What a great post. Love the photos! I have not had a problem with "the gap" since I started pre-cooking my apple filling as you describe at the end of the post. I don't do it on the stove however. I put my cut up apples, sugar, thickener (recently feel in love with Clear-jel from KAF) in the microwave and cook until my apples are softened and the filling is thickened. The time varies depending on the mix of apples. Since the apples are pre-cooked they don't shrink. They already did their shrinking thing in the microwave. I do let the filling cool well before putting it in the crust...

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