Monday, October 15, 2012

Marie Callender’s Seasonal Peppermint Pie Is A Cool Winter Delight!


The Good: Relatively inexpensive, Good taste
The Bad: Saturated fat content, Whipped cream/crust flavor overwhelm the pie flavor.
The Basics: Marie Callender’s Seasonal Peppermint Pie is delightful, but not all it could be on the taste front.


This year for my birthday, my wife was working the day before and asked me what I wanted in terms of a cake. I didn’t want her to go to any hassle, so she decided to buy the birthday dessert instead of make it herself, which I was more than fine with. This, however, resulted in her dragging me around the grocery store for an hour before we put back three other cakes and went with the Marie Callender’s Seasonal Peppermint Pie from the freezer section.

In the interest of full disclosure, I am not a “pie person.” I love ice cream, I like cake. Pie, I tend not to be a fan of because usually, the crust overwhelms it. The crust on the Marie Callender’s Seasonal Peppermint Pie is not so thick or overbearing as to drown out the flavor of the pie filling, but it does make a match for the filling with the whipped cream topping that comes on the pie and that was a little disappointing. That said, I enjoyed the Marie Callender’s Seasonal Peppermint Pie up until the moment I looked at the nutrition statistics for it!

Basics

Marie Callender’s pies are found in the frozen food section of the supermarket. The Seasonal Peppermint Pie is an eight inch pie that comes in a pie tin with a plastic cover and boxed in the bright green Marie Callender’s box. The 28 oz. frozen pie is available in the autumn and is a pink cream-style pie (basically like a cheesecake in terms of consistency). It has a chocolate crust and a white whipped cream ring that has chocolate chips embedded in it. With its bright pink color, the Marie Callender’s Seasonal Peppermint Pie is very festive in its appearance.

Ease Of Preparation

Marrie Callender’s pies come entirely premade. One need only let it thaw for about half an hour and it becomes perfectly manageable. At that stage, it may be easily cut and served. The 28 oz. pie is considered six servings and it is more than enough to thrill six people!

Taste

Marie Callender’s Seasonal Peppermint Pie smells delightfully like mint as it nears room temperature. As it rises to the temperature at which it may be easily cut, it effervesces a light, mint scent that is enough to entice anyone who loves peppermint.

On the tongue, the sweet whipped cream dollop and chocolate crust do their best to smother the soft, pink interior of the pie. However, as the sickeningly sweet whipped cream and dry, determined crust fall away, they reveal a bright, sparkling peppermint flavor that is energizing and cool. The mint flavor is distinctive and when it is not in competition with the other layers, it is a tasty treat that is enough to please any mint enthusiast.

The Seasonal Peppermint Pie leaves a very dry aftertaste in one’s mouth, as the thick chocolate crust leaves the mouth last and insists the consumer not forget it!

Nutrition

I hate to be the person who reviews a dessert and complains about the lack of nutrition there, but that’s where it’s going to fall now! I review plenty of desserts and so far in all of my experience with reviewing desserts, I have never run into something with as little nutritional benefit as the Marie Callender’s Seasonal Peppermint Pie! Honestly, It was the fact that a single slice of this pie (1/6 of the pie) has 95% of one’s RDA of saturated fat. That was utterly astonishing to me. With 570 calories, 330 of which are from fat, the Seasonal Peppermint Pie is almost utterly unredeemable in the nutrition department. With 40 mg cholesterol (13% RDA), 270 mg sodium (11% RDA) and 53 grams of carbohydrates, the Seasonal Peppermint Pie backs up the fat content with a load of negatives. Despite having 2 grams of dietary fiber, 5 grams of protein, and 20% of one’s RDA of Iron, it is hard to argue that this is worth the nutritional investment.

Made primarily of sugar, palm oil, and eggs, Marie Callender’s Seasonal Peppermint Pie degenerates into a chemistry equation at the end of the ingredient’s list, so it is not even putting up the pretense of being all natural. It contains egg, milk, wheat and soy ingredients (for those who have dietary concerns and allergies) and is in no way gluten free, kosher or vegan-compliant.

Storage/Cleanup

As a dairy product, the Marie Callender’s Seasonal Peppermint Pie must be refrigerated at the very least. It comes in the frozen food section and it ought to be frozen until about half an hour before it is intended to be consumed (to make it possible to cut into). Otherwise, the Marie Callender’s Seasonal Peppermint Pie does not expire for several months and in its frozen state, the whipped cream on it will remain frozen in its decorative shape. Kept properly, this will last for quite some time; the Seasonal Peppermint Pie my wife bought last week had an expiration date of February, 2014 on it!

Cleanup for the Marie Callender’s Seasonal Peppermint Pie is only necessary when the whipped cream or filling melts. It should wipe up easily with a cloth. If it gets into clothing, consult your fabric guide for the best options for cleaning it out.

Overall

Outside the nutritional detractions of this pie, the taste is not as robust as I, a lover of all things mint, would otherwise go gaga for. As a result, my reaction (and rating) is far more neutral than it is an eager recommendation.

For other dessert products, be sure to check out my reviews of:
Breyer’s Blasts Oreo Cookies And Cream Mint ice cream
Dora3 Croissant with strawberry filling
Keebler Peanut Butter Jumbo Fudge Sticks wafer cookies

5/10

For other food reviews, please check out my Food Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2012 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.

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