Apple Crumb Pie
This pie is easier than a two-crust pie, and everyone will adore it. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. You will need:
6 giant Granny Smith apples
1 lemon
2 sticks of butter
2 cups of white flour
1 cup of sugar
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
Explicit instructions for HOW TO MAKE A PIE CRUST are given here under “Locally Famous Pecan Pie.”
Make a single pie crust.
For the filling, peel the apples, then quarter them. Remove the apple cores with a paring knife. Slice the apples into the pie crust so that they are nicely heaped together. Slice the lemon in half and squeeze the juice over the apples. (If the lemon is seedy, juice it into a coffee cup first and make sure to remove the seeds.) Mix 1/2 cup of sugar with the teaspoon of cinnamon, and sprinkle liberally over the apples.
In your food processor, pulse together 3/4 cup of flour, 1/2 cup of sugar, and, then, after they have been mixed, a stick of butter cut into fat slices. Pulse together until the mixture looks “fine” and then begins to clump together in “crumbs.” STOP IMMEDIATELY once it starts to clump: If you keep going, it will become a dough and will be difficult to crumble.
Dump the crumbs by cupfuls onto the raw, cinnamon-covered apples until all the crumbs are on the pie.
Place in the oven at 350 degrees and bake for one hour.
This article appears in November 17 • 2006.
