Canning Apples to Use Later

Apples are delicious and fun to include in so many different recipes. If you love going to apple orchards (or buying them at the store) and enjoying fresh apples, canning apples may be a way to preserve them for use year-round. If you are like us, we have apple trees and apple season brings a lot of apples in quickly.

Why Can Apples?

Simply, it’s cheaper than buying a can when you need it. You also are able to make all your favorite apple dishes (like apple crisp) as they won’t need to be used quickly and can last all year.

This works great for baking apples like fuji, gala and granny smith. We have other canning recipes for apples on our site too.

How Many Apples Do You Need For This Recipe?

This canning recipe calls for 12 pounds of apples. The picture above is 12 pounds of apples. We have a scale that we use to weigh items and they didn’t all fit in the large bowl we had.

Can You Can Apple Slices?

Yes, we used our Kitchen Aid with the peel core and slice attachment and it made the peeling and coring work quick on the apples. Once the apples are cored and sliced (they are spiral sliced with our attachment), you can then cut them into quarters or halves for smaller pieces.

How Do You Keep the Sliced Apples from Browning?

The apples are placed in water with Fruit Fresh while you are cutting up the apples to keep them from browning. As the apples are placed in the jars, the water has lemon juice in it, which will keep the apples from browning and they will keep their natural color.

Are These Apples, Apple Pie Filling?

They are not. These apples do not have a thickener in them and are apples in sugar syrup water. You can make them into apple pie filling after they have been canned and you want to make an apple pie.

apple pieces and slices in bowl ready to can

Can You Make Apple Butter With These Apples?

If you don’t have time to make apple butter, you could certainly peel core and slice the apples and freeze them. You could also can them as this recipe shows and drain to can into apple butter at a later date.

What Size Jars for Sliced Apples?

We use quart jars when canning apples. This allows us to use 2-3 quart jars to make an apple pie or apple crisp.

How Full Do You Fill Jars?

You really want to fill the jars as much as possible. The apples will float to the top if they are not packed well. You also need to be gentle to not crush the apples.

Can Apples Be Water Bath Canned?

This recipe for canning apples uses a water bath canner. So yes, canning apple slices can be water bath canned.

What Recipes Can You Make From Canned Apples?

We make apple crisp, apple pies, apple muffins and apple jack pancakes to name a few. The apples will be softened from the canning process and can also been ate. You could turn them into apple sauce if you wanted as well with a few more steps.

boiling water canner with quart jars of apple slices

Print Recipe

5 from 1 vote

Canning Apples for Baking

Canning Apples is a great way to preserve now, use later. Can you delicious apples now, to use in many delicious dishes all year.

Course: Canning

Cuisine: American

Author: Regina Sober

Equipment

Ingredients

12 pounds washed canning apples
2 cups sugar
4 cups water
2 Tablespoons lemon juice
Fruit Fresh & water – 1 Tablespoon per 1 gallon of water

Instructions

Start heating water bath canner full of water for the ability to water bath jars once full.
Place Fruit Fresh and gallon of water together to soak apples until processing.
Wash, peel and core apples.
Cut apple slices in half (and quarter if desired for easier canning). Place in Fresh Fruit water.
In a large pan, add the water, sugar and lemon juice together and bring to a boil to dissolve the sugar.
Drain the apples from the Fresh Fruit before you place them into the sugar water.
Place the apples into the sugar water for 5 minutes to soften slightly for hot packing the apples.
Remove the apples from the sugar water and place into hot quarts (easier for processing.
Leave 1/2" head space for apples. Pack them in well.
Ladle the sugar water over apples, leaving 1/2" headspace.
Clean rim and add clean band and seal on jar.
Place the hot jar into the hot water bath.
Process jars in boiling water bath for 20 minutes.
Allow the jars to sit 5 minutes before removing from the water. If you don't, the water could boil out of the jars.
Place on a towel on the counter and cover the jars with a towel so they slowly cool.
Label and date the jars.