Pear-and-Sour Cherry Pie Filling

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

5 from 2 votes

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Pear-and-Sour Cherry Pie Filling

Yield: 3 x litre jars (US quart)

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Keyword Cherries, Pears, Pie Filling

Prep Time 45 minutes

Cook Time 1 hour

Total Time 1 hour 45 minutes

Yield 3 litre jars (US quart)

Calories 1668 kcal

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)

Metric - US Customary

Instructions

1. Prep the pears (see tip below.) Keep in acidulated water to prevent browning. Set aside.
2. Wash, stem and pit the cherries. Keep in acidulated water to prevent browning. Set aside.
3. Put the sugar OR liquid stevia and cinnamon in a large stainless steel or enamel pot. Mix.
4. Add prepared and drained pear slices and cherries.
5. Add lemon juice.
6. Put the pot on a burner over medium heat.
7. Bring liquid at the bottom to a simmer, stirring carefully with a sturdy spoon.
8. When a simmer is reached, lower heat a bit, then cover the pot.
9. Let cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. The fruits will release a lot of juice.
10. Fill piping hot mixture into hot jars.
11. Ladle into ½ litre (1 US pint / 16 oz) jars or 1 litre (1 US quart / 32 oz) jars.
12. Leave 3 cm (1 ¼ inch) headspace.
13. Debubble well, adjust headspace.
14. Wipe jar rims.
15. Put lids on.
16. Process in a water bath or steam canner.
17. Process either size jar for 30 minutes; increase time as needed for your altitude.

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.

Smarter sweet choices

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

1. Make a pie crust for a 23 cm (9 inch) pie tin. You can make a top crust, or not.
2. Line the pin tin with bottom crust.
3. Start heating the oven to 200 C (400 F).
4. Open jar.
5. Pour about 200 ml (½ cup) of juice off into a large bowl.
6. Add to this juice 2 tablespoons of corn starch.
7. Whisk.
8. Add remainder of jar.
9. Fold gently with a sturdy spoon.
10. Empty bowl into lined pie tin, smoothing evenly.
11. Put in oven.
12. For the first 30 minutes, bake at 200 C (400 F).
13. For the next 20 minutes, lower oven heat to 175 C (350 F).
14. 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.