Oh my. The cinnamon, the apples, the brown sugar....this pie wraps around you like a warm fluffy blanket in cold weather. Absolutely delightful. A sweet, but balanced pie in terms of flavor and texture! It's perfect for fall and wonderful to share with friends and family. The original recipe is here, but it was truly terrible: https://www.spendwithpennies.com/the-best-apple-crunch-pie-ever/. Therefore, I made a LOT of adjustments to create an amazing, beautiful, and deeeelicious pie! I basically made an entirely new recipe in my endeavors to improve he original recipe.
The recipe is here, and pictures of the process are below.
Ingredients:
Crust:
2 cups all-purpose flour, divided
1/2 cup butter, cut into 1 cm cubes
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
4-6 tablespoons ice-cold water
Crumb topping:
1/3 cup flour
2/3 cup quick oats
1/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
6 Tbsp. cold butter (85 g) cut into cubes
¼ tsp. salt
½ tsp. vanilla extract
Apple filling:
1 lb. 12 oz. sliced apples (1/2 green apples, ½ red apples)
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1/4 cup white sugar
2 Tbsp. packed dark brown sugar
2 Tbsp. corn starch
1 Tbsp. flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 tsp. vanilla extract
Directions:
Crust:
Disclaimer: I am not great at making pie crust, feel free to try a different recipe!
Add 1 cup flour, salt, and sugar to food processor. Add butter on top and add remaining cup of flour on top.
Pulse on and off until butter pieces are pea-sized or smaller.
Add in 4 Tbsp. water and pulse for slightly longer intervals until a sandy like texture is achieved. Test to see if the mixture slightly sticks to itself (see picture below), if not add 1-2 more tablespoons to water until it does (up to 6 Tbsp. total).
Pour onto floured surface and squish it together until you get a ball of dough. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill for at least an hour.
While the crust is chilling, make the crumb topping and filling.
Crumb Topping:
Mix the dry ingredients and vanilla together until homogenous.
Add in the cold, cubed butter and massage it gently into the dry ingredients until a crumbly, almost cookie dough-like texture is achieved. Cover and chill.
Apple Filling:
Preheat the oven to 450°F.
Peel, core, and slice apples into 1/8 inch thick pieces. Continue until you have 1 lb. 12 oz. prepared apple slices.
Add the cinnamon, sugars, vanilla, lemon juice, cornstarch, and flour to the top of the apples. Mix in by hand.
Cover and refrigerate until the pie shell is ready.
Pie assembly & baking:
Carefully roll the dough into 1/8 inch thickness. It will be very crumbly, but be patient. If necessary, fold it over itself once to strengthen it slightly before rolling again. You don't want to roll/fold it too much or it can become tough. Fold the rolled out dough over the 9-10" pyrex or ceramic pie dish, cut of the edges, fold them under, and crimp/flute the pie edges with your fingers.
Layer apple slices into the pie shell. Do not pour in the residual juice from the apples into the pie shell. Top apple slices with the crumb topping.
Place pie on the second lowest shelf of the preheated oven.
Bake at 450 for 15 minutes, reduce heat to 350 degrees and bake an additional 40-45 minutes. Check on the pie ever 10-15 minutes. Rotate if it's browning unevenly and add a sheet of tin foil on top if it's browning too quickly.
After baking, let cool 3-4 hours before serving.
Tastes better the next day. Best served with vanilla ice cream and caramel.
Store covered at room temperature up to 2 days.
Crust
Add 1 cup flour, the sugar, the salt, and butter. Next you'll add the second cup of flour (next picture).
After adding the second cup of flour. Now time to blend it up and break up the butter!
The butter is now in pea-sized pieces or smaller after pulsing the mixture a bit.
Before mixing in the cold water.
After mixing in the cold water. It should gently stick to itself when you press it together, but will be crumbly.
Dump your crumbly dough onto a clean work surface.
Use your hands to smoosh the dough together.
Wrap it tightly before refrigerating it for 1 hour!
Crumb Topping
Before mixing the dry ingredients + vanilla.
After mixing the dry ingredients + vanilla.
Before massaging the butter in.
After massaging the butter in. It's good to go! Just need to cover and chill it before assembling the pie.
Apple Filling
Look at them little beauties!
Peel them.
Core and slice them (a little skin on them is okay)
Add them to a large mixing bowl as you're slicing.
Dump all the other apple filling ingredients onto the apple sand then mix in with your hands.
After mixing the ingredients together.
Pie Assembly
Take your weird pie crust out onto a lightly floured surface.
After rolling the pie crust out.
The crust after placing it into the pie pan.
After cutting off the excess, folding the edges in, and then fluting the edges. Crumbly but beautiful!
Layer your apples in.
Add your crumb topping.
Bake on the second-lowest shelf of the oven.
After baking! SOO great!
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