Caramel Apple Pie

This is the Caramel Apple Pie that won the Food Network’s Pie contest. I’ve made it 3 times (twice without the Heath bars). I like that it calls for cooking the apples before putting in the pie shell, because they don’t collapse as much during baking and leave a high hollow pie shell that crushes when you cut into it.

A great tip that I got from Ken’s sister, Tami, is to bake apple pie in a large turkey roasting bag on a cookie sheet. Cut slits in the top of the bag. The pie browns perfectly and no juices drip into the oven.

Filling:
6 C peeled, sliced apples
½ C brown sugar
½ C sugar
¼ C flour
1 tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp nutmeg
¼ tsp salt
1 T lemon juice
1 tsp vanilla
4 T heavy cream
4 T butter

Preheat oven to 450°.
Sprinkle apples with lemon juice. Combine dry ingredients in large bowl and add apples. Toss to mix. Add vanilla and cream. Melt butter in large heavy skillet. Add apple mixture and cook approximately 8 minutes to soften apples. Turn into unbaked pie shell.

Streusel Topping
½ C flour
3 T sugar
1 T butter
2 toffee bars (Heath bars)

Combine first 3 ingredients into coarse crumbs. Stir in crushed toffee bars. Sprinkle over pie, and add unbaked top crust. Place in baking bag on cookie sheet and use tie to close. Cut slits in bag. Bake for 15 minutes; reduce heat to 350° and bake 45 minutes longer. Remove bag from pie and cool.