Has anyone else experienced complete blow-out making these?

I followed Martha Stewarts recipe from her Pie book and now as I look at other recipes I see one big difference.....she has you core from the bottom of the apple then placing it with the filling on the bottom. Other books I looked (too late) at tell you to core from the top and place it on the dough so there's fillings on top.
They didn't have any steam releasing wholes in them (no one mentioned that), I thought it would come out near the stem on top. They leaked filling first then they blew out...which factor do you think caused that?

Second question...my apples (granny smith) turned into apple sauce before the pie dough took on enough color where I could pull them early. I've finally reached the point where I can see why no one recommends them in their cookbooks any more unless you can't get anything else. Is it their moisture content that's the problem or is the meat not strong enough to withstand heat?