Freezing Baked Pie w/ Cornstarch

I baked a white peach rainier cherry pie with a lattice topping that ended up stunning and I want to save it now for a dinner party I’m attending in 5 days. I (unfortunately) used cornstarch to thicken the pie. I’ve heard freezing can ruin pies made with cornstarch. What’s recommended? (1) Take a chance and freeze for a couple days and potentially ruin a masterpiece with weeping? (2) Refrigerate and hope it holds up, but risk a lackluster, or worse, spoiled pie at a guest’s home? (3) Spend the five days consuming the entire pie by myself and bring flowers? I don’t have time to make a decent dessert closer to the party.

milnerman3000
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2 Comments

Lori T.
Lori T. July 27, 2021
Unless you are on the hook for bringing dessert to the dinner party- I'd eat the pie myself and take flowers. I've never had good fortune freezing a pie filling thickened with regular cornstarch myself, and would not recommend doing it.
 
drbabs
drbabs July 27, 2021
That pie sounds amazing. Cornstarch molecules thicken pie fillings by trapping water as the starches are heated, but the freezing process breaks down the starch molecules. If you freeze it, you definitely risk it weeping and ruining the pie once you defrost it. Refrigerating it for 5 days sounds iffy, and just based on seeing what happens to cut pies that are in the refrigerator a few days, it will probably become messy as well. Funny story. Several years ago, I was testing a peach pie recipe, and (stupidly) planned to bring it to a party. There was a flaw in the recipe— not enough thickener— and when baked, the pie became a soupy mess. I rescued the mess by using the filling to make this cake: https://food52.com/recipes/282-simple-summer-peach-cake, which only takes 15 minutes to prep and an hour to bake. It’s absolutely delicious and would be a good substitute. (Flowers are nice as well.)
 
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