Cinnamon Crumble Apple Pie

By Kath Dedon

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What could be more American than an apple pie for the 4^th of July?   Bon Appétit’s Cinnamon Crumble Apple Pie on epicurious.com caught my eye with its rave reviews, so I decided to give it a try.

Of course, I had to change it up a bit. Instead of the recipe’s butter/vegetable shortening crust, I used my tried-and-true Easy Pie Crust for a single crust pie. I used honey instead of sugar to sweeten the apple filling and substituted maple sugar for the sugar and brown sugar in the topping.

The Cinnamon Crumble Apple Pie was terrific and definitely a keeper! I liked the bold cinnamon flavor. If you’re a cinnamon lover, give this one a try.

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(Adapted from an October 2003 Bon Appétit recipe on epicurious.com)

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(print the recipe)

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I like to use honey and maple sweeteners, but you can definitely use sugar and brown sugar as in the original recipe if you prefer. I once read in Cook’s Illustrated that King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour is the best flour for making flaky, tender pie crusts. I switched and haven’t looked back. It does make a noticeable difference.

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Crust

1½ cups (180g) King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour

½ teaspoon salt

1/3 cup extra light (mild tasting) olive oil

4 tablespoons cold milk

1 teaspoon white vinegar

Waxed paper for rolling the dough

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1. Place a large baking sheet in the oven and preheat to 350˚.

2. Combine the flour and salt in a bowl.

3. Measure the olive oil in a 1-cup measuring cup. Put the 4 tablespoons of milk in the same cup with the oil. Put the vinegar in the cup.

4. Add the liquids to the flour all at once and stir with a fork just until it can be formed into a ball.

5. Form the dough into a ball. Put the dough on a 12-inch sheet of waxed paper. (If you put a little water under the bottom of the waxed paper, it won’t slide around when you roll out the dough.) Flatten it with your hand; put another sheet of waxed paper on top and roll the dough out to the edges of the paper.

6. Carefully remove the top sheet of waxed paper. Lift the bottom sheet and dough up and put it paper-side up over the pie plate. Carefully remove the waxed paper and fit the dough into the pie plate.

7. Finish the edge of the crust the way you like. I simply use a fork to press into the dough around the edge.

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Filling

3¼ pounds (about 6 large) Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, and sliced. (I use my food processor for even, thin slices.)

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

2/3 cup honey (or sugar)

¼ cup all purpose flour

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

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1. Put the apples in a large bowl.

2. Put the butter in a Pyrex glass measuring cup and melt it in a microwave oven. Stir the honey, flour and cinnamon into the butter and set aside.

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Topping

1 cup all purpose flour

¾ cup maple sugar (or ½ cup sugar and ¼ cup golden brown sugar)

1 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon

½ teaspoon salt

6 tablespoons chilled unsalted butter, cut into ½-inch cubes

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1. Process the flour, maple sugar, cinnamon and salt in a food processor. Add the chilled butter and process, pulsing it off and on, until it looks kind of like sand. Small pieces of butter in the mixture are fine.

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Assembling and baking the pie

1. Stir the honey mixture in the Pyrex cup with a fork to make sure it is well-combined. Pour it over the apples and gentle stir until the honey is evenly distributed. Put the apples in the prepared pie crust, mounding them so they are a bit higher in the center.

2. Cover the apples with the topping.

3. Put the pie on the baking sheet in the preheated oven and bake for about 50 minutes.

4. It’s best if it’s cooled until warm, about 1 hour, but it’s fine at room temperature, too.

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Pie for breakfast, anyone?

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