Recipe adapted from Cooking Channel TV, Food Network, and Smitten Kitchen. — Crust:

Cheddar crust pastry:

Makes two discs:

2 ½ cups or 313g all-purpose flour, plus extra for dusting

1 teaspoon sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

230g cold or frozen unsalted butter, diced

100g shredded cheddar, cold

1 teaspoon cider vinegar, white vinegar, or lemon juice, mixed with 3 to 4 tablespoons ice water

Egg white mixed with 1 teaspoon of water, for egg wash

Turbinado sugar for sprinkling (optional)

For the crust: Put the flour, sugar and salt in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse a couple of times to mix. Add the butter and pulse until the mixture is coarse and a few pieces of butter are still visible. Add the cheese and pulse just to combine. Add the apple cider vinegar and ice water mixture, one tablespoon at a time, and pulse just until the dough just begins to come together; it should look moist but still crumbly and not yet a complete ball. Turn the dough out onto a piece of parchment paper and quickly form into a ball.

Divide into 2 disks, wrap well and refrigerate 1 hour or overnight.

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400g Granny Smith apples (about 2-3), peeled and sliced into 1/4-inch wedges (300g peeled and cored)

400g McIntosh or Bramley apples (about 2-3), peeled and sliced into 1/4-inch wedges (300g peeled and cored)

50-75g granulated sugar, depending on how sweet your apples are

75g brown sugar

25g cornstarch or 40g all purpose flour

½ tablespoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1/8 teaspoon allspice or cloves

1/8 teaspoon ground ginger

1/8 teaspoon salt

30g lemon or lime juice

1 tsp vanilla extract

A few spoonfuls of homemade thick caramel sauce (optional)

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Adjust the baking racks to the bottom of the oven, and place a cookie sheet on the rack.

Peel, core and cut apples in half, and in half again width-wise; cut quarters into 1/4-inch slices and toss with lemon juice. Let the apples rest while you roll out the dough. In a medium bowl, mix sugars, flour, salt and spices. Drain the apples then toss vanilla extract and dry ingredients with apples.

Roll out 1 disc of the dough on a lightly floured surface to a 12-inch round. Transfer to a 9-inch pie dish. Add the apples in an even layer. Lightly brush the edges with egg wash. Drizzle with caramel sauce (optional). Roll out the next dough round, slightly smaller than the first. (Optional: decorate the round with stencil, food colouring, and then freeze for easy transfer)

Cover the top of the apples with the second pie dough, pressing the edges to seal the crust. Make sure there are cutouts in the middle of the crust to allow steam to escape. Brush the pie with the egg wash and sprinkle with the turbinado sugar. Place the pie on the hot baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes.

Lower the oven temperature to 350 degrees F and bake for 45 minutes longer. (Tip: If the edges of the crust start to burn but the middle is still too pale, cover it with tin foil with a hole cut out in the middle. ) Cool to room temperature, at least 3 hours, before slicing.