Salted Caramel Apple Pie

    With Fall right around the corner, it seemed like a perfect time for an apple pie. I'm pretty much in love with salted caramel anything (Starbucks latte' anyone??). So today I spent our precious nap time putting together this pie. Enjoy!

 *A few quick, important notes before you start this pie. 1. You'll need COLD shortening and butter. 2. You'll need ICE COLD COLD water. *The importance of seriously cold water and fat? If your fat melts before you bake the pie, you'll lose the flakiness of the crust and gain a more crispy, crunchy crust. 

     The Crust 

 First, we'll start with the crust. The best crust is buttery and flaky. A lot of crust recipes call for butter OR shortening, we'll use both. Best of both worlds right?  

Mix together the salt and flour in a medium size bowl. Using your pastry blender, cut in the COLD shortening and butter until you reach a coarse consistency. 

Slowly drizzle 3/4 cup of ICE COLD water into the flour mixture. Stir together with a large spoon until the mixture clumps together. 

On a floured work surface, fold the dough into itself until it reaches a nice dough form. It should hold together well, but not be too sticky. 

Split the dough in half and form two balls. Wrap in plastic and chill in the fridge for about an hour. 

        

The apple-filling 

While the dough chills, make the apple filling. Put the lemon zest and lemon juice in a large bowl. Peel, core and slice all your apples. Be sure to slice your apples all roughly the same size. Place apple slices in the bowl with the lemon juice. Toss gently. 

In a small mixing bowl combine sugar and spices. 

Pour over apples and toss. 

Set aside. 

      The salted caramel sauce

In a medium pot, place sugar, salt and water. Melt the sugar into the water over med-high heat. Reduce heat to a low-medium and boil without stirring, until you reach a caramel color. It should be a brown but not too dark, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat and add room temperature butter and COLD heavy cream. Pour into a bowl and whisk together. Set aside

Note: Be absolutely sure to taste the salted caramel sauce before pouring over your pie. If it's over cooked it will make the pie taste terrible....trust me, I learned from experience. 

The crust - Part two

Pull one ball of dough out of the refrigerator. On a floured work surface, roll out your dough until it's 12 inches in diameter. 

Carefully place your dough in a 9 X 2 inch pie dish. *You want the dough to go up and over the edge of the dish. 

Place the apples on top of the crust. There are a lot of apples, I know, but they will all fit. 

Next, pour 1/2 of your salted caramel sauce over your apples. 

Preheat oven now to 400 degrees 

Now, make your lattice crust. A lot of people are intimidated by a lattice crust, but it's actually really easy, promise.

Start by getting the second ball of dough out of the fridge. Roll out your dough until it's 12 inches in diameter. Using a pastry wheel or pizza cutter, cut 16, 1/2 inch strips (They don't have to be perfect). Then, you simply weave them in and out. It's a little difficult to explain without showing you, so if you click here you can see a how-to video. 

Beat an egg. LIGHTLY brush your lattice crust with the egg.

*If you go over-board, you WILL end up with scrambled eggs on top of your pie...

Sprinkle a little granulated sugar on top. 

    Bake 

Pace your pie dish on a jelly roll pan (No one likes cleaning their oven) and place in the oven on 400 degrees for 20 minutes. Lower the temperature to 375 and bake for another 40-50 minutes.

*If your lattice starts to darken to quickly, cover with aluminum foil and finish cooking.  

Cool for about 3-4 hours. Pour a little salted caramel sauce over each piece as you serve it.

This beauty helped me not eat it while it was cooling. :) We made homemade cinnamon rolls instead.

Salted Caramel Apple Pie 

Ingredients

Pie dough:

• 2 and 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 
• 1 and 1/4 teaspoons salt
• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, chilled and cubed*
• 3/4 cup shortening, chilled*
• 3/4 cup ice water*

Salted caramel sauce:

• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 and 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1/2 cup room temperature water 
• 12 tablespoons unsalted, room temperature butter
• 2 tablespoons heavy cream

Filling:

• 2 teaspoons fresh lemon zest
• 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
• 6 large apples, cored, peeled, and thinly sliced. (Be sure to slice all your apples about the same size.) I use a mix of granny smiths and pink ladies. 
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1 and 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 egg, beaten
• coarse sugar for topping