In late fall, my mother would visit our neighbors, the Geraks, and bring home a half bushel of apples from the apple trees in their backyard. I remember them as small, tart, and it took a lot of peeling and cutting to get enough to make a pie, but what wonderful pies they were. In Poland they serve a version of apple pie called Szarlotka. I found a recipe at the Polish Housewife website.
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| The first two of many Dutch Crumb Apple Pies of the season! |
I specialize in making a Dutch Crumb Apple Pie. I have been working on this recipe for years and think this version makes the absolute best pie. The original recipe comes from a website called Serious Eats. Here is the link to the original version: Serious Eats. The recipe is unusual in that it calls for covering peeled and sliced apples with boiling water for 10 minutes before assembling the pie. You would think that this would destroy the apples, but it has the opposite effect. Enjoy!
Adam's Dutch Crumb Apple Pie
Crumb Topping:
2 tablespoons old-fashioned oatmeal
1 cup sifted flour
1/4 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup cold butter, cut into 8 pieces
Pie Crust:
9-inch pastry shell, unbaked
2 Pepperidge Farm shortbread cookies, processed until fine crumbs in food processor*
1 egg white, beaten
Butter-Flavor baking spray
6 cups peeled, sliced Golden Delicious apples
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon Apple Pie spice
3 tablespoons cornstarch
Preparation:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Insert large cookie sheet
covered with tinfoil
Crumb Topping:
Briefly chop oatmeal in food processor. In a small bowl stir together oatmeal, flour, brown sugar, granulated sugar, and salt. Pour into food processor. Add butter and blend in food processor until crumbly. Pour into small bowl, breaking up larger chunks, then refrigerate until ready to use.
Pie Crust:
Spray 9" pie pan with butter-flavored baking spray. Sprinkle shortbread cookie crumbs on parchment paper. Place pie crust on cookie crumbs, then gently roll out pie crust so that crumbs adhere to dough. Place pie crust, crumb side down in pie plate, crimp edges, then lightly brush entire crust with egg white. Chill in refrigerator until ready to use.
Apple Filling:
Cover peeled and sliced apples with boiling water and soak for 10 minutes. Drain apples for about 10 minutes and dry on paper towels. Put apples in large bowl and gently stir in lemon juice.
Sift together sugar, cinnamon, apple pie spice and
cornstarch. Sprinkle over apples and stir gently until all of the apple slices
are coated.
Pack apple mixture into chilled crust. Sprinkle crumb topping over apples.
Put pie in oven on cookie sheet and reduce temperature to 375 degrees. Bake until apples are tender, about 50-55 minutes. A good sign is when you can see the apple filling start to bubble.
If crumb topping appears to be browning too hard, lightly cover with tin foil for last 10 minutes.
*Adam's pie crust hint! The cookie crumbs and the butter spray take a pre-made refrigerated pie crust to another level. The crumbs cut the saltiness of the pie crust and the butter-flavored spray makes the crust flakier and easier to remove from the pie plate.
(Recipe revised 03/28/2020)
Pack apple mixture into chilled crust. Sprinkle crumb topping over apples.
Put pie in oven on cookie sheet and reduce temperature to 375 degrees. Bake until apples are tender, about 50-55 minutes. A good sign is when you can see the apple filling start to bubble.
If crumb topping appears to be browning too hard, lightly cover with tin foil for last 10 minutes.
*Adam's pie crust hint! The cookie crumbs and the butter spray take a pre-made refrigerated pie crust to another level. The crumbs cut the saltiness of the pie crust and the butter-flavored spray makes the crust flakier and easier to remove from the pie plate.
(Recipe revised 03/28/2020)
