6 Canned Apple Pie Fillings, Ranked

We may receive a commission on purchases made from links.

If there is one dessert I'm known for, it has to be my apple pie. Surely, my signature chocolate chip cookies and miso caramel fudge brownies are legendary, but I consider a good apple pie one of the most fundamental things that any home baker can master — which is why I take immense pride in my own recipe. I won't tell you my tips for great apple pie right now, but I will tell you one thing my pie doesn't have: canned apple filling.

Now, I'm all for a good shortcut. However, the experience of peeling apples (and snacking on slices as you cut them) and adding your own seasoning is part of what makes baking apple pie so special. As such, pre-seasoned apple pie filling is like an enigma to me. But is it possible that I've been discounting a perfectly good alternative to hand-peeling pounds upon pounds of apples all these years? 

This question guided my decision to sample and rank all of the canned apple pie fillings that I could find based on their texture, flavor, and value. These run the gamut from generic grocery brands to $15-per-jar gourmet pie fillings, so there is something for every budget and pie lover out there. Are there any brands that are toothsome, perfectly textured, and that offer a balanced, spiced sweetness worthy of a "homemade" pie? Read on to find out. 

Prices are as of the date of publication and may vary based on region.

I wouldn't blame you for assuming Great Value would be out of the running based on its brand. The Walmart-owned brand is notorious for offering products you're better off leaving out of your cart, so I had little hope for its pie filling, which was affordably priced at around $2.48 for a 20-ounce can.  

I searched far and wide for the plain edition, but only managed to scrounge up a can of its no-sugar-added version. It's sweetened with sucralose and proudly boasts having "70% fewer calories than regular Great Value pie filling" on the can. Unfortunately, the only reason I could foresee someone buying this can is if they were specifically in the market for a no-sugar-added pie filling, as the taste of the gel is pretty dreadful. 

The apples are firm and plump, so they get high marks for texture from me. The fruit was evenly sized, scooped from the can with a satisfying "plop," meaning it had all the visual makings of a good pie filling. However, sucralose (Splenda), a low-calorie artificial sweetener, can taste bitter when used in excess. And since the apples here don't taste like much, eating them is like getting a straight shot of sucralose with no chaser. I could almost feel the headache coming on immediately, and it tasted like every other sucralose-ridden food I've tried (zero-sugar sweet tea, specifically). This filling will make a pretty pie, but it won't taste very good, thus earning it a spot at the bottom of my list.

Do you know how much it kills me to rank a jar of apple pie filling that costs nearly $15 on Amazon at the bottom of my list? I wanted to like Bonne Maman, I really did, and my favorable opinion of the brand definitely stems from when I tried its cherry pie filling and was genuinely impressed by its flavor. Like the cherry version, the apple's texture is unique. While all the other pie fillings feature sizable apple pieces, this one is the passionate lovechild of apple butter and marmalade. It is thick and pulpy, with an errant piece of apple submerged in the gloop. If you didn't see those chunks, you wouldn't be able to tell that it was apple pie filling.

It's never a good sign when the fruit is mushy before it goes into the pie shell, and I have a feeling this one would only get gloopier as it baked. You might be able to get away with putting it into muffins or using it on ice cream or in some other application where apple butter would suffice, but it just wouldn't work in a pie. 

I did have to rank Bonne Maman a spot above Great Value because it has a much more pleasant flavor. The apples are floral and honeyed, which makes this a more complex filling than any of the others I sampled. It's a shame that its texture is so off, but hey, at least I got a beautiful glass jar out of it that I can repurpose (like for prepping food).

I will start this one with a pro: There are definitely real apples in Stop & Shop's Apple Pie Filling. I would know, considering I found an errant seed floating in the gel when I opened the can — so eat at your own risk. I'd consider the apples in this can to be a middling size. They're not as large as the pieces in Great Value's can, but not as pureed as Bonne Maman apple butter (err ... pie filling). The fruit is firm and plentiful, and there is a fair amount of gel in the can, too.

However, the taste of the fruit is exactly like what you'd find in a store-bought apple pie. The fruits have an almost audible crunch when you bite into them, and the gel coating has no flavor beyond being generally sweet. There was no cinnamon or nutmeg to supplement the underwhelming apples, so the filling comes across as horribly bland — and very sweet. If you are looking to make a pie that says "Yep! I liked store-bought apple pie so much that I decided to make it myself!" you should buy this can. But I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that most people are looking for a pie filling that is a bit more homemade-adjacent than this one. While I appreciate that the fruit was appropriately sized and sturdy (beating Bonne Maman), this canned filling was a bit too "mass-produced" for my liking. 

I should have learned my lesson: Favorite Day is not to be trusted with baking (or generally sweet) ingredients. I tried its whipped cream for a ranking, and it was one of the worst whipped creams I'd ever sampled, but I tried to clear my head before sampling its Apple Pie Filling or Topping. This can is well-packed with fruit, and those slivers are slightly less crunchy than Stop & Shop's version. It also leans acidic, with notes of lemon or something citrus-adjacent, even if the fruit itself tastes like nothing at all. If asked whether Stop & Shop's or Favorite Day's fillings tasted more apple-like, I'd have to say this one, which is why it scored slightly higher in my ranking. 

That said, this is definitely not a great apple pie filling, nor is it one I'd buy again. The fruit gel is very sweet and cozied up against my taste buds. The only thing I got from it, besides the zingy undertones, was sugar, which isn't something I really need in a pie filling. A good pie filling is sweet enough to enhance the flavor of the fruit, but since the fruit flavor doesn't hold its own here, I couldn't afford to rank it any higher. While I can appreciate the middle-ground texture of the fruit — not too crisp and not too soggy — I was ultimately looking for a filling that offered a more well-rounded flavor.

Usually, when "premium" is in the name, it suggests that something is good. This Lucky Leaf Premium Apple Fruit Filling or Topping scored above the others because of its flavor, which was cinnamony and sweet — though not as sweet as the lower-ranked Stop & Shop filling. The apples also taste a little more ... authentic ... than the Stop & Shop variety (which, now that I think of it, may have been planted with a seed to make customers assume that it was made with real apples). These apples have the honeyed flavor of something from an orchard, though they read as mushy, fermented fruit rather than apples plucked straight off the tree. 

The softness is not the problem here: It's the mealiness. For context, not all apples are well-suited for baking. You normally want to bake with a variety well-suited for pies, like a Granny Smith or a Winesap, that maintains its texture. This filling tasted like it was made with a mealier variety, like a McIntosh. The only way I can describe it is like biting into the brown spot of an apple. It's mushy and rife with a fermented sweetness, which makes it unpleasant to eat solo. 

I do have to be realistic here, as I doubt anyone is eating this straight from the can, and a pie crust may hide some of its issues. The apples are still sturdy enough to hold up in a bake, but I wouldn't use this filling for anything where that texture is front and center, like on ice cream or in a Danish.

So you're telling me I can click a couple of buttons on my phone and have this apple pie filling delivered straight to my mailbox? It's a facet of Amazon Grocery's Apple Pie Filling that makes it all the more impressive. However, I didn't just rank it high because it's so easy to procure; it also boasts the most agreeable texture and flavor of all the pie fillings I sampled. The fruits are very large and hearty, with a firm texture that's less audibly crunchy than Stop & Shop's, but not as mealy as Lucky Leaf's. The flavor is also sweet, but that cloyingness doesn't linger on the palate. Unlike Favorite Day, there isn't any sort of citrusy or citric acid-like twang; it tastes like fruit — 100% canned fruit. Honestly, it may have scored high on this list because it just doesn't have as many shortcomings as the other brands. But a win is a win, no matter how you get there. 

Since the fruit filling lacks vibrant flavor, I doubt it will replace a homemade one. However, if you need something reliable, versatile, and not too intensely flavored, this is the can I recommend adding to your cart. Plus, it only costs $2.69 for a 20-ounce can, making it a budget-friendly baking staple that you'll want to keep in your pantry for when the pie-baking mood strikes. I'd recommend trying a one-ingredient upgrade, like adding chai spices or Chinese five-spice, to give it even more dimension. 

I am a big baker, so I have tons of experience working with pie filling — specifically apple. As such, I was looking for a pie filling that could potentially replace a homemade version — or, more realistically, get as close as possible to it. As such, the top-ranked fillings had to have a fruit texture that wasn't mealy, hard, or mushy, and a flavor that offered something more than just generally "sweet." Apples don't have a strong flavor, so it takes the right amount of spice, citrus, and sweetness for the fruit to show its subtle honeyed, floral flavor. The lowest-ranked fillings aren't suitable for pie-making or any sort of baked apple treat, as their texture or flavor is off in some way, shape, or form. I also considered the product's price and overall value when deciding how to rank them. It's why I expected the near-$15 jar of Bonne Maman to taste better than the sub-$3 cans from Amazon Grocery or Favorite Day. 

I tested each of these cans on the day I opened them for optimal freshness. They were sampled straight from the can or jar without any other crust or ingredients, as I wanted to get the best possible assessment of their flavor.