3-Ingredient Slow Cooker Apple Pie

This simple slow cooker dessert is everything you’d expect from a classic apple pie, but requires just three ingredients — and way less work. When it’s done cooking, you’re greeted with a sweet and buttery cake-like blanket.

But dig your spoon through the topping, and you’ll find a cinnamon-kissed, warm apple filling. The contrast between the lightly browned, slightly crisp top and the sweet, saucy center is enough to make this easy dessert a new go-to. Just don’t forget the scoop of vanilla ice cream.

This easiest-ever slow cooker dessert combines the best parts of a fruit pie and a cake, and it comes together with just three ingredients. Drop cakes — or dump cakes — are the answer when you need a simple dessert that you can pull together with next to no effort. It gets its name because the ingredients are essentially dropped or dumped into the slow cooker.

You’ll start with a couple of cans of fruit pie filling (this version calls for apple, although other fruit fillings are all fair game), then add cake mix and melted butter for a crisp and gooey topping.

Perhaps the most important step in the process is covering your slow cooker with a clean kitchen towel or a layer of paper towels before adding the lid. This absorbs the moisture trapped in the slow cooker, allowing the cake-like topping to become irresistibly crisp around the edges as it cooks.