Yet another recipe using Claire Saffitz Pie Crust! If you want the recipe for that in particular be sure to check out my post here. I am also using her Crumble Topping recipe as well, which is detailed below!
I actually adapted this recipe alllll by myself. Obviously with the help of other recipes and trial and error over the years.
INGREDIENTS
FLAKY ALL-BUTTER PIE CRUST
makes 1 pie crust
- 1 stick + 2 tbs.Unsalted Butter
- 1 ½ cups All-Purpose Flour
- 1 tbs. Granulated Sugar
- ¾ tsp. Salt
- 1 cup Cold Water*
- Pie Weights, for parbaking
* you will not be using ALL the water, just as needed
PIE FILLING
- 4 Gala Apples
- 2 Honeycrisp Apples
- ¼ cup Brown Sugar
- ¼ cup Granulated Sugar
- 1 tbs. Cinnamon
- 1 tsp. Ground Nutmeg
- ¼ tsp. Cardamom
- 2 tbs. Lemon Juice
- 2 tsp. Vanilla Extract
CRUMBLE TOPPING
- 1 cup All-Purpose Flour
- 1 cup Rolled Oats (or Old Fashioned, they're the same)
- ⅓ cup Light Brown Sugar, packed
- ½ tsp. Salt
- 10 tbs. Unsalted Butter, cut into 1/2 inch pieces, refrigerated
INSTRUCTIONS
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and place your parbaked pie crust (Pie Crust Recipe here) on a foil-lined baking sheet.
First, peel, core, and thinly slice your apples. In a large bowl, toss the apples in cinnamon, nutmeg, lemon, sugars, and vanilla extract, until fully coated. Set aside and let the juices release from the apple. About 15 minutes.
In the meantime, let's make the crumble topping. In a medium bowl, toss the flour, oats, sugar, cinnamon, and salt until combined. Add the butter to the flour mixture and work the butter into the mixture with your fingertips. There should be no visible pieces of butter or flour left. Set into the fridge until ready to use.
In a small saucepan, take the juices at the bottom of the apple bowl and reduce over medium heat. Whisking occasionally, until the mixture has reduced by about one-third, 8-10 minutes. Turn off the stove and remove it from the heat. Let cool slightly.
With a rubber spatula toss the juices back into the apples. With half the mixture, fill the parbaked crust so the apple slices fill every nook and cranny. Then pour the rest in, focusing the majority in the center.
Crumble the crumble topping over the apples. Pack it tightly so it stays in place and acts like a lid for the filling.
Place the pie on the lined baking sheet and loosely "tent" the pie with foil.
Bake for 30 minutes. Then remove the foil and continue to bake until the crumble topping is browned and the juices are thick and bubbling around the sides, another 40- 50 minutes.
Let cool for 2 hours before cutting and serving.
Before even getting into the apple you need to have prepped and parbaked your crust! if you have no idea what I am talking about, check out my blog post on this Pie Crust recipe here. If you are using a store-bought dough or crust, then proceed!
First things first, you need to peel, core, and slice your apples. Size is ultimately up to you. I used an apple cutter and then went through and cut some pieces smaller.
Toss the apples in your sugars, cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom, lemon juice, and vanilla extract, until coated. Set these aside for at least 15 minutes, to let the juices gather in the bottom of the bowl.
While you wait for the apples, let's work on the crumble topping.
Luckily, it's pretty simple. In a medium bowl, toss the flour, oats, sugar, cinnamon, and salt until combined. Add the butter to the flour mixture and work the butter into the mixture with your fingertips. There should be no visible pieces of butter or flour left. Set into the fridge until ready to use.
Back to the juices! In a small saucepan, carefully pour just the juices from the apples in. Over medium heat, whisking occasionally, until the mixture has reduced by about one-third, 8-10 minutes. Turn off the stove and remove it from the heat. Let cool slightly.
At this point, it is also probably a good idea to preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.
The mixture should be thicker and have more of a syrup consistency.
Once cooled, add the syrup back to the apples and toss until coated.
Now for the filling. In your parbaked crust, add apples so they fill every nook and cranny at the bottom of the pie crust. Then add the rest of your apples.
Here is the tightly packed crumble topping on top of the apples.
This step is super important and quite messy.
I packed it on top of the apples in small sections. Carefully placing it around the edges as well.
You want this to be tight so it "seals" the filling and helps it to cook through.
Bake in the oven with a little aluminum foil "tent" over the top of the pie for about 30 minutes.
After 30 minutes, remove the foil and bake for another 40-50 minutes, until golden all over and the juices are bubbling around the sides.
Let your pie cool completely for 2 hours.
I know, 2 hours is a long time to wait, but you want to make sure your pie is set and won't fall apart when you cut into it!
You can definitely re-warm the pie slightly before serving. Personally, the only way to eat apple pie is warmly served with a scoop of vanilla ice cream (non-dairy of course). Yes, I will eat things with dairy baked in but not straight-up dairy, I know.
Anyways, I hope you guys try this recipe and love it as much as my family!
If you would like to save this to Pinterest or share anywhere use either of these photos and thank you so much for sharing!