Trader Joe’s Apple Pie Filling, reviewed

When it comes to apple pie, I firmly believe that you can’t beat a made-from-scratch pie. It’s fun to make and shape the crusts and you have total control of how sweet or tart your filling will be. The option of opening a can of prepackaged pie filling and pouring it into a frozen pie shell is not necessarily a bad one, however. I know that doing this allows you to fill your kitchen with the smell of freshly baked apple pie while saving some valuable holiday time for doing other things. Plus, there are some good options out there for both premade pie crusts and pie fillings. Trader Joe’s Apple Pie Filling is a new offering from TJ’s, introduced just for the holiday pie-baking season. The large jar holds 32 ounces, which should be enough for a generously filled apple pie, and it is made with the same all natural ingredients that you would probably put into your pie filling anyway.

The filling tastes like, well, the filling of an apple pie! It has a good, fresh apple flavor and a mild mix of spices, so it actually reminds me a lot of apple cider. It has a good consistency, with plenty of large apple slices, so you won’t confuse it with chunky apple sauce even though it looks very similar while still in the jar. The apple slices are very tender and the filling surrounding them is smooth and sweet.

Since I like my apple pies on the chunkier side, I probably will not be replacing my homemade fillings with this one when I’m making a full sized pie. If I did, I might chop up one fresh apple into thin slices and add it in for a little extra texture. I would definitely use it (and already have!) to fill up single serving pies baked in muffin tins or in my mini pie maker, as those smaller pies require fillings to be precooked anyway. You can also use this as the base for an easy apple crisp or heat it up on the stovetop and serve it with vanilla ice cream.