Apple Crumb Pie

My family has a German Shorthaired Pointer. His name is DeNiro. He is 9 years old.

Throughout his life, DeNiro has been known to steal food from places. Left a jumbo-sized bag of Twizzlers on the bed? Sorry, Twizzlers are his favorite. Did someone eat half a tray of cookies on the dining room table in 15 minutes? DeNiro! Havea box of Lucky Charms lying around? Don't be surprised if you find rainbow colored poop in the backyard. I'm sorry, did you want that half of a sandwich that you left on the counter?

But this time, DeNiro crossed a line. He brought a new meaning to the term "crumb snatcher".

On Thanksgiving, as I was prepping my food, I prepared crumble topping and, for some reason, inadvertently left the bowl on a dresser in the guest room down the hall from the kitchen. I was in the kitchen preparing the rest of our massive dinner and catching up with my cousins. I prepared the rest of the pie, and when I went to retrieve the crumbs, they were gone. Not only were they gone, but the bowl was shining from being licked clean.

There were two possible suspects. My dog, an Australian Shepherd named Remy (who never steals food unless it is salmon) and DeNiro, the notorious food theif. My boyfriend did a breath check. Remy's smelled like fish (like usual, unfortunately). DeNiro's smelled like cinnamon and sugar he had an oddly happy look on his face.

Case closed.

I love making this Apple Crumb Pie. It is my father's favorite dessert and I try to make it for him whenever I get the chance. Pre-cooking the apples with the cider and applesauce really give this filling a fantastic texture. I use Dorie Greenspan's pie crust recipe and omit the nuts from the topping.

What can I say? The dog has good taste.

Recipe adapted from Dorie Greenspan and Epicurious

FOR A 9" SINGLE CRUST:
1 1⁄2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tbsp. sugar
3⁄4 tsp. salt
1⁄4 sticks (10 tbsp.) very cold (frozen is fine) unsalted
butter, cut into tbsp.-size pieces
2 1⁄2 tbsp. very cold (frozen is even better) vegetable
shortening, cut into 2 pieces

For the crust:

Put flour, sugar, and salt into a food processor; pulse to combine. Drop in butter and shortening; pulse to cut into flour. What you're aiming for is to have some pieces the size of fat green peas and others the size of barley. Pulsing, gradually add about 3 tbsp. ice water—add a little water and pulse once, add some more water, pulse again; keep going that way. Then use a few long pulses to get water into flour. If, after a dozen or so pulses, the dough doesn't look evenly moistened, pulse in up to 1 tbsp. more ice water, to get a dough that will stick together when pinched. Shape dough into a disk; wrap in plastic. Refrigerate 1 hour.

Filling

3 3/4 pounds Granny Smith apples (about 10 medium), peeled, cored, thickly sliced
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
2 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 tablespoons apple cider
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1/4 cup applesauce

Topping

3/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
3/4 cup chopped walnuts
6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1/4 teaspoon salt
For filling:
Toss apples and lemon juice in medium bowl. Melt butter in heavy large skillet over medium-high heat. Stir in sugar and cinnamon. Add apples; sauté until coated with cinnamon butter and crisp-tender, about 5 minutes. Whisk cider and cornstarch in small bowl. Add to apples. Bring to boil, stirring constantly. Transfer apple mixture to large bowl. Mix in applesauce. Cool completely. (Crust and filling can be made 1 day ahead. Cover crust; let stand at room temperature. Cover and chill filling.)
For topping:
Preheat oven to 350°F. Using fingertips, rub all ingredients in bowl until moist clumps form.
Place filling in crust. Sprinkle topping over apples. Bake until topping is golden brown, about 40 minutes.