Mrs. Dec's Apple Pie

a long time ago (10 years ago) in a land far, far away (harrisonburg, va) i lived with 3 wonderful girls. if you read my blog, you already know them because we have regular roommate get-togethers. every year, we would host a thanksgiving dinner for our college friends. every year, L would make her mom's apple pie. this quickly became my favorite thanksgiving dessert (i even used to request she make it for me on my birthday). now that i am all grown up (seriously it was shocking to me to realize it has been 10 years since my sophomore year in college) and having thanksgiving without my roomies (but with my fabulous in-laws:), i still make mrs. dec's apple pie.

i can't believe i actually found these pictures in my messy box of college photos. wow, memories . . .

L, holding her magnificent apple pies (circa 1999)

M dishing out mashed potatoes and me carving the turkey (again, 1999)

the wonderful thing about this pie is it's really a cross between a pie and a crumble/crisp. it has the traditional flaky pie crust on the bottom with a wonderful, sugary crumble topping on top.

this year i am taking it to K's for the wasti thanksgiving dinner. today, i tried to "clean it up a bit". i hesitate to even do that 1) because it's so good and 2) i only have it once a year, but i just thought i'd try. i made two individual ramekins so as not to make (and then proceed to eat) a whole pie. the only thing i really changed was i used whole wheat pastry flour instead of white all purpose flour and i tried some sugar substitutes.

i couldn't taste the difference with the whole wheat pastry flour substitute so i will do that, but the topping is too important and just wasn't as good with the changes. it changed the texture of the topping, so i'll stick with the original wonderful recipe.

thanks mrs. dec!