Making apple pie filling has never been this easy (or tasty). With your Instant Pot, you can make wonderful Apple Pie Filling in minutes and have dessert ready in an hour.
With delicious apple pie not far away, you're going to love this fast filling recipe! From the warm spices to the tender cooked apples, this recipe is irresistibly good and perfect for Fall weather.
With a nicely spiced apple filling, you can use it practically anywhere. I like a small amount over my morning oatmeal. But even pouring it into a baking dish and giving it a cobbler topping or crisp topping sounds like a fabulous idea, wouldn't you agree?
For a fun variation of this recipe, check out my Apple Pie with Graham Cracker Crust.
Why This Recipe Works
- It's easy to make. Get perfectly cooked apples with less work than you'd expect, thanks to your Instant Pot!
- It's versatile. Use homemade apple pie filling for your favorite turnovers, over ice cream, in a pie crust, and so much more.
- It's easy to use in a pie. In fact, down below, in the recipe card, I have included the steps needed to make this into a one crust pie with a nice crumble topping. Yum!
🥘 Ingredients
Apples- Use your favorite baking variety of apples. I like to use Pink Lady, Granny Smith, Jonagold, and Fuji, but feel free to use your favorites or make a combination of them for added flavor depth.
Lemon Juice- This is what helps the apples and filling to stay fresh tasting.
Butter- For added richness and flavor. You can use unsalted or salted butter, depending on what you have on hand.
Sugars- You will need both brown sugar and granulated sugar for this recipe.
Spices- Use ground cinnamon, ground nutmeg, and ground cloves for a warm spice in every bite.
Salt- This is a natural flavor enhancer.
Water- You'll need some water for the base of the filling as this is what becomes the gel-like consistency holding the apples together as they cook.
Cornstarch- We use cornstarch as our pie filling thickener. (By using cornstarch instead of flour, we can keep the filling gluten free.)
For the exact amounts needed, please see the recipe card below.
🍽 Equipment Needed
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🔪 Instructions
Check out how to make Instant Pot apple pie filling with these simple step-by-step instructions:
Slice apples into large pieces, about 8 slices per apple. Peeling is optional.
Toss your apples in a bowl with lemon juice and set aside.
Set your instant pot to Saute Mode and melt the butter.
Whisk in the brown sugar, white sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, salt, and water.
Add in the apple slices and lemon juice. Stir evenly to coat.
Close the lid of the Instant Pot, seal the valve and set it to High Pressure for 0 minutes. The apples will cook as it comes up to pressure.
When the pressure has been reached and the timer goes off, do a Quick Pressure Release to remove the pressure.
Open the lid of the Instant Pot and remove ½ cup to 1 cup of liquid from inside.
Quickly stir the cornstarch into the liquid mixture.
Stir the cornstarch slurry into the apple mixture and stir to combine. Continue stirring until thickened.
Once thickened turn off the Instant Pot and your apple pie filling is ready to use as needed.
NOTE: Recipe Card includes steps for turning filling into a pie with a nice crumble topping.
🍴 Recipe Tips
The most important thing to note about this easy apple pie filling is that the size of your apple slices matter. The thinner you slice them, the more "applesauce-like" they'll become. For actual apple texture, cut them larger.
I recommend cutting a single apple into no more than 8 slices for perfectly sized apples, which do end up thick when cooked, but they'll be fork-tender too.
Peeling the apples is optional and completely up to you.
See notes in the FAQ section and on the recipe card to see why I do NOT recommend canning this recipe.
💭 FAQs
This cooked apple pie filling is great for the freezer or fridge. To store it in the fridge, place it in an airtight container for up to a week. For the freezer, store in the same manner but for up to 6 months. Thaw before use.
As someone who enjoys canning foods SAFELY, I must say that this recipe is NOT safe for water bath canning as it contains cornstarch. Cornstarch is no longer approved in any canning recipe because of its density which may cause proper heating issues and result in unsafe results.
There are a lot of unsafe canning recipes still out there on the internet, and recipes claiming to be safe, that aren't. For tested and approved canning recipes, check out the National Center for Home Preservation.
Here are some more great Instant Pot recipes to try
- Instant Pot Chicken Spaghetti
- Instant Pot Mashed Sweet Potatoes
- Instant Pot Tater Tot Casserole
- Instant Pot Hard Boiled Eggs
📖 Recipe
Instant Pot Apple Pie Filling
Ingredients
Apple Pie Filling:
- 6-8 cups Apples, peeled and sliced ($5.34)
- 2 Tablespoons Lemon juice ($0.48)
- 2 Tablespoons Butter ($0.16)
- ½ cup Brown sugar ($0.19)
- ½ cup Granulated sugar ($0.11)
- 2 teaspoon Ground cinnamon ($0.20)
- ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg ($0.05)
- 1 pinch Ground Cloves ($0.01)
- ¼ teaspoon Salt ($0.02)
- 2 cups Water ($0.00)
- ¼ cup Cornstarch ($0.08)
Crumble Topping (makes enough for 2 pies):
- 1 cup All purpose flour ($0.08)
- 1 teaspoon Ground cinnamon ($0.10)
- ⅓ cup Butter ($0.56)
- ½ cup Brown sugar ($0.19)
- ¼ teaspoon Salt ($0.01)
- 1 single (9-inch) Pie crust ($1.22)
Instructions
Blind Bake Pie Crust
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F and let a frozen pie crust thaw for about 10-20 minutes as it preheats.
- Prick the pie crust several times with a fork along the bottom and sides.
- Place pie crust in oven and bake for about 13-15 minutes and remove from oven to cool. Turn off oven.
Apple Pie Filling
- Slice your apples into larger sized pieces, about 8 pieces per apple. Remove core and seeds. Peeling is optional.
- Toss apple slices with lemon juice in a bowl, set aside.
- Set Instant Pot to saute and melt butter.
- Add in the brown sugar, white sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, salt, and water. Whisk to combine.
- Add in the apple/lemon juice mixture and stir until nicely coated.
- Close the lid of the Instant Pot and seal the valve.
- Set to High Pressure for 0 minutes. The apples will cook as it comes up to pressure and releases pressure.
- When the timer goes off, do a Quick Pressure Release. Note it could get messy depending on apple of choice as some will make extra moisture and cause it to spray out. So do this carefully. Leave the Instant Pot on Warm mode, do NOT turn off!
- Open the lid and remove ½ cup-1 cup of the liquid from inside. Whisk together with the cornstarch, but be fast as it will thicken and become gloop.
- Stir the cornstarch mixture into the apple mix and stir to combine. Continue stirring until thickened.
- Once thickened, turn off the Instant Pot and your apple pie filling can be removed and placed into a prebaked shell or used as desired.
Crumble Topping
- Stir together the crumble ingredients until the size of coarse crumbs or peas.
- Spread over an apple filled pie. There will be crumbsle mix leftover.
- Set oven to Broil on High. If needed, place pie on a baking sheet a.
- Broil for 2-3 minutes until the top looks lightly toasted.
- Let apple pie cool before slicing and serving. Filling will thicken as it cools.
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