Does anyone know where I can source cardboard oven proof and microwave safe pie dishes and if these are even possible?
Can you make oven proof and microwave safe pie dishes using cardboard and who supplies them
microwavepie
Related Solutions
A few principles for re-heatable food that I've found over the years:
- Things with or in sauces heat nicely
- Dry things don't heat as well (plain rice, for example)
- Liquid distribution in the dish is important for even heating
- Dryer things like meats heat better when they have glazes or toppings (keep steam in)
- Things you can stir up mid-heat are nice for even heating
- Flavours improve over time, use this to make reheated dishes better
- Food continues to cook in the microwave (and dry out), so avoid overcooked. This goes double for noodles (nothing worse than mushy noodles)
- Thickened sauces (especially with flour) reheat thicker than when cooked
If you have oven safe noodle bowls (ceramic, not plastic) then line them, as you describe with the foil, but do not remove them from the bowls. Bake your pie in the lined bowls, then remove the finished pies, with their aluminum "pan" intact. Or just make pasties...no pan required.
As you indicate you don't have oven safe bowls and it must be a pie, I decided to experiment, using the double foil idea. I have heavy duty foil. I used a double layer and lined a noodle bowl making sure that there was plenty of foil out past the edge. I then pressed another noodle bowl on top of the two sheets of foil to make sure all is acting as a unit. While the top bowl is still in place, crumple up the excess foil, making a rim. This is what will give you the strength you need. I would then take the top bowl out, and line the now stable foil pie tin with your pie pastry. Fill the pie and if there is a top crust, finish the pie. You can now take the pie out of the noodle bowl and bake it as usual, although I would certainly do it on a baking sheet.
The double foil is much stronger than you'd expect, but the stability comes from the rim you build with the excess foil hanging over the edge.
Here's the finished bowl with the two molding bowls.
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Best Answer
I'm not sure whether they are sold for consumer use, but I can say that Amy's brand pot pies come in a cardboard pie pan with instructions for microwaving or baking in a conventional oven. So they do exist.
Whether such pie pans are suitable for start-to-finish creation of a pie is another question, I'm fairly sure the Amy's pies are partially prepared and then transferred to cardboard pie pans (possibly after they're frozen).
For home cooking, a glass pie pan would be an option if you need to bake a pie in the oven and then heat it later in a microwave. Depending on your oven, you may need to be careful to place the pie pan on a metal tray, or put a metal tray on the lower rack below the pie pan to prevent radiant heat from over-cooking the lower crust of the pie. (Edit: On second thought, a baking stone would probably provide a better radiant heat barrier.)