Apple Crumble Pie

This apple crumble pie recipe is easy to make. It's a great pie for every occasion, from festive family events to everyday dessert situations. You will love this pie as a dessert after a festive Thanksgiving dinner with lots of turkey meat and apple sausage stuffing.

By the way, if you love apples, you will love my apple pie and apple cobbler as well!

Jump to:

• Ingredients notes and substitutions
• Photo instructions
• Expert tips
• Variations
• Make ahead and freezing instructions
• Storing and reheating
• More pie recipes
• Recipe

Ingredients notes and substitutions

• All-purpose flour - you can use gluten-free flour 1:1 instead. Use a blend with xanthan gum.
• Unsalted butter - to make vegan apple crumble pie, use your favorite vegan butter instead.
• Apples - I prefer Golden Delicious, Honeycrisp, Jonagold, or Braeburn. Also, Granny Smith works fine. By the way, if you have tons of apples and don't know what to do with them, check out my post where I share 15 cakes with apples.
• Lemon juice - use freshly squeezed lemon juice and not store-bought one.
• Walnuts - since there are walnuts in the topping, I like to refer to this pie as apple walnut pie but if you have a nut allergy or don't like walnuts, leave them out. You could swap the walnuts for pecans if preferred.

Photo instructions

In a food processor, combine the flour, salt, sugar, and butter and pulse 4 to 6 times until larger than pea-sized butter pieces are still visible. Add 1 tablespoon (15 ml) of cold water (straight from the tap is fine - as cold as possible) at a time, pulsing one or two times after each addition. Stop adding water and pulsing when you notice that the dough comes together and starts to clump.

Without kneading the dough, transfer it to a sheet of plastic wrap and form into a 1- to 1 ½-inch (2.5-4cm) thick disk.

You can wrap and chill the dough as it is now or proceed with my folding technique to create the flakiest pie crust possible. Either way, it is a delicious and flaky pie crust, but I feel folding the dough brings the crust to another level.

Lift the left side of the dough and fold one-third of the dough over itself to create a section 2 layers thick. Then, take the right side of the dough and fold it on top so that it covers the previously folded left side of the dough, like a folded business letter, to make three layers.

Using just your fingers, flatten the dough again into a 1- to 1 ½-inch (2.5-4cm) thick disk and fold it again into thirds. This time fold the side of the dough facing away from you and fold it towards you. Then fold the side of the dough facing to you, away from you in the same style as described above. Form into a 1- to 1 ½-inch (2.5-4cm) thick disk and wrap tightly with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours or up to 2 days.

The following collage shows the folding process step-by-step. Beginning from the top left corner, reading from left to right.

In a large bowl, stir the apples, lemon juice, brown sugar, cinnamon, flour, and vanilla to combine. Set aside.

In another large bowl, combine the flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, and butter. Use your fingers to work the butter into the dry ingredients until combined and butter flakes are still visible. Don't overwork the butter, or it will become a paste. It should have a crumbly texture, as shown below.

Add chopped walnuts and combine. Place in the refrigerator until you are ready to sprinkle the topping on top of the pie.

After chilling the dough, on a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough into an 11-inch (28cm) even circle and transfer to a 9-inch (23cm) pie dish.

The yellow dots in the crust, as shown in the picture below, are the butter flakes. If it looks like this, your pie crust will be beyond flaky.

Evenly press the dough into the bottom and against the sides of the pie dish and flute the edges.

Evenly spoon the filling with a slotted spoon or spider skimmer into the pie crust and discard any excess liquid from the filling if there is any.

Sprinkle the crumb topping on top and bake.

Expert tips

• Use cold butter straight out of the fridge for the pie crust and the crumb topping. Soft and warm butter results in a pie crust that is not flaky at all, and the topping turns into a paste.
• Don't overwork the butter in both the crust and topping, or the same outcome will happen as described before.
• Discard any excess liquid from the filling, if there is any, otherwise, the filling could turn out a little watery.
• Give it time to chill before you serve the pie. I prefer chilling mine overnight before serving because the filling has time to thicken up. It's a great recipe to make ahead.
• Cover the pie loosely with aluminum foil in the beginning when baking it at a high temperature to prevent the top from burning or darkening too much.

Variations

• Crumble topping with oats - you can add ¾ cup (75g) old-fashioned rolled oats to the topping or use the crumb topping from my strawberry rhubarb crisp recipe.
• Top it with homemade caramel - here is a great tutorial on how to make caramel from scratch.

Make ahead and freezing instructions

This pie is even better on the second day, so it's the perfect pie to make ahead and store in the fridge overnight. You can prepare the pie crust for up to 2 days in advance and store it in the fridge or freeze it for up to 3 months. Baked pie freezes well for up to 2 months. To thaw, place in the refrigerator overnight.

Storing and reheating

Store it in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days. Reheat single slices in the microwave for 30-40 seconds if you want to serve it warm.

More pie recipes

There is no doubt that pies are a delicious treat. No matter how you fill them or prepare them, there is the perfect pie for every occasion. Here are some of my favorites:

• Banana cream pie
• Pumpkin pie
• Custard pie
• Blueberry pie
• Chocolate cream pie
• Strawberry rhubarb pie

Recipe