Home-Canned Apple Pie Filling

This is one of my easiest, most favorite canning recipes. There’s nothing like being able to open a quart jar of apple pie filling and make a pie or a cobbler. I’ve even used it as ice cream topping.

There are four main steps to making this recipe:

1. Prepare the apples – peel, core and slice, then blanch.
2. Make the syrup
3. Combine the apples and syrup
4. Water-bath can the combined apples and syrup

Prepare The Apples:

You’ll need to wash, peel, core and slice the apples. Don’t slice them too thinly, 1/4 inch or thicker. For this recipe you’ll need 10 – 12 cups of prepared apples – peeled, cored and sliced. I like to use a combination of apples for the best flavor.

Make The Syrup:
5 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cup *Clear Jel. OR *Therm-flo 1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
6 cups water, some of this water can be apple juice, it’s up to you
3/4 cup lemon juice OR 2 teaspoons citric acid

OR you can use 2 Tablespoons of Apple Pie Spice. OR just use 2 teaspoons of cinnamon and then check for seasoning after you make the syrup.

You may want to double the recipe of syrup or make half again as much just in case you use too much in the jars and need more syrup to top off the jars. Even if you don’t need it all for the apples, it makes delicious ice cream topping.

In a large, heavy-bottomed kettle, add the sugar, Clear-Jel and spices. Next, add the apple juice and/or water and stir. Turn up the heat and cook the mixture until it is thick, bubbly and smooth. I like to use an immersion blender to keep the syrup smooth. After it has cooked and gotten thick, taste it and see if you need to add more cinnamon.

Blanch The Apples:

In this recipe you first want to blanch your apple slices. This cooks the apples and keeps them from shrinking so much once they are cooked in the canner, and from making your jars look like they are missing some apples. Here’s how to do that blanching:

Bring a large kettle of water to a boil. Add about 1 quart of apple slices at a time and bring the water back to a boil. strain the apple slices out of the boiling water and add the next batch of apple slices. Keep the boiled apples covered while you are boiling the rest of them.
Once you’re done, you can empty out the water because you might need the kettle.

Combine The Apples and Syrup

Turn off heat under the syrup. Add the apple slices and lemon juice or citric acid to the syrup.

Stir. Now your apple pie filling is ready to can.

Can The Apple Pie Filling Fill hot jars 3/4 full of apples and syrup. Top of each jar with syrup to within 1 inch of the rim of the jars.
Run a plastic or rubber spatula around the inside of the jars to release air bubbles.

Clean off the rims with a clean, wet cloth.
Add lids and rings.

Water bath the quart jars for 25 minutes. Remove from pan and allow to sit on a dishcloth on the cabinet. Allow the jars to remain undisturbed over night.

Makes 5 or 6 quarts

*Please do not use Cornstarch in this recipe. Cornstarch will break down in the heat and become very liquidy, you won’t get the thickness you want using it.

How to make an Apple Pie using your home-canned filling

You will need:

2 crusts for a 9 inch pie

1 quart of your home canned apple pie filling

milk

sugar – optional

Place one crust in a 9 inch pie pan.

Don’t use a deep dish for one quart of apples, it won’t fill it. If you find that your pie pan is still too big for 1 quart of filling you can always add one or two fresh apples peeled and sliced and tossed with a little lemon juice to your pie filling to give it more substance in a large pan.

Fill the crust with one quart of home canned filling.

Cover with the second crust, paint the crust with milk and sprinkle with sanding sugar or regular sugar.

Bake at 425*F until it is golden brown and bubbling