This dessert is the perfect answer to that apple season conundrum: should I make an apple pie or a crumble? You can have both. In one dish!
Flaky pastry crust encases a thick layer of Granny Smith apple filling, topped with crunchy oatmeal almond crumble. Add pastry leaves around the edge for an even prettier presentation. For a truly decadent finish, serve with vanilla ice-cream or whipped cream, your choice. Now THAT’s an apple lover’s dessert.
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- Gather the crumble ingredients
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- Add the oats and almonds to the crumble “batter”
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- Mix with your fingers until combined
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- Gather the filling ingredients
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- Granny Smith apples hold their shape nicely
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- Toss the apples dry ingredients
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- Shape the pie crust into the fluted pan
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- Add the cooked apples
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- Top with the Crumble
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- Add the pastry leaves and serve.
Deep-Dish Apple Pie with Oatmeal-Almond Crumble
A delicious apple confection for pie and crumble lovers alike. A deep dish pie with a crunchy oatmeal nut topping. What could be better?
- Total Time: 90
Ingredients
Scale
For the Oatmeal-Almond Crumble
- 60 g (1/2 c) all-purpose flour
- 35 g (1/3 c) brown sugar
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp allspice
- 1/4 tsp nutmeg
- pinch salt
- 57 g (2 oz or 4 tbsp) unsalted butter, cubed
- 45 g (1.6 oz or 1/2 c) sliced almonds
- 50 g (1.8 oz or 1/2 c) old-fashioned oats
For the Apple Filling
- 15 ml (1 tbsp) lemon juice
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 8 Granny Smith Apples, peeled, quartered, cored and thinly sliced
- 50 g (1/2 c) granulated sugar
- 50 g (1/2 c) firmly packed brown sugar
- 30 g (1/4 c) all-purpose flour
- 20 g (3 tbsp) cornstarch
- 15 ml (1 tsp) ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp ground ginger
- 1/4 tsp allspice
- 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
For the Pie Crust and Leaves
- 300 g (2 1/2 c) all-purpose flour
- 125 g (1 c) confectioners’ sugar
- 15 ml (1 tsp) kosher salt
- 284 g (10 oz) unsalted butter, softened
- 1 egg white, lightly beaten
- 25 g (2 tbsp) granulated sugar
Instructions
Make the Oatmeal-Almond Crumble
- Place the flour, brown sugar, spices and salt in the bowl of a food processor and pulse until combined. Add the cold butter and pulse until the mixture is crumbly.
- In a medium bowl, combine the butter mixture, the almonds and the oats. Refrigerate in an air-tight container until ready to use (can be kept for up to 5 days).
Make the Apple Pie Filling
- In a large bowl, toss the apple slices with the lemon juice and vanilla.
- Whisk together the sugars, flour, cornstarch and spices in a medium bowl. Add to the apple mixture and toss until combined. Let stand for at least 15 minutes. (you can prepare the pastry in the meantime).
- In a large Dutch oven, or heavy-bottom skillet, cook the apple mixture over medium heat, stirring frequently, until thickened (about 5 minutes). Remove from heat and let cool completely.
Make the Pie Crust
- In the work bowl of a food processor, pulse flour, confectioners’ sugar and salt until combined. Add the butter and pulse until dough begins to form. Divide the dough into two sections.
- With lightly floured fingers, press half of the the dough into the bottom and up the sides of a 9″ deep pie dish. If you’re using a fluted dish, you can use the blunt end of a chopstick to push the dough into the curves. Place in the freezer for 15 minutes.
- Shape the remaining half of the dough into a disk, wrap in cling film and place in the freezer alongside the pie shell.
Assemble the pie
- Preheat the oven to 325°F Convection or 350°F regular.
- Remove the pie shell and disk of dough from the freezer. Scoop the cooled apples into the pie shell and cover with the crumble topping. Set aside.
- On a lightly floured board, roll out the disk of pie crust to 1/4″ thickness. Using a small leaf-shaped cutter, cut out about 30 shapes, rerolling the scraps of dough once, if necessary. Discard any remaining scraps. Brush the edge of the pastry with lightly beaten egg white and carefully arrange the pastry leaves around the edges of the pie, overlapping slightly, leaving the centre of the pie open. Brush the leaves with lightly beaten egg white and sprinkle with granulated sugar.
- Bake the pie for about 45 minutes to an hour, or until the apples are cooked (a skewer will pierce them fairly easily) and the pastry is golden brown. You may need to cover the pastry leaves with aluminium foil partway through the baking if they are starting to turn brown too quickly.
Notes
- You can also bake the leaves separately on a parchment-lined cookie sheet and arrange on the fully baked and cooled pie. Use a bit of honey or golden syrup to between the leaves to hold them in place and to adhere them to the pie lip.
- Prep Time: 45
- Cook Time: 45
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 8
I’m sharing this post with Between Naps on the Porch.
Ok…this one I have to try!!!! I love the pastry leaves, such a cool idea! Do you ever come to Montreal! I will make a dinner with all these recipes. LOL They are great. Gary x
I’m about to make it with a combination of apples and blackberries for Glenn’s Birthday! Please let me know how it works out for you. Would love to get together, Gary! Montreal isn’t that far.
Dear Helen, Here’s another recipe that cries out for the syrup drained from stem ginger! Wouldn’t that be fine? I just ordered two jars from England. On one of our excursions to Portugal, I wandered by a dollar store equivalent. In there I found some great things, including metal oblong forms to make my fave Christmas starter: seared fresh tuna towers (which until then were formed in tuna cans with both ends removed). I also snapped up sets of clever plastic pastry stamps in the form of various leaves, with a spring-loaded center press to add veins while pressing the dough out of the cutter. They do an especially pretty job on puff pastry. I felt like a thief leaving there $2 poorer. Who needs Williams Sonoma?
It’s apples galore here, with fat Cripps Pinks for $1.50/kg. They are super for pie. In the US they are called Pink Lady, which is the quality-control trademark for the variety. Oh my ears and whiskers, it’s almost time to order the Royal Riviera boxes from H&D, which come with the best ever recipe for pear-gorgonzola salad with champagne vinegar-walnut oil dressing! Bring on the winter fare. I look forward to your creative holiday settings.
Oh, yes! That ginger syrup would be an excellent addition. Yum. I’m in the UK in a couple of weeks to see the Christmas Markets and will seek some out.
Those pastry stamps are wonderful. I have a few sets and never tire of all the pastry and cookie cutouts you can make with them; they’re endlessly useful. And to get them in a thrifty fashion is an even bigger bonus. Well done, you!
I’m ready for winter food, too, Beatrice. Just starting to get my head around holiday tables. How did it get to be November so soon? And if I never see another contractor, I will be a happy woman!
Dear Ms. Kain,
If this tastes as good as it looks, your dinners are lucky people indeed.
I have saved the recipe and look forward to taking it to a friends house for a holiday meal.
I am particularly interested in how you achieved the variation of colors for the pastry leaf garnish. Have you added another ingredient to small portions of the pastry or is it it just and adjustment to baking time? This seems a versatile recipe. The blackberry/apple version is intriguing. The stem ginger idea above sounds wonderful and of course vanilla ice cream with apple pie is a classic.
My father always ate his apple pie with a thick slice of extremely sharp Cheddar cheese placed on top and warmed. He wanted the cheese to be “plastic” not melted. My mother accommodated him although she believed the rewarming of the pie slice ruined the looks. At some point she started making apple pie with a pastry that contained grated cheddar. Father said it was an interesting but not satisfying substitute for his “plastic” Cheddar cheese slice. By plastic-it relates to texture, not that horrid “cheese food” stuff made by Kraft..
Good morning,
Sorry for the delay in responding; I’ve been busy with my “real job”.
In the version I posted I baked the leaves separately and adhered them to the pie after it had baked. I find I get a much better definition of the leaves that way. The variation in colour has to do with baking time. I baked some of them longer than others, so they came out browner. It might be fun to use some gingerbread leaves in future, though, don’t you think? Kind of an extension of the stem ginger syrup idea.
I love apple pie with sharp cheddar cheese! Slightly melted, so it’s pliable, just like your father like it. One of my favourite snacks is thin slices of Braeburn apples with shavings of sharp cheddar between the slides. Delicious.