Caramel Apple Crumble Pie!
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A delicious twist on toffee apples, apple pie, and apple crumble… a yummy dessert perfect for Autumn – hello heaven!
Caramel apple crumble pie
So, I’ve had requests for many apple recipes over this Autumn season so far, and yes.. I’ve only just got round to it – however, this is DELICIOUS. It combines the delicious flavours of toffee apples (that we all know and love..), apple pie, and apple crumble.
How can that not sound delicious?! I had so much experimentation with this one due to apples producing so much liquid all of the time, and therefore ruining the pastry… but this recipe is tried and tested so many times over that its a success!
Similar recipes
This recipe is a different version to my apple & blackberry crumble pie and I am obsessed with it! The thing is, this one has caramel involved and as we all know…. that is perfectly acceptable in my books!
Don’t worry, I will be posting recipes for all of the desserts included in this one over time, but I thought that this would be a good idea for all of the requests I have received on Facebook for Halloween this year – ITS SO YUMMY!
Crumble mix
The crumble mixture is incredibly easy to make yourself. It’s a simple mixture of unsalted block butter, flour and sugar mixed together. This is something you can easily swap with a shop-bought version, but it’s incredibly easy to make yourself with store cupboard ingredients.
It’s important to use block butter, and not a spread of margarine as they are too soft. I find it best for the butter to be super cold, and cut into small cubes. I add this to a bowl with the flour and sugar and rub together to a breadcrumb texture with my fingertips.
Pastry
The sweet shortcrust pastry gives a nice lining to the dessert that everyone loves in a pie, as well as having the crumbly sweet & crunchy topping of the crumble is the perfect match to the gooey caramel apple layer in the middle. Hello heaven. You can use a shop bought shortcrust pastry if you want, there is no judgement here.
I use a mixture of butter, flour, egg yolk and icing sugar mixed with a smidge of cold water. This is super easy if you add all of this to a food processor, but you can also rub the flour, sugar and butter together with your fingers, and then add the egg yolk water and knead it together until smooth
It’s very important to blind bake the pastry so that you don’t get a soggy bottom. I prep my loose bottomed tart tin with flour and melted butter, and then I press my pastry in firmly. I line this with parchment paper and then fill it with baking beans. I bake for 15 minutes with the paper and beans, and five minutes without.
Caramel
The caramel is out of a tin, as its easier that way – and the thickness of it marries so well with the baking – and the sweetness of the caramel matches the tartness of cooking apples, overcoming my slight problem of not liking cooked apples some time (as they’re so tart!)
However, you can make your own, and I love to do this if I am going all of the way. My homemade caramel sauce is much easier to make than you think, and you an even make it whilst you pastry bakes. The caramel is technically optional, but honestly, it enhances the recipe SO MUCH, and you can drizzle even more on at the end.
Apples
I like to use cooking apples in a crumble, and this is quite common amongst the baking world. Cooking apples/bramley apples have a good texture to them, and withstand baking at a warmer temperature to still have some texture at the end of baking, and not just turn into mush.
You can use other apples, but I would skip the stage of simmering the apples before you add them to the pastry, and they may also be sweeter and soften more anyway.
Tips & Tricks
You can easily also just turn this into a delicious crumble, and completely forget about the pastry. But in all honesty, I like making this into a delicious pie. Serve it with some custard, cream, ice cream and more and it will please anyone!
- I use this tart tin
- I use these baking beans
- This recipe is best served fresh and still warm, but will last 3+ days in the fridge
- You can freeze the tart for 3+ months
Caramel Apple Crumble Pie!
Ingredients
Pastry Base
- 175 g plain flour
- 100 g unsalted butter (cold/diced)
- 1 tbsp icing sugar
- 1 egg yolk
Pie Filling
- 500 g cooking apple (peeled & cored weight)
- 100 g light brown sugar
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 100 g caramel
Crumble Mix
- 120 g plain flour
- 60 g caster sugar
- 60 g unsalted butter (cold/diced)
Instructions
For the Pastry
- Sift the flour, icing sugar, and add the diced butter, egg yolk, and 1tbsp of cold water into a food processor. Blitz quickly on the pulse setting until the mixture starts to bind, it shouldn’t take too long at all!
- Grease and flour a loose bottomed 9" tart tin.
- Roll the pastry out onto a floured surface to the thickness of 1-2 £1 coins .
- Press the pastry into the tin and trim & neaten the edges. Fill any gaps of the pastry with any excess pastry so its all covered! Refrigerate for 1/2 an hour!
- Preheat the oven to 200ºc/180ºc fan – cover the pastry with baking parchment and fill with baking beans/rice and bake the pastry ‘Blind’ for 15 minutes!
- Remove the parchment and the beans and bake for an extra 5-10 minutes or until the pastry is cooked through and turning golden! Leave to cool in the tin.
For the Filling
- Chop the peeled and cored apples into inch size pieces so they’re still reasonably sized. Add the apple to a large heavy based pan, along with the sugar, cinnamon and two tablespoons of water.
- Cook the apple in the pan, whilst stiring, over a medium heat for five minutes. After the five minutes, stop stiring and add the pan lid and leave to ‘simmer’ for another five minutes.
- You basically need the fruit to still have texture and firmness. If the apples are getting very soft quickly, turn the heat off and move onto the next step as you don't want it to be too liquid!
For the Assembly & Baking!
- Rub together the sugar, flour and butter until the mixture resembles bread crumbs. The butter needs to be cold for it to work!
- Add the apple into the pie case and carefully dollop over the caramel in small spoonfuls!
- Sprinkle over the crumble mixture. Bake the pie in the oven for 25-30 minutes until the crumble mixture on top is golden!
- Once baked, leave the pie to cool for about 30 minutes as its going to be very hot. Once cooled slightly, remove from the tin and enjoy warm! I add a scoop of vanilla or clotted cream ice cream… or, leave it to cool and also enjoy cold!
Notes
- When buying the apples, buy above the 500g as thats the chopped and peeled weight. You need to aim for about 650-750g of apples, to make sure that its enough!
- As you are cooking the fruit in a pan, it really can vary in time. Other hobs/heats could take a full 10 minutes longer than mine for example so keep an eye on it!
- I use this tart tin
- I use these baking beans
- This recipe is best served fresh and still warm, but will last 3+ days in the fridge
- You can freeze the tart for 3+ months
Enjoy!!
You can find my other Dessert & Halloween Recipes on my Recipes Page!
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J x
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Hiya Jane, do you have to bake the pastry blind as I haven’t any greaseproof/parchment paper as the supermarket was out? Just wondering if I could bake it altogether after I’d cooked the apples? Thanks! xx
Unfortunately if you don’t you will probably have very raw/soggy pastry!
Hi, a tip for next time you need to blind bake pastry – you can use foil instead of grease proof paper 🙂
Hi Jane
what measurements should I use for a 30cm tin, just 1/4 more on each?
thanks so much! so excited to try x
Hiya! So as a rough estimate it’s coming up at about 1.7x the recipe, so you might need more than 1/4 more of each ingredient! x
I don’t have a food processor. How could I make the pastry without one?
Make sure your butter is cold, and rub everything together with the tips of your fingers – be careful not to overheat the butter with the warmth of your hands!
I’d like to make this as one of our puddings for Christmas, but really need to do it the day before. I imagine the pastry however will go soggy? Can I blind bake the pastry the day before and make the apple filling then just put the filling in the pastry on the day and cook?
Yes you can!
Made it for Christmas Day and it was delicious! Made the casing and filling the day before and just assembled when I was about to put in the oven. Will be making again as everyone loved it!
Delicious & easy to make! I also made it vegan by switching the butter for ‘Vegan block’ & using alpro ice cream.
I made this today but substituted the caramel for biscoff, absolutely divine, thankyou x
Yum!!! I made this the other day, went down very well in my household. Will definitely be making this again. Thank you for a lovely recipe 🙂 x
Awh yay! So glad it was a success!
Hi Jane
Can’t wait to make this. You said you can buy shop bought pastry, which I am going to do, will this be alright in the oven on its own or will it have to be in a tin ?
I would recommend a tin as advised as you still need to blind-bake it!
Hi Jane, sorry I meant a shop bought sweet pastry flan thingy 🙄
Oh, no I wouldn’t recommend those as they’re really shallow.
Hi Jane,
There’s cinnamon in the ingredients list but I can’t see where you’ve used it in the recipe?
Oops! It’s in the apples!
Just came on here to ask this exact question. Do you think adding oats to the crumble mixture will be too much?
I love your recipes. Have made so many of them, and they always are well received. I’m going to try this one out for a family meal this weekend. So thank you YET again.
I don’t think so! Maybe add about 25g (as oats are so light) and see how you get on!? And thank you so much! X
Hi Jane, I’m guessing salted butter for pastry not unsalted? Thanks Seema
Hiya, you can use either.
Jane, you have restored my faith in home baking. I can’t bake to save my life but your fun, lighthearted and simple approach is fabulous! I’ve to make two desserts for an event tomorrow so I’m making this and your caramac cheesecake and I actually feel confident about it! Thanks so much!!
Awh thank you!! That’s so cute! Ahh enjoy them!! ?
Look at all that caramel!! Sooo yummyyy!
Haha slightly addicted to Caramel!!
Beautiful and decadent!
Thanks so much Gen!! 🙂
This looks so amazing! Thanks for sharing 🙂
Hehe thanks Charlotte!
I don’t think ready-made crumble topping is available in Australia. How would you recommend making a crumble topping from scratch?
Rub together 100g Plain Flour, 150g Sugar, and 75g Butter together till its like breadcrumbs and that’ll do 🙂