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.
