Bacon Apple Pie

I saw a photo online and had to make it.

I used a store-bought pie crust.

Filling:

4 small Granny Smith apples

2 medium Gala apples (this is what I had around)

1/3 cup sugar

½ tsp (or so) cinnamon.

Just a bit of butter, in chunks

Topping:

¾  cup all-purpose flour

½  teaspoon ground cinnamon

½  cup packed brown sugar

   (I didn’t have brown sugar, so I used white sugar with 2 TBSP maple sugar.)

¾  cup rolled oats

   (Oops. I forgot these.)

1 teaspoon lemon zest

   (Oops, forgot this, too.)

I mixed all this together in a Cuisinart. If you mix it by hand, it may be easier to work with.

Top Coat:

6 half-size slices of bacon

Lay ‘em out on paper towels on a baking tray. Bake ‘em until they’re beginning to get crispy. Set aside. Note: you’ll probably want to bake much more than this, but be sure to keep enough around for the pie.

Instructions:

Put the pie crust in the pie pan and set it in the freezer. It seems a frozen crust will resist damage from apple slices.

Preheat oven to 375⁰. Mix up the filling. Make sure you have enough. Load the filling into the frozen pie crust, spread a bit of butter (maybe 1 TBSP total) in little slices around the top of the apples.  Bake for 10 minutes. Cover loosely with aluminum foil and bake for another 30 minutes. Add the topping in little crumbles, and bake, uncovered, for 10 or 15 minutes until brown.  

Add the bacon while the pie is still hot. Let ‘em cool together.