
You can end your search for the best apple pie right here. I stumbled across this recipe by Audrey over at Audrey’s Apron a few years ago and have never made it any other way since. The apples, a mix of pink lady and granny smith, are drenched in an ultra-smooth caramel sauce with just the right amount of cinnamon. Plus the crust is no-chill, buttery, flakey and holds up well when braiding or doing a lattice.

PIE FILLING TIPS:
- My ingredients call for pink lady and granny smith apples, but you can use a combination of any of your favorite varieties. (I chose two tart apples, because the sauce is so decadently sweet.)
- Make sure your apples are cut thin so they lay nicely in the pie pan. I usually cut my apples into about 16 slices each.
- The original recipe calls for 1.5x the caramel sauce in order to have enough to coat the crust with as well. (I get why she does it, it’s delicious). But I decided to cut the caramel sauce down a little bit and leave it off the crust so I can braid and decorate my crusts with festive little cut outs and still have them shine through after baking
- If you would like to cover the crust with the caramel sauce, multiply the ingredients by 1.5. Or you can find the original recipe HERE.

CRUST TIPS:
I always make home-made crust because I really believe it’s worth the extra time. Better yet, this crust has proven to be basically fool proof for me. You just have to make sure that the ingredients are very thoroughly combined.

- If you don’t have a pastry blender, use your hands to mush the fats and flour together; you want the mixture to be pretty much homogenous (bean or pea sized butter chunks are preferred).
- You only want to add enough water to make the dough hold together in a ball, too much water will lend to “chewy” crust.
- I use a mix of butter and shortening because butter makes the crust more flavorful and shortening makes the crust more flakey. You can use all butter or all shortening and your crust will still turn out fine, I just prefer to combine the two.

- The crust is flakiest if the fats are chilled before combining them. (I don’t always chill my shortening though, and it turns out fine.)
- If you want to do more decorations than your standard closed, or lattice top, multiply the crust ingredients by 1.5. (I usually do this so I can add braids and other festive decorations without having to worry about running out of material to work with.)
- Roll the crust out on a generously floured surface and decorate your heart out, no chilling required.

The beautiful thing about an apple pie is that it’s never really “out of season”. It’s perfect for a warm Fourth of July picnic or completing your Thanksgiving spread. So whatever season you’re in, pick up your favorite apples and tuck into the best apple pie you’ve ever eaten.
