Homemade Apple Pie

So for Thanksgiving I was asked to bring an Apple Pie. I really wanted to make it from scratch and scoured my various recipe sites for the perfect recipe. I settled for two of Paula Deen's Recipes from Food Network. The crust came out flaky and buttery and everyone commented how great it was. The pie itself was pretty amazing, but I did make a couple of modifications to the recipe after reading some reviews. I used 8oz of cinnamon applesauce instead of 16oz of regular applesauce and I doubled the crunch topping.

Paula's Perfect Pie Crust

2 1/2 C All Purpose Flour
1/4 tsp Fine Salt
3 Tbspn Granulated White Sugar
1/4 C Vegetable Shortening, Cold
12 Tbson Butter, Cold and Cubed
1/4 C to 1/2 C Ice Water

1) In a large mixing bowl, sift together the flour, sugar and salt.

2) Add the shortening and break it up with your hands as you start to coat it all up with the flour. Add the cold butter cubes and work it into the flour with your hands or a pastry cutter. Work it quickly, so the butter doesn't get too soft, until the mixture is crumbly, like very coarse cornmeal.

3) Add the ice water a little at a time, until the mixture comes together forming a dough. Bring the dough together into a ball.

4) When it comes together stop working it otherwise the dough will get over-worked and tough. Divide the dough in half and flatten it slightly to form a disk shape. Wrap each disk in plastic and chill in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes.

5) On a floured surface, roll each disk out into a 10 to 11 inch circle to make a 9 inch pie.

Crunch Top Apple Pie

Paula's Perfect Pie Crust (9 inches)
3/4 C Sugar
1 Tbspn All Purpose Flour
1 tspn Ground Cinnamon
Dash Salt
3 1/2 C Peeled, Chopped Cooking Apples
1 (16oz) Jar Applesauce
1 Tbspn Lemon Juice
2 Tbspn Butter, Chopped into Small Pieces

Crunch Topping

3 Tbspn All Purpose Flour
1 Tbspn Sugar
Dash Salt
1 Tbspn Butter, at Room Temperature

1) Preheat Oven to 425

2) Line a 9 inch pie pan with half of dough (1 disk)

3) Combine Sugar, Flour, Cinnamon and Salt in a bowl. Stir in Applesauce, Apples and Lemon Juice.

4) Spoon Apple mixture into pie pan and dot with Butter.

5) Cut remaining crust into strips; arrange in a lattice design over top of pie.

6) For crunch topping, combine Flour, Sugar and Salt in bowl. Using a fork, cut in Butter until mixture is crumbly. Sprinkle over top of crust.

7) Bake for 10 minutes, then reduce heat to 350 and continue to bake for about 45 minutes or until crust and topping are golden brown.