The Grocery Store Apple Pie You Should Skip

On a crisp fall day, few things beat a warm apple pie. While they're delicious homemade, they take lots of time to prep and bake — and you could potentially encounter several common mistakes. But don't worry — you can save yourself all that fuss by heading to your grocery store and picking one right off the shelf. Just pop it in your microwave or oven, and you've got yourself a delicious treat in a matter of minutes.

However, not all grocery-brand baked goods are created equal, and to separate the wheat from the chaff, we here at Food Republic ranked seven grocery store apple pies from worst to best. Our taste tester's verdict? Skip the one from Walmart's Freshness Guaranteed range, the retailer's in-house brand. Its apple pie offering comes in at 3.5 ounces and costs only $0.85, so it's certainly good value — but that does not equate to good quality. 

According to our taste tester, this pie fell short in several categories: The filling — aka the best part — was not substantial, the crust was soft and mushy, and compared to other grocery offerings, it simply did not measure up in terms of flavor and texture. With apple pie (or any pie, for that matter), it's all about the sweet, tangy filling paired with seasonal spices such as cinnamon, nutmeg, or cloves. By the looks of it, Walmart may have been stingy with its apples, and aside from the fact that this creates an underwhelming bite, it can also contribute to both textural and structural issues.

Ironically, the winner of our apple pie taste ranking happened to be another Walmart offering. Our taste tester noted that the retailer's Marketside Caramel Apple Pie was brimming with slices of fruit. That successful approach shows that filling is the secret to avoiding major pie pitfalls.

A lack of filling can be responsible for the dreaded gap that develops between the pie and the crust. You usually need to use more apples than expected, as they naturally shrink during baking. This is not an issue in itself — but when there's too little filling, it becomes one, as the crust has no structural foundation to prevent it from losing its shape and going limp.

Another issue our tester noted in Walmart's Freshness Guaranteed pie was a moist, soft crust — another big no-no. The base should be flaky and crisp, and the filling might also be responsible for these textural problems. Apple pie filling is made by cooking apple slices together with sugar, spices, a thickener, and a liquid. Due to the lack of apples noted by our taste tester, it's likely there was an imbalance in the proportion of apples and liquid components, creating a soggy crust — a problem worsened by the apples releasing juices during cooking.