Apple Crunch Pie: A Delightful Treat
Apple Crunch Pie is the perfect dessert for any occasion. Its flaky crust and sweet, tangy filling are sure to please everyone at the table.
Apple Crunch Pie is the perfect dessert for any occasion. Its flaky crust and sweet, tangy filling are sure to please everyone at the table.
- Carbohydrate 44.6861980469786 g
- Cholesterol 30.5031250388668 mg
- Fat 11.7075232360219 g
- Fiber 0.856814061816245 g
- Protein 2.00363950946872 g
- Saturated Fat 7.32722564633793 g
- Serving Size 1 1 Serving (65g)
- Sodium 321.294351334496 mg
- Sugar 43.8293839851624 g
- Trans Fat 0.870965347248021 g
- Calories 287 calories
Step-by-step
- Place rack in lowest position in oven. Heat oven to 450 degrees F ( 230 degrees C).
- To Make Topping: Mix 1 cup flour, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1/2 cup white sugar and 1 teaspoon cinnamon; cut in butter or margarine until mixture is moist and crumbly, and clumps together easily.
- To Make Filling: Peel, core, and slice apples into approximately 1/8 inch slices. If you cut them too thick you'll have crunchy apples. In another bowl, toss cut up apples, white sugar, lemon juice, 1 teaspoon cinnamon and nutmeg. Sprinkle in flour, and stir until apples are evenly coated.
- Layer apple slices in pie shell. You will have a lot of apples, but they will shrink. Layer them higher in the middle. Pour left over juice from apple mixture over apples. Pat the brown sugar topping evenly over apples to make a top crust.
- Place pie on cookie sheet in oven to catch juice droppings. Bake for 15 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C), and bake for 45 minutes to one hour; bake until center of pie has no resistance. If top starts to get too dark, cover with piece of foil. Cool on wire rack before serving.
Granny Smith apples do the structural and chemical heavy lifting in this pie, supplying high pectin levels and sharp malic acid that resist turning into absolute mush during long bakes. Slicing those firm green fruits to roughly one-eighth inch guarantees they soften adequately without requiring pre-cooking on the stovetop. Cutting the butter into the flour and sugar mixture until it clumps naturally creates irregular pockets that brown faster than fine pastry dough. This streusel-style topping protects the underlying fruit from scorching while providing a contrasting texture to the tender apples.
Historical deep-dish apple pies originated out of a necessity to maximize fruit yields in domestic kitchens, often mounding apples far higher than the rim of the pan. As the fruit cooks, internal moisture evaporates and cellular walls collapse, causing the towering center to settle significantly by the time the dessert finishes baking. Positioning the unbaked pie on a rimmed cookie sheet prevents escaping fruit sugars from burning directly onto oven heating elements. Placing the baking rack on the lowest oven position ensures the bottom crust receives enough radiant heat to cook through before the top browns completely.
Baking begins at a blistering 450 degrees Fahrenheit for the first fifteen minutes to rapidly set the bottom pastry crust before lowering the dial to 350 degrees. Checking the center of the pie for absolute lack of physical resistance guarantees the fruit has fully softened throughout. Should the streusel top darken prematurely before the internal apples finish softening, loosely draping a sheet of aluminum foil over the surface halts further browning without trapping excessive steam underneath.
Adapting this standard dairy-heavy composition for specific dietary needs involves straightforward substitutions. Replacing standard butter with plant-based margarine maintains the proper crumbly texture in the streusel layer while keeping the formulation strictly vegetarian. Using certified gluten-free flour blends in both the crust and topping requires no alteration to the total liquid or fat ratios outlined in the method.
