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! Use homemade apple pie filling for your favorite turnovers, over ice cream, in a pie crust, and so much more.
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?
🥘 Ingredients
- Apples
- Lemon Juice
- Butter
- Brown Sugar
- White Sugar
- Cinnamon
- Nutmeg
- Ground Cloves
- Salt
- Water
- Cornstarch
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 Zucchini
- Instant Pot Tater Tot Casserole
- Instant Pot Hot Chocolate
- Instant Pot Hard Boiled Eggs
📖 Recipe
Instant Pot Apple Pie Filling
Ingredients
APPLE PIE FILLING:
- 6-8 cups thick sliced apples (about 6 apples) ($5.34)
- 2 tablespoon lemon juice ($0.48)
- 2 tablespoon butter ($0.16)
- ½ cup brown sugar ($0.19)
- ½ cup white sugar ($0.11)
- 2 teaspoon cinnamon ($0.20)
- ½ teaspoon nutmeg ($0.05)
- 1 pinch ground cloves ($0.01)
- ¼ teaspoon salt ($0.02)
- 2 cups water ($0.00)
- ¼ cup cornstarch ($0.08)
APPLE CRUMBLE TOPPING (makes enough for 2 pies):
- 1 cup flour ($0.08)
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon ($0.10)
- ⅓ cup butter ($0.56)
- ½ cup brown sugar ($0.19)
- ¼ teaspoon salt ($0.01)
- 1 single 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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