Homemade Cherry Pie Filling

Homemade cherry pie filling, or most other fruit fillings are positively quick and so easy to make. Don’t be afraid, just follow these simple directions for perfect results.

Originally published August 20th, 2013.

Do you know how easy it is to make your own homemade cherry pie filling? Or apple, peach, blueberry or rhubarb pie filling, for that matter? Well, I’m going to show you how super easy it is!

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If “life is like a bowl of cherries”, does it mean that there are endless things you can do with your life, just like those cherries?

Does it mean some cherries are sweet, and some are sour, and that somehow equates to the good and bad in our lives? Instead of pondering life’s analogies, I’d rather do something with that bowl of cherries.

Why substituting ingredients sometimes doesn’t work.

I spied some Balaton Cherries (a type of sour cherry) at the grocery store the other day. They looked so good and I wanted to make boozy cherries like Nonna used to make in Italy. However, when I got home and tried to push them tightly into jars, I realized they were much too big to make Nonna’s alcohol soaked fruit. There was too much sugar in the jars due to all the space between the large cherries.

You may also enjoy this Cherry Cheese Streusel Coffee Cake Recipe

Apparently, according to my cousin Gianfranco, I need to use tiny sour cherries (amarena). The problem is that I don’t even know if I can find them here in the US. I bought one type of small sour cherry a few years ago, but haven’t seen them since. (Sigh.)

Those boozy cherries are one of my favorite things in life! I did keep one jar to try, but I don’t think it will meet my standards of tasting like Nonna’s original. Sometimes, there can be no substitutions in a recipe, and this is a case in point.

Use the filling as you desire, but remember that sweeter fruit will need less sugar (peach, eg.) and more sour fruit will need more sugar (rhubarb, eg.).

Homemade Cherry Pie Filling
(or Apple, Peach, Blueberry or Rhubarb)

recipe by Christina Conte               FULL PRINTABLE RECIPE BELOW    

Place the cherries, sugar and lemon juice in a pot over medium heat.

Stir to dissolve the sugar. Add the cornstarch (see printable recipe for directions so you don’t get a lumpy sauce) to the cherries and mix well.

Continue to stir with a wooden spoon just until it comes to a boil and is slightly thickened and glossy. Remove from heat.

Ta dah! You now have homemade cherry pie filling! Remember, you can use these directions for other fruit, too. Just adjust the sugar to fruit ratio depending on how sweet or sour the fruit is (taste it to see if it needs more sugar). Here’s my recipe for a super quick, homemade pie crust.

How do you make a cherry pie or crumble?

This filling perfect for pies, crumbles, crisps, and cobblers. It’s amazing topping for cheesecake, blintzes, pancakes, or ice-cream. The thickened fruit is also a delicious filling for crepes, turnovers and in Black Forest Cake–the list goes on and on.

If you’d like to make a cherry pie (or other fruit pie), make this easy crust Pie Pastry in Under One Minute, then fill it with your pie filling. Bake as per my apple pie recipe.

Maybe you’d like to make a fruit crumble instead, as it’s quite a bit easier than rolling out pastry. If so, here’s another super simple recipe for the topping. I made a cherry crumble with my cherry pie filling. Just pour the cherry filling into an 8×8 pan and top with my super-simple, homemade crumble. See the finished crumble photo at the very bottom of this post. 

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