Easy as Pie? Williams Sonoma Homemade Apple Pie Recipe

Last month we went to an Apple Orchard upstate, with our wonderful friends from church.  I have to share some pictures from this great time before I get to the apple pie.

We rented a zipcar, but it did not work out exactly right at fist, so this is a pic of us at the garage where we originally intended to grab the Van.  We're smiling, but Rob has the right idea... no fun!

Even though we had a late start, it was worth it.  We had the best time at the Harvest Moon Farm and Orchard.

Close up of some gorgeous apples.

Me and Jessa.  Look at the great view and the colorful trees!

Me and Rob!

Rob carrying the Half a Bushel of apples that we bought for the pies!  That's about 50 apples!  We split the bag with everyone and used them for the Apple Pie Competition the next night.

Rob, me, Meghan, Scott, Amy, Jessa, Richard, Pam, Andrew, Andrew, Deb, Katelyn and Trevor.

Now, on to the pie!

I used an Apple Pie recipe from Willams Sonoma.

Ingredients:

For the dough:

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp. salt

2 tsp. granulated sugar

16 Tbs. (2 sticks) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch dice

3 to 4 Tbs. ice water

For the filling:

2 lb. Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and cut into slices 1/4 inch

thick

2 lb. Pink Lady apples, peeled, cored and cut into slices 1/4 inch thick

1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg

4 tsp. cornstarch

1 Tbs. fresh lemon juice

Additional items:

2 Tbs. cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces

1 egg white, beaten with 1 tsp. water

2 tsp. granulated sugar

Directions:

To make the dough, in a food processor, pulse the flour, salt, and granulated sugar together until combined, about 5 pulses. Add the butter and process until the mixture resembles coarse meal, about 10 pulses. Add 3 Tbs. of the ice water and pulse 2 or 3 times. The dough should hold together when squeezed with your fingers but should not be sticky. If it is crumbly, add more water 1 tsp. at a time, pulsing twice after each addition. Turn the dough out onto a work surface, divide in half and shape each half into a disk. Wrap the disks separately in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or up to overnight.  

I got up early before church and made the crust.  It was a lot to make in the food processor at once, so I had to make the recipe about one-fourth of the portion at a time.   I left it in the fridge about 5 hours.

On a lightly floured work surface, roll out half of the dough into a 12-inch round about 1/8 inch thick. Fold the dough in half and then into quarters and transfer it to a 9-inch deep-dish pie dish. Unfold and gently press the dough into the bottom and sides of the dish. Trim the edges flush with the rim of the dish. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

I have never made a pie crust before, and I don't have a rolling pin. Rob helped me roll the pie crust to a nice 1/8 inch thick even crust using the wine bottle!

Looking good so far!

On a large sheet of lightly floured parchment paper, roll out the remaining dough disk into a 12-inch round about 1/8 inch thick. Using leaf pie cutters, make rows of cutouts in the dough, spacing them 1/2 inch apart and leaving a 1-inch border along the edges, to create a lattice appearance. Reserve the cutouts for decorating. Reroll the dough scraps to make more cutouts. Refrigerate the lattice top and cutouts for 30 minutes.

We did not have leaf carters, but Rob came to the rescue again! He cut out three leaves in the center of the crust and we decided that would be fine for the ventilation and decoration.

Meanwhile, make the filling: In a large Dutch oven, stir together the apples, brown sugar, granulated sugar, cinnamon, salt, nutmeg and cornstarch. Set over medium heat, cover and cook, stirring occasionally, until the apples are just tender but not mushy, about 20 minutes. Uncover and cook until the liquid has thickened and become glossy, 5 to 7 minutes more. Remove from the heat, stir in the lemon juice and let cool to room temperature, about 30 minutes. 

Peggy helped peel and core the apples.

Position a rack in the lower third of an oven, place a baking sheet on the rack and preheat the oven to 400°F. 

Let the pie shell, lattice top and leaf cutouts stand at room temperature for 5 minutes. Transfer the apple filling to the pie shell, scatter the butter pieces on top, and gently invert the lattice top over the pie. Trim the edges flush with the rim of the dish and press the top and bottom crusts together to seal. Brush the underside of the leaf cutouts with egg wash and gently press them onto the edges of the piecrust, overlapping the leaves slightly. Decorate as desired with the remaining leaves. Brush the entire top crust with egg wash and sprinkle with the granulated sugar. 

Place the pie dish on the preheated baking sheet. Bake until the crust is crisp and golden brown, about 1 hour, covering the edges with aluminum foil if they become too dark. Transfer the pie to a wire rack and let cool for at least 1 1/2 hours before serving. Serves 8.

Gorgeous!

The apartment smelled amazing as this backed in the oven!

We made our way over to  Meghan and Scott's for the competition.  I thought it was so cool that we all made such different variations of Apple Pie.  No two were alike.  We got to all sample a piece of each pie, then vote on Taste and Appearance.  Our pie won!  We won the lovely green apple centerpiece you see on the table above.  It is now a "floating trophy" which will be awarded to next year's winner of the Apple Pie Competition.