
The slice above isn’t the first slice of pie. It’s the second. I couldn’t help myself. I thought perhaps the piece would look better broken up a bit. Then I thought maybe it needed a bite out of it for composition, no maybe three. Whoops too many bites. Oh gosh, can’t let the crust go to waste. Instead it went to waist!
I don’t know how it happened, but all of a sudden I caught myself licking that little plate clean while Rocky the Hippopotamus (my dog) stared at me in disbelief. I'd inhaled that piece of pie so quickly and didn’t share a single taste with him!
It’s been less than 24 hours and this pie is only a sliver of its former self. Thankfully I had a little help and didn’t eat it all by myself. Just most of it. Yikes!
I think I’ll go ride my bike for awhile today.

First, if you don’t want to purchase dulce de leche you’ll need to make your own.
Don’t be afraid to boil cans of sweetened condensed milk. As long as they're covered by a couple inches of water at all times you’ll be safe. Think of it as canning you didn’t have to go to all the trouble of harvesting for.
You’ll need:
Sweetened condensed milk in cans (You can do several at a time and store extras in your cupboard)
1 Big deep pot
A tea kettle
Two timers
Remove the labels. Place the cans in the pot and cover cans completely with water at least two inches above the top of the cans. Bring the water to a boil. After it starts to boil set two timers; one for 4 hours and the other for thirty minutes. Turn down the heat if the boil becomes overly vigorous.
Meanwhile fill the tea kettle with water and bring to a boil. Turn off the heat and leave on the burner. After the 30 minute timer is up refill the water that has evaporated from the pot with the water from the tea kettle. Turn the timer on for 30 more minutes and repeat until the 4 hours is up. You must keep the water filled! Exploding cans are not good!
Once 4 hours is up, turn the heat off from under the pot and let the cans cool completely in the pot of water for a couple hours. Once cool, remove the cans and rinse them off under the sink and dry them with a towel.
That’s it. Now you can open the cans and enjoy the world’s easiest caramel type sauce.
Refrigerate any leftovers in a separate container.
Dulce de Leche Apple Pie
Double crust for 9” pie (I purchased mine as usual)
Egg white for brushing dough
5 cups peeled and sliced mixed apples
¼ cup dulce de leche
2 Tablespoons apple cider
½ cup brown sugar
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup cornstarch
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
Pinch of salt
1 Tablespoon of butter for dotting pie
9” Pyrex pie dish, not the 9 1/2" deep dish
1. Place the oven rack on the lower 3rd of the oven and preheat to 400 degrees.
2. Mix together sugars, cornstarch, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. Make sure the cornstarch is well mixed in so you don’t get cornstarch lumps in your pie.
3. In a large bowl toss together the apples, then toss with dulce de leche, apple cider, and vanilla extract. Add the dry mixture and toss to combine. Set aside.
4. Between wax paper gently roll out the pie dough and stretch it about another inch or more for the bottom piece, and roll the top piece gently to even out the dough.
5. Line a 9” Pyrex pie dish with the bottom crust, brush with the egg white. Add the filling and spread out evenly. Dot the mixture with little bits of butter here and there.
6. Cover with the top crust. Press the top dough into the bottom piece gently to stick together. Tuck the top edges into the pie dish leaving a little to crimp at the top. Flute the edges.
7. Poke a few holes in the crust for venting or cut out decorations.
8. Bake for 30 minutes. Then turn the temperature to 375 degrees, cover crust edges with a pie shield, and bake for another 30 minutes or until crust is golden on the bottom and no longer wet and raw looking.
9. Remove the pie from the oven and set on a cooling rack for several hours to set up the filling.
Pie Recipe by Laura Flowers
