Crumb-Topped Apple Pie To Bake Now or Freeze for Later

4.5 from 18 votes

Crumb-Topped Apple Pie To Bake Now or Freeze for Later

This delicious big-crumb topped apple pie can be baked right away, or frozen and baked when you need it (from frozen!). Plus it's awesome.

Prep Time30 mins

Cook Time1 hr

Total Time1 hr 30 mins

Course: Desserts

Cuisine: American

Servings: servings

Calories: 439kcal

Author: Jami Boys

Ingredients

For each pie:

1 unbaked single crust pie dough here's my best pie crust recipe
1 to 3 tablespoons brown sugar*
2 tablespoons flour
1/2 to 1 teaspoons cinnamon we like more
6-8 cups thinly sliced & peeled tart apples deep-dish pie plates will need 8 cups

For topping:**

2/3 to 1 cup brown sugar*** packed
2/3 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup butter

Instructions

Roll out pie dough and fit into a 9-inch pie plate (regular pie plate or deep dish), fluting the edges. If baking right away, preheat oven to 375 degrees.
In a large bowl, toss the sugar, flour & cinnamon with the sliced apples together and transfer to prepared pie crust, spreading with a slight mound in the center and pressing down to fill evenly.
For the topping, add the brown sugar, flour, cinnamon and butter (cut into pieces) to a bowl of a food processor. Process until the mixture starts to hold together, forming some large clumps (or use a pastry blender to cut in the butter by hand in a small bowl, but make sure to mix until large clumps form to get the big crumb topping).
Break off pieces of the topping (it should be solid enough that it can't be "sprinkled" - press the crumbly topping in the bottom of the bowl together to form clumps) and evenly place over the top of the apples, covering them completely. Gently pat mixture down.
To bake now:
Place pie on a baking sheet and cover entire pie loosely with foil. Bake for 15 minutes. Remove foil and bake for 35 to 40 minutes more until top is golden and apples are tender (I also usually remove the baking sheet so the crust browns well). Cool on a wire rack.
To freeze and bake later:
After topping apples with crumbs, wrap entire pie - plate and all - with heavy duty foil (or double thickness of foil). Label and freeze up to three months.
When ready to bake, remove foil and place frozen pie on a cookie sheet. Use the same foil to cover the pie loosely with foil (just attach it loosely to the edges of the cookie sheet).
Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes, remove foil and bake for 40-50 minutes more until it's bubbling, the top is browned, and the apples are tender.

Notes

*You can use any type of sugar - I like brown for a caramely flavor and I always use only 1 tablespoon since the apples are sweet enough.

**If you've used this recipe in the past (from 2011 to 2015), you may notice the topping amounts have changed. I upped the ingredients slightly since we always like more topping!

***As we've used less and less sugar, I've found this to be sweeter than we like, so I now only use 2/3 cup brown sugar in the topping vs. the original 1 cup. I encourage you to experiment with less sugar and see how low you can go!

Nutrition