This recipe was passed down through our family. It was originally made with Crisco, and then margarine, but I use butter instead. It makes one large rectangular pie. (Pyrex® Oblong Baking Dish) Honestly, this is my best recipe. I will give you the exact measurements for the dough, how many apples to use, but the taste of the apples, after adding sugar, cinnamon, lemon juice, and a little flour, is up to you.

Dough:
Mix well, 3 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder 
A pinch of salt 

Add: Two sticks of cold unsalted butter

Cut butter into the flour so it resembles wet sand. Do not use your fingers; use 2 forks or your Kitchen Aid dough hook.

Add: 2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla 
Lemon juice (The recipe states that if the dough is too dry, add some lemon juice.  However, I always add lemon juice – 1-2 tablespoons. It makes a flakier crust.)
Refrigerate for at least one hour

Filling:
Peel and core 10-11 large apples, and cut into slices. (Use a selection of apples, including Honeycrisp.)
Add sugar, cinnamon and lemon juice to taste. (You might need more sugar than you think. Go slow.)
Add 2 tablespoons of flour.

Assemblage:
Preheat oven to 400F. Generously butter the baking dish. Remove one disc of dough from the refrigerator and, using a pin, roll it out on a lightly floured piece of parchment paper until it’s roughly the size of the dish. If dough is too wet, slowly sprinkle more flour onto the pin and the dough until it rolls smoothly. Place dish on top of dough, slide hand under parchment and then flip the dough over onto the plate. Carefully peel off parchment paper. Trim the dough and place aluminum foil, with dry beans on top, to keep the shape of the crust. (I usually trim the dough to just fit the bottom of the plate, so the sides of the dough don’t slide down.)

Bake at least 15 minutes, or until the dough feels a little firm.

Fill the crust with the prepared apples, *roll out the top dough, cover the pie, and brush with an egg wash (optional). Make slits in several places.

Turn oven down to 350° and bake until the dough is a little bit brown.
The apples will not be ready at this point. Loosely cover the pie with aluminum foil and turn down the oven to 300 or 325° to finish baking.

When you start to smell the pie, check to see if the apples are soft and juicy; it should be ready.

*After the top dough is rolled out, I roll it up in the parchment paper, shake out the excess flour, and unroll it onto the apples. Trim.