Babe's Surprise Apple Pie
Submitted by herbie
Babe’s Surprise Apple Pie skips the top crust and crowns thinly sliced apples with a buttery brown sugar crumble topping instead. Cinnamon, lemon juice, and a hot oven do the rest.
YIELD
1 piePREP
20 minCOOK
60 minREADY
80 minThe “surprise” here? No top crust.
Instead of wrestling with a second sheet of pie dough, this apple pie gets a thick, crumbly blanket of brown sugar, flour, butter, and shortening cut together into a sandy streusel.
Underneath, six apples’ worth of thin slices soak up cinnamon and a bright squeeze of lemon juice as they bake down into tender, jammy layers.
The topping goes golden and crunchy while the fruit underneath turns soft and syrupy. It’s half pie, half crumble, and fully addictive.
Chef Tips
- Slice the apples thin so they cook evenly and meld together into one cohesive filling rather than chunky individual slices.
- Keep the butter and shortening cold when cutting them into the flour. Warm fat makes paste, not crumble.
- Place a baking sheet on the rack below the pie to catch drips. That brown sugar filling bubbles over more than you’d expect.
- Let it cool for at least 20 minutes before cutting so the filling has time to thicken up.
Ingredients
Directions
Fill pie shell with sliced apples.
Mix white sugar, cinnamon and lemon juice.
Sprinkle over apples.
Mix brown sugar and flour.
Cut in shortening and butter until like meal.
Spread over apples.
Bake in hot oven 400℉ (200℃) for 1 hour.
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