I did it, I conquered my fear of canning and was able to preserve 9 pints of delicious cherry pie filling that I made from the wonderful fresh sour cherries from my neighbor’s tree! I actually accomplished this a week ago, but am just now getting around to posting.
I also have another basket full of cherries that I picked just before the weekend. They need to be pitted and I plan to make some cherry jam from some and hopefully another sour cherry almond cake. However this time I was thinking of making individual cakes, maybe in ramekins? Yum. :)
UPDATE: below is a list of recipes I have made so far with this batch of cherry pie filling (or with the fresh sour cherries before making the filling) END UPDATE
Here’s a recap of the cherry pie filling recipes I’ve tested so far:
Cherry Cake with Cherry Cream Cheese Frosting
Cherry Pie Squares
Cherry Cheesecake
Cherry Cream Cheese Coffee Cake
Black Forest Brownie Bites
These use fresh sour cherries:
Cherry Almond Cake
Sour Cherry Financiers
PROCESSING THE CHERRIES
So this cherry pie filling recipe is pretty much everywhere on the internet. I didn’t want to get complicated, especially since I was canning this, so I stuck to the recipe that I got from the Utah State University Extension Office, however, the step by step photos are much better on the website PickYourOwn.org. However, FAIR WARNING, I discovered a few typos on the pick your own website, typos that conflicted with the recipe, so I stuck strictly with the recipe in the Utah University PDF and used Pick Your Own’s photos as a guide only.
First off, if you are lucky enough to pick fresh sour cherries, always try to keep the stems intact until you are actually ready to use them. Once the stem is removed, the flesh of the cherry is exposed to the air and will begin to brown. Store your picked cherries in the refrigerator until you are ready to remove stems and pits, not more than a few days if possible.
See? Here’s the tree down the street from me! It’s pretty much picked clean now, between me, my neighbor’s father, and the birds, we didn’t let any go to waste. :)
When you are ready to pit your cherries, place them in a colander and give them a quick rinse under cold water. Remove the stem and pit the cherry.
I have this totally cool cherry pitter that removes 4 pits at once. I got it from a good friend of mine over at Kid Smart Living, but they are gone now – I also found it on Amazon and it rocks! It has a little tray with 8 slots, 4 large for cherries like bing, and 4 small for sour cherries. As you can see from the picture above, I hadn’t figured that out yet and had the sour cherries in the big slots. :-/
You place the 4 cherries into the little slots, then just press down on the top of the pitter and lift it back up.
That’s it, pitted!
There’s a little collection tray underneath that catches the pits for you. It even came with a nifty little collapsable colander. After I pitted the cherries, I tossed them into the colander.
When the colander was full I gave them another quick rinse then dumped them into a large glass bowl.
When I was finished, it looked like a murder scene… Haha!
I wasn’t quite ready to can, so I placed all of the cherries into a large plastic container with a lid and covered them with water. I cut a lemon in half and squeezed some juice into the water and let them sit until the next day.
The first thing to do was to drain the cherries. However, I did not just drain the cherries and lose all of that glorious red water they had been soaking in! I reserved the water and used that in place of the water in the pie filling recipe.
Next, I blanched them for one minute, though I definitely had to do several batches with the number of cherries that I had. After each batch, I needed to put them in a bowl or pot with a lid to keep the heat from escaping, so I just used the ceramic insert and lid from my Crockpot.
The next step is to combine the sugar and Clear Jel in a pot, then add the water. Clear Jel is a thickening agent, basically like cornstarch, but apparently it’s modified specifically for things like pie filling. You can’t find t at regular grocery stores, so I had to order mine online. So anyhoo, I combined the Clear Jel and sugar in a large pot, then I added the red water I had reserved earlier. After attempting to whisk it all together, I then added the cinnamon and almond extract. There was no need for me to add the red food coloring since I used the very red water the cherries had been soaking in.
As you can see, the Clear Jel did not want to combine with the water well, and I should have known better! I know that cornstarch should be mixed with a small amount of liquid first then added as a thick liquid, but I didn’t do that. So instead, I fought with it, smashed it against the side of the pan with my wooden spoon, etc, until it was all dissolved.
The warmer and thicker the mixture became, the more the Clear Jel melted in, so all was well.
Lastly, I added in the lemon juice and boiled for another minute, and then folded the drained cherries into the thickened mixture. I then followed the directions from Utah University for processing the pie filling and it was successful! I won’t tell you how to do it here but will tell you this was way easier than I thought and now I wish I hadn’t put it off for so long! Can’t wait to can some more stuff as fall approaches. :)
Below is the recipe for cherry pie filling, please download the PDF for processing instructions.
Homemade Cherry Pie Filling
IMPORTANT - There are often Frequently Asked Questions within the blog post that you may find helpful. Simply scroll back up to read them!
Print It Rate ItIngredients
- 3 ⅓ cups fresh or thawed sour cherries
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- ¼ cup + 1 tablespoon Clear Jel
- 1 ⅓ cups cold water I used the water the cherries were soaking in
- 1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon bottled lemon juice
- ⅛ teaspoon cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon almond extract
- 6 drops red food coloring optional, I didn't use this
Before You Begin
Instructions
- Rinse and pit fresh cherries, and hold in cold water. For fresh fruit, blanch up to 6 cups of cherries at a time in one gallon of boiling water. After water returns to a boil, boil for one minute. Drain, but keep heated in a covered bowl or pot. Combine Clear Jel and sugar in a large pot and add water. Add cinnamon, almond extract and food coloring. Stir mixture and cook over medium high heat until mixture thickens and bubbles. Add lemon juice and boil one minute, stirring constantly. Fold in drained cherries immediately. Fill your jars with mixture without delay, leaving one inch headspace. Adjust lids and process immediately.
- Instructions for 1 quart, adjust quantities based on the measurement of cherries you have.
Nutrition
I will be sharing with you my cherry version of the blackberry pie squares that were such a big hit around here.
More from Amanda you might like:
Vanilla Bean Mulberry Cake
Cherry Cream Cheese Coffee Cake
Cherry Cheesecake
More from the web:
Cherry Pie Cups – from Recipe Girl
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Tom says
I annually make and can the apple pie and peach pie filling according to the NCFHFP. The apple and peach pie filling always remain shelf stable for over a year. Last year, I made the cherry pie filling. It was great. However 10 months later the product in the jars is now pure juice+cherries. What happened to the ClearJel?
Terrie L Swisher says
Hello I would like to use this recipe but every time I click on the link to see the processing instructions It keeps telling me page not found. Can an you update this with the processing instructions?
Amanda Formaro says
Thank you for pointing that out, I have corrected the link. Here it is https://amandascookin.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Preserving-Cherries.pdf
Melissa says
If you use the clear gel that needs to be cooked instead of instant, you won’t have any problems with it clumping. Adding the instant kind to cold water works, but I used the kind you need to cook. We can get clear gel in bulk in our area…instant or cook. The recipe worked great!
Sarah says
This is an incredible tasting recipe. My husband mentions it often and raves about it to others. It makes easily and can be used in a pie or cakes or ice cream topping even more easily! We’ve waited all year to make it again!!!
Judith A Wiechmann says
https://shop.kingarthurbaking.com/items/instant-clearjel
I have used this to make apple pie filling. Cannot wait to try it with my sour cherries!
Heather says
Can you use Bing cherries to Can in this recipe?
Christina says
Absolutely delicious! I used tart cherries off of my son’s tree. Easy to follow recipe with great results. Will use for pie, ice cream topping, cherry crisp, etc.
Betsy says
Alright so this was my journey.
I ended up picking and measuring out 11 cups of cherries once they pitted and soaking.
I used just a little over 3 cups of sugar.
I used just under a cup of clearjel powder.
I used almost five cups of my reserved cherry water. (I kept adding more because my mixture was very thick.
4 tablespoons of lemon juice.
Cinnamon ( I didn’t measure)
Vanilla ( just poured a cap or two full)
I mixed my sugar and clear jel together before I added it to the water and whisked it in the water.
I followed the directions in this post other than that. It turned out great and set almost instantly.
I yielded 6 full pint jars plus a little more and canned them according to the link in this post.
Thank you
Jolene says
Can you freeze this recipe as week?
Julia says
Hi, for some reason my cherries shrink, so that a heaping nine cups of cherries yields no more than 3 cups by the time I put them into the jars. Do you have any troubleshooting tips? Thanks!
Amanda Formaro says
How long are they sitting before you put them into the jars? Are they shriveling up?
Julie says
I must have missed it, I couldn’t find how many quarts or pints this recipe yields?
Lydia says
I think the link to the canning instructions isn’t working properly?
Amanda Formaro says
Hi Lydia! I just checked all the links and they seem to be fine. I wonder if maybe the site might have been down when you tried.
Vicki Scholma says
Hello, Could you tell me how long is home canned cherry pie feeling good to consume. I have some that are seven years old and I’m wondering they look good but are they good to still eat? Do you know? Thank you
Amanda Formaro says
Hi Vicki. The National Center for Home Food Preservation recommends a 1-year shelf life https://nchfp.uga.edu/questions/FAQ_canning.html
Megan says
Can you share a picture of the clear gel you bought? I’m searching amazon (Canada) for some and I found some but it says “ clear gel powder”
Is that right? Want to make sure i order the right stuff. I’ve never had success with regular corn starch, the pie filling always gets too thick so I’m interested in trying this!
Amanda Formaro says
Hopefully this article will be helpful in identifying the right Canadian product! https://livinghomegrown.com/clear-jel-vs-sure-jell-in-canning/
DenetteRenee says
You can find clear jell at an Amish bulk food grocery
Alyse says
Did you use the cook type of clear jel or the instant? Thanks!
Amanda Formaro says
For canning, you want to stick with regular Clear Jel – Not instant.
Shirley says
I canned cherry pie filling put in canner it ran out of the jar ,what’s wrong
Amanda Formaro says
It sounds like you may not have left enough head space in the jar, or you didn’t get a good seal on the lid.
Tammy says
sounds like you didnt get the air bubbles out or maybe you didnt leave enough head space when you put the lid on it.
Shelby Wellnitz says
Made this recipe, was very tasty. I left out cinnamon, almond extract and red food coloring and I added 1/2 teaspoon Mexican pure vanilla. I also mixed the clear jel and sugar together before adding. Worked great, mixed right in no problems. I have 2- 15 year old Montmorency cherry trees. I live in central Wisconsin. This year I got over a 100 pounds of cherries. I have to net my trees to keep birds off. Best year ever. Was looking for something other than jam, you can only use so much of jam. I even had enough to share with friends. All said they were amazing.
Amanda Formaro says
Oh Shelby that sounds really delicious! So envious of your trees! :)
Megan says
Did you preheat the jars in simmering water before filling them?
Amanda Formaro says
Hi Megan, I followed the instructions in the PDF from Utah University which is linked above, here you go http://digitalcommons.usu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1187&context=extension_curall
Marie says
How long did you process?
Amanda Formaro says
Hi Marie. Please use the processing instructions from here http://extension.usu.edu/files/publications/publication/FN_2005_Harvest-03.pdf