Preheat oven to 450°F.

If using homemade dough, roll one third of it to about 10-inches in diameter. Fit it into the bottom of your deep dish pie plate. Trim excess crust, leaving about 1/4-inch hanging over the edges. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the maple sugar, cornstarch, vanilla bean scrapings, cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, black pepper, nutmeg, and cloves until even in colour. Toss in the apple slices until evenly coated. Drizzle the heavy cream over the apples and toss to coat. Scrape the apples into the prepared pie crust and even out the contents as best as you can without fussing too much.

Roll out the remaining pie crust and cut with a small maple leaf or other small (1 1/2-inch to 2-inch) cookie cutter. Arrange the cut-outs in an overlapping spiral starting with the outside and moving inward. When you're done, the pie crust pieces should resemble slightly overlapped roof tiles. Brush the crust lightly with heavy cream and sprinkle with maple sugar.

Place the pie on a cookie sheet to catch any juices that bubble over and place in the oven. Bake for 15 minutes then lower the heat to 350°F. Bake for another 40 minutes, or until you can see juices bubbling up between the pie crust 'tiles'. If the crust begins to brown too much at the edges before the juices start bubbling, you can gently cover the edges with foil to protect them.

Let the pie cool for at least 45 minutes before slicing. If you want tidy slices, let it cool completely to room temperature before slicing into it.