I would never call one of my own recipes awesome. Except that I think that every single person who has ever had this pie has told me it was the best pie they ever had. No joke. (Plus, the alliteration adds a nice touch, doesn’t it?)
(This post contains affiliate links.)
I humbly propose to you that this is a really good apple pie. But it’s not of my own brilliance- I started with the apple pie recipe from The America’s Test Kitchen Family Cookbook
and tweaked it a bit to suit our tastes. Then, I added my grandmother’s crumb crust topping.
This is not an easy, quick apple pie recipe. It’s also got sugar, gluten, and lotsa butter. Don’t fret. If you’re going to go to all the trouble to make a pie, you might as well do it right. And you might as well make two, since the first one will disappear so quickly.
Here’s what you need to make two pies. (If you want one, just cut the ingredients in half.)
- 1 recipe Lovely Lard Double Pie Crust, or your favorite crust recipe. (Though I contend that lard makes a seriously tasty crust.)
- 7- 8 lbs mixed apples, or about 20 apples, peeled & sliced about 1/4″ thick. Test Kitchen calls for McIntosh & Granny Smith. However, I have made this with several different kinds of apples, including Galas, Red Delicious, Cortland, Smokehouse, and our own mystery green apples- and I’ve never had a flop. The important part is that you use at least a couple varieties (preferably some sweet and some tart) for flavor and textural complexity.
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup flour
- 2 Tbsp lemon juice
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp nutmeg
For enough crumb topping for two pies you will need:
- 2 cups flour
- 1 cup chilled butter, cut into small pieces.
- 1 cup brown sugar
- Roll out 2 pie crusts & line two 9″ pie plates with them.
- Slice apples- an apple peeler-corer-slicer
will make this job a thousand times easier. Toss apples, sugar, flour, lemon juice, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a very large bowl. (Or divide it into two bowls as you go.) Put half of the mixture in each pie pan. - Mix butter, sugar, and flour for crumb topping. You want it to look like coarse crumbs when its done. You may find a pastry blender helpful for mixing in the cold butter, or you can be lazy like me and rub it all together with your fingers.
- Spread crumb topping over apples.
- Place pies in a 425 degree oven. Bake for 25 minutes. Then lower the heat to 375 and bake for about 30 minutes longer. Watch that your edges don’t over-brown at the end!
- Let it cool, if you can wait that long. 🙂
will make this job a thousand times easier. Toss apples, sugar, flour, lemon juice, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a very large bowl. (Or divide it into two bowls as you go.) Put half of the mixture in each pie pan.
helpful for mixing in the cold butter, or you can be lazy like me and rub it all together with your fingers.
