The Marie Callender's Frozen Pie We Won't Be Buying Again

Marie Callender's is our favorite brand for pies and a household name for many, outcompeting other popular pie brands like Sara Lee. That said, not all of Marie Callender's frozen pies are worth buying. We ranked six Marie Callender's frozen pies and found that the Razzleberry pie is best left out of your shopping cart.

While we gave it points for its whimsical name, the Razzleberry pie failed to live up to the texture and flavor we'd hoped for. What's in a Razzleberry pie, you might ask? The box pictures a pie stuffed with raspberries and blackberries, but a glance at the ingredients reveals apples as well. We were looking forward to a nice berry tartness balanced with the sweetness of apples in the filling, but were disappointed to find neither. The flavors of the berries were very muted, to say nothing of the apples. The pie filling wasn't very sweet because it was mostly berries, but we tasted a nondescript fruit flavor without any bright, tart juice you'd expect from the berries. Despite Marie Callender's unfortunate use of soybean oil in their crusts, in the case of this pie, it was the one saving grace. The crust was buttery, flaky, and soft, completely encompassing the filling so you got some with each bite. However, a tasty crust couldn't make up for the bland, underwhelming filling.

We were underwhelmed by the Razzleberry pie. But does our review line up with other pie fans? We went directly to Marie Callender's website to find an overwhelming quantity of one-star reviews for the Razzleberry pie, starting with the filling, which some felt had changed in recent years. Berries are tart and juicy with a subtle sweetness, and while they break down when cooked to release their juices, we still expect some structural integrity. Unfortunately, customers say, "The pie has changed, it is now just jelly!" Instead of plump berries, a customer wrote, "I could count about 6 berries and the rest was filler." Reviews of the taste weren't much better, with one customer complaining that the "pie was not sweet in any way, tasted so bland and gross." To that effect, one customer went so far as to say, "I considered scraping out the filling and just having the crust." But, according to other customers, the crust isn't what it used to be either. One customer theorized, "The crust seems to have gotten [a lot] thicker, probably to keep the jelly from exploding out of this concoction while baking."

While we, along with Marie Callender's customers, think you should skip the Razzleberry pie, you can get your sweet and sour fix with Marie Callender's lemon meringue pie, which came in third in our ranking. Of course, our favorite fruit pie is the Dutch Apple pie, not to be confused with the lattice apple pie.