Apple Crumb Pie

I'd like to think that I've inherited my paternal grandmother's pie making skills. The woman knows how to throw down to make a pie from scratch. In the past few years I've worked to perfect my own pie recipes and wanted to share one of my favorites with y'all. Apple pie is a quintessential pie for any occasion. 4th of July? Yep. Memorial Day? Yep. Halloween? Yep. Veteran's Day? Yep. Thanksgiving and Christmas? Yep and yep. You name any holiday or any day of the week and apple pie is the perfect fit.

Where to start? Get your ingredients and tools ready and organized! Keep in mind that all recipes are general guidelines and the art of cooking can require slight adjustments to meet personal preferences, forces of nature, or differences in ingredients, appliances or bakeware.

Tools:

Mixing Bowls

Pastry Blender

Rolling Pin

Large Pot

Pie Dish

Filling:

4-6 cups peeled and sliced apples (a mix of tart and sweet)

1 and 1/2 tsp lemon juice

1 cup white sugar

1/3 cup flour

1/2 tsp cinnamon

3/4 tsp nutmeg

1/4 tsp salt

Dash of all spice

Splash of vanilla extract

*Apple juice as needed*

Crust:

2 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp salt

2/3 to 1 cup veggie shortening

6-7 tbsps cold water

Crumb Topping:

4-6 tbsps butter, softened

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup flour

Step One: Make Your Filling

1. Mix filling ingredients (minus apple juice) in large stock pot.

2. Simmer on low to medium heat. Add apple juice and additional seasonings as necessary. Apples will be ready when soft. Approximately 40-60 minutes.

Step Two: Get Your Crust and Topping Together

The Crust

1. Mix flour and salt in large bowl. **As a twist, you can also sprinkle in some cinnamon at this point.**

2. Add 1/3 cup shortening to flour mix. Use a pastry blender to blend shortening with flour. Add additional shortening until mix reaches a crumbled texture. You may want to add additional shortening depending on how moist the flour mix feels at this point.

3. Once shortening is blended with flour mix, slowly add cold water until a solid dough ball is form. You will want to avoid dough that is too dry (where you will see cracks in the dough ball) or too moist (which will make rolling it out a challenge).

4. Let the dough ball chill in the fridge for about 30 minutes. You can also stick your rolling pin in the fridge next to the dough.

5. To roll out: Dust a clean surface and your rolling pin with flour. I usually hand press the dough out to a circular shape before using the pin to flatten the dough out the desired size. Avoid getting the crust too thin or too thick or this may alter your end results and/or baking time.

The Topping

1. Mix flour and brown sugar in medium bowl. Use a pastry blender to mix in softened butter. Mixture should resemble coarse texture.

Step Three: Assemble & Bake the Pie

1. Line pie dish with rolled-out crust.

2. Spoon in apple filling. It should look be about a full as the picture to the right.

3. Take the crumb topping mix and grab a handful. Squeeze the topping gently breaking it apart as you dust the top of the pie with mixture. Repeat until the crumb topping is all on top of the pie.

4. Bake for 45-60 minutes or until the crumb topping turns a slight golden brown. Below is an unbaked crumb pie and a fully baked crumb pie.

Step Four: Eat!

Let the pie cool off before digging. I usually let ours sit for at least an hour before slicing. Hot pies lead to burnt mouths.