Making meat pies for the freezer

Question

I realise a 'pie' may mean different things to different people. In my case it's chicken mushroom and tarragon pie with shorcrust pastry base and a top fully enclosing the filling. If i'm eating the pie on the day then I usually blind bake the bases in individual metal trays, let it cool down and then add the cold filling and seal with a top of raw pastry. The re results are great with relatively wet filling and no soggy bottom and a golden crust.

However, as I made loads of filling I was hoping to make some more pastry and freeze the pies. What's the best way of doing this?

I guess the options I thought of were

1. Bake as above then freeze when cool and then warm them up in the oven
2. Blind bake the bases but leave the top raw - freeze and then cook them in the oven from frozen
3. Raw pastry for base and top - and bake them from frozen
4. some variation of above but allow them to defrost in the fridge first

If there any experienced bakers out there, i'd really appreciate some advice. thank you! Ww

Answer 1

Short pastry is fragile in the freezer, and tends to crack from even minor impacts

For meat pies try a flaky pastry which is more resilient to shock when frozen. Blind baking will not be as necessary with flaky pastry too

Partial pastry cooking pies with their pre-cooked filling works well (say up to 50% to 75% done). This allows for proper reheating time from frozen without killing the pastry