Sweet-tart apples, warm spices, and a buttery crumble topping on a flaky crust.
📝 Ingredients
Apple Filling
5 lbs apples (Granny Smith, Honeycrisp, Golden Delicious)
Juice of ½ lemon
¼ tsp lemon zest
½ cup brown sugar
½ cup granulated sugar
⅓ cup all-purpose flour
½ tsp kosher salt
1½ tsp cinnamon
¾ tsp nutmeg
½ tsp cardamom (optional but amazing)
1 tsp vanilla extract
Crumb Topping
1½ cups all-purpose flour
⅓ cup granulated sugar
¾ cup packed brown sugar
½ tsp kosher salt
¾ cup unsalted butter, melted
Crust
1 homemade or store-bought pie crust, fitted in a 9-inch pie dish
👩🍳 Instructions
1️⃣ Cook the Apple Filling
Peel, core, and slice apples to ⅛ inch thick.
In a large skillet, combine apples, lemon juice & zest, both sugars, flour, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cardamom.
Cover and cook over medium heat 20 min, stirring occasionally, until tender but not mushy.
Stir in vanilla. Spread on a sheet pan to cool completely (30 min in freezer or 2 hrs at room temp).
2️⃣ Make the Crumble
In a bowl, whisk flour, sugars, and salt.
Pour melted butter over mixture; stir gently until it looks like wet sand with some clumps.
Chill until ready to use.
3️⃣ Prep the Crust
Roll out dough into pie dish, crimp edges.
Chill crust in freezer 30 min.
Preheat oven to 425°F with a pizza stone or baking sheet inside.
4️⃣ Assemble & Bake (First Round)
Add cooled apple filling to crust.
Sprinkle 1 cup crumb topping over apples.
Bake at 425°F for 15 min.
5️⃣ Add Remaining Topping
Reduce oven to 350°F and bake 10 min more.
Remove pie, sprinkle remaining crumble, and cover crust edges with foil.
Bake 25–35 min until topping is golden.
6️⃣ Cool & Serve
Let cool at room temp for 4 hrs before slicing.
Serve with vanilla ice cream or salted caramel sauce.
💡 Tip: For extra flavor, toast the crumble mixture in the oven for 5 minutes before topping the pie.
If you’d like, I can also give you a make-ahead freezer version so you can prep this pie in advance for holidays. Would you like me to do that?