This apple crumble pie is so easy to assemble and bake that even a teenager could do it!
I have been delinquent in sharing this recipe with you because life has been crazy lately. With Addie’s volleyball season wrapping up, work travel (during my birthday week no less), more work travel, “fire drills” at work, and life in general, time got away from me.
A few weeks ago, my family and I traveled to the orchard for our annual apple picking adventure. My family and I shared a Fuji apple for dinner almost every night. Until one day, it dawned on me that we only had 4 or 5 apples left. Since my husband loves to drop hints about apple pie or apple crisp, I relented and made this apple crumble pie.
I’m not sure which apple pie camp you all are in, but I firmly believe that apple crumble > apple pie with the lattice crust. While crust is fine and dandy, it can get dry overnight and not as fun to eat. Crumble, however, mostly retains its texture while still providing the sweet punch as a topping. So in my mind, crumble > lattice.
Because I didn’t have a second crust to roll out and turn into a lattice top, this recipe wasn’t too difficult to put together. I was leaving for a work trip the day that I wanted to bake this pie. So I had all the ingredients ready to go and tapped my 15 year old to assemble and bake it after I left. Her job was to transfer the filling to the crust, bake, add the crumble, and bake again. While I was driving, my husband texted me a photo of the completed dessert. I was so proud.
Since I would be away for a few days, I told my family to keep the pie in the refrigerator. When I returned and finally tried a slice, the pie was still very tasty, and the crumble topping remained crunchy and sweet.
This is a great apple pie for those just getting started on their pie journey!
Husband’s rating: 4 out of 5
Addie’s rating: 4 out of 5
My rating: 4 out of 5
Apple crumble pie
Ingredients
Single pie crust
- 1 and ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 Tablespoon granulated sugar
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup (8 Tablespoons or 1 stick) unsalted butter cold and cut into cubes
- ¼ cup ice water
Filling
- 3 pounds apples peeled, cored, and sliced (I used Fuji but you can use Granny Smith or Honeycrisp)
- 2 Tablespoons lemon juice
- ½ cup brown sugar packed
- ¼ cup plus 2 teaspoons all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon salt
Crumble topping
- 1 and ⅓ cup all-purpose flour
- ¾ cup brown sugar packed
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground allspice
- ½ cup (8 Tablespoons or 1 stick) unsalted butter melted
Instructions
Make the crust
- In the bowl of a food processor, pulse the flour, sugar, and salt together (alternatively, mix this in a large bowl if you don't own a food processor). Add in the cold butter and pulse until the mixture resembles wet sand (mix by hand if you don't have a food processor - you will have little chunks of butter throughout the dough, which is exactly what you want).
- Add the ice water and mix/pulse until the dough starts to come together. If you pinch the dough, it should stick to itself and not to your hands.
- Shape the dough into a flat disc and cover tightly with plastic wrap. Allow it to cool in the refrigerator about about 2 hours (it can stay in the refrigerator for up to 3 days if needed).
- When ready to bake, roll out the dough into an approximate 12" circle. Place the dough into a 9" pie pan and press down. Trim the edges and crimp.
- Place the pie pan into your refrigerator to cool for another 30-60 minutes.
Make the filling
- Preheat your oven to 425℉.
- In a large bowl, mis together the sliced apples, lemon juice, sugar, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. If the mixture looks too runny, add 1 Tablespoon of flour at a time so that the syrup appears thicker. You don't want this to be too runny or else your crust will get soggy!
- Transfer the filling to your chilled crust and bake in your preheated oven for 20 minutes.
Make the crumble topping
- While the pie is baking, make the topping.
- In a medium sized bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, salt, cinnamon, and allspice. Add in the butter and mix until everything looks like wet sand. Small and large crumbs will start forming.
- Remove the pie from the oven and turn the temperature down to 375℉. Add the crumble on top of the baked pie and bake for another 45-55 minutes. If needed, you can cover the top with foil if the top starts to brown too quickly.
- Allow the pie to cool to room temperature before serving. It's best served with a gigantic scoop of ice cream, obviously. 🙂