This is a recipe for apple pie that I made for Thanksgiving this past year. There's a bigger picture below of the whole pie. I combined two recipes to make this; a pie crust recipe from my mother-in-law and the pie filling I slightly adjusted from Betty Crocker's Cookbook. I got the leaf idea from a Williams-Sonoma booklet from their store. This was really easy to do, but a little time-consuming to make all the leaves. I cut each out by hand and then layered them. Okay, so I used a leaf punch to make them but it still took a long time! I started with the outside layer and overlapped the leaves as I went in a circular pattern towards the middle. I didn't want to eat it after I spent so much time on it! Whether it was just to placate me or because they truly liked it...everyone raved about it! **If I make this again, I will probably brush the crust with an egg wash to give it a nice shine.**

Pastry for 9" Two-Crust Pie (recipe below)

3/4 c. sugar

1/4 c. Gold Medal flour (if using self-rising flour, omit salt)

1/2 t. cinnamon

6 c. thinly sliced pared tart apples (I prefer Granny Smith)

2 T. butter

dash of salt

Heat oven to 425. Prepare pastry. Stir together sugar, flour, cinnamon and salt; mix with apples. Turn into pastry-lined pie pan; dot with butter. Cover with top crust. Cover edge with 2-3" strip of aluminum foil to prevent excessive browning; remove foil last 15 min. of baking.

Bake 40-50 minutes or until crust is brown and juice begins to bubble through. Enjoy!

2 c. flour

6 T. Crisco

6 T. butter

1 t. salt

6 T. cold water

mix 1 c. flour and next 3 ingredients.

add last c. of flour and mix until resembles small peas.

add water.

one recipe makes a top and bottom crust.

i made 1 1/2 recipe in order to have enough pie dough for the leaves.

**this recipe can also be made in the food processor...combine all ingredients in processor bowl and pulse to combine; when resembles small peas, add water and pulse until just comes together.