Apple Pie Filling Recipe (2025)

FAQs

What is the best thickener for apple pie filling? ›

All-purpose flour is an easy solution, as you're sure to have it in your pantry. Since it's lower in starch, you'll use more of it than you would higher-starch thickeners. Quick-cooking tapioca makes filling bright and clear, but also gives it a stippled and somewhat sticky texture.

Cornstarch is faster-acting than flour and forms a smooth, relatively clear filling. Just be aware that too much cornstarch can create a slimy texture. When cornstarch is combined with acidic ingredients such as rhubarb or lemon juice, it can cause the texture to break down over time.

Precooking the apples gets you one step ahead of that process; it releases the fruit's liquid, causing them to cook down and lose volume before baking. So it discourages the gap between the top of the apple filling and the top crust, leaving you with a pie that has a thick layer of apples from bottom to top.

If you usually use flour to thicken your apple pie and it's not doing the job, try something different: cornstarch, tapioca, and arrowroot are other established fruit pie thickeners.

All-Purpose Flour

It thickens at at lower temperature than other starches and works great as an all-purpose thickener since you probably have it around.

Corn starch lends a glossy thickness and adds sheen to the filling while flour adds opacity and some mouthfeel so that it has a sort-of creaminess. With all corn starch the filling reminds me too much of store-bought pies with that gloopy clear gel-like texture and with all flour it can get too lumpy and stodgy.

You can thicken your fruit pie filling with lots of different starches — including all-purpose flour, cornstarch, tapioca, and more — and the amount you use will depend on the fruit you're using.

All-purpose flour is an easy substitute for cornstarch; in fact you may see recipes for thickening pie fillings or soups with either. You'll need 2 tablespoons of flour for every 1 tablespoon of cornstarch in a recipe.

Crust dust is a 1:1 mixture of flour and granulated sugar. When baking a pie, especially a fruit pie, a couple of teaspoons of crust dust sprinkled into the bottom of the crust will help prevent the crust from becoming saturated with juicy filling as it bakes.

I do not usually par-bake my fruit pie crusts - this is because with a fresh fruit filling (or even with a cooked fruit filling such as my apple pie or my blueberry crostata), the pie has long enough in the oven that it gives the crust enough time to crisp up properly, removing the need for blind baking.

What apples are best for apple pie? ›

Red Delicious and Gala are two apples that won't withstand cooking temperatures and should not be used for apple pie. Many new apple varieties, including Honeycrisp, have a flesh that fractures when you bite it. This is so appealing for snacking on an apple, but not the best feature for a good apple pie apple.

Avoid using overripe apples to prevent your pie from becoming mushy and wet. Southern Living says choosing the perfect apple variety will be for naught if the fruit is overripe. Your pie will turn out very mushy and lack the flavor apple pie is known for.

If the filling gets too thick (too much cornstarch), thin it out with more heavy cream and a splash of water or apple juice.

To summarize: We recommend using Instant ClearJel or Pie Filling Enhancer, but cornstarch, flour, and quick-cooking tapioca will also work well if you don't have other options available.

The three most common starches used to thicken the fruit juices of a pie are flour, tapioca, and cornstarch. I prefer cornstarch because I find that it actually enhances the flavor of the fruit.

Cornstarch or arrowroot starch – this is how we get a thick and not watery apple crisp!

Clear Jel powder {the cooking type} is simply modified corn starch and works well to keep fillings nice and thick whether you are going to cook them right away, or stash in the freezer for later. Clear Jel powder also works great to thicken up cream pies too.