The Best Store-Bought Pie Filling, According to 3 Experts

If cherry season is long past, or you simply don't have the time (or energy) to make a cherry pie from scratch, canned cherry pie filling can be a real lifesaver. Beyond the obvious use in pie, it's also an impromptu ice cream sundae topping or a juicy, bold swap in these four-ingredient cookies. 

But cherry filling gets a bad rep—it's often cloyingly sweet, one-dimensional in flavor, and packed with preservatives, high-fructose corn syrup, artificial additives, and dyes like Red 40. On the hunt for the perfect pour-and-bake cherry pie filling, I asked three pros to weigh in on their favorite brand—and they all wholeheartedly agreed on the same one: Bonne Maman Cherry Pie Filling.

The Panel of Pie Filling Pros

• Afton Cyrus: Senior recipe editor for Simply Recipes and former canning and preserving chef instructor at the Cambridge School of Culinary Arts
• Sophie Frazier: Food stylist and pastry chef instructor at the Cambridge Center for Adult Education
• Haley Scarpino: Associate editor at Simply Recipes and recipe tester for Julia Turshen and Ambitious Kitchen 

The Pie Filling That Takes the Cake

In an aisle of underwhelming metallic cans, Bonne Maman's glass jars instantly stand out. This brand is known for its premium fruit jams and preserves that taste homemade, so it's no surprise that Bonne Maman brings the same quality to its cherry pie filling.

It's not "too sweet or cloying, so you're really able to taste the cherry flavor," says Frazier, who named it as her go-to filling. Pies are just the beginning, she explains. "I love it in a Black Forest cake. You can add a bit of kirsch to the filling to really elevate the flavor. It’s easy to use, since you don’t need to bake it. So have fun with it!"

Cyrus, a canning and jam expert, was genuinely delighted to see Bonne Maman enter the pie-filling game. She notes, "I love using tart or sour cherries in cherry pie, rather than sweet or dark cherries, so I look for fillings that call that out. Tart cherries like Morellos or Montmorency have so much depth of flavor, and I love the contrast you get in a bite of pie with a burst of sour surrounded by a sweet, thickened syrup." 

She appreciates that Bonne Maman uses tart Morellos and has a short ingredient list that reads more like the recipe for a homemade pie than a packaged product: cherries, sugar, lemon juice, starch, and pectin. But why stop at pies? Cyrus also spoons the sweet filling over plain cheesecake and tucks it into store-bought puff pastry for a deceptively easy Danish.

Scarpino agrees that tart cherries "create a pie that is balanced and not overly sweet, which can easily happen with canned pie filling." She chooses Bonne Maman every time for a flavor that is fresh, balanced, and truly delicious, and uses it in a fast track to cherry cobbler—"so delicious and easier than tackling a pie."