How to Make Easy Freezer Pie Fillings (Preserve the Harvest)

Want more pie in your future? Want to preserve more fruit in new, different, and useful ways? Want traditional goodness even though you’re often pressed for time?

Wish you could make pie fillings ahead without all the sugar that’s required for canned versions?

Then here’s a hack for you!

It’s a simple way to make freezer pie fillings with fresh, local fruits and berries. Make them ahead of time, then have them ready to just pull out and fill your crust, then bake.

Future you will thank you for it! (Especially during those busy holidays!)

Jump to:

• Why Freezer Pie Fillings?
• Containers for Storing Your Freezer Pie Fillings
• How to Make Easy Freezer Pie Fillings
• Making Fillings with Previously Frozen Fruit
• To Use Your Freezer Pie Filling:
• Recipes for Prep-Ahead Freezer Pie Fillings
• Adjust as Desired for Batch Size or Taste

Why Freezer Pie Fillings?

• No canning involved
• No expensive equipment necessary
• Faster and easier than canning fillings
• More control and flexibility over ingredients
• Less sugar
• Quick and easy to pull out to make a pie any time
• Easier to use than frozen fruit
• Less juice and flavor loss because you don’t have to thaw completely before filling and baking your pie, and even if you do, the thickener is in there to absorb it
• Better thickening than with frozen fruit
• Great way to preserve the harvest
• Great way to eat with the seasons!

Not that we’re not also a fan of canning and other forms of preserving, but there can be downsides to those, too.

One of the bigger problems when it comes to canning pie fillings is that there are right and wrong ways to do it and specific ingredients you can and can’t use (we’re talking about the great thickener debates). Some ingredients can be hard for some people to find.

Many canned pie-filling recipes contain loads of sugar (one of the things that preserves and protects the product). For many, the amount of sugar you’d need for some fruits and in some recipes is just too much to make a good-tasting pie filling. You can’t safely veer from the recipe, either, so you can’t change it to suit your taste.

Fortunately, for freezer fillings, freezing is the preservative. So you can play with the ingredient list to your heart’s content and your product will still be completely safe.

Even better? Making freezer fillings takes much less time, and the only equipment you need is a knife, measuring cups and spoons, and bags (or containers of your choosing).

Containers for Storing Your Freezer Pie Fillings

For this project, we prefer a simple box of freezer bags (we like the zipper style the best for these).

Vacuum sealers are great for many things, but they would not be our first choice. You can’t seal them without mashing the fruit. The fruit will be a solid block. And the filling is probably too moist to do a good job of sealing for most home vacuum sealers anyway.

We recommend using an oversized bag, like a one-gallon bag, squeezing the air out, and then spreading the fruit flat so it isn’t one big clump. That way, the pieces freeze mostly as individual, movable fruit slices or berries.

This makes it easier to dump into your pie filling without having to thaw the filling to fill the shape. Otherwise, you end up with a lump of frozen filling that isn’t easy to cover. It’s hard to have that coming out looking nice.

If you’re trying to reduce disposable single use plastic, freezer safe containers or deli containers will work, too. But they will come with the “frozen clump” problem. That is, unless you first freeze the filling on parchment paper on a baking tray, and then fill the container after it is frozen. They are also on the small side of this project.

Yet another option is to prep the fruit or berries and flash-freeze just the fruit on a tray, then mix with the remaining ingredients and fill your containers. That way, the berries or slices will still stay separated.

How to Make Easy Freezer Pie Fillings

1. Prepare your fruit: Peel and slice things like apples, peaches, or stone fruits. Small to medium berries may be left whole. Slice larger berries, like strawberries.

2. Measure four cups of the fruit into a bag.

3. Add the sugar.
4. Add the flour and spices.

5. Gently shake or work the bag to distribute the sugar, flour, and spices mostly evenly.
6. Label the bag’s contents -- it will be hard to tell the filling from other sliced fruits in the freezer!

7. When you load the bags into the freezer, be sure to lay them flat and spread the fruit around so it can freeze mostly separately. That will make it easy to pour into your pie shells later.
8. That’s it! It’s that easy!

Making Fillings with Previously Frozen Fruit

If your fruit is already in the freezer, you may still be able to make freezer pie fillings. Whether or not you can depends on two things:

1. Whether the fruit is one giant frozen clump
2. Whether you know the measurement of fruit in the bag

If the fruit is loose enough to be measured and rebagged, use that for your base. Keep the fruit frozen. Do not thaw. Measure it into a bag as outlined above, then continue with the instructions, seal, label, and return to the freezer.

To Use Your Freezer Pie Filling:

• Prepare your pie crust as normal
• Pour the frozen filling into the crust
• Top, flute, or crimp the edges, and bake right away

If the filling froze in a solid mass:

• Take the filling out ahead of time and let it thaw partially
• Thaw just until it is loose enough to spread around to most of the pie plate
• Do NOT drain the juices as it thaws!
• Thaw in a bowl to capture the juice
• Remember, the thickener and ingredients are in that juice. It will thicken as it cooks.
• You do not want to drain juices that would also drain away thickeners (flour) and flavorings (sugar and spices).

Recipes for Prep-Ahead Freezer Pie Fillings

There are many fruits you can use to make prepped freezer pie fillings. Here are some excellent options and recipes!

Apple Pie Filling

• 6 cups peeled and sliced apples
• ½ cup sugar (use up to ¾ cup for sweeter filling or for less sweet apples)
• ¼ cup all-purpose flour
• ½ teaspoon cinnamon
• ⅛ teaspoon nutmeg

Pear Pie Filling

• 6 cups peeled and sliced pears
• ½ cup sugar
• ¼ cup all-purpose flour
• Optional ½ teaspoon cinnamon
• Optional ¼ teaspoon nutmeg or allspice

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie Filling

• 2 cups sliced strawberries
• 2 cups rhubarb, cut into ½ inch pieces
• 1 ½ cups sugar
• ½ cup all-purpose flour
• Dash cinnamon
• Dash nutmeg
• Optional ½ teaspoon orange peel

Rhubarb Pie Filling

• 4 cups rhubarb chopped into ½ inch pieces
• 1 ⅔ cup sugar (white or brown)
• ⅓ cup all-purpose flour
• Optional: dash nutmeg or allspice and cinnamon

Peach Pie Filling

*Can use nectarines also

• 6 cups peeled and sliced peaches
• ¾ cup sugar
• ⅓ cup all-purpose flour
• Optional ½ teaspoon cinnamon
• Optional ¼ teaspoon nutmeg or allspice

Blueberry Pie Filling

• 4 cups blueberries (whole)
• ¾ cup sugar
• ⅓ cup all-purpose flour
• Optional ¼ teaspoon cinnamon
• Optional ⅛ teaspoon nutmeg

Cherry Pie Filling

• 4 cups pitted tart cherries
• 1 ¼ cups sugar
• ⅓ cup all-purpose flour

Raspberry Pie Filling

• 5 cups whole raspberries
• ¾ cup sugar
• ⅓ cup all-purpose flour

Adjust as Desired for Batch Size or Taste

The beauty of making freezer pie fillings is that you have the luxury of flexibility without impacting food safety.

Feel free to adjust the previous recipes to suit your taste or to suit your pie size!

You can also make a large batch by multiplying the batches and mixing everything in a bowl first. Be sure to mix evenly. Then, portion the bulk batch out into bags and proceed as instructed above.

With these prepared freezer fillings on hand, you will be enjoying fresh baked, homemade pies any time you want. Enjoy!