Well, your Mom was at least half right; I happen to prefer a crust that uses half lard (leaf lard if you can get it) and half butter. Some old timers swear by goose fat or bear fat, but I haven't had the experience. Not sure I want it. ;-) And yes, you can certainly freeze the pie and pour on the simmering caramel after thawing the pie. I worked in bakeries for some time and it was our practice to hand-make and freeze hundreds of pies before every major holiday. Your pies will no doubt be much better than our mass-produced ones. It's very satisfying to make a good pie. This post was edited by marknmt on Tue, Jul 9, 13 at 20:15

How nice to have such helpful family members. Sounds like a lot was accomplished. I really love tree-ripened apples. Good to hear that you and Leone are cooking them up. My late great aunt made such good pies, and she gave me a gizmo that peels and slices apples -- I guess it's almost time for me to get busy too. There is a place in SoCal that we like to drive to in the fall for apples. With this heat wave I'll bet their crops come in earlier this year too.

Even though its not usually the case, you can buy puff pastry sheets (Pepperidge Farm) and cut into 4 squares each. Then add apple pieces or a small amount of chilled apple pie filling. Fold as a triangle and, wipe the seal edges with water, and use a fork to seal. The pastry should still be cold, but not stiff frozen. Then, once filled return to the freezer to firm up, then wrap. Another option, Phillo dough. These are paper thin layers and are easy to use, you spread a little melted butter between about 10-15 layers. For a flakier pastry, sprinkle a little bread crumbs every 2-3 layers. Then add the prepared filling, and start folding into turnovers, or lengthwise into a long strudle. I also made my own puff pastry and it was even better than store bought, but is very labor intensive. I rolled out a flower and water dough, coat it with a light coat of soften butter (NOT melted), and fold 1/3 once, then add more butter to the folded surface, fold again, ad butter, fold. Between foldings you also will roll it out to about 1/4 inch thick, repear the butter and folding. Then roll to a final dough shape. Refrigerate between every few folds so butter is not oozing out. Once chilled, you cna cut to any shape or size you like and use like regular puff pastry. For a 'pie dough' type crust for a turnover, add an egg to a pie dough as well as a little sugar, and roll out to the size you like.

G'Day Marian. Here are a few thoughts on frozen apple pies. The only time I need a frozen pie is for camping or hunting when it is not feasible to bake a pie. I have tried baking a pie (cherry works better than apple for me) and freezing it and taking it in a cooler and then defrosting it at camp. The apple pie is marginal that way (cherry works better) but welcome with a hot cuppa after a morning of walking the hills. I have experimented and the following method works a bit better. I bake an apple pie and let it cool and then slice it. I then take my vacuum sealer bags and form 8 bags large enough for each slice. I place the slices on waxed paper and then on a cookie sheet and freeze solid. Then I vaccum seal the slices and back into the freezer (labelled and dated). This works fairly well. For camping, I pack the individual slices in my cooler and I don't have to worry about transporting a pie plate back and forth and the slices take less space. They stay fairly frozen until needed, but this does depend on time of the year. At home, if Leslie and I have a hankering for an apple pie and we don't want a whole pie to temp us, we take a couple slices out of the freezer. Dang, now I want an apple pie. I will have to check to see if the Johnathons are out yet--those are my favorite as I can't find pippens around here. Based on my experience, peach pies and cobblers don't do well frozen and thawed. I have not tried pumpkin pie. Cheers, Gary