A Secret Family Recipe

My sister invited a new family to our Saranac Lake week this year, and they fit right in--a great match!  When J mentioned a special family recipe for an upside down apple pie, I begged her for it.  I'm not sure I'm at liberty to reveal the details, but here are some hints:

 Butter and brown sugar in a deep dish pie pan

 Pecans--this was supposed to look like a spiral.

 Place a regular, two-crust apple pie on top.  Bake. 

 Turn it out.  Patch if necessary.

 Tasty!

 Even tastier with ice cream and salted butter caramel sauce . . .

 There was so much spill over (butter, sugar, apple juice?) that I had to pull out the foil and use a 2nd piece.

Baking side note:  I favor the flakiness and decreased fragility of a shortening crust, but so many friends recommend the flavor of a butter crust that I've been trying a combination of both fats lately.  I wasn't too impressed with the results until today when I tested a technique from Crazy About Pies.  I softened shortening and unsalted butter, mixed them into a mostly homogeneous mass, then chilled the resulting glob.  It made a great crust, not as flat and tough as the all-butter versions I've made.  I'll be using this technique again.