Apple Pie time

Wednesday night Sarah and I canned 21 quarts of apple pie filling.  One of her co-workers had given her a jar.  We had plenty of apples so thought we would give it a shot.  Doesn't really take that long when you have the right tools.  Rural King sells the best one.  An apple peeler, corer, slicer.  Makes short work of pealing, slicing and coring about 24 lbs of apples.  Only took us about 2 hours start to finish.

Had a few apples left over so I got out a couple packages of frozen pie crusts and made a couple of fresh apple pies.  Even put one package of apples in the freezer. 

These canned apples will be really good this winter.  I think Sarah is even going to use some of them as gifts.

Recipe:
Ingredients:   6-8 lbs apples  (makes 7 quarts)

Syrup:
4 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup cornstarch
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon salt
10 cups water
3 teaspoons lemon juice

Instructions:
1.  Peel and slice apples.
2.  Place in a large bowl with 8 cups water and 3 Tablespoons lemon juice to prevent browning.
Make syrup: 
3.  In heavy saucepan put all syrup ingredients, EXCEPT cornstarch and lemon juice.
4.  Mix well.
5.  Remove 3 cups of the liquid and put in bowl.  Gradually add cornstarch, whisking very well after each
     addition, making sure there are no clumps.
6.  Add corn starch liquid to the liquid in the saucepan on the stove.
7.  Cook syrup until it bubbles and thickens.
8.  Add 3 Tablespoons lemon juice and continue cooking until syrup is thick.
Prepare to can:
9.  Rinse and drain apples.
10. Begin ladling syrup into clean jars,  add a large spoonful of apple, repeat layers until jar is full.
      (Note you will need to push the apples down in the jars so they are full of apples.  The syrup will)
      (come up around them.)
11. Check the head space at the top of your jar.  (leave about a 1/2")
12. Clean the rim of the jar with a damp cloth.
13. Place a canning lid on jar.  (As your getting things ready you should have all 7 of your lids boiling in a
      small sauce pan.)
14. Process 20 minutes in a hot water bath.