Making Pies. Chefs in here!

Soldato
Joined
20 Sep 2009
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Portsmouth
Ello,

I've just cooked up a load of stew (about 1.5kg beef braising steak, stock, onions, lots of ale, herbs) and my mind has wondered on to pies...

Last week I did a similar thing, then put it in a dish with shortcrust pastry on top. Whilst this was delicious, I was left unfulfilled, as the pastry did not go round the whole pie. In my eyes, this isn't even a pie.

So. as a pie lover, and a resourceful student, I strive to come up with a solution.

I could either:

line the dish with pastry, then continue as above and make a proper pie. This would be great, but it would be difficult to remove from the dish, and I couldn't freeze bits of it for later as it would probably fall apart.

So... My solution! (This may just be something I saw on TV, anyway, I'll pretend its my idea)

I have lots of plastic takeaway containers knocking about which I have filled with the delicious stew. I will the proceed to freeze these until I have a solid block of stew (a stew lolly if you will... mmm). In the meantime I'll make up some pastry, (proper pastry) and proceed to 'wrap' the frozen blocks of stew in the pastry. These will then be returned to the freezer, and when needed, cooked in the oven from frozen. I dream of having a freezer stocked with pies for one.


My question is... will this work? Anyone tried anything like this?!
 
Associate
Joined
22 Feb 2010
Posts
25
Location
London
If you freeze the contents and try to cook right from then, it's gonna be awfully soggy, you'll have to defrost both, blind bake the pastry, ensure the stew is reduced enough that it's not just soup in a pastry bath and then rebake. I don't understand why you cant make the entire pie with pastry prebaked and the contents precooked - THEN freeze it, like a lot of store-bought pies.

Also I don't see why you can't make a pie, then freeze it in pieces, it will always be soggier and less "good" when you reheat/heat stored food, but that's no huge issue for someone trying to save a bit of dosh on food.

I just recommend making fresh pie pastry with thawed out pie stew if you make a massive batch. Just keep the pastry fresh and don't try to bake blocks of ice and you'll be sweet!
 
Soldato
Joined
31 May 2005
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6,847
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Peoples Republik of Teesside
I've been doing a few pies and pasties recently. Thanks to the fact that pastry flour is basically flour, lard, salt and water. It really shouldn't stick to a thin non stick dish, mine don't.

I made a big mince and onion pie on Sunday and the base was well cooked and not soggy despite the gravy.
 
Soldato
OP
Joined
20 Sep 2009
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2,921
Location
Portsmouth
Mmmm interesting *rubs chin*.

So you reckon I should just make a pie, cook it all, then freeze it if I want it later....

Just as a precedent, you know those posh 'cook' (and similar) shops. They are full of freezers of nice home made food, im pretty sure I see pies in there with fresh frozen pastry on the outside (pastry freezes well right?) I can only assume that the inside is cooked, and frozen too. Surely what I'm suggesting is the same thing?:)
 
Man of Honour
Joined
11 Mar 2004
Posts
76,634
Well I doubt your original idea will work. As there will be no support for the pastry. So it will end up all over the oven.
There is no need to blind bake pastry for pies. Iether use a non stick dish it will release from (a silicon one is ideal) then return pie to baking tin before cooking. Or go to a local kitchen shop or eBay and buy a load of tin foil pie dishes.
 
Man of Honour
Joined
28 Nov 2007
Posts
12,736
you can freeze a pie before baking it, but why you would want to freeze the filling, make a pie with it frozen and then freeze that - that is confusing?

You are not the first person to want to freeze food, so there is precedent but your method's unconventional for the wrong reasons.
 
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