This is a delicious sweet-sour pie filling for home canning that brings you all the flavours of summer in the dead of winter.
This is a tested canning recipe from Ball’s All New book.
As for most of Ball’s pie fillings, you thicken it with cornstarch (2 tablespoons) upon opening a litre / quart jar. See directions further down the page.
The recipe
Jar size choices: Either half-litre (1 US pint / 500 ml/ 16 oz) OR 1 litre (US quart / 32 oz)
Processing method: Either water-bath or steam canning
Yield: 3 litres (US quarts)
Headspace: 3 cm (1 ¼ inch)
Processing time: Either size jar 30 minutes
Pear-and-Sour Cherry Pie Filling
Ingredients
- 1.75 kg Bosc pears (ripe. 3 ¾ lbs. Measured after prep.)
- 1.25 kg sour cherries ( 7 ½ cups / 2.5 lbs. Measured after prep.)
- 675 g sugar (white. 3 cups / 24 oz) OR 3 teaspoons liquid stevia
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 3 tablespoons lemon juice (bottled. 45 ml / 1.5 oz)
Instructions
- Prep the pears (see tip below.) Keep in acidulated water to prevent browning. Set aside.
- Wash, stem and pit the cherries. Keep in acidulated water to prevent browning. Set aside.
- Put the sugar OR liquid stevia and cinnamon in a large stainless steel or enamel pot. Mix.
- Add prepared and drained pear slices and cherries.
- Add lemon juice.
- Put the pot on a burner over medium heat.
- Bring liquid at the bottom to a simmer, stirring carefully with a sturdy spoon.
- When a simmer is reached, lower heat a bit, then cover the pot.
- Let cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. The fruits will release a lot of juice.
- Fill piping hot mixture into hot jars.
- Ladle into ½ litre (1 US pint / 16 oz) jars or 1 litre (1 US quart / 32 oz) jars.
- Leave 3 cm (1 ¼ inch) headspace.
- Debubble well, adjust headspace.
- Wipe jar rims.
- Put lids on.
- Process in a water bath or steam canner.
- Process either size jar for 30 minutes; increase time as needed for your altitude.
Nutrition
The sliced pears
The mixture just before cooking.
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.
For stevia, Better Stevia liquid stevia was the stevia used.
More information about Sugar and Salt-Free Canning in general.
Recipe notes
- For this recipe, it really is best to do all prep in advance because once you start the cooking there will be no time for prep in between stages.
- You want to wash the fruit first before peeling: that way, you aren’t driving surface bacteria into the flesh of the fruit.
- Tip! To prep the pears easily, wash, stem, and peel them. Then slice in half length-wise, and use a melon-baller or grapefruit spoon to core them. Then, cut into slices. Keep peeled pears in bowls or pots of acidulated water, and just have out one at a time to work with, to prevent browning.
Recipe source
- Butcher, Meredith L., Ed. The All New Ball Book of Canning and Preserving. New York: Oxmoor House. 2016. Page 130.
Modifications:
- increased head space by a tidge
How to make a pie with this
- Make a pie crust for a 23 cm (9 inch) pie tin. You can make a top crust, or not.
- Line the pin tin with bottom crust.
- Start heating the oven to 200 C (400 F).
- Open jar.
- Pour about 200 ml (½ cup) of juice off into a large bowl.
- Add to this juice 2 tablespoons of corn starch.
- Whisk.
- Add remainder of jar.
- Fold gently with a sturdy spoon.
- Empty bowl into lined pie tin, smoothing evenly.
- Put in oven.
- For the first 30 minutes, bake at 200 C (400 F).
- For the next 20 minutes, lower oven heat to 175 C (350 F).
- Pie is done when pear slices are soft to a knife and crust is golden brown.
Safety check
This Pear and Sour Cherry pie filling has a pH of 3.57. Well below the upper safety cut-off of 4.6 pH.
Nutrition information
Regular version
When made with sugar, there are 1668 calories per litre / quart jar. A sugar-free version clocks in at just half that in calories: 824.
Per 1 x litre (US quart /32 oz) jar
- 1668 calories, 85 mg sodium
- Weight Watchers PointsPlus®: 46 points per jar.
Sugar-Free Version
Per 1 litre (US quart / 32 oz ) jar:
- 824 calories, 85 mg sodium
- Weight Watchers PointsPlus®: 22 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.
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