Apple Pie Filling

One of the beautiful things about Fall are all the fresh apples. You can't beat homemade applesauce, cider, or the creme de la creme: apple pie filling. I love being able to just dump all the ingredients for an apple pie right into the crust and in the oven it goes. This is probably the best canned apple pie filling that we've found. Originally we got this recipe from the Sweet Celebrations company--they are a candy and cake decorating supply co.

Canned Apple Pie Filling

Sauce for 7 qts.

Mix:

4 1/2 c. sugar

1 c. cornstarch or Clearjel

2 tsp. cinnamon

1/4 tsp. nutmeg

1 tsp. salt

Add:

10 c. cold water

Mix well. Heat and bring to a boil and cook until slightly thickened.

Add:

3 Tbs. lemon juice and mix thoroughly.

You need a little over 1# of apples per quart jar for the filling.

You can either peel, core, and cut apples and then add them to the sauce and fill the jars, or just add the apples to the jars, and then pour the sauce over top. I usually do the latter.

Hot water bath for 25 minutes.

Last year I canned 23 quarts, which was 3x the above recipe, and I used 25# of apples. **I have to say that I am not too terribly picky about which apples I use for this recipe. If I can get them free or really cheap somewhere those are the apples I am going to use.**

To make the pie:

Make a double pie crust. Lay down bottom layer. Dump in 1 qt. jar of pie filling, spreading evenly. Top with 2nd layer of crust. Bake at 400 degrees for about 45 minutes or until browned slightly.

The Ball Blue Book or Ball Complete Book to Home Preserving (pg. 170) also have an apple pie filling recipe. Either recipe you use are great tasting. I also quickly checked online at my local library and they have a couple copies of the second book listed. So if you think you might be interested, check with your local library to see if they too have copies. Or they may have copies of other canning books. The second book also has recipes for Blueberry, Peach, Raspberry, Rhubarb Strawberry and Cherry pie fillings. YUMMY!!