By Mike Thayer
I love pie, I’ll take pie over any other kind of dessert offering, but I hate making them, namely the pie crust. Making the dough is a labor intensive project if you want a flaky, golden brown and delicious final product. It entails using chilled water and really cold butter with the flour, resting the dough, dusting the dough, rolling the dough, folding the dough, trimming the dough, pinching/decorating the edge, then finally, pre-baking the bottom crust of dough to make sure it’s cooked through in presenting the final product, the pie. I’d rather put that kind of labor into grilling or smoking meat.
Enter, Marie Callender’s
So as is now a Thanksgiving tradition, I bought a Marie Callender’s pumpkin pie.
The directions on the package is straight forward, nothing complicated about it.
The pie will go into the oven on Thanksgiving eve, brushing the crust with a beaten egg before baking. TIP: Baking your pies the day before or first thing in the morning on Thanksgiving Day ensures your oven is free for the main events of the day, namely the turkey and the casserole sides, which need to be served hot. You don’t want to wait and bake your pies after roasting the turkey thinking they’ll be done in time for dessert because they won’t. Pies need time to cool and set up. The last thing you want is a runny (too hot and not set up yet) pie and the flavors just won’t be there like they are with a cooled and set pie.
With pumpkin pies, you always want to give it the toothpick test when the timer goes off, and if the toothpick doesn’t come out clean, bake it off an additional 10 minutes or so to ensure doneness. Oven temps do indeed vary. Having a few of these pies over the years, once cooled, a slice of this will deliver on the pumpkin flavor.
There is a reason pumpkin pie and whipped cream is the favorite on Thanksgiving Day and Marie’s pie is a good one! Over the years of Thanksgiving celebrations, I’ve had home made pies from Moms, Grandmas, Aunts, pies from restaurants, pies from bakeries, pies from specialty stores…. I think I could put this pie in a lineup and folks would be hard pressed to pick which one was the store bought pie from the freezer in a taste test.
Thank you Marie Callender’s! Your pies rock and the price is Bachelor on the Cheap friendly! I don’t think you could make a scratch made pie for what I paid for this. The cost was $5.99 at the mainstream grocery store and think of all that time I saved not having to bake and without sacrificing on flavor to boot!
$pend Wisely My Friends…
If you appreciate these reviews and want to support more great food, product, service review content, recipes and other great consumer content on BachelorontheCheap.com to include cost comparisons, recalls, safety alerts and more, you can help keep this site going with a one-time or a monthly donation. Just $5 or $10 goes a long way. Thank you so much for your support! ~ Mike
Winner, Winner, Marie Callender's Pumpkin Pie for Thanksgiving Dinner – Bachelor on the Cheap
By Mike Thayer
I love pie, I’ll take pie over any other kind of dessert offering, but I hate making them, namely the pie crust. Making the dough is a labor intensive project if you want a flaky, golden brown and delicious final product. It entails using chilled water and really cold butter with the flour, resting the dough, dusting the dough, rolling the dough, folding the dough, trimming the dough, pinching/decorating the edge, then finally, pre-baking the bottom crust of dough to make sure it’s cooked through in presenting the final product, the pie. I’d rather put that kind of labor into grilling or smoking meat.
Enter, Marie Callender’s
So as is now a Thanksgiving tradition, I bought a Marie Callender’s pumpkin pie.
The directions on the package is straight forward, nothing complicated about it.
The pie will go into the oven on Thanksgiving eve, brushing the crust with a beaten egg before baking. TIP: Baking your pies the day before or first thing in the morning on Thanksgiving Day ensures your oven is free for the main events of the day, namely the turkey and the casserole sides, which need to be served hot. You don’t want to wait and bake your pies after roasting the turkey thinking they’ll be done in time for dessert because they won’t. Pies need time to cool and set up. The last thing you want is a runny (too hot and not set up yet) pie and the flavors just won’t be there like they are with a cooled and set pie.
With pumpkin pies, you always want to give it the toothpick test when the timer goes off, and if the toothpick doesn’t come out clean, bake it off an additional 10 minutes or so to ensure doneness. Oven temps do indeed vary. Having a few of these pies over the years, once cooled, a slice of this will deliver on the pumpkin flavor.
There is a reason pumpkin pie and whipped cream is the favorite on Thanksgiving Day and Marie’s pie is a good one! Over the years of Thanksgiving celebrations, I’ve had home made pies from Moms, Grandmas, Aunts, pies from restaurants, pies from bakeries, pies from specialty stores…. I think I could put this pie in a lineup and folks would be hard pressed to pick which one was the store bought pie from the freezer in a taste test.
Thank you Marie Callender’s! Your pies rock and the price is Bachelor on the Cheap friendly! I don’t think you could make a scratch made pie for what I paid for this. The cost was $5.99 at the mainstream grocery store and think of all that time I saved not having to bake and without sacrificing on flavor to boot!
$pend Wisely My Friends…
If you appreciate these reviews and want to support more great food, product, service review content, recipes and other great consumer content on BachelorontheCheap.com to include cost comparisons, recalls, safety alerts and more, you can help keep this site going with a one-time or a monthly donation. Just $5 or $10 goes a long way. Thank you so much for your support! ~ Mike