Reheating a pie quickly and safely can seem easy as pie, but the texture mixture can pose a challenge for many reheating methods.
What is the best way to reheat pie?
In our opinion, setting up an open foil tent over your pie and reheating it in the oven for 15 to 30 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit seems to get the best results.
Today we’re going to talk about the pitfalls of the most common pie reheating methods and learn the best ways to warm up the filling just right without burning the crust.
What Pies Can You Reheat?
The reheating guidelines in this article work for most kinds of dessert pies that are designed to be served hot.
This includes:
- Apple pie
- Cherry pie
- Pecan pie
- Pumpkin pie
Fruit pie is pretty easy to reheat. It’s generally robust and forgives many beginner mistakes. The most delicate part is the bottom of the crust, which needs special attention if you want it to come close to how crisp and flaky it was when you first made it.
Try to reheat fruit pies within about four days of their original baking.
You can enjoy nut pies either warm or at room temperature. If you plan to reheat a nut pie, try to do so within a week of making it.
Don’t try to reheat cream pies. Those are designed to be served icy cold.
Pumpkin pies taste great cold, but they can also be reheated and served warm with a dollop of ice cream. About four or five days after you make a pumpkin pie, the filling tends to start separating from the crust and you might see water on top. Try to reheat and eat it before then.
Related | How Long Do Pumpkins Last?
How Long To Reheat Pie
The length of time you need to reheat your pie depends mainly on the type of pie as well as its size and thickness.
- The thickest pies are about nine inches deep and should be heated for around 15 to 20 minutes.
- Thinner pies measuring around five inches deep will usually take from 12 to 15 minutes.
- Turnovers can be reheated in around 10 minutes.
To get the best reheating results, get your pie down to a cool temperature just above room temperature before putting it in the oven or microwave. Frozen pies should be defrosted before you reheat them. If your pie isn’t already at the right temperature, you’ll need to add a bit more time to get it there.
- For fridge temperature pies, add about five minutes extra.
- If you’re not able to defrost your frozen pie in advance, you may need to add up to half an hour extra.
My favorite part of reheating a pie is that moment when the heat starts to loosen up the texture, and the pie perfume starts leaking out all over the kitchen. Here’s approximately how long different methods take to reheat different kinds of pies:
- Reheating a fruit pie in the oven – 15-30 minutes at 350F
- Reheating a nut pie in the oven – 10-15 minutes at 350F
- Reheating a pumpkin pie in the oven – 10-12 minutes at 350F
- Reheating a single slice in the microwave – about 30 seconds
- Reheating a whole pie in the microwave – 5-10 minutes in 30-second intervals
An easy rule of thumb to remember is: Put your pie in the oven when the pie is cool and the oven is hot. This will help you avoid the hot beginner mistake of burning the edges of the crust as well as the cold beginner mistake of ending up with a warm crust and a cold filling.
If you’re worried about dry pie, make some appropriate sauce from cinnamon, lemon, ginger, or honey. Pour it into the pie through a slit in the crust before you reheat it to get it oozing with moisture.
If you’re worried about soggy pie, reheat it on the bottom rack of your oven. Reheating on the lowest rack traps heat between the bottom of your pie and the bottom of the oven, which will help keep the crust crisp.
Avoid refreezing and reheating a pie more than once. Every time you freeze and reheat a pie, its quality and texture degrades. Repeated temperature fluctuations also encourage bacterial growth, which can make you sick.
How To Reheat Apple Pie in the Oven
Your apple pie was probably originally baked in an oven, so you’ll get the best results reheating it in an oven. An oven will reheat the pie through and through, keeping all the moisture on the inside and the crispiness on the outside.
Oven reheating takes a bit longer than the press-and-play microwave, but we think it’s worth the few extra minutes. These reheating instructions apply to any fruit pie with a crust on the top and bottom.
What You Need
- 1 Oven-safe dish
- Aluminum foil
- 1 Oven mitt
Reheating Directions
- Take the pie out of the fridge ahead of time, and let it get a little closer to room temperature while you preheat the oven.
- Set your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit, and wait for it to preheat.
- If you’re reheating a whole pie, the crust will act as a barrier to keep the inside moist. If you have a partial pie that’s been cut open with pieces missing, you can make a tent for it out of aluminum foil to keep the moisture in. Use a piece of foil about three times the diameter of your pie. Fold it lengthwise into thirds, and paperclip the two ends together to make a triangular prism with open sides.
- Put your pie in an oven-safe dish, slip the dish into your foil sheath, and put the whole tent contraption into the oven. Don’t tuck in the sides of the foil or your pie may soak up too much moisture and get soggy.
- Let it warm up for around 15 to 30 minutes. Check on it regularly for signs of burning or bubbling. You can insert a clean knife into the filling every once in a while to see if it comes out warm.
- Once the fruity filling reaches a boil, take off the foil tent, and leave the pie in the oven to bubble for three or four more minutes. This will let the heat circulate thoroughly through the filling and give the crust a bit of extra crunch.
- Remove the pie from the oven using an oven mitt, and let it stand for a couple minutes to cool down to a mouth-acceptable temperature.
How To Reheat Pie in the Microwave
Pies have a whole spectrum of textures, from soft to hard, wet to dry, crispy to mushy, flaky to gooey, etc. Microwaves don’t usually do well with mixed textures. The dry tends to absorb the wet, and the flaky melts into the gooey.
This is because microwaved starches love to suck in neighboring liquids and turn to glue. Microwaves are also egg bullies. If you microwave a pie that contains eggs, it can get rubbery fast.
If you’re only warming up a single slice, you can ignore the below instructions. Around 20 or 30 seconds in the microwave at full heat will do the job.
If you’re reheating a whole pie, you’ll have to take some precautions to keep its quality.
What You Need
- 1 Microwave-safe dish
- Paper towels or wax paper
- 1 Oven mitt
Reheating Directions
- With your pie in a microwave-safe dish, loosely cover the top with some wax paper or paper towels. You don’t need to make a fancy tent or tuck in the sides. Just a couple sheets of paper placed on top of the pie should be enough to trap the moisture inside.
- Heat your pie in intervals of 30 seconds to make sure it reaches but doesn’t overshoot the right temperature. It may take anywhere from 5 to 10 minutes in total.
- You’ll know the pie is ready when the filling inside starts to bubble and expand through the slits in the top of the crust.
- Turn the microwave off, and leave your pie inside covered with the paper for a couple minutes. This will let the heat seep into any places it missed.
- If you want an especially crunchy crust, finish by cooking your pie in the oven on high heat for three more minutes.
How To Thaw a Frozen Pie
The best way to thaw a frozen pie is to plan ahead. Leave it in the fridge for around eight hours to let it thaw slowly and uniformly.
Instead of waiting for your oven to reheat, put the pie in its foil tent in the oven while it heats up. Start your oven on a lower heat than usual. We recommend around 200 degrees, then follow the above oven reheating instructions.
Final Thoughts
The best way to reheat most two-crust fruit or nut pies is in the oven.
Covering your pie with foil in the oven or paper in the microwave is the trick that will get the filling dancing hot without burning the crust.
Your pie will keep its quality best if you reheat it within four or five days of making it. Don’t freeze and reheat pies multiple times, or you may risk getting sick.
