apple pie filling recipe

This Apple Pie Filling is super easy to make and is flavored with cinnamon and light brown sugar for a warm fall flavor. This filing is perfect for pies, tarts, bars, cakes, and more!

It’s apple-picking season! It’s time to travel to your favorite apple orchard and pick a bushel or two of apples. Tree-ripe apples make this apple pie filling exceptional. It is perfectly flavored with cinnamon, light brown sugar, and just a hint of lemon. It has a nice tart flavor for all your Fall baking! 

Bake up more delicious apple recipes with the rest of those fresh-picked apples. Start with my apple walnut bread, caramel apple cinnamon roll bread pudding, or apple cinnamon streusel pull-apart bread!

Professional Tips for Making For Making Apple Pie Filling

• Use a variety of apples. For the best flavor, use at least three different varieties of apples. They all have unique flavors and textures, which will give you a more complex apple filling. 
• Be sure to slice the apples to roughly the same thickness. Slice all the apples to about ? thickness. Keeping them all relatively around the same thickness will ensure the apples are cooked evenly, and you won’t have over or undercooked apples. You can use a French or Japanese mandoline to make this easier.
• Allow the apples to sit with the sugars and lemon juice. Allowing the apples to marinate in the sugars and lemon juice for at least 30 minutes gives them time to release their juice. Giving you a thicker and more flavorful filling.

Ingredients & Substitutions

• Apples: You want to use crisp baking apples. The apples need to be able to hold their shape when cooked. When choosing apples, stick with Granny Smith, Honeycrisp, Braeburn, Macoun, Cortland, or pink lady apples. These varieties will hold up to the cooking process. 
• Lemon: Lemon juice keeps the apples from turning brown and the filling from being overly sweet. The lemon zest adds a nice floral citrus flavor.
• Granulated Sugar: The granulated sugar is here for sweetness, but it also aids in the thickening of the filling. 
• Light Brown Sugar: Light Brown sugar adds a light molasses flavor to the filling that complements the apples. 
• Cinnamon: The ground cinnamon adds flavor to the filling. You could substitute apple pie spice or speculoos spice mix. 
• Cornstarch: Cornstarch is the thickener in this filling. It is added after the apples have cooked and released their juice to thicken the filling fully. You could also use tapioca starch or flour. 
• Butter: The unsalted butter adds a little fat to the filling, giving it a slightly silky finish. It can be omitted to make the filling vegan. 

See the recipe card for full information on ingredients and quantities.

Variations

• Make a Pear Filling. Pears will cook much faster, and you might want more thickening agents depending on your desired thickness. Use bosc, anjou, or bartlett pears, and add some cardamom!  
• Change the Spices. Change out the cinnamon for apple pie spice. You could also add cardamom, ginger, or nutmeg. Or try infusing the filling with a spent vanilla bean. 
• Add salted caramel sauce. Adding up to ½ cup store bought or homemade caramel sauce will add a nice caramel flavor to the apple filling. 
• Change the cut of the apples. You can slice or cut the apples into chunks, large or small dice, or batonnet, depending on how you would like to use the filling. The small or large dice would be perfect for mini apple pies, apple hand pies or tarts. Just remember the different sizes and cuts will cook at different rates.

How to Make Easy Apple Pie Filling

Use these instructions to make perfect apple filling every time! Further details and measurements can be found in the recipe card below.

Step 1: Peel, core, and slice apples to about 1/8^th inch thick. Place the apples in a large bowl. 

Do these in stages to be most efficient. Peel all your apples first, then core, and then slice. 

Step 2: Zest the lemon over the apples and then squeeze the juice into the bowl of apples. 

Step 3: Add the granulated white sugar,  light brown sugar, and cinnamon to the apples. Toss together with a spoon until each apple slice has an even coating.

Taste a piece of apple and add more sugar if desired. Apple sweetness varies so much that I find tasting my filling and making final adjustments better than blindly sticking to a recipe.

Step 4: Add the apple mixture and any accumulated juices in a large saucepan or Dutch oven. Cook on medium heat.

Step 5: Cook until the apples are crisp but tender. They will be softened but not mushy, opaque, and have a little crunch.  

You can taste an apple to ensure it has the desired crunch. After you remove the apples from the heat, they will continue to cook. 

Step 6: In a small bowl, whisk together cornstarch and one tablespoon of water. Pour it into the hot filling while you stir. 

Step 7: After adding the cornstarch, allow the filling to boil for 1 minute. This will immediately thicken the filling. When you add the cornstarch slurry, the filling will turn white, and you will know it’s cooked when it becomes opaque again. 

Depending on your ultimate use for the filling, you should cook the apple pie filling more or less. If you are baking it again into a pie or a tart, cook just until the apples are softened and the filling thickens, but if you are not cooking the filling again, you might want to cook until the apples are completely softened. This is ideal for topping ice cream or vanilla pudding. 

Step 8: Pour the filling onto a parchment paper-lined deep baking sheet or dish. 

Step 9: Refrigerate until the filling has cooled completely. Once cold, transfer to clean jars or another airtight container, or fill your favorite pie crust and bake that apple pie!

Frequently Asked Questions

Before You Go

I hope you enjoyed this professional chef created recipe. Check out our other delicious pies & tarts recipes, or use this filling in one of our cake recipes or cobbler, crisp, & crumble recipes!