Apple Crumble Pie

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Made with fresh apples, sweet apple crumble, and a flaky, buttery pie crust, this mouthwatering apple crumble pie will knock the socks off of your guests this holiday season!

Prep Time15

Cook Time50

Resting time4

Total Time5 5

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Servings:

Calories: 767kcal

Author: Katalin Nagy

Equipment

Ingredients

Pie dough

190 g All purpose flour
¼ teaspoon Salt
½ tablespoon Sugar
113 g Unsalted butter 82% fat, use it very cold
60 g Water use it very cold
15 g Apple Cider vinegar

Crumb

150 g All purpose flour
100 g Granulated sugar
50 g Brown sugar
110 g Unsalted butter at room temperature
Large pinch of salt

Apple filling

900 g Apples Use firm apples such as Honeycrisp, Fuji, Pink Lady, or Granny Smith. No need to peel, cut into identical slices.
2 tablespoons Lemon juice Freshly squeezed
150 g Sugar
1 teaspoon Cinnamon
30 g Flour

Metric - US Customary

Instructions

Prepare the dough

In a large bowl, mix the flour, sugar, and salt until fully combined and place it into the freezer for 5-10 minutes. Cut the cold butter into small chunks and place it into the freezer for 5-10 minutes. Measure the water and vinegar separetely, and place them into the freezer as well for 5-10 minutes.
Once all ingredients are nicely chilled, add very cold butter chunks into the bowl of flour and rub the mixture between your fingers until it becomes a sand-like consistency.
Leave some bigger butter chunks in the mixture - this will encourage flaky pie texture on the pie crust - no need to fully incorporate the butter into the flour.
Add very cold water and apple cider vinegar into the dough, a small amount at a time, and stir with a spatula or wooden spoon after each addition. Once about 75% of the liquid is used, take out the part of the dough from the bowl, that is already well hydrated, and only keep adding the water to the rest of the dry dough. You might need to use all the water, or slightly less, or very slightly more depending on the flour you are using and how neatly you hydrate the dough. What we want to achieve at the end is a dough that is evenly hydrated, but not too wet, neither too dry with loose flour in it.
Now, on a lightly floured surface (or silicone making mat), start working the dough with your hands. First, it will look crumbly but it should come together in the next minute or so. Do not knead the dough as such, stop mixing, as soon as the dough comes together. Remember, leave in some butter chunks, do not overwork the dough, and do not use a mixer.
Form a disk, cover it with plastic wrap and let it rest in the fridge for a minimum of 2 hours.

Start the lamination

After 2 hours, take the pie dough disk out of the fridge and let it rest few minutes on the kitchen counter. The dough should stay cold but slightly warmed up to be able to roll it out without breaking it.
Transfer the disk to a silicone baking mat or a lightly floured surface and start rolling it out, make sure you turn the dough with your hands after each rolling so it will become even. No need to add too much flour while rolling, the pie dough should be cold enough not to stick to the kitchen counter. If at any point the dough gets too warm, pop it back into the freezer for a minute to chill then continue
The goal is to roll the dough out into a rectangle of 11x17 inches / 28x43 cm relatively quickly without warming it up.
Then, apply the following fold: Fold the left half over the right half. Then, you will get a 5.5x17 inches / 14x43 cm rectangle. Then, fold this long rectangle into half by folding the bottom half over the top half. You now have a 5.5x8.5 inches / 14x21.5 cm rectangle. Lastly, fold again the the bottom half over the top half, so you will end up with a 5.5x4 inches / 14x11 cm rectangle. That´s it, the folding is done, and you have 8 wonderful layers.
Cover the dough with plastic wrap and let it rest in the fridge for a minimum of 2 hours.

Prepare the crumble

Cut butter into small chunks and let it come to room temperature. Whisk together flour, salt, granulated sugar, and brown sugar, then add the room temperature butter chunks to the mixture and mix with a spatula or wooden spoon just until the dry ingredients are coated with the butter.
You can make sand-like crumbs or larger crumbs by simply pressing the mixture together with your fingers. Place the crumble into the fridge to chill while preparing the apples.

Prepare the Apple filling

Cut the apples into identical slices and drizzle the slices with freshly squeezed lemon juice so they won´t brown.
Mix the apple slices with the rest of the ingredients (sugar, flour, cinnamon) and set it aside.
Alternatively, you can pre-cook the above apple mixture for 5-10 minutes. This will help to get rid of some of the juice, resulting in a less wet / moist pie. The pre-cooking process also helps to reduce the size of the apple slices, so you will be able to pile up more apples in the dough, more neatly.

Assembling the Apple Crumble Pie & Baking

If you are using a pie dish 9 inch / 23 cm, roll the dough to 10 inch / 26 cm in diameter.
Carefully place the dough into a Pie dish 9 inch / 23 cm. Fold the extra dough around under the crust then flute with your fingers. Remember, do not force the dough, after rolling, it should stay smooth and cold, and easy to work with. The most common reason for pie crust shrinking is forcing and stretching it.
Chill the pie dough in the freezer for 30 minutes while pre-heating the oven to 200 C / 370 F (no fan).
Check the apple filling now and remove any excess liquid, you don´t want that in the pie. Place the filling into the frozen pie crust, mounding in the center. Then, finish with a thick layer of crumble on top.
Bake the pie at 200 C / 370 F for 30 minutes, then reduce the oven temperature to 180C / 355F and bake for a further 40 minutes.
Let the pie cool at room temperature before serving. For neat slices, chill the pie for a few hours. Store any leftover covered and refrigerated for 3-4 days.

Notes

All ingredients, including butter, flour, and water, should be very cold for the pie crust.
Assembling this flaky pie crust will take less than 5 minutes. If you are assembling the dough for more than 5 minutes, then you are overworking it, and risking warming the ingredients up too much with your hands.
Resting the dough in the fridge is a must - you won't be able to roll it out without appropriate resting time (minimum 2 hours).
The apple pie filling can be pre-cooked for 5-10 minutes, which will allow you to build more slices up in the crust more neatly and result in a less moist pie.
During baking, if the edges or the top brown too fast, place aluminum foil loosely on top of / around the pie.
You can eat the pie while it´s hot; however, you will only be able to cut it neatly after chilling it.

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