The Best All-American Apple Pie

It lives up to its name (though being Canadian, I'd like to take a little license and call it the best 'North American' apple pie!

Using one of her excellent crusts, I've made this several times, and it's always great. She has two very simple secrets to this pie: the first, collect the juices from the apples as they sit in a colander macerating, mixed with some sugar, lemon and spice, then boil them down into a syrup. The second is to ensure the apple slices are all 1/4 inch or less to reduce any gap between the crust and the filling.

Oh, and I have to mention her recommendation to bake pies low in the oven on a baking stone. This had never occurred to me before, but it's brilliant - you get a nice crisp bottom crust and slightly less chance of the top pastry burning.

Everyone loved this pie except my husband who said it wasn't sweet enough. I loved the idea of baking on the pizza stone in the bottom of the oven. I ended up with one of the best tasting crusts I'd even had. I used her cream cheese dough from page 29. I used Rome apples since they were on sale at our local market and they held up great in the pie. I also liked the way she has you drain the juices from the apples after adding the spices and sugars, then boiling with some butter to make a nice syrupy consistency.