Freezing pies

Fruit pies freeze well. Unless room in an issue, I would just make the pies and freeze them. You can bake them from the frozen state, adding 20 minutes or so to the baking time.

How does the crust do? I've frozen uncooked cherry pie filling before, but I've never frozen a complete pie because I assumed it would get soggy.

Bob

I can get away with probably 1-2 pies. I have a ton of Concord grapes that I'm looking to do things with. So far, 2 batches (~19 half-pints) grape jam, and one baked and ready to eat pie, and one frozen, unbaked. Grape sorbet will be made tomorrow.

I'm debating a couple more pies, but doing more than 1 or 2 more will get tricky, as far as freezer room goes.

I'm thinking of BWB the prepared pulp--skins and pulp separated, and pulp lightly cooked until the seeds separate, then sieved and recombined with the chopped skins. That would seem to have more uses than if I further prepared it with sugar and thickener. If I let I let it sit overnight in the fridge, I can strain the pulp and use the juice.

Putting Food By says to bring the juice to a 200 F simmer, then process in a Hot Water Bath at 190 F for 30 minutes. But that's for juice only... I'm not sure if the pulp/skin combination would be different.

I don't have a problem with the crust. I realize that many people report having soggy bottom crusts even when the pie isn't baked from the frozen state. I think that baking the pie on a well pre heated baking stone on the bottom shelf is a big help.

I have no experience with preserving food other than freezing. You might want to ask over at rec.food.preserving.

Ask your local USDA agent (assuming you're in the US and if not, whatever passes for Department of Agriculture) to be sure, but I'd give that the same time as grape jam.

And add lemon juice or citric acid/sour salt of course, to bring up the acid level.

B/

You might also find help here:

As an offshoot to that approach, I make one modification. Since there are just two of us, I bake a pie, let it cool, and cut it into serving pieces. I then place the cut pieced on a cookie sheet, lined with parchment, and then put the sheet in my deep freeze for a couple of hours.

When fully hardened, I put one piece each in a tilia food baggie and seal it up. I then place the lot of baggies in the freezer for when we want(or I just want) a slice of pie.

I let it defrost in fridge,still sealed. Crust is still crusty. And fruit is not runny.

In the summer I freeze as many fruit pies as I can squeeze into the freezer. The results are excellent, although there may be some "breakdown" of the thickener, depending on the kind you use. ClearJel doesn't break down but I have found a flour/tapioca combination works just about as well and is much cheaper and easier to locate. I make the pie, freeze it unwrapped until it's entirely firm, then wrap well. That way the edge of the crust isn't damaged. Frozen pies, once wrapped, can also be stacked. One thing, don't cut vents in the top crust if you plan to freeze the pie. Cut vents just before you bake.

I have done something similar at Thanksgiving. I make my pastry, freeze solid then carefully stack and wrap. Thanksgiving morning I remove the pie crusts from the freezer, unstack, let "soften" a bit (about 25 minutes), pour in the pumpkin filling and bake. What a timesaver!

If you don't have enough room for a whole pie you can make the filling and place it in a freezer container. When ready to assemble the pie, let filling thaw just until it can be spread in the crust; finish pie and bake. You can also line a pie plate with saran wrap, put the filling in the plate, freeze until firm and then remove and wrap. If you do this, allow some room for the thickness of the crust in the pan. What I do is put my filling in cheapie Dollar Store pans, which are just slightly shallower and smaller than the standard 9-inch then when I make the pie use my 9-inch Pyrex pie plate. Slip the frozen disk into the pastry-lined plate and continue as usual.

I have not found that the crust gets soggy at all, especially if the pie is baked on the lowest rack. If anything, the pie is less soggy, maybe because the filling is frozen and the crust bakes a while before it thaws enough to liquefy. Freezing also seems to "tenderize" the crust.

Carol