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Home › Recipe

Updated: Mar 12, 2020 · Published: Jun 18, 2018 by Elizabeth Marek · This post may contain affiliate links · 19 Comments

Berry Filling Recipe

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Berry Filling Recipe That Can Be Used For Cakes, Pies or Baked Goodies

berry filling recipe

Making a good, stable berry filling is easier than you think. Just choose your berries and go! I've made this recipe using strawberries, blackberries, blue berries and even marion berries (It's an Oregon thing) and even thrown in some chopped peaches because I love how they taste with berries. You can combine your berries too if you like. Adjust the sugar for the amount of sweetness that you desire.

This filling works great with my easy pie crust recipe.

How To Prepare Your Berries To Make A Filling

berry filling

Depending on the season, you might have a ton of fresh fruit on hand that you want to make into a filling and then freeze for later use. Or it might be the dead of winter and your bride just HAS to have strawberry fruit filling so frozen is your only option. This process works for either situation.

berry filling

First of all prepare your fruit. If it's fresh you'll want to slice your berries so they cook more evenly (strawberries, peaches and large marion berries) but if you're using frozen you probably won't need to slice them. Just defrost them. When berries are frozen, they release their juices. I like to strain this juice from the berries and collect separately into a bowl. Combine this juice with some water until you get 6 oz.

berry filling

You can use any type of berry for this including strawberries, blackberries, blueberries, raspberries, marion berries or any combo you like!

How To Make Berry Filling

Place your berries in a medium pot with sugar, salt and 3 oz of your juice/water mixture. Bring to a boil and cook for 5-6 minutes. Combine your remaining 3 oz of water/juice and your 2 oz of corn starch together in a bowl to make a slurry. Pour this mixture into your hot berry mixture. Mix with a spatula constantly so it doesn't burn and the mixture begins to thicken and goes from cloudy to clear.

berry filling

Remove the mixture from the pan and add in your lemon juice and zest.

If your mixture seems really loose and watery, you can also add more corn starch. Dissolve 1 Tablespoon of cornstarch into 2 teaspoon of water and add into the mixture and cook until clear while stirring constantly.

The mixture when hot should appear thick but it will still be runny. Once it cools it should be pretty stable and not runny.

How To Use Berry Filling

berry filling

You can use berry filling in cakes or pies. Make sure you cool your filling first. I pour mine into a sheet pan and stick it in the fridge so it cools faster. You can pour it into a pie crust for berry pie or you can use it as a cake filling.

Make sure you pipe a dam around the outside of your cake with some buttercream before putting in your fruit filling so it doesn't ooze out the edges. Check out how pretty this vanilla cake looks with some berry filling and berry buttercream!

berry filling for cake

You can also combine your berry filling with buttercream to make a berry buttercream. So yummy. If you don't like visible seeds in your buttercream, use an immersion blender to blend up your fruit filling first to make it nice and smooth before adding it to your buttercream. Start with ¼ cup of cooled filling and add it to your room temperature buttercream. Whisk together on high until smooth and creamy.

You always want to keep fruit filling refrigerated until delivery to keep the fruit from going bad. Once it's delivered though it should be fine at room temperature for 6 hours.

How To Store Berry Filling

berry filling

I store my filling in the fridge until I need it (for up to three days) and if I'm not going to use it right away or if I have leftovers I will divide it up and store it in the freezer. Once unfrozen it can't be frozen again so I divide mine up into 1 cup batches so I can take out as much as I need. Store frozen for up to 6 months. Name and label your bags so you know what they are.

Recipe

berry filling recipe

Berry Filling Recipe

This thick berry filling recipe works great for pies, cakes or even in baked goodies. Firm enough that it will hold it's shape when sliced into and full of delicious flavor! Can be made with fresh or frozen berries. One recipe makes about 4 cups (enough to fill one 9" pie)
Print Recipe Rate Recipe
Prep Time: 10 minutes minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes minutes
cooling time: 1 hour hour
Total Time: 30 minutes minutes
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Servings: 4 cups
Calories: 313kcal
Author: Elizabeth Marek

Ingredients

  • 28 oz frozen or fresh berries
  • 6 oz Juice from berries plus water if you need more, divide in half
  • 5 oz sugar
  • 2 oz cornstarch
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 1 lemon zest
  • 1 tablespoon lemon juice
US Customary - Metric

Instructions

  • Defrost or slice berries and strain off excess juice into a bowl. Combine the juice with enough water to make 6 oz total. 
  • Place berries, sugar, salt and ½ of juice/water mixture into a medium sauce pan. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly and cook 5-6 minutes
  • Combine corn starch with second measure of juice/water mixture and make a slurry. Pour mixture into the hot berries and stir constantly until mixture goes from cloudy to clear and is thick. Mixture should be slightly thick when hot. If too loose and watery, add more cornstarch (1 tablespoon dissolved in 2 teaspoon water) as needed. 
  • Remove mixture from heat and stir in lemon juice and zest. 
  • Cool mixture fully before using. Store excess in the fridge or freeze for up to 6 months. 

Nutrition

Calories: 313kcal | Carbohydrates: 77g | Fat: 1g | Sodium: 296mg | Potassium: 150mg | Fiber: 5g | Sugar: 56g | Vitamin A: 90IU | Vitamin C: 7.8mg | Calcium: 19mg | Iron: 0.5mg
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Amy P says

    June 28, 2018 at 7:18 am

    5 stars
    This was very easy to make and so delicious!!! My new favorite filling!????

    Reply
  2. Stacy says

    June 28, 2018 at 11:25 am

    5 stars
    This was my first fruit filling and it is so delish! I even threw some in the buttercream and that was even better. I love that it was so easy to make as well.

    Reply
  3. Brianna says

    January 02, 2019 at 9:45 am

    If you are using fresh berries how do you strain the excess juice into a bowl?

    Reply
    • The Sugar Geek Show says

      January 02, 2019 at 2:10 pm

      You can use fresh or frozen. Just use a strainer after crusting the berries to remove the excess juice 🙂

      Reply
  4. J.M. says

    April 04, 2019 at 2:49 pm

    ok but no mention how long to cook pie once filling is made! and at what degree!

    Reply
    • The Sugar Geek Show says

      April 07, 2019 at 11:09 am

      This berry filling can be used for pies or for cakes or mixed into a buttercream. It isn't a pie recipe specifically. If you want to know more about making a pie, check out my pie crust recipe https://sugargeekshow.com/recipe/pie-crust-recipe/

      Reply
  5. Chris says

    April 16, 2019 at 1:07 pm

    Can this recipe work for cranberries? I have an order for a vodka lemon cranberry cake?!?! Lol!

    Reply
    • The Sugar Geek Show says

      April 16, 2019 at 3:38 pm

      You'd have to cook them and then add some cornstarch to thicken the juice 🙂

      Reply
  6. P. B. says

    May 05, 2019 at 11:05 am

    5 stars
    Yum ? Thank you!

    Reply
  7. Heather Waugh says

    May 09, 2019 at 11:16 am

    5 stars
    Made and it's delicious! Super easy too. Do you know if I can successfully freeze a cake with this filling?

    Reply
    • The Sugar Geek Show says

      May 11, 2019 at 9:55 am

      I don't know for sure, I don't freeze my cakes

      Reply
  8. Nadine says

    June 26, 2019 at 5:49 am

    The best ever never filling berries recipe , my family and I we loved it ..!!
    One of my favourites..!! I will try others ..

    Regard from France ??

    Reply
  9. Nadine says

    June 26, 2019 at 5:49 am

    The best ever never filling berries recipe , my family and I we loved it ..!!
    One of my favourites..!! I will try others ..

    Regard from France ??

    Reply
  10. Christine Logan says

    September 15, 2019 at 6:07 am

    How is this different to jam please?

    Reply
    • The Sugar Geek Show says

      September 16, 2019 at 9:30 am

      Jam has a lot more sugar added, usually for the canning process

      Reply
  11. Nadiyah says

    January 30, 2020 at 5:41 pm

    Do we need to mix it with water? What if we have enough strawberry juice to fill it to 6 oz

    Reply
    • The Sugar Geek Show says

      January 30, 2020 at 8:46 pm

      You can leave the water out if that's the case 🙂

      Reply
  12. Vanessa Brink says

    May 12, 2020 at 1:20 pm

    4 stars
    I made this for my 9.5 inch pie dish and it ended up overflowing and ruining my lattice 🥵

    Reply
    • Elizabeth Marek says

      May 12, 2020 at 2:31 pm

      Sorry about that mishap with your filling. Maybe need to not fill the pie quite so much next time. Happy baking!

      Reply
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