Sherrie - the regular pie is absolutely faster. The leaves takes forever to do, and at some point I did think this is a pain. But the result is so pretty that I was glad I did it. I don’t think this is something I will do often, but it’s nice to do it at least once to have the experience, and of course, capture the moment in eternity by the picture .

Jenn, wonderful job!  Truly a lovely pie!  Did you use a leaf press for the leaves?  I’ve seen them at Williams Sonoma, but haven’t yet acquired one. 

When I made this, I would do a few leaves, then pop the sheet in the refrigerator, do a few more, etc.  Doing them here and there, off and on with other tasks made it seem less tedious. My leaves were also bigger than the ones in the book, so I didn’t have to make quite so many.  I’ve also made this without the leaves- just a regular crimped crust, and it is almost as beautiful.

Nice pie Jenn! Looks absolutely gorgeous.

Thanks Julie & Shimi!

@ Julie - I use a paring knife to outline as much leaves as possible on the sheet, pop them in the fridge to harden it, then take it out and pry them out, then balled up the rest of the dough, refrigerate it, then take it out to roll it out, etc. I was watching tv at the same time and prepping other things for cooking so it does help make it less tedious. Though at the very end I started geting impatient so I would put them in the freezer to harden, .

It’s funny that you mentioned Williams Sonoma because I bought the 4-leaves press set last week with the mindset to use it for this. They were absolutely useless. What it does is that it stamped the dough but then you have to cut out the leaf with a knife - otherwise it doesn’t let go. I think it’s because the press were made of flimsy plastic. Another thing is because the dough get soft fast, it sticks to the stamp, so cleaning it up were a pain. I tried with all the stamps, the bay leaf one were sort of usable but the rest isn’t. It might work for other types of dough but not this one. I will return it. For the price tag ($18) I would expect to be able to use it for all types of dough. Long story short, it is much faster with the paring knife!

Ladies those look too nice to cut (but I would anyway!).

Jenn, thank you so much for relating your experience with the leaf cutter!

That is beautiful!  Thank you for showing us your great work, and giving us something to strive for.  My dh loves apple pie, so this will have to be the next one I make, although he was eyeing one in Heavenly Cakes.