these sandwiches with a pie mold, I sometimes like to make them using an empanada maker. The empanada makers work a little differently because they are designed to fold a circle of pie crust (or in this case, bread) in half when you seal them. You can make them that way no problem, but if you want to make a full circle (like the sun wearing sunglasses up above) just unfold the pie mold and press it down directly against a cutting board to seal the sandwich.

Have you ever made a stuffed sandwich? What did you fill it with?