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By Christie Vanover | Published August 28, 2011 | Last Updated December 28, 2022

There’s nothing more American than apple pie, so it’s fitting that the tasty dessert has played a role in my Army life.

At Fort Riley, I was fortunate enough to participate in the annual Apple Day festival. It’s a fabulous open house that showcases the installation to the American public. In addition to a parade, military displays and obstacle courses, the highlight comes in the form of a dessert.

The Historical and Archeological Society of Fort Riley (HASFR) bakes more than 1,000 apple pies for the event. You can buy them by the slice or you can buy a baked or frozen pie. Many buy frozen pies in bulk, and they save them for Thanksgiving and Christmas. The next Apple Day Festival is Sept. 24. If you happen to be in Kansas, I highly recommend you attend and grab up a few pies.

A few years later, I moved to Belgium, and we had three apple trees in our backyard. When September came, I had so many apples. Of course, I knew just what to do with them. Although I didn’t have the HASFR assembly line like we had at Fort Riley, I turned my kitchen into an apple pie factory. I baked pies for my Belgian neighbors, and I froze about a dozen pies for holidays and other events. You never know when you need a pie.

Now, I’m in Texas. It’s not quite apple season here. Heck it was 106 degrees Saturday. I don’t see any sign of fall…but that isn’t going to stop me from baking an apple pie. I wanted you all to have this recipe in time for your apple crop.

If you would like to freeze the pies, it’s best to prepare them in disposable aluminum tins because you can squeeze the tin into a large Ziploc bag. You can always transfer them to a beautiful pie plate before baking to add that extra wow.

So, bake one for today and freeze a few for the holidays…or for that just because moment.

And if you want to make your pie extra special, top it with Cinnamon Vanilla Bean Gelato and Fleur de Sel Caramel Sauce. Bon appétit!

Apple Crumble Pie

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Servings 1 pie

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Ingredients

Prepared pâte sucrée piecrust
4-5 Gala apples
½ cup sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
½ tsp. ground cloves

Crumb Topping

100 grams ½ cup sugar
100 grams ¾ cup flour
45 grams ⅓ cup butter
½ tsp. cinnamon

Instructions

Line a pie pan with a prepared, unbaked piecrust.
Using a peeler, corer, slicer, slice the apples and cut them in half.
Place them in a bowl and toss with sugar, cinnamon and cloves.
Let them set while preparing the topping. This will extract the extra moisture from the apples.

Crumb Topping

Place all ingredients in a bowl.
Cut ingredients together with a pastry cutter until crumbly.
Remove the apples from the bowl (leaving the liquid) and layer into an unbaked pie shell.
Top with crumb topping all the way to the edges.
(You can freeze the pie at this point. Wrap the pie in two layers of foil and seal it in a Ziploc bag.)