Celebrate Pi Day with the best store-bought apple pie, according to a pro baker

Yahoo

12-03-2025

When you have a math teacher for a mother, Pi Day is a holiday that never goes unobserved. Every year, without fail, I'll get a call from my mom on March 14, during which she'll recite far more pi digits than the average person should be able to memorize. I respect her impressive (if slightly dorky!) party trick, but as a former professional baker? I prefer to celebrate Pi Day by ... eating pie. Even on an ordinary day, a meal just isn't complete without a sweet finale, in my humble (pie) opinion — and I'm here to tell you that there's no shame in foregoing the homemade route for an easy-breezy store-bought apple pie.
But you don't want to opt for just any pre-made option. There are several widely available frozen apple pies on the market from brands like Sara Lee, Mrs. Smith's and Marie Callender's. They can't all be created equal, can they?
That's what I set out to determine. I've made (and enjoyed) many a pie in my day, but just to keep any pastry biases I might have in check, I enlisted the help of my sister, Chelsea, who manages a Philadelphia-based restaurant called Alice, and my husband, Dan, an enthusiastic pie eater. I set aside time to bake all three pies one morning so we could sample them side-by-side for a true comparison.
Now, you might be thinking, "Britt, I'm pretty sure there are four slices of pie on that plate, not three." And you'd be correct! In addition to the three frozen pies, I also picked up a pre-baked pie from Whole Foods as a control. It tastes pretty close to homemade, so I compared the frozen pies against it just to see if there were any big differences.
Alright, ready to see how these frozen treats fared? Keep scrolling to see which one(s) deserves a spot on your Pi Day table.
Just to have a non-frozen pie to compare the others to, I picked up a fresh apple pie from Whole Foods Market. We thought it was just slightly tastier than the Marie Callender's apple pie, and is a fab option if you want a ready-to-eat dessert.
In case you've never purchased a frozen pie before, you can rest assured that preparing one is easy as, well, you know. All you have to do is remove the pie from its box and plastic wrapping, place it on a sheet tray and bake it in a preheated oven according to the package's instructions. That's it! Some pies have an additional step of making slits in the top crust to allow steam to escape, but that's really the only "work" required on your part.
In terms of prep, the Sara Lee and Mrs. Smith's pies required scoring the crusts, while the Marie Callender's pie did not — and that's because it had a lattice crust, meaning there were already openings in it. Each set of instructions recommended covering the sheet tray with aluminum foil before placing the pie on it and baking; that way, should any filling bubble over, it would stick to the foil and not make a mess of the tray. I only had enough foil for one pie, so I used parchment paper for the others and it worked out just fine.
All of the pies included the optional suggestion of brushing the crust with an egg wash for a more golden color, but to keep things as simple as possible (which is what buying a frozen pie is all about!), I skipped this step. Also, if you haven't noticed, eggs are pretty pricey these days...
Directions varied slightly when it came to baking temperature, ranging from 400° F to 425° F; internal pie temperatures ranged from 160° F to 165° F. I served all of the pies at room temperature, not only for consistency purposes but because I feel it's easier to detect nuances in flavor when food isn't piping hot.
To assess these pies as fairly as possible, I numbered them rather than telling Chelsea and Dan which pie was from which brand. I also made score sheets so we could write down our notes on the appearance, flavor and texture of each pie, as well as give them an overall rating, from 1 to 10, with 10 being the best pie we've ever had in our lives. (Spoiler alert: None of these pies were quite at that level, but some scored pretty high!)
As for our testing pool, I selected brands that are widely available across the country, and went with the most traditional versions I could find. For instance, some brands make Dutch apple pies or apple crumb pies — for consistency's sake, I left those out because anything with a streusel topping has an unfair advantage in my book.
On a similar note, here's what I generally look for in an apple pie: a crust that's tender but not super soft, ample flakiness and a filling that marries sweetness and tartness, ideally with a bit of spice. I also prefer a medium-sized apple slice — too small, and the filling becomes mushy; too big, and the apples sometimes aren't cooked enough.
Store-bought apple pies are super low-maintenance, but there are a few tools you'll need for baking and slicing 'em up. Here's what I used:
And if you'd like to try your hand at a from-scratch pie...