If you need a quick and easy pie, this Dutch Apple Pie is our favorite! I don’t love traditional pie crust, but the cookie-like crust and crumble topping on this pie are amazing. It is always a crowd favorite and perfect for Thanksgiving!
Recipe Ingredient Notes
To bake this Dutch apple pie recipe, you will need the following ingredients:
- flour
- brown sugar
- butter
- quick oats
- sugar
- cornstarch
- water
- Granny Smith apples
- vanilla
- cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and allspice
Equipment Needed
For this recipe, you only need a few simple kitchen tools. We recommend using the following equipment:
How to Make Dutch Apple Pie
- Preheat the oven to 350℉.
- In a large bowl, mix together flour, brown sugar, butter and oats with a pastry blender. Set aside one cup of mixture for crumb topping.
- Press the remaining crumb mixture into an ungreased 9-inch pie pan; set aside.
- In a saucepan, combine sugar, cornstarch and water over medium-high heat.
- Bring to a boil and let boil for 2 minutes, whisking constantly (it will thicken up quickly so it’s important to keep stirring the whole time!).
- Remove from heat and fold in apples, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and allspice.
- Pour apple mixture into prepared crust and sprinkle seet-aside crumb topping on top.
- Bake for 40-50 minutes, or until topping is golden brown and apples are tender.
- Let cool before serving.
Frequently Asked Questions
One of the most popular baking apples are Granny Smith apples. They are tart, tangy and perfectly firm to use in apple pie. If you are looking for a sweeter apple, try Honeycrisp, Braeburn or Jonathan apples.
The difference between a Dutch apple pie and a regular apple pie is the streusel topping.Dutch apple pie has an amazing crumble topping made up of butter, flour and brown sugar that gives it a sweet and crunchy topping.
Storage Suggestions
Allow the pie to come down to room temperature (covering the pie when it’s still warm will cause condensation and a soggy crust). Cover the pie with plastic wrap and then aluminum foil on top and store it in the fridge for up to 4 days.
Enjoy More Delicious Apple Pie Recipes
Pies and tarts are perfect for any occasion. Check out our comprehensive list of pie and tart recipes!
- Apple Pie Filling
- Apple Hand Pies
- Classic Apple Pie
- Disney’s Apple Caramel Pie
- Slow Cooker Cake Mix Apple Cobbler
Dutch Apple Pie
Ingredients
Crust:
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup brown sugar
- ¾ cup butter, cold
- ½ cup quick oats
Filling:
- ⅔ cup sugar
- 3 Tablespoons cornstarch
- 1 ¼ cups water
- 5-6 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, and sliced or diced
- 1 ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon ground ginger
- ¼ teaspoon allspice
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350℉.
- In a large bowl, mix together flour, brown sugar, butter and oats with a pastry blender. Set aside one cup of mixture for crumb topping.
- Press the remaining crumb mixture into an ungreased 9-inch pie pan; set aside.
- In a sauce pan, combine sugar, cornstarch and water over medium-high heat.
- Bring to a boil and let boil for 2 minutes, whisking constantly (it will thicken up quickly so it's important to keep stirring the whole time!).
- Remove from heat and fold in apples, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and allspice.
- Pour apple mixture into prepared crust and sprinkle seet-aside crumb topping on top.
- Bake for 40-50 minutes, or until topping is golden brown and apples are tender.
- Let cool before serving.
Notes
Nutrition
Did You Make This Recipe?We’d love to hear your thoughts! Leave a review or a question in the comment section below the post.
I love apple pies! My dad makes such a good one with a crust that tastes like cookies. Great recipe!
That looks sooooo good!
I’m totally a pie person. Not thrilled about the crust…but I’ll eat it to get to the filling!!!
Unfortunately we thought this was absolutely awful and had to throw it away. Sickening sweet. Love the concept, though. The cornstarch/water mixture resulted in a horrid glue like (and visually disturbing) filling. Hated having to waste all those ingredients.
This was great! I don’t understand the previous reviews. My pie was beautiful and it was not too sweet. The only thing I changed was I added cinnamon to the crust and filling. It is an apple pie, after all! (Maybe that was a forgotten ingredient??)
No DUTCH pie!! No oats in Dutch apple pie!!!
I made this pie today with my daughter. Of course as soon as it came out of the oven my husband and father in law were hanging over my shoulder to eat it. Their review was, “it tastes like hot apple oatmeal.” I have to admit when I was mixing the cornstarch mixture with the apples I immediately regretted choosing this recipe. Its just weird. I’m a texture person so that doesn’t help. A thick sticky filling just didn’t seem right. I’ll admit it, it tasted good, Maybe some cinnamon would help…
I think trying this out will make the Wife very happy 🙂 thanks for the ideas. Diane you must have baked it wrong or mix’d it wrong because I see no way how it could be like a glue like nasty filling…
I am not sure why people said it didn’t work for them- I made this and it was amazing!! I don’t really like pie crust either, so this was the perfect alternative. I will be keeping this recipe on file for the future! Thanks!
Made this tonight. Didn’t use the topping as my crust, just used a regular frozen one. Cut the topping ingredients in half to just do the top of the pie. Added 1 tbsp of cinnamon…because, well, this is an apple pie! The filling mixture just reminded me of the filling in a store bought pie. The apple filling didn’t turn out solid after baking, but instead, fell apart. Nonetheless, it was delicious and will have no trouble disappearing in my house!
A friend of mine said after having a slice, “It’s not terrible, but it’s not good either.”
I am getting ready to make this recipe today and got it from your new christmas cookbook. I noticed in the description it said there were oats, but none were in the ingredients list. I’m glad it was listed on your site because I’ve been searching for a good dutch apple pie recipe. Can’t wait to try it 🙂
Made this and loved it!! The topping is what made this pie to me- and the filling was perfect!
Loved this recipe! My hubby loves Dutch Apple pie and I decided to try this for Thanksgiving. I did add some cinnamon and a little nutmeg to the filling but otherwise I kept the recipe the same. We love regular pie crust but this “cookie” crust was a delicious surprise. Will definitely make it again and again!
I bake a lot. And I am very good at it. But I had never made a Dutch Apple Pie before, only old fashion apple pies. I followed the recipe explicitly, and in the end, this was the worst thing I had ever baked. It lacked any real flavor. The oatmeal in the crust I thought was an ingenious idea, but instead made the crust SO hard and taste like a mouthful of dry oats. The filling itself was just as awful, being nothing more than a gelatin mold with chunks of apple. I didn’t notice until I was putting it in the oven, that this recipe doesn’t call for any spices. Cinnamon and nutmeg are staple ingredients in most apple baked goods. Not even a pinch of Apple Pie Spice could have saved this pie though. Thankfully I was doing a trial run before I made it for Thanksgiving. I saved myself from what surly would have been an embarrassing moment at our family gathering. No one finished there slice of pie, and the kids just ate the middle. I threw the rest out before it even cooled down. Save yourself the time and stress, and the waste of apples. Your house won’t even smell good after baking this disastrous pie.
I made this tonight and this was actulaly my first time making apple pie. This pie was absolutely AMAZING. OMG, I love love love. Thank you so much for this recipe. I feel almost like the best baker in town with this recipe. lol lol the right amount of sweetness, tang from the granny smith’s, the crunch from the crust. Oh yea, this was everything.
This is not a true ‘dutch apple’ pie. The original recipe for that very old-fashioned pie that originated in Pennsyvlania Dutch country has a lovely brown sugar/sour cream or heavy cream mixture that is spooned over the top of the apples before baking. It’s delicious. It’s very flavourful and it’s beyond yummy.
You’re right. It’s not.
This recipe REALLY needs some spices like cinnamon, nutmeg or apple pie spice. I wish I had thought of that as I was mixing the ingredients. Oh well, it was my first time baking pie so I guess I will keep that in mind next time I look for a different recipe.
I absolutely love this recipe!
I am in love with this pie! It is amazing! I would choose this pie over chocolate.
I am Dutch 🙂 and everyone I make it for, always asks if I can bake it again. I put some salt in crumble bottom, and add cinnamon and raisins to the Apple filling. I sprinkle apples with lemon juice Best Apple pie ever.
Our family liked the recipe. One piece of advice. Don’t press the bottom layer of crust down. We also used allspice instead of cardamom. It tasted great!
It’s not Dutch Apple Pie. But I don’t care. It’s scrumptious! And it’s about the simplest and quickest pie recipe I’ve come across. Everyone raved about it. Thank you so much for the recipe!
This pie was delicious. I did add cinnamon to it. Easy to make also
I didn’t make this filling but the crust/topping is heavenly! I made two pies on consecutive nights because it was so delicious. I did also add Vietnamese cinnamon to my topping/crust. Thanks for a fantastic recipe!
This has become a fall favorite in our house. I tend to go heavy with the cinnamon and add some pie spice as well.
We updated the pictures on the post. We added a few spices. You can easily leave them out if you want. Other than that, it’s all the same!
I loved this recipe so much!
I read some of the reviews and some of them are strange.. the “glue” is just like any other pie filling. Over all we loved this dish! Made with apples I grew on our farm. I’ve already made it twice in the last 24h. Sooo yummy.
Best pie I have ever had and first pie I have ever baked. Family raved and now want one for thanksgiving!!!
Brittany, this is wonderful! Have a Happy Thanksgiving with your family!
I love this recipe!!! It was simple to make and was amazing! This is now my apple pie go to. Thank you for sharing.
I love apple pie! I have never made a pie before. Today is my 43rd birthday so I thought why not make a pie. It was so easy and so good!!
The pie is in the oven now. So I’m not sure how it will turn out. Questions: Is the butter supposed to be cut into the flour/sugar mixture? Melted? What? Would like a gauge on cups of apples. I didn’t use granny smith. I assumed around 4 cups. But I’m prepared for it to boil over the sides.
You’ll want the butter to be cold and we used a pastry blender to mix the dough together. And you’ll be fine with 4 small apples the size of Granny Smith apples. About 4 cups.
Made this and LOVED it! I have a lot of apples to use up from our tree…have you ever made the pie and then frozen it before cooking it? Just wondering if I could freeze it and pull out to cook for thanksgiving. Thank you for sharing your wonderful recipes!
Yes, you could freeze this before baking.
We really like the crumble topping! However, we didn’t really like how the filling turned out. I’m not quite sure how to explain it. The filling has the taste/goop of canned apple pie filling. Which isn’t a bad thing, but I prefer to make apple pie filling by mixing the apples, sugar, cinnamon so it’s not super goopy/saucy.
I think the issues described below (no spices, too sweet, too thick) have been corrected. I was worried the cookie crust was too dry but it came out perfectly. I grate cold butter rather than cut in so maybe that’s why it was dry. The pie is definitely not too sweet, just right.
I wonder why this recipe did not work for some people. We’ve made it so many times in the last couple of years. Even my 9-year-old can follow the recipe and make it by himself. Authentic Dutch or not, this is a great-tasting pie! At times, we’ve cut 1/3 of the sugar if we make it for East Asian friends who are not accustomed to American-level sweetness in desserts, and it’s still really good.
I’m planning on making this the day before Thanksgiving. How would you recommend storing it, on the counter or in the refrigerator?
I would store this in the refrigerator if not planning to eat it right away
Can you freeze this?
Yes, you can freeze this recipe, either baked or unbaked. Freezing it unbaked generally yields a crispier topping when you eventually bake it. It can be stored in the freezer for up to 3 to 6 months.