Caramel apple pie

What is better than the smell of a fresh apple pie wafting from your oven? Well, eating it, for one... And upgrading it to a caramel apple pie! I actually never liked any of the apple pies I have tried over the years until I started experimenting and making my own. Here is my own recipe... The one I feel certain that I could finish the entire pie by myself. Luckily, my family loves it too, especially my five year old son. He eats it with such enthusiasm it makes me grin to watch him. Enough about it, here are the pictures and the recipe:

Crust is simple perfection: 2 sticks of butter, 2 cups of flour, 1/2 cup of sugar. Bake for 10-15 min at 350. I seriously use this crust for every dessert I need that requires crust. The apples I used this time were macintosh (honeycrisp are good to use as well)... you can cut those up while the pie crust is baking. The stuff in the pan under the apples is the rue I made with butter and flour. Just add until you get the consistency you would like when you eat your apple pie :)

This time I did not make caramel from condensed milk (you can do that in the crockpot by pouring the c.milk into a mason jar and covering it with water on high until the color changes... pretty neat!), just used this Smuckers caramel since I had it in my fridge already. I mixed this in with the rue, then added all these spices: cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and ginger (don't forget to add sugar, as I forgot to put it in the picture lol but your pie WILL need it). I mixed all this in the pan with the apple slices until they were all coated nicely. I had my kids taste test to make sure they liked the seasoning, of course :) I don't use measurements for the seasoning, we just TASTE, TASTE, TASTE! Sound familiar to anyone?

Pour it all in the pie crust and place your decorations of leaves (I just cut them out with a knife) on top, then bake for an extra 15-20 minutes, whatever the crust allows. You could always do something besides leaves too... I was just in that fallish mood :)

Finished and ready to devour! With a steaming cup of coffee, I'll take it for breakfast any day! Enjoy!