This comes in so handy when you need a quick dessert for a get together or last minute guests. Open a jar of Strawberry Pie Filling, pour it into a pie crust, bake and you’ve got Strawberry Pie in no time!
This recipe, as listed below, yields 4 quarts. As always, I canned big. I more than doubled the recipe and it yielded 10 qts.
Ingredients for 4 qts:
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16 cups (4 lbs.) strawberries, sliced
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3 1/2 cups white sugar
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1 1/4 cup Clear Jel, can be purchased from most local Amish Stores.
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4 cups water
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4 1/2 Tablespoons lemon juice
Slice strawberries and set aside. I got really lucky this time! I had a friend to call me and ask if I could use some strawberries. She’d worked herself sick of strawberries that week! She had some that she was ready to throw out; not because they were bad, but because she was sick of strawberries! The berries were already capped and ready to go! I felt like I had won the lottery! Thank you my dear friend!!!
Preheat the oven to 200 degrees to get the jars hot, start a water bath canner with water and start a pot of boiling water for your lids. Once you get started, this is going to go quick.
In a large pot, combine sugar, Clear Jel, water, and lemon juice. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly. This stuff will stick and scorch in a second with no notice, so stir, stir, stir!
Within 5-7 minutes it will begin thickening, gel, and begin looking like this:
Stir or fold in the strawberries once the mixture is thickened. This stuff will thicken even more the cooler it gets. (Yes, I really did put all 40 cups of strawberries in the pot!)
Spoon the hot mixture into sterile mason jars leaving 1 & 1/2 inch headspace. This headspace is important! If you don’t leave the full 1 & 1/2 inch headspace it will bubble out and make a mess while in the water bath canner. I even had one to blow the lid! Thank goodness, I had my canner lid on, or else that would have been one big mess!
Water bath 30 minutes. As the jars sit, don’t be surprised if pie filling run out from under the lid and down the side of a few jars, they will still seal. I had a few do this. The only thing I can figure is those needed 2 inches of head space! I left them be, let them do their thing and washed the jars the next morning as I removed the rings.
Preserving the Good Life 
Great idea!
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Reblogged this on Preserving the Good Life and commented:
***Be sure to allow extra head space when using Clear Jel***
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