The Best Apple Pie

Instructions

1. Preheat your oven to 425 degrees.
2. Make the apple filling first.
3. Combine the sliced apples, sugar, flour, cinnamon and salt. Set aside.
4. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour and salt.
5. With a pie cutter, cut in the shortening until the particles are pea sized.
6. Sprinkle in the water, 1 tsp or so at a time, mixing lightly with a fork. Don’t over mix or the crust will be tough.
7. Press into a ball. Then split into 2 balls. It’s okay if the mixture is crumbly. In fact crumbly makes for a tender, flaky crust!
8. Lay out a piece of wax or parchment paper, lightly sprinkle it with flour, then roll out one of the crusts for the bottom of the pie. Then press the crust into a 9″ pie plate.
9. Add the apple mixture and dot with about a 1 tsp butter.
10. Using new piece of parchment paper, roll out the other crust for the top of the pie. If you are using pie crust stamps, use the dough for the top crust and use as much of the dough as possible while using the stamps. For this pie, I just randomly laid out the leaves, trying to cover as much as the pie filling as possible. If you are laying on a top crust (instead of using pie stamps) just make sure to cut ventilation holes into the crust.
11. Make a mixture of sugar and cinnamon, then sprinkle it on to the top of the pie crust.
12. Bake for about 20 minutes at 425 degrees (this will ensure that you don’t end up with a soggy bottom crust).
13. Then after this time, reduce the heat to 350 degrees and bake for about 25-30 minutes more. (Until the crust is lightly browned and the apple mix is bubbling up from under the crust.)