Old Fashioned Deep Dish Sour Cream Apple Pie

This recipe was taken from the Great Beginnings & Happy Endings cookbook by Renny Darling. It was published in 1981. The recipe was not my favorite, but I ended up doing a little something different afterward which made it much better. Pics of that are also included.

 Ingredients! It seems like a lot, but it's really not!

 I started off my baking adventure by breaking an egg.

 

Beat together the cake mix and butter until blended.

Add the walnuts to the mixture.

Spray your pan with Pam!

 Press the mixture into the pan. (This is where I messed up. I'm not afraid to admit it! I used a pan that was too large!!)

Make sure you wash your hands! I was them in between each step.

Place your pan in the preheated 350 degree oven for 8 minutes.

 All finished baking for the 8 minutes.  Set to the side until it is needed again.

 Time to prepare the filling! First step, core the apple! (I peeled them, after this first one, before coring it. Much easier!)

 Apples all sliced and ready to go!

Add the lemon juice!

Add the apricot jam, raisins, cinnamon and sugar.

Mix everything together! It should smell super yummy.

Place the filling on top of the baked cake.

Topping! Sour cream, egg, sugar and vanilla.

Topping mixed together!

Pour the mixture over the filling.

Mixture poured over! Pop it in the oven for 30-35 minutes (until the top is a nice golden brown)

All finished! Serve warm or at room temperature.

NOW! I used a pan that was too big, so it spread out too much and tasted/seemed more like a bread pudding. It was delicious, however I was not a big fan. I decided that the filling itself was very yummy. So, I just made a regular pie with the filling...adding pears to the mixture.

I sliced the apples a little differently this time AND I added pears.

I added the top dough and cut a traditional "star" in the top.

Bake! I may have burnt the edges a little... I was doing laundry and forgot to set the timer. :( However, it was easy to just break those few pieces off.



Let's measure out everything!

Crust:
-2 cups yellow cake mix (not the super-moist kind...which I used. Perhaps a reason my pie was more of a bread pudding?)
-6 tablespoons butter
-1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Fillings:
-3 apples; peeled, cored and thinly sliced.
-2 tablespoons of lemon juice (in my traditional pie, I used the juice of one fresh lemon)
-1/2 cup of apricot jam (I used preserves)
-1/2 cup raisins (optional)
-3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
-4 tablespoons white sugar

Topping:
-1 cup sour cream
-1 egg
-3 tablespoons white sugar
-1 teaspoon vanilla