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Canned Apple Pie Filling

I'm going to experiment with canned apple pie filling and take you along with me. I have written this post over the span of a few days so it already includes some results and those are written in blue.

The first recipe I tried was this:
4 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup flour
2 tsps cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
2 tsp salt
3 Tbsp of lemon juice.

Mix and boil above ingredients (except lemon juice) until thick and bubbly. Then add lemon juice.
Fill jars with sliced apples. Pour hot syrup over and leave 1/2 inch of headspace.
Process in water bath for 20 min.

I have been using the salt water method for keeping my apples from browning as I chop them but I felt for this recipe it contributed too much salt so I rinsed them before adding them to the syrup.
I had a lot of syrup ooze out after processing. I'm not sure why. Also, the apples float. I don't like that. I'm wondering if it is because the apples were not the same temperature as the syrup. One jar did not seal at all (I had issues with maybe three of them so I turned them upside down to heat up the lid again and turned them right side up after about 10 min. I'm sure that this is probably NOT recommended by the canning authorities :)

Here's how it turned out:

You can see from the jar on the left that I had a lot of filling escape. The apples did end up pretty soft but that might be because I am using some Golden Delicious apples that are not too firm to begin with. The taste, however, was very good. It really was exactly like apple pie filling that had baked inside a crust. But, because of the softness I don't think I'd want to actually bake an apple pie with it. I'm also worried, because of some other things I've read, that after baking it the flour thickener might break down and the pie could end up runny.

I found this one Sunday night on cooks.com:

4 c. apples
3/4 - 1 c. sugar
1/4 c. water

Mix and let stand overnight. Process 10 minutes in cold water bath.To make pie: Mix 1 quart of filling with 1 teaspoon cinnamon and 1 tablespoon cornstarch. Bake in prepared crust.

I think I will try it? Maybe.  Well, maybe just one jar.
I also want to try just canning apples in apple juice.
Or maybe I will do my regular pie recipe, pack it in jars and pour boiling apple juice over.

I just found this one, too. It sounds more like just a way to can apples.

CANNED APPLE PIE FILLING
Slice and peel 6 to 8 quarts Jonathan apples (pack in jars quite tight).In a kettle put: 1/4 tsp. nutmeg 10 c. water 4 1/2 c. sugar 2 tsp. cinnamon 1 tsp. salt Cook until boiling. Add 3 tablespoons lemon juice. Pour over apples in bottles and seal. Process for 20 minutes. To Use: use 1 quart per pie. Bake at 400 degrees for 50 minutes.

Here's a chart from National Center For Home Food Preservation:

Table 1. Apple Pie Filling.
	Quantities of Ingredients Needed For
	1 Quart	7 Quarts
Blanched, sliced fresh apples	3-1/2 cups	6 quarts
Granulated sugar	3/4 cup + 2 tbsp	5-1/2 cups
Clear Jel®	1/4 cup	1-1/2 cup
Cinnamon	1/2 tsp	1 tbsp
Cold Water	1/2 cup	2-1/2 cups
Apple juice	3/4 cup	5 cups
Bottled lemon juice	2 tbsp	3/4 cup
Nutmeg (optional)	1/8 tsp	1 tsp
Yellow food coloring (optional)	1 drop	7 drops

The following recipe is from the Ball site:

You will need:

12 cups sliced peeled cored apples, treated to prevent browning* and drained (about 12 medium)
Water
2-3/4 cups granulated sugar
3/4 cup ClearJel® (cooking starch used for preserving)
1-1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
2-1/2 cups unsweetened apple juice
1-1/4 cups cold water
1/2 cup lemon juice
7 (16 oz) pint glass preserving jars with lids and bands

Directions:

1.) PREPARE boiling water canner. Heat jars and lids in simmering water until ready for use. Do not boil. Set bands aside.
2.) BLANCH apple slices, working with 6 cups at a time, in a large pot of boiling water for 1 minute. Remove with a slotted spoon and keep warm in a covered bowl.
3.) COMBINE sugar, ClearJel®, cinnamon and nutmeg in a large stainless steel saucepan. Stir in apple juice and cold water. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring constantly, and cook until mixture thickens and begins to bubble. Add lemon juice, return to a boil and boil for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Drain apple slices and immediately fold into hot mixture. Before processing, heat, stirring, until apples are heated through.
4.) LADLE hot pie filling into hot jars leaving 1 inch headspace. Remove air bubbles. Wipe rim. Center lid on jar. Apply band until fit is fingertip tight.

5.) PROCESS jars in a boiling water canner for 25 minutes, adjusting for altitude. Remove jars and cool. Check lids for seal after 24 hours. Lid should not flex up and down when center is pressed. 

I did do a couple jars with this recipe on Nov. 5th. I did omit the ClearJel and reasoned that I will just mix the apples with the amount of flour I determine before baking them in a pie. I will let you know when I taste them how it turned out.

This is excellent info I found about ClearJel at Growing a Greener World:  

The recipe below calls for a special ingredient called Clear Jel A, that can really take this pie filling to the next level. Clear Jel (not to be confused with Sure Gel) is a powdered modified food starch that is used in canning as a thickener. It can be difficult to find sometimes, but well worth the effort of tracking it down. (I order mine from KitchenKrafts). Canners use Clear Jel instead of traditional thickeners like cornstarch, tapioca or arrowroot because during the canning process, those traditional thickeners either gum up or break down. Using traditional thickeners before proccessing, will result in a runny pie at baking time. So Clear Jel is used instead.  However, if you can’t find Clear Jel A, you can still make this recipe. Just don’t use any thickener at all. Then, when you actually made the pie from the jar, add your traditional thickener at that time. You may get some lumps, but it is better than a runny pie.

For just canning apples I will try this recipe from the Pick Your Own site:

19 lbs of apples needed for 7 quarts.
Peel, core and slice to 1/4 to 1/2".
Blanch apple slices in boiling apple juice, light syrup or water for 5 min. Keep liquid.
Pack hot apples and pour liquid over to 1/2" headspace. Process for 25 min (my altitude is 1200 feet).

I tried this one yesterday as well. I only processed them for one minute as they turned sloppy soft in that amount of time and I didn't want to cook them further. The syrup I used was 1 cup of sugar to 10 cups of water. I didn't do them in apple juice because I thought it would be too sweet.

The last method I tried was to freeze some of my sliced apples in a light syrup (10 cups of water to 1 cup sugar). I have a feeling that these will turn out the best as far as being used for baking pies later. As long as my power doesn't go out and I lose them!

I will post more results as I taste them.

Lemon Meringue from Scratch

Here's a collection of pictures of me making lemon meringue pie from scratch...

Ingredients and recipe ready to go.

After shaping the crust I've poked holes before baking it.

 The crust should be lined with aluminum foil to help prevent it from shrinking. Bake it at 450 for 8 min. (NOTE: I made a mistake here in a subsequent pie by not rolling out my crust enough to form a wide enough lip (where I have the fluted edge). Even after lining it with foil it shrank considerably. So make sure the crust is sized generously. Also, it was not done in 8 min. I removed the foil and cooked it for a few extra minutes and just kept an eye on it until it was browned nicely.)

Here it is ready for the lemon filling.

The beginning of the filling.

Filling cooked and ready to go.

The meringue recipe I used was from Better Homes and Gardens. I doubled it:
6 egg whites at room temp.
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup sugar.

Put egg whites in mixing bowl and add cream of tartar and vanilla. Mix on medium slow speed until frothy. Then whip on medium until soft peaks form. Add sugar 1 Tbsp at a time. Whip at high speed until stiff peaks form. Bake at 350 for 15 min.

Stiff peaks.

Getting fancy with the spikes.

Baked and now just has to be chilled.

Yes, it is fabulous and worth making from scratch.

Apple Pie Recipe

I use a general guideline when I make apple pie. I never write down what I end up doing or the results and I do have to admit always feeling a little uncomfortable guessing every time. Now I have to experiment so I can write down which way we all like it best. So this time I am did 10 apples (Golden Delicious) and 2 cups of previously frozen rhubarb. I put in 1 cup + 2 tablespoons white sugar, 1/4 cup flour, 1 well rounded tsp cinnamon, and a pinch of nutmeg. I cooked the filling on the stove until it was heated through and beginning to thicken. Then I poured it into the pie shell and topped it with approximately one tablespoon of butter cut into small chunks. I formed the top crust on and then dribbled it with milk and sprinkled it with white sugar. I baked it at 350 for 45 min. Follow up: I didn't get to taste this myself but hubby really liked it. He said it wasn't too tart.

For further experimenting, I made a second pie. This one was 12 Goldens, 1 cup sugar, 1/4 cup flour, 1 rounded teaspoon of cinnamon and 2 teaspoons of lemon juice.  I precooked the filling until the flour thickened and everything was hot and bubbly and then I cooked it for a few more minutes for good measure. I topped the filling with a approximately a tablespoon of butter chunks and then the top crust. I dribbled that with a tablespoon of milk and a tablespoon of white sugar. This pie also was baked at 350 for 45 min. Basically you need to bake it until the apples are tender enough to your liking. I poke it with a steak knife through the "x" I cut in the crust. Follow up: Hubby tasted this one too and said there were a few apple pieces that could have been cooked longer. I have since made it again. I cooked the apples on the stove for 20 min (timed from as soon as I turned the burner on to medium). I again baked it at 350 for 45 min. I am hoping the longer time on the stove will solve the crunchy apple problem.
Update: This pie was perfect. Yay :) Now I have a recipe I can follow and no more guessing.

This time making the pies I chopped up the apples in a way I really liked. I use my hand crank apple-peeler-slicer-corer with the corer loosened and moved out of the way so the apples only get peeled and not sliced and cored. (I think it slices the apples too thinly.) Once my apple was peeled I used a hand held corer to core them. Then I cut the two ends off and then cut the apple in half and used the corer to gouge out any seeds or seed husks out. Then I sliced them about a 1/4" thick from top to bottom and then one more cut crosswise finished my chopping. To keep the apples from turning brown I used this suggestion I found on Pinterest. Fill a large bowl with cold water. For every 4-6 cups of water add 1 tsp of salt. Just plop your apples in this mixture as you cut them. The salt water is mild enough that it doesn't change the flavor of your apples the way lemon juice does.

Better Pie

This involves precooking the fillings. What?! Precooking the filling? Isn't that a lot of unnecessary extra work? It might be but I like to make pies with LOTS of fruit filling and I have grown dissatisfied with my overcooked crust. So, I tried cooking the filling a little first. I just got everything heated through and the flour mixture thickening. Then I ladled it into the pie dish (with the bottom crust already formed in it). The baking time is much shorter than what I would normally do. (It used to be up to 1 3/4 hours for my apple pies with 12 apples.) Well, the results were so phenomenal that I suggested for my mom to try it. Now, my mom is the apple pie matriarch and she's not prone to messing with a good thing. She did try it, however, and loved it. She said she didn't want to be too stuck in her ways and mentioned something about age but she's not possibly old enough for that. Anyhow, this gives me the confidence to recommend this new trick to all of you. Trust me, your crust will be so much better for it!

"Pumpkin" Pie

This recipe is one I've adapted from a couple of different recipes. My husband loves pumpkin pie that uses cooked pumpkin not the canned variety. I love getting away with lower calorie ingredients that don't sacrifice flavor. Here's my favorite "pumpkin" pie recipe. You can use canned pumpkin if you insist but I use whatever flavorful winter squash I can get my hands on. I usually roast squash in my oven to cook it. This particular pie was made with butternut squash. It was cut into fairly even chunks drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with kosher salt. I baked it at 425 for 20-25 min until it was fork tender and browned on some of the edges. It is very easy to scrape out of the skins and eat as a side dish for dinner or let it cool and use it in this recipe.

"Pumpkin" Pie Recipe
1 3/4 cups cooked squash
3/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp nutmeg
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups milk


I find the easiest way to combine these ingredients is in my blender. The squash must be pureed anyway because home-cooked squash can be somewhat chunky and that is not desirable in this pie!
Bake 15 min @ 450. Reduce heat to 300. Bake until knife inserted near center comes out clean. This usually takes around an hour for me but check at 45 min. 

I couldn't remember what size pie plate this recipe fits so I did it in my spring form pan.

After I poured the filling in I folded down the crust to give some room for the pie to swell a little as it does but not be too tall. Now after making it again I will make a note that it fits a normal 9" pie plate.

Here it is unformed. I do like the tart-like look of it.

A word to the wise, for those who tend to get heavy-handed with the spices, I rounded up all of them and the result (my husband gently pointed out) was a little too flavorful. It was good after the first couple bites but after eating a whole slice it was just too much. I will follow the recipe more exactly next time! The method is a winner, though, I have made this recipe many times and the result always has a good "set up" texture and is smooth and velvety in your mouth. 

Crust

For some time now I have been making my crust wrong! I discovered my error when I was making chicken pot pie for my sister who had just had a baby. I had cut the recipe in half to just make enough crust for one pie and was accidentally using a quarter of the amount of Crisco. I don't know how I came up with the fraction that I did but no wonder I haven't been satisfied with my crust!

If you were looking forward to a recipe I hate to disappoint but I'm just not sure if I want to give it away. I will tell you the components, though, just not the measurements. How's that? I use a recipe given to me by my mother and it has:

flour, baking powder, salt, sugar, Crisco, egg, lemon juice, ice water.

This way, if you want, you can probably find a comparable recipe.

I will say also that I only mix with a fork after adding the liquid. Just until the dough pulls together and there isn't a dry pile of flower in the bottom of the bowl. Then I try to handle it as little as possible. I only roll it out once and if it it's uneven I just patch it or if it tears I just squeeze the tear back together. I flour often and make sure it doesn't stick to the counter. If it starts sticking I lift it and dust more flour underneath.