Best Crumble Topping for Fruit Pies

This recipe for crumble topping is the perfect crumble for any pie recipe. You can make it with brown sugar or granulated sugar and it’s even the perfect topping for muffins or fruit crisp.

4 Ingredients Needed

• 12 tablespoons (170g) unsalted butter
• ⅔ cup (133g) Sugar: You can use granulated sugar, brown sugar, or a combination of sugars in this recipe. Just use 2/3 cup of either or the combination.
• 1 ½ cups (186g) all-purpose flour
• ¼ teaspoon salt

Instructions

• Grate cold butter into a large bowl. Alternately, you can dice it small.
• Add sugar: use all brown or all white or a combination to make ⅔ cup. Use whatever combination you like (I like using ⅓ cup each brown and white).
• Add flour and then, using a pastry cutter, work the butter into the flour and sugar until the mixture forms coarse crumbs.
• Use crumble as recipe directs, on a fruit pie or on muffins or coffee cake. Bake as directed in recipe.

Recipe Notes

• Store crumble in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 24 hours before using.
• If using salted butter, omit added salt.

Grating the Butter makes it easier!

There is nothing harder than using a pastry cutter to cut in cubed or diced butter. It takes a lot of time and arm strength, so I created a shortcut: I grate the butter. If you want to make mixing the crumble much easier, grate the butter.

• Freeze the butter for about 30 minutes.
• Grate it using a box grater.
• Use as directed in the recipe.

How to make Crumble

1. Whisk your dry ingredients in a large bowl.
2. Add your butter in small chunks or grated (see below)
3. Use a pastry cutter to cut the butter into the dry ingredients.
4. The crumble is done when it’s crumbly and pea-sized with no loose dry ingredients.

Expert Tips

• Grating the butter makes it easier to cut into the ingredients, but it’s not required if you don’t want to.
• Crumble topping is delicate and should be crumbly, so you don’t want to use a mixer. You want to make crumble topping by hand, so I like using a pastry cutter.
• If you don’t have a pastry cutter, you can use a fork or two knives, but a pastry cutter is easier.
• You can make this up to a day ahead of time and store it in the refrigerator in an airtight container.

Recipe Nutrition

Serving: 1serving | Calories: 300kcal | Carbohydrates: 34g | Protein: 2g | Fat: 17g | Saturated Fat: 10g | Cholesterol: 45mg | Sodium: 2mg | Potassium: 30mg | Sugar: 16g | Vitamin A: 525IU | Calcium: 9mg | Iron: 1.1mg

Prep Time 10minutes minutes

Total Time1 0minutes minutes

Serving Size 1 serving

The BEST Pie Crust Recipe

This All Butter Pie Crust is my absolute favorite pie crust recipe. It works EVERY time and produces flaky, buttery homemade pie crust that will make your pie recipe perfect!

Recipe Nutrition

How to make Pie Crust in a food processor

1. Add your all purpose flour and salt to your food processor. Pulse once or twice to combine.
2. Add your butter. It’s COLD, straight from the fridge. Don’t touch it too much. Don’t go answer the phone. Cold, straight from the fridge to the food processor! Pulse a couple of times.
3. Add your ICE water. Not the ice, just the cold water. Start with 1 tablespoon.
4. Pulse a few times, let it run a few seconds. I always add a second tablespoon of water at that point, always. But, depending on altitude and humidity and your kitchen and the star alignment, you might need more.
5. Wait to see if it comes together before adding more than 2 tablespoons of water. You do not want a wet dough. It takes a few seconds for it to turn into the ball of all butter pie crust!

How to make pie crust by hand

1. If you don’t have a food processor, you can do this by hand with a pastry cutter. Just whisk the flour and salt first. Then cut in the butter with your pastry cutter until you can’t anymore (this is called a shaggy dough).
2. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and press it together until it forms a disk. Try not to work it too much – just enough so it comes together.

Important Notes

Pie Plate Size: This crust fits best in a 9-inch pie plate (not deep dish). Not all pie plates are the same size. This crust will fit a smaller pie plate but not a larger one.

Use a pie crust shield to keep your edges from burning. If you don’t have a pie crust shield, you can use strips of foil. I add these before baking and remove them about 10-15 minutes before the pie is done baking.

How to crimp the edges

• Use your knuckles to crimp the edges.
• You can also skip the finger step and use the tines of a fork to crimp the edges.
• Make it decorative: Another way I like to dress up my pie edge is to make a second all butter pie crust and use small cookie cutters to cut shapes and put them around the edges.

Baking Instructions

I have added baking times to the recipe because of reader comments, but you really have to go by the recipe you’re using. This crust blind bakes in about 20-30 minutes, but if you’re making a filled pie, you’ll need to bake according to the recipe directions.

All butter pie crusts don’t brown like a crisco crust does, so it’ll be lighter in color when it’s done baking. Use egg wash to make it nice and golden brown.

Avoid a soggy bottom pie by baking at a high temperature for 10-15 minutes (about 425°F then lowering your oven temperature to the one in your recipe).

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“If you like fluffy brown bread this is it. No white flour here. You can use any 100% whole grain wheat flour. I mill my own. This bread is not heavy like most 100% whole wheat breads. If it is you used too much flour and your dough was too stiff. If it flattens out and won’t stand up you need more flour. The total amount of flour is usually about 6 1/2 to 7 cups. This recipe has been in my family for years and we all make it. We make a lot more now that we have powerful mixers and the hand kneading is bye bye.”

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Curious about adding oats on top?

Rolled oats can be added to the outside of your loaf with the usual technique of spraying water on top, then dipping the loaf in a bowl / basket / tray filled with rolled oats. Be careful to keep the bottom of your loaf oat-free as they tend to burn in the oven.

The World’s Most Famous Bread Recipe for Perfect Delicious Homemade Bread

Here is one of the most popular recipes The Times has ever published, courtesy of Jim Lahey, owner of Sullivan Street Bakery. It requires no kneading. It uses no special ingredients, equipment or techniques. And it takes very little effort — only time. You will need 24 hours to create the bread, but much of this is unattended waiting, a slow fermentation of the dough that results in a perfect loaf. (We’ve updated the recipe to reflect changes Mark Bittman made to the recipe in 2006 after publishing and receiving reader feedback. The original recipe called for 3 cups flour; we’ve adjusted it to call for 3⅓ cups/430 grams flour.) In 2021, J. Kenji López-Alt revisited the recipe and shared his own tweaked version. —Mark Bittman

Ingredients:

• 3⅓cups/430 grams  – all-purpose or bread flour, plus more for dusting
• 390g water (1.5c + 2tbs)
• Generous ¼ teaspoon/1 gram instant yeast
• 2 teaspoons/12 grams kosher salt
• Cornmeal or wheat bran, as needed

Quick rundown of method:
– Mix everything together until there is no more visible flour
– Cover with a damp towel or plastic wrap.
– Ferment at room temperature for 12-18+hours (this loaf was 16hr)
– After the time, wet your hands and stretch and fold in all the sides.

– Move to parchment paper, seam side down. (this makes putting the bread in easier)
– Proof for 2 hours (i use the same bowl to cover it) – Preheat your oven with your cast iron or dutch oven for 1 hour (450F)
– Dust the of your loaf with a little flour and cut straight down the middle.
– You can use a scissor for this part too. This lets the steam escape in a controlled manner.

– Transfer your bread into your pan carefully.
– Bake Covered for 30 minutes.
– Take the lid off and bake uncovered for 25-30minutes more.
– Let it cool on a wire rack. Boom Bbby!!!! Nice job!!

STEP BY STEP

• Step 1

  In a large bowl combine flour, yeast and salt. Add 1½ cups/345 grams water and stir until blended; dough will be shaggy and sticky. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rest at least 12 hours, preferably about 18, at warm room temperature, about 70 degrees.

• Step 2

  Dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles. Lightly flour a work surface and place dough on it; sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold it over on itself once or twice. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest about 15 minutes.

• Step 3

  Using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to work surface or to your fingers, gently and quickly shape dough into a ball. Generously coat a cotton towel (not terry cloth) with flour, wheat bran or cornmeal; put dough seam side down on towel and dust with more flour, bran or cornmeal. Cover with another cotton towel and let rise for about 2 hours. When it is ready, dough will be more than double in size and will not readily spring back when poked with a finger.
  alt method: Where you use towels to hold the dough, I use parchment paper…then I grab the paper, lower it into the 450 degree pot put on the lid, and bake it. No sticking. No burning.

• Step 4

  At least a half-hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 450 degrees. Put a 6- to 8-quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) in oven as it heats. When dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven. Slide your hand under towel and turn dough over into pot, seam side up; it may look like a mess, but that is OK. Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes. Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 15 to 30 minutes, until loaf is beautifully browned. Cool on a rack.

Use high gluten (bread flour) for best results and that chewy crumb!

The key to the crust is to bake it longer than you think. Your oven is going to be dark so the bread will look darker than it actually is. I usually go the full 30minutes.

For a funky sour flavor, let your dough cold ferment in the fridge for 3+ days. (after the initial 12-18hrs). The wait is worth it!!

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