This post may contain affiliate links. Please read our privacy policy.
I know the title is braggy, and I’m sorry, but this Streusel Apple Pie deserves as much hyperbolic praise as it can get. The apples are blanketed and bound up with a custardy coating, and a thick layer of sweet, crumbly streusel topping makes this like an amazing apple crisp in a pie crust. It’s the best apple pie topping ever (says me). Also, streusel is a highly enjoyable word to say.
Table of Contents
In this Streusel Apple Pie, the apples are blanketed and bound up with a custardy coating, with a thick layer of sweet, crumbly streusel topping.
Tweet This
The Ultimate Thanksgiving Apple Pie
I make three of these every year for Thanksgiving and have for many, many years. Thanksgiving is always at my parents’ house, usually with twenty-some-odd people, and there are a number of other desserts on the table as well. One pie is gone in moments, and the second pie gets carved into, though there will almost always be some left. Almost everyone is a bit-of-this and a bit-of-that when it comes to desserts, and you don’t want to miss my sister’s cheesecake.
The third pie almost never leaves the kitchen. More on that shortly.
A Word About Thanksgiving
Let’s take a moment from the discussion of pies to say that Thanksgiving is both my favorite and most tension-producing holiday of the year. I know there are many of you with me on this.
All of our family dynamics are on full display. At some point, buoyed by a glass of wine too many, someone says something they shouldn’t, or a dog greets a cousin’s crotch with too much enthusiasm, and a mini-drama ensues.
Or I forget to put a pan under the pie, and that causes the fire alarm to go off. Or the timing of the day gets wayyyyy off, and my father-in-law asks theatrically — intended comically — when exactly we are going to eat, more like, “Hey, oh my God, where’s the food? We’re starving out here!” which puts a pained smile on my mother’s face.
Apple Pie With Crumb Topping
Anyway, back to that third pie. For a long time, I made them all at my parents’ house the morning of Thanksgiving. At that point, my mother always said with disingenuous surprise, “Oh! You’re making three pies? Do we need three pies? We never seem to cut into the third. Really, never.” And I try to unclench and remind her that I, too, like leftover pie, and since Thanksgiving is not at my house, I make that third pie to feed my family and the 6 to 10 in-laws who are staying with us for the weekend. Who also like leftover pie.
And now, problem solved, I make the pies at my house! I bring just two to her house! And as I walk out the door on Thanksgiving morning with the two pies, I give a little wave to the third pie sitting on my counter and whisper, “I will see you later, my sweet apple streusel pie.”
The pie is great, still warm from the oven, and as you can see, I firmly believe a wedge for breakfast the next day is a gift.
Streusel Topping for Apple Pie
You can make the streusel topping in a number of ways: you can use your fingers to cut in the cold butter or two knives, but the easiest way I know, especially if you are making a sizable amount, is to use the food processor. See How to Make Great Streusel Topping in the Food Processor — a perfect crumb topping recipe for apple pie or just about any other fruit pie you can think of.
How Long to Bake Apple Pie
Apple pie needs to bake long enough so the apples become fork-tender but do not turn to mush. It also needs to bake long enough for the crust to cook through and not remain doughy, even on the bottom.
This apple pie recipe bakes for a total of about 70 minutes. For the first 20 minutes, the pie bakes with just the apple filling in the crust, then it bakes for another 50 minutes or so once the streusel topping has been added.
FAQs
This type of apple pie, with its streusel topping, is also known as Dutch apple pie. The streusel, a combination of sugar, flour, and butter, and in this case, cinnamon and ginger, is what makes it “Dutch” versus regular apple pie, which involves a pastry top.
Dutch apple pies sometimes involve a binder or custard filling along with the apples, as does this pie.
Unless you have an apple that really loses its texture quickly when it is cooked, most apples are pretty great for apple pies. I like to use a combination. I always have some slightly tart Granny Smiths as part of the mix. Some other apples that make great apple pies are:
– Honeycrisp
– Golden Delicious
– Rome
– Jonathan or Jonagold Apples
– Braeburn
– Northern Spy
– McIntosh
I can’t think of a pie, or many desserts for that matter, that streusel topping will not improve. That lovely, crumbly, sweet topping is really just pure joy. Streusel is a combination of butter, flour, and sugar, sometimes with other ingredients added in, such as oats, nuts, and spices, particularly cinnamon. Sometimes, it’s called a crumble topping.
Pro Cooking Tips
- If you don’t have a food processor, you can make the streusel topping by using your fingers to rub the cold butter into the dry ingredients until the topping is fairly uniform and crumbly.
- It is a good idea to put a baking sheet under the pie pan as it bakes (you can put it right under the pie pan, or on a rack below if you have the oven space), as the streusel topping can tend to bubble over the side a bit, and trust me when I tell you that your kitchen will get more than a little bit smoky if that happens.
- Make sure the pie cools on a wire rack until it is either just barely warm or comes to room temperature. The custard will then have a chance to firm up. If you cut the pie while it is still too warm the filling will be loose and not hold together into slices.
- Slice the pie with a sharp knife to get the neatest pieces.
What to Serve With Apple Streusel Pie
Easy Roasted Thanksgiving Turkey
Slow Cooked Pork Roast
How to Make a Perfect Roast Chicken
More Apple Dessert Recipes
- Favorite Streusel Apple Crisp
- Easy Apple Crisp Recipe
- Dutch Baby Pancake with Sauteed Apples
- Apple Coffee Cake
Like this recipe? Pin it to your favorite board on Pinterest.
Pin This
Best Apple Streusel Pie
Equipment
Ingredients
For the Streusel Topping:
- ⅓ cup granulated sugar
- ¼ cup firmly packed light or dark brown sugar
- ½ cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground ginger
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 8 tablespoons (1 stick) cold unsalted butter (cut into small pieces)
For the Pie Filling:
- 6 large Granny Smith apples (or a mixture of Granny Smith and any other firm baking apple; peeled, cored, and sliced about 1⁄2-inch thick)
- 1 unbaked 9-inch deep-dish pie shell
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
- 1 large egg
- 1 cup heavy whipping cream
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- Whipped cream or vanilla ice cream (optional, but well worth it, for serving)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 F.
- Make the streusel topping: Combine the 1⁄3 cup of granulated sugar, the brown sugar, 1⁄2 cup plus 2 tablespoons of flour, 1 teaspoon of cinnamon, the ginger, and salt in a food processor and give it a good whirl. Add the pieces of butter and pulse until the butter is incorporated and the mixture is crumbly. Do not overprocess; you don’t want a paste. Set the streusel topping aside.
- Make the pie: Put the apples in the pie shell.
- Combine the 1 cup of granulated sugar, the 3 tablespoons of flour, the 1⁄2 teaspoon of cinnamon, and the cloves in a small bowl.
- Beat the egg in a large bowl, then add the cream and vanilla and blend well. Add the sugar mixture to the egg mixture and stir to blend. Pour the custard mixture over the apples; if the mixture comes more than three-quarters of the way up the side of the crust, stop pouring so it won’t bubble up and overflow.
- Place the pie on a baking sheet in the oven and bake it for 20 minutes. Carefully remove the pie from the oven, making sure the custard mixture doesn’t pour over the side. Evenly and carefully (take your time), distribute the streusel topping over the top of the pie. Carefully (again) return it to the oven and bake until the top is browned and a knife inserted into the pie ensures that the apples are cooked through, about 50 minutes longer.
- Let the pie cool on a wire rack for at least 45 minutes until room temp or barely warm, then serve with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream, if desired (and who wouldn’t desire that?).
Notes
- If you don’t have a food processor, you can make the streusel topping by using your fingers to rub the cold butter into the dry ingredients until the topping is fairly uniform and crumbly.
- It is a good idea to put a baking sheet under the pie pan as it bakes (you can put it right under the pie pan or on a rack below if you have the oven space). The streusel topping tends to bubble over the side a bit and trust me when I tell you that your kitchen will get more than a little bit smoky if that happens.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
So delicious! I sliced 4 more apples, a handful of blueberries and made 2 pies! Thank you!
I just made this beautiful pie. Someone gifted me with a dozen small apples and I found your recipe and it went together perfectly. I used my deep glass pie plate. My son came over for dinner and ended up eating almost 1/3 himself, and he is not fond of apple pie. The occasional pop of a salt crystal in the topping is delightful contrast. This is a keeper!
I would like to make and freeze
Can this be done and for how long
Yes, you can make and freeze this pie, but I would recommend defrosting it in the fridge overnight, and then warming it in a 350°F oven for 15 minutes to get the streusel crisped up a bit. You can then let it cool again to room temp or serve it warm. Otherwise the streusel gets soggy.
The topping is full of way too much butter for the amount of flour. Also, sugar level is too high. Do yourself a favor and look for a different recipe. Steve L
I made this pie for Thanksgiving. It was my first time making an apple pie with custard.
It turned out DELICIOUS!
I saved the recipe for my favorite apple pie.
Thank you for sharing!
I made this yesterday for Thanksgiving and followed the recipe exactly. It was a sloppy, gooey (but tasty) mess. Most people passed it over and those that did eat it used it as their ice cream topping. We had 16 people over and for the first time ever I have LOTS of the apple pie leftover. Also I prefer a streusel topping with visible crumbs. This topping mostly just dissolved. 5 stars for flavor but 1 for looks. I will say I baked the pie in an unfamiliar oven so that always throws a wrench in the works. But I think a custard apple pie is not for me and I will go back to more traditional recipes. Thanks for sharing though! The texture of the apples was perfect so my kids are happy to have so much left for their ice cream!
I made this last thanksgiving and it was a HUGE HIT. I want to make it again this year, but am curious: has anyone /can you substitute the cream for canned coconut milk? Can you sub the cane sugar for palm sugar? Can you sub the buyer for coconut oil(should I add a little salt if so?)???
When ever I try a new recipe..it’s always a week ahead of any dinner I am planning. . My main reason is I don’t like surprises or frowns .. here is a tip I use. Successfully..chil everything..the pie crust the pie after it’s assembled and then put it in the fridge for 30, minutes before putting the pie in a hot oven.. My Aunt taught me this simple trick many years ago .. and I never forgot her words. “Kid the dough needs to be cold before baking.”. I make pies ahead of time..put them in ziplock bags and freeze . Then when you want a delicious pie for dinner.. it’s ready to bake. Freezing the butter before making the strudel topping works great too. You can put the flour sugar and spices in a bowl..grate the frozen butter in to the mixture toss and top the pie. I did not put the clove n ground ginger.. like the recipe called for..I use those spices in pumpkin custard pie . But I would recommend anyone trying this recipe. Always remember..SAVE YOUR FORK…THERE’S PIE.
I hate to say this but the filling was just a tad underwhelming! Easy enough recipe. SMELLS amazing! And when I tasted to ingredients before I mixed it all together, the notes of clove, cinnamon and vanilla read really well. But when I baked it, most of their flavor seemed to get lost in the cream base~ All around a very nice recipe! Great for the holidays! Might try again with a couple of tweaks to the spices lol
I am on pie number 20. My entire family is demanding it almost every night. And I have started cheating because I am making so many and using lucky leaf. This is apple pie on a whole new level. Thank you thank you thank you!!!
PS even if i run out of heavy cream and sub in milk and butter it is still amazing!!
love that you’ve tried it with those things! I am also an addict of this pie.
I have made this pie before and LOVED it. I am planning to make it for Thanksgiving, but would love to do some prep work today. Other than making the pie crust and strudel ahead and putting them in the fridge, could I make the custard separate and store it overnight, then fill the crust tomorrow before baking? Thanks for the great recipe!
I am so sorry I didn’t see this until after Thanksgiving! Did you try it? I have made the dry mixture ahead of time, and then mixed the custard right before baking, and I have made the streusel a couple of days ahead of time and kept it in the fridge.
Can’t wait to try this tomorrow but have a couple questions.
1) I have all the ingredients but the ground cloves, do you think it will make a big difference in flavor if I do not add it? Would you recommend increasing any of the other ingredients in the absence of the cloves?
2) Do i have to put the apples in the pie first and then put the custard or can i mix they apples with the custard and then put everything in at once?
3) Lastly, I have always put the streusel for my pies on the pie before putting it in the oven (without having to take it out). I was wondering what your reasoning was for not putting it on right before it goes in the oven the first time. and if I did decide to put it in right before should I still cook it for the 70 minutes or would the timing change as well? Thank you for your time!
Made this for Thanksgiving and just made it again for Christmas. Ran into a few issues with streusel the first time, but it still tasted wonderful! Followed cooking tip #1 (no food processor) second time around and it turned out beautifully! Thank you for this great recipe!
Very happy to hear!
Looks and smells GREAT! I made a day ahead – with the custard style filling – what is the best way to store until tomorrow and keep the crusts texture?
so sorry not to have seen this yesterday! I would keep it covered with plastic wrap in the fridge (but if you left it out, then it will still be good!).
Just put it in the oven. Decided to do two. Hoping it turns out ok.
About to start mine now!
Turned out awesome. Great recipe. Thanks for sharing.
yay! I still have half of a pie in my fridge
Can I make this with 1% milk?
No I don’t think that will work!
What did I do wrong? Thankfully I made this recipe as a test the night prior bc it came out aweful :( The Flavor is amazing but its basically apple soup with soggy crust and crunchy apples. I followed recipe according to the directions, we let it cool 30 minutes but we cant call it pie. The flavor is really good & I want to drink it :p We just moved back to sea level so I was excited to be able to bake easily again but this just did not come out. You don’t need to cook the apples a bit prior? And do you whip the custard to a thick consistency ? It doesn’t mention in the directions but I noticed in the “what kids can do section” it said they can help whip the cream.
Oh no! All I can think is that your oven is low, because I have made this pie so many times….the soupy filling with crunchy apples and soggy crust sounds like a too low oven temp. Have you checked your oven temp with a thermometer lately? I am so sorry to hear that you had a bad experience and wasted all those apples and ingredients.
If you make it again, please let me know what happens? But check the oven temp first!
This pie is delicious and my whole family loved it! I have a couple of questions, though. I found that six Granny Smith apples was entirely too many. I could have filled the other 9″ deep dish pie shell and baked two pies if I had had enough custard. Did I miss something or was all of these ingredients meant for one pie? Also, the next day the pie, although still delicious, had become rather soggy; both the crust and streusel topping. Have you had this happen?
Thanks so much and I’ll definitely be making this pie again!
Hi, Rebecca! So, you must have had huge apples! I always use 6, and pile it pretty high because the apples collapse a lot when they bake. So I am imagining that yours were gargantuan. And yeah, it does get a bit soggy, but you know, it hasn’t slowed me or my family down on the leftovers. You could give it a quick (and attentive) run under the broiler to crisp up the top a bit. And did you refrigerate it? You should – it slows down the sogging a little I think. So happy you liked it.
Maybe this is a matter of taste or expected flavor, but the addition of ground cloves confused my palate. It evoked mincemeat pie, rather than apple pie, so it just didn’t taste right (or as anticipated). I didn’t include the ground ginger. The custard was nice, and I probably would have liked the pie more if just cinnamon was used.
The instruction to rub the butter in the struesel pretty much guarantees a pasty result. It would be better to use two knives to cut the butter pieces into the struesel mix, similar to cutting the pastry dough.
Just cinnamon would be just lovely. And yes, if you smear the butter too vigourously it would turn to paste. I have good success with cold butter and pulsing it in the food processor. I make 4 of these every Thanksgiving (and others on demand!)
Too much butter. My streusel had pools of melted butter all over the top. Next time I’ll use half the butter. Other than that, many of my go to recipes are from this book
Hmm I’ve never had that issue. Maybe your butter was too soft? For the streusel needs cold butter to do its proper crumbly thing.
I agree, it is the best ever! Thank you for “The Mom 100 Cookbook”.
Thank you for writing!
Cant wait to try this, its my Fav!!
So I tweaked the recipe a bit, as I am always looking for a treat that won’t totally crash my WW program. I used half the butter and sugar, and also used light cream ( clutch the pearls)! It turned out great! Definitely gonna be in regular rotation