Streusel Apple Pie with Yeast Pie Crust
One of my favorite things about fall is that it is prime pie-making season. I make pies year-round, but fall is the best pie time of all.
When I saw this recipe for Yeast Pie Crust over at Red Star Yeast, I knew I had to try it. Yeast in a pie crust? How would it taste? What would it be like to make something like that? I love a chance to make more pie, so it went right to the top of my to-do list.
Yeast pie crust turns out to be a delicious cross between pie crust and a slightly sweet bread such as panettone. It puffs up a little thicker than regular pie crust, and has a bit of a bread-like texture, but is still light and flaky. In addition, the wonderful yeast flavor and aroma is the perfect compliment to a sweet, cinnamony, apple filling.
Streusel Apple Pie with Yeast Pie Crust
Print recipe
Prepare Yeast Pie Crust. Please see Red Star Yeast website for pie crust recipe and complete directions. While dough rises, you can prepare the streusel and filling:
For streusel:
1/4 cup flour
1/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup salted butter, cold, cut into several pieces (if you use unsalted butter, add a pinch of salt to the flour)
In a medium bowl, combine the flour and sugar and stir to combine. Cut in the butter with a pastry blender or a fork until uniformly mixed and the size of peas. Set aside.
For filling:
6 cups of peeled, cored, thinly sliced, sweet cooking apples (about 5 pounds; I used Fuji)
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup light brown sugar, packed
3 tablespoons flour
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon salt
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a large bowl, toss apples with lemon juice. In a medium bowl, mix sugars, flour, spices, and salt, and whisk to combine. Pour sugar mixture over apples, mix well, and pour into prepared crust. Sprinkle streusel evenly over filling.
Bake in preheated 400°F oven for 15 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 325°F and bake additional 20 to 25 minutes, or until apples are tender and crust is golden brown. Cover edges of crust if necessary to prevent over-browning. Cool pie on wire rack.
Cook’s notes:
- The dough was easy to work with- it’s not as fragile as some pie crusts you may have tried.
- The dough was somewhat elastic from the yeast, so it benefitted from resting for a few minutes about half way through rolling it out. The elasticity is what makes it easy (sturdy) to work with, though, so it’s worth it.
- Again, being somewhat elastic and eager to rise and smooth out, the dough did not hold sharp crimps when forming the edges of the crust, so you can expect to get a nice, softer, wavy appearance.
- I doubled the amount of streusel called for in the Red Star Yeast recipe, and left out the cinnamon. There was plenty of cinnamon in the apple filling I was using. That’s just a personal preference.
- I used sweet apples in my filling. If you use tart apples, such as Granny Smith, you may want to slightly increase the amount of granulated sugar.
