Making pies for a wedding: tips and tricks!

[mindy66]

Hi all!,

My son's wedding is 2 weeks from yesterday. eek!!

They have chosen to have all pie in lieu of cake. Sooo, my 2 sisters, best friend and I are all getting together to make 27 pies. However, because it is such a daunting job AND because I have to be at wedding site decorating for the 2 days prior to wedding, I'm struggling with just how I am going to carry this out and still be able to serve the pies nice and fresh.

Here is what we are making:

Apple - 5 (one of these will be the Bride/Groom Pie - a 10 incher)
Pumpkin - 5
Chocolate (homemade choc pudding style) - 4
Pecan - 3
Blackberry - 3
Banana Cream -2
Cherry - 2
Lemon Meringue - 2
Peach - 1

Sooo, my best friend and I got together yesterday and make all of the pie crusts (well actually we made 36 crusts, so I need to make 2 more). We made them with King Arthur's Flour and half butter, half rendered leaf lard (beautiful stuff!).

That is all that has been done thus far.

What I am trying to figure out now is:

1. Which of these pie fillings can be made ahead this week and frozen? and then be just as lovely and delicious after having been thawed, dumped into pie crust and baked into the final pie?

2. I'm guessing that I should bake these no more than 1 day ahead (the Friday before Sat evening wedding). Do you agree?? Freshness and deliciousness being biggest priority.

3. Trying to figure out how in the heck I am going to transport 27 pies 60 miles away. Thinking I need to pronto buy some pie boxes online, put each in a pie box and then go from there.

4. Once at wedding site, which of these need to be kept cold so that I can figure out how I am going to KEEP them cold. What about in a (hidden, because it's ugly - ha) big ice chest with ice at bottom and then ice covered with towels to collect moisture??

5. Can you tell I've never done anything like this before? ha! S.O.S.

Blessings and thanks so much in advance to any who might be willing to offer some help.

Mindy

 

[monkeyboots]

Hi,
My mom makes tons of pies so I guess that qualifies me to give advice.
For all fruit pies, she assembles the whole thing and freezes it. She has been doing this for 50 years and has never had a problem. I think the previously frozen pies taste better.
Good luck! You are a great mom!

 

[JessiFox]

Wow- what a ton of work you guys have cut out for you! You're such a sweet mom to help out so much with it . I'll second Monkey in that the fruit pies should all be fine to freeze beforehand. I suspect that the chocolate would as well. I'm not an expert by any means but I do agree with going no more than 1 day in advance for the baking itself in terms of freshness and taste, I think it makes a big difference. Transport is tricky and having never done anything like that either I'm not sure, sounds like pie boxes are a fair place to start and just be as careful as you can. I honestly don't know for sure which ones are a top priority to keep cold...you've already got the hour transportation time, plus actually getting them from the car to the location and then however long it will be before they're actually eaten, so I'd be careful with the majority of them in terms of staying cool enough. Hiding the ice chest sounds like a good idea for that, though.

 

[Trellum]

The fruit ones can be done ahead, but not the meringue and pecan ones. Same for the choc one. By the way... what an awesome idea you guys had! I totally love pies and if I had a wedding I'd surely choose to have pies instead of a big wedding cake!

 

[Danyel72]

Hi all!,

My son's wedding is 2 weeks from yesterday. eek!!

They have chosen to have all pie in lieu of cake. Sooo, my 2 sisters, best friend and I are all getting together to make 27 pies. However, because it is such a daunting job AND because I have to be at wedding site decorating for the 2 days prior to wedding, I'm struggling with just how I am going to carry this out and still be able to serve the pies nice and fresh.

Here is what we are making:

Apple - 5 (one of these will be the Bride/Groom Pie - a 10 incher)
Pumpkin - 5
Chocolate (homemade choc pudding style) - 4
Pecan - 3
Blackberry - 3
Banana Cream -2
Cherry - 2
Lemon Meringue - 2
Peach - 1

Sooo, my best friend and I got together yesterday and make all of the pie crusts (well actually we made 36 crusts, so I need to make 2 more). We made them with King Arthur's Flour and half butter, half rendered leaf lard (beautiful stuff!).

That is all that has been done thus far.

What I am trying to figure out now is:

1. Which of these pie fillings can be made ahead this week and frozen? and then be just as lovely and delicious after having been thawed, dumped into pie crust and baked into the final pie?

2. I'm guessing that I should bake these no more than 1 day ahead (the Friday before Sat evening wedding). Do you agree?? Freshness and deliciousness being biggest priority.

3. Trying to figure out how in the heck I am going to transport 27 pies 60 miles away. Thinking I need to pronto buy some pie boxes online, put each in a pie box and then go from there.

4. Once at wedding site, which of these need to be kept cold so that I can figure out how I am going to KEEP them cold. What about in a (hidden, because it's ugly - ha) big ice chest with ice at bottom and then ice covered with towels to collect moisture??

5. Can you tell I've never done anything like this before? ha! S.O.S.

Blessings and thanks so much in advance to any who might be willing to offer some help.

Mindy

Yay to you and this task you are undertaking!!! You should be so proud of yourself and you are truly a super mom !!!! The pies sound so delicious and honestly I love pie much better than your traditional cake. This is going to be an amazing wedding!!! I agree with assembling them and freezing them as well. My mom baked cakes and pies her whole life and even had a catering business and that's what she would do. They taste the exact same. if not better!!!

Hope this helps super mom !!!

Danyel