Homemade Apple Pie Filling Recipe - For Canning! | The Frugal Farm Wife (2024)

This Home-canned Amish apple pie filling recipe is so much tastier than anything you can buy – and it’s surprisingly easy too! We use it to make the best gluten-free apple pies every fall.

What can be more satisfying than seeing your pantry shelves filling up with food that you’ve canned with your own hands? Not much, I’d submit, but there’s something extra special about canning pie filling. It’s like making convenience food, and you can usegluten-free recipesto do it.

Once you’re done, it just sits on the shelf, and literally all you have to do is open a jar and dump it into a pie shell when you’re ready for it. Hey presto! You just made homemade apple pie from scratch!

Needless to say, I’m excited about the onslaught of Fall apple harvest, and the opportunities to buy in bulk through local food co-ops, because there’s nothing like being able to pop open a jar of home-canned apple pie filling during the dead of winter to make a quick dessert.

Isn’t the change of seasons, and seasonal food amazing? Your taste budsneverget bored!

I find that I never really stop canning. In the summer it’s canning green beans, and vegetable soup. Wintertime canning is mostly meats. We’re canning pork a lot, as well as making canned chicken.

In the fall, we freeze pumpkin pie filling a lot, and can this Amish apple pie filling, as well as make canned apple sauce and caramel apple butter. Not to mention also making spiced pear sauce – especially since pears are something we can actually grow here in Texas.

This is a recipe I picked up during my days in the Amish community.

Amish food has a well deserved reputation for being delicious, and when it comes to canning and preserving, they really know their stuff. I’m blessed to have spent much of my childhood learning from them and now, being able to pass this Amish apple pie filling recipe on to you.

What are the best apples for pie filling?

Braeburn apples are top tier for pie filling, and other baking recipes, because they keep their texture so well.

Granny smith are classic, and while they don’t have a lot of flavor – just a lot of tartness, I do like to add some to the mix for that tartness.

Jonathon, and McIntosh are also excellent. But I also like to add a big “do what you can with what you’ve got” caveat to all recommendations. Maybe it’s because I grew up with such “use it or do without” mentality. I’ve done a lot of canning with fruits, vegetables, and even meats that weren’t the varieties you’re “supposed” to use, and guess what? They put food on the table.

Tools needed for making canned pie filling

You don’t really need a lot.

• A water bath canning kettle. You can get a relatively inexpensive one like this, or make more of an investment with one like this.
  If you have a large enough stock pot, you can use that too, just be sure you have a rack to put in the bottom to separate your jars from the kettle bottom.
• Jars and lids. You can usually pick up jars at a big box store like Walmart, or even Dollar General. Or you can order them from Amazon. I recommend using quart jars for apple pie filling since that’s about the volume of filling you need to fill a pie shell.
• For lids, I really like Denali canning lids. These seal so much better than most of the brands that come with the jars. They also have a 30 day money back guarantee.
• A way to peel and slice your apples. I have an apple peeler which really helps speed things up when you’re making large batches to can. but it’s not strictly necessary. Goodness knows a lot of apples have been peeled with a knife over the years. Also, a note on the peeler, I don’t love the slices it makes – they’re just too skinny to suit my preference – so usually don’t use that function, and slice them with a knife.

So, are we ready? Here we go!

Canned Amish Apple Pie Filling Recipe

Ingredients:

• 12 cups sugar
• 2 ¼ cup Clear Jel (my amish friends use cornstarch, but according to Ball, it’s not safe)
• 1 teaspoon nutmeg
• 4 teaspoons cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 5 quarts water
• 6 Tablespoons lemon juice
• 12 quarts of apples, peeled, cored, and chopped

Equipment:

• canning jars
• lids and bands
• water bath canner setup
• Stock pot/large pot
• jar grabber

Instructions:

1. Mix first five ingredients together in a large stock pot.
2. Stir in water and bring to a boil over medium heat.
3. Add apples and lemon juice. Stir well.
4. Fill clean jars leaving half an inch of headspace.
5. Wipe rim of each jar before capping with new lids, and clean rings.
6. Process in a water bath canner for 25 minutes.

1 quart jar fills a 9” pie shell.

Makes 14 quarts.

A brief overview of waterbath canning:

(You can see an overview of canning methods here.)

Waterbath canning is essentially boiling jars of food in a large stock pot. Your pot needs to be taller than your jars by at least three inches to allow for a rack (or, in a pinch, kitchen towel), on which to set the jars so that they are not in direct contact with the source of heat, and also, to allow for two inches of water over the jars.

You will place the jars in the water bath canner, and add water ideally of the same temperature as the contents of the jars to at least a two inch depth above the jars.

Timing of the canning process begins when the water comes to a rolling boil.

After the processing time is over, it is very important to cool the jars carefully. If lifted from the canner immediately, the jars could explode upon contact with any cool drafts.

Sounds scary, I know! To tell the truth, I’ve never personally had one explode, it’s just important to take precautions when dealing with hot glass.

If you can’t let the canner and jars slowly cool together, let them cool as much as you can, and then remove them them, making as sure as you can that there are no stray breezes coming through, while shielding yourself with a towel. Place on another towel, and finally, cover the jars with yet another towel to minimize chances of cracking glass.

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