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You’ve got to try this Dutch Apple Pie in a bag! Baked with tart apples and a sweet crumb topping, this is a delightful twist on traditional apple pie.
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This Dutch Apple Pie recipe comes from my husband’s family. When they first told me about it, I was intrigued by an apple pie that had a crumble topping (or streusel topping) instead of a traditional lattice top. I was even MORE intrigued by the fact that you bake this pie inside of a brown paper bag. When my mother-in-law made it for us and I took my first bite, I discovered it’s one of the most delicious recipes I’ve ever tried. Now it’s the ONLY apple pie dessert that I make, and is a family staple at Thanksgiving and Fourth of July. Add a big scoop of vanilla ice cream to this apple crumble pie and you’ll enjoy every bite!
Ingredients in Dutch Apple Pie
I love how easy Dutch Apple Pie is to make. The crust comes together with just a little mixing. No rolling pin, no store-bought crust, or chilling pie dough for hours. Here’s all you need:
CRUST
- Flour – just regular, all-purpose flour works great.
- Sugar – sweeten the crust with just about a teaspoon of sugar, or a little more.
- Salt – for flavor.
- Oil – I like to use olive oil, but you could use vegetable oil too.
- Milk – just a little bit to give the dough some moisture.
APPLE PIE FILLING
- 5-6 apples – peeled and sliced. You can use tart green apples, Honeycrisp, Jonagold, Pink Lady, or Granny Smith apples.
- Cinnamon – the recipe calls for half a teaspoon cinnamon, but you can add a pinch more if you want.
- One teaspoon nutmeg.
- Almond extract – find this in the baking aisle. It gives the filling a warm, rich flavor that is so delicious!
CRUMB TOPPING
- All-purpose flour
- Butter – make sure it’s cold!
- Sugar – regular white sugar
Easy As Pie Recipe Tips
- The pie dough comes together by mixing flour, sugar, salt, olive oil, and milk in a large bowl with a fork. Then, you simply press the mix into the pie pan. No rolling!
- Next, you mix the peeled and sliced apples with cinnamon, nutmeg, flour, and sugar in a medium bowl. Now for the secret ingredient that takes this pie to the next level, almond extract. Trust me, this is a must!
- Finally, you mix up the flour, sugar, and butter to make the crumb topping. You can use a food processor or just your fingers to get a pea-sized crumble. Sprinkle it over the top and bake in a paper bag!
A Brown Paper Bag?
Don’t skip this step!! A lot of people get freaked out by this recipe because you bake the pie in a brown paper bag. Don’t worry, the bag will not catch on fire; you will not open the oven to find flames. The flash point of paper is extremely high and won’t be reached in your oven. Just be sure to have it centered on the bottom rack and that the bag is at least a good six inches from the burners along the top of the oven. The brown bag is seriously magic. It helps the pie cook evenly and keeps the crumb topping from burning, all while giving the crust a gorgeous golden brown color. I can always find brown bags at Trader Joe’s or Albertsons, but if you absolutely can’t get your hands on a brown paper bag, you can cover the top of your Dutch Apple Pie with tin foil instead.
Optional Toppings
When it comes to ice cream versus whipped cream, I am not picking a side! Even though this delicious Dutch Apple Pie recipe can totally stand on its own, who can resist a little topping of all kinds? Here are some ideas:
- Serve up a slice a la mode, with our fabulous homemade vanilla ice cream.
- Top with our yummy homemade whipped topping! It’s really easy to make!
- Top with a drizzle of caramel sauce and some chopped walnuts or pecans.
- Sprinkle brown sugar over the top of your ice cream for a pretty garnish.
Frequently Asked Questions about Dutch Apple Pie
The difference is in the top of the pie. A Dutch apple pie has a crumb topping while a traditional apple pie is topped with a pie crust.
A simple crumb topping made of flour, sugar, and butter.
Some say there was an apple pie in a Dutch cookbook from the 1500’s, other sources say the crumb topping comes from the Pennsylvania colonists and is not Dutch at all, but is an Americanized version of a Dutch “Appeltaart.”
The key is using tart and crisp apples, like Granny Smiths or Pink Ladies. Red Delicious apples won’t taste as good and will get too mushy. Braeburn and Galas work great for this recipe too!
More Delicious Pie Recipes
Who can resist the perfect piece of pie? From cream pies to fruit pies to ice cream pies, we have so many mouthwatering pie recipes to try! One of our other holiday favorites is our Pumpkin Pie Cobbler recipe. Check out some of our other pies here:
- Island Pecan Pie – a tropical treat chock full of coconut, pecans and a flaky crust.
- Pumpkin Pie Recipe – a Thanksgiving classic! This pie comes out perfectly every time, and tastes delicious with a dollop of whipped cream.
- Peach Pie – fresh peaches never tasted so good, tucked inside a light crust and topped with ice cream.
- Lemon Meringue Pie – rich and creamy lemon filling topped with the lightest meringue you’ve ever tasted!
- Pink Lemonade Ice Cream Pie – one of our family’s favorite summertime treats! Tart, tangy, and so refreshing!
- Easy Berry Pie – perfect for the holidays! This pie is bursting with the flavor of big, ripe berries in a gorgeous, easy to make, homemade crust.
How to make Dutch Apple Pie
Dutch Apple Pie
Video
Equipment
- Conventional Oven
Ingredients
For the Crust:
For the Apple Filling:
Instructions
For the Crust:
- Combine all the crust ingredients in a bowl. Mix well and pat into the bottom and sides of a pie pan. Don't roll the dough out.
For the Crumb Topping:
- Use a pastry blender to cut the butter into the four and sugar, mix until crumbly. Set aside.
For the Apple Filling:
- Combine all ingredients, except the apples, in a bowl. Mix well, then toss the apples in the mixture. Put the apple filling into the unbaked pie crust.
- Top with crumb topping.
- Place the pie inside a brown paper bag. Once the pie is inside, roll up the top of the bag and close it together with either staples or large paper clips. Place the bag on the lowest shelf in the oven. Bake at 350 for 90 minutes. Don't open the bag until the time is up and you have let it cool outside the oven for about 5 minutes.
- Allow pie to cool to room temperature.
- Serve with vanilla ice cream.
Notes
- Best apples for this pie: Granny Smith apples, Honeycrisp apples, Jonagold apples, or Pink Lady apples. You can also do a mix of a couple of varieties of apples.
- Let the brown paper bag do its job. Once you close the pie inside the bag, staple it shut and don’t peek until the timer goes off! Let the pie sit inside the bag for about five minutes, then take it out and cool before slicing.
- To store leftovers, cover slices of pie with plastic wrap and store in the refrigerator for up to five days. Any longer than that and the crust can get soggy. Remove the plastic wrap before warming slices of pie in the microwave, or eat it cold for breakfast!
I’m fired up to go for this! One question…..any way the almond extract can be substituted? My family is really, really not a fan of almond extract.
Yes you can do vanilla extract instead!
Could you freeze the pie ahead then bake?
We have not tried freezing this pie, so unfortunately I can’t say either way!
Love the recipe! Made it for a family get together and they all said it was the best apple pie they had in years! Could I substitute another fruit for the apples such as peach or cherries?
We haven’t tried it with any other fruits, but peach sounds like it would be delicious!!
In the ingredients you just say sugar, but in the picture I see it looks to be brown sugar and if so do I need to pack it? Thx so much! Looks absolutely delicious!
It is white sugar. It just looks brown because it is mixed with the cinnamon. Hope this helps!
Yummy! My family is going to love this recipe! I can’t wait to make this! Looks so delicious and scrumptious!
Love, love, love this dessert! It’s one my family always asks me to make especially during the holidays.
Such a classic pie! It turns out perfectly every time and is great with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.
This is one super delicious pie! My whole family loved it, it was a huge hit!
This is such a delicious recipe! Can’t wait to try it!
If I don’t have a paper bag and bake it anyway— what will happen????
The crust top will cook faster than the rest of the pie and burn before the pie filling is done. You could also cover it with tinfoil for a similar effect.
The crust was so hard we had to chip it out with a bolster! And such a lot of sugar.
I just made this again last night and didn’t have this problem. Did you bake it in the brown bag? The crust should be flaky.
How do you cook this in a Dutch oven?
We haven’t tried it in a dutch oven before, so I’m not sure! Let us know how it goes if you try it!
Delicious! Using the crust recipe for most of my pies. It’s a favorite.
This looks great! I am wondering, would it work to substitute berries for the apples? If so, how many cups of berries would you recommend?
We haven’t tried it with berries. Berries have a lot more liquid in them, so I wouldn’t recommend using them in this recipe.
I made this recipe a few times and I love it. The only thing I would change would be to have the top brown a little. Is there some way to do that?
You could remove it from the bag after cooking and place it back in the oven for a few minutes to brown the top. I haven’t tried it that way before, but that’s what I would do.
Easy to make and so so so good.
This Dutch Apple pie was delicious, but my six Granny Smith apples disappeared into the filling. I followed the recipe closely with the exception of using 2 tsp lemon juice and 1 tsp sugar free almond syrup instead of 2 tsp almond extract (since I was out). It was a large pie pan so the apples weren’t stacked up. Could that have caused the apples to be mush?
Thank you.
We used a pie pan that is 9 inches in diameter and 1-1/4 inches deep. If your pan was larger it definitely could have affected the recipe. The acid in the lemon juice could have also contributed to the apples breaking down. I am sorry it didn’t turn out the way you were expecting, but I am glad to hear you still thought it was delicious!
It really was and I plan to make it for Thanksgiving.
I stumbled upon your recipe recently and it is definitely a winner!! We love it so much, I’ve made it several times. That brown paper bag does amazing things! Thank you for sharing! I did want to ask if you think this recipe can still be used with a normal lattice top as opposed to the crumb topping? I absolutely love the crumb topping but am teaching a youth group how to make pies and thought teaching a lattice top would be fun for them. Thank you!!
We haven’t tried this with a lattice top – we just love the crumb topping too much! But let us know how it goes if you do try it!
Is plain flour or self raising flour used in the crust and topping?
We just use regular unbleached white flour, not self-rising. Thanks for asking!
Fabulous, and I love the crumb topping! I always struggle with a double pie crust.
What a delicious recipe! I can’t wait to make this and smell the aroma of apples throughout my home! Yum!
Easily my favorite dessert of all-time! So delicious, thank you!
Dutch apple pie is my favorite of all the apple pies. That buttery topping was to die for!