Apple Pie #2

I made this apple pie as an alternative to the double-crust apple pie since my husband prefers Dutch apple. This wasn't a true Dutch apple pie, I just used the crumbly topping from the fruit cobblers I make as the topping of this pie and a regular pastry crust as the base. Here's the recipe. This was almost as yummy as the two-crust pie ;)

Bottom pastry crust
Ingredients:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup unsalted butter, chilled, cut up
1/8 cup vegetable shortening
3/4 tbsp. sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
1/6 cup to 1/4 cup ice water

Method:
1. Place all ingredients (except water) in a large bowl. Crumble together with your fingers until you have some pea-sized pieces of dough along with coarse crumbs. Add 1/3 cup water; knead just until dough begins to form, adding additional water 1 tsp. at a time if necessary.

2. Divide dough in half; shape each half into a flat round. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate 20-30 minutes.

3. Heat oven to 375 degrees. Lightly flour a work surface and roll one piece of dough into a 13-inch round (I can never made perfect circles..!) Gently line a 9-inch pie pan with the dough. Trim dough along the edge of the pan. Press a doubled 12-inch piece of aluminium foil inside the unbaked pie shell and cover the foil with pie weights. Bake, leaving the foil and weights in place until the dough looks dry and is light in color, about 25 minutes. Carefully remove the foil and weights and transfer the pie crust to a wire rack to cool.

Filling:
Ingredients:
2 tbsp. unbleached all-purpose flour
3 large Granny Smith apples
3 large McIntosh apples
1 tbsp. fresh lemon juice
1 tsp. grated lemon zest
3/4 cup plus 1 tbsp. granulated sugar (I wonder if light brown sugar would taste good as a substitute...?)
1/8 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp. ground allspice
1/4 tsp. salt

Method:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
1. Peel, core, and quarter the apples. Cut the quarters into bite-sized pieces and toss apple pieces with the lemon juice and zest. In a medium bowl, mix 3/4 cup of the sugar, the flour, spices, and salt. Toss the dry ingredients with the apples. Turn the fruit mixture, including juices, into the pie shell and mound the fruit slightly in the center.

2. Top with crumbly cobbler topping - see recipe below.

Crumbly Topping
Ingredients:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1 egg, beaten
6 tbsp. melted butter

Method:
1. Sift the flour, sugar, and salt together; add the egg. Toss until crumbly then sprinkle over the apple pie filling. Drizzle with melted butter.

2. Bake at 375 degrees for 30-35 minutes or until bubbly and browned. ***It's a good idea to place your pie plate on a baking sheet so the filling does not make a mess in your oven!***

Reference:
The filling recipe is the Classic Apple Pie recipe from Baking Illustrated. The bottom pastry crust is "Perfect Pie Pastry" from Cooking Pleasures Magazine (October/November 2007). Unfortunately, I have forgotten where I got the cobbler topping recipe from - I've had it for years!