How to cook a frozen pie?

For dinner parties or nights when you want a little something sweet but don’t want to put too much effort into it, keeping prepared desserts in your freezer is a great idea. For instance, baking a frozen pie is much simpler than making one from scratch.

If you’re working with a fresh pie that has been frozen, you’ll want to pay extra attention when baking it because store-bought frozen pies typically come with instructions for cooking or reheating them in the oven.

Here are the procedures to follow when baking a frozen pie, whether it is a homemade raw pie or a pre-baked pie.

A frozen pie can be cooked immediately without being thawed out. In actuality, baking frozen pie straight from the freezer is preferable.

A frozen, raw pie will require about 55 minutes to bake, whereas a frozen, pre-baked pie will require 30 to 35 minutes to reheat.

How to Tell When It’s Done

To determine when your fruit pie is finished baking, keep an eye out for a few signs.

The first is by sight. Look for the crust to be golden and crispy.

Look for the filling to be bubbling from the center of the pie as another sign that it is cooked. Watch for at least one bubble while inspecting the pie; the bubbling doesn’t have to be rapid. This rule need not necessarily be followed if you are using a precooked filling, such as this apple pie filling.

If your fruit filling is raw, its essential to make sure the filling has cooked through to the proper temperature and ensure the thickener is activated. The internal temperature of a fruit pie needs to be above 200ºF to ensure that the thickener is activated. An instant-read thermometer (affiliate link) is a great way to check this, or, you can look to see that the pie has puffed around the edges and the filling in the middle has at least one juicy bubble popping up.

What Pies are Ok To Freeze?

Double crust fruit pies are the perfect pies to freeze. Only a double crust fruit pie, such as Sweet Cherry Pie or Ginger Strawberry Rhubarb Pie, should be used with the recipe that is provided below. This technique might work for a pie with a crumble topping, like Apple Crumble Pie, but the precise baking time will vary slightly, and you’ll need to cover the crumble topping with tinfoil to keep it from burning.

This instruction manual is for frozen, unbaked pies. That implies that the pie is completely assembled, baked, and then frozen.

However, it is possible to freeze fully baked pies too. A fruit pie with a double crust is ideal for freezing after baking and completely cooling You can defrost it by leaving it out at room temperature for one day. You can quickly reheat it in a 350°F oven before serving so that the pastry is thoroughly warmed.

Even though it may seem obvious, it’s crucial to briefly go over how to properly freeze a pie while keeping a few things in mind.

First, before filling the pie with precooked filling, make sure it has completely cooled. Pie crust will fall apart if the filling is even slightly warm. And, you shouldnt put anything warm in the freezer.

The second is that you shouldn’t freeze your pie after egg washing it. Only just before it’s time to bake do you apply the egg wash.

Last but not least, make sure the pie will fit on a flat surface in your freezer. While it freezes, it must be laid out completely flat. Once it is frozen, you can move it around.

To freeze fruit pies:

Place the whole pie on a sheet pan first, and place it in a freezer on a flat surface. If you dont have room for the sheet pan, you can skip it.

Once frozen (around 8-12 hours), wrap the whole pie in plastic wrap very tightly twice. If you plan to leave it in the freezer for more than a month, also cover it with aluminum foil. Don’t forget to label it!

Any frozen pie should be cooked within three months because the flavor gets progressively weaker the longer it sits in the freezer. However, if properly frozen, you can wait for up to a year.

Baking a fruit pie from frozen isnt all that different from baking a fruit pie that isnt frozen, except that it takes about 15% more time in the oven

Having said that, here are some pointers I offer for baking from frozen:

Hold off on adding any sugar on top of the pastry. You can if you really want, but its going to get pretty dark since the pie could be in the oven for a significant amount of time.

The recipe instructs you to let the frozen pie sit at room temperature while the oven preheats. You want the dough to just slightly defrost. The dough should be a bit tacky to your touch. If that doesnt happen by the time your oven is preheated, let it sit out a few minutes longer until it does.

Bake the pie almost the entire time on the lowest rack in the oven. This really helps ensure the bottom pastry is baked through.

Dont rely on the timing of the recipe to know if your pie is done when baking from frozen; instead, youll really need to rely on the physical cues and or temperature of the pie to ensure its properly baked.

Pumpkin Pie TO FREEZE A BAKED PUMPKIN PIE

Place Pumpkin Pie in freezer UNWRAPPED.

Freeze solid.

Wrap Pie in plastic bag and place immediately back in freezer.

TO THAW A FROZEN BAKED PUMPKIN PIE Unwrap Pumpkin Pie and thaw at room temperature. DO NOT HEAT PIE

Cooking Pie from the Freezer