When I was a first grader in Sister Sommers class at Hartville Christian School, we used to sing an autumnal song that painted food pictures in my childish brain:

Apples mellow, Pumpkins yellow. Tells the time of year.

Nuts are falling. Nature’s calling, Autumn time is here?

In my middle-aged November, I still see those food pictures and think of our sing-song rhyme, and it leads me to apple pie. Now let me get something off my chest right off the bat: I have a confession to make. “Hello, my name is Cindy Schlabach. I grew up Mennonite and I call myself a domestic goddess and I do not make my own pie crusts.” Confession is good for the soul. Someday when I’m more than just someone who pokes fun at herself for all the traditional homemaker skills she inadvertently developed in her youth, I will be a real woman and I will make my own pie crusts. Until then, I buy them scrolled up in the refrigerator section, and then I unroll them like a carpet and carefully place them in my own pie pans, and pass them off as my own creation. I’d appreciate if you’d keep that to yourselves.

I know someone who does make her own crusts from scratch: my sister-in-law, Kris. If you challenged her to a pie bake-off, she would win, but she would probably laugh and defer to you, just so you don’t feel like a loser. Recently, I was reminded again of her golden qualities and her warmth, when she and her husband, Ken, spent a week with us in Montana.

This recipe for Dutch Apple Pie is from Kris, with a few of my own customizations. I have been making it for many years; there is no better autumn dessert than warm apple pie with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and a dusting of cinnamon. I love it so much better than a two crusted pie, because the crumbly topping reminds me of my mom’s apple crisp. Once every fall, she would prepare a large pan of apple crisp for dinner. That would be all we would eat; bowl after bowlful of warm crisp, swimming in a pond of cool milk. Oh the pleasure! I remember eating until my belly hurt. This pie uses seven apples, thinly sliced and pressed down, until a cross section of the baked product, resembles the rock striations of a sheer mountainside.

I hope you are inspired to bake a Dutch Apple Pie for someone you love. The most difficult part will be waiting for it to cool from the oven, so that the juices can properly thicken. Sometimes we manage to wait, and sometimes we just eat warm pie that’s still a bit runny. Guess today’s blog is a regular confessional for me.

Dutch Apple Pie

7 large apples, peeled and thinly sliced (Use several kinds of apples for best results. I used mutzu, arkansas black, and cortland.

1/2 c. brown sugar

3 Tbsp. flour

1 tsp. cinnamon

Topping:

4 Tbsp. butter, softened

3/4 c. flour

1/2 c. brown sugar

unbaked deep dish pie crust

3 Tbsp. cream

Gently stir the sugar, flour, and cinnamon with the apple slices. Spoon into pie crust, packing the apple slices in and mounding slightly. Mix the topping ingredients together with a fork until crumbly. Sprinkle topping crumbs over the entire top of the apples; it will seem like a lot, but will all work out once its baked. Carefully drizzle the cream all over the top. Bake at 375 degrees for 45 minutes. Let the pie set for at least an hour after baking for the juices to thicken. Serve with ice cream.