McCall's French Apple Pie

Directions

Prepare crust and roll out ⅔ of the pastry to form a 12 inch circle and line a 9 inch pie plate. Refrigerate with the rest of the pastry which has been wrapped in plastic wrap. Make the filling: In a a small saucepan, combine ⅓ cup sugar and the flour. Mix well.

Stir in milk. Bring to boiling, stirring. Reduce heat, simmer stirring until slightly thickened, about 1 minute.

In a separate bowl, beat 3 egg yolks, slightly. Temper by beating in a little of the hot mixture. You do not want to have scrambled eggs. Pour back into saucepan, beating as you are pouring to mix well. Stir in 1 tablespoon of butter and the vanilla.

Transfer into a bowl to cool. Place a piece of wax paper or plastic wrap on top of mixture to prevent getting a skin on top.

Meanwhile core, pare and slice apples. Put into a bowl and coat with lemon juice to prevent them from turning brown. In a medium skillet, heat butter with sugar and nutmeg. Add apples slices, sauté, stirring occasionally until partially cooked, about 5 minutes or so. Remove form heat.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Heat apricot preserves just until melted.

Turn filling into pie shell, spreading evenly. Arrange slices, mounding in center. Spread with apricot preserves.

Roll out the rest of the pastry to form a 10 inch circle. With a knife, cut into 12 strips ½ inch wide. Moisten the rim of the pie shell with water. Arrange 6 strips across filling and press ends to the rim of the pie shell.

Arrange the rest of the strips at right angle to first strips to form a lattice. Bring the excess of bottom pastry up over the ends of the strips. Crimp edges.

Bake 35 to 40 minutes or until pastry is golden brown.

Cool and serve slightly warm.