Nuts to apple pie! Yes, adding nuts is just the thing sometimes. Nuts and butter and brown sugar make this topping a little crunchy, the perfect foil to the soft apples and crisp crust. A blue ribbon winner.

Dutch Apple Pie

Prep Time: 50 minutes
Baking Time: 45-50 minutes
Serves: 7
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Ingredients

9” pie pan lined with pastry

Filling:

6 c. sliced tart pie apples
2.5 T. unsalted butter, melted
1 T. lemon juice
½ c. plus 2 T. sugar
2 T. cornstarch
¾ t. cinnamon
1 ¼ t. vanilla

Topping:

¾ c. flour
½ c. packed brown sugar
1 t. cinnamon
¼ t. nutmeg
¼ t. cloves
6 T butter
1/3 c. finely chopped toasted walnuts sprinkled with sugar

Directions

Peel, halve and core the apples. Cut into slices to measure 6 cups.
Combine melted butter and lemon in large bowl. Stir in vanilla.
Add the apples and toss gently.
Mix the remaining filling ingredients to blend, then toss with apples until they are evenly coated.
Fill the pie plate with the apple mixture, arranging to fit.
For the topping, mix the sugar, flour and spices. Blend in the butter until it makes a soft, crumbly mixture. Sprinkle topping mixture on top of apples.
Sprinkle the walnuts on top of the crumb topping and press lightly.
Optional: glaze the edge of the pie crust with a mixture of egg and half-and-half (1 egg, beaten, with 3 T. half-and-half).
Bake at 400° for 30 minutes, add a crust protector if needed, and turn down heat to 325 for another 15 minutes or until crust is golden brown and top is set.

Baker’s Notes and Tips and Tricks

This is one pie where a dollop of whipped cream puts it over the top!

To create the scalloped edge shown in the picture, I trimmed the bottom crust with a spoon (leaving about 1") to create the curves, filled it with the apple mixture, then folded the edge back onto the pie.