Why McDonald's Apple Pie Is Actually The Worst Fast Food Dessert Pie

McDonald's has no shortage of sweet options to accompany its long list of savory entree items. There's the classic McFlurry, those gooey hot fudge sundaes, stacks of chocolate chip cookies, and of course, the apple pies. While those little cardboard boxes filled with sticky treats might be synonymous with the McDonald's name, we sat down to try 10 fast food dessert pies and ranked the chain's apple pie as the worst out of its competition.

While aesthetically this pie could be something out of a gourmet kitchen, the crust was actually the initial downfall. The lattice of the crust meant there was less of it in general, and everyone knows that the crust is the best part of a pie, even pocket-style. When it came to the inside, the McDonald's dessert was more apple goo than apple filling, created with what we can only assume were apples past the point of ripeness, given how tart the whole thing was. The entire thing was chewy and soggy, nothing like the crisp crunch you'd expect when biting into a pocket pie, so we had no choice but to stick this iconic creation in last place.

Apple pies were introduced to the McDonald's menu in 1968, the same year as the debut of the Big Mac. They were the brainchild of Knoxville, Tennessee, franchise owner Litton Cochran, who started selling homemade apple pies based on his mother's family recipe. Ray Kroc, the head of McDonald's at the time, noticed the success of Cochran's apple pies and officially transitioned them to the nationwide McDonald's menus as the first-ever dessert. Twenty-four years after the introduction of these fried, pocket-style apple pies, McDonald's decided to change the recipe for good.

Pre-1992, McDonald's apple pies were deep-fried with real diced apples until golden brown, but one year, the company unexpectedly converted to baking the pies instead of frying them (though we're still curious what kind of apples are used in its apple pies). Many fans who remember pies from the '70s and '80s say that the newer version doesn't quite taste the same, which would explain why we found the crust soggy as opposed to crunchy. This hasn't stopped McDonald's from rolling out various other pie flavors, such as the blueberry and crème pie and the strawberry and crème pie, each baked in an oven like the apple pie (here's the only states in the U.S. where you can still get McDonald's fried apple pie). While the company's apple pie might not make the top of our ranking, it's still a tried-and-true staple of the menu.