Mom’s French Apple Pie

When I started high school, I was literally 5 feet tall and weighed 80 pounds, but I had a mean metabolism and could often out-eat my three teenage brothers!

Thanksgiving and Christmas were no exception especially where Mom’s apple pies were concerned. It got to the point that Mom had to make an extra pie just for my dad and me to split…ya, her apple pie is that good! I think most of the magic is in the crumbly topping, but it’s all so delicious it’s hard to know for sure…
I’m so sorry my little point and shoot camera can’t do this pie justice!

This pie has three parts: the crust, the filling and the topping.


For the crust:

Either use a store bought one and bake as per instructions on the packaging or make one from scratch and prebake. These are easy enough to search for online and are in most cook books.

For the filling:

• 5-6 cups apples peeled and sliced
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons butter

Mix the sugar and cinnamon together and alternate spreading a layer of apples in the baked pie shell, and sprinkling cinnamon-sugar over them. Keep about 1/4 c of the sugar mixture for the topping.

Once your crust is filled with the apples, dot with your 2 tablespoons of butter and sprinkle your lemon juice over it.

For the topping:

• 1 cup flour
• 1/4 cup cinnamon sugar mixture
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup butter cut into pieces

Mix all of this together and using two butter knives or a pastry blender, mix in the butter until your butter bits are the size of peas. This provides a wonderfully crumbly topping!

Spread your topping over your pie and cut 4 strips of foil. Bend these around your crust as a shield so your crust won’t burn.

Bake at 450 for 10 minute, then reduce heat and bake at 375 for 40-50 minutes until you hear the syrup bubbling and your apples are tender. Remove the foil shield for the last 10 minutes of baking.

Serve warm or cold with whipped topping or vanilla ice cream!

I'm linking up to Make Ahead Meals for Busy Moms.