Baking-heavy holidays like Thanksgiving might 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 do not need the time or bandwidth, which is the place ready-made pie dough is available in. At the same time as an avid baker and meals skilled who retains home made pie dough in my freezer, I attain for a frozen crust now and again. With loads of store-bought choices to select from, there’s no must stress about making your individual dough from scratch while you’ve received quite a lot of different issues in your thoughts and in your oven. However even for those who aren’t making a homemade 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 more likely to discover in your native grocery store, baked and stuffed them with pumpkin pie filling (utilizing the identical pie filling for every one), and sampled them with out figuring out which crust was which. Our exams included pre-rolled dough that you must thaw and form into your individual pie pan, in addition to uncooked shells pre-shaped and offered inside a tin. After tasting our manner via 9 freshly made pies, we then saved every for a day within the fridge to see how nicely they held up. After this barely queasy-making however total very enjoyable two-day pie-eating contest, we tabulated the outcomes and topped an total winner we’d be comfortable to ask to our personal Thanksgiving celebrations, in addition to a number of different worthy contenders.
The Standards
Pie crust needs to 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 needs to be simply tender sufficient to present manner when bitten into, however not so tender that it crumbles on the slightest contact. The perfect pie crusts must also be sturdy sufficient to resist the load and moisture of any pie filling, be it custard, fruit, or syrupy nuts. In a perfect world, pie crust needs to be so scrumptious that you just’d need to nibble away on the edges of the pie while you assume no person is wanting.
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 just press right into a pan earlier than baking. Our affiliate editorial director, Megan O. Steintrager, thought it was “delicate and buttery,” whereas Doan Nguyen, picture editor at Meals and Wine—with whom we share workplace house in NYC—described its taste as having “a pleasant stability 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 nicely the following day, making it a great pre-rolled dough to achieve for for those who plan on touring together with your pie or getting ready it a day prematurely. At simply $4.49, this crust is each scrumptious and reasonably priced, and one we might 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 nicely as a pie deal with and didn’t break,” he wrote, referring to how you can choose 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 comprises 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. Curiously, there may be zero butter, even though multiple taster made notes of its buttery taste.
Like our total 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 possibility to achieve for for those who’re in a pinch however nonetheless desire a flaky, tasty dough.
An Reasonably priced 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 “looks 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 nicely. 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 totally formed and ready-to-bake frozen pie shells coated above have simply 5 components; this dough, which is formed and prepared so that you can pop into your individual 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. On account of its excessive flakiness, this crust didn’t maintain up nicely when saved with filling inside, as an alternative crumbling simply when pressed the following day. When 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 Complete 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 might go for home made—sure, by a great 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 those who had been in a position to strike a stability 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 high picks contained shortening as an alternative of butter, and our winner had each butter and shortening. Not like 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 probably attain for in our personal properties when getting ready dough.
Our Testing Methodology
All style exams are carried out 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 anyone pattern a bonus. Tasters are requested to fill our tasting sheets rating the samples for varied standards. All knowledge is tabulated and outcomes are calculated with no editorial enter as a way to give us essentially the most neutral illustration of precise outcomes doable.
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