Apple Pie with crumb topping

The world abounds with recipes of apple pie. There are so many versions of the perfect “grandma’s apple pie” out there, and it’s not hard to find many apple pie recipes in the blogworld which are coated in saccharine sentimentality of nostalgia, real or not. Not many people admit that grandma or mum actually sucked in the kitchen, hell, I don’t either.

But having sampled a few apple pies, and acknowledging that neither am I a connoisseur, nor do I have the handed down know- how of a family recipe handed down for generations, I still figured down a few things on my own. For example, I prefer the crumb top to a lattice top, pre made crust to freshly made pie dough strictly on the disproportionate rewards to effort outcome, combination of apples like golden delicious and granny smith to just granny smith.

So here it is- my virgin attempt at making an apple pie. I was debating whether to make the crust myself, having done that years ago when I used to make quiches. However, I succumbed to laziness and bought a store bought crust. When I first tasted the pie, hot from the oven, I thought it was too tart. But as it cooled down, I realized that the sweetness of the crumb top was a good contrast to the tartness, however, I might reduce the quantity of lemon juice next time. The best part was when my partner gulped down four slices on the first night, he never eats that much of my dessert ever.

For the filling, I mixed the following.
7 med granny smith apples ( it might be a better idea to mix some sweet apples with these tart ones) which I cubed
juice of half a lemon ( I might use half of this quantitiy next time)
handful of raisins ( will use at least a cup of raisins in the future )
1 cup of sugar
2 tbspn flour
nutmeg
cinnamon
vanilla extract
I spread the dough over a nine inch crust, and added the filling. I baked it for 45 minutes in a pre heated 375 degrees oven.

For the crumb top I mixed the following till I got little lumps and I froze it.
I cup of flour,
2/3 cups of brown sugar
half a stick of cold butter

I then toppped the pie with the crumbs, which had been baked for 45 minutes, and baked it for another 45 minutes.