Move Over Marie Callender!

I live in Washington State, land of the apple. So every August I have a TON of free apples to can from the four apple trees in my backyard. We make applesauce, pies, apple fritters, and apple juice. We also have a few pitiful pear, plum and cherry trees that I have to fight over with the birds, some random dear, and a huge herd of elk. But I can usually get a few jars out of each of them before I give in and let the wildlife have the rest.

By the way, I don’t live in the country. I’m 7 minutes to the nearest Wal-mart and 3 minutes to the nearest gas station. And we don’t own acreage. We just happen to live by a small landlocked forest that holds all kinds of varmints. So any of you that were thinking, “Well I know I can’t be thrifty now, because she’s a farm girl and has an orchard and a giant garden and probably butchers her own meat,” you just get that thought outta your head. We just work with what we’ve got and you can do it to!

So this year when a friend brought me two boxes of early apples I was glad to get a few extra batches of a different type of apple. But the thought of peeling all those sweet green things with only my itty bitty paring knife brought back memories of the previous years sore fingers and I decided I needed one of these.

Behold, God is good!

If I could cuddle with it I would.
(if you want one, see my sidebar for a link. It's cheaper than what I paid for it.)

So today we made applesauce and pies. And I got to thinking, “I wonder if the people who read my blog know that you can freeze pies?” We call it the pie-a-month club at our house because I try to stick 12 pre-made pies in the freezer every year so we can have a homemade pie once a month until next apple season.

So for any of you who want to try it, here you go…

How To Freeze A Pie

Make your pie crust (I use this recipe) Put a layer of plastic wrap in the bottom of your glass pan and put your bottom crust on top of the plastic wrap. (If you are using flexible tins you can skip this step because your pie will pop right out.)

Mix up your filling. It’s best to use a recipe that uses Tapioca as the thickener. Flour thickening recipes don’t hold up well in the freezer. I hear Clear-Jel works well too.

Place pie filling into the pie plate. Top with the crust, flute edges and place in the freezer until frozen. Don’t cut slits in the top of the pie.

As soon as it’s frozen, pop your pie disk out of the pie plate and either store it in a gallon freezer bag or wrap it in plastic wrap and then tin foil.

When you want to reheat it put it back into your pie plate, cut slits in the top and cook it in an oven preheated to 375. No need to thaw. Just pop it in while it's frozen.

Bake for 10-15 minutes, watching for browning and then lower the heat to 325. Continue to bake for another hour to hour and a half until its golden brown and bubbly.

Sometimes I use cheap metal pie tins and just freeze them and cook them without even removing the frozen disk but I like my glass pie plates better. Do what’s best for you.

This method works great for any fruit pie you make. We’ve done blueberry, cherry, apple and strawberry-rhubarb.

I've put this recipe up at Recipezaar with the filling directions also. If you want to print it out, it's easier to print from there.