This is the Easy Ina Garten’s Apple Crostada or apple pie recipe! It is now our favorite Apple Pie recipe!!
The recipe is from this cookbook.
I can’t begin to tell you how much I have used her cookbooks! Everything turns out perfect EVERY TIME!
This apple crostata or apple pie is the best tasting “apple pie” you will ever make or eat!!
Making Ina Gartens’s apple crostata dough recipe
The crust is a buttery flaky and it is to die for!!!
You make the dough in a cuisinart food processor and it comes together quickly. Refrigerate the dough for 30 min or longer. Make sure the dough is super cold before rolling it out.
Add in chopped apples to the Crostata dough
Once you have made the dough, refrigerated it and rolled it out, you can add your chopped apples.
I like this particular apple pie because the apples are cut into chunks and you don’t bake it a long time so the apples don’t get mushy.
You can make big ones or personal sized ones….you could make cherry, pear or peach crostata’s.
Make topping for apple crostata
Make the topping by adding cold butter, orange peel, sugar, cinnamon, allspice and little salt to a bowl. Mix it up until it is crumbly and add to the top of the chopped apples.
Sprinkle the topping over the top of apples.
Folding the edges of Easy Ina Garten’s apple crostata
Now it time to fold up the edges of the Crostata.
Start at one side and pull up the pie dough almost in a pleat all around the crostata.
This holds in all the apples and topping.
The finished Easy Ina Garten apple crostata or apple pie
Bake the crostata at 450 degrees for 20-25 minutes until the crust is golden.
Try it you will love it.
It is a free form apple pie….you don’t have to put the dough into a pie pan or figure out how to place the pie dough over the top.
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Recipe
Apple Crostata or Free form Apple Pie
Equipment
- oven
- Rolling Pin
- cuisinart food processor
- Mixing Bowl
Ingredients
For the pie dough (makes two pie crusts)
- 2 c flour
- 1/4 c sugar
- 2 sticks cold butter
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 c Ice water
Apple Crostata filling
- 4-5 large apples (I used a mix of green and red) peeled
- 1 orange zested
- 1/4 c flour
- 4 Tbsp cold butter
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp cinnamon
- 1/8 tsp allspice
- 1/8 tsp ginger
- 2 Tbsp cream
- 1/4 Cup Sugar
Instructions
- 1. Put all of the dry ingredients in the bowl of a food processor, fitted with the dough attachment. Pulse 2 or 3 times to combine.2. Add the butter all at once and pulse 12 to 15 times, until the butter is the size of peas.3. Add a 1/4 cup of the ice water all at once and pulse the dough until it begins to come together around the blade.4. Turn the dough out onto a well-floured surface and knead it a few times until you form a smooth ball. Divide the ball into two pieces and flatten each piece into a disk. Wrap in plastic wrap. If you're making one tart, place one disk in the refrigerator for an hour and freeze the other disk. Otherwise, if you're making two tarts, refrigerate both disks of dough for 30 min. to 1 hour.
Add the filling
- 1. Peel, core, and quarter the apples. Cut each quarter into 3 chunks. Toss the chunks with the orange zest and add cream. 2. Cover the apple tart dough with the apple chunks, leaving a 1 1/2-inch border.3. Next, combine the flour, sugar, salt, cinnamon, allspice and ginger in a bowl. Add the butter and mix with a fork until the mixture is crumbly. You can use your fingers until it starts to stick together. 4. Sprinkle evenly on the apples. Gently fold the border over the apples, pleating it to make a circle.5. Bake the crostata at 450 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes, or until the crust is golden and the apples are tender but not mushy.
The directions for the crumb topping that goes on top of the appes before you bring the pastry dough up around them and pleat it states in the instructions to combine flour, sugar and spices and then add the butter. However, the ingredient list for this does not include sugar listed. I used two tablespoons of brown sugar and I thouogh it looked about right.. We will see how it turns out when it comes out of the oven. Maybe an adjustment to the ingredient list is needed on this post.
Thank you so much for catching that! It is 1/4 cup of sugar. I have even used brown sugar and it worked out great. I hope your crostata turned out great! It is seriously my favorite apple pie recipe ever!
Karin