Pie in a Jar

Thanks to our friend Jacqueline, I get beautiful, home-made pie pastry shells all nicely rolled out & cut to pie-plate shape, frozen and ready to use. It's much tastier than the store-bought variety, and as I hate rolling out pastry, it is particularly nice. So to our delight, we discovered recipes for preserved pie filling, now forever forward known as pie in a jar, or more colloquially, "Jar Pie", after Homer Simpson ("mmmm...floor pie"). We used two fruits that we had lots of: apples and blue evergreen huckleberries (not the same as blueberries, but very similar, just a bit more tart). Both taste fabulous, and work just great in between pie shells, on ice cream or yoghurt, or just with a spoon out of the jar!

If you are going to use the filling in a pie, a quart jar is good enough for 8", but 9" needs about a quart & a pint. Lay the bottom layer of pastry in your pie plate, open the jar & empty contents onto the pastry, then lay the top layer. Seal with a little lemon juice along the edges of the two shells & press edges together, fluting the edges as you go around. Baste the top with lemon juice & dust top with sugar. Poke holes in the top shell to vent steam, and bake at 400F for 20 minutes, then reduce heat to 325F and bake for another 20-30 minutes or until golden brown.

The original recipes call for ClearJel, but I couldn't find that here in my local dry goods store. Ask for cerioca or carioca corn starch - I assume that ClearGel is the brand name. You can't use regular corn starch, apparently other corn starch breaks down during the processing of the pie filling, resulting in a runny sauce. The cerioca corn starch that we bought worked like a charm, and the gelling was perfect in the jar even after processing.

These recipes are taken directly from the National Center for Food Preservation's website. You can reduce the amount of sugar in the recipes if they are too much. They recommend that you make a quart, test it in a pie, and adjust the sugar content to suit your taste.

Apple Pie Filling

Quality: Use firm, crisp apples. Stayman, Golden Delicious, Rome, and other varieties of similar quality are suitable. If apples lack tartness, use an additional 1/4 cup of lemon juice for each 6 quarts of slices.

Yield: 1 quart or 7 quarts

Procedure: See Table 1 for suggested quantities. Wash, peel, and core apples. Prepare slices 1/2-inch wide and place in water containing ascorbic acid to prevent browning.

For fresh fruit, place 6 cups at a time in 1 gallon of 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 sugar, Clear Jel®, and cinnamon in a large kettle with water and apple juice. If desired, food coloring and nutmeg may be added. Stir and cook on medium high heat until mixture thickens and begins to bubble. Add lemon juice and boil 1 minute, stirring constantly. Fold in drained apple slices immediately and fill jars with mixture without delay, leaving 1 inch headspace. Adjust lids and process immediately according to the recommendations in Table 2.

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
Apple juice	1 1/4 cup	7 1/2 cups
Bottled lemon juice	2 tbsp	3/4 cup
Nutmeg (optional)	1/8 tsp	1 tsp

Table 2. Recommended process time for Apple Pie Filling in a boiling-water canner.
		Process Time at Altitudes of
Style of Pack	Jar Size	0 - 1,000 ft	1,001 - 3,000 ft	3,001 - 6,000 ft	Above 6,000 ft
Hot	Pints or Quarts	25 min	30	35	40

Huckleberry Pie Filling

Quality: Select fresh, ripe, and firm huckleberries. Unsweetened frozen huckleberries may be used. If sugar has been added, rinse it off while fruit is still frozen.

Yield: 1 quart or 7 quarts

Procedure: See Table 3 for suggested quantities. Wash and drain fresh huckleberries.

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 sugar and Clear Jel® in a large kettle. Stir. Add apple juice. Cook on medium high heat until mixture thickens and begins to bubble. Add lemon juice and boil 1 minute, stirring constantly. Fold in drained berries immediately and fill jars with mixture without delay, leaving 1 inch headspace. Adjust lids and process immediately according to the recommendations in Table 4.

Table 3. Huckleberry Pie Filling.
	Quantities of Ingredients Needed For
	1 Quart	7 Quarts
Fresh or thawed huckleberries	3-1/2 cups	6 quarts
Granulated sugar	3/4 cup + 2 tbsp	6 cups
Clear Jel®	1/4 cup + 1 tbsp	2-1/4 cup
Apple juice	1 cup	7 cups
Bottled Lemon Juice	3-1/2 teaspoons	1/2 cup

Table 4. Recommended process time for Huckleberry Pie Filling in boiling-water canner
		Process Time at Altitudes of
Style of Pack	Jar Size	0 - 1,000 ft	1,001 - 3,000 ft	3,001 - 6,000 ft	Above 6,000 ft
Hot	Pints or Quarts	30 min	35	40	45