hi I'm Erin our Hunters from California were nice enough to bring me a whole
bunch of apples straight from the orchard and that means I have a full day
at work here in the kitchen making delicious apple pie filling
join me and keep watching to learn how I do it on our wyoming life
homemade pie filling is delicious and making a pie with canned pie filling
couldn't be simpler roll out a crust add the filling top it
with another crust and bake it until it's golden brown and bubbly however
making the pie filling is a little bit more work but the end result is
definitely worth the hassle it also tastes a million times better than
anything that you're gonna find in a can there's way less sugar and there's no
artificial colors or preservatives our California hunters brought me three
boxes of beautiful apples from an orchard near their home I made peach and
cherry pie filling before but never Apple when I found out that they were
bringing me apples I knew that apple pie filling was gonna
be on my to-do list before the hunters left the ranch as with all candy and
recipes it's important to make sure to use an approved and tested recipe to
make sure that your end result is safe to eat I found a recipe from baal
preserving that i will be following also before you get started make sure that
you have purchased some clear gel clear gel is a modified food starch that is
used as a thickening agent in pie filling for canning recipes cornstarch
and flour are no longer recommended when your home candy and pie filling before
we get started on the Apple part of the pie filling the quart jars are loaded
into the dishwasher the dishwasher will be done about the time the filling is
ready to be packed now we're on to the tedious job of prepping the fruit this
KitchenAid attachment will make the job a little less daunting it's easy to use
and it fits into the attachment hole on the top front part of the KitchenAid
stand mixer the peeling blade gets added and then it's time to start peeling it's
very simple to use jab an apple onto the spike turn on the
mixer and let the blade do the work appealing
once it's done pull off the Apple and repeat for the next two hours or until
you finally get through all the apples
my mom read it comes to help me so she gets put to work slicing the apples into
wedges once they are sliced they get placed into some lemon water to help
keep the apples from turning brown it's a quarter cup of lemon juice to four
cups of water after all the peeling and slicing is done the apples are measured
so that we can tell how much of the clear gel and other ingredients are
needed since there were four different kinds of apples they were also mixed
together so that the final product can contain all four varieties now some math
skills are needed we're going to be doing the recipe times five all the
ingredients listed in the recipe are multiplied by five to make sure that we
end up with enough of the gel to cover the apples we combine the sugar clear
gel cinnamon nutmeg and cloves into a large pot apple juice and cold water are
then added and then the heat gets turned on to medium and we wait for it to boil
it's making sure that you stir along the way while waiting for the boiling to
happen the lemon juice water can be drained off the apples here is the crazy
thing about clear gel once it starts to thicken it looks disgusting
it gets very thick and slimy looking and it thickens pretty slowly
it is absolutely necessary to scrape the bottom of the pot to keep it from
sticking will eventually all thicken into a very thick uniform gel and you'll
still be able to stir it but it does take some work once it boils lemon juice
is added to the pot and then we bring it back up to a boil now the apples can be
added and this is where things really start to get messy the apples are in two
separate containers and approximately the same amount is in each container we
try to add the same amount of clear gel to each container and then stir
everything together to incorporate the gel and the apples jars are pulled out
of the dishwasher and the filling can now be added it's important when canning
pie filling to remove all the air bubbles from the jars
a knife inserted into the jar and moved around the edge will help get rid of all
of them as well as packing the jar slowly and making sure that there's no
gaps as in any canning job the rims are wiped clean and a hot lid is placed on
top of the jar and then we follow up by a ring to hold the lid on the jars are
then placed into a water bath canner and they're canned per the instructions on
the recipe with adjustments made for our altitude once the timer is done the hot
jars are carefully removed from the canner and then they're placed on a
cooling rack and we leave them alone until the next day the day I made apple
pie filling we had dinner plans with the hunters at their hotel steaks were being
grilled and apple pie was on the menu for dessert
I saved some of the pie filling and I didn't can it but I just simply put it
into a pie crust and I baked it that night when we ate the pies everyone said
that it was delicious I asked him if they were just being nice and saying it
was good and they reassured me that they would always be brutally honest with me
and that yes it was very good apple pie pie filling is one of the more
daunting canning jobs that I take on every summer I have made so much jam
since I started going to farmers market in 2010 I honestly could probably make
it in my sleep pie filling though well it's only my first time attempting it
and it's actually not that hard it's just a few more steps than Jam and once
you get used to working with the clear gel it's actually pretty simple the
first time that I use clear gel I was a skeptic especially while it was in the
thickening process but once the fruit is added it's amazing
it makes the pie filling thick and luxurious plus the end result looks so
incredible in the jars once it's cooled I hope that you get a chance to make
some homemade pie filling one day or if you don't make it yourself
find someone at a farmers market that sells it you won't be disappointed
if this is your first time here make sure that you hit that subscribe button
we've got lots more coming up on the ranch including winter planting outside
in the high tunnel we'll see if vegetables can be grown all winter long
in Wyoming with no heat Plus Mike has lots of cow work to be
done in the coming weeks with calves being sold and the cows will need to be
checked for pregnancy it's going to be a busy month help us spread the word and
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Wyoming life