In Photos: How To Make Dutch Apple Pie
Step 1: Make the Crust
If you’re in a time crunch, you can use a store-bought pie crust for sure. But I love my homemade pie crust recipe. It’s got so much rich, buttery flavor, and it is without a doubt the flakiest pie crust you’ll ever taste.
This is thanks to a unique folding process, similar to what you’d do if you were making croissants or puff pastry (but a lot less fussy!).
That extra step yields results that are just incredible. I highly recommend you give it a try! The recipe can be found here: Homemade Pie Crust Recipe.
You’ll only need to make half the batch.
Roll it out to an inch or so larger than your pie dish, then nestle it in, trim off the excess, fold and crimp the edge, and pop it into the fridge to chill, while you make the apple pie filling.
Step 2: Make the Filling
This recipe calls for a LOT of apples. When it’s still raw, you might think it’s too much, but trust me. As the pie bakes and cools, the apples soften and sink down a ton.
Use any kind of apple that’s good for baking. In other words, you want something that holds its shape well when cooked, like a Granny Smith, MacIntosh, or Honeycrisp apple. Nothing that would become mushy. Those kinds of apples are more suited for making applesauce.
Peel, quarter, and cut out the cores.
Then slice the apples to about ⅛ to ¼ of an inch thick.
Toss them together with sugar, flour, lemon juice, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, and cloves, making sure every slice gets coated in the mixture.
The flour will thicken the juices as the pie bakes. No runny pie filling here!
The lemon juice lifts the flavors and makes the apples taste even more apple-y. Salt does the same, and the spices are traditional for American apple pie. You could substitute apple pie spice, if you like.
Tip the filling into your prepared pie crust, and put the unbaked pie back in to chill while the topping gets made.
Step 3: Make Topping
This is the crumb topping recipe I use for everything from muffins and quick breads, to pies and crisps.
It can be customized in all sorts of ways (more on that below) and it’s really quick and easy to make.
It’s just melted butter, flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt.
Toss all these ingredients together with a fork. While it’s warm it will be kinda like wet sand, but as it cools it gets more crumbly.
Sprinkle it all over the apples in an even layer, then slide your pie into a hot oven to bake.
Step 4: Bake
This pie is so big and thick and heavy, and the apples are a very firm fruit so it will take a while to bake. Usually somewhere in the neighborhood of one hour.
You’ll know it’s done by feel. Push a toothpick into the center of the pie. The apples should feel softened and tender, but not mushy.
If the topping starts to get too brown before the apples are done, lightly drape a sheet of aluminum foil over the pie while it continues baking.