Q. There are plenty of apples around this time of year, and my wife and I wondered if you had a favorite apple recipe you wouldn't mind sharing with us.

A. One of my favorite apple recipes is for caramel apple pie. It just never gets old. I love the crumb topping and moist cinnamon spiced filling drizzled with caramel sauce. The original recipe calls for making the caramel sauce from scratch but it's way easier to use a jar from the store; the rest of the pie is homemade, though.

Most apple pie fillings call for anywhere from 2/3 to 1 cup of sugar. I used 1/4 cup, since the caramel sauce would be contributing some sweetness, and I was also able to cut the sugar in half in the crumb topping. Most pies also call for dotting butter over the top of the filling; this is not necessary and saves us a few tablespoons. The crumb topping, however, is a different story. Usually 1/4 cup of butter is cut into the flour/sugar mixture, but if you melt the butter/margarine, you can get away with 2 tablespoons.

Sure, the caramel sauce adds about 30 calories to every serving, but considering the calories and fat grams in your average two-crust apple pie (450 calories, 20 grams of fat and 7.5 grams saturated fat), we are still ahead of the game. If you want the calories to go down even further, lose the bottom crust and call it a caramel apple crisp instead.

CARAMEL APPLE PIE

• 1 homemade or store-bought pie crust (whole wheat or part whole wheat if possible)

For the filling:

• 6 cups thinly sliced apples (Pippin and Granny Smith apples work well), packed

• 1 tablespoon lemon juice

• 3/4 cup granulated sugar or dark brown sugar

• 2 tablespoons unbleached white flour

• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

• 3/4 teaspoon salt

• 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg

• 3/4 cup caramel sauce (such as Mrs. Richardson's)

For the topping:

• 3/4 cup whole-wheat flour

• 3/4 cup unbleached white flour

• 3/4 cup dark brown sugar or granulated sugar

• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

• 3/4 teaspoon nutmeg

• 2 tablespoons melted whipped butter or less-fat margarine

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Let crust stand at room temperature for 15 minutes if using store-bought crust. Place crust in ungreased 9-inch deep-dish pie plate. Fold excess crust under and press together to form thick crust edge (flute or crimp edges as desired).

In large bowl, combine apple slices, lemon juice, sugar, flour, cinnamon, salt and nutmeg. Spoon apple mixture into pie crust—work the apple slices around to fit them all nicely in the crust. Drizzle caramel sauce over the apple filling.

For crumb topping, in medium bowl, combine whole wheat and white flour, sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg with fork. Drizzle melted butter or margarine over the top and blend with fork just till crumbly. Sprinkle topping evenly over the pie filling.

To prevent the crust from over-browning, cover the edge of the pie with foil and set pie on a cookie sheet. Bake for 25 minutes. Remove foil and bake 20 minutes more or till top is golden. Cool on wire rack.

Makes 8 servings.

• Per serving: 290 calories, 3 g protein, 53 g carbohydrates, 9.4 g fat, 2.5 g saturated fat, 4.2 g mono-unsaturated fat, 2.7 g polyunsaturated fat, .1 mg cholesterol, 4.2 g fiber, 256 mg sodium. Calories from fat: 29 percent. Omega-3 fatty acids = .15 gram, Omega-6 fatty acids = 1.9 gram. Weight Watchers POINTS = 6

• Per serving (without crust): 189 calories, 2 g protein, 42 g carbohydrate, 2.6 g fat, .7 g saturated fat, 1 g mono-unsaturated fat, .9 g polyunsaturated fat, .1 mg cholesterol, 3.5 g fiber, 139 mg sodium. Calories from fat: 12 percent. Omega-3 fatty acids = .1 gram, Omega-6 fatty acids = .6 gram. Weight Watchers POINTS = 3

Elaine Magee is a registered dietitian. Learn more at http://www.recipedoctor.com.