The Difference Between An Apple Pie And A Crisp Is All In The Topping

There are few desserts as classic to American culture as the apple pie. With a golden crust and a spicy-sweet filling, a flaky apple pie is the center of any good dessert table or bakery case. Apple pie has made starring appearances in music, movies, and literature, and considering its icon status, you'd think you'd know an apple pie when you see one. However, when perusing dessert recipes or browsing the farmers market pastry spread, you might be confusing an apple pie with its close cousin: the apple crisp.

Sure, they have a lot in common. Both dishes feature gooey, cooked apples coated in autumnal flavors like cinnamon and brown sugar. Apple pies, however, are usually encased in a flaky crust, while crisps are coated in a chewy, crunchy topping, much like a streusel. Here's exactly what sets an apple pie apart from an apple crisp — after all, there is a difference between cobblers, crumbles, and crisps, so let's see where pie fits into the equation.

In case you need a refresher on your baking basics, an apple pie is a bed of sugary apple filling nestled on top of buttery crust and covered in another layer of dough. The top layer of dough is rolled out into a basic disk or laced and woven into ornate patterns and designs. Apple pie filling is made from sliced, cooked apples coated in a thick liquid, usually with a fragrant touch of cinnamon. The syrupy center is blanketed on all sides by dough. Based on taste, a perfect, flavorful, crunchy pie crust recipe might include sour cream in place of water, or it might use butter in place of shortening. This crust is primarily what differentiates a pie from a crisp.

A crisp may feature a similar center to that of a pie. An apple crisp is usually composed of sweet, cooked apples, but it's usually crustless. The dessert is baked in a large, oven-safe dish, topped only by a generous dusting of crumble topping, typically made from a combination of butter, flour, and sugar.

What makes the difference between an apple pie and an apple crisp a bit confusing is the presence of a crumble topping. A crumble is crucial to a crisp; however, even some styles of apple pie can be topped with chunky heaps of buttery, sugary crumble. Dutch apple pies, or crumble-top apple pies, still center apples hugged by a circle of crust, but these pastries are then finished off with a hearty sprinkling of crumble topping rather than a top layer of pie crust.

A crisp topping, on the other hand, is very similar, but the crumble recipe tends to include oats. In fact, the nutty, crunchy oats may be the source of the dish's name. The oats toast as the dessert bakes, giving the crumble a crispy texture. Plus, an apple crisp still lacks a crusty exterior around the sides. A crisp is simply held together by the dish in which it's prepared. Once scooped out and served next to a tasty scoop of vanilla ice cream, a crisp will lose some of its shape and fall into a warm, gooey pile of layered apples, cinnamon, and sugar.