Canning Strawberry Pie Filling

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      After babying and protecting and watering and cutting back and fertilizing my strawberry patch over the last 3 years, this year it is starting to produce like crazy!  I am in heaven over it! 

This is a sample of a days harvest! Not everyday, but every few days.

    I've made us Strawberry Shortcake and used them in smoothies, but now I am wanting to be able to preserve some.  I've frozen berries in the past, I do not like the result of simply canning them in simple syrup, and I have plenty of ​Strawberry Jam in my cupboard. Then, I saw an idea for making Strawberry Pie Filling and I realized that would be the perfect way to preserve some of these beauties! 

     Today I had enough strawberries to measure 8 cups of sliced strawberries.  I wondered if that would be enough to give me at least 2 quarts of pie filling.  I remembered that I did have some frozen strawberries still in the freezer.  My mind started working and I came up with a process that has worked very successfully, tastes so good and is beautiful in the jar! I'm going to share that process with you today. 

 Ingredients Needed:

• strawberries (8 cups sliced)
• enough frozen strawberries to make 1 cup strawberry puree
• Clear Jel (the only thickening product that can be safely canned)
• sugar
• ​water
• bottled lemon juice (Bottled juice has a standardized acidity which is the safe choice for canning.)​

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     I didn't want to simply use water to make my filling.  When I make fresh Strawberry Pie, I use juice from the strawberries to make the gelled part that covers the berries.  It adds to the taste and the color.  So, I used by centrifugal juicer to turn the slightly thawed frozen berries into a puree.  You could also use a blender or a food processor.  If you have enough strawberries, you could use fresh to make your puree.
      I mixed the puree with the water and then added the sugar and the Clear Jel to it.  Make sure to do that when everything is cold so that the Clear Jel doesn't get clumpy.  There may be some tiny bits of strawberry in the puree, but they didn't matter at all. 
      Be sure to use bottled lemon juice in this recipe to add the necessary acidity for canning.  
     Some recipes require blanching the strawberries before adding them to the thickened sauce.  I don't like to do that because the strawberries will lose color.  Instead, I zap them in the microwave for about 2 minutes to slightly soften them.  When it is time to add them to the sauce, I pour them in with any juice as well.  The filling came out beautifully.  
      Leave 1" headspace in your jars and be sure to wipe the rims before adding the lids.

As you can see, this is before I wiped the rim! Also, be sure to leave 1" of headspace.

     Because this recipe only made 2 quarts of Strawberry Pie Filling, I was glad that I have my steam canner to use.  It seems a waste to fill up an entire water bath canner with water to can 2 jars.  The steam canner takes so much less water and gets up to temperature so much faster that I didn't feel annoyed about that part at all.  I processed them for 35 minutes.

Click on the recipe to print

     I was so excited to be able to can my strawberries for the first time that of course I had to design some cute labels to go on them!  I designed them on Canva and printed them on cardstock and cut them out with my paper cutter and scissors.  Just click on the picture below and you can get a pdf to print your own labels.

I tied these cute little tags on with bakers twine. I just love them!

      This recipe actual made slightly more than 2 quarts, so with the left over filling, I made a batch of hand pies!  You can use my standby crust recipe that came out so great today! You can find it here. I also used a hand pie cutter/folder to make mine.  I baked them at 425 degrees F  for 22 minutes.  The crust came our so perfectly flakey and the filling is terrific! 

     Making this filling was really pretty simple and if my bumper crop of strawberries continues, I will probably make some more! Then, this summer, when my strawberries have stopped producing, we will have strawberry pie for the 4th of July!  

Want more pie recipes?

•  Find our For the Love of Pie recipe book in our Etsy shop! Read about it here.
• Blueberry Hand Pies
• Renny's Strawberry Rhubarb Pie