Frozen pastry

[Monika]

It's not really a 'harvesting' query, but this is the only place I can think of posting it: I recently bought a frozen raw shortcrust pastry pie dish (yes, I know, I should be making my own pastry but I no longer do!!). I baked it blind and then realised I didn't need it, so I froze it, now baked but empty. Can I now use this empty pie dish in the usual way - do I thaw it out first or do I put the filling (say, for quiche lorraine) into the frozen case and then bake it?

[Geoff]

My wife says get it out of the freezer and by the time you have prepared the quiche filling it will be defrosted enough to use, in fact she did exactly that last weekend (apart from having made the pastry herself).

[Monika]

Thanks, Geoff (and wife), I will just that!

[Primrose]

I'm with you Monika, when it comes to not making pastry cases for quiches, flans, etc these days. However, rather than using frozen pastry, I cheat and buy the ready-baked sweet or savoury cases available in places like Sainsbury or Waitrose. They come wrapped in cellophane and have a reasonable shelf life. I find them very convenient for fairly quick meals. At this time of year I always seem to have a lot of Swiss Chard I need to use up, so chard, bacon & cheese flans, and other combinations are often on our menu.

[Beryl]

Ladies, why not mix up a quantity dry (flour and fats) and keep in a poly bag in the fridge. It will keep several weeks like this. Just as handy.

Beryl.