Our fridge is stuffed to overflowing of fresh, sweet crisp apples from northeast Georgia We try to plan a fall trip to visit family every fall to see the gorgeous leaves change, festival hop from the Sorghum Festival to the Apple Festival to the Gold Rush Festival. We even pick apples straight from the orchard, riding in the tractor through the orchards to pick until our belly’s are content and our baskets are full. It’s great trying to bring 400+ lbs of apples to our home 7 hours away. If we miss a year, our family is faithful and kind enough to bring us down our fill of apples.

We delve into our cookbooks and recipe box, being as creative as possible to make every apple recipe known to man–apple fritters, apple pie, applesauce, apple butter, apple crisp, apple muffins, apple cake, apple brownies (my all-time favorite!), apple nachos, and even dinners made with apples.

I wanted to make Hubs an apple pie last week. If you’re anything like me, you can’t make a pie crust to save your life! Years ago, I just admitted I’ll never be a great pie crust maker, so I found another way to make a pie crust with oats, sugar, flour and melted butter. Give it a little stir and you’re ready to rock and roll.

This is the perfect recipe to wow your family at Thanksgiving so write the recipe down for safe-keeping and let me know how it turns out. Enjoy!

DUTCH APPLE PIE

INGREDIENTS

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup packed brown sugar

½ cup quick cooking oats

¾ cup butter, melted

Filling:

2/3 cup sugar

3 Tbsp. corn starch

1 ¼ cups cold water

3 cups peeled, thinly-sliced tart apples

1 tsp. vanilla extract

½ Tbsp. cinnamon

Directions:

1. In a large bowl, combine the flour, brown sugar, oats and butter; set aside 1 cup for topping. Press remaining crumb mixture into an ungreased 9-in. pie plate; set aside.
2. For filling, combine the sugar, cornstarch, cinnamon and water in a large saucepan until smooth; bring to a boil. Cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened. Remove from the heat; stir in apples and vanilla.
3. Pour into crust; top with reserved crumb mixture. Bake at 350° for 40-45 minutes or until crust is golden brown. Cool on a wire rack. Yield: 6-8 servings.