As American as Apple Pie

Happy July 4th everybody!! 

Last night, my sister-in-law Karen hosted a cookout for our group of friends at my in-laws house. I was in charge of dessert so I decided to get a little creative and make my favorite apple pie recipe but with a few changes. I've made the same Paula Deen recipe several times, so this time I decided to start taking some creative liberties in the kitchen and it really paid off. I think this is the best one yet! Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures so you'll just have to use your imagination.

Crunch Topping Lattice Apple Pie

Ingredients

• Dough for a double crust 9-inch pie (I use Pillsbury)
• 1/2 cup sugar 
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour 
• 1/4 tsp. nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• Dash salt
• 3 1/2 apples (peeled and chopped)
• 10 oz. applesauce 
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons butter, chopped into small pieces

Crunch Topping

• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• dash of salt
• 1 tablespoon butter, at room temperature

Directions

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

Line a 9-inch pie pan with one roll of dough. Combine the sugars, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt in a bowl. Stir in apples, applesauce, and lemon juice. Spoon apple mixture into pie pan and dot with butter. Cut remaining crust into strips; arrange in a lattice design over top of pie. For crunch topping, combine flour, sugar, and salt in a bowl. Using a fork, cut in butter until mixture is crumbly. Sprinkle over top of crust. Bake for about 45 minutes, or until crust and topping are golden brown. 

I also decided to make some yummy cake balls for all the chocolate lovers at the cookout! I have a few pictures of this super, simple recipe.
Cake Balls

Ingredients

• box of cake of your choice
• can of icing
• baker's chocolate

Directions
1. Make the cake according to recipe on the box. For this recipe, I used Funfetti cake.

2. Crumble the cake and put in a mixing bowl.

3. Add the can of frosting to the crumbled cake. I used Rainbow Chip icing.

4. Form the mixture into balls. Place on wax paper and refrigerate for at least one hour.

5. Melt several bars of baking chocolate or chocolate chips and dip the balls into the chocolate. Allow them to sit at room temperature until the chocolate hardens. Then place back into the refrigerator until you are ready to eat them.

**A few hints**
1. I used both white chocolate and semi-sweet chocolate to cover these cake balls. The white chocolate was much better b/c the semi-sweet was not quite sweet enough. I personally would use milk chocolate or white chocolate in the future (unless you really like semi-sweet).
2. I didn't use toothpicks or sticks to dip the balls and they got really messy. I would definitely put some kind of stick in them to make them easier to dip.
3. Make them really small. I made mine too big and they were super rich.