Canned Apple Pie Filling

I made this apple pie filling this summer with my canning spree! It was super fun to make.  I do have an apple, peeler, corer which made prepping the apples much easier. It was about $25 ish and  suction cups to the counter.  This recipe made 7 quarts for the apples I used. Depending on size of apples - its give or take. 1 quart is the filling for 1 pie. I cheated on the Pie crust, I used Philsbury refrigerated dough, but it did come out nice and flaky.  I backed it at 425 degrees for 35 mins. Perfect! (In a glass baking pie dish)

12 c sliced peeled cored apples treated to prevent browning drained
2 3/4 c granulated sugar
3/4 c Clearjel
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1 1/4 c cold water
2 1/2 c unsweetened apple juice
1/2 c  lemon juice

Prep your jars, lids, canner etc.  You want it all ready before you start.
In a large pot of boiling water, blanch apple slices for 1 min, remove with a slotted spoon.

In a large stainless steel sauce pan combine sugar, clearjel, cinnamon, nutmeg, water and apple juice. 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 min, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Drain apple slices and immediately fold into hot mixture.  Before processing, heat and stir until apples are heated through.

Ladle hot pie filling into hot jars leaving 1 inch headspace. Remove air bubbles and adjust headspace, if necessary by adding hot filling.  Wipe rim. Center lid on jar. Screw band down until resistance is met and then increase to finger tight.

Place jars in canner, ensuring they are completely covered with water. Bring to a boil and process for 25 minutes. Remove canner lid. Wait 5 mins and then remove jars, cool over night. unscrew the bands and gently wipe any food bits off jars and store with bands off (if it sealed properly this wont be a problem) If you store with bands on, they tend to rust.

This was the only picture I could find of the apple pie filling after being canned.  Its the row on the bottom right with chunky apple slices. The rest of the jars on the bottom are two different batches of Apple sauce. You can see the darker batch - it has more Cinnamon then the other batch. We liked the extra Cinnamon better so will do that next year. and see that one tiny jar? its apple sauce too - just didn't have enough to fill a quart jar so I put it in a pint jar. DO NOT can jars that are not full to the recommended head space. This will cause the seal to fail easier, then if it is filled correctly. With apple sauces its easy ... just put any left overs in the fridge and eat right away, there is NOTHING like fresh homemade applesauce. YUMM! great with chicken and pork too!

The top row you can see being stored in the boxes it came from the store in ... the Pints are all spaghetti sauce, and then the half pints on top are in front Mint jelly with out the green dye, I am trying to take out every unnecessary ingredient's in my family's food.  behind the plain colored Mint Jelly is Garlic Jelly .. heeheehee haven't cracked any of those open yet! LOL ....