Apple Crumble Pie
Sweet apple cinnamon filling topped on a flaky pie crust and covered with crumbles. If you love both pie crusts and crumbles, Apple Crumble Pie is the way to enjoy the best of both worlds in each bite!
Love pies? Don’t forge to also check out my Oreo Cream Pie, Best Easy Pumpkin Pie and Mini Chocolate Chess Pie recipes!
Apple Crumble Pie Recipe
Apple Pie is such a traditional American dessert, enjoyed by millions especially during this Thanksgiving and Christmas season.
Today we take the traditional pie and instead of covering the top with the same crust pastry, we are generously sprinkling it with crumble topping instead.
I thought Apple Pie was amazing, but let me tell you, Apple Crumble Pie takes amazing to the next level.
Why I love it! (And you will too!)
- I get both the crumbly (from the crumb top) and flaky textures (from pie crust).
- More foolproof compared to apple pie. The top layer of crust in the apple pie is always the trickiest part to perfect, but crumbles are pretty easy to make and bake.
- I love crumbles and get to sneak it in! Lots of crumble recipes in my life: Easy Apple Crisp, Blueberry Crumb Bars, Mango Crumble Bar etc among others. It is crumbly (pun intended), sweet and gives a nice gritty texture.
- Fairly straight forward to make! And it’s easy to make it look and taste good. Pro tip: To cut short the process even more, use store-bought unbaked pie crust!
How to make Apple Pie with Crumbles
Enough talk about how good this Apple Crumble Pie is, let’s get to the part where we are actually making it. 🙂
Start by making the pie crust. Or skip this step and use store-bought unbaked pie dough. There is no shame in using store-bought!
An important step in the pie-crust-making process is to cut cold unsalted butter into the dry ingredients. You can use either a pastry cutter or food processor (‘pulse’ setting) to do this.
The goal is to create a crumbly mixture where some of the butter is still in cold chunks and not melted. See picture above.
After that add cold water and then knead the dough. Dough should begin to stick together but it should not be sticky to the touch.
Wrap dough with saran wrap and refrigerate for at least two hours or up to 24 hours.
Then flour the surface and flatten dough using a rolling pin.
Place unbaked pie crust onto a 9″ pie pan.
Fill it with apple fillings, which is a mixture of:
- sliced apples
- brown sugar
- all purpose flour
- lemon juice
- ground cinnamon
- ground nutmeg
- vanilla extract
Then top with crumble mixture!
Crumble mixture is also made by cutting cold butter into the flour mixture. Similarly, use a pastry cutter or food processor (pulse it) to do that.
We are baking this at 400℉ for 20 minutes to cook the insides and then lowering the heat to 375℉ (to avoid burning the sides) and baking for another 30 minutes.
Here’s the thing: do not be intimidated by this Apple Pie with Crumbles! Take it step by step, follow the instructions, and you’ll be making apple pies from scratch before you know it!
Don’t forget to serve with a scoop (or two) of vanilla ice cream.
That warm pie/crumble combination with cold vanilla ice cream is a dream come true.
My foodie heart just skipped a beat thinking about it. ❤️
Tips and Tricks
- Use cold butter from the fridge! Do not melt the butter or leave it out in room temperature before using it.
- Pie crust dough should stick together after kneading but it should not be sticky to the touch. If it has a hard time sticking together add more water a teaspoon at a time.
- Pie crust dough needs to be refrigerated immediately after kneading into a ball to prevent the butter from melting.
- Slice apple into ~1/4-inch and keep them about the same size so that they cook evenly. You can choose to peel or not peel the apples!
- When baking, if the sides of the pie crust is browning, cover the rim with aluminum foil while baking
Common Questions
What are the best apples to use for baking?
I like using Granny Smith, Pink Lady (what I typically use), Honey crisp, or Jonagold etc.
Using a combination of apples will give it a unique flavor too!
Can you freeze unbaked pie crust?
Yes! Roll the unbaked pie dough into a ball, flatten the top slightly, then wrap it before freezing.
How do I make this ahead?
You can make the pie crust ahead of time (I typically recommend that), but you can also make the whole pie ahead of time, freeze or refrigerate, and then bake it when you are ready. Make sure to seal it before storing, and bring it to defrost completely before baking.
You can also bake the pie and then refrigerate it until ready to heat. You can heat it using the oven (cover the top for some of the time to avoid burning the outsides while heating up the insides) or slice them into serving pieces and microwave to heat it up.
Baking with Apples
Here are other yummy baking recipes that use apples!
- Easy Apple Crisp
- Apple Cinnamon Galette
- Apple Cinnamon Bread
- Apple French Toast Casserole
- Mini Apple Spiced Rum Cake (by The Speckled Palate)
DID YOU ENJOY THIS RECIPE? Please comment below and give us a 5-star rating! This will help others find this recipe on Google and Pinterest. We very much appreciate your help! 🤍
Apple Crumble Pie
Ingredients
Pie Crust
- 1 1/4 cup all purpose flour
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter
- 1/4 cup iced water
Apple Filling
- 6-7 cups apples sliced (~1/4 inch thick)
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- 1/4 cup all purpose flour
- 3 tbsp brown sugar
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
Crumble
- 3/4 cup all purpose flour
- 1/3 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter
Instructions
Pie Crust
- Combine flour and salt then using pastry cutter or food processor ('pulse' setting), cut cold butter into flour mixture. Butter should be cold and not soft.
- Add iced water and knead dough into a ball. Dough should not be wet and sticky to the touch but would stick together when kneaded. Add more iced water a teaspoon at a time if dough is too dry.
- Knead dough into a ball, flatten it slightly on the top, and seal with saran wrap. Then refrigerate for 2 hours or up to 24 hours.
Apple Filling
- Add sliced apples to a large bowl. Then add the rest of the apple filling ingredients.
- Stir to combine. Set aside.
Crumbles
- Combine all purpose flour, brown sugar, ground cinnamon and salt in a medium bowl.
- Cut butter into mixture using a pastry cutter. Or move everything into a food processor to pulse butter into mixture. Mixture should be slightly crumbly when done. Butter should not be melted. Store in refrigerator until it is needed again.
Bringing everything together
- Pre-heat oven to 400℉.
- Remove pie crust from saran wrap and place on floured surface.
- Using a rolling pin, roll out pie crust until it is flat and ~11-12 inches wide in diameter.
- Place pie crust into a round 9 inch pie pan, and fold over the sides as needed.
- Add apple filling to pie crust, then top with crumble mixture.
- Bake for 20 minutes, then lower heat to 375℉ and bake for another 30 minutes.
- Remove from oven and let it cool for 15 minutes.
- Serve with vanilla ice cream and enjoy!
Apple crumble pie is the best especially with a big scoop of ice cream on top! I would love this for dessert.
Agree! It’s amazing! Thank you so much! 🙂