December 5th, 2007 - Apple Crumb “Pie”
If only I had posted this recipe last year, I wouldn’t have spent 20 minutes searching all over for it Saturday! After going through my 2″ pile of printed out recipes twice, the 3-ring binder twice, and checking online (both this blog and a web search), I went back to the recipe shelf and found two sheets had fallen behind the books. This was one of them.
Apple Crumb Pie–really, it’s just apple crisp in a pie pan
apples and/or applesauce
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 c sugar
1/3 c flour
1/6 c butter
Cut up apples and/or put applesauce into pie pans. Sprinkle cinnamon on top and stir. Be careful–cinnamon flies up easily! Mix sugar and flour and cut in butter until it resembles course crumbs. (Alternatively, use food processor.) Sprinkle on top of apples. Bake 400 degrees for 40-50 minutes, until crust has browned. Put a cookie sheet below to catch drips.
Warning: If using convection bake, move them around or you will burn the back ones. (Good thing I intended to keep 2 of the pies, since that’s how many burned a bit.) I filled the oven with 7 pies and it still took about 45 minutes for them to cook since it was so full.
Chunky sauce works better than smooth, but it really doesn’t matter. I don’t think this would work well with store bought sauce, but haven’t a clue since I don’t buy it anymore. I just used the sauce straight from the steam juicer. My notes indicate that 1 pint of sauce works well, but I think that might be on the light side.
I start with the apples/sauce and figure out how many pies I have, then make the topping for all of them. Last year, I said that 1/2 the topping was plenty, but it didn’t seem that way this year and I ended up making a second batch. I think it could have used even more!
Be sure to pile up the apples–they really sink during baking. The sauce doesn’t sink much, however. If you use tart apples, you might also put 1/4 c sugar in with them (original recipe did).
My Grandma Frost’s recipe for apple crisp also uses nutmeg (1/4 tsp), lemon juice (1 tsp), and water (if necessary) for one pie. Her topping is 3/4 c flour, 1 c sugar, and 1/2 c butter. Bake 375 for 1 hour. Fits in 8×8 pan or double for 9×13.
You can also freeze this without baking. If you don’t have extra pie tins, put foil down first, and remove pie from plate after it freezes. Baking the frozen pie takes 45-60 minutes. I also freeze it after baking (for donating to church). I made them for the bake sale, but due to the expected bad weather (which didn’t materialize Sunday morning anyway), I didn’t go to church. So I put them in the freezer and will put them in the Neighbor to Neighbor freezer instead. (Meals are given to folks with new kids, illness, death, etc., in the family.)
I like the pie pan size, as I can make a lot of it all at once. And, since I thought Eric didn’t like it, it’s a better size for a dessert that only Maggie and I eat. Turns out he likes it, too! I buy pie tins cheap throughout the year at thrift stores, for no more than 0.25 so have plenty of them around.
I got the original recipe from Preserving the Harvest. They suggest using peaches or peaches + blackberries as well.