Delicious Apple Pie Filling Recipe: Quick and Easy!

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Cooking With Anadi

12K subscribers · warm spiced apples with caramel, under buttery pastry

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What’s your favorite way to enjoy apples?

I don’t eat apples that often, but I think Apple Pie Filling has become my favorite apple recipe! Back when I was working at a restaurant, I’d help make the pies, but the filling came in prepared. I’ve always wondered what it would take to make my own pie filling… Apple pie is my grandpa’s favorite dessert. While he’s from India, he’s a true North American in that sense!

If you want the perfect pie filling that won’t be soggy and is easy to make, then this is the recipe for you! You can use this filling not only in apple pies, but in so many other treats! Check out plenty of ideas later on in this post, and whichever ones will allow you to put your heart on a plate, be sure to try those recipes out as part of your Live to Cook one-month challenge! Your cooking journey can begin for free today by signing up to my email newsletter, plus all of my latest recipes will be delivered straight to your inbox!

If you want to follow along with all the steps in making the perfect filling for apple pie, then be sure to watch the video at the bottom of this post! If you’re not already, I would appreciate it if you would please subscribe to my YouTube channel! Don’t forget to press the bell button to be notified when all of my video recipes are live! Let’s get cooking!

Why You Need to Make This Simple Apple Pie Filling Recipe!

• Easy: It’s really easy to make this recipe! To be honest with you, most of the work involved in this filling involves peeling and chopping the apples! When you’re actually making the filling, it’s quite simple and doesn’t require too much hands-on work.
• Firm and TASTY apples: Have you experienced mushy pie filling? That’s going to ruin your pie! This recipe will show how to get a soft filling but to preserve some crunchiness of the apples. This filling is not overly sweet but still gives you all of the amazing fall flavors!
• Cheap: Making your own filling will cost much less than buying filling from a can! Of course, it’ll also be much more delicious.
• Versatile recipe: You don’t have to use this filling just in apple pie! Check out plenty of serving ideas later on in this post!
• Good way to use up your apples: If you want to get creative in the kitchen but don’t know where to start, I describe in my Make Cooking Fun post that the starting point should be based on ingredients that you already have on hand. Did you go apple picking and have a ton of them? Maybe you felt like buying the big bag of apples that was on sale at the grocery store this week, but now you’re stuck in a predicament where you don’t know how you’ll use them up without them spoiling! This is the best way to use your apples! I’m making a small batch of filling for this recipe, but you can make a big batch with more apples!

Tools Needed

• Spatula: To stir the mixture and to help pour for storage.
• Peeler: You’ll want to peel the skin off the apples. Any type of peeler will work here.
• Chef’s knife: To cut the apples. A sharp knife is key to easily cut your apples.
• Cutting board: Place your apples here to cut them.
• Measuring cups: Useful for measuring the butter and the sugar.
• Measuring spoons: To measure the cornstarch.
• Saucepan: A good saucepan to cook the pie filling evenly.

Ingredients

Check out the FULL PRINTABLE RECIPE CARD at the bottom of this post to save the recipe for later and for all individual ingredient quantities. You can also scale the recipe based on how large of a batch of apple filling so that you’ve got the right amount of apples and everything else! Calculating ratios won’t be required here!

For the Apple Pie Spice

• Cinnamon
• Ginger
• Nutmeg
• Cardamom

For the Filling

• Apples: I used Granny Smith and Honeycrisp apples. Use any two firm apples of your choice.
• Butter: You need butter to cook down the apples.
• White sugar: Just the regular sugar will do the job here.
• Apple pie spice: As described above. If you really don’t want to make it, you can simply substitute with cinnamon and brown sugar. You can get more details about the apple pie spice here!
• Water: Added to the apple mixture.
• Corn starch: To thicken the sauce at the end.

How to Make Apple Pie Filling with Fresh Apples

For the Apple Pie Spice

To make this apple pie spice recipe, all you need to do is mix all the spices together in a plate or shake the ingredients together in an airtight jar.

For the Filling

Peel, core and dice the apples.

Heat a saucepan on medium heat and add butter. Once the butter is melted, add the apples, sugar and apple spice.

Mix well to combine. Add 1/4 Cup of water, mix and put the lid on the saucepan.

Lower the heat to low and cook with the lid on until the apples have softened. Once ready, the apples should be easy to cut with a spoon, yet have the slightest bite to maintain the correct texture. Add a splash of water to the cornstarch, mix to create a slurry and add to the mixture.

Once the mixture thickens up, remove the heat and allow for it to cool down before preparing the apple pie.

Tips for the Perfect Apple Filling for Apple Pie

• Pick your favorite types of apples to make this pie filling your own while ensuring that they are the variety that are crisp so that they won’t turn mushy after cooking.
• Cut the apple cubes evenly to ensure that they cook evenly and so that you have a consistent texture throughout the filling.
• The final texture of the filling needs to have apples that still hold their shape but are soft with the slightest amount of bite. This can really be changed based on your preference, so take your time, taste, and adjust the cooking time as required.
• Allow the filling to completely cool down before adding it into a pie otherwise the crust will melt.

How to Serve

• Apple pie: Obviously the main reason why you would make this!
• French toast: This will make them even sweeter and super special for sure! Try adding this apple filling to your Overnight French Toast Casserole or your Perfect French Toast for Two.
• Pancakes and crepes: A unique topping pancakes, such as Buttermilk Pancakes, or try filling it in your Simple Crepes.
• Desserts: A finishing touch to apple crumbles, cheesecake bars, apple turnovers with puff pastry, dump cakes, or even a Dessert Pizza!
• Parfaits: These would be wonderful in a yogurt parfait along with some granola!
• Overnight oats or stovetop oats!
• In pudding: Transform your pie filling to make an apple pie pudding! Simply get out a casserole and place some graham cracker crumbs at the bottom, followed by a pudding mixture made with your apple filling. This sounds so good!
• As a side: With ice cream or whipped cream.

Variations

• Apples: Cut them into slices instead of cubes.
• Mixed fruit: Feel free to throw in peaches or pears in there as well for a mixed fruit delight.
• Lemon juice: Balance out the sweetness by adding a splash of lemon juice.
• Berries: Swap out one apple for your favorite berries, such as blueberries, blackberries, or strawberries.
• Sugar: If you want a richer flavor, add in some brown sugar instead of white sugar, or use half white sugar and half brown sugar.
• Caramel: If you want a touch of caramel, swap out half of the sugar and add in caramel sauce as desired in the filling right before you take the pan off the heat. If you want to make your own caramel sauce, check out the recipe here!

The Best Apples for Apple Pie Filling: Granny Smith, Braeburn, Pink Lady and Gala

This recipe uses one Granny Smith apple and one Honeycrisp, and that pairing is doing a specific job. Granny Smith brings the tart flavor that stops a sweet filling tasting flat, and it is firm enough to hold its shape through a covered simmer. The Honeycrisp brings the sweetness and the snap. If you want the best apple pie filling you have made, use two firm varieties rather than one of anything: one tart, one sweet.

Any firm apple works here, which is the whole point of the recipe. Braeburn holds up beautifully and sits between tart and sweet. Pink Lady apples are crisp with a sharp finish, closest of the group to a Granny Smith. Gala apples are the sweetest and the softest of the four, so if you reach for those, keep Granny Smith apples as the other half or you lose the tart edge entirely. The varieties to avoid are the soft ones that collapse into sauce the moment they meet heat.

Whichever you pick, peel, core and dice them to an even size, because evenly cut apple pieces cook evenly and give you one texture throughout the bowl instead of three. They are ready when a spoon cuts through them easily but they still keep the slightest bite: tender rather than mushy, which is the perfect texture for a filling that is going to bake a second time inside a pie crust. If you would rather have apple slices than cubes, slice them instead; they behave the same way and just take a minute or two longer to soften.

Ingredient Notes: Ground Cinnamon, Nutmeg, Unsalted Butter and the Cornstarch Slurry

The apple pie spice is a four-spice blend you mix yourself: two tablespoons of ground cinnamon, one tablespoon of ground nutmeg, one and a half teaspoons of ground ginger and one teaspoon of green cardamom powder. Cinnamon is the base and nutmeg is the warmth sitting behind it, so a mere pinch of nutmeg would be nowhere near enough at this ratio. A couple of ground cloves would not be out of place if you like them, though they are not in my blend. And if you do not want to mix a blend at all, pumpkin pie spice is the closest jar substitute on the shelf, since it is built on the same warm spices.

Use unsalted butter if you have it, because there is nothing else salty in the pan to balance against. Two and a half tablespoons melt in the bottom of the saucepan before the apples, the quarter cup of white sugar and a tablespoon of the spice blend go in. Light brown sugar swapped in for half of the white gives a deeper, more caramel note if you are after extra flavor, and that swap costs you nothing in texture.

The thickening all happens at the end. Put the cornstarch in a small bowl, add a splash of water and stir it into a cornstarch slurry before it goes anywhere near the pan, because dry cornstarch dropped into hot liquid gives you lumps you will never stir out. One tablespoon handles a single batch; use two tablespoons cornstarch if you double the apples. Flour will thicken it too, but it needs longer cooking to lose its raw taste and leaves the sauce cloudy, so cornstarch stays the better choice. Two teaspoons vanilla extract stirred in off the heat is a lovely bonus, though it is not part of the recipe as written.

Storing Apple Pie Filling: Refrigerator, Freezer and Leftovers

Let the filling come down to room temperature before it goes anywhere. Warm filling sealed into a container sweats and waters itself down, and warm filling spooned into raw pastry melts the butter in the crust long before the pie sees the oven.

In the refrigerator, an airtight container is all it needs, and it keeps for about a week; the spices settle and it tastes better on day two than it did on day one. For anything longer, the freezer is the answer. Spoon it into a freezer-safe bag, press the air out, lay the bag flat and freeze it that way, because flat bags stack and they thaw far faster than a solid block. Thaw it overnight in the refrigerator and give it a good stir, since a cornstarch sauce always loosens a little on thawing.

Leftovers that are too small to fill a pie are not a problem, they are breakfast. The serving list below is where every spare spoonful in my kitchen ends up.

More Ways to Serve It: Waffles, Oatmeal, Crumble, Tarts and Apple Hand Pies

Beyond the pie crust, treat this as a topping. Spoon it warm over waffles exactly as you would over pancakes, stir it through a bowl of oatmeal, or pile it onto cottage cheese with a handful of granola for something that reads as breakfast rather than dessert.

For baking, tip it into a dish, cover it with a crumble topping and bake until the top is golden and the edges bubble. Small tarts take a spoonful each. Apple hand pies are this same filling folded into rounds of pastry, crimped and baked, and they work precisely because the cornstarch has already thickened everything enough that it will not leak out of the seam. Apple pie tacos, where a tortilla is fried into a shell and filled, are the fastest version of the lot.

More Wintery Goodness!

• Chocolate Chip Brioche Bread Pudding with Whiskey Caramel Sauce
• Apple Spiced Caramelized Bananas
• Caramel Brûlée Latte
• Eggnog Pancakes with Caramelized Bananas