Apple Pie

I can't say that I love pie. I love the pie crust with the essence of pie filling on it. Weird, I know. I've been pretty hit or miss with pie crusts. I haven't been able to judge how much water to put in the crust and it either ends up too wet, or so dry that you can't roll it properly. Over time my technique has gotten better, but it's still no where near as good as my dad's!

I started with a recipe called Easy Pie Crust from Crisco's website. It was pretty good, but not as good as the pie crust that is printed on the inside of the Crisco box. I searched their website for that recipe, but I couldn't find it. I use the deep dish variation, since the more crust the better. I had to make this recipe twice, as the first time it was so dry that when I went to roll it it crumbled. So frustrating!

The recipe I used for the pie filling is a five star recipe from All Recipes called Apple Pie by Grandma Ople. I realy like this recipe. You create a caramel that you then pour over the apples before you bake it. It results in a nice, saucy pie. Once the apples release their juices in the over, the caramel thickens up and creates a nice sauce, which is different for an apple pie. The recipe doesn't call for any spices, but I enjoy the flavours of nutmeg and cinnamon in apple pies. The recipe also calls for making a lattice crust and then pouring the mixture over the crust and apples. I am a beginner at pie crusts, so I think a lattice crust is too complicated. Instead I pour the sauce over the apples in a large bowl and then pour the works into the pie crust. I top the pie with the remaining piece of crust and brush the top with the residual sauce from the bowl.

As for dairy substitutions, there weren't very many. The pie crust calls for Crisco, which is dairy free and instead of butter in the caramel base, I used margarine. It was pretty yummy!