Apple Pie Filling - A Water Bath Food Preservation Recipe (2024)

FAQs

How long do you water bath apples when canning? ›

Turn the heat setting to its highest position, cover the canner with its lid and heat until the water boils vigorously. Reduce heat to maintain a gentle rolling boil. Set timer. Process pints or quarts for 25 minutes.

Can you substitute tapioca, flour, or cornstarch for Clear Jel®? No, when canning pie filling, there is no substitute for Clear Jel®. Other thickeners like cornstarch clump when canning and may interfere with heat being able to reach throughout the jar.

All-purpose flour is an easy solution, as you're sure to have it in your pantry. Since it's lower in starch, you'll use more of it than you would higher-starch thickeners. Quick-cooking tapioca makes filling bright and clear, but also gives it a stippled and somewhat sticky texture.

Pie fillings are an excellent way to preserve an abundance of fruit. The following fruit fillings are excellent and safe products. Each canned quart makes one 8-inch to 9-inch pie.

Apple Treatment Method: Citric Acid

You can buy citric acid online or in the canning equipment section of many supermarkets and big-box stores. Some food professionals recommend sprinkling citric acid on apples to prevent browning.

Foods with a pH greater than 4.6 require pressure canning. When a food item is comprised solely or mainly of ingredients with a pH of 4.6 or lower, we refer to those food items as an acid food. Acid foods include apples, peaches, strawberries,lemons and most other fruits.

Cornstarch. Cornstarch is a super-effective thickener that doesn't need much time to cook, although it does require high temperatures to activate. To avoid clumps, mix cornstarch with sugar before adding it to your filling.

Which one you use is a matter of personal preference. Cornstarch makes for a shiny, glossy filling. A little goes a long way because it has twice the gelling power of flour. Flour thickens nicely but leaves more of a matte finish.

All-purpose flour is an easy substitute for cornstarch; in fact you may see recipes for thickening pie fillings or soups with either. You'll need 2 tablespoons of flour for every 1 tablespoon of cornstarch in a recipe.

What is the ideal starch to use for thickening apple pie filling? ›

I chose to thicken the filling with a roux instead of cornstarch. This creates a thick syrupy consistency that won't become grossly congealed once cooled. This is what makes my apple pie filling so much better than the canned pie filling.

There should be a mild cinnamon flavor that doesn't overwhelm the apple-y nature of the premade apple pie filling. Canned apple pie filling is one of those incredible, affordable products that makes cooking up a homemade dessert so much quicker and easier.

Once you open the canned filling, it should stay fresh for about 2 weeks if stored in the fridge in a closed container. If you freeze pie filling, it can extend its life for 6-8 months. Tightly seal the filling in a freezer-rated container or bag, ensuring to leave some space for expansion during freezing.

Making a pie with your home-canned filling

The pie filling is already cooked, so your focus should be on the crust. For a single-crust pie, place dough in pie plate. Blind-bake a homemade or premade crust (filling first with pie weights) at 425 degrees for 15 minutes.

To use this method to prevent apples from turning brown, create a water bath for your apple slices with a ratio of 1 tablespoon of lemon juice to 1 cup of water. Soak the apple slices for 3 to 5 minutes, then drain and rinse them. This simple step should keep your apples from browning for several hours.

Boiling Water Canning

Hot Pack: Process Pints 20 minutes and Quarts 25 minutes. For processing above 1,000 feet altitude, see chart for recommended time. Raw Pack: Process Pints 25 minutes and Quarts 30 minutes.

Hot Water Bath Canning Apple Juice

The first method that we use to keep fresh apple juice for longer is hot water bath canning. I pour the apple juice into one-pint preserving jars, leaving a quarter inch of headspace, then process them in a water bath canner for 10 minutes. Simple.

However, lemon juice is not an optional addition. Lemon juice is added to help preserve the apples' natural colour and to assure the acidity of the finished product, since different varieties and harvesting conditions can produce apples of lower acidity.” Bernardin Complete Book of Home Preserving.