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Custardy crème fraîche apple pie

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Ingredients

Scale
  • for the filling:
  • ½ cup (about 63 grams) all-purpose flour
  • ⅔ cup (about 133 grams) granulated sugar (or ½ cup; see Notes)
  • ⅛ tsp salt
  • 3 cups (about 1 lb) apples, cored and sliced (and peeled, if you wish)
  • 1 large egg
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • ½ cup (4 ounces or 113 grams) Vermont Creamery Madagascar Vanilla crème fraîche, plus more for serving
  • ½ cup (4 ounces or 113 grams) sour cream
  • for the topping:
  • ½ cup (about 63 grams) flour
  • ¼ cup (50 grams) granulated sugar
  • 2 tablespoons (25 grams) brown sugar
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 6 tablespoons (¾ stick, or 85 grams) cold butter (see Notes)

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, and salt, then add the apple slices and toss to coat. In a separate, small bowl, whisk together the egg, vanilla, crème fraîche, and sour cream, and fold into the apple mixture. Pour into a 9” pie plate, 10” cast-iron skillet, or 8×8” baking dish. Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes.
  2. While the filling is baking, make the topping: Whisk the flour, sugars, and cinnamon together in a medium bowl. Cut the cold butter into the flour mixture until the texture is crumbly. Once the filling has baked, distribute the topping evenly over the filling and bake an additional 10-15 minutes, until golden, crackly, and caramelized on top. (If the topping isn’t crackly yet after 15 minutes, you can broil it for 2-3 minutes, which did the trick for me.) For a soft, pudding-like dessert, enjoy warm out of the oven; for a custard-y, cheesecake-like pie, let cool to room temperature, then chill in the refrigerator until fully cold, and enjoy cold. Top with more crème fraîche, if desired.

Notes

(1) The dessert is still delicious with ½ cup granulated sugar in the filling instead of ⅔ cup, and if your sweet tooth is a bit more sensitive than mine, you might find you prefer that amount of sugar. If you’re using very tart baking apples, though, I might recommend the ⅔ cup. (2) You can easily play around with the amount of creme fraiche and sour cream here. A full cup of creme fraiche (omitting the sour cream) is decadently rich but delicious; the original recipe calls for 1 cup of sour cream only, which also works. I think you could even substitute some of it with Greek yogurt and have a good outcome, though I haven’t tried it. (3) For a more traditional crumble topping, as opposed to the lacey, crackly top shown, decrease the amount of butter to 4 tablespoons (½ stick or about 66 grams). A handful of oats wouldn’t hurt anyone, either.

Find it online: https://tworedbowls.com/2016/11/14/custardy-creme-fraiche-apple-pie/