Apple Pie Comfort

I have been lax on posting lately, I made chocolate chip cookies and peanut butter fudge about a week ago. They were both super delicious, and I may post them eventually. TBD...Anyway, I ate at my parents house today. Sunday dinner, very comfort food today. We had homemade chicken and noodles over mashed potatoes with roasted squash. It was soooooo goood. And of course followed by the ultimate comfort food dessert, Apple Pie. I really wanted to go with a very flaky and tasty pie crust. So I used half butter and half lard. Also, I changed the pie filling, and used brown sugar, instead of granulated sugar. I used Green Apples from my parent's apple tree. They are super good. We made applesauce all weekend and decided to do apple pie, because it sounded so good. So, here's the recipe. I hope you enjoy. (It is not wise to even try to count calories with this recipe, but wise to eat the results :)

Apple Pie

For the Crust:
(Yield: 2 crusts)
1/2 cup lard, freeze for 20-30 minutes
1/2 cup unsalted butter, cubed and freeze for 20-30 minutes
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour, put in the freezer long enough to get very cold
1/2 cup ice cold water
pinch of salt

In a large bowl: Mix together the flour and salt. Toss in the butter and lard to coat in the flour mixture. Use your fingers to crumble the butter/lard with the flour until the mixture resembles small peas. May need to put back in the freezer if the butter/lard is getting too warm. Sprinkle the water over the flour and mix with your fingers just until you can form the dough into a ball. Try not to over moisten the dough. It's alright to be a little flaky. Divide the dough into two equal portions flatten into discs and wrap each in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for an hour. Take out one disc and unwrap, leaving it on the plastic wrap, cover with a 2nd piece of plastic wrap. Roll the dough out into a 9-10 inch round, or least enough to overlap the edge of a pie plate. Leave the plastic wrap on and loosely roll up, replace in the refrigerator. Repeat with the second disc until ready for use. Lay one crust on a 9-inch clear pie plate and lightly pat in the pan. Put the pie plate back into the refrigerator. Now to prepare the filling...

For the filling:
9 medium apples (3 pounds), peeled, cored, and thinly sliced
1 Tbsp. lemon juice
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
2 Tbsp. flour
dash of salt

Mix the dry ingredients together and toss with the apples to coat. Pour the filling into the crust lined pie pan. Moisten the edge of the crust with egg white, or water. Place the second crust over the apple mixture. Cut into the crust in an apple shape, 1-inch cuts should do it. Place the pie pan onto a cookie sheet to catch any drips. Bake at 425 degrees for 20 minutes. Reduce the oven temperature to 375 degrees and bake for another hour. Check about 30 minutes in, you may need to cover the crust edges with foil. Keep an eye on the pie, you may need to take it out before the hour is up, depending on whether the crust is cooked through. Remove the pie from the oven and place onto a wire rack to cool. Enjoy!