Denaye asked:

Have you canned cherry pie filling? I am just wondering because with the bumper crop of cherries here in WA state, we have gobs and need to be creative to use them up.

I am wondering if you would change anything about the recipe or how long you might hot water bath it.

I have not canned my cherry pie filling recipe. I think that the acid from the cherries would break down the thickening (cornstarch) in my recipe while it was sitting in a jar. I know other people do can cherry pie filling, so Google and find out more. :)

I have, however, canned plain cherries. I usually add about 1/2 cup sugar (for sour cherries) per quart, just enough water to bring them to a boil (not much at all!) and then open-kettle can them. (I have to insert here that open-kettle canning isn't recommended; I do it anyway for sour cherries!)

If I were doing a hot water bath I would fill jars with hot cherries, bring to a boil, and time for 20 minutes. (They're very acidic!!)

The cherries I have worked with were quite ripe and tended to break down easily, so minimal stirring/boiling seems best.

I then made my cherry pie filling recipe using canned cherries, just adding some more sugar and thickening the juices from the canning jar. Very easy!

My mom, who has a chest freezer, freezes cherries (spread clean cherries on a cookie sheet until frozen, then bag and label) and makes cherry pie filling from those.

Anyone else have input or experience with canning cherry pie filling? :)