Hey y'all, here's my two cents. I am working on a freeze-and-bake pie project for my upcoming wedding -- I love to bake, and I want homemade fruit pies, but we are in the middle of a home renovation and our kitchen will be torn up during the wedding, so baking from frozen the day before the wedding is my only real option. I have made about 10 apple pies in the last week or so, all with different methods after poring over this blog and many others. I was having a lot of issues w/ soggy bottom crusts if I just followed this blog suggestions (glass plate, butter crust, bake from frozen). What finally worked the best for me was a metal pie plate (who knew?! I've always baked in glass!) with a round of greased parchment in the bottom and a prebaked bottom crust brushed with egg white (after prebaking). Prebaking a double crust fruit pie does change the crust decor options but mine still looked pretty OK (I make rustic-looking pies generally, with a very flaky all-butter crust and usually lots of drippy juices on top). Also when I baked the pie I thought was best, about half of the time in the oven was on top of an upside down cast iron skillet (pizza stone or cookie sheet would work too probably). For my bottom crust prebaking, I did not prick the bottom crust before baking. Buttered parchment round, lightly greased sides - lay crust in place and I squish the edges w/ a fork every few inches because it kind of adheres to the plate and doesn't shrink so much (maybe?). Then place in freezer for 30 minutes; remove and press buttered foil into place and fill with rice. Bake at 375 for 30 minutes, remove rice and foil, allow to cool slightly, then brush w/ egg white, then assemble pie. I did a lattice top and used some thin strips to run around the top edge to hide the slightly darker prebaked crust. of course the crust rind was a little thick/crunchy, but it was also delicious. Oh and I also strained the fruit and did a reduction of the spiced/sweet juices before assembling the pie (basically just followed the Pie and Pastry Bible recipe but with prebaking). I know this sounds like a pretty big hassle but I wanted a crisper bottom edge, and this worked really well for me, so I thought I would share! I'm going into production mode now, so I hope this transfers to other, non-apple pies :) Thanks to the Baker's Hotline for the parchment suggestion yesterday!

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