Last night, crazy fool that I am, I was up till 1 AM baking this apple pie. I’m so tired today! But I NEEDED PIE!!! These were the last of my Granny Smith apples, picked about a month ago. They were the smaller, less ripe ones, so I guess they had a lot of shelf life, being a little under-ripe. They’ve just been sitting on the counter in a bowl all that time.

Anyway, this may be the best apple pie I’ve made yet. It’s a modified version of a cinnamon crumb-crust pie I got from epicurious.com. By the way, I could have used more apples — this turned out a little flat, when it’s supposed to be taller. Here’s my version of the recipe:

Ingredients

Crust
1 1/3 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1/4 cup frozen solid vegetable shortening, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
3 tablespoons (or more) ice water
1/2 teaspoon apple cider vinegar

Filling
3 1/4 pounds Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, sliced 1/4 inch thick
2/3 cup sugar
2 tablespoons all purpose flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon (Original was 2 tsp, but it was too cinnamony)
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice (I added this in — gives it a more classic apple pie taste)
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

Topping
1 cup all purpose flour (a reviewer on the epicurious site said to instead use 1/2 cup rolled oats and 1/2 cup flour — I’ll have to try that sometime)
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes

Preparation

For crust:
Mix flour, salt, and sugar in large bowl. Add butter and shortening; rub in with fingertips until coarse meal forms. Mix 3 tablespoons ice water and vinegar in small bowl to blend. Drizzle over flour mixture; stir with fork until moist clumps form, adding more water by teaspoonfuls if dough is dry. Gather dough into ball; flatten into disk. Wrap in plastic; refrigerate 30 minutes.

Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 400°F. Roll out dough on lightly floured surface to 12-inch round. Transfer to 9-inch-diameter glass pie dish. Trim overhang to 1/2 inch; turn edge under and crimp decoratively. Refrigerate while preparing filling and topping.

For filling:
Mix all ingredients in large bowl to coat apples.

For topping:
Blend first 5 ingredients in processor. Add chilled butter cubes; using on/off turns, cut in until mixture resembles wet sand.

Toss filling to redistribute juices; transfer to crust, mounding in center. Pack topping over and around apples. Bake pie on baking sheet until topping is golden, about 40 minutes (cover top with foil if browning too quickly). Reduce oven temperature to 350°F. Bake until apples in center are tender when pierced and filling is bubbling thickly at edges, about 45 minutes longer. Cool until warm, about 1 hour. Serve with ice cream. (Snelgrove’s Canadian Vanilla is the best match!)