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Active Time
1 hr
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Total Time
5 hr (includes cooling)
It's easy to understand why apple crumble pie (sometimes called French apple pie in diners and old cookbooks) is so immensely popular: It packs all the flavor and fragrance of a traditional apple pie underneath a carapace of nutty, buttery, cinnamony crumbs. Adding cranberries to the filling evokes a familiar fall color and provides pleasant tartness to balance the sweetness.
Ingredients
Makes 8 servings
For pastry dough:
For crumble topping:
For fruit filling:
Make pastry:
Step 1
Blend together flour, butter, shortening, and salt in a bowl with your fingertips or a pastry blender (or pulse in a food processor) just until mixture resembles coarse meal with some roughly pea-size butter lumps. Drizzle 3 tablespoon ice water evenly over mixture and gently stir with a fork (or pulse) until incorporated.
Step 2
Squeeze a small handful: If dough doesn't hold together, add more ice water, 1/2 tablespoon at a time, stirring until incorporated. Do not overwork dough or pastry will be tough.
Step 3
Turn out dough onto a lightly floured surface and divide into 4 portions. With heel of your hand, smear each portion once or twice in a forward motion to help distribute fat. Gather all dough together (using a pastry scraper if you have one) and form into a 5-inch disk. If dough is sticky, dust lightly with additional flour. Chill, wrapped in plastic wrap, until firm, at least 1 hour.
Make crumble topping:
Step 4
Stir together flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt in a bowl. Blend in butter with your fingertips until large clumps form, then stir in pecans. Chill until ready to use.
Make fruit filling:
Step 5
Stir together apples, cranberries, brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, salt, and lemon juice in a large bowl.
Assemble pie:
Step 6
Preheat oven to 425°F with rack in lower third.
Step 7
Roll out dough on a lightly floured surface with a lightly floured rolling pin into a 13-inch round, then fit into pie plate. Trim edge, leaving a 1/2-inch overhang, then fold overhang under and crimp decoratively. Transfer fruit filling to pie shell and dot with butter. Loosely cover with foil and bake until apples droop slightly, about 30 minutes.
Step 8
Reduce oven temperature to 375°F. Sprinkle crumble topping over filling and bake, uncovered, until crumble is browned, filling is bubbling, and apples are tender, 45 minutes to 1 hour more. Cool completely, 2 to 3 hours.
•Dough can be chilled up to 3 days.
•Pie can be made 1 day ahead and kept, loosely covered, at room temperature.
Leave a Review
Reviews (36)
Back to Topi can't eat any sort of nut, could i substitute rolled oats for the nuts? and if so same measure?
Dave
10/5/2021
This was underwhelming, I thought it would be a nice, different counter to all of the creamy holiday desserts but the taste just wasn't there. I did substitute half the apples for the pears to avoid too much tartness but maybe it made it too bland. Or, maybe doubling up the spices in the crust, filling and topping plus a bit more liberal salt might make the difference.
rstarner3877
哥伦比亚,SC
12/26/2018
我有这道菜,主要问题appear not to have had, which puzzles me. After the initial baking at 425 for 30 minutes, the cranberries at the top of the pie were burned black and I had to pick them out. Then, after baking the pie for 30 minutes more at 375 with the topping in place, the apple inside the pie was badly overcooked so it had the consistency of apple sauce even though this was 15 minutes less baking time than the minimum recommended in the recipe. I preheated the oven and my oven temperature is accurate. Finally, I was puzzled by the ratio of ingredients for the crumble topping. My previous experience with this type of topping is that the ratio is usually about 3:1 sugar:flour and this ratio was the reverse, so the topping was only very slightly sweet. I may try this recipe again with vastly shorter baking times and a much sweeter topping, but for now, following the recipe, it is only 1 fork .
Anonymous
12/29/2015
This was the first pie that I've ever made and it came out perfect! Simple directions made the process easy. I will definitely be making this pie again. It was delicious. I highly recommend this recipe!
monkeymegh
NJ
12/2/2015
I have been making this pie ever since it made its debutant back in 1999. It has become a must have at Thanksgiving and my husbands absolute favorite. I increased the apple as (because who doesn't like them piled high) and use a mixture of varieties, Granny Smith, golden delicious and one or two others like honey crisp. I like the variety. If I have some on hand I have thrown in a handful or two of Craisins because of the extra apples.
chaneyc
Baltimore, MD
11/22/2015
I love this pie! It's a delicious twist on apple pie, love the sweet-tart combination. I made 2 changes: I don't have a deep-dish pie plate so made the pie in a 10" plate and the amount of filling was fine. Also, grated a 1" piece of ginger into the apple-cranberry mixture, as those flavors really go together well. Did find the crust and topping browning a lot about 30' after adding the topping, so added a crust protector and loosely covered the pie w/ foil again for the last 30'.
nicolek
Mahopac, NY
2/23/2015
This is my husband's favorite pie so I make it several times a year. If I'm in a hurry I use a pre made crust and while it's not as good as home made, it's still pretty great. We like the tartness of it, although if I sub a tarter apple I cut back on the lemon juice and up the sugar a little to balance it out. I made it once with half apples and half pears because that's all I had and now that's our favorite version. Instead of pre-cooking the apples, I usually just slice the apples really thin so they cook through faster and just put the crumb topping on when I first put the pie in the oven, I've never had a problem with it being under baked.
djinn423
Columbia, MO
11/26/2014
I use blended quick oats rather than flour in the crumble. Cut down on the butter in the filling. Chop the fresh cranberries. But as written I am sure is wonderful. It's a pie - use some of your own variations.
cynicalanddisgusted
Nevada
11/25/2014
Absolutely delicious!! I was reluctant to make it because I've always loved two-crust, apples-only apple pie. This pie changed my mind forever. It is also now my husband's favorite after years of passing up all pies in favor of pumpkin pie.
Just_Beginning
Charlotte, NC
1/4/2014
I made this pie and we enjoyed it warm 40 minutes after it was out of the oven. Seriously one of the best pies I have made yet. I used honey crisp apples and I used walnuts instead of pecans. I didn't thing it was too tart at all, it was honestly kind of perfect. I love this recipe and I'm making three more for thanksgiving!
jmacmmm
Urbana, IL
11/3/2013
Loved this pie and so did everyone else!! I like really tart pies and this one is my new favorite. I did make a few changes based on the reviews. I added an additional 1/4 C. white sugar, used 1/4 flour (in the filling) and used an 2 or 3 more apples (my pie plate is large). I precooked the filling a bit as I was worried after reading some of the reviews. I used the full amount of cranberries. I also used a mix of granny smith and gala apples.
michellin
Las Vegas, Nevada
11/23/2012
Like many of the reviewers said, this is VERY tart and I'm not thrilled about adding more sugar. Epicurious has an apple/raspberry recipe that I like much better.
acousoulis
Lexington, KY
11/1/2012
Delicious! I used 5 Cortland apples sliced very thin. Orange juice instead of lemon juice. Added 2T of sugar to fruit and sprinkled orange rind on top. Used store bought pie crust. Only used a few pats of butter on top of fruit covered and baked filling for 35 min. Added crumble mixture - only used 1/4 C butter and baked for 30 min. at 375. Came out perfect!
Anonymous
科德角
10/27/2012
Everyone loves this pie and it was gone in no time. I did make a few changes per previous suggestions: 2T more sugar in the filling, as well as more cinnamon and slightly less cranberries (about 7 oz). Perfect for Thanksgiving.
Littlebluesiren
10/7/2012
This is a yummy pie. The crumble top gives it an extra layer of flavor and texture that you don't usually get from 2 crust pies. After reading the reviews I added extra apples, sugar & cinnamon and decreased the amount of cranberries slightly ... I'm glad I did. It was a delightful play off of sweet and tart, and it probably would have been too tart otherwise. I also, thanks to reviews, increased the baking time for the first round. It was a little messy to get out of the tin, and didn't hold it's shape very well, but it was delicious! Thanks for sharing, I'll definitely be making this again!
jillpaz
Queens, NY
11/6/2011
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