Growing up I was really never a pie kind of girl. I’m more of a cake girl, especially when it’s slathered in an obnoxious amount of frosting. I could eat cake everyday, if my figure allowed it.

But, there’s something about making your own pie. The first pie I ever made was a blueberry and strawberry pie two years ago, and I’ve been hooked ever since.

Here’s the recipe for the pie I made for Pie Party Live – Apple Dulce de Leche.  The recipe is adapted from Recipe Girl.  A delicious combination of flavors, like a sweet apple infused, creamy caramelly symphony.  Pure Goodness!

Here’s what you’ll need…

Pie Filling: Apple Dulce de Leche

8 cups of apples, sliced into thin wedges (I used Cortland & Jonagold apples)

1/2 cup dulce de leche

1/3 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 Tablespoons apple cider

1/3 cup cornstarch

2 tablespoons of butter

Pie Crust: Sylvia’s Perfect Pie Crust

1-1/2 cup Crisco vegetable shortening

3 cups all-purpose Flour

1 whole egg

5 tablespoons cold water

1 tablespoon White Vinegar

1 teaspoon coarse salt

2 tablespoons of heavy cream

1 tablespoon raw sugar

Preheat oven to 400 degrees

For the filling:

Peel, core and slice apples into into thin wedges.  In a bowl, mix together the brown sugar, granulated sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon, cornstarch and salt, set aside until ready to use.

In a large bowl, combine apples, Dulce de Leche, apple cider and vanilla extract. Gently mix together, set aside until ready to use.

For the Pie Crust:

In a large bowl, combine the flour and crisco, mix with a pastry cutter until it resembles a coarse meal. Beat the egg and pour into flour and shortening mixture. Add the cold water, vinegar and salt, stirring gently together until all ingredients are mixed well.

Take the dough and make three separate balls, place each ball into a Ziploc bag or plastic wrap, flatten each ball to 1/2 inch thickness. Seal your bags and place in the freezer for 20 minutes.  You can freeze the dough for use at a later date. Allow to thaw 15 – 20 minutes.

Roll out the crust, both the top and bottom. Take two pieces of parchment paper or wax paper, place one sheet on your working surface, flour the surface of the parchment paper, place dough in the center, cover with the other piece of parchment paper.  Beginning at the center start rolling to the outer edges, rotating the dough as you go around, continue rolling until the pie crust covers the entire pie dish, you’ll want about 1/2 inch beyond the pie dish edges.  Remove parchment paper from top, flip dough and center into the pie dish, remove the other piece of parchment paper, press the dough against the corners of the bottom of the dish and crimp the edges.

Add apple Dulce de Leche filling and spread out evenly, slice butter and layer atop of filling.  Place the dough on top pie, crimp the edges together to seal.  I reserved some dough to decorate my pie, making gingerbread men for the pie top.  Brush the crust with heavy cream and sprinkle with raw sugar.

Bake at 400 for 30 minutes.  Adjust temperature to 375 for the remaining 30 minutes.  If your pie is browning, snugly cover with aluminum foil so the top and edges don’t burn.  Remove from oven, let cool on a wire rack for two hours, it’s important to allow the filling to set.

My favorite part is preparing the pie dough.  Mostly because I’m shocked that I can.  There’s also something meditative about rolling out the dough. Since I’m still new at pies I’ve been exploring different kinds of crust, so for the crust on this pie I tried Sylvia’s perfect pie crust from Tasty Kitchen.  I really like this recipe, it has a good taste and it’s pretty simple to make.  It was the perfect pie crust.  Keep a lookout for my Apple Cupcakes shown above – I’ll post very soon.

A huge Thank you to Ree at Pioneer Woman/Tasty Kitchen & the perfect Sylvia and to Lori at Recipe Girl for the wonderful recipes they shared, they taught me to be a better baker and made my experience at pie party a success.