Old-fashioned apple pie with an oat crumble topping

For the crumble, combine cold cubed butter, flour, rolled oats, packed light brown sugar, salt and cinnamon with your hands, coating the butter pieces, then smash and pinch the butter into the dry mix.

It is done when no butter pieces are visible, no floury areas remain and it holds together when squeezed. If it gets sticky, chill it. Refrigerate until needed.

Peel all the apples, then slice them all. Cut down beside the core on four sides and slice about half an inch thick, no thinner.

Toss the apples with light brown sugar, ground cinnamon, a little kosher salt, cornstarch, a little vanilla and the apple cider vinegar until everything is well coated.

Flour the work surface and thwack the chilled pie dough into a square to soften the butter, then roll it out into a circle, rotating and rolling in all directions and pinching any cracked edges back together.

Lift the crust into the pie plate, push the ends inward so the dough slumps rather than stretches, and press it firmly into the bottom and into the nook where the side meets the bottom. Centre it so the overhang is even.

Trim any long overhang with scissors and tuck the overhang underneath so the edge is double thickness and rests just inside the lip of the plate. Press the dough firmly back against the side.

Crimp with the thumb of one hand pressing toward the centre and the thumb and forefinger of the other pressing toward the lip, then go back around pressing each wave firmly against the lip so it holds its shape.

Lay some apple slices into the bottom where the side meets the base so there is no gap in a cut slice, then scrape in the rest with all the juices and sugar.

Dot two tablespoons of cut-up butter over the fruit.

Pile the crumble on top and press it so it forms a solid lid that slices cleanly. No egg wash: she declines it because there is no top crust to seal, so the pie bakes golden but not glossy.

Bake on a baking sheet at 400F for about 20 minutes for a blast of heat to set the crust edge, then turn down to 350F for about another hour, until juices bubble around the edge and the crumble is golden brown.

Cool fully - overnight is best - before cutting with a serrated knife all the way to the bottom. If the first slice will not lift out, cut two.