It’s time to upgrade your basic apple pie y’all. My homemade dutch apple pie recipe is where it’s at with a super flaky crust, tender warm spiced apples, and a sweet and buttery crumb topping. Served with my homemade spiced caramel, your tastebuds will go crazy. Dutch apple pie is the kind of dessert that makes you go back for seconds and thirds without thinking twice boos.
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They’re Lovin’ It! Here’s what They’re Sayin’:
“This is serious apple pie perfection! Loved it.”
—KATHERINE
I’m going to come right out and say it — I think this Dutch apple pie might just be my favorite type of apple pie! It contains all the best parts of classic apple pie BUT with a sweet streusel topping AND caramel! I mean, who wouldn’t love that combo? The flavors pop in the most sensational way, and it is a showstopper to serve at holidays and special occasions throughout the fall season. Get into it.
The Lowdown of the Best Dutch Apple Pie Recipe
Cuisine Inspiration: Dutch American
Primary Cooking Method: Baking
Dietary Info: Can be made gluten-free or dairy-free with ingredient swaps
Key Flavor: Warm, Spiced Apples with a Sweet, Buttery Crumb Topping
Skill Level: Intermediate
Warm Fall Vibes
This pie brings out all those warm, cozy feels we love about the fall season with that spiced apple filling and buttery crumble. Nothing warms up your bones like a slice of this.
Remix on the Classic
Next time you want a slice of traditional apple pie, turn things up a notch and go with this dutch apple pie recipe instead. It delivers delish textures and flavors plus that spiced caramel sauce is EVERYTHING!
Holiday Crowd-Pleaser
Whip up this beauty and add to your holiday dessert table. It is guaranteed to be an absolute hit.
Ingredients You’ll Need to make this Easy Dutch Apple Pie
- All-purpose flour: This serves as the foundation of our tender crust.
- Granulated & brown sugar: I use a blend in the apple filling so you get a mix of deep, rich molasses flavor throughout!
- Salt: Just a little helps to balance and enhance the sweetness.
- Unsalted Butter: Butter adds abundant richness and creamy flavor to the elements of this pie from the crust and crumble to the caramel sauce.
- Water: The water needs to be ice-cold so it doesn’t melt the butter. It helps us create flaky pie crust layers.
- Ground Cinnamon and Nutmeg: These add warmth to our filling and caramel giving a unique essence that reminds you of fall.
- Pure Vanilla Extract: It gives the perfect amount of aromatic notes to our pie.
- Apples: I use Honeycrisp apples for their tart, juicy, and sweet flavor.
- Lemon juice: This prevents the apples from browning while adding just a touch of acidity and brightness.
- Cornstarch: Just a little helps thicken the apple filling.
- Heavy whipping cream: For a velvety smooth and decadent spiced caramel topping, you gotta use this.
How to make a Dutch Apple Pie
How to Serve Apple Dutch Pie
- A La Mode: Dutch apple pie and ice cream go together like peanut butter and jelly. I love going classic with my homemade vanilla ice cream or punching up the flavors with this cookie butter ice cream or apple pie ice cream.
- Dollop It Up: Add a nice big ole spoonful of creamy homemade whipped cream to your plate.
- Fall Comfort Food Dinner: Serve up my fave Southern baked chicken, some mashed sweet potatoes, this roasted butternut squash and don’t forget some pumpkin cornbread. This dutch pie will be right at home after you finish.
Recipe Substitutions
- Apples: Golden Delicious, Granny Smith, and Braeburn are all great options to swap in.
- Cornstarch: If you don’t have any, use an equal amount of arrowroot starch or even flour in a pinch.
- Brown Sugar: If you ran out, you can easily learn how to make brown sugar with granulated sugar and molasses boos.
- Heavy Cream: For every cup you need, substitute with ⅞-cup of half-and-half and 2 tablespoons of butter.
Recipe Variations and Additions
- Apple Mix Up: Combine different apple varieties so you get unique mixes of sweetness and tartness throughout the filling.
- Gluten-Free: Replace the flour with your fave 1:1 ratio gluten-free baking flour. The textures may change slightly but it will still be so bomb y’all.
- Dairy Free: Swap out the butter for your fave plant-based butter and use a vegan replacement for the heavy cream.
- Get Nutty: Add chopped nuts like walnuts or pecans to the crumble topping for some added texture in the mix.
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Expert Tips and tricks
- Plan Ahead: Make sure you give yourself ample time to make the pie before it needs to be served. With baking and cooling, it can take upwards of 4-5 hours to complete (but, it’s totally worth the wait)!
- Chill Out: Make sure your butter is super chilled before working it into the dry crust ingredients.
- Pre-bake the crust: Pre-bake the crust so it doesn’t turn soggy from the apple juices soaking in.
- Evenly slice the apples: To ensure tender apples at the end, thinly and evenly slice them before baking this Dutch apple pie.
- Refrigerate the streusel: This will help the crumbs form more easily before baking the pie.
How to Store Dutch Apple Pie
Cover any leftover pie with plastic wrap or add to a pie plate or carrier and store on the counter for up to 3 days. Pop the caramel in the fridge.
If you wanna serve leftovers warm, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F, then add the pie to a piece of parchment paper or foil and cover it with foil. Bake it for 12-15 minutes, or until warm all the way through. You can heat the caramel sauce in the microwave in 20 second intervals until it gets to the temperature you like.
How long will apple dutch pie last in the refrigerator?
It will keep in the fridge for up to 5 days.
Can I freeze ?
Absolutely boos. Transfer the apple pie to a freezer-safe container or wrap in plastic wrap super well. Label with the date and freeze for up to 3 months.
Frequently Asked Questions
You can absolutely use a store-bought crust if you’re pressed for time boos. However, the homemade crust is what really sets this pie apart.
It’s more than likely because you didn’t blind bake the crust. Make sure you pre-bake it so it sets up and those apple juices don’t soak into it making it super wet.
Absolutely boos. You can prep the pie crust, streusel and caramel sauce a day ahead and store in the fridge. I would make the apple filling closer to the time you want to assemble so it doesn’t brown too much. Just assemble the pie and bake when you are ready!
I can’t lie y’all. My dutch apple pie recipe is gonna knock your socks off. It has all those classic fall vibes in a unique package. The flavors pop and the textures are irresistible. Get into this recipe boos.
More pie recipes
- Chocolate Bourbon Pecan Pie
- Mississippi Mud Pie
- Sweet Potato Pecan Pie
- Caramel Pie
- S’more Pumpkin Pie
- Kool-Aid Pie
Dutch Apple Pie
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Ingredients
For the Pie Crust
- 1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp granulated sugar
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter very cold, cut into cubes
- 1/4 cup very cold water up to 1/3 cup
For the Apple Filling
- 6 medium Honeycrisp apples peeled and thinly sliced, about 8 cups
- 1/3 cup granulated sugar
- 1/3 cup dark brown sugar packed
- 1 tsp lemon juice freshly squeezed
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt
- 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
- 4 tbsp cornstarch
For the Crumble Topping
- 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup light brown sugar
- 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/8 tsp kosher salt
- 6 tbsp unsalted butter melted
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
For the Spiced Caramel Sauce
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter
- 1 cup light brown sugar packed
- 6 tbsp heavy whipping cream
- 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
- pinch of salt
Instructions
For the Pie Crust
- In a medium sized bowl, add flour, sugar and salt and whisk together to combine.
- Next add your cold butter cubes to the flour and using your pastry cutter, cut the butter into the flour mixture until various sized crumbs appear.
- Start with ¼ cup of cold water and slowly add the flour until a ball of dough forms. Knead the dough quickly to bring it together. Don't worry if there is any flour left in the bowl.
- Remove the dough from the bowl and roll into a ball. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for 30-45 minutes to rest.
For the Apples
- Add apple slices along with both sugars, lemon juice, cinnamon, salt and nutmeg to a large bowl toss to mix everything together. Let the pie filling sit out at room temp for about an hour.
For the Crumble
- Add flour, sugar, cinnamon and salt to a medium sized bowl and toss together making sure to break up everything. Stir together the butter and vanilla in a separate small bowl and pour over the dry ingredients. Toss everything together until crumbs develop then cover and refrigerate.
To Finish Apples, Pre-Bake Crust and Assemble
- Once the pie dough has rested, remove the dough from the fridge and lightly flour the surface. Roll out your dough, wrap around a rolling pin and transfer to a greased and floured 9 inch pie plate. Fit to the plate then flute the edges to your liking then add back in the freezer for 20 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Remove the crust from the freezer and line with parchment covering the edges and fill with pie weights to just the level. Bake pie for about 15 minutes then remove from the oven and remove the pie weights. Gently prink the bottom and sides of the crust with a fork several times and bake for another 8-10 minutes then remove and cool on a wire rack. Reduce the temperature of the oven to 375.
- Next take the apple filling that’s been sitting and drain the liquid in the filling into a liquid measuring cup up to ½ cup. Make sure to gently press the apples down so you get the liquid. Pour the liquid into a medium saucepan. The apples should be left in the bowl.
- Add the cornstarch to the apples and toss together to coat then set aside.
- Over high heat, reduce the liquid in the saucepan to about a 1/3 cup. Takes about 4-6 minutes. Do light swirling during this then remove.
- Pour the reduced apple liquid over the fruit and stir everything together.
- Layer the apples over the prebaked pie crust, spreading them out and pressing the slices down.
- Finally remove the crumble from the fridge and break up crumbles with a fork. Liberally sprinkle on top of the apples leaving the baked pie crust bare.
- Bake for 40-50 minutes or until the apples are tender when poked and pierced with a fork. To make sure your pie crust doesn’t overbrown, cover with foil or a pie crust shield.
- Let cool to room temperature and then serve warm with caramel below and vanilla ice cream of course.
For the Spiced Caramel
- Melt butter in a saucepan.
- Add brown sugar, heavy cream, vanilla extract and cinnamon and whisk constantly over medium heat until sugar is dissolved.
- Bring to a boil and allow to boil for 3-4 minutes. Don’t go over that time.
- Remove from heat, stir in a pinch of salt and allow to cool. Serve with pie.
Notes
- Don’t have a pastry cutter? You can use 2 forks to cut the butter into the flour.
- Don’t have pie weights? Use 1lb of dry beans instead.
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This pie is delicious. I used dark brown sugar for the crumble. I also added a tad of ginger.
Ooo, I love the idea of adding ginger!
Would it be possible to provide the amount in metric ie grams for the flour, sugars and apples? Was looking for the Metric conversion “button” that many of your recipes has but this recipe is missing it!
Thanks in advance!
oh wow love these flavors and layers of flavor and even more so haven’t had this kind of apple pie in a really long time, so thank you!
Your recipe says “up to half a cup” when referring to draining the liquid from the apples. What do you do with the excess liquid? Does it stay in the apples or do you discard it?
Right you won’t need it.
I’m excited to try this recipe! Could any of these steps be done ahead of time? Could you leave the ball of dough in the fridge overnight? Could you combine the pie filling ingredients or the crumble ingredients the night before? Thanks!
Absolutely! You can make the dough ahead of time and also the crumble too! They store really well.
I usually just buy my pie crust, but no more. This pie crust was so easy to make and was so much better. This pie is fabulous!
Such a gorgeous apple pie! This would be perfect for Thanksgiving!
This is serious apple pie perfection! Loved it.
Fantastic apple pie that is an absolute must-try this holiday season. It looks absolutely delicious, that’s for sure!