CATEGORY
Pie Crust Mix
2007 ChefsBest Certified Award Winner
Betty Crocker
What Makes a Great Pie Crust Mix?
Whether you are getting ready for a home-cooked winter meal, a summer picnic or an autumn cookout, there’s always room for homemade pie. Preparing one, however, takes time and planning. If you don’t like pre-made crusts or your pantry is bare, you might consider a pie crust mix. Just add water to create a crust that—along with your favorite filling—bakes into a tender, crusty and delectable dessert.
Our chefs define high-quality pie crust mixes as baking to a golden hue with a discernible surface sheen, especially when the crust is used as a top crust. The aroma character should be complex, with notes of toasted flour and butter, but there should be no inappropriate off notes, including rancid fat or stale flour notes.
A pie crust is in taste balance when moderate sweetness is the most evident basic taste, followed by low saltiness. There should be no bitterness or sourness.
A pie crust’s flavor character should be complex, featuring toasted grain notes and an identifiable fat, such as butter or oil.
When baked with an apple pie filling, the pie crust should have a tender initial bite. While being chewed, the crust should blend with the pie filling, but it should continue to deliver a moderately flaky mouthfeel that is never sandy or rough in texture. A discernible fattiness will exist in the finish, but the palate should still be clean after swallowing.
Finally, a high-quality pie crust should perform well when prepared according to the manufacturer’s directions. Baked with apple-pie pie filling, a pie crust should have solid structural integrity, and it should not crumble, lose its filling or fall apart when cut and served. The pie should hold together admirably enough to impress family and dinner guests, and it should hold its own when served a la mode.
Product Category Definition
The product judged was defined as pie crust mix for the consumer market, not including prepared shelf-stable, refrigerated or frozen pie crusts, refrigerated or fresh whole pies, or pie fillings.
Other Leading Brands:
N/A
ONE-STEP IDEAS
For an ice cream pie, prebake the crust according to package directions, fill with softened ice cream and freeze.
Put chicken stew in a casserole dish, top with a prepared pie crust and bake for chicken pot pie.
Fold prepared pie crust over apple pie filling and bake to make fruit calzones.
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FUN FACTS
- The average American consumes six slices of pie per year.
- Seventy-six percent of Americans prefer homemade pie to pies from a bakery, supermarket or restaurant.
- Over 50 percent of Americans prefer their pie without ice cream on top.
The ChefsBest Certified Award is awarded to brands highly rated overall by independent professional chefs.
