Making a Good Pie: Does Marie Callendar Fit the Bill?
©2017 C. Henry Martens
I LOVE pie. I mean... LOVE, love, love, pie.
Perhaps I was born to love pastry, as it can be argued that my father was the first person to produce a commercially produced cake mix in a box. That first boxed cake mix would be sold in the year 1926. Being a Gypsy Prince (not literally, but figuratively), my father bundled his family about the country from one place to another for the rest of his life and always kept his hands in the business of baking. At one time, he was the Manager of Research and Development at a national do-nut company. So take a guess who my Dad's guinea pigs were? His kids, of course. I'm the one who tried to convince him that a soft cookie, preferably chocolate chip, mimicking a cookie fresh from the oven in consistency was a good idea.
So pie is one of my things... and in this case my favorite of all pastry. You can give me a good strudel, or kuchen, or baklava, and I will dig in and enjoy... but if I have a choice I will choose any kind of fruit pie first, last, and always.
I seek out opportunities to find good pie and will often try pie at an out of the way café or diner if they claim to make their own. Most often I am disappointed.
Somewhere along the way, pie has been homogenized into the same glop almost everywhere I go. With very few exceptions they are thick, doughy, and tasteless crusts filled with thick, syrupy, overly sweet, canned filling in which it is difficult to find a piece of recognizable fruit.
What makes good pie? Well, not glop... either in the crust or in the filling. Let's start with the crust. A good crust is thin, light, flaky, and has flavor. A good crust embraces the filling like a good lover spooning the object of his affections. Above all, it is not thick and doughy. It should provide a counterbalance to the filling and therefore should not be sweet but rather buttery and pleasantly dry without tasting like flour. Occasionally a crust may be dusted with sugar and/or cinnamon to add a little something, but a good crust does not require it.
The filling of good pie is where the sweet comes from. If you make pie at home, you may realize that almost all recipes call for immense amounts of sugar. If all you taste inside a pie is sugar... it is too sweet. Almost all recipes call for too much sugar. Canned filling is too sweet, and the consistency being like a thick syrup is all wrong. Good filling, above all else, allows you to appreciate the flavor of the fruit or flavoring being used. If you are eating an apple pie, or coconut, apricot, or pecan, you must be able to taste the filling and not just the syrup or sweetener. I cut the recipe requirements for sugar in half, or even more, in all recipes.
Good pie has flavor. Again, if it is so sweet that all you taste is sweet, you aren't eating real pie.
Commercial pies fill restaurant bakery goods cases, and they are almost universally thick and doughy crusted, and filled with canned syrup.
But what about Marie Callendar frozen pie?
This morning I baked a pumpkin pie produced by Marie Callendar and had to call the company to complain. I hesitate to say complain, as the pie turned out fine. The issue was that sometime before the pie was frozen and after it was plastic wrapped, the pie was dropped on one side and the filling ended up on only one side as it was frozen.
I consider it good consumerism to let companies know if there is a problem, even if that problem is a one-off kind of mistake. The phone call was answered by a real person, after only a very short wait, and was handled professionally. No complaint there, and I appreciate a company that cares enough to employ real people that are easy to understand.
Once baked, the pumpkin pie turned out fine, the filling moving back to the proper position as it thawed.
In my opinion, Marie Callendar makes some pretty good pie. They have been consistent in keeping their crusts light and flaky and using more fruit and less syrup than most of their competitors. What sweeteners they use are applied conservatively compared to most, too. You can still taste the fruit.
I will say that Marie Callendar pies seem to be getting more sweet recently, but some more than others and not so suddenly that they are overbearing. I suspect that the bean counters are influencing the change, opting for more sales and a larger market instead of quality. I hope the company can resist compromising quality, as if they do, their pie will become just another mass produced pastry-in-a-box.
Short of baking a pie yourself, I believe Marie Callendar produces a better product by far than the average “homemade” pie found in restaurants.
Now, it's time for some pumpkin pie. Where's the whipped cream?
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www.readmota.com
To comment, scroll down and type in your comment. Under Comment As, you can select Anonymous or Name/URL (you don't need to enter a URL). Then hit Publish.
I LOVE pie. I mean... LOVE, love, love, pie.
Perhaps I was born to love pastry, as it can be argued that my father was the first person to produce a commercially produced cake mix in a box. That first boxed cake mix would be sold in the year 1926. Being a Gypsy Prince (not literally, but figuratively), my father bundled his family about the country from one place to another for the rest of his life and always kept his hands in the business of baking. At one time, he was the Manager of Research and Development at a national do-nut company. So take a guess who my Dad's guinea pigs were? His kids, of course. I'm the one who tried to convince him that a soft cookie, preferably chocolate chip, mimicking a cookie fresh from the oven in consistency was a good idea.
So pie is one of my things... and in this case my favorite of all pastry. You can give me a good strudel, or kuchen, or baklava, and I will dig in and enjoy... but if I have a choice I will choose any kind of fruit pie first, last, and always.
I seek out opportunities to find good pie and will often try pie at an out of the way café or diner if they claim to make their own. Most often I am disappointed.
Somewhere along the way, pie has been homogenized into the same glop almost everywhere I go. With very few exceptions they are thick, doughy, and tasteless crusts filled with thick, syrupy, overly sweet, canned filling in which it is difficult to find a piece of recognizable fruit.
What makes good pie? Well, not glop... either in the crust or in the filling. Let's start with the crust. A good crust is thin, light, flaky, and has flavor. A good crust embraces the filling like a good lover spooning the object of his affections. Above all, it is not thick and doughy. It should provide a counterbalance to the filling and therefore should not be sweet but rather buttery and pleasantly dry without tasting like flour. Occasionally a crust may be dusted with sugar and/or cinnamon to add a little something, but a good crust does not require it.
The filling of good pie is where the sweet comes from. If you make pie at home, you may realize that almost all recipes call for immense amounts of sugar. If all you taste inside a pie is sugar... it is too sweet. Almost all recipes call for too much sugar. Canned filling is too sweet, and the consistency being like a thick syrup is all wrong. Good filling, above all else, allows you to appreciate the flavor of the fruit or flavoring being used. If you are eating an apple pie, or coconut, apricot, or pecan, you must be able to taste the filling and not just the syrup or sweetener. I cut the recipe requirements for sugar in half, or even more, in all recipes.
Good pie has flavor. Again, if it is so sweet that all you taste is sweet, you aren't eating real pie.
Commercial pies fill restaurant bakery goods cases, and they are almost universally thick and doughy crusted, and filled with canned syrup.
But what about Marie Callendar frozen pie?
This morning I baked a pumpkin pie produced by Marie Callendar and had to call the company to complain. I hesitate to say complain, as the pie turned out fine. The issue was that sometime before the pie was frozen and after it was plastic wrapped, the pie was dropped on one side and the filling ended up on only one side as it was frozen.
I consider it good consumerism to let companies know if there is a problem, even if that problem is a one-off kind of mistake. The phone call was answered by a real person, after only a very short wait, and was handled professionally. No complaint there, and I appreciate a company that cares enough to employ real people that are easy to understand.
Once baked, the pumpkin pie turned out fine, the filling moving back to the proper position as it thawed.
In my opinion, Marie Callendar makes some pretty good pie. They have been consistent in keeping their crusts light and flaky and using more fruit and less syrup than most of their competitors. What sweeteners they use are applied conservatively compared to most, too. You can still taste the fruit.
I will say that Marie Callendar pies seem to be getting more sweet recently, but some more than others and not so suddenly that they are overbearing. I suspect that the bean counters are influencing the change, opting for more sales and a larger market instead of quality. I hope the company can resist compromising quality, as if they do, their pie will become just another mass produced pastry-in-a-box.
Short of baking a pie yourself, I believe Marie Callendar produces a better product by far than the average “homemade” pie found in restaurants.
Now, it's time for some pumpkin pie. Where's the whipped cream?
Click here to receive the Apocalypse Observer Newsletter in your inbox
www.readmota.com
To comment, scroll down and type in your comment. Under Comment As, you can select Anonymous or Name/URL (you don't need to enter a URL). Then hit Publish.
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