Photo: Nicholas Donner
Labor Day is upon us. For anyone outside of Florida, it means the last days of summer are almost here.
What better way to celebrate than with some good old fashioned apple pie?
As much as I wish I was talented like my grandmother, I haven’t mastered the lattice crust yet. Instead, I went the crumb topping route. It tastes like almonds and butter mostly, but when it mixes with the apples and cinnamon underneath…so much goodness! This apple crumb pie is adapted from Martha Stewart’s Baking Handbook.
I strongly recommend buying an apple corer/peeler/slicer for this, if you don't already have one.
The makings of a crumb crust...
Pile the apples nice and high in the middle so your pie achieves that "domed" look.
Let this pie cool completely before digging in. It needs time to set up before being served so it all sticks together.
Ingredients:
- Almond Crumb Crust (recipe follows)
- 3 1/2 lbs assorted apples (I used Granny Smith and Fuji), cored, peeled, and sliced into half-moon pieces
- 2 TBS lemon juice
- 1/3 c sugar
- 3/4 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp nutmeg
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 2 TBS unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Press 2/3 of crumbs into bottom, up sides, and onto rim of a 9-inch glass pie plate. Freeze pie shell for about 15 minutes.
- In large bowl, stir together apples, lemon juice, cinnamon, nutmeg, sugar, and salt. Pour mixture into chilled pie shell, mounding apples in center. Dot with butter. Sprinkle remaining crumbs in clumps over apples to cover completely.
- Bake, rotating halfway through, until crust turns golden and juices begin to bubble, 45 min – 1 hour. Cool on rack, completely.
Almond Crumb Crust:
In large bowl, stir together, 1 1/2 c all-purpose flour, 1 c + 2 TBS almond meal, 1/2 c +2 TBS sugar, and 1/4 tsp salt. Using a pastry blender, cut in 1 1/2 sticks (3/4 c) unsalted butter, room temperature, until the mixture looks like coarse crumbs with a few larger clumps remaining. Using your fingers, squeeze the mixture together to create pea-size pieces.
