Batch-baking savoury pies

Sola

I'm thinking of doing the following for freezing - do you think it would work?

- Blind-bake some shortcrust pastry cases; I'm thinking individual pies so 4-5 inches across, and 2 inches deep

- Cook up some fillings:

- Beef, carrots, red wine
- Chicken, leek, white sauce
- Pork sausagement, apple, caramelised onions, gravy
- Mixed veg, cheese sauce
- Turkey, ham, cranberry
- Lamb, veg, mint sauce
- Salmon, spinach, white wine sauce

- Make up some toppings:

- Mash (mustard, horseradish, pesto, cheese)
- Pastry lids (shortcrust, flaky)
- Savoury breadcrumbs

Assemble them all when everything's cold, and freeze. I should be able to reheat in 40-60 minutes or so on a baking tray.

Any comments/suggestions?

Trow

Yes, done that myself - although I am impressed with your ideas, might just have to steal some for myself!

It's a great standby for OH, as he is a big pie lover, and doesn't cook much.

The only thing I would say is, I'm not sure that flaky pastry cooks well from frozen ... but someone else might know a bit more than I do.

Sola

I can't claim they're all original, as I've just been inspired by an Eat beef & stilton pie for lunch I usually keep an eye on their website for ideas.

How did you shape your pies? Did you have a suitable dish or do it by hand?

flea72

i dont bother blind baking, i just use raw pastry, with a pre-cooked cold filling

i tend to make mine in the lid of a pyrex casserole dish, as i find the tinfoil tins only last a couple of uses, before they are too mishapen (or ive cut the bottom trying to get the pie out)

hth Flea

sunshine6650

good i deas! i have some ready made flaky pastry, it can be frozen but think it needs to defrost then rolled for the lid but still make the pies & put the portions of pastry in a bag ready to roll when needed!!

I wanna start doing these but my 'meal drawer' in freezer is full of weight watchers meals from when they were 67p in morrisons!!

Seakay

Sola wrote: »

I can't claim they're all original, as I've just been inspired by an Eat beef & stilton pie for lunch I usually keep an eye on their website for ideas.

How did you shape your pies? Did you have a suitable dish or do it by hand?

does this mean that you are using hot water pastry (like a pork pie) for the crust?
Otherwise, how do you make lots of individual pies without using foil trays, unless you happen to have some special individual pie tins?

Sola

I'm only at the planning stage but yes pork pie crust was what I had in mind - I've never made it but it seems pretty sturdy. Failing that, it'll be larger pies in my sandwich tins with ordinary shortcrust.

Seakay

Sounds really fab!

cheerfulness4

My parents saved me the containers from their ready meals that went in the oven and I batch made lots of pies. One pie did two of us very well.

Silcone bakeware is good for larger pies because you can roll out,make and then flat freeze and take out of the silicone and bag when frozen. Then it's all ready just to pop back in the silicone when you want to cook it.