This is hands-down the easiest apple crumble pie recipe! This apple crumble pie combines tender, cinnamon-spiced apples with a buttery, crumbly topping, all nestled in a flaky pie crust. It’s an easy-to-make dessert that captures the warmth and comfort of classic autumn flavors. Serve warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream for an extra treat!
The Pie Crust
For this recipe, I use a 9-inch Graham cracker pie shell for the crust. This is partially what makes this recipe SO EASY. All you have to do is cook the apples, add them to the crust and put them in the oven. There are so many different ways you can go when making the pie crust. You can make it completely from scratch, you can buy a pie crust mix from King Arthur, or you can do a frozen pie crust.
This recipe is meant to be super easy, hence the reason for using a pie shell. However, I do think that the extra steps involved with making pie crust from scratch or frozen pie dough, are definitely worth it for elevating the taste. The softer crust that you get from pie dough elevates the texture contrast with the crumble topping.
The Apple Filling
The foundation of a perfect apple crumble pie begins with the apples themselves. Firm, tart varieties like Granny Smith and Honeycrisp are often preferred for their ability to hold their shape during baking while providing a balanced sweetness. I personally like to cut the apple slices SUPER tiny and cubed, pictured below. I absolutely hate when I bite into an apple pie and I still have to chew on a thick apple slice.
My favorite part comes after slicing the apples to my liking: adding the sugar and spice! The sugars melt into the apples like a sweet sauce and then the flour is what turns it into a thick apple filling. So don’t fret if the mixture looks runny at first before you add the flour. Cornstarch can also help with thickening the mixture but it shouldn’t be needed for this recipe. This apple crumble pie recipe makes a perfect apple pie filling that is not too runny nor too firm.
Apple Crumble Pie Topping
Personally, I prefer an apple crumble pie over the lattice crust pie any day. Something about the extra cinnamon-spiced, sweet crunch that it adds to the pie just takes it over the top. Unlike its double-crusted cousin, the traditional apple pie, the apple crumble pie offers a delightful texture contrast that has earned it a special place at family gatherings and holiday tables.
The butter is truly the key to the perfect apple crumble pie topping. While some recipes call for cold, cubed cut pieces of butter worked into the dry ingredients to create the crumble, in this recipe I use melted butter over the dry ingredients to create the crumble topping. When baked, this topping transforms into a golden-brown layer of crumbly clusters, with each bite offering a satisfying contrast to the soft, warm apples beneath.
Why You Should Make This Apple Crumble Pie
The apple crumble pie is an absolute fall favorite. It’s also an easy dessert you can make for Thanksgiving or bring to a Friendsgiving. Whether enjoyed as a cozy autumn dessert or a year-round treat, apple crumble pie represents the best of home baking – simple ingredients transformed into something truly special. You won’t regret trying this one! Check out another fall favorite, my Cinnamon Roll Cookie recipe.
The Best Apple Crumble Pie Recipe: Tasty & Easy To Make
Equipment
- 1 Pan/Skillet
- Mixing Bowls
- 1 9-inch Pie Crust/Shell or Baking Pan
- 1 Potato Peeler optional
- 1 Apple Slicer optional
Ingredients
Pie Crust
- 1 9-inch Pie Shell I use Keebler Graham cracker pie shells. Even better if you use Pillsbury pie crusts.
Apple Pie Filling
- 2 tbsp Lemon juice
- 4 Apples
- 1/2 cup Dark Brown Sugar
- 1/4 cup Granulated Sugar
- 1/3 cup All Purpose Flour
- 1½ tsp Cinnamon
- ½ tsp Salt
- ¼ tsp Nutmeg
- 1 tsp Vanilla
Crumb Pie Topping
- ¾ cup All Purpose Flour
- ½ cup Dark Brown Sugar
- 1 tsp Cinnamon
- ½ tsp Salt
- ½ cup Butter, melted 1 stick of butter
Instructions
Making The Apple Filling
- Using either juice from a lemon or bottled lemon juice, add the 2 tbsp of lemon juice to a pan.
- Peel one apple with a potato peeler and then slice with apple slicer and throw away the core. Cut those slices up into tiny small pieces, making sure no skin is left on the apple.
- Then place into the pan (stove NOT turned on yet) with the lemon juice. The lemon is intended to help prevent the apples from browning too quickly.
- Repeat this step with the other apples, peeling and cutting up one at a time and placing into pan. Mix around the apples in the lemon juice.Refrain from adding more lemon juice as we don't want a lemony apple pie.
- Once all the apples are cut and in the pan, turn on the stove at medium heat. Add brown sugar, granulated sugar, flour, salt, nutmeg, and cinnamon.
- Mix around evenly until the mixture feels a bit thicker similar to the picture.
- Turn stove off and let the apples sit with a lid cover while preparing the crumble.
- Preheat the oven to 350 ℉.
Making Crumb Pie Topping
- To a mixing bowl, add 1 cup flour, ½ cup sugar, 1 tsp cinnamon, ½ tsp salt and mix.
- Then melt butter in a separate bowl in the microwave or on the stove. Don't use it while it's super hot, allow it to cool for a little before using OR don't let the butter melt all the way, let it melt slightly then mix the butter away from heat source and use it.
- Pour butter into the mixing bowl of flour, sugar, salt, and cinnamon. Mix until crumbles form. Once the crumble forms, I slightly shake the bowl up and down to toss the crumbles around and get the flour from underneath.
Back to the Filling
- Add the 1 tsp of vanilla to the pan of apples and mix around in the pan. Try one to see if the apples are softened to your liking, if not let it sit for another couple minutes with lid on.
- Add the apple filling to the pie shell. The pie shell usually comes in a foil pan you can place right into the oven. If you're using pie dough, you'll need a 9-inch round baking pan.
- Add the crumble on top of the apples in the pie shell.
- Place in the oven at 350℉ for 15 – 20 minutes.
- Take out and enjoy with a scoop of vanilla ice cream!
