"Triple-Error" Apple Pie!

I haven't made a fruit pie in a long time. Instead, I make fruit crisp, using crumb topping I make in large batches and store in the fridge. Much easier!

Recently, however, Terry mentioned that an apple pie would be a nice change...

Get me some frozen pie shells, and I'll make you one, I told him.

I filled one of the shells with peeled and chopped Macintosh apples, dotted butter here and there on the apples, sprinkled on a generous amount of cinnamon, covered the apples with the second pie shell, punctured holes in it and sprinkled it with cinnamon. Done!

Meanwhile I preheated the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit (205 degrees Celsius) and put the pie in.

How long before I turn the temperature down? I wondered, reaching for a cookbook. As I scanned the recipe, I immediately realized that I had made two errors!

Error #1. I hadn't sprinkled on a tablespoon or two of flour on the apples! (Now the pie will be runny!)
Error #2. I had forgotten to add several tablespoons of sugar to the apples. (Now the pie be too sour to eat!)

Well, it's too late to change anything! I turned the oven down after 10 minutes.

When the timer went 45 minutes later, I checked to see if the pie was done. It wasn't very brown on top.
Then I discovered my third error!

Error #3. I had turned the oven down too much - to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C) instead of 350 degrees F (175 degrees C)! I immediately turned it up to 350 F (175 C) and baked the pie another 10 minutes.

Expecting the worst, I tasted the pie - amazed to discover that neither the flour nor the sugar were missed. The pie wasn't sour or runny.

And the slow cooking for 45 minutes softened the apples without burning the crust.

This is the best apple pie you've ever made, Terry commented.

(So, from now on, any apple pies I make will have no sugar or thickening flour in them! And I'm going to lower the temperature for 40 minutes in the middle to give the apples time to soften and cook.)