What To Keep In Mind When Baking A Pie With Frozen Fruit

Whether you prepared it yourself or picked up a bag at the grocery store, frozen fruit is one of the premiere reasons we're thankful for the advent of refrigeration. Frozen fruit makes smoothies a snap, livens up lemon water, transforms things like grapes into crunchy snacks, and turns otherwise aspirational homemade pies into beautiful everyday bakes. But there are a couple of little considerations to keep in mind when baking with frozen fruit instead of the fresh or canned stuff.

Temperature, texture, sweetness, prep time, and bake length must all be taken into account when making a pie with frozen fruit. Defrosting it first is the easiest and most effective way to avoid any potential sad trombone pastry pitfalls, but there are some measures you can take if you've just got to get that baby in the oven. But, once you've learned how those berries, cherries, peaches, and mixed blends perform from frozen, you'll be able to enjoy a warm slice virtually any time you like.

Simply thawing your frozen fruit solves a couple of hazards at once. With everything closer to room temperature, you can bake your pie with the same heat and timer settings you'd use for any other. This step technically adds a little prep time, but it's almost totally passive; you just need to toss your frozen fruit in the refrigerator to settle down overnight. But there's still hope if you've forgotten to do so.

Frozen fruit is not only dozens of degrees below defrosted, it will also reduce the temperature of the whole pie as it goes into the oven. Naturally, that means that you'll need to bake it a bit more. To avoid singing the crust, add time rather than temperature (and cover the delicate edges with a ring of aluminum foil). If you'd normally bake your cherry pie for 50 minutes, for example, start checking for doneness after an hour. 

You also need to watch out for any added sugar. If your frozen fruit's been sweetened, you'll want to hold a bit back from your typical recipe. A simple taste before you mix it all up should do the trick, allowing you to adjust your ingredients accordingly. And, while frozen fruit performs great in baked pies, do not expect it to stand in for the fresh variety that you might see atop a cheesecake. The freezing process degrades the fruit, and you'll end up with a noticeably mushy texture that baking otherwise conceals.