Mix together all ingredients, except butter in medium bowl.
Pour in melted butter. Mix until no dry spots remain.
For the filling
Toss apricots with lemon juice to coat.
Add remaining ingredients, except cornstarch. Taste for your family's taste. Add more sure, or lemon, as needed.
Add cornstarch. mix well.
To assemble pie
Roll out pie crust. Lay in pie plate.
Add all of the apricots, mounded high, because they shrink as they cook.
Top fruit with all of crumb topping.
Bake in 350°F oven for 45 minutes to one hour, until fruit is tender, filling is bubbly and crumb topping is golden brown.
Let cool thoroughly before slicing, or fruit will spill out.
Notes
To save time buy a store bought pie crust. The flavor has improved greatly.
Pie can be made with double crust, instead of crumb topping.
If using two pie crusts, make sure to cut holes for steam to escape.
There is no reason to peel apricots, but you can, if you’d like.
As soon as apricots are sliced, toss them with lemon juice, so that they don’t discolor.
Taste the filling for salt and sugar before adding cornstarch, so that you can add enough sugar for your tastes. Start with less. add more, if needed.
If you add too much sugar, just counter it with a bit more lemon juice.
Always cook fruit pies on a large rimmed cookie sheet, lined with parchment to minimize cleanup.
Cover top of pie with foil, if crumb layer is getting too brown.
Let pie cool thoroughly. Although warm fruit pies are so appealing, if they are cut before they are totally cool, all of the filling will spill out. It will still taste awesome, but you will lose presentation points!
Lasts 4-5 days.
Store in refrigerator.
Pie can be frozen prior to baking. Bake pie from frozen about 20 minutes longer.