Apple Pie with Williams Sonoma Piecrust Cutters

I have never made a pie - sure I had some of those pre made pies I heated up but never made a pie from scratch. Since I have never done this I thought to get a head start on Thanksgiving by making one over the weekend as a trial run for the big Turkey day. I admit I did cheat  the filling with an apple mix from Trader Joe's, but the crust was my first ever by hand!


I used the Williams Sonoma recipe for Basic Pie Dough - check out the site for the details, but here are the ingredients. 

Ingredients:

• 1 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1 Tbs. sugar
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 8 Tbs. (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/4-inch cubes
• 3 Tbs. very cold water

If I can make a pie turn out like this the first time - you can too! The Williams Sonoma Piecrust cutters are the key to this! 

First I started with the ingredients in the recipe and used my new kitchen toys from Williams Sonoma - an Emile Henry Pie Dish and the Piecutters.

These piecrust cutters make all the difference. I was not perfect with the edges on the pie crust, but adding these made the edges looking uniform and decorative! Just a tip - someone at Williams Sonoma said these designs change from year to year so if you like them, get them now!

I then just used the pie cutters to cut the designs out and placed them around the edges.

TA DA! Here are the leaves and acorns around the edges.

 After putting in the filling, I then placed a few turkeys and pumpkins in the middle.

If you are a newbie like I was, I read online that placing foil around the edges helps with browning so that the edges do not burn. I took them after 10 minutes before the pie was done cooking. I cooked this for 1 hour at 350, but I have a convection oven so yours may be more or less.

And it is done!