Apple Pie Filling

Yesterday at the flea market a man had nice baskets of apples. He wanted $5 for them and he said there were about 6 lbs. in each. I was going to get some anyway but he really sealed the deal when he said, "Fresh off the tree". They were red delicious and yellow delicious and I got a mixed basket. Their smell was just amazing. Apples don't smell like that from the store! I didn't know what I was going to do with them (you just can't keep them just so you can smell them) until I thought about Thanksgiving and Christmas coming up and I don't have any apple pie filling. Phil does like to have at least one apple pie.
So apple pie filling was one of the projects for today. I also made 2 loaves of bread, started a batch of apple wine and wheeled manure from the pig pen down to the garden. The pig pen is going to take a while and my wheelbarrow is breaking so we'll have to think of some way to fix it.
And there are still chores to do. Steaks that we got marked down at the store needs to be ground into hamburger. I have to blanch and freeze that other cauliflower and there are 3 peppers in there as well that should be cut up and frozen before they go bad. Plus there is some leftover roast in there. I'll see how much then decide if I want to can or freeze it.
Anyway, back to the apple pie filling. The recipe said it would make 6 quarts but I was pretty sure it lied and I was right, it only made 4 quarts but that will be plenty of pie for us.

Here is the recipe:

4 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup cornstarch
2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
3 T. lemon juice
5 1/2-6 lbs apples, peeled cored and sliced

In a large pan blend the first 4 ingredients and 1 tsp salt (I missed the salt entirely. I am not sure why the recipe is written this way instead of just putting the salt up there and saying combine the first 5 ingredients). Stir in 10 cups water; cook and stir until thickened and bubbly. Add lemon juice. Pack apples into hot jars, leaving 1 inch headspace. Fill jars with hot syrup leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Adjust lids. Process in boiling water bath 20 minutes (quarts), 15 minutes (pints)

For your pie: Prepare pastry for 2 crust 8 or 9 inch pie. Add 1 quart apple pie filling. Adjust top crust, cutting slits for escape of steam; seal. Bake at 400 F. for 50 minutes.

Since I only got 4 quarts, I had a lot of syrup left- a whole quart. So I canned it as well. Maybe it will be good on ice cream, pancakes or something.