Blue Ribbon Apple Pie From The Perfect Recipe By Pam Anderson

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 375°. On a lightly floured surface, roll half of dough to a 1/8-in.-thick circle; transfer to a 9-in. pie plate. Trim crust even with rim., In a small bowl, mix walnut layer ingredients until blended. Spread onto bottom of crust. Refrigerate while preparing filling., For filling, in a large bowl, toss apples with lemon juice and vanilla. In a small bowl, mix sugar, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt; add to apple mixture and toss to coat., Pour filling over walnut layer; dot with butter. Roll remaining dough to a 1/8-in.-thick circle. Place over filling. Trim, seal and flute edge. Brush top with milk; sprinkle with sugar. Cut slits in crust., Place pie on a baking sheet. Bake 55-65 minutes or until crust is golden brown and filling is bubbly. Cover edge loosely with foil during the last 10 minutes if needed to prevent overbrowning. Remove foil. Cool on a wire rack.

Steps:

• Coat apple slices with lemon juice.
• Combine sugar, spices, flour, cornstarch and salt in a large zip-loc bag.
• Add apples and shake bag until thoroughly coated.
• Immediately, put coated apples into prepared pie crust.
• Dot with butter.
• Cover with top crust.
• Crimp edges to seal and cut vent holes into crust.
• Brush with milk and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.
• Bake at 425°F for 15 minutes, reduce temperature to 350°F and continue baking for 45 minutes or until golden brown.

Steps:

• In a food processor, pulse the flour, sugar, salt, butter and vegetable shortening until the mixture looks golden and resembles coarse cornmeal.
• Pour the flour mixture into a large bowl. Add the ice water, 1 T. at a time, lightly fluffing the mixture with your fingers. Add water until to the mixture until the dough just becomes to come together. (I always mix the water by hand, so I have more control.) If you are not sure, try squeezing a little of the dough together in your hand. If it clumps, you are done.
• Gather the dough into a ball, divide it into two pieces, then flatten the pieces into discs. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for at least one hour.
• Roll out the two pieces of dough. There are two main tricks to rolling out pie dough: One is not to use to much flour-you can always add a bit more if the dough is sticking to the table, but you can't take it away. The other is to never roll the dough using a back and forth motion. Always work from the center and roll out. That will keep you from working the gluten too much. Use one dough disc to line a 9" deep dish pie pan. Place the second rolled out dough on a cookie sheet. Place both discs back in the refrigerator to rest.
• Preheat the oven to 400. Make sure there is enough room for a tall pie - you may need to remove a rack.
• Remove the dough discs from the refrigerator and set aside.
• In a large skillet, melt the butter. When the butter is sizzling, toss in the apples and stir so they are coated in the butter. Cook for about 10 minutes over medium heat, stirring occasionally. You may have to do this in two batches.
• Remove the apples from the skillet (but not the liquid) and put them in a large bowl. Toss the apples in the sugar, cornstarch, cinnamon and nutmeg.
• Brush the inside of the bottom crust with the beaten egg white. Pile the sauteed apples into the crust, then cover with the remaining dough disc. Trim the crusts, then pinch them together. Crimp into a pretty pattern. Slice air vents into the top crust. I like to leave my crusts plain, but you can brush with egg wash (if you like it shiny) or milk (if you like it brown and soft).
• Turn the oven down to 375. Place the pie pan on a cookie sheet, anbake until the crust is a deep golden brown and the filling is bubbling, about 50-60 minutes.
• Let cool completely before serving.
• In a food processor, pulse the flour, sugar, salt, butter and shortening until the mixture looks golden and resembles coarse cornmeal.