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This 5-ingredient Slow cooker cinnamon apple pie dessert is warm, bubbly, and easy to make with a frozen crust and canned filling. The brown sugar, cinnamon, and butter melt into the apples for a cozy, almost caramel-ish flavor. It is a soft, spoonable apple pie dessert that makes the house smell like it has been baking all afternoon.
Serve it warm with vanilla ice cream if you have it. Whipped topping works too. Cold milk alongside is very good, and I will not hear otherwise.
Why You’ll Love It
- No peeling or rolling — use canned apple pie filling and a frozen deep-dish crust.
- Just 5 ingredients — everything goes straight into the Slow Cooker.
- Serves 6 to 8 — a simple dessert for a regular weeknight or a larger meal.
- Cozy apple-pie flavor — warm apples, brown sugar, cinnamon, and butter without making a traditional pie.
Ingredient Notes
The important thing here is a raw frozen deep-dish pie crust. Not a baked shell, and not one of the shallow little crusts if you can help it. The deep-dish crust holds the filling better in the Slow Cooker. I usually buy whatever store brand is on sale; I’m not proud, and apples covered in cinnamon do not care about branding.
For the apple pie filling, use one standard can—about 21 ounces. Any decent apple filling works. Some have bigger apple slices than others, which can matter if smaller pieces are preferred.
Packed brown sugar is exactly what it sounds like: press it into the measuring cup a bit. I use light brown sugar because that is what I keep around, though dark brown sugar would make it taste a little deeper and molasses-y. Not required, though. No need to create a special errand for a dessert whose whole purpose is avoiding errands.
Regular ground cinnamon is fine. Mine may have been in the cupboard for a while—kidding. Mostly. Fresh cinnamon does have a warmer flavor, but I am not tossing out a nearly full jar because a recipe says one teaspoon.
And the butter: use actual butter if you can. Two tablespoons, cut into little pieces, dotted over the top. Margarine will melt, of course, but butter is better here. Sorry, I said what I said.
Ingredients
- 1 raw frozen deep-dish pie crust
- 1 can apple pie filling, about 21 ounces
- 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 2 tablespoons butter, cut into small pieces
Instructions
Lightly coat the inside of your Slow Cooker crock with nonstick spray or a little butter, if you feel like it. This is not absolutely mandatory, but it makes scooping easier later, and I am very much in favor of anything that prevents me from scrubbing baked-on sugar at nine o’clock at night. Place the raw frozen deep-dish pie crust right in the bottom of the slow cooker.
Spoon the entire can of apple pie filling evenly into the crust. Try to keep most of it inside the crust rather than sloshed up the sides, though it does not have to look pretty. It is going to be scooped into bowls eventually, not judged at the county fair.
Sprinkle the 1/2 cup packed brown sugar and the 1 teaspoon cinnamon evenly over the apple filling. Dot the top with the small pieces of butter. I scatter mine around like I’m feeding chickens, which is probably not the refined method, but it works.
Cover the slow cooker with its lid and cook on High for 2 to 3 hours, until the apple filling is bubbly and the crust is cooked through around the edges. Start checking a little early if your slow cooker tends to run hot. Mine does, though I once insisted it didn’t and wound up with a crust that had the texture of a very earnest cracker.
Turn off the slow cooker and let the dessert rest for 15 to 20 minutes before serving. It will set up slightly as it sits, although it is still going to be a soft, warm, scoopable dessert—not a neat wedge-of-pie situation. Spoon it into bowls and serve warm, ideally with vanilla ice cream or whipped topping if you have either one lurking in the freezer.
Variations
If a little more spice is preferred, add a pinch of nutmeg or apple pie spice along with the cinnamon. Not enough to make it taste like the entire spice rack ended up in there—just a pinch.
You can chop the apple slices in the canned filling into smaller pieces before adding them to the crust if you prefer a smoother texture.
Cherry, peach, or blueberry pie filling can be swapped for the apple filling using the same method. Cherry is especially nice with a little extra cinnamon, surprisingly. Peach works well too, but use a deep-dish crust so the filling stays contained. Tasted fine. Looked ridiculous.
If moisture collects under your slow cooker lid and the crust seems softer than you’d like, you can place a clean paper towel under the lid for the last 30 minutes of cooking to catch condensation. Make sure it fits safely under the lid and stays well clear of the heating element. Some days are just humid, even indoors. The weather has been acting downright personal lately.
A drizzle of caramel sauce, a scoop of ice cream, or a spoonful of whipped topping makes this feel extra special for movie night.
Storage & Reheating
If there are leftovers, cover them and keep them in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. The crust will soften more as it sits, so I won’t pretend it is exactly the same the next day. It is still delicious, just more like apple-cinnamon pudding with pie crust involved.
For reheating, spoon a portion into a microwave-safe bowl and warm it in short bursts until hot. A little ice cream on top covers many sins, including leftover slow-cooker crust. You can also reheat it gently in the slow cooker for several servings again, but I usually don’t bother.
It is also good cold straight from the refrigerator. I prefer it warm. Both can be true, I suppose.
Final Notes
There is something comforting about a dessert that does not ask much of you. Five ingredients, one crock, and a couple hours of patience—which I do not naturally possess, but apparently I can manage when apples and brown sugar are involved.
Make this when you need something warm and Sweet but cannot face a big baking project. Make it when you have vanilla ice cream in the freezer and a quiet evening ahead. Or make it on a Wednesday because the brown sugar is getting hard and the pie crust has been sitting there since goodness knows when.
That is reason enough.
5-Ingredient Slow Cooker Cinnamon Apple Pie Dessert
Ingredients Â
- 1 raw frozen deep-dish pie crust
- 1 can apple pie filling about 21 ounces
- 1/2 cup brown sugar packed
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 2 tablespoons butter cut into small pieces
InstructionsÂ
- Lightly coat the inside of the slow cooker crock with nonstick spray or a little butter, then place the raw frozen deep-dish pie crust in the bottom.
- Spoon the entire can of apple pie filling evenly into the crust, keeping most of it inside the crust.
- Sprinkle the packed brown sugar and ground cinnamon evenly over the apple filling.
- Scatter the small pieces of butter over the top of the filling.
- Cover the slow cooker with its lid and cook on High for 2 to 3 hours, until the apple filling is bubbly and the crust is cooked through around the edges.
- Turn off the slow cooker and let the dessert rest for 15 to 20 minutes so it can set slightly.
- Spoon the soft dessert into bowls and serve warm with vanilla ice cream or whipped topping, if desired.