My First Apple Berry Pie..or Crisp, I'm not exactly Sure..

My sister mentioned to me today that she had a huge piece of apple pie with a cup of coffee while the rest of the family was napping. And the other day, we had our good friends (and neighbors) brought over an apple pie for dessert after we shared supper together..This has planted the idea in my head, that I would like to try and prepare a pie too..

However, baking always intimidates me, and I know exact measurements are required, unlike cooking, where there's more freedom to add a little bit of this, and a little bit of that..If you do that in baking, your cookies may not rise, or your pie crust will be doughy and tough..

So, I thought I better start small. I had a pie crust on hand already, and a couple apples and frozen berries that I thought I could make good use of. I looked up a couple recipes and chose one that I thought would be easy to follow with good reviews. The only problem was, none of the recipes I came across had both a crust and a crumple topping, it was either one or the other..So I defied that and decided to use both. I wanted both, so I would just have to see what would happen..

The other thing I missed was, in a crumb topping, most asked for oats. I didn't have any, so I just mixed the ingredients, and skipped out on the oats. A possible mistake, or a creative alternative? We shall see!

So with all that being said, here is MY version of a fruity pie with top and bottom included. Judge for yourself if it's enjoyable.
My family thought so..:)


2 large cooking apples, peeled and sliced or coarsely chopped
2-3 cups of frozen berries (blackberries, rasberries, blueberries)
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon cold butter, cut in small pieces
1/4 cup melted butter
1/3 cup brown sugar
2/3 cup sifted all-purpose flour
dash salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 refrigerated pie crust

Preparation:

Heat oven to 325°. Roll out pie crust onto pie plate.
Combine sliced apples, berries, and granulated sugar.
Toss to coat. Dot with small pieces of cold butter.

Combine the melted butter with the brown sugar, flour,
salt,and baking soda. Sprinkle the mixture evenly over fruit.

Bake for 45 to 55 minutes, or until fruit is tender and topping is browned.

Serve with a generous scoop of vanilla bean ice cream! Enjoy.