No holiday menu would be complete without some kind of show-stopping dessert—or several, if you're a more-is-more type. Apple pie is a quintessential Thanksgiving treat, especially when it's topped with a lattice crust that gives you a sneak peek cinnamon-flecked apple slices inside.

It also falls under that fail-safe category: You know everyone you invite will love it, some will actually expect it, and since it is a major holiday, you might as well go all the way and make it yourself. In fact, you may even feel like you need to make it, just to have it in your 'classic recipes conquered' repertoire, like roasting a chicken or perfectly toasting a Pop-Tart

With that in mind, you get to work. You roll out the dough, flouring the surface perfectly to keep the dough from tearing or sticking to the rolling pin. Inside, you applaud your mad genius (as well you should). 

You peel, core and slice the apples, spicing them just so and spritzing them with lemon so they don't oxidize before you can finish. Like a boss.

Then comes the weaving. It seems ridiculously simple at first—over, under, over, under—and then things start to look more like this:

If Recipes Were IKEA Instructions: How to Make a Lattice-Crust Apple Piepinterest
Mike Reddy

There's always next year.

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