This Dutch apple pie recipe is a tender and flaky crust filled with sweetened apples, then finished off with a brown sugar crumb topping. Serve your apple pie with vanilla ice cream, and watch the rave reviews come in!
When apples are in season, I make the most of them by whipping up all kinds of recipes including apple crisp, baked apples, apple cobbler, charoset, snicker apple salad and this decadent and delicious pie. It’s the best apple pie I’ve ever tasted!
Apple pie is a classic dessert recipe for good reason – that combination of sweet apples, cinnamon and pastry just can’t be beat. This Dutch apple pie is my all-time favorite pie. It also happens to be quite easy to make!
Table of Contents
Dutch Apple Pie Ingredients
To make this recipe, you will need homemade apple pie filling, pie crust, butter, flour and brown sugar.
How Do You Make Dutch Apple Pie?
Start by preparing your apple pie filling by simmering sliced apples with two types of sugar, lemon juice, water, cornstarch, nutmeg, butter and cinnamon. After you’ve made the apple filling, it gets piled into a pie crust. You can make your own pie dough, or go for a frozen store bought crust like I did.
Now you are ready to make the streusel topping that puts the “Dutch” in Dutch apple pie. The streusel is a simple blend of butter, brown sugar and flour. The butter gets cut into the flour and sugar to make the familiar crumb topping. The topping is sprinkled over the pie, then the pie goes into the oven to bake to golden brown perfection.
Tips For Dutch Apple Pie
- This pie can be made up to 2 days before you plan to serve it. I recommend serving your pie with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top.
- When you are preparing your streusel topping, make sure the butter is cold and right out of the refrigerator. The cold butter helps create the little crumbles of streusel that make a good, even topping.
- Bake your pie on a sheet pan or baking sheet, this will catch any drips or overflow from the pie.
- Let the pie cool a little before you serve it. The longer the pie cools, the more the pie filling juices and topping will set up and give you nice slices of pie.
Quick Tip
Don’t have time to make your own apple pie filling? Store bought canned filling will also work.
Recipe FAQs
The best apples for an apple pie have a nice, slightly tart flavor and are firm enough to keep their shape when baked. I like to use Granny Smith apples for Dutch apple pies because they are firm and their tart flavor pairs nicely with the brown sugar streusel topping. If you prefer, you can use other firm apples such as Braeburn, Golden Delicious, Pink Lady or Honeycrisp apples.
Apple pie stays good at room temperature for about 2 days. You can keep your pie fresh longer in the refrigerator for up to 4 days. When you are ready to store your pie in the fridge, make sure to wrap it in plastic wrap, foil or place it in an airtight container. The topping in the Dutch apple pie may start to soften over time.
You can freeze apple pie and have it stay fresh for 6 months. I recommend cutting individual slices and keeping those slices separately stored in an airtight container.
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Flavor Variations
This pie is sweet, tart and delicious, but you can add other fun flavors to customize the recipe to your tastes.
- Fruit: You can swap in one cup of fruit such as peaches, pears, blueberries or raspberries for one cup of the apples. You can also use cherry pie filling instead of apples.
- Cran-Apple: Try adding 1/2 cup of fresh cranberries. If you add cranberries, make sure to increase the sugar in the filling by 1/4 cup.
- Nuts: Feel free to add 1/2 cup of chopped nuts to the topping such as candied walnuts, almonds or candied pecans.
- Caramel Apple: Add 1/2 cup caramel sauce to the filling for a caramel apple pie.
This apple pie has a sweet, crisp and crumbly topping that highlights the tart and wonderful flavor of the apples. This classic pie is one of my favorites that I love to make for holidays or any time I feel like a treat.
More Great Apple Recipes
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Slow Cooker Apple Cider
2 hrs 5 mins
Caramel Apples
17 mins
Apple Fries
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Caramel Apple Dip
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Love This Recipe?
Please leave a 5-star 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 rating in the recipe card below & a review in the comments section further down the page.
Dutch Apple Pie
Ingredients
- 1 pie crust homemade or store bought
- 1 recipe apple pie filling
- 1/2 cup cold butter cut into cubes
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 2/3 cup brown sugar packed
Instructions
- Prepare the apple pie filling according to recipe instructions. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
- Place a 9 inch pie plate on a sheet pan. Fit the pie crust into the pan, fluting the edges of the crust. Alternatively, you can use a frozen pie crust that's already in a pan (no need to thaw it).
- Pour the pie filling into the crust.
- Place the butter, flour and brown sugar in a bowl. Use two forks or a pastry blender to cut the butter into the flour and sugar until coarse crumbs form.
- Sprinkle the crumb mixture over the pie.
- Bake the pie for 45-50 minutes, or until crust and topping are deep golden brown. Cool for at least 20 minutes, then serve.
Notes
- This pie can be made up to 2 days before you plan to serve it. I recommend serving your pie with a scoop of ice cream on top.
- When you are making your streusel topping, make sure the butter is cold and right out of the refrigerator. The cold butter helps create the little crumbles of streusel that make a good, even topping.
The apple pie filling is a game changer…so good!
I added the cranberries as you suggested in variations and it came out wonderful!
Can you bake the filling frozen or do you defrost it first?
I’d defrost it first!
It was just experimental and for fun. Made apple pie filling version. This turned out so well and it hit the apple pie spot I have been craving! I didnโt know that streusel was a Dutch thing! Thank you for the yummy recipe.
You say you use cold butter as it makes better streusel but your instructions say softened butter which would no longer be cold? Which is it?
Sorry, one more question! I’ve made this pie before, but this time I put my filling in the fridge a day before. When I poured it into the pie it wasn’t creamy anymore and was in chunks. I put the pie in the oven and now it doesn’t look like the filiing is melting or bubbling? What should I do?
Would this oven temperature and time still work if I do a double pie crust and lattice my crust on the top?
Yes it should be fine! Just make sure both the top and bottom crusts are golden brown and you’ll be good.
If I use this recipe to make mini pies (standard muffin tin size), what would you recommend for a baking temperature and a baking time? The recipes I’ve seen online are all over the map!
I’m thinking 350 degrees F for about 30 minutes or until golden brown, but I haven’t tried this myself.
Great recipe! I made it with the cranberry variation and we loved it!
Wow! What a delicious recipe! Made this for my family tonight and not only did my house smell AMAZING while it baked, but my family loved this and are already asking for me to make it again!
Oh my gosh, mouth watering! This was SO good! I had a ton of apples from apple picking and made this pie. Turned out AMAZING!
The 5 star rating I gave this pie is well deserved, so delicious! The crumb topping is my favorite part!
I LOVE Dutch Apple Pie! This looks incredibly delicious!!
My family loves this pie! It’s truly the best ever!
Such a pretty apple pie! Warm apple pie is ultimate comfort & I love that it’s not a crust on top, but a brown sugar crumble.
Such a great homemade apple pie! Perfect for fall baking season!
This apple pie is stellar! It’s got delicious layers of apples, and I love the crumble on top. So yummy for the holidays!
The brown sugar crumb is amazing in this apple pie! I love how tender and flaky the crust turned out. Everyone loved this recipe. Definitely a keeper!
So good and so easy. Definitely going to be adding this to my holiday pie list.
I love a good dutch apple pie! This recipe looks great, especially that crumble on top.