Today we're talking about pie and salted caramel. Pie. Salted Caramel. Two of my favourite things.

Seriously though, when asked my top 3 favourite foods....salted caramel makes the cut. #noregrets

I debated whether or not to put the caramel right into the pie, but wasn't sure how it would cook (anyone have any tips for this?). I decided to leave it on the side, and will revisit caramel IN a pie at a later date. Maybe I just wanted to keep it in a jar on the side so that I could drizzle an inappropriate amount on my piece of pie, as well as ice cream the next day, apple slices during the week, and anything else I could think of. Ha!

You'll also notice that this pie has a crumb topping. I love the double crust just like any other sane person, but sometimes I just want those crumbs! I feel like this pie is the perfect marriage of your classic apple pie and apple crisp. Also, it's less work than rolling out a top and obsessing about getting your crimps/braids/cut outs just right. That's a win win in my book!

Apple Caramel Crumble Pie

ingredients:

Pastry - recipe from Jean Pare
Yields: enough for 4 double crust pies

5 cups Flour

2 tsp Salt

1 tsp Baking Powder

3 tbsp Brown Sugar

1 lb Lard (or vegetable shortening)

1 Egg

2 tbsp Vinegar

Cold water

directions:

1) Mix together flour, salt, baking powder and brown sugar in a large bowl.

2) Cut up lard and add to dry ingredients.

3) Using a pastry cutter (or a plain old fork works as well), cut in lard until your mixture is crumbly.

4) Break your egg into a liquid measuring cup and beat well.

5) Add vinegar to the measuring cup.

6) Add very cold water to the measuring cup, until the mixture measures to 1 cup.

7) Pour liquid mixture over flour mixture slowly, and stir.

8) Use your hands to work the mixture together until it no longer crumbles apart. This is where experience will come in, as you don't want to overmix the dough! Once you make it a couple of times, you'll get the feel of it.

9) Divide into 4 equal parts. Each part will make one pie, so you can choose to use it all at once, store some of the dough in the fridge* for up to 2 weeks, or pop some of into the freezer for later!

*If you do refrigerate your dough overnight (or for a few days), be sure to take it out at least an hour before you roll out it (maybe less if it's super warm in your house). Otherwise it will be too stiff!

assembly:

1) Once your pie dough is ready, you can peel and chop apples (the exact number will depend on the size of your apples, and how full you want to make your pie). We used Elstar apples, which are nice and tart, and are wonderful for baking with!

2) Mix all ingredients in with your diced apples, stir, and let sit for a few minutes.

3) Take approximately an eighth of your dough, and roll it out in a circle. You want your dough circle to be big enough to cover the bottom of your pie plate, and to cover the outside edge at least a half an inch.

4) Add your apple mixture to the pie plate.

5) For Crumbs: Mix together flour, brown sugar and salt. Pour melted butter over and stir together. Sprinkle crumb mixture evenly over top.

6) Bake at 425 degrees for the first 15 minutes, and then reduce heat to 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes until nice and bubbly.

*Check on your pie while it's baking, and cover with tin foil if your crumbs start to get too dark.

7) I drizzled a generous helping of salted caramel over each piece of pie as I served them!

Crumbs
from: epicurious - Melissa Burns

3/4 cup flour

3 tablespoons brown sugar

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 cup + 1 tablespoon butter, melted

Filling

6ish medium Elstar apples (or any tart apple of your choice)

1 tsp Cinnamon

1/4 cup Flour

3/4 cup Sugar

Salted Caramel Sauce

ingredients:

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup whipping cream

6 tbsp butter

1/2 tsp salt

directions:

In a medium saucepan, heat sugar on medium high heat until it starts melting, stirring occasionally. Once there are no more white bits of sugar, or chunks, stop stirring, and let sugar turn a dark amber.

Immediately add in the butter, and stir until incorporated. Add in the heavy whipping cream and salt, and again stir until incorporated. *Be careful in these steps as the mixture will froth quite violently!

Remove from heat, and let the caramel sauce cool and thicken before serving. Store in the fridge in an airtight container!