Dessert…I forgot Dessert!
I have this amazing friend who can always come up with a homemade pie to bring to a dinner party no matter how busy her day had been. I was always thrilled to have her offer to bring dessert when coming to our house because 1. That meant I didn’t have to make dessert and 2. I knew it would be some home baked work of art that would send everyone off on a good note no matter what the rest of the meal was like!I never really analyzed how she accomplished this feat time after time until recently. One day we were talking and she mentioned that she was making a few pies and putting them in the freezer so she’d have them when she needed them. Fresh baked pies and all she had to do was pop them in the oven! I wondered why after 20 years of friendship, this had never come up before – I could make a few pies and freeze them so that I, too, could have these at my disposal, next time I invited people over! Thus, Freezer Day was born!
At first, my idea was a bit half baked, haha! One day my daughter and I were going shopping, she wanted to go to Home Goods to look for a new mirror for her apartment and I tagged along, hoping to find some new shoe racks so I could organize my closet (yeah, whole other area to improve and find hacks for!). While I was there, I had the brilliant idea to pick up a couple of rustic, casual pie dishes that I could freeze my pies in. I figured if I bought a couple of inexpensive dishes I could have them in the freezer, and wouldn’t miss my regular dishes if I should happen to decide to make another pie instead of using the ones from my freezer. Yes, something wrong with that logic I know, but nonetheless, I thought I was brilliant!Sure enough, I found 2 white pie plates that looked sturdy enough to hold a hearty apple pie and that would look perfect coming out of the oven, with pie goop dripping from the sides and steam coming out of the crust on the top. I quickly bought them and brought them home. (no luck on the shoe racks, but then headed to the Container Store where I found just what I wanted!)
Unfortunately, when I got home and researched my pie pan plan a little further, I read over and over that you need to make the pie in a metal pie tin, not a glass or ceramic dish because there is a great chance the dish will shatter going from freezer to oven. Darn - on to plan B, I will make and freeze the pies in a metal dish from the grocery store and after it’s cooked, just pop the whole thing into one of my new pie dishes. Not as perfect as I had hoped, but still – I’ve got a homemade pie ready and waiting for me when I need it. I used to only make my own pie dough, but after years of that, I found that the Pillsbury dough boy makes just as good if not better dough than I do, so now, I buy the pie sheets from them. How easy is that?!? Sometimes I have to buy more than what I think I’ll need because my pie dishes are bigger than what the sheets are made for, but I just go ahead and expand the dough from an extra sheet and it all works out!
Next, for apple pies I usually just use the recipe in the Joy of cooking book or any recipe you like: Granny Smith apples, lemon juice, lemon rind, sugar, cinnamon and some pats of butter and you’re good to go. Use the recipe you like and top it off with another sheet of pie dough.Once that is done, wrap it tightly in plastic wrap and then in foil to protect the pie. Put in the freezer with a piece of tape with cooking instructions: Thaw the pie first and then bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour and your dessert is taken care of. I’m also going to pick up some vanilla bean ice cream (I’ll have to hide this in our freezer downstairs or it will be eaten before I get a chance to use it) so that I can offer it along with the pie. Dessert, Done!Do you have a favorite pie recipe that freezes well? I’d love to hear about it!