Canning Strawberry Pie Filling

Canning strawberry pie filling ensures you have a supply on hand for tasty strawberry desserts year-round.  More than just a pie filling, it’s perfect for layering between birthday cake layers, topping cheesecakes and spoons nicely onto summertime ice cream sundaes!

Strawberries are one of the very first fruits of the season, and they’re a welcome treat after the long winter here in Vermont.  We keep several hundred plants in our garden because I just can’t stomach the thought of a summer without strawberries, not after all that snow shoveling during the winter.

We grow regular June bearing strawberries, of course, but also everbearing strawberries, alpine strawberries, and we even added pineberries to the mix this year.

Some years they produce enough to satisfy our need for fresh fruit right out in the garden but not much more.  Other years, they’re incredibly prolific, and I’m absolutely buried in fruit.

When that happens, we go to work canning whole strawberries, which work wonderfully in muffins year-round.  I absolutely love our simple old-fashioned strawberry jam, and my kids are partial to strawberry jelly.

Once our pantry shelves are full of canned goods, we even make strawberry wine.

This year I found myself wishing for a few jars of home-canned strawberry pie filling for wintertime treats, and it’s turned out so well that I’m adding it to my preserving list every year.

Ingredients for Canning Strawberry Pie Filling

Home-canned strawberry pie filling is thickened with a canning-approved thickener called Clear Jel (cook type). 

Flour, tapioca starch, and regular cornstarch are not approved for canning as they can interfere with how heat penetrates through the jar.  They also only thicken after a single heating, which means they’ll thicken during canning, but they won’t stand up to re-baking in a pie shell.

Clear Jel is different, and it can be heated and cooled repeatedly without any issue.  Even if you’re planning on using your home-canned strawberry pie filling as a topping (rather than baking it into a pie), you’ll still want to use this thickener as it’s the only one tested and approved for canning safety.

For each quart jar of strawberry pie filling, you’ll need:

• 3 1/2 cups of cleaned, sliced strawberries (from 1 quart of fresh fruit, about 2 lbs)
• 3/4 cup + 2 Tbsp. Sugar
• 1/4 cup + 1 Tbsp. Clear Jel
• 1 cup water (or juice)
• 3 1/2 tsp. Bottled lemon juice

The amounts may seem a bit complicated for a single jar batch, but that’s because the full recipe with round numbers is designed for a 7-quart canner batch.

The amounts for a 7-quart canner batch are as follows:

• 6 quarts of cleaned, sliced strawberries (from about 7 quarts of fresh fruit, or about 14 to 15 lbs)
• 6 cups Sugar
•  2 1/4 cups Clear Jel
• 7 cups Water (or juice)
• 1/2 cup Bottled Lemon Juice

If you’re purchasing clear jel, it usually comes in containers measured by the pound rather than volume.  One pound of clear jel equals about 3 cups, so plan accordingly.

Altering the Canning Recipe for Strawberry Pie Filling

You are able to change this recipe slightly without impacting canning safety.  According to the Washington State Extension service:

“Adjust the sugar and spices in the recipe to suit your personal preferences. However, the amount of lemon juice should never be altered because it ensures the safety and storage stability of the fillings.“

You can also reduce the amount of clear jel used in the recipe if you try the recipe out and find that you’d like a looser set.  I actually think it works wonderfully if you cut the total amount of clear gel down to 3 to 4 Tbsp. per jar.  Yes, this is an approved modification, making the mixture less dense.

While the lemon juice cannot be decreased, you can add more if you want a tarter pie filling. 

The main things you cannot do are decrease the ratio of lemon juice to fruit, or increase the clear jel beyond what’s stated in the recipe. 

How to Can Strawberry Pie Filling

Working with clear jel is a bit different than canning plain fruit or jam, and the order of operations is really important. 

It’s incredibly important that the clear jel is dissolved in cold water, as it’ll clump quickly in hot water, and you’ll have something that looks like tapioca pudding with lots of little white clumps of powder.  Trust me on this one; it’s really not usable when that happens.

It’s also important that the fruit are pre-blanched so that they’re partially cooked and hot when they go into the clear jel.

Be sure to follow the instructions carefully for the best results.

Before you begin, prepare a water bath canner, jars, and lids.  If you’re not familiar with water bath canning, I’d suggest reading my beginner’s guide to water bath canning before getting started.

Start by washing and draining the strawberries.  If using frozen fruit, thaw the frozen strawberries in a colander over a bowl and reserve the juice.

Hull the strawberries and slice them.  The size of the slices is up to you, I tend to halve the smaller strawberries and quarter the larger ones.  Leave them a bit on the large side, as they shrink during canning and very small pieces will fall apart during cooking.

Bring a few quarts of water to a boil on the stove and blanch the strawberries for 30 seconds to 1 minute, until they’re heated through.  Work in batches, and be gentle with the fruit so it doesn’t fall apart.  Remove them with a slotted spoon and keep them warm while you make the clear gel mixture.

Combine sugar and clear jel in a large pot, big enough to hold all the fruit comfortably.  Add cold water or cold juice to the pot and whisk to dissolve the clear jel completely.  This is important!  Do not turn on the heat until the clear jel is fully dissolved into the water.

Turn on the heat to medium-high and whisk continuously until the mixture begins to bubble and thicken.  As soon as it bubbles, add lemon juice and cook for 1 additional minute.

Turn off the heat and fold in the drained berries.

Immediately fill the canning jars with the mixture, taking extra care to de-bubble the jars as the mixture will be thick.  Leave 1-inch headspace.

Cap the jars with 2 part canning lids and twist on rings to finger tight.  Process in a water bath canner for 30 minutes, adjusting for altitude.  Canning times are the same for pints and quarts. 

Altitude adjustments are as follows:

• 0 to 1,000 Feet in Elevation: 30 minutes
• 1,001 to 3,000 Feet in Elevation: 35 minutes
• 3,001 to 6,000 Feet in Elevation: 40 minutes
• Above 6,000 Feet in Elevation: 45 minutes

Juice or Water for Canning Liquid?

The main choice you have with this recipe is whether you’re going to use juice or water for the canning liquid to dissolve the clear jel.  I think it tastes MUCH better if you use strawberry juice instead of water, and the color comes out better that way too.

If you do that, you’ll need to extract the strawberry juice ahead of time.  You need about 1 pound of strawberries to make a cup of juice; just follow my instructions for extracting strawberry juice in my strawberry jelly recipe.  I’d suggest bringing the chopped fruit to a simmer on the stove with a bit of water, then mashing with a potato masher before draining through cheesecloth or a jelly bag.

Straining cooked strawberries through a jelly bag to extract their juice.

The problem with this approach is the juice is hot, and it needs to be cold to mix and dissolve the clear jel.  You can extract it a day ahead and chill it in the refrigerator, or just extract slightly less juice than you need and add ice to bring the volume up to the full amount of the recipe.

If you’re using frozen strawberries, you can thaw them in a colander and collect the juice that way.  Then use the thawed berries in the pie filling and the juice to activate the clear jel.

You can also juice the strawberries in a countertop juicer, which will extract their juice without heating them.

If this is all too much effort, go ahead and just use water.  You might want to add a drop or two of red food coloring to it so that the “gel” around the strawberries has a bright red color, but that’s optional.

You can also use another type of fruit juice, like apple, cherry, or cranberry.  Be aware that they’ll really add their own flavor to the mix, and even though apple juice seems mild, the canned strawberry pie filling will taste a lot like apples.

For best results, I’d suggest using strawberry juice for at least 1/4 to 1/2 of the liquid, as it really does yield the best flavor, even if it does mean sacrificing some volume of your strawberries to the juicer.

Using Strawberry Pie Filling

Once you have a home-canned strawberry pie filling, it’s shelf-stable and doesn’t need to be re-cooked before eating.  Of course, you can bake it into a pie, but you can also use it as a topping for other desserts.

It works wonderfully as the strawberry topping on top of a banana split, and it’s also perfect on top of a cheesecake.  Use it as a middle layer in a birthday cake, or go really nuts and eat it with a spoon right out of the jar.

You can also use it in a no-bake strawberry tart, as is traditional with gelled strawberry toppings like this.

I find that it works really well when I add in a drained quart of home-canned rhubarb.  The strawberry pie filling has plenty of thickeners to thicken the rhubarb too, so I just use plain canned stewed rhubarb, and I have an instant strawberry rhubarb pie.

Yield: Makes 1 quart or 7 quarts (see notes)

Canning Strawberry Pie Filling

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 10 minutes

Canning Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour

Home canned strawberry pie filling is a tasty way to preserve a rich strawberry filling right on the pantry shelf. It's perfect for pies, of course, but it's also great for topping cheesecakes and other desserts.

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Ingredients

For A Single Quart:

• 3 1/2 cups of cleaned, sliced strawberries (from 1 quart of fresh fruit, about 2 lbs)
• 3/4 cup + 2 Tbsp. Sugar
• 1/4 cup + 1 Tbsp. Clear Jel
• 1 cup water (or juice)
• 3 1/2 tsp. Bottled lemon juice

For a 7 Quart Canner Batch:

• 6 quarts of cleaned, sliced strawberries (from about 7 quarts of fresh fruit, or about 14 to 15 lbs)
• 6 cups Sugar
• 2 1/4 cups Clear Jel
• 7 cups Water (or juice)
• 1/2 cup Bottled Lemon Juice

Instructions

1. Before you begin, prepare a water bath canner, jars, and lids. 
2. Start by washing and draining the strawberries.  Thaw them in a colander over a bowl and reserve the juice if using frozen fruit.
3. Hull the strawberries and slice them.  The size of the slices is up to you, I tend to halve the smaller strawberries and quarter the larger ones.  Leave them a bit on the large side, as they shrink during canning, and very small pieces will fall apart during cooking.
4. Bring a few quarts of water to a boil on the stove and blanch the strawberries for 30 seconds to 1 minute until they're heated through.  Work in batches, and be gentle with the fruit so it doesn't fall apart.  Remove them with a slotted spoon and keep them warm while making the clear gel mixture.
5. Combine sugar and clear jel in a large pot, big enough to hold all the fruit comfortably.  Add cold water or cold juice to the pot and whisk to dissolve the clear jel completely.  This is important!  Do not turn on the heat until the clear jel is fully dissolved into the water.
6. Turn on the heat to medium-high and whisk continuously until the mixture begins to bubble and thicken.  As soon as it bubbles, add lemon juice and cook for 1 additional minute.
7. Turn off the heat and fold in the drained berries.
8. Immediately fill the canning jars with the mixture, taking extra care to de bubble the jars as the mixture will be thick.  Leave 1-inch headspace.
9. Cap the jars with 2 part canning lids and twist on rings to finger tight.  Process in a water bath canner for 30 minutes, adjusting for altitude.  Canning times are the same for pints and quarts. 
10. Once the processing time is complete, turn off the heat and allow the jars to sit undisturbed in the canner for about 10 minutes. This reduces the risk of siphoning as you remove the jars from the canner. (If you skip this step, there's a good chance the thick mixture will siphon out of the lid as the jars cool. That's not a safety issue, and the jars are still fine to eat if they do still steal, but it makes a big mess, and you lose some of the contents of the jar.)
11. Remove the jars from the canner with a jar lifter and allow them to cool on the counter for 12 to 24 hours. Check seals, and store any unsealed jars in the refrigerator for immediate use.
12. Properly canned and sealed jars of strawberry pie filling will maintain peak quality on the pantry shelf for about 12 months. Refrigerate after opening.

Notes

It's incredibly important that the clear jel is dissolved in cold water, as it'll clump quickly in hot water, and you'll have something that looks like tapioca pudding with lots of little white clumps of powder.  Trust me on this one; it's really not usable when that happens.

It's also important that the fruit are pre-blanched to be partially cooked and hot when they go into the clear jel.

Be sure to follow the instructions carefully for the best results.

Altitude adjustments for canning are as follows:

• 0 to 1,000 Feet in Elevation: 30 minutes
• 1,001 to 3,000 Feet in Elevation: 35 minutes
• 3,001 to 6,000 Feet in Elevation: 40 minutes
• Above 6,000 Feet in Elevation: 45 minutes

After the canning time is complete, turn off the heat and allow the jars to cool slightly in the canner before removing. (Wait at least 10 minutes.) You have a greater chance of siphoning if you skip this step as the jars cool too rapidly on the counter.

Recommended Products

As an Amazon Associate and member of other affiliate programs, I earn from qualifying purchases.

• 
  Ball Mason 32 oz Wide Mouth Jars with Lids and Bands, Set of 12 Jars.
• 
  Granite Ware Enamel-on-steel 12-Piece Canner Kit, Includes 21.5 qt. Water Bath Canner with lid, Jar Rack, Blancher, Colander & 5 pc. Canning Tool Set
• 
  Clear Jel Thickener (Cook Type) by Hoosier Hill Farm, 2.75 LB (Pack of 1)

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