Salted Caramel Apple Pie {Crazy Cooking Challenge}

Salted Caramel Apple Pie is my submission for the Crazy Cooking Challenge this month.

It's the perfect fall dessert. I had so much fun making this pie. I branched out of my comfort zone and made homemade salted caramel sauce and a spelt flour pie crust.

The caramel sauce just added another level of flavor to an otherwise simple but still classic dessert and I've been trying to use spelt flour in my baking whenever I can so I made a spelt flour pie crust.

I have to be honest - I'm not a from scratch pie crust maker. Way back even before I had kids I attempted to make a homemade pie. It took me hours and I had flour all over the kitchen and never was able to get the crust to come together. I was traumatized and never again tried to make a pie crust until now.

Experience can take you where you've never been before. If I knew how easy it was to make a pie crust I would have never waited until now.

Salted Caramel Apple Pie
Ingredients

Pie Crust
• 2 cups spelt flour
• 2/3 cup butter
• 1 tsp. salt
  
• 3-5 TBLS. ice water
Apple Pie Ingredients
• 4-6 peeled granny smith apples (or your favorite style)
• 2-4 TBLS. cinnamon
• zest from a small lemon
• 2 TBLS. lemon juice
• 1 tsp. salt
  
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 4 TBLS butter
• 1 TBLS tapioca or flour
• 1/4 cup salted caramel sauce

Cooking Directions

1. For the pie crust -- sift the flour and salt into a bowl and refrigerate for about 1 hour.
2. Keep the butter well chilled until ready to mix the dough. Add the cold butter in pieces to the sifted flour and blend with your fingers until you have reached the consistency of course sand.
3. Add in the ice water 1 tablespoon at a time and blend just until the flour is no longer crumbly but holds together.
4. Roll into a ball, cover in plastic wrap and chill for at least 2 hours.
For The Pie
5. Peel the apples and slice them into a large bowl.
6. Add in the lemon zest, lemon juice, cinnamon, brown sugar and salt to the sliced apples and stir well to combine. Place in refrigerator until ready to use.

7. Cut the dough in half and roll out each half for a top and bottom crust.
8. Place one half of the rolled out crust into the pie plate. Next stir in the tapioca or flour to the apples then add the chilled apples to the pan.
9. Drizzle the salted caramel sauce across the top of the apples and cover the apples with the second piece of dough.
10. Bake for 25 minutes covered with foil. After the 25 minutes, remove the foil, coat the pie crust with an egg wash and continue to bake uncovered for another 20-25 minutes.
11. Let pie cool. Serve warm, or chilled.