Crumb Top Apple Pie

 Once again I wanted to bake something last Saturday. Scouring the pantry and refrigerator I found some utility apples and some Empire apples that seem to call to me….bake a pie. They might not be the “choosen” apple to make a pie with but it didn’t matter because this came out pretty good. Not wanting the traditional two crust pie I found a recipe for a crumb top pie.

The original recipe did not have it’s own crust recipe so I went to my favorite pie crust recipe in my Better Homes and Garden red checked cook book.

This has been a favorite recipe to make as it is pretty simple and uses crisco. Pretty simple to follow and easy to mix when you have the right tools.

Single pie crust recipe

1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour

¼ teaspoon salt

⅓ cup shortening

4 – 5 tablespoons cold water

Stir together flour and salt. Using a pastry blender, cut in shortening until pieces are pea-size.

Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of the water over part of the mixture; gently toss with a fork. Push moistened dough to the side of the bowl. Repeat moistening dough, using 1 tablespoon of the water at a time, until all the dough is moistened. Form dough into a ball.

On a lightly floured surface, use your hands to slightly flatten dough. Roll dough from center to edges into a circle about 12 inches in diameter. To transfer pastry, wrap it around the rolling pin. Unroll pastry into a 9-inch pie plate. Ease pastry into pie plate, being careful not to stretch pastry. Rim pastry to 1/2 inch beyond edge of pie plate. Fold under extra pastry. Crimp edge as desired. Do not prick pastry. Bake as directed in individual recipes. Makes 8 servings.

With the crust ready it was time to pull the filling together.

Crumb Top Apple Pie

Ingredients

1 pie pastry

1/4 c. sugar

3 Tbsp flour

1 tsp cinnamon

1/8 tsp salt

5 1/2 c. peeled and thinly sliced apples

Crumb Topping

1/2 c. brown sugar

1/2 c. flour

1/2 c. quick oats

1/2 c. butter

2/3 c. caramel ice cream sauce, divided

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Place pastry in a 9″ deep dish pie pan. In a large bowl, combine the sugar, flour, cinnamon, salt and 1/3 cup Caramel Sauce. Toss the apples in this mixture and pour into the pie crust. Throughly combine the crumb topping ingredients. Sprinkle the topping over the apple mixture. Bake the pie for 20-30 minutes. Then cover with foil and bake another 20 minutes until the apples are tender. Remove pie from oven and drizzle with the remaining 1/3 c. caramel ice cream sauce. Cool and serve with ice cream.

Give this a try and let me know what you think.