Gingery Apple Crumb Pie

I bought some ENORMOUS honey crisp apples at the store the other day. Seriously, they were the size of softballs. I decided not to waste them on feeding my beautiful daughters when they each daily ask for an apple. They would never have been able to finish them. So, instead, I used them for a better purpose: apple pie.

I'm more of an apple crisp kind of girl, but Evan loves apple pie. We were having some friends over for dinner, so I thought apple pie would be an excellent dessert since fall is just around the corner.

Nothing says fall like apple pie.

Except for pumpkins. And cider. And leaves changing colors. And football.

The ingredients:

One pie crust; 1/2 C. cold, unsalted butter, cut into small pieces; 3/4 C. plus 1 Tbsp. all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled; 3/4 C. sugar; 2 1/2 lbs. apples, peeled and thinly sliced; 1 Tbsp. grated ginger; 1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon; 1/4 tsp. kosher salt. Set your oven rack to the lowest position and heat the oven to 350 degrees.

Start with the topping. In your handy-dandy food processor, pulse the butter...

3/4 C. of flour...
and 1/4 C. of sugar. Pulse until large clumps form.
Yeah, I know. Those are not clumps.
Here's the thing. I don't feel like I processed it too long, but my topping never got crumbly. It went straight into a dough. Almost like a cookie dough. It was very yummy. But, I continued to follow the directions and put the topping in the refrigerator until it was time to be used. If yours does get crumbly, great! I'll tell you what to do with it. If yours also turns to dough, please tell me. I need to know I'm not the only crumble topping reject.

Next take a look at this apple. It's HUGE!
Take whatever size apples you found to use, and peel them.
Then core them and slice them.
This is how thin I sliced mine. Throw them in a large mixing bowl.
Add the ginger...
the cinnamon...
the salt...
the flour...
and the sugar.
Stir! Stir! Stir!
Take a pie crust (either store bought or homemade, whatever makes you happy) and put it in the pie dish.
Pour the apple mixture into the pie crust.
Take delight in the smell and look of the cinnamon and ginger on the apples. It is heavenly.
Take the crumb topping out of the refrigerator. Curse its dough-y-ness if you are me.
If your topping turned out correctly, then you sprinkle it on top of the pie and go about your merry little way.

If your topping turned to dough like mine did and you didn't know exactly what to do with it and you didn't have another pie crust to just put on the top of the pie and you were panicking because you were going to have company that night and you didn't want to serve them a gross toppinged pie...

You can do what I did and improvise. I took a topping that I was familiar with and used it instead.

Take 6 Tbsp. of flour...

1/2 C. brown sugar...
1/4 C. of shortening...
and 1/2 C. of oatmeal.
Mix.
Sprinkle onto your apple pie. Pat yourself on the back for not flipping out and giving up on the pie.
Then dream of how delicious this pie is going to be!
Place the pie on a cookie sheet (to catch any drippings). Bake the pie for 55-60 minutes until the apples are tender and a bit bubbly.

When I took the pie out (which I have no pictures of because I was forgetful and already working on dinner), I felt that the topping was too dry. So, I took a stick of butter and melted it and then drizzled it on the still hot pie. It was perfect and it settled the dry topping into the pie.

I apologize for this picture, but I hurriedly took it while serving it at the dinner. The lighting was off and I didn't adjust my camera setting. Forgive me please.
The pie was DELICIOUS. That kick of ginger was such an added bonus to an already wonderful melody of flavors. The topping was fantastic and I may just make it the permanent topping (unless one of you tries the original topping and has success and tells me to try it again). It was a huge pie and I ended up having to dole some out and make my friends take some home. They were glad I did so. Definitely a pie to impress the family during the upcoming holiday season!!

Enjoy!