Top Secret Recipe

My top secret apple pie recipe is as follows:

Use your favorite double crust recipe OR use three parts flour to one part binder (such as COLD butter or COLD vegetable shortening/any combination of butter/shortening is good too). Have a about 1 cup cold ice water standing by in a spritz bottle. For example:

****Please note to not use this crust recipe verbatim. This is just an example and I suck at math, so I used the easiest measurements possible. Please refer to a cook book/professional guide.

3 cups flour to 3/4 cup COLD unsalted butter and 1/4 cup COLD vegetable shortening.
Cut flour into butter and shortening. Spritz with just enough water to hold together. Gather crust together and wrap in plastic wrap. Chill for 30 minutes in the fridge. Turn out on floured surface and roll with floured pin. You get the point. You know how to make pie crust -- or buy it at the store! ;-)

FILLING:
2-4 lbs. Granny Smith Apples Peeled, cored, sliced. (amt. will vary depending on size of pie pan and height of pie desired. For "normal" 9.5" pie pan use about 2 1/2-3lbs. The weights referred to are the weight of the apples prior to peeling and coring, etc.

1/4-1/3 Cup tightly packed DARK brown sugar (amt. will vary for amt. of apples used. obviously use more for more apples, less for less apples)

1 TBS. granulated white sugar

A pinch of salt

1 TBS. Corn Starch (you may need more to thicken it properly with more apples and sugar, use your judgment)

2 TBS. lemon juice (orange juice works great too)

2 TBS. Cinnamon

1 TBS. Apple pie spice (or 1 tsp. nutmeg, 1/2 tsp, clove, 1/2 tsp allspice,1/2 tsp additional cinnamon)

2 TBS. unsalted butter

1 egg, beaten

Preheat oven to 350 Fahrenheit.

In large pot, combine apples and toss with lemon juice. Add salt, brown sugar, white sugar, spices and butter. Heat on medium heat until sugar and butter are melted. Stir constantly to prevent scorching. Remove from heat and sprinkle in corn starch; stir thoroughly to remove any lumps. No one wants to bite into a lump of corn starch -- ICK. The consistency should be very gooey and not runny at all. [I'm a culinary technicality waiting to happen, I know] Allow to cool at room temperature for approximately 15 minutes, or until it can be handled without burning you.

Roll out crust and lay bottom crust into pan. After the filling is cooled, pour it into the crust and try to level out any huge lumps in the top so that it won't tear the top crust when laying it on. Lay on top crust. Tuck extra crust under bottom crust and flute or crimp as desired. Brush top crust with beaten egg and cut at least 4 vent holes. Bake in 350 degree oven for 40-45 minutes or until crust is golden brown. To prevent the fluted edge of the crust from browning too much or burning while baking, cover with strips of tin foil after first 15-20 minutes of baking.

Yum.