You’ll love this delicious, old fashioned apple raspberry pie bursting with apples and fresh raspberries! Beautiful, deeply flavored, and topped with an easy buttery crumb topping. Perfect for holiday dinners and special occasions.
Hello, all!
Christmas is fast approaching and it’s time for me to get in a few more holiday recipes under the wire. I mean, you can totally make this pie in January or in the summer, but I do admit that the color scheme seems winter holidays to me.
Why do I love this recipe?
- It’s Pie. I admit it, I love pie. 🙂 There is just something about a pastry crust and fruit filling that has me wanting seconds.
- Apples AND Raspberries. They are sweet and tart and balanced with each other. Apples provide a mellow back beat while the raspberries bring punches of flavor and color.
- Crumble topping. By having pastry below and crunchy topping above with soft filling in the middle you get the best of everything.
What do you need?
- Pastry Crust – You will need one 9-inch crust. You can use a refrigerated crust or make your own crust with my favorite easy pastry crust recipe.
- Crumb Topping – The topping is made of oats, nuts, flour, butter, and sugar.
- Apple Raspberry Filling – 4 pounds of apples (about 8 apples) and 12 ounces of raspberries are packed into the recipe.
Tip: You can use thawed frozen raspberries. Just thaw and drain out the liquid before continuing with the recipe.
How to make this
To make apple raspberry pie cook down sliced apples until they are soft, then mix them with raspberries and put the filling in a crust. Cover with crumble topping and bake until golden brown and bubbling.
1. Make the filling
You will want to do this bit first since apples will need to cool before you can continue. (Just make the filling when you make the pie dough and both can rest/cool/chill at the same time.)
Why do the apples need to cool?
This is the secret of my apple pies and the same method I used in my awesome Deep Dish Apple Pie. The filling is twice cooked. First on the stovetop and then in the oven. It makes all the difference.
Peel and slice the apples then put them in a pot with sugar and spices. Cover the pot and let them simmer away until they are getting soft. By doing this they will have the time to finish cooking in the oven without overcooking the crust and you’ll get a densely packed dessert full of apples which also cuts beautifully.
Once they are soft, remove them from the pot and continue to cook down all the juices and concentrate them. Then let everything cool!
When you’re ready and the filling is cool, fold in the raspberries along with some vanilla. Now your filling is done.
2. Make the Topping
This is my super simple crumb topping and a favorite crumb topping to make! It comes down to everything being measured equally. One quarter cup is the watchword and about the only thing you need to remember.
One quarter cup flour, oats, butter, nuts, and sugar. How easy can it get?
Then add a little cinnamon and some salt, process it up to get clumps and put it all the fridge until you’re ready. Which can be right away or tomorrow. It’s all good.
3. Finish and Bake
Now that you have all pieces, it’s time to make pie. Get your oven preheated to 375F.
First, roll out the crust and put it in the pie plate. Crimp your edges however you wish and put the whole thing in the freezer for a bit. This will help the crust keep it’s shape. (Though note that crust can have a mind of its own and might decide to keep no shape even with the freezing.)
Second, pour the prepared filling into the frozen crust and even it out.
Third, spread the crumble over the filling, breaking up the clumps of streusel as you go.
Fourth, bake until the crust is golden brown and the filling is bubbling, about 50 minutes.
Tip: Fruit pies have tendency to bubble over the edge of the plate. Put a baking sheet on the oven rack and then put the pie on the sheet to bake.
And just look at that slice! There is no food blogger trickery here. Give the dessert plenty of time to chill and firm up and you’ll be making perfect slices too.
If you try my recipe for Apple Raspberry Crumble Pie, I would love to hear from you in the comments with your experience and rating! And I’m happy to answer any questions you might have.
– Happy Baking, Annemarie
Apple Raspberry Pie with Crumb Topping
Ingredients
Apple Raspberry Filling
- 1 lemon
- 8-9 medium (~4 lb) apples
- 1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- pinch ground cloves
- 1/4 tsp kosher salt
- 12 oz fresh raspberries
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Crumble Topping
- 1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
- 1/4 cup pecans
- 4 tbsp (1/4 cup) unsalted butter
- 1/4 cup rolled oats
- 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt
Instructions
- Make the Pie Dough: If you are making fresh crust, make it now and set it into the refrigerator to chill. (See recipe link below for my favorite pastry crust recipe.)
Apple Raspberry Filling
- Prep the Apples: Set out a large bowl of water and add the juice of one lemon to the water.
- Peel each apple and put the peeled apples in the lemon water. When you've peeled all the apples, core and slice the apples. Put the apple slices back in the water as you work.
- Cook the Apples: Drain the apples and put them in a large pot with brown sugar, cinnamon, cloves, and salt.
- Cover the pot and cook the apples on medium heat until the apples are soft but not mushy, about 20 minutes once the apples start simmering. Stir the apples occasionally as they cook.
- Set a colander over a bowl and pour the softened apples into the colander, draining out the juices.
- Thicken the Juices: Return the juices to the pot and bring to a boil over medium high heat. Boil until they are reduced to a thick syrup, 7-8 minutes.
- Move the apples to the bowl and pour syrup over. Let cool to room temperature, about an hour.
- Mix the Filling: Once the apples are cool, stir in the raspberries and vanilla.
Crumble Topping
- Add all the crumble ingredients to the bowl of a food processor. Pulse until they are all finely chopped and starting to clump together.
- Store the crumble the refrigerator until you ready to use it.
Finish the Pie
- Roll out the Bottom Crust: Take the dough out of the refrigerator and let it warm up until it is cool but pliable.
- Roll out the dough to fit a 9-inch pie plate with a few inches of overhang, about 12 inches in diameter.
- Press the dough into a 9-inch deep dish pie plate. Trim the overhang to ~1/2 inch and decoratively crimp the edge.
- Place the pie plate in the freezer for 20 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 375F.
- Bake the Pie: Fill the crust with the apple raspberry filling. Top the filling with the crumble, breaking it up as you go and spreading it out evenly.
- Bake the pie until the crust and the topping are golden brown and the filling is bubbling, 50-55 minutes.
Notes
- Crust: I use a half recipe of my Easy Flaky Pastry Crust. Mix the dough at same time as you are cooking the apples. The dough will have time to rest and chill as the apples cool.
- Cooking the Apples: As in my recipe for Deep Dish Apple Pie, I precook the apples before putting them in the shell. This intensifies the flavor of the apples and allows the apples to fully cook without overdoing the raspberries.
- Pie Plate: You need to use a deep dish pie plate for this recipe (or you will have too much filling). Two styles I use are: an Anchor Hocking Dish with handles and an Oxo Dish with a wide rim.
- Raspberries: You can use thawed frozen raspberries. Fully thaw the raspberries, the drain the liquid, and proceed with the recipe.
- Variation: If you prefer, make a full recipe of the dough and use the second part to make a lattice top in place of the crumble topping. Or you can use leftover scraps from the bottom crust and make decorative cutouts to put on top of the pie with the crumble.
- Make ahead: The crumble, apple filling (before you add the raspberries), and dough can all be make the day before and then assembled into a pie before baking. Just make sure you let the filling warm up on the counter for about an hour before filling and baking. The pie itself can also be baked the day before.
- Baking sheet: Use a baking sheet under the pie in the oven to catch any juices which bubble over the edge.
Nicole James says
Are you able to make this up ahead of time and put it in the freezer? If so, would you suggest cooking it first before freezing?
justalittlebitofbacon says
Yes, you can make pies and freeze them. Do it uncooked and well wrapped. Let warm up a bit on the counter (15-30 min) and then bake until the crust is brown and the filling bubbly. I would recommend reducing the the oven temp to 350F since it will take longer and we don’t want the pie to get too brown.
Meloney says
Made this for Thanksgiving! Turned out fantastic and so delicious! Loved the slight tartness of the raspberries against the sweetness of the apples. Thanks for the recipe!