How to Make Homemade Cherry Pie Filling
As summer comes to a close, I want to share with you a recipe for homemade cherry pie filling that I made for a Black Forest Cheesecake on the Fourth of July. I knew I was going to make this cheesecake for friends joining us for Fireworks, but instead of using canned cherry pie filling, I wanted to make it from scratch. Pinterest is, of course, full of these recipes, but I settled on this one by Let’s Dish. It’s a super simple recipe and you can use the cherry pie filling for so many things besides cherry pie!
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Story Time…
A friend who was coming over for the festivities has mentioned a few times her dislike of canned fruit fillings. I aim to please and impress, so I knew the cherry pie filling that was going on top of the cheesecake had to be from scratch. This was also shortly after I decided to become a blogger, so I really felt the need to go big or go home.
My intent was to top the Black Forest Cheesecake with the filling and call it a day, but I didn’t realize just how much this recipe was going to make. With the leftovers, I made Cherry Pie Nice Cream, Mini Cherry Pies, and I still had leftovers! Next time I make this homemade cherry pie filling I’m going to try it in Mini Dutch Babies (Update 10/11/18- I did make them and they are delicious!). Though, maybe I should actually make a whole pie with it…
To the Homemade Cherry Pie Recipe…
Like I said, this recipe is super simple. I used fresh cherries, so the most time consuming bit of this venture was pitting and slicing all of them. Just for this recipe, I went online and bought an awesome cherry pitter. This nifty tool can pit 6 cherries at once and saves you soooooo much time. It still took a hot second to pit 6 cups of cherries, but if I’d done them individually or with just a knife, I’d probably still be pitting them. I should note that it is a bit tricky to clean, but as long as you rinse it off immediately, it’s no problem.
Once that hard bit is all over, you bring all of your ingredients to a boil, drop the heat to low and simmer for 10- 15 minutes, then mix in the extracts. Yes. It literally is that easy. The flavor is phenomenal as well. Every bite is bursting with juicy cherry chunks and the sauce is a beautiful deep red. I imagine it would be very easy to make this with frozen cherries as well. You’d have to make sure to slice them, but it would save you a good chunk of time. I am definitely going to try this at some point.
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Leftovers For Days
I absolutely love this homemade cherry pie filling and I don’t think I can go back to the canned nonsense. Convenience is great and all, but everyone knows it is super tough to beat anything homemade. The first time I made this cherry pie filling I was a bit overwhelmed with how much I had leftover!
Yep. I once had a problem with having too much leftover homemade cherry pie filling. You know life is good when that’s the trouble you need to sort out! I love making extras like curd, pie filling, or sauce because you have to get creative to use it all up. I only needed a portion of the recipe, but ended up whipping up three new recipes- Cheesecake Without a Water Bath, Mini Dutch Babies, Cherry Pie Nice Cream, and Mini Cherry Pies!
Enjoy!
Now that you’ve got a boatload of homemade cherry pie filling, what the heck are you going to do with it? Of course, you could bake a pie, top a cheesecake, whip up some Cherry Pie Nice Cream, make Mini Cherry Pies, fill some Mini Dutch Babies…
Seriously, the possibilities are endless! I even topped waffles and yogurt with this tasty cherry pie filling. What are you going to use it for? Let me know what you do. Maybe incorporate it into mini cheesecakes or cupcakes. I can’t wait to hear all about it! Meanwhile, if you’d like to see what recipes catch my fancy, follow me on Pinterest.
Frozen Fruit Update
So I tried making a half batch of the cherry pie filling with frozen fruit to see how that would work out. It was perfect! Granted, fresh cherries are a bit better, the frozen ones worked just great. I made a half batch of this recipe with frozen cherries to top my latest cheesecake. Nix the water and you’re good to go!
Homemade Cherry Pie Filling
Ingredients
- 6 cups pitted cherries sliced in half
- 1/2 cup water
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- 2/3 cup sugar
- pinch of salt
- 3 tbsp cornstarch
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp almond extract
Instructions
- Combine cherries, water, lemon juice, sugar, salt, and cornstarch in a large saucepan over medium- high heat. Bring to a boil, stirring occassionally.
- Reduce the heat to low and simmer until thickened, stirring constantly. (This could take a few minutes or up to 15 minutes.)
- Remove from heat and mix in the vanilla and almond extracts.
Notes
- If using frozen fruit, omit the water and don't worry about slicing the cherries in half. The consistency will still be a bit runnier and the fruit will lose its shape, but it will still taste great.
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Colleen
Hi there! I’m Colleen, a novice baker with a passion for learning and improving my bakes… and blunders. On Bakes and Blunders, you can find all sorts of tasty recipes that range in difficulty, but most importantly, I’ll try to explain the reason behind important steps. If you know why a recipe works, you can tweak and adapt it to suit your unique tastes, and you’ll be able to reliably produce some very delicious treats. If you love baking and want to expand and grow your skills, or if you are a casual baker and just need some pointers, my blog is right up your alley! Join me on my baking journey and we’ll learn how to make more impressive recipes together.
3 Comments
Kelly
Just a suggestion, to move the note at the bottom that says no water if using frozen up next to the ingredient listing the water. I just put everything in the pot when I noticed this note at the bottom. I’m hoping I didn’t just waste an entire bag of organic frozen cherries. 🥲
Chef Mireille
this looks so much better than the jarred versions. Those just the look of them make me nauseas. This is one pie filling I can get into!
Colleen
Homemade is almost always better, and that’s definitely true with this recipe. I have never been a fan of canned pie filling and now I’ll never go back!