Pre-cooking the apples a bit also drives off some of their water so that less steam is created in the oven, which contributes to that annoying crust lift.
I personally would never complain about anything regarding a homemade apple pie. :-) But... another possibility is to use twice-cooked apples: sauteed first in a frying pan, then baked inside the pie crust in the oven. There is little shrinkage of the apples because most of the moisture has already been cooked out during the sautee, so the top crust remains on top of the fruit. It makes a different-looking pie than regular apple pie (the fruit is in a beautiful, dense layer), but tastes the same. I tried a great recipe by Nick Maglieri. Will try to see if it's online.
That's a common problem with apple pies - the apples shrink after the pie crust has set leaving a gap. A few things gleaned from Cook's Illustrated: 1. Increase the fat in the crust. This helps slow the setting of the crust so it can collapse onto the filling. 2. Minimize gluten in the crust - work it as little as possible, consider using the vodka method, and don't stretch it after you put it on the pie. 3. Pat the apples down into the pie crust or pre-heat them to no more than 140º. Oddly enough the preheating will convert the pectin to a heat-stable form, so the apples won't shrink as much.
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My solution to avoid the empty pie crust is to not use a top crust at all: http://food52.com/recipes/19502_saucy_apple_pie
Good luck with your pie!