A year ago in November, I  had a rigid plastic brace on my on right arm and very limited strength, I just could not roll out pie dough. So, a great option for me was a press in pie crust make in stand mixer. Perfect fit in my Dutch Apple Pie, with crumb topping.  The cookie crust was tender and held together well, wasn’t soggy. Best eaten within 2 days.

If you are not into making a rolled out crust this is a perfect solution for you if you want to make a delish gf crust. I really didn’t miss the rolled out crust; this simple press in crumb recipe by Annalise Roberts is the very best crust for one handers or crust novices!

I used a mixture of apples; a few golden delicious, some granny smith and a few Jonagold.  Using 2-3  kinds of baking apples is the best plan for flavor and structure (doesn’t mush down too much or not enough). This was definitely a great mixture. I am making a Thanksgiving apple pie next week and I will probably use a similar mixture of varieties.  The pie went in tall and settled nicely into a tightly woven pie filling. One thing: please don’t use red delicious; they are not baking apples.

Dutch Apple Pie with Cookie Crust

Ingredients:

CRUST:

1 1/2 cup gf flour (King Arthur basic gf blend)

¼ cup sugar

1 tsp. xanthan gum

7  Tbsp. cold butter

FILLING:

6-7 cups peeled and sliced apples; don’t leave them too fat; thinner is better

2 Tbsp. Tapioca flour

1/3 – 1/2 c granulated sugar

¼ c. brown sugar; packed

1 tsp. cinnamon

¼ tsp. nutmeg

1 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice

CRUMBLE:

3/4 cup gf flour

5 Tbsp. butter

1/2 cup sugar

DIRECTIONS: Make crust in stand mixer; put dry ingredients in, add butter and mix on medium until crumbly. Spray 9 inch pie pan with cooking spray and press in crust, heat oven to 375 degrees.

Mix filling in large bowl; dump in apple slices.  Mix the dry filling ingredients in a small bowl. Sprinkle apples with lemon juice and then the dry mixture. Stir and let stand while you make crumbs.

Mix crumbs: use stand mixer: no need to clean bowl. Dump in flour and sugar and mix, then blend in butter and blend well. Gently pour fruit into pie pan on top of crust and sprinkle top with crumble to mostly cover fruit. sprinkle about 1 ¼ cups of crumb mixture.

Bake on lowest shelf in oven, 55-65 minutes until lightly browned and applies are bubbling. Remove from oven and cool completely before serving (at least 2 or 3 hours.) Best eaten within 24-36 hours. Vanilla ice cream is a perfect combo with this pie! Enjoy.