Buttery, flakey pie crust with tender apples and a crisp cinnamon crumble topping.
This is my grandma’s apple pie recipe that my mom would make every Thanksgiving. It has layers of tender apples with ooey-gooey cinnamon filling and a crisp streusel topping. It is a great summertime pie … especially if you zap it for 20 seconds in the microwave and then put a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top!
I used a homemade pie crust for this pie! I created this Pie Crust Tutorial that walks you through making pie crust with step by step pictures. If you don’t have patience for pie crust, just sub in a store bought crust. However, the pie crust I used is really simple: it is made with butter (not shortening) and does not require any chilling time. I used to think that pie crust was too much of a hassle, but this pie crust is convenient, quick, and tastes deliciously buttery.
The filling is just as simple as the crust. Peel and slice 3 granny smith apples and layer them into the pie crust. Granny smith apples are great baking apples because they don’t get too mushy when baked, but you can use another type of apple.
Then pour cinnamon sugar over the apples, and make the streusel crumble to put over the top. Bake it for 40 minutes and wham you’ve got an apple pie! To make sure the edges of the crust don’t burn cover the rims with aluminum foil for the first 30 minutes of baking. Then take the aluminum foil off for the last 10 minutes of baking, so it can brown up a little.
Let the pie cool completely before cutting into it… if you can!
I personally think that apple pie has to be served warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream…but the choice is yours. I used store bought ice cream but if you’re super ambitious, you could make my homemade Vanilla Ice Cream to put on top!
Enjoy!
- 1¼ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 Tablespoon granulated sugar
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- 8 Tablespoons salted butter, cold and cubed
- 3 Tablespoons cold water
- 3 granny smith apples (about 1.5 lbs)
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- ¾ cup all-purpose flour
- ⅓ cup salted butter
- Mix flour, sugar, and salt together with a spatula.
- Using a pastry cutter or 2 knives, cut the cold butter into the flour until it resembles coarse meal. The butter chunks should be as small or smaller than green peas.
- Mix in the cold water and stir with a fork until the mixture is raggedy. If it is a little crumbly, don't worry because you'll take care of that in the next step. If it seems way too crumbly though, add more water 1 teaspoon at a time.
- Transfer dough to a floured work surface and gently work the dough together with your hands.
- Flatten the dough into a disc and roll the dough out with a floured rolling pin into a 12-inch circle. As you are rolling the dough, turn the dough circle a couple times to make sure it is not sticking to the counter and add more flour to your work surface as needed.
- Transfer the 12-inch dough circle to a 9-inch pie dish. To transfer the dough without tearing it, loosely wrap the pie dough around your rolling pin and then unroll it over your pie dish.
- Trim the edges so there is only about ½ inch of overhang. Crimp the edges by first folding over the overhang. Then using both hands, pinch the edges between your thumb and first finger of one hand and your thumb and first finger of the other hand.
- Refrigerate while you cut the apples.
- Preheat oven to 400°F.
- Peel the skin off of the apples. Cut the apple into quarters and then slice the quarters into 5 or 6 slices.
- Arrange the apple slices in the pie crust.
- Mix the sugar and cinnamon together and pour over the apples.
- Mix the sugar, cinnamon, and flour together.
- Cut in the butter until the mixture is crumbly. I like to smash the butter with the back of a fork. You could also use a pastry cutter or 2 knives.
- Pour the crumble over the top of the pie.
- Cover the edges of the pie crust with tin foil so it does not burn and place the pie on a cookie sheet.
- Bake for 30 minutes and then remove the aluminum foil and bake for another 10 minutes or until the crumble and the crust is golden brown.
- Cool on a wire rack.
Crust from William Sonoma
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Great tasting pie and crust!
Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it!
Hmm, nothing says summer like a slice of warm apple pie with a big ‘ol scoop of vanilla ice cream! Yum!
Ice cream is definitely a must with any warm fruit pie!