We Tasted 9 Frozen Pie Crusts—Right here Are Our Favorites

Baking-heavy holidays like Thanksgiving may be overwhelming affairs: You’ve received to cook dinner a show-stopping centerpiece like turkey or rib roast, prep all the perimeters, and—relying on the dimensions of your celebration—make a number of pies. Whereas many people aspire to make pie crust from scratch, generally you merely shouldn’t have the time or bandwidth, which is the place ready-made pie dough is available in. Whilst an avid baker and meals skilled who retains home made pie dough in my freezer, I attain for a frozen crust occasionally. With loads of store-bought choices to select from, there’s no must stress about making your personal dough from scratch whenever you’ve received lots of different issues in your thoughts and in your oven. However even in case you aren’t making a home made pie crust, you need to make certain the crust you’re utilizing is sturdy sufficient to carry your pie filling and tastes nice. 

To search out out which frozen pie doughs and shells are price shopping for, we pulled collectively 9 completely different pie crusts you’re prone to discover in your native grocery store, baked and stuffed them with pumpkin pie filling (utilizing the identical pie filling for each), and sampled them with out understanding which crust was which. Our exams included pre-rolled dough that it’s important to thaw and form into your personal pie pan, in addition to uncooked shells pre-shaped and offered inside a tin. After tasting our manner by way of 9 freshly made pies, we then saved every for a day within the fridge to see how effectively they held up. After this barely queasy-making however general very enjoyable two-day pie-eating contest, we tabulated the outcomes and topped an general winner we’d be blissful to ask to our personal Thanksgiving celebrations, in addition to just a few different worthy contenders. 

The Standards

Pie crust must be crisp and flaky, with a nice buttery taste. It ought to have a slight trace of salt however not be overly salty, nor ought to or not it’s overly candy. It must be simply tender sufficient to provide manner when bitten into, however not so mushy that it crumbles on the slightest contact. The very best pie crusts also needs to be sturdy sufficient to resist the load and moisture of any pie filling, be it custard, fruit, or syrupy nuts. In an excellent world, pie crust must be so scrumptious that you simply’d need to nibble away on the edges of the pie whenever you suppose no one is trying.

Total Winner: Dealer Joe’s Pie Crusts

Our tasters loved each the flavour and texture of Dealer Joe’s pie crust, which is discovered within the freezer part as a pre-rolled dough that you simply press right into a pan earlier than baking. Our affiliate editorial director, Megan O. Steintrager, thought it was “delicate and buttery,” whereas Doan Nguyen, photograph editor at Meals and Wine—with whom we share workplace house in NYC—described its taste as having “a pleasant steadiness with salt and butter.” The crust was flaky and had good structural integrity; one in all our tasters referred to as it a “workhorse crust.” It additionally held up effectively the following day, making it a very good pre-rolled dough to succeed in for in case you plan on touring together with your pie or getting ready it a day upfront. At simply $4.49, this crust is each scrumptious and reasonably priced, and one we would gladly use for our personal pies.

Runners Up

The Finest Handy Pie Crust: Wholly Healthful Natural Conventional 9” Pie Shells

“Strong, crumbly, however not structurally inconsistent,” our Meals and Wine colleague Dylan Garret wrote of this pie shell. “Pie deal with works effectively as a pie deal with and didn’t break,” he wrote, referring to how you possibly can decide up a slice by the sting of the crust with out it breaking and sending your pie onto the ground. Our affiliate visuals director, Amanda Suarez, thought this dough tasted “nice,” and others thought it was buttery, subtly candy, and scrumptious sufficient to eat by itself. This dough incorporates simply 5 components—natural wheat flour, natural palm fruit shortening, water, natural cane sugar, and sea salt—making it one of many crusts with the fewest components used if that is a promoting level for you. Apparently, there may be zero butter, even supposing multiple taster made notes of its buttery taste. 

Like our general winner, this crust held up properly the following day, and although barely softened, nonetheless maintained its form and chew. As a result of it is a pre-shaped pie shell, there’s zero crimping or shaping concerned, making it a handy choice to succeed in for in case you’re in a pinch however nonetheless desire a flaky, tasty dough.

An Inexpensive however Scrumptious Possibility: Boston Baking Homestyle 9-Inch Pie Shells

This frozen pie shell was tender and crumbly; this was Megan’s favourite—she thought it was buttery, albeit “ever so barely synthetic tasting.” Equally, Amanda described this as “good and buttery,” noting that it “appears like what a pie crust is.” Some tasters, nevertheless, thought it was barely sandy and dry. With simply 5 components, Boston Baking’s pie shells (together with Wholly Healthful’s pie shells) had the shortest ingredient listing of all of the doughs we sampled, and contained simply flour, butter, water, sugar, and salt. (Observe to Megan: Nothing synthetic right here, so we aren’t positive what you had been tasting!) Although this pie crust was barely softer the following day, it nonetheless held up fairly effectively. At $4.79, Boston Baking is a scrumptious pie shell that’s additionally budget-friendly.

The Flakiest Pie Dough: Wholly Healthful Natural Conventional Pie Dough

Each single taster famous how flaky Wholly Healthful’s pre-rolled dough was. Megan discovered it “flaky to the purpose of being crumbly,” whereas Amanda thought it was a bit too flaky for her liking. But when a crisp pie crust with loads of layers is what you’re after, that is your greatest wager. Although some tasters thought this dough had a barely bitter taste, others thought it was balanced and buttery. 

Wholly Healthful’s absolutely formed and ready-to-bake frozen pie shells lined above have simply 5 components; this dough, which is formed and prepared so that you can pop into your personal pan, has seven: wheat flour, palm fruit shortening, water, cane syrup, salt, cane sugar, and guar gum. As soon as once more, not a single ounce of butter in sight. Attributable to its excessive flakiness, this crust didn’t maintain up effectively when saved with filling inside, as a substitute crumbling simply when pressed the following day. In case you plan on utilizing this pre-rolled dough, we advocate having fun with your pie the day it’s made—until a soggy backside is what you’re after. At $8.69, this was the most costly pie dough we sampled.

The Contenders

• Dealer Joe’s Pie Crusts $4.49
• Wholly Healthful Natural Conventional 9” Pie Shells $7.99
• Wholly Healthful Natural Conventional Pie Dough $8.69
• Boston Baking Homestyle Pie Shells $4.79
• Cease & Store Pie Crust Deep Dish 9-Inch $4.99
• Marie Callender’s Pastry Pie Shells $6.39
• 365 by Entire Meals Frozen Pie Dough $5.99
• Pillsbury Refrigerated Pie Crust $5.29
• Pillsbury Frozen Pie Crust, Deep Dish, Two 9-Inch $5.99

In Conclusion

Whereas our winners may cross for home made—sure, by a very good baker!—a few of the crusts we tasted had stale and even rancid notes, with some that had been both too robust, crispy, and borderline chewy. Total, our favourite pie crusts had been people who had been capable of strike a steadiness between taste and texture: They had been all scrumptious, each crisp and tender, and contained seven components or fewer. Although our tasters had a desire for crusts with what they perceived as a buttery taste, three out of our 4 prime picks contained shortening as a substitute of butter, and our winner had each butter and shortening. In contrast to lots of the different pie crusts we tasted, our winners didn’t include preservatives, meals coloring, soybean oil, or dough conditioners. In different phrases: Our favourite pie crusts all contained components that we’d possible attain for in our personal properties when getting ready dough.

Our Testing Methodology

All style exams are performed with manufacturers fully hidden and with out dialogue. Tasters style samples in random order. For instance, taster A could style pattern 1 first, whereas taster B will style pattern 6 first. That is to stop palate fatigue from unfairly giving anybody pattern a bonus. Tasters are requested to fill our tasting sheets rating the samples for numerous standards. All information is tabulated and outcomes are calculated with no editorial enter with a view to give us essentially the most neutral illustration of precise outcomes attainable.