Apple Filling Recipe
The best apple filling made with fresh apples, apple juice, warm spices, and a touch of honey. Use it in pies, cakes, danishes, or anywhere you want real apple flavor.
Servings: 4 cups
Calories: 370kcal
Equipment
- apple corer
Ingredients
Spiced Apple Filling Recipe
- 2 lbs apples or other starchy apple like granny smith or honeycrisp (about 4 apples)
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 oz butter
- 4 oz brown sugar or white sugar is fine
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon cloves
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 12 oz apple juice or water
- 1 oz cornstarch
- 2 oz water
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon orange extract
Instructions
- Peel, core and chop apples into small, ½" cubes
- Place the cubed apples in a large pan over medium heat. Add the butter and stir until melted, about 1 minute.
- Add the apple juice, cinnamon, cloves, salt, and brown sugar. Stir to combine.
- Cook, stirring occasionally, until the apples have softened but still have a little firmness. They should not be mushy. If using for pie, pull here; the apples will continue cooking in the oven.
- Whisk the water and cornstarch together in a separate cup to make a slurry. Add to the apples while gently stirring over medium-high heat.
- Cook and stir for 2 to 3 minutes until the mixture begins to bubble, to make sure the cornstarch is fully cooked.
- Remove from the heat. Stir in the orange extract, vanilla, lemon juice, and honey.
- Pour into a cake pan or bowl and refrigerate to cool quickly.
Video
Notes
Ingredient notes
- This recipe originally called for apple cider because it's concentrated in flavor and unsweetened, but so many readers substituted apple cider vinegar by mistake that we want to be extra clear here: use apple juice or unsweetened apple cider (the kind you drink), never apple cider vinegar. If you can find apple cider juice specifically, it tastes even better than plain apple juice.
- No apple corer? You can core apples by hand with a sharp paring knife.
- Cinnamon and cloves here essentially make a homemade apple pie spice. A store-bought apple pie spice blend can be swapped in 1:1 if you have one on hand.
- Tapioca flour: use 4 teaspoons for every 1 tablespoon of cornstarch.
- All-purpose flour: use 4 tablespoons for every 1 tablespoon of cornstarch.
- If freezing, use flour or tapioca instead of cornstarch, since cornstarch breaks down and turns watery after thawing.
- Refrigerator: airtight container, about 2 weeks.
- Freezer: swap to flour or tapioca thickener first, then freeze up to several months in an airtight container.
- Canning: standard water-bath canning method, shelf-stable for up to a year.
- Pie filling (pull the apples slightly underdone, they'll finish in the oven)
- Cake filling (pipe a buttercream dam around the cake layer first to keep it from spilling)
- Cheesecake topping
- Spooned over ice cream, yogurt, or oatmeal.
Nutrition
Serving: 1cup | Calories: 370kcal | Carbohydrates: 81g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 6g | Saturated Fat: 4g | Cholesterol: 15mg | Sodium: 212mg | Potassium: 366mg | Fiber: 6g | Sugar: 64g | Vitamin A: 300IU | Vitamin C: 13mg | Calcium: 49mg | Iron: 1mg
