Here is my favorite apple pie recipe. it is the easiest to make, looks gorgeous and tastes divine.
Get your apples. I have pans of all sizes, so I will say that it takes more apples than you expect to fill your pan. Apples cook down in the pan, and you end up with a huge space between the top crust and the filling if you underfill your pie. Peel and core your apples and slice thinly into a large bowl. It takes me 12 good-sized apples to fill my largest round pie pan. I like Gala, Granny Smith, Pink Lady, Honeycrisp, Macintosh, or Courtlands for pie. I use a mix of at least 2 types, sometimes I have 3 or more in my fridge. Sprinkle with sugar, I use about 1 cup of sugar for a typical pie. If you have brown sugar, use half brown and half white. You can also use a mix of sugar and granulated sweetener for baking (check the label to see if it takes heat well. Splenda is good, Equal not so much. You can also use some stevia, but you have to bake at a lower temperature and for a bit longer. Then sprinkle with cinnamon and nutmeg, twice as much cinnamon as nutmeg. Add a little vanilla and the grated peel (zest) of one lemon. Add a couple of tablespoons of instant tapioca or cornstarch or flour and mix that in. Mix thoroughly. If your apples are not sweet, you can add a little more sugar. (I have a crazy sweet tooth and am diabetic, so I use half sugar and half Splenda for baking, for a total of 1.5 cups.) Then peel, core, and slice 2 more apples. Add them to the bowl. Mix them in. Cover the bowl with plastic or wax paper. Set aside while you go to the store.
Get a package of refrigerated pie crusts from the store. Do not get the frozen ones or the house brand. Get the ones in the red box. Pillsbury. Sit them out to come to room temperature, otherwise, if they are too cold they will tear. Find your pie pan, size doesn’t matter.
Take one of the crusts out of the wrapper and roll it out on a lightly floured surface until it is large enough to overlap the edge of your pie pan. I find they can be rolled to fit an 11-inch pan easily. ( I use an old cotton pillowcase, rub in a little flour, put the crust on the fabric, and sprinkle it with flour before I roll it out. The fabric keeps it from sticking. When you get finished making your pie you can shake it out, wash and dry it (no fabric softener), and use it again.)
Roll out the crust to overlap your pan by about an inch all around. Put the crust in the pan. Lift it carefully so it doesn’t tear. If it does tear, patch it carefully with your finger. If it is a big tear, trim a bit of crust and patch it using a fingertip dampened with water. No one will see it, because this is the bottom crust. Put your pie bird in the center, standing upright.
Get your filling and stir it around. It should have begun to macerate in the bowl. You should see limp slices with juices in the bottom. Using a spatula and a spoon, stir the filling and get all of the bottom syrup mixed in again.
Fill your bottom crust with the filling, mashing it down in the pan. Try to make the apples as flat as possible. Cut up your butter into small cubes, and dot the filling with butter. I use 1 stick of butter for a large pie. I cut it lengthwise into 4 parts, then slice it and I get cubes. Roll out the top crust just like you did the bottom, but it doesn’t have to be quite as large. Put on the top crust, and use a little knife to cut a hole for the pie bird. The pie bird’s head and some of the body should be visible. Crimp the edges and trim excess crust if necessary. If you are a true sugar fiend, you can top the crust with a wash made from a beaten egg and water, then sprinkle on a teaspoon of demerara (raw) sugar. I find that unnecessary.
Bake at 350F until the pie is completely done, the crust is browned but not burnt, and if you can see the filling, it should be bubbling and thickened. If you are using sweetener, bake at 325F for a bit longer. If the edges start to over-brown, cover them with small foil strips. Cool before cutting, at least an hour. Serve with ice cream or a slice of sharp cheddar cheese, or caramel sauce, or just eat and enjoy.