Canned Rhubarb Pie Filling

In the Clearjel pie fillings, bubbles can re-appear no matter how well you debubbled. But no worries, the fillings will be fine.

Delicious homemade pie filling — in jars on the shelf ready for nearly-instant desserts. These are jars of spring days with warm breezes and lengthening daylight, ready for use in pies, tarts, muffins, cobblers, crumbles, etc.

This is a tested canning recipe courtesy of the Washington State University Extension Service.

If you can’t get Clearjel where you are, make this without adding any thickener. Then when you open a jar and go to use it, stir in 4 tablespoons of the thickener of your choice, such as cornstarch, flour, arrowroot starch, tapioca starch, etc. (Don’t, however, can this with those in it.)

The recipe for 1 jar

Jar size choices: Either ½ litre (1 US pint / 500 ml/ 16 oz) OR 1 litre (US quart / 32 oz)

Processing method: Either water-bath or steam canning

Headspace: 3 cm (1 ¼ inch)

Processing time: Either size jar 30 minutes

Yield: This recipe is for 1 x 1 litre (1 US quart) jar. You can multiply it if you wish, up to 7 (that is the usual suggested max, just because the standard canner will take a max of 7 x litre / quart jars at once.)

3.69 from 35 votes

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Rhubarb Pie Filling

Delicious home-canned, homemade pie filling — in jars on the shelf ready for nearly-instant desserts.

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Keyword Pie Filling, Rhubarb

Prep Time 1 hour

Cook Time 1 hour

Total Time 2 hours

Yield 1 litre (US quart) jar

Calories 1113 kcal

Ingredients

• 500 g rhubarb (chopped. 3 ½ cups / 4 large or 8 small stalks. Chopped into approx. 1 inch / 3 cm pieces).
• 250 g sugar (white. 1 cup / 8 oz)
• 30 g Clearjel (4 tablespoons / ¼ cup / 1.25 oz)
• 175 ml water (¾ cup / 6 oz)
• 4 tablespoons lemon juice (bottled)
• 4 drops red food colouring (optional)

Metric - US Customary

Instructions

1. Discard the rhubarb leaves.
2. Wash and prep the rhubarb, chopping the stalks into chunks about 3 cm (1 inch).
3. Mix sugar with rhubarb, let stand for 15 to 30 minutes until juice starts to appear.
4. In a large pot, mix together the Clearjel and liqud. Set aside.
5. Heat rhubarb gently to piping hot.
6. Put the Clearjel mixture pot on to cook over medium high-heat.
7. When it starts to thicken, which will be very soon, add the lemon juice.
8. Cook for 1 minute.
9. Add rhubarb, then cook for 3 more minutes to heat through, then remove from heat. Stir carefully to break down the rhubarb as little as possible.
10. Ladle pie filling into ½ litre (1 US pint) or 1 litre (1 US quart) jars.
11. Leave 3 cm (1 ¼ inch) headspace.
12. Debubble, adjust headspace.
13. Wipe jar rims.
14. Put lids on.
15. Process in a water bath or steam canner.
16. Process either size jar for 30 minutes; increase time as needed for your altitude. See chart below.

Reference information

How to water bath process.

How to steam can.

When water-bath canning or steam canning, you must adjust the processing time for your altitude.

Sugar-free rhubarb pie filling

This recipe is for 1 x 1 litre (1 US quart) jar. You can multiply it if you wish, up to 7 (that is the usual suggested max, just because the standard canner will take a max of 7 x litre / quart jars at once.)

To be clear, removing the sugar is a modification of Washington State’s recipe.

5 from 1 vote

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Rhubarb Pie Filling (Sugar-free)

Delicious home-canned, homemade pie filling — in jars on the shelf ready for nearly-instant desserts. Here's how to do it sugar-free.

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Keyword Pie Filling, Rhubarb

Prep Time 1 hour

Cook Time 1 hour

Total Time 2 hours

Yield 1 litre (US quart) jar

Calories 176 kcal

Ingredients

• 500 g rhubarb (chopped. 3 ½ cups / 4 large or 8 small stalks. Chopped into approx. 1 inch / 3 cm pieces).
• 1 ½ teaspoons liquid stevia
• 30 g Clearjel (4 tablespoons / ¼ cup / 1.25 oz)
• 175 ml water (¾ cup / 6 oz)
• 4 tablespoons lemon juice (bottled)
• 4 drops red food colouring (optional)

Metric - US Customary

Instructions

1. Discard the rhubarb leaves.
2. Wash and prep the rhubarb, chopping the stalks into chunks about 3 cm (1 inch).
3. Freeze for 4 to 6 hours or over night, until frozen solid.
4. In a large pot, mix together the Clearjel, stevia, and liqud. Set aside.
5. Thaw the rhubarb completely (using microwave is fine.) Reserve all juice that comes off. Heat a batch at a time (3 or 4 good heaping cups / handfuls) in microwave to piping hot. Again reserve all juice that comes off. Use this juice as part of the water / juice liquid requirement. Top up if needed with water or juice. Keep rhubarb covered to keep it hot.
6. Put the Clearjel mixture pot on to cook over medium high-heat.
7. When it starts to thicken, which will be very soon, add the lemon juice.
8. Cook for 1 minute.
9. Add rhubarb, then cook for 3 more minutes to heat through, then remove from heat. Stir carefully to break down the rhubarb as little as possible.
10. Ladle pie filling into ½ litre (1 US pint) or 1 litre (1 US quart) jars.
11. Leave 3 cm (1 ¼ inch) headspace.
12. Debubble, adjust headspace.
13. Wipe jar rims.
14. Put lids on.
15. Process in a water bath or steam canner.
16. Process either size jar for 30 minutes; increase time as needed for your altitude. See chart below.

Sugar-free reference

Smarter sweet choices

For stevia, Better Stevia liquid stevia was the stevia used.

More information about Sugar and Salt-Free Canning in general.

Pictured are ¾ litre (¾ quart) jars from Bernardin.

Recipe notes

• To make with refined white sugar, see first recipe on page.
• No matter how much you debubble, Clearjel pie filing recipes are prone to having bubbles in them.
• Instead of water, you could use a juice such as cranberry juice (sugar-free to keep the calories down, if you wish), or apple juice or grape juice.
• Under no account include the leaves; they are toxic.
• The freezing and thawing step helps break down the fibrous, stringy stalks, which is normally accomplished with white sugar.
• Some people advise to leave headspace of 3 cm (1 ½ inches), because of how much the mixture swells during processing. Others say excess headspace won’t help: instead, take the precautions mentioned above.

No substitute for Clearjel

You can’t use flour or cornstarch etc, in this USDA recipe, only Clearjel.

Pamela Schmutz at Clemson University explains:

The recipes for fruit pie fillings all use a modified food starch called Clear Jel®. This starch produces the correct thickening, even after the fillings are canned and baked. Other starches, such as cornstarch, break down and result in a runny filling. Clear Jel® must be used as the thickener in these recipes; there is no substitution. Do not use any other form of Clear Jel®, such as Instant Clear Jel®.” ^[1] Schmutz, Pamela. Pie Fillings. Georgia: Clemson University Extension. HGIC 3160. August 2010. Accessed August 2015.

Making a pie with this

A ¾ litre (¾ quart) jar makes an ample 20 cm (8 inch) pie; a full litre (quart) jar makes a generous 20 cm (8 inch) pie.

For a 23 cm (9 inch) pie:

• 1 litre (US quart) jar makes a scant pie;
• Some people say to take a 1 litre jar, empty into a bowl, then mix in a half-litre (1 US pint) jar of plain canned stewed rhubarb, and use that, for a really fruity and generous rhubarb pie.

Line a pie dish with a pie crust. Pour in your rhubarb pie filling and cover with another pie crust, solid or latticed, crimping edges to seal. Bake at 175 C (350° F) for 1 hour or until crust is golden brown.

Rhubarb growing and harvesting tips

Allow rhubarb to grow for two years untouched before harvesting. You can start harvesting it in the third year. In that third year, you can harvest for up to 4 weeks at the start of the season. By its fourth year, and after, you can harvest stalks for 8 to 10 weeks. Stop harvesting rhubarb by mid-June, leaving at least ⅓ of the stalks. The plant needs this to store strength in the roots to produce a good crop next year. ^[2]Jauraon, Richard. Answers to Frequently Asked Rhubarb Questions. Iowa State University Extension. 14 May 2004. Accessed June 2016 at .https://www.ipm.iastate.edu/ipm/hortnews/2004/5-14-2004/rhubarb.html See the rhubarb page at Cooksinfo.com for a more detailed discussion including later summer and fall harvesting.

Recipe source

• Washington State University Extension Service’s directions for adaptation of the USDA’s Peach Pie Filling into Rhubarb ^[3]Washington State University Chelan / Douglas / Okanogan County Extension. Let’s Preserve Fruit Pie Fillings. September 2010. Page 5.
• Their source was: Peach Pie Filling. In: United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Complete guide to home canning. Agriculture information bulletin No. 539. 2015. Page 2-30.

Modifications made:

• Omit cinnamon and almond extract. Cut back Clearjel by 1 tablespoon to make it less gloopy.

Nutrition information

Tip: to keep calories low, consider using 3 or 4 layers of Phyllo Pastry sheets for your crust in pies or tart shells.

Regular version

Per 1 litre (US quart / 4 cups / 32 fluid oz) jar:

• 1113 calories, 38 mg sodium

Sugar-free version

Per 1 litre (US quart / 4 cups / 32 fluid oz) jar:

• 176 calories, 38 mg sodium
• Weight Watchers PointsPlus®: 4 points per jar

* Nutrition info provided by https://caloriecount.about.com

* PointsPlus™ calculated by healthycanning.com. Not endorsed by Weight Watchers® International, Inc, which is the owner of the PointsPlus® registered trademark.

* Better Stevia ® is a registered trademark of the NOW Foods Company.

Further reading

When I’ve canned pie fillings using ClearJel ®, the filling seems to leak out the jars. What can I do to prevent this? In: Driessen, Suzanne. Food Preservation FAQs. University of Minnesota Extension. 2014. Accessed June 2015 at https://www.extension.umn.edu/food/food-safety/preserving/general/food-preservation-faqs/.

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie Filling