If you love warm apple pie but don’t always have the time (or energy) to peel apples, cook filling, and bake from scratch, canning your own apple pie filling is a game-changer. With a few jars on the shelf, you can go from “I feel like dessert” to a bubbling, fragrant pie in the oven in just a few minutes—using either homemade or store-bought dough.
This guide shows you how to safely can apple pie filling at home, why the method matters, and how to turn each jar into fast, delicious desserts whenever you want.
Why Can Apple Pie Filling?
1. Instant dessert on busy days
Instead of starting from zero, you just grab a jar, open some dough (even bought dough works), fill, bake, and done. The slow work—peeling, slicing, cooking the apples—has already been done once.
2. Perfect apple texture every time
Canned pie filling uses firm apples and a special canning-safe thickener so the slices stay plump and tender, not mushy. You get a consistent, bakery-style filling each time.
3. Preserve apple season
When apples are cheap and at their best, you can put up enough jars to enjoy homemade apple desserts all year.
4. Less waste, more flavor
Those apples that are a bit too soft or spotty for eating fresh (but still sound once trimmed) are perfect to turn into filling instead of throwing away.
The Most Important Safety Rule: Use the Right Thickener
For pie filling that’s going to be canned in jars, you must use a canning-approved modified starch such as Clear Jel® (cook type), not regular flour or cornstarch.
Clear Jel stays stable through multiple rounds of heating and cooling, which means it will thicken the filling properly and still be safe for water-bath canning.
Regular starches (like flour, arrowroot, or ordinary cornstarch) can make the mixture too dense or unevenly heated, which can lead to unsafe canning.
Choosing the Best Apples
For canned pie filling, you want apples that stay firm when cooked, with enough acidity to balance the sugar. Good types include:
- Honeycrisp
- Golden Delicious
- Granny Smith
- Braeburn
- Jonagold
Avoid apples labeled as “great for applesauce” only, as they break down quickly and give you a mushy filling rather than nice slices.
Basic Apple Pie Filling Formula (Per Quart Jar)
This is a per-quart guide so you can scale the recipe up or down, based on the number of jars you want. It follows proportions similar to tested home-canning recipes for safety.
Per 1 quart of pie filling (about enough for part of one pie):
- 3½ cups blanched, sliced apples
- ¾ cup sugar (you can slightly reduce or increase to taste)
- ¼ cup Clear Jel® (cook type)
- ½ cup water
- ¾ cup apple juice
- 2 tablespoons bottled lemon juice (not fresh – for consistent acidity)
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon (optional)
- Pinch of nutmeg (optional)
To fill a standard 9-inch pie generously, you’ll usually need around 2 quarts of filling.
💡 Tip: It’s often easiest to make a big batch for 7 quarts at once (a common canner load). Just multiply everything by 7.
Equipment You’ll Need
- Water-bath canner (or a deep pot with a rack and lid)
- Quart or pint canning jars with two-piece lids
- Large stockpot
- Large bowl for apples
- Jar lifter, ladle, bubble remover or spatula, and canning funnel
