Cinnamon Apple Crumble
Published on November 04, 2022
Quick Summary
Cinnamon Apple Crumble-tender, juicy apples are covered with a sweet cinnamon crumb topping, creating the best fall dessert. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream!
Fall is in the air and that means all I want to do is BAKE, BAKE, BAKE! Fall baking is my absolute favorite because I love warming up the house and creating something sweet to share with loved ones.
I have a confession though; I don’t love baking pies. I don’t like fussy pie crust and pie isn’t my favorite dessert to eat. I know, who am I? BUT I do love a good cobbler or crumble and this Cinnamon Apple Crumble is the BEST.
It is easy to make (so much easier than making pie dough) and SO delicious. It’s the perfect dessert for fall, Thanksgiving, or really anytime of year because it’s so good.
Table of Contents
Crumble Ingredients
The recipe is made with everyday baking ingredients, you just need fresh apples! Let’s get to it!
- Apples– peeled, cored, and sliced
- Lemon juice– to prevent the apples from browning.
- Vanilla extract– I love adding vanilla, so good!
- Sugar– granulated sugar and brown sugar.
- Cinnamon– a MUST!
- Flour– I use all-purpose flour, but if you need the crumble to be gluten-free, you can use all-purpose gluten-free flour.
- Oats– use old-fashioned oats.
- Salt– to enhance all of the flavors and to balance out all of the sweet.
- Butter– I use unsalted butter.
Best Apples to Use
Honeycrisp apples are my favorite fall apple and are great for baking too. They are crisp, sweet, with a little bit of tart. Granny Smith apples are the most popular baking apple. They are easy to find and hold up well in the oven. The tart, tangy flavor goes well with the sweet cinnamon crumble topping.
Other good apple options include: Jonagold, Braeburn, Pink Lady, and Jazz apples. You can also do a mix of apples.
Choose fresh apples that are firm and have no bruising. Peel, core, and slice your apples for the crumble.
The Crumble Topping
I love this recipe because it has A LOT of crumble topping. I have had apple crumble recipes where there is just a tiny bit of topping sprinkled on top and that is not ok. It’s a dessert, if I wanted an apple, I would eat an apple, ha!
The apples are completely covered with a crumble topping that is made up of flour, oats, brown sugar, sugar, cinnamon, and butter. If you want to add nuts, pecans or walnuts would be a nice crunchy addition.
How to Make Apple Crumble
First, make the apple filling. Combine the apple slices with lemon juice, vanilla, sugar, cinnamon, and flour
Make the crumble topping. Make sure you use COLD butter. Combine the butter with the topping ingredients, using your fingers, until the mixture comes together, and you have a crumbly mixture. Don’t over work the mixture, you want it to stay cold and have pea size buttery, crumble clumps.
Assemble. Place the apple mixture in a greased 12-inch cast iron skillet or a 9×13-inch baking pan. Both pans work well.
Bake until bubbly. Your house will smell better than any fall candle out there.
Serve warm with vanilla ice cream for the ultimate apple crumble experience.
Make Ahead
I love this dessert because it can be made in advance, making it perfect for Thanksgiving, Christmas, or easy entertaining.
Once the crumble is in the pan, cover with aluminum foil and refrigerate until ready to bake (up to 24 hours).
If you don’t want to make the entire apple crumble in advance, you can just make the crumble topping and keep that in the refrigerator for up to 24 hours.
How to Store
Leftover apple crumble will keep covered in the refrigerator for up to three days. I recommend reheating in the microwave before serving. Pro tip-it makes a really great breakfast!
I don’t recommend freezing apple crumble because the apples and topping will get mushy.
More Apple Recipes
- Slab Apple Pie with Crumb Topping
- Apple Cobbler
- Apple Bundt Cake
- Apple Hand Pies
- Apple Cinnamon Rolls
- Baked Apples
- Skillet Cinnamon Apples
- Apple Cinnamon Muffins
Apple Crumble
Ingredients
For the Filling:
- 8 cups apples, peeled, cored, and sliced
- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
For the crumble topping:
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 cup old-fashioned oats
- 2/3 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 12 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, diced
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
- In a large bowl, combine apples, lemon juice, vanilla extract, granulated sugar, cinnamon, and flour. Gently toss until apples are well coated. Let the apple mixture sit while you prepare the crumble topping.
- For the crumble topping: in a large bowl, combine the flour, oatmeal, brown sugar, granulated sugar, salt, and cinnamon. Stir together with a whisk. Mix in the cold butter with your fingers until the mixture comes together and you have a crumbly topping.
- Place the apple mixture in a greased 12-inch cast iron skillet or greased 9×13-inch baking pan. Sprinkle the crumble mixture evenly over the apples.
- Bake for 40 to 45 minutes, or until the crumbly is browned and bubbling. Serve warm or at room temperature. I recommend serving with vanilla ice cream.
Notes
Nutrition
Have you tried this recipe?
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Oh goodness! Not sure this could look any better… second guessing my dessert choices haha. This looks amaizng 😀
I LOVE YOUR FOOD BLOG AND THIS RECIPE SOUNDS GREAT!! COULD YOU PLEASE LET ME KNOW WHAT BRAND THE RED CAST IRON SKILLET IS? I’VE BEEN LOOKING FOR A GOOD ONE!!! THANKS
Looks very good! I love apples and oats combined!
I’m not a big pie person, but I love a crumble! It’s my dessert of choice at Thanksgiving. Yours looks delicious!
How thick do you slice the apples? Can I cube hem instead?
Hello!!! I’m very interested in knowing the Brand of your special red cast iron pan??? Please help…. that all I’ve asked for Christmas!! Thanks for your response!!
Will put this on my menu for Xmas dinner. It’s been so long since I’ve had apple crisp. Thanks for the recipe.
I just wanted to let you know I made this for Thanksgiving… and it was a major HIT! Thank you for the delicious recipe! Its now my absolute favorite! 🙂
It is my favorite too! Glad you liked it!
What would be a good cinnamon substitute? My husband is allergic.
I made this for a family holiday dinner this week. This was everything an apple crumble should be! EVERYTHING!! Perfect flavor. And the crumble part…to die for!! Made it in my cast iron skille. Prepared it, put it in skillet, and took it over to family friend’s house. Right after dinner, we put it in the oven, baked it, and hot dessert with caramel drizzled on top with ice cream. This recipe is a definite keeper!!
My 4 year old and I baked this together today and it was absolutely gorgeous. She loved “tickling” all of the ingredients together with her hands for the crumble. Thanks for sharing!
Would you adjust the baking time if you were making the crumble in ramekins?
I love ur recipes their so easy & the ingredients r simple. Not some ingredients that you’ve never heard of before.
If I were to halve this recipe, would the baking time be the same?
Absolutely LOVED this recipe. I made it on Sunday and by Monday evening it had disappeared. I did however modify it slightly. I am a fierce proponent of healthy eating and leading an active lifestyle but I love to indulge my sweet tooth and in this instance I combined a great pie crust recipe with your crumble. I happened to have a frozen pâte brisée in my freezer (Marth Stewart recipe) and used it as the pie crust and then added to crumb to the cover the apples. I also added raisins to the apples – amazing! I will also be making this without pie crust as this recipe is definitely my go-to apple crumble!
Thanks,
Angie (Montreal QC)
Great recipe! One question though- can we replace the butter and use oil instead? Please reply Xxxx thanks
Can we use oil instead of butter?
I haven’t tried the recipe with oil.
I rearranged the recipe a little (I used graham crackers instead of rolled oats) and I also added in more spices and lemon, but this was very enjoyable.
Hi this looks delicious however i am wheat intolerant do you have a suggestiom for a substitute ????
FYI
There are 16 tablespoons to a cup, so 12 tablespoons of butter is 3/4 of a cup.
Much simpler to measure.
Love this recipe! I made it in 13X9 ceramic dish. Turned out divine
Super yummy! Perfect dish for fall and so much simpler than a pie. I forgot a lemon at the store and had to substitute a mandarin orange- but it still turned out amazing. Thanks for sharing it!
I am glad you enjoyed the apple crumble! Thanks for letting us know!
Loved the apple crumble! The topping was perfect. It truly is a taste of Fall. Thanks for sharing the recipe!
Such a good recipe for fall! Glad you loved it!
Hi Maria,
I made your recipe, for an event on Sunday, and EVERYONE raved about it. Some even had seconds and thirds! I converted this recipe to a gluten-free version, so that the party hostess was able to enjoy some too. Like you, I enjoyed having the thicker crumble topping. This recipe will replace the one I currently use.
Thank you for a great recipe!
I am so glad the recipe was a hit! Thanks for sharing!
I am not usually a big fan of apples or apple-centered desserts, but this is outrageously good! I think I died and went to heaven! We had a bunch of apples of our neighbor’s tree, and I wasn’t sure what to do with them. I’m so glad I decided on this! 😀
Made this to take for refreshments after a meeting and it was a huge success! Thanks
Made this recipe for Thanksgiving this year and it was a hit! Thank you for sharing. I added some fresh strawberries and blue berries (needed to get rid of some in my fridge) and it turned out so yummy. The berries cooked together with the sugar/cinnamon and made a berry filling. Add some vanilla bean ice cream and boom, heaven… will definitely use this recipe again!
This is my go to apple dessert recipe and I always receive compliments when it is served. Two Peas and Their Pod is my go to when searching for a recipe. Any cookbook she puts out I will buy!
Thanks so much!
Another delicious recipe –and very forgiving! Will work for Thanksgiving, Christmas or “just because”. I made the recipe using only ingredients already-available in my kitchen (ex. I used fresh orange juice and lemon ginger honey in place of lemon juice). I cut the apples into chunks for easy consumption. The dessert was wonderful as suggested with ice cream and I added your salted caramel sauce. Keep up the great work!
So good with ice cream! I am glad you loved it!