Freezing Fruit Pies

You can freeze baked or unbaked 2-crust fruit pies successfully. Many people believe frozen unbaked pies have a fresher fruit taste and a crisper crust than pies baked before freezing.

But busy farm homemakers sometimes find it more convenient and time saving to bake and then freeze their pies. Follow the system that works best for you.

If you freeze apple or peach pies, pretreat the fruit to prevent darkening. Add 1 tblsp. lemon juice (or ¼ tsp. ascorbic acid, mixed with 1 tblsp. water) to peaches for a pie. Steam apple slices 3 to 5 minutes. Or use a commercial color protector, following label directions. Good pie bakers like to coat sweet cherries and berries with the sugar-flour mixture before adding them to a pie for freezing.