Photograph by Isa Zapata, Prop Styling by Alexandra Massillon, Food Styling by Mieko Takahashi
I think we can all agree that food editor Shilpa Uskokovic’s recipe for Actually Perfect Pie crust is, indeed, actually perfect. But sometimes we want to eat pie right this second. Other times, there are a lot of balls in the air, like Thanksgiving, when you’re juggling stuffing, a turkey, and your super secret special homemade cranberry sauce. That’s when premade pie crust can really shine.
But what store-bought version has the chops to accompany your top-tier pie fillings? Unfortunately not all premade pie crusts are created equal. For every prepared crust that’s golden and delicately flaky, there’s another that’s gray and soggy. That’s why we put six premade (both frozen and refrigerated) pie crusts through a blind taste test to determine which is best.
To find our winner we looked for a few critical factors. First, flakiness. We want to see thin, crackling layers that provide a demure crunch in each bite. The best pie crust should be golden brown, avoid soggy bottoms at all costs, and it should minimize the layer of squidginess between filling and crust. It should be hardy enough to support the weight of its filling, and, finally, it should be easy-peasy to work with.
To test our six pie crusts we blind baked each, according to package instructions, then filled them with BA’s Best Pumpkin Pie filling to finish baking. What followed was a nit-picking, photo finish of a taste test.
Photograph by Isa Zapata
The Horrifying Crumbly: Marie Callender’s Pastry Pie Shells
The ingredients: Marie Callender’s was the only pie crust in our taste test with soybean oil as the main fat. In some studies, soybean oil didn’t achieve the same rise that butter did in a puff pastry application—but in an industrial baking setting, it’s no-fuss, fast, and cheaper to produce than an all-butter crust.
The verdict: The one thing you don’t want to see as you cut into pie is a crumbly crust. I am sorry to inform you that’s exactly what we saw when we cut into the Marie Callender’s crust. “The texture is more like a shortbread than a pie crust,” said associate cooking and SEO editor Zoe Denenberg. “No flakes!” declared editorial assistant Nina Moskowitz, carefully tapping at the bottom of the crust with her fork. The crust tasted bitter and acrid too—a flop all around, really. Sorry, Marie, it’s a hard pass from us.
Photograph by Isa Zapata
The Soggiest Bottom: Trader Joe’s Frozen Pie Crust
The ingredients: The second ingredient listed, after unbleached wheat flour, is palm oil, suggesting this might be an all-oil crust. Then, two ingredients later, butter makes an appearance. Based on the order, palm oil was used as the bulk of the fat content, while a bit of butter was added for taste.
The verdict: Another crumbly crust. Trader Joe’s frozen pie crusts were not much better than Marie Callender’s in terms of texture, but our testers didn’t have outright objections to the taste. In fact, recipe production assistant Carly Westerfield said, hopefully, that it was more mild in taste than the other brands we tried. The crust failed the sturdiness test, pulling away from the filling and flinging itself onto our plates, and it was the soggiest bottom we tested. Perhaps a fruit-based pie, as opposed to the moisture-heavy pumpkin we used, would have helped it perform better, but all told, this was a pretty poor showing from Trader Joe’s.
Photograph by Isa Zapata
The Suspiciously Cheesy: Pillsbury Refrigerated Pie Crust
The ingredients: Instead of butter or oil, Pillsbury opts for hydrogenated lard. “Hydrogenated lard typically has a higher melting point than butter,” food editor Jesse Szewczyk says, “so when you make pie crust by hand you have a little more time to work with it before it melts compared to butter.” Although it's a rendered fat product, lard won’t make your pie crust taste meaty, although it does have a little funk.
The verdict: As one of the most recognizable baking brands, we had high hopes for Pillsbury’s refrigerated pie crusts. Associate cooking editor Antara Sinha noted with despair that this was the only crust to stick to the pan. A glance at the crust in the pan shows that it expanded slightly as it baked, slipping up and slightly over the rim of the pie pan. The bottom of the crust was respectably crispy, with little to no sog, but where we expected a buttery taste, we got something wholly different. “Tastes like a Cheez-It,” Nina said casually, mid-chew. Cue revelatory oohs and ahhs from the rest of our testers.
Photograph by Isa Zapata
The Sturdy Option: Wholly Wholesome Organic Traditional Pie Dough
The ingredients: As pie crust whiz Jesse notes, it’s unusual to see cane syrup in an ingredients list—especially positioned as it is here, before cane sugar, meaning its the prominent sweetener in the dough. It’s not a traditional ingredient in most pie crusts, and could make the dough challenging to work with. Cane syrup is an invert sugar, or one held in liquid form, similar to corn syrup.
The verdict: There was a moment of silence as our tasters scrutinized their slices of pumpkin pie, trying to get a sense of Wholly Wholesome’s flakiness. What they found was a solid contender. Digital production assistant Li Goldstein described it as “very natural tasting, but not buttery,” and Carly described it as “sturdy.” That checked two of our boxes, and a quick peak at the pie/filling barrier revealed that squidginess was minimal. Unfortunately, the trouble arose before the pie was even baked. The pre-rolled dough had an uneven thickness, which led to uneven baking. During blind baking the crust slumped in the pan so dramatically, we wondered if there would be enough room for the filling (fortunately, there was). Although it was a sturdy and delicious crust, we couldn’t call Wholly Wholesome our favorite.
Photograph by Isa Zapata
The Surprisingly Buttery: Happy Belly Pre-Rolled Pie Crust
The ingredients: Happy Belly, Amazon’s house brand, uses bleached flour, unlike Trader Joe’s, and Wholly Wholesome. As we’ve written about before, bleached versus unbleached flour makes a big difference in the final product—just ask Shilpa. Bleached flour can absorb extra fat and sugar, generally leading to a more tender crust.
The verdict: Each nibble on Happy Belly’s pie crust gave us something new to love. Was it flaky? You bet it was. Thin layers shattered with each bite. Did it taste buttery? Absolutely. We loved its rich mellow flavor. Was it sturdy? Sure, it was pretty stable. Who among us can say that they’re totally stable at all times? Things were looking up until we noticed thecolor. Instead of the shiny, golden brown we were hoping for, Happy Belly’s pie crust was a dull, grayish yellow. Testers agreed that color wasn’t the most important factor for a pie crust, but in a blind taste test like this, everything counts. And so Happy Belly took second place.
Photograph by Isa Zapata
The Perfectly Golden: Kroger Refrigerated Pie Crust
The ingredients: With an ingredients list that’s shockingly similar to that of Happy Belly, it’s no wonder that Kroger and Happy Belly placed so closely. The only difference between the two is cornstarch that appears in Kroger’s pie crust. The two crusts employ lard as their fat component both hydrolyzed and “deodorized”—remember how Jesse mentioned a distinct lard smell? That’s the solution.
The verdict: Some other pie crusts in our test were buttery, sure, but none of them were quite as buttery as Kroger’s. Tasters loved its tender flaky crust, and its maximal sturdiness between filling and crust. The crust baked into an even, golden brown, and it did a decent job of supporting the weight of the pie filling. What set Kroger’s crust apart from the rest was its subtle hit of salt, which our tasters went bananas for. It was a happy counterpoint to the sweetness of the pumpkin filling. We loved every facet of Kroger’s frozen pie crust, which means, of course, that it’s our winner.