During the first few days Cheryl spent so much time peeling and pitting peaches that her fingers were turning yellow. She was going back and forth about the pie filling being made but I stood firm that I wanted her to have jars that gave her the pleasure in knowing that all the work was worth it. Having 7 incredible jars of amazing flavored peach pie filling was going to happen.
The pie filling recipes are very simple but you must be prepared as the recipe will go very fast once the sugar, Clear Jel, and water become thick. I have my bottled lemon juice pre-measured in a cup, my peaches measured and in a bowl, and my spices measured ready to pour into the pot.
Cheryl loves nutmeg so I add that instead of the cinnamon and added and additional 1/8 tsp of pumpkin pie spice (which has cinnamon in it) to give it some additional flavor. The flavor going into the jars was perfect. The gel was very smooth and the peaches looked great after the water bath. Cheryl was pleasantly surprise when she saw the jars on the counter. I left all of them for her even after she kept bugging me about taking a jar or two.
Below is the recipe for making the pie filling, but the measurements are for making just 1 quart or making 7 quarts. If you want to make more than 1 quart you will just double the recipe for 2 and triple for three etc. I used half brown and half white sugar for the recipe. I also posted Joanne's jars because they are just beautiful! Thanks Joanne for letting me share! Enjoy!
1 Quart 7 Quarts
Sliced fresh peaches 3-1/2 cups 6 quarts
Granulated sugar 1 cup 7 cups
Clear Jel® 1/4 cup + 1 tbsp 2 cups + 3 tbsp
Cold water 3/4 cup 5-1/4 cups
Cinnamon (optional) 1/8 tsp 1 tsp
Almond extract (optional) 1/8 tsp 1 tsp
Bottled lemon juice 1/4 cup 1-3/4 cups
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| Joanne's Beautiful Jars of Peach Pie filling! |
Yield: 1 quart or 7 quarts.
Procedure: Peel peaches. To loosen skins, submerge peaches in boiling water for approximately 30-60 seconds, and then place in cold water for 20 seconds. Slip off skins and prepare slices 1/2-inch thick. Place slices in water containing 1/2 tsp of ascorbic acid crystals or six 500-milligram vitamin C tablets in 1 gallon of water to prevent browning. For fresh fruit, place 6 cups at a time in 1 gallon boiling water. Boil each batch 1 minute after the water returns to a boil. Drain but keep heated fruit in a covered bowl or pot.
Combine water, sugar, Clear Jel®, and, if desired, cinnamon and/or almond extract in a large kettle. Stir and cook over medium high heat until mixture thickens and begins to bubble. Add lemon juice and boil sauce 1 minute more, stirring constantly. Fold in drained peach slices and continue to heat mixture for 3 minutes. Fill hot jars without delay, leaving 1-inch headspace. Remove air bubbles and adjust headspace if needed. Wipe rims of jars with a dampened clean paper towel. Adjust lids and process immediately. Process in a water bath canner for 20 minutes.
Recipe from USDA Home canning

14 comments:
You can also add a vanilla bean to the mix. Just scrape out the innards and toss the rest of the bean into the mix. Fish it out as you fill the jars. I made peach-vanilla pie filling last year and everyone who tried it practically licked their plates clean.
Awesome Idea... thanks Larissa!
I was just contemplating peach pie filling today! Thanks for the recipe
I'm just getting ready to make peach pie filling and came to do a search for the recipe. Happy to find it right here on the first page! Can't wait to get this made!! YUM!!!
I have a quick question. I made peach pie filling about 8 months ago. I used clear gel and followed the recipe exactly...it was very similar to yours. Anyway, I just looked at them and they had congealed into a solid brick inside my jars sitting in a couple of tablespoons of liquid. Do you have any idea what went wrong?
Amber can you send me a picture of your jar? Send to my email at sbcanning.com@gmail.com
Canning Homemade if you have an answer for Amber will you share it here. Thank you!
Carrie I would love to see a picture of the jar but I haven't received one.
I put up a lot of canned pie filling from the fruits we grow. We harvest anywhere from 50-70 gallons of blackberries & I put up over 2/3 of that in a lovely filling to use in pies & cobblers. We also grow our own strawberries, blueberries, red and black raspberries, currants, grapes, pears, apples, peaches, and sour cherries so I have on hand any number of combinations of fruit for jams, jellies, fillings, sauces, conserves, marmalade, and butters. Today however I'm making a lovely batch of rhubarb juice concentrate to be used whenever we need a cool refreshing drink mixed with Prosecco, soda water, vodka or gin. Love the pink color & the taste is terrific. Oh the reason I'm leaving a comment-almost forgot-I use an Amish product called Thermofil-it's superior in it's application for pie fillings, Totally translucent, no lumps, terrifically easy to work with.And the VERY BEST PART! It's much less expensive then Clear Jel-) Bon appetit' to all you canners-)
I did send a pic - I'm the church girl, remember? Anyway, I contacted the Clear Jel manufacturer and they claim it was due to not using enough liquid to clear jel. Bogus...I followed a popular recipe and was super careful. Hopefully, my cherry pie filling will turn out better. Plantfreek - I am so jealous! SO many wonderful treasures!
Ah....Amber, good to know. I was just curious because I am new to all this canning stuff and I didn't want to make a mistake on my first try. More knowledge is always helpful. Thanks for following up. Appreciate it!
I am a newbie to canning though familiar with instant and regular ClearJel. After many messy failures (freezer jam or pie filling) my best tip is to mix the sugar and clearajel extremely well and stir like crazy when incorporating it into the liquid. Love this product, but, then again, I have little to compare it to except corn starch, flour, or ugh tapioca.
This was my first attempt at "real" canned pie filling. I found that my slightly underripe peaches turned mushy when combined with the clearjel/H2O/sugar mix and heated for another 3 min. For the second batch I cut the cook time to 1.5 min but used the correct time in the water bath. Thanks for such detailed directions newbies need as well as the great comments which provide perspectives adding to my confidence.
Amber, I have canned since I was on my mothers knee and that sometimes happens to us too... My mom says the weather causes it! LOL But(if you can get past the look of the jar on the shelf), just spoon it out into a bowl, mix it well and pour into the pie shell. Bake as usual and it should be fine.
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