I just use the one from the website of the National Center for Home Food Preservation because I know it has been safety-tested and meets the current guidelines.

There are plenty of other pie filling recipes out there but they do not necessarily meet the current standards.

I noticed that the most recently updated version of the Ball Blue Book Guide to Preserving (the 2009 edition) doesn't even have a recipe for canning apple pie filling any longer, and suspect the reason why is that Clear Gel generally is not available on store shelves and the older recipes that used cornstarch or flour for a thickening agent are no longer considered safe.

In the latest Ball Blue Book, instead of having a recipe for canned apple pie filling, they have one for pie apples that are sliced, blanched, drained and frozen and then used to prepare a fresh pie filling when you're ready to bake a pie. They have a separate recipe for frozen apple pie filling that does use flour as a thickening agent because pie filling with flour is still considered safe if frozen, though not if canned.

If you want the recipe for plain frozen apple slices to use later in pie filling, or the recipe for frozen apple pie filling, let me know.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: Apple Pie Filling from NCHFP

Thanks Dawn. And, yes I would love to have the recipe for the frozen apple pie filling and for the plain frozen apple slices also. Can you freeze the apple pie filling in the ball jars or not? I did buy 12 jars to make apple pie filling, but will save them if I can't use them. I can always use them this coming summer in my canning expedition.

Here's the Frozen Apple Pie Filling from the 2009 Ball Blue Book Guide to Preserving:

APPLE PIE FILLING (Yield: 6 pints)

6 lbs. apples
2 cups sugar
1/4 cup flour
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
2 tablespoons lemon juice

Wash, peel, core and slice the apples. Treat to prevent darkening. Combine sugar, flour and spices. Rinse and drain apples; stir into sugar mixture. Let stand until juices begin to flow, about 30 minutes. Stir in lemon juice. Cook over medium heat until mixture begins to thicken. Ladle pie filling into plastic freezer jars or plastic freezer containers, leaving 1/2" headspace. Cool at room temperature, not to exceed two hours. Seal, label and freeze.

I don't use Ball canning jars for freezing stuff, although I have vague memories of my parents doing so maybe back in the 1960s or 1970s. I use plastic freezer jars and the square freezer boxes (both sold in same display as canning jars) and stock up on them at the end of every summer when canning stuff is on clearance. Since, I don't use glass jars for freezing, I'm not sure how well they work, but if I was going to try them, I'd use the plastic twist-on storage lids and not the metal lids and rings.

I looked in the Ball Blue Book and it said that Ball recommends only the tapered glass jars for freezer use. I don't really understand their use of the word 'tapered' but assume it must apply to wide-mounth glass jars unless they sell a tapered jar that I haven't seen.

Dawn

Dawn,
Actually I do remember the old "tapered" jars (maybe I am older than you). They are smaller at the bottom and wider at the top - they are all wide mouth jars and the ones I've seen are pint sized. Personally I would freeze something like pie fillings in a plastic freezer container or even in the freezer bags instead of the glass jars.
Back to your topic of eliminating the weathermen - I just vote we use the apple pie filling and make a pie to eat now while we wait for the warmer weather - and we won't share the pie with any weathermen! lol

Apple pie sounds good, and I have a big bag of apples on the kitchen counter....maybe tomorrow I'll bake a pie.

This year, for Christmas, we gave bags of home-canned goodies to my spouses's co-workers. Each bag had 4 jars--1 each of pickles, salsa, a sweet jelly and a spicy/sweet pepper jelly. The most popular sweet jelly appears to be Apple Pie Jam, and now I have to make some more because we gave away all of ours. Maybe tomorrow will be an apple day in the kitchen.

You know, if we bake a pie and eat it during every cold spell this winter, we're going to have to take up speed walking or jogging when the weather improves.

Maybe we should give the forecasters an apple pie to bribe them into sending better weather our way.

Quit talking about pie!! I'm working on taking off the rest of this baby weight AND the cold makes me want to bake. So knock it off! :-p

Diane

Dawn,
Thanks for the recipe. I think I'm going to make some tomorrow and freeze in freezer baggies bcz they don't take so much room in the freezer, or maybe I'll just use those freezer containers!! Also, I would love to have your apple pie jam and your salsa recipes. That apple pie jam sounds really good. I made pear jam this summer and it was really good. That was the first time I'd made jam so I was leery, but turned out good. On the salsa end, I've been looking for a good and easy salsa recipe. I am going to try to grow everything I need for salsa this year in my smaller garden by my house. I'm calling it my green garden bcz it will contain my onions, lettuce, cabbage and I'm not sure what else.
I was going to give canned apple pie filling to relatives for gifts, but didn't get around to it. With homeschooling my 3 kids, a new dog and a new job I just didn't have time.
And speaking of making pie right now, I've been craving a custard pie. I have accumulated quite a few eggs and have some extra milk I need to get rid of and that sounded like the perfect way to make use of them. But, I do agree, we'll have to start a rigorous exercise regime!! lol. You know, they say that you burn more calories when you're outside in the cold bcz your body is trying extra hard to keep you warm. We could all just go outside for 30-45 min at a time. As long as we don't turn into snowmen!! =)

Diane, Stop talking about pie? Well, OK, we can stop talking about it but I also could say just what my mom used to say....."And if everyone else went and jumped off the rooftop, I'd suppose you'd have to do it too." (A momily. A momism. You know what I mean, just substitute 'eating pie' for 'jumping off the rooftop". LOL)

And, exactly what baby weight are you referring to? I don't see any excess weight on you in the photos on your blog. You look perfectly normal and healthy, and NOT fat, girl. In fact, you look wonderful for a woman who's had a whole bunch of children....better than most women look after 1 child.

Melissa, "MY" apple pie jam is Linda Lou's Apple Pie Jam recipe from the Harvest Forum here at Garden Web. Just go there and use a forum search using the search box, and a million threads with the recipe will pop up. I especially love the apple pie jam on apple muffins.

For the best salsa recipe in the world, go back to the Harvest Forum and type in "Annie's Salsa". Every batch I've made has been darn near perfect and every person to whom I've given a jar has said the same thing..."that's the best salsa I've ever had". It is better than every other recipe I use. I think I made 7 or 8 kinds of salsa this year, and next year I may make only Annie's Salsa.

Tomorrow I'll try to sit still long enough to type in the other salsa recipes I use, but Annie's Salsa is all you'll ever need. : )

If you can't find Annie's Salsa or Linda Lou's Apple Pie Jam on the Harvest Forum, let me know and I'll go find them.

I never post on the Harvest Forum, but I scout it often for recipes. And, while you are there, search and find the oh-so-easy sour cream walnut recipe. I usually make pecan pralines as Christmas gifts, but next year I think that I'll make sour cream walnuts. If you make them, you have to wrap them up and give them away as gifts RIGHT AWAY or you'll find yourself eating all of them....just you and your family, sitting there munching away until the whole batch is gone....not that we did that here...but we wanted to!

Dawn

Dawn, I quit smoking in 2006 and proceeded to pack on 70-something pounds. Then I took it back off in 2008. Then I got pregnant with Josie and gained it all back. So now I'm halfway back down again and pie is not my friend. No, no, no!

I've never made canned salsa, only fresh (and, rarely, frozen), as canned just tastes like catsup to me. I've heard Annie's salsa recipe being raved about on GW for years now so maybe I'll have to give it a try this summer.

Diane

Diane,

I'm proud of you for quitting smoking. I've never smoked but understand that it is very hard to quit.

OK, pie is not your friend. Still, be kind to yourself and don't push yourself too hard to lose the weight too quickly because you' know that's not good for your body.

Annie's Salsa is everything they say it is, and I admit to being skeptical too before I tried it. I like that it is tested and approved as a safe recipe. We prefer fresh salsa too but in a really great summer when the tomatoes and peppers produce heavy crops, I have to preserve them somehow, so I make salsa.

Dawn