Canned Cherry Pie Filling Recipe (with honey)
A canning recipe for cherry pie filling that is sweetened with honey.
Ingredients
- 6 quarts whole cherries, pitted and washed
- 9 1/3 cups water
- 3–4 cups honey, or to taste (see note)
- 1 3/4 cups Clear Jel (the cook type– not instant)
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon (optional)
- 1/2 cup lemon juice
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract (optional- here’s how to make your own)
Instructions
- Combine the water, honey, Clear Jel, and cinnamon (if using) in a large pot and bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Add the lemon juice and once it returns to a boil, let boil for one minute. Add the cherries all at once. (If it gets weird or clumpy at any point, just keep heating and stirring!) Bring the mixture back to a boil, stirring the whole time.
- Remove from the heat and stir in vanilla extract (if using).
- Ladle the hot cherry pie filling into hot, sterilized quart jars. Leave one-inch headspace.
- Wipe the rims and affix lids and rings.
- Process quarts for 40 minutes in a water bath canner (make adjustments for altitude, if needed). (If you decide to use pint jars instead, process them for the same amount of time.)
- Once processing time is complete, remove the jars from the canner. Check for seals and remove the rings for storage. It’s common for thick, sticky fillings to bubble over in the canner, so don’t worry if your jars are messy when you pull them out. As long as the lids are sealed, you’re ok. Wipe off any residue and you’ll good to go.
Notes
How to Use the Cherry Pie Filling:
– Make a Pie: One quart-jar of cherry pie filling should fill one 9-inch pie plate. Here’s my homemade pie crust recipe that uses butter and/or lard. You’ll need a double crust for a cherry pie (I like to do a classic lattice top.) Bake your pie at 400 degrees F for 40 minutes, or until filling is bubbly and crust is golden brown.
– Spoon the cherry pie filling over ice cream.
– Or, drizzle it over the top of cheesecakes.
More Kitchen Notes:
– If you’re using tart or sour pie cherries, you may need to increase the sweetener by several cups. The original recipe called for 7 cups of sugar (!!). Honey tends to be sweeter than sugar, which allowed me to reduce my quantities a bit, plus my dark sweet cherries helped too.
– You can use almond extract instead of vanilla if you prefer.
– My honey/Clear Jel mixture looked super wonky for a while when it was coming together in the pot. Just keep stirring. The heat will help dissolve the clumps.
– You can use frozen cherries instead of fresh cherries in this recipe. Simply let them thaw before using. Reserve any cherry juice and use in place of some of the water for even more cherry flavor.
– Some recipes call for adding red food coloring, which I find completely unnecessary. Your filling will be a delicious dark red on its own.
