Dear Neighbor,
It’s almost that time of year again; apple picking. Apple picking used to be an annual event with our kids and homeschooling allowed us to make every opportunity a school event. Off to the mountains we would go to pick and bring home a bushel or two of apples.
I never liked canned, store bought pie filling. It always tasted like metal or medicine. Something just isn’t right about it. The fancy jarred stuff you find in country stores might taste better, but I never spent the money on it. So back in the day, before the internet was really big and who had a computer then anyway?, I couldn’t search for homemade pie filling so what’s a woman to do? Create your own.
I have an unusual talent. Well, perhaps it isn’t that odd but I can taste something and parse out all the ingredients and go home and make it. I love knocking off recipes. There have been sauces I had at restaurants and I have taken home a small cup of the tasty delight to taste further and figure them out. Sometimes it takes a while but this one was just too easy.
Having this filling on your pantry shelf makes for quick apple crisp, pies or even ice cream topping. You can use the recipe to can hard, old time variety pears instead of apples. That filling can be used just like apple pie filling.
Happy Homesteading, S
Apple Pie Filling
4 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 c corn starch
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
dash of cloves if you like them
1 teaspoon salt
10 cups water
3 T lemon juice
8-10 tart apples, peeled and sliced thickly
In a large saucepan blend sugar, cornstarch, spices and salt. Add water, whisking continuously to keep sugar from burning. Add lemon juice to restore acid and keep apples from getting brown. Keep stirring until thick and when you lift your spoon, it should look heavy but not like grits or anything.
Pack apples in warmed quart canning jars
Cap, seal and process 20 minutes in hot water bath. As the mixture cools, it will thicken a bit more and look rather congealed.
Makes six quarts. Bake pies for about 45 minutes at 400 degrees.
I would like to try this. Can you give me a short explanation of the hot water bath. I watched someone can beets outdoors using that method. I think it was just boiling water to cover up to the rims..Is that right?
*gasp* corn starch! lol…I’m kidding. You might add a note thought that the latest and greatest guidelines from the USDA call for that clearjel stuff. They seem to think the corn starch is harmful but I’m sure the cornstarch works just fine personally.
that recipe could NOT possibly be right…8 – 10 apples?!?…I put 6 or 7 in ONE pie…and what is up with 10 cups of water?…that would be awful…something’s not right.…and it makes 6 quarts!!!..that means there’s something like 1 1/2 apples in each pie & whole lot of water = a bad pie…Have you actually made this?
Just made recipe using 10 Pt Jars. Could have stretched the filling out to 12, but I ran out of Apples. They look amazing. Just finished canning, and have them cooling. Going to make a pie later this weekend, and save the rest for Thanksgiving/Christmas dinners.
Thank you
Robin, I actually use a tamale steamer. The trick is to keep the cans off the bottom of the pan and to keep them from touching the walls of the canner. You want to have 2″ of water over the top of the jars. I usually start heating up the water in my canner 20 minutes before I even start preparing the items to be canned as it takes forever to come to heat. There are a ton of videos on youtube that would be helpful. I would suggest watching a few videos and just try it. You will make a mistake here and there, for example my first try 2/6 jars did not seal when cooled. I learned a few lessons, now I have not had a “failure to seal” in 10 batches.
Be warned, its addicting, I started with a plum jam, as a one time thing. Now I can something every weekend. Pickling carrots, greenbeans, etc; Jams, Jellies, Sauces, and now pie fillings
Dear Best Mommy,
Indeed the recipe is correct. My apples are large and I cut them chunky. I don’t like the flesh to turn mushy. As far as amount of syrup, open a can of store bought and you will see the consistency is the same. Somehow it all works! ~S
Dear Derek,
Canning is addictive. The beauty of jars filled with food is dazzling. Happy homesteading! S