Apple Pie Filling to Freeze, Just POP the Pre-Formed Frozen Filling into a Pie Shell and Bake, TUTORIAL

One of 4 pot pie sized TEST PIES made today,  delicious!

As hoped, I felt great this morning and stood at the sink at 5:00 Am and peeled 10 pounds of the home grown apples from our friends the Linton's.  This yielded 7 pints of peeled and cored fresh apples to process.

NOTE:  10-1-2014,  THIS MORNING I PEELED ANOTHER BATCH OF APPLES AND HAVE 3 PREPARED PIE PANS WITH FOIL, PLASTIC WRAP, AND THIS DELICIOUS APPLE PIE FILLING COOLING IN THE KITCHEN FOR A TOTAL OF 5  THAT WILL BE IN MY FREEZER BY NOON TODAY.  I'M SMILING!

I don't mind to peel and core when the end result is pie filling frozen in disks for another day!

Here is the recipe I have adapted from the Ball Blue Book plus I am making a test pie to be sure this is worthy of my time. (There are 20 more pounds of apples in the downstairs refrigerator.)

Prepared apples in a ascorbic acid bath keeps them from turning brown.

Ingredients for Apple Pie Filling for the Freezer:

7 pints (14 C. ) peeled and  cored cooking apples
2 quarts clean water
8 t. ascorbic acid or fruit fresh
2 1/2 C. flour
1/4 C. + 2 T. flour
2 1/2 t. ground cinnamon
juice of 1 fresh lemon
pinch of salt
1 1/2 t. vanilla

Fruit Fresh.

Place the apples in a bath made of the water and ascorbic acid and you peel and slice them.  This will help retard browning of the fruit.  When this prep is complete  scoop the apples out by handfuls and measure into a very large soup kettle, best if it has a heavy bottom.   You should adjust the recipe based on the amount of apples you have and your preferences.

Add the remaining ingredients to the pan of apples and stir together will.  Let stand for about 30 minutes for the juices to begin flowing and stir again.  Heat over medium heat stirring occasionally for about 15 minutes.  The juices should thicken.  Reduce the heat to simmer and cook another 15 minutes.  Turn off the heat and let the filling cool for NOT to exceed 2 hours.

Add remaining ingredients.

Mix well and let sit 30 minutes for the juices to form.

Heat over medium flame and bring to a boil, then simmer for 15-20 minutes.

My method for freezing is to line a 8-9" pie plate with wide heavy duty foil, then place plastic wrap crossing 2 large pieces over the foil.  For this amount of apples I yielded enough to make 3 pies.

First line pie plates with wide heavy duty foil.

Next make a cross with two sheets of plastic wrap to line the indentation.

One I will bake now using the French Pie Pastry in the previous days post and freeze the other two amounts of filling.      thehiddenpantry.blogspot.com/2014/09/french-pie-pastry-in-food-processor.html    Actually I made 4 pot pie sized apple pies and a "Grandma Cookie" from the left over crusts using the pastry prepared yesterday.

For pot pie sized pies quarter one disk of pie crust.

Form each piece into a ball and flatten.

Line 4 pot pie tins and repeat with the second disk of crust to make top crusts.

Roll left over dough, spread with butter, sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.

Roll up, seal ends and edges, make slits for Grandma's Cookie. Bake with pies.

Ladle filling into the 2 foil and plastic lined pie plates and fold the plastic wrap across the top to seal.

Ladle cool filling into prepared pie plates.

Gather first the plastic wrap all around snugly then the foil.

Place in the freezer until solid then label and store.

Fold the foil across the plastic wrap to seal again.  Place the pie plates with the foil, plastic wrap, and filling into the freezer.  Freeze until solid.  Remove the pie plates and label and date the frozen wrapped disks of filling.  Just unwrap the frozen filling and poop into a crust and bake when needed.  My suggestion for a double crust pie is at 375 degrees F. for 50-70 minutes.

4 Pot Pie sized apple pies.

For my trial pies I directly filled my bottom crust and then dotted with about 2-3 t. butter and added the top crust.  After fluting the edges I brushed with 1 egg yolk mixed with a tablespoon of water and sprinkled with sugar.  Then I baked as above.  Note: I baked about 10 minutes less for the 4 smaller pies and the Grandma's Cookie.   AND BY THE WAY THEY ARE VERY GOOD.  YUMMY IN FACT.

One Grandma's Cookie.

Yield filling for 3, 8-9" pies or 2 fillings to freeze and a 9" pie or 4 pot pie sized pies and a Grandma's Cookie.

I also like home canned apple pie filling which admittedly is more work but here is the link, it is delicious and I often give it as a Christmas gift.    thehiddenpantry.blogspot.com/2012/11/canning-apple-pie-filling-my-revision.html