Apple Crumb Pie

For anyone who love crumb, this one is very good. My sister crazy about crumb, crumb bread, crumbs cake, crumb pie you name it, she love them all. Most of the times I like to taste the crumb, it as to be delicious before get into the oven (and its taste is like shortbread dough, yummy yummy). I get this recipe from Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook, I didn't make any change in the recipe. I have some suggestion that if you like a lot of crumb like my sister do, use all the crumb to make apple crumble it’s delicious too.

Apple Crumb Pie

Makes one 9-inches pie

2 ½ pounds assorted apples (such as Macoun, Cortland, Jonagold, Empire, or Rome), peeled, cored, and cut into ¼ -inch-thick slices

Almond Crumb Crust (recipe follows)

Juice of 1 lemon (about 2 tablespoons)

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

⅓ cup sugar

¾ teaspoon ground cinnamon

¼ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

¼ teaspoon salt

Preheat the oven to 35 0°F. Evenly and firmly press a little more than half of the crumbs about 2½ cups) into the bottom, up the sides, and onto the rim of a 9-inch glass pie plate. Press firmly into the edges. Freeze pie shell until firm, about 15 minutes. In a large bowl, toss together apples, lemon juice, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. Pour the mixture into the chilled pie shell, mounding apples slightly in the center. Dot with butter. Sprinkle the remaining crumbs in clumps over the apples to cover completely.

Bake, rotating halfway through, until the crust turns golden and the juices begin to bubble, about 1 hour. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. The pie can be kept temperature, loosely covered with plastic wrap, for up to 2 days.

Almond Crumb Crust

Makes enough for one 9-inches pie

1 ½ cups all purpose flour

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons blanched almonds, finely ground

½ cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar

¼ teaspoon salt

1 ½ sticks (3/4 cup) unsalted butter, room temperature, cut into small pieces

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, almonds, sugar, and salt. Using a pastry Blender, cut in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs with a few larger clumps remaining. Using your fingers, squeeze the mixture together to create pea-size to ¾-inch pieces. If not using right away, cover and chill until ready to proceed.