Here is another frozen food review thread, which differs from the other review threads in a way which is that in this thread there will be all kinds of frozen food reviews: not brand or theme-specific reviews, but just general frozen food reviews. And to start off this thread, I will be reviewing an apple pie by Banquet brand. I was shopping in PathMark yesterday and noticed that these pies were on sale for $1.00, so I decided to get one and try it out. I tried the Banquet pot pie a year or so ago and it did not taste good, so I figured that apple pie will be at least okay. Apparently these apple pies are "new" according to Banquet, they also feature "Oven Baked Taste" according to the box text and are 7-ounces in weight.
As I opened the package, a sorry-looking pie slid out from the side of the box. If this pie could talk he would ask me to love it for what it is rather than for what is printed on the front of the box.
As per instruction I made a slit in the middle and made sure that the promised 7-ounces were there as per box text, and indeed the pie weighted 7.0-ounces and not a fraction more or less. This apple pie can be made in the microwave (1,100+ watts) for 3 1/2 to 4 minutes or in the gas/electric oven for 30 to 33 minutes at 400F temperature. The temperature has to be at least 400F and the use of cookie sheet is necessary or the apple pie will be damaged, that's what the instructions claim. So I warmed-up the oven, slid in the pie and...
...32 minutes later the pie is out of the oven. As soon as I opened the hatch, the fragrant apple pie scent hit my nose and I began salivating. In the center in the slit the molten apple filling began to bubble like lava, and the warning on the back cations that the "filling will be extremely HOT", so I set the pie aside for 10 minutes.
Time to try it out: the crust was pleasantly well-baked and tasted above average. Not as good as McD's apple pie, but still tasty and a bit sweet. My preliminary thought was that the crust will be bland, but it turned out okay. The crust edges were browned, not burned and noticeably tender on the teeth. I expected the apple filling to be much worse, but to my surprise I found that chunks of real apple and cinnamon were present inside the glaze/filling. Although not as good and crunchy as McDonald's 2 for $1.00 (or $1.29 in the city) apple pies, Banquet made these pies quiet well and pleasant: for a frozen pie it was completely worthy of $1.00 price.
Final verdict: The Banquet Apple Pie tastes above average and I give it 3.8 out of 5.0 stars. For a frozen apple pie it pretty good considering how awful the Banquet Pot Pie was. The major downside of this pie is 10 minutes in pre-heating the oven, 30 minutes or so baking time and 10 more minutes for cooling down: almost 1 hour of prep time. Another thing is a little more cinnamon in the apple filling would make this apple pie rise-up to 4.0 stars. I would buy it again and would recommend it for consumption. The lowest sale price that I seen these pies at was $0.77 and the highest was $1.29.
As always, your boy, your friend - The Tasty Food Expert (sm)