Caramel Apple Pie

With Bram making our lives interesting and wonderful these days, I should probably start blogging again anyway, so I'll post the apple pie recipe from Saturday here. Saturdays in the fall are wonderful.  There's football and tasty spiced things to make. I really like it when my Saturday looks something like this:

This pie is NOT low-fat, low-sugar, or anything remotely resembling healthy, so plan accordingly... maybe eat only veggies the day before or after :)  It is, however, my favorite pie.  It also is quite time-consuming to make.  Plan 1 hr to assemble (if you're not interrupted by kids, pets, football games, etc) and some clean-up time after to scrub off the caramel-apple juices from your pans.  It takes some effort - maybe recruit someone else to do this for you.  I don't love clean up.  I just love baking and eating.


For those of you who are visual, here's your goal:

So good. There really are no words, so I won't try.



Caramel Apple Pie:


Crust:  (you can use ready made crust-with top & bottom-, but I think this recipe is so much more wonderful - and you know all the ingredients in it! No preservatives with weird names you can't pronounce!)


Into 3 cups all purpose flour, cut 1&1/4 cup plus 1Tbsp Crisco (vegetable shortening)
 IN A SEPARATE BOWL: mix 1 egg, 1 tsp. salt, 1 tsp apple cider vinegar, and 5 Tbsp water
Add to flour mixture and mix well with a fork (I usually end up finishing the mixing with my hands.
Create 4 balls with the dough.  You have enough for 2 pies, so I usually freeze 2 of the dough balls for later.
Roll out the bottom crust and shape into the bottom of your 9-inch pie pan.  Roll out the top and save it for later.


Filling:
6-7 cups apple (mixture of tart and sweet works best: granny smith or golden delicious and empire is a good mixture)
1/2 C packed light brown sugar
1/2 C white sugar
1/4 C all-purpose flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
4 Tbsp heavy cream
4 Tbsp butter

Crumble Topping: (yes, this pie has a crumble topping AND a top crust. sinful.)
1/2 C all-purpose flour
3 Tablespoons sugar
1 Tablespoon butter
24 Werthers Original Hard Caramel Candies (crushed - with a mallet or whatever you want)


Preheat oven to 450 degrees
Make filling:

Peel and slice apples.
Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl and add apples.  Toss to mix.
Add vanilla and cream to apple mixture and mix well.
Melt butter in a large skillet.
Add apple mixture to the skillet and cook approx. 8 minutes until apples are a bit softened (5 minutes usually does it for me).
Turn mixture into pie shell.


Make crumble topping:
Combine the flour and sugar. 
Mix in butter with fork until coarse crumbs form.
Stir in the crushed Werthers.
Sprinkle over the pie.


Add top crust.  Seal & flute edge and vent top.  Brush top with beaten egg white or a bit of milk and sprinkle with sugar.

Bake at 450 for 10-15 minutes on middle rack (until top is golden). Then, reduce heat to 350, lay a piece of foil on top of pie, and continue baking for 35-45 minutes longer.  (Set your timer for 30 minutes and then check with a fork to see if the apples are softened.  30-35 minutes is enough in my oven. If you like your apples to be mush, 45 minutes might work fine, but I like mine to be soft while still holding their shape.)

I have started placing my pie pan on a baking sheet about halfway through the cooking time because my juices run over into my oven sometimes.  If you use fewer apples, this may not be a problem for you, but I like to pack mine full of apples.


Seriously, seriously yummy. I'm glad it's a bit of a process to make or I might make it too often :)
Enjoy!