Canning apple pie filling at home is a great way to preserve the harvest and have homemade dessert in the pantry. Best of all it’s easy project for beginner and experienced canners alike.
Homemade apple filling is more frugal than store bought and can be customized for your family’s individual tastes. Spices can be changed, more or less sugar can be used.
Best of all this same water bath canning recipe can also be apple pie filling to freeze if canning isn’t your thing or if you’ve run out of jars this preservation season.
Apples to Use
There are lists of apples that make better pie or sauce for example. However, as a person with a large apple tree right in my yard, I just use what I have available. Use whatever you have on hand or enjoy most.
To Peel or Not to Peel
Peeling apples before canning apple pie filling is recommended by those who test canning recipes. I use a apple peeler and corer machine to make the process easy and quick. The peeler does sometimes skip or miss the top and bottom. I leave those and don’t worry too much about it.
This is completely a personal decision. Feel free to cut off every piece of peel, especially if you’re entering your pie filling in the county fair.
Do cut out any bad spots, bruises, bug bites, etc. I use organic apples there are plenty in mine but taking the time to clean up those bad spots will give you a better final product.
Treating for Browning or Not
Apples brown fairly quickly after peeling. Most canning books and websites will tell you to treat them for browning.
To treat apples for browning, you have several options:
Ascorbic acid: you can buy this like ‘Fruit Fresh’ right in the grocery store. Follow package directions but usually it is 1 teaspoon ascorbic acid dissolved in 1 gallon of water.
Lemon Juice: add ¼ cup lemon juice to 4 cups of water.
Simply add slices to water and remove with a slotted spoon to keep the fruit from turning brown.
Let me be honest and say that I skip this all the time. Yes the fruit browns while it sits, however; once it heats up in the pots and jars the color returns. Again, personal decision do what works for you.
Spices
This recipe only includes cinnamon. However, you could switch it up.
Use a combination of cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves.
Ginger and apples is a lovely combination.
Skip the spice entirely in the canning process and add it when you bake with it later, if desired.
Sugar
Use up to 5 1/2 cups of sugar in the recipe. I generally use less because it simply doesn’t need to be that sweet in my opinion.
The sugar doesn’t do the preserving the canning process does so it is still safe. Less sugar, does mean that the syrup isn’t as going to go as far, however; keep this in mind as you make your recipe.
The recipe included here uses 4 cups of sugar and still made exactly 6 quarts.
ClearJel
Grandma probably canned her apple pie filling using flour or cornstarch. The thing is flour and cornstarch are not approved for home canning. Flour and cornstarch will likely breakdown in the home canning process. You can read more about ClearJel and why we no longer use flour or cornstarch in this article from the University of Illinois.
For these reasons, this recipe uses clearjel, a modified cornstarch that is approved and stable in the home canning process.
Quarts or Pints
A quart jar is the minimum necessary to make a 9” pie, in my opinion. However, you could can this apple pie filling in pints. Follow the same instructions in the recipe, including the same processing time as quarts.
Wide mouth canning jars will be easier to pour out the thick apple pie filling when you’re ready to bake. However, regular mouth jars will obviously work just use a spatula to get it out of the jar.
How to Use Canned Apple Pie Filling
Obviously, use it in a pie. Simply line a pie plate with a homemade pie crust add the apple pie filling, top with another pastry and bake as usual. You can also make a rustic cobbler by omitting the bottom crust and topping the apple pie filling with a crust made from make-ahead baking mix.
Dress up the homemade apple pie filling by adding a cup of raisins or dried cranberries and mix it up with the filling before putting into the pie crust.
Make hand pies or apple turnovers with pie crust and apple pie filling. Bake as usual.
Bake it up in this tasty and easy Apple Pie Cake.
Use it for an apple crisp. Simply pour the pie filling into the bottom of a greased pie plate and top with your favorite crumble or crisp topping. Bake as usual.
Mix the apple pie filling into cooked oatmeal or yogurt for a special treat. Top pound cake or ice cream with the filling for extra flavor.
Here are a bunch of recipes using apple pie filling for you to try.
Tried this recipe? Please leave a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ star rating in the recipe card below and/or a review in the comment section further down the page. We always appreciate your feedback. You can also save the recipe for later by pinning it or clicking on the heart in the lower right hand corner.
Canned Apple Pie Filling
Ingredients
Equipment
Method
- Get the water bath canner ready, start heating the water, and prepare jars, lids, and rings.
- In a large stockpot, boil the apple slices for 1 minute. Do this in several batches. Remove the slices from the pot and keep in a towel covered bowl to keep warm.
- In a heavy pot (one that won’t scorch), combine the sugar, ClearJel, cinnamon, water, and apple juice. Bring to a boil over medium high heat. Cook until mixture thickens and bubbles.
- Add the lemon juice to the sugar mixture and bring to a boil for 1 minute. Stir constantly to prevent scorching.
- Drain the apple slices (don’t add any extra water). Add the apple slices and stir to coat. Cook until the apples are heated through.
- Fill the jars with the apple pie filling leaving 1 inch headspace.
- Wipe rims, secure lids, and rings.
- Process in boiling water canner for 25 minutes (adjusting for elevation).
Nutrition
Tried this recipe?
Let us know how it was!Original Recipe Source
United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Complete Guide to Home Canning. Agriculture information bulletin No. 539. 2015. Page 2-26
If I use a pressure canner for processing, at what pressure and for how long do you recommend? Thank you!
I wouldn’t recommend it – I can’t find any ‘approved’ sources that have suggestions for time or pressure.
do you know how many quarts this recipe will make
Hi Kim, it makes 6 quarts. It’s in the printable recipe card in the upper left hand corner.
Can I use therm-flo instead of clear jel?
Yes, you ThermFlo and Clear Jel can both be safely used in canning.
Thank you! Do you substitute it cup for cup? Also does it matter if I use fresh or bottled lemon juice?
Carmen, it’s best to use bottled lemon juice when canning because that’s what was used when the processing times were developed.
Can lemon be omitted or substituted for something else? I am allergic to it.
Sherly, if you can use lemon juice, you can substitute another acid such as apple cider vinegar or citric acid. If you use apple cider vinegar, you would use a cup for cup substitution. If you use citric acid you’ll use 1/4 tsp citric acid per tablespoon of lemon juice. There are 16 tablespoons in a cup so you’d need 4 tsp citric acid for this recipe.
How would I add the citric acid to the recipe? Just dump the powder at the end of cooking?
I would add it in with the sugar and spices.
Carmen-
I’ve read that using bottled lemon juice is more consistent in acidity than squeezing fresh lemons. You need the acidity for preventing canned contents from spoiling.
Can you combine granulated sugar and brown sugar?
As long as the brown sugar doesn’t have any anticaking agents in it, it can be used in canning. So yes.
I made 2 batches of this recipe today,excellent ! I did have several jars that “oozed ” ,I left an inch of headspace and let them sit in the water bath for 15 minutes after turning the burner off. Do you think I can reprosse them or should I just refrigerate.
So glad you like it! As long as the jars sealed, they are shelf stable. I would take the band off and clean the ooze off the jar and then just use those jars first. If they didn’t seal, put them in the refrigerator and use them first.
How long is the shelf-life for this recipe? I have thought about using this as gift ideas for my grandma and aunt!
The USDA recommends that home canned food be consumed within a year because over time the quality will deteriorate. That being said, as long as the canned food remains sealed it’s perfectly safe.
Is there a lower sugar recipe or one with Steevia for diabetes
You can reduce the sugar as much as you want. It’s the canning that does the preserving not the sugar. However, the sugar does help the fruit retain it’s color and firmness. You might find this article useful, https://extension.psu.edu/canning-with-less-sugar
I cut back on the clear jel by 1/2 cup. I did a double batch. The reccomended amount of sugar was perfect. This turned out very good and I’ll use this recipe again.
Glad you liked it!
This has been my go to recipe for 2 years now and I think I may have found my forever recipe for Apple pie filling…
Hi, is there a replacement for the clear gel. Thanks
There is no approved thickener for canning other than clear gel, and it’s only approved for recipes that have fruit (meaning, there are no approved recipes for soup that uses clear gel.)
@Angi Schneider, which clear jel are you using, the cook type or instant?
Cook type.
Can this be done in pints ? If so what would be the timing for the water bath ? Also seems like people are having trouble with it oozing during processing would it be possible to leave a little more headspace ? Maybe 1 &1/2 inch or is that to much ?
Yes, it can be done in pints, however, the processing time is the same as quarts. You cannot safely adjust the headspace in a canned recipe, it needs to stay at 1″.