Deep Dish Caramel Apple Pie

A yummy variation on a traditional apple pie! I used caramel ice cream topping in place of dulce de leche. If your family likes dulce de leche go for it!

-RecipeGirl

½ cup brown sugar
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup cornstarch
¼ teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
pinch of salt
7 to 8 cups of peeled, sliced apples (I like Granny Smith & Braeburn) (Approx 5 apples)
½ cup dulce de leche (canned or homemade) or caramel topping
2 Tablespoons apple cider
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
double crust for 9-inch pie (purchased or homemade)
egg white mixed with 1 teaspoon of water

coarse sugar for top, optional

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Center rack in oven.
2. In a small bowl, mix sugars, cornstarch, spices and salt.
3. In a large bowl, toss together apples, dulce de leche, apple cider and vanilla extract. Add dry ingredients and toss to combine.
4. Between waxed paper, roll out pie dough as large as possible keeping it a good thickness. Line deep dish pie pan with crust and let it hang over the sides. Brush with egg white mixture. Add filling and spread out evenly.
5. Roll out 2nd crust a little bit too & place on top of pie. Crimp edges together in a decorative fashion to seal. Brush with egg white mixture. Cut a few holes in the top crust for venting. Sprinkle with coarse sugar, if using.
6. Bake for 30 minutes. Then turn the temperature down to 375 degrees F. If pie is browning, cover it with foil and top with a pie crust shield to prevent crust edges from burning. If you don’t have a pie shield, just cover the whole thing with foil. Bake for another 30 minutes.

7. Remove pie from oven and cool on rack for several hours to allow filling to set.

Pioneer Pie Crust

Pie crust has never been one of my strong points, but I thought I'd try to make it one! My mom shared this recipe with me and it's a winner for flaky crust. I decided to use lard because it was what the pioneers would have used. At my mom's suggestion I rolled it out between layers of a clean trash bag. It was the easiest dough I've ever worked with. The crust came out beautiful and flaky, but it was not very flavorful. I think next time I'll try butter-flavored Crisco.

-Mom Pulsipher

2 1/2 cups flour
1 cup lard or shortening (butter-flavored Crisco)
1/2 tsp. salt
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 Tbsp. vinegar
Approx. 4 Tbsp. cold water

Mix flour with salt. Cut in shortening. Mix egg and vinegar in a 1/2 cup measuring cup and fill to top with cold water - about 4 Tbsp. Drizzle into flour mixture and mix with fork. Chill while preparing pie ingredients. Roll out in between sheets of a clean trash bag. Brush with egg white mixed with 1 tsp. water.

Snickers Bar Pie

I am still not confident in my crust-making skills, so I decided to make this pie for the Boy Scout dinner and fundraiser last night. It brought in $75! :) I love that it makes two pies - one I can take to a special event and one for the family to enjoy at home. This is definitely sweet, but super yummy! I reserved all of the candy bars for the top, and think I prefer it that way.

-RecipeGirl

8 ounces cream cheese, softened
1½ cups powdered sugar
½ cup chunky or creamy peanut butter
16 ounces Cool Whip, thawed (or about 8 cups of stiffly whipped, sweetened cream)
Two prepared chocolate cookie pie crusts*
4 regular-sized Snickers candy bars, chopped
chocolate syrup, caramel syrup, chopped peanuts (optional) for garnish

1. In a large mixing bowl, beat cream cheese sugar and peanut butter until creamy.
2. Gently fold in the whipped cream just until mixed.
3. Divide between the two crusts. Drizzle chocolate and caramel syrup on top and sprinkle with chopped peanuts and additional chopped snickers. Keep in refrigerator until ready to serve.

*For two oreo pie crusts, crush 1 pkg. Oreo cookies and stir in 6 Tbsp. melted butter. Press into two pie plates and bake at 350 for 7 minutes. Cool completely.