• In a medium bowl stir flour and salt. Cut butter and shortening into mixture with a fork or pastry knife. (A food processor works awesome for this, too!)

  Add in a tablespoon of ice water at a time until dough is shaggy but starts to come together.

  Dump dough onto the counter top and work together just until you can form a disc. DO NOT over knead. Cut into two discs and wrap with plastic wrap.

  Refrigerate for 30-45 minutes (while you're working on making apple filling).

Apple filling:

• Wash, peel and slice apples and add to a large bowl. Add sugar, lemon juice, salt and spices. Stir and allow to macerate for 15 minutes. This will help the sugars dissolve and a delicious liquid will form.

  Add butter to a medium-large pan and add apple filling. Allow apples to sauté on high heat for 10 minutes. A delicious liquid will form around the apples. Mix together your corn starch and apple juice into a slurry and pour into the apple filling after it's been cooking 10 minutes. Allow to boil until mixture thickens fully. Turn off heat and stir in vanilla.

  Remove from heat and allow to sit while you roll out your pie crust.

  Spray a 9" pie dish with non-stick spray. Roll out one of your pie layers and roll dough onto your rolling pin. Unroll into the pie dish. The dough should slightly hang over the edge.

  Add apple filling.

  Roll second layer of dough and use a ruler as your guide to cut long slices for a lattice topping. (IF YOU DO NOT WANT A LATTICE TOPPING you can totally just roll your dough layer onto the pie, seal and add 4 slits in the center!)

  Assemble lattice topping by laying 5 strips in one direction. Now fold the 2nd and fourth strip halfway back, and add a new strip of dough the opposite direction, or diagonal. Next fold back the 1st, 3rd and 5th strip halfway back and add a second strip. Fold pieces back over and create a basket weave pattern. Press edges down to seal. Brush egg wash over the top dough and add course sugar if desired.

  Place your pie in the oven at 375° for 1 hour or until golden on top. Mine usually is done around 65-70 minutes. I like to place a cookie sheet lined with foil on the bottom shelf just in case anything drips over while baking.

  If you want to add decorative pie leaves, make one additional 1/2 batch of pie dough (1 1/2 cups of all purpose flour, 1/2 teaspoons salt, 1/4 cup of shortening and 1/4 cup of butter, 1/2-1/3 ice water) and cut out leaves. Brush with egg wash and sprinkle with sugar. After the pie has been baking 30 minutes, remove from the oven and add the pie dough leaves around the edge. Return the pie to the oven for an additional 30 minutes or until golden.

  Allow pie to cool for one hour after baking. This will allow the apples to soak up the juices so your slices stay in tact when serving. Serve with vanilla ice cream warm, or chilled in the refrigerator.