2 – 9” deep dish pie shells

14 Large Granny Smith Apples-peeled, cored and sliced evenly

Juice of one lemon

1 tablespoon good quality cinnamon (I use Saigon)

1/4 teaspoon ground allspice, 1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg (best if you can find whole nuts and use a rasp to grate)

3/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar

1/2 stick unsalted room temp butter, cut in half

PreHeat oven to 350 degrees

Place apple slices into a really big bowl, pour juice over them and toss to coat. Add cinnamon, nutmeg and brown sugar. Toss apples till all are coated with mixture. Heat up a good heavy skillet or deep frying pan till a bead of water dropped in it dances! Now, lower the heat to medium high. Add one half of the butter to the pan, swirl it around till melted and toss in half of the apples. DON’T walk away…using a rubber spatula keep the apple slices moving till turning light brown and smellin’ good. Remove cooked apples to a sheet pan and repeat the process with the remaining butter and apples in the bowl. You can add whatever liquid is in the bowl to the pan to cook with the apples. Remove all apples to sheet pan, spread them out to cool.

Prebake your pie crust. Using pie weights or uncooked hard beans, place a piece of wax paper or parchment paper in the pie shell and fill the bottom with the weights. This is to ensure the crust doesn’t bubble up in the oven. Place in oven and bake for 10 to 12 minutes. This keeps the pie crust from becoming soggy. Take crust out of oven, remove paper with the weights in it, let cool slightly. Now fill the baked pie shell with all of the cooked apple slices and liquid. Don’t smash it down, they will settle while baking. Arrange it so you can either use a Dutch topping or another pie crust or pie strips. If using a pie crust or strips, make sure to brush the top with a beaten egg and make slits in the full top with a sharp knife for venting. If using the second pie crust for the top or to make strips, keep it ice cold until you are ready to use it.

Dutch Topping:

1 stick unsalted cold butter, cubed as small as you can get it. You can freeze the butter after you’ve cubed it to keep it cold.

1 1/2 cups rolled oats

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1 cup granulated sugar

2 cups unbleached Flour

1/2 cup chopped pecans (optional)

In a large mixing bowl fitted with the paddle attachment place the oats, cinnamon, nutmeg, sugar and flour and start slowly mixing about, 2 minutes. Slowly add in the cubed butter a few pieces at a time. Slowly mix all the butter in until it’s formed clumps with all the ingredients and the butter cubes are about the size of peas. You can add the pecans now if using. Now using your hand, drop dollops of the mixture on top of the filled pie shell covering all of the apples. Place the pie on a sheet pan to catch anything while in the oven. Your oven will thank you!

Bake for 45 minutes. If the crust starts to get too dark after 30 minutes, wrap the outer edge in aluminum foil. Let pie cool completely before cutting. Enjoy!