Freezer Apple Pie Filling

I've almost used up my abundance of apples this year and for the first year in a quite awhile I didn't make applesauce. Mostly because it is a lot of work to make applesauce and since my Mom is busy with moving this month it just wasn't in the cards. So instead I borrowed my Mom's old dehydrator and I've been busy making apple chips. That process takes forever with my old dehydrator and uneven apple slices (oops) so I searched online for more ideas on what to do with apples that didn't involve canning applesauce.

First I had to clean up my home grown apples by washing them in the sink.

I found a recipe for Apple Pie Filling which can be froze in gallon sized freezer bags and I thought I'd give it a try. The first batch I made I forgot to peel the apples which kind of didn't work out so well. It tasted yummy, but the peels just made the texture all wrong. We ate it anyway and I didn't hear a single complaint from anyone so apparently the peels weren't so awful. The second batch I made I was sure to peel though!

Here's the recipe straight from Allrecipes.com:

18 cups thinly sliced PEELED apples
3 Tbsp lemon juice
4 1/2 cups white sugar
1 cup cornstarch
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
10 cups of water

I cut the water to about 5-6 cups and used slightly less sugar since the apples I was working with weren't very tart. I also didn't measure out my apples exactly and had about two mixing bowls worth of sliced apples. Of course I don't measure things out exactly a lot of times when I'm cooking, especially for recipes like this one that don't require exact amounts.

Onto the directions...

In a large bowl, toss apples with lemon juice and set aside. Pour water in large stock pot over medium heat. Combine sugar, cornstarch, cinnamon, salt, and nutmeg. Add to water, stir well, and bring to a boil. Boil for 2 minutes stirring constantly. Add apples and return to a boil. Cover and simmer for 6-8 minutes until apples are tender. Cool for 30 minutes. Ladle into freezer containers leaving 1/2" head space (I used freezer Ziplocks and got enough for 2 large pies or 3 smaller ones). Cool at room temperature no more then 1 1/2 hours before putting in the freezer.

The original recipe states that it makes enough for 5 pies but I assume they mean 5 dinky pies. I do not make dinky pies so I'd say it makes more like 3, but I still have no idea if I was using 18 cups of apples so who knows. The first time I made it I ladled part of the filling into a 9x13 pan and mixed up a cobbler topping for it and baked it for 45 minutes at 375 and it turned out fantastic. The topping was just some butter, flour, sugar, small amount of oats, and cinnamon that I mixed together and spread on top. I would have taken a picture of the final product but my camera battery died right after I took the picture of the cooking apples. It looked good but the SMELL was to die for!