Apple Filling Recipe - Gretchen's Vegan Bakery (2024)

FAQs

What is apple filling made of? ›

To make a apple pie filling, you'll need about 6-7 cups of thinly sliced and peeled apples, 3/4 cup of granulated sugar, 2 tablespoons of all-purpose flour, 1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon, 1/4 teaspoon of ground nutmeg, a pinch of salt, 1 tablespoon of lemon juice, and 2 tablespoons of unsalted butter.

All-purpose flour is an easy solution, as you're sure to have it in your pantry. Since it's lower in starch, you'll use more of it than you would higher-starch thickeners. Quick-cooking tapioca makes filling bright and clear, but also gives it a stippled and somewhat sticky texture.

The best way to thicken runny apple pie filling before baking it is to add some cornstarch, tapioca starch, or flour to your mix. To fix a runny pie that's already been baked, simply let it cool to see if it will congeal naturally. If not, you can stick it back in the oven for a bit longer.

The verdict? They're similar to apple pie filling in texture, but much less sugary and syrupy.

Baking the apple slices first. It's the magic key to a crispy base, superior flavour and perfectly-cooked-and-never-mushy filling. It's also how you get a generous amount of pie filling without the dreaded giant empty cavity under the lid.

Cornstarch is faster-acting than flour and forms a smooth, relatively clear filling. Just be aware that too much cornstarch can create a slimy texture. When cornstarch is combined with acidic ingredients such as rhubarb or lemon juice, it can cause the texture to break down over time.

If you usually use flour to thicken your apple pie and it's not doing the job, try something different: cornstarch, tapioca, and arrowroot are other established fruit pie thickeners.

There are a few apples that don't make the cut. While great for snacking, Gala, Fuji and Red Delicious are the most common apples that won't hold up in the oven and will give you a watery-mushy pie, tart or cake.

Perfect Pie Tip #6: Choose Tart Apples

Pectin is the biological glue that holds together plant cells, giving fruits and vegetables their shape and structure. When apples are cooked, this pectin breaks down, and the apples turn mushy.

How do I keep the bottom of my apple pie from getting soggy? ›

Crust dust is a 1:1 mixture of flour and granulated sugar. When baking a pie, especially a fruit pie, a couple of teaspoons of crust dust sprinkled into the bottom of the crust will help prevent the crust from becoming saturated with juicy filling as it bakes.

Very often flour or cornstarch is used, but in certain instances tapioca, arrowroot and potato starch can also help achieve the desired consistency. Find out which thickener won't break down, preventing your pie from becoming a watery mess in Food Network Kitchens Pie Thickener 101 post.

The most common and accessible way to thicken pie filling is by using a starch. Starches' thickening power comes from their ability to absorb water, which causes the granules to swell, thickening the liquid.

Corn starch lends a glossy thickness and adds sheen to the filling while flour adds opacity and some mouthfeel so that it has a sort-of creaminess. With all corn starch the filling reminds me too much of store-bought pies with that gloopy clear gel-like texture and with all flour it can get too lumpy and stodgy.

Apples are mainly composed of carbs and water. They're rich in simple sugars, such as fructose, sucrose, and glucose. Despite their high carb and sugar contents, their glycemic index (GI) is low, ranging 29–44. The GI is a measure of how food affects the rise in blood sugar levels after eating.

Some of the most well studied antioxidant compounds in apples include quercetin-3-galactoside, quercetin-3-glucoside, quercetin-3-rhamnoside, catechin, epicatechin, procyanidin, cyanidin-3-galactoside, coumaric acid, chlorogenic acid, gallic acid, and phloridzin (Figure ​ 2).

In conclusion, think of the white stuff (kaolin clay) on apples, similar to applying a natural sunscreen to protect human skin from the sun. In both cases, the goal is to protect a surface (apples or skin) from the potentially harmful effects of sunlight.

It's also delicious all by itself, or with your morning yogurt or even a scoop of ice cream. It freezes well too, so this recipe is one of the best ways to use up any large quantities of apples you might have from apple picking. What is this?