How to make Homemade Cherry Pie Filling using fresh, frozen, or canned cherries. Delicious in pie, on pancakes, on cheesecake, or on ice cream! The best part is it can be frozen and saved for another day!

Homemade Cherry Pie Filling

cherries

cornstarch

Tablespoons lemon juice

salt (leave

sugar (use 1/4 cup if using canned cherries)

water

vanilla

lemon zest

almond extract (optional)

In medium saucepan, combine cherries, cornstarch, lemon juice, salt, sugar, and water over medium heat until mixture starts to bubble. Turn heat to low and simmer for 10 minutes, stirring often.&nbsp;

Remove from heat and add vanilla, lemon zest, and almond extract (optional). Cool for 10-15&nbsp; minutes before using as a dessert topping, or bake in a pie!

I made this at the last minute for a family 4th gathering when my well intentioned mom got canned cherries rather than pie filling.  It was probably better this way anyway!  Thanks for saving our dessert!  My cobbler turned out super yummy!  It was very easy and I feel like anyone can do it.  It doesn’t take much more time at all.  If you’re reading this and are unsure, do it!  You’ll be glad you did.

Easy and delicious. Yum. I blended some of the cherries just for fun while cooking.

Made a half recipe of this late last night when I was already tired and was so glad it was straightforward easy and quick. For the record, I used tart red cherries (what I hadj) and - because they’re tart (and I was tired) - i  used unsweetened tart cherry juice in place of both the lemon juice and the water (plus a single drop of confectioners lemon oil at the end instead of the zest). It turned out great and made a delicious topping for the tapioca puddings. I had a little sample when it had that 15 minutes to cool and was glad I’d made barely enough because if there had been any extra I probably would have eaten it right then.

I was making filling for pre baked mini tart and pie shells for my daughter's salon open house. It turned out too thick once refrigerated. I have read it can be thinned by adding some water or fruit juice. My question is do I need to heat it up again in microwave before adding liquid. I need it fairly thick as to not get my shells soggy but don’t want it to look congealed.

Hi Sara,
I used 4 cups of fresh, pitted, tart cherries in the filling (I live close to Door County, WI where fresh cherries are king! 😉). I increased the amount of sugar to 1 cup (the cherries were extremely tart!) and used Real Lemon instead of fresh squeezed. I kept all other ingredients and their measurements according to your recipe. The filling turned out just wonderful! Thank you for such an easy and delicious cherry pie filling recipe!
Kathy

homemade cherry pie filling

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 10 minutes

Total: 20 minutes

Servings: 6

Ingredients

Instructions

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