I’m a professional baker. I compared apple pies from 3 grocery stores, and I’d only consider buying 1 again

I tried apple pies from Kroger, Whole Foods, and Safeway. Molly Allen I’m a professional baker who tried apple pies from the stores Kroger, Whole Foods, and Safeway. Kroger and Safeway’s pies were quite underbaked and didn’t taste great.

Whole Foods had the best option, but I’d probably just opt to make my own dessert at home. I compared apple pies from Kroger, Whole Foods, and Safeway. Apple pie is a fall staple.

Molly AllenApple pie is delicious any time of year, but it’s especially tasty in the fall.  Baking a pie from scratch can require a lot of effort, and sometimes, you may need to take a shortcut. So I tried options from Kroger, Whole Foods, and Safeway to find the best grocery-store apple pie you can snag in a pinch.

I purchased a 9-inch toffee apple pie from Kroger. Kroger’s apple pie was toffee flavored. Molly AllenKroger’s bakery offered a toffee apple pie, and the label said it was freshly baked in the store.

Surprisingly, I didn’t see any typical lattice apple pies. The only other option was flavored like brown sugar and maple, so I went with the toffee one. The 9-inch pie cost $7.

99.  The pie was underbaked and I thought it had a strange flavor. Kroger’s apple pie tasted a bit artificial.

Molly AllenThe golden apple pie from Kroger looked very good, but cutting into it was incredibly difficult. It was soft and mushy, and it started to fall apart as I removed a slice. The bottom crust on this pie was underbaked, and the streusel topping was doughy.

It certainly needed more time to cook. That said, it could’ve just been that someone took my particular pie out of the oven too soon.  The outer crust was good, but the rest of the pie’s flavor fell flat for me.

I thought the apple filling had an odd artificial taste, and the soft texture was unappetizing. Whole Foods typically sells halves of 9-inch apple pies. I had to buy two halves of a Whole Foods apple pie.

Molly AllenWhen I arrived at Whole Foods, the only options were half pies. A bakery employee told me that the pies are baked in the morning, then typically are cut in half. If you’re looking for a whole pie, it’s apparently best to call ahead in the morning and ask that one be set aside.

I asked for two halves to be put in a box so I could take home an entire pie, which ended up costing $12. 99. The pie tasted homemade.

Whole Foods’ apple pie had a great flavor. Molly AllenThe flavor of Whole Foods’ apple pie absolutely blew me away. It tasted homemade.

The crust was flaky and buttery. And even though the very center wasn’t quite fully baked, the filling still tasted fresh and flavorful with a slight crunch. The apples tasted fresh and had just a touch of sugar and cinnamon to enhance their flavor.

Other than the middle of the crust being a bit soft, it was a very good pie. Maybe the one I got was just taken out of the oven too soon.  I snagged an 11-inch apple pie from Safeway.

Safeway’s apple pie was large and looked fantastic. Molly AllenSafeway sells much larger pies, and I found both lattice and Dutch options. The raw pies apparently come to the store frozen and are then baked on-site.

I bought an 11-inch lattice pie for $11. 99. Safeway’s pie was beautiful, but it was underbaked and too sweet for me.

Safeway’s apple pie let me down. Molly AllenThe apple pie from Safeway was beautiful, with a nice lattice topping. But it was tricky to cut — the slice fell apart as I removed it from the pie dish.

The crust was underbaked and quite soggy in the middle, even though the outer portions had a nice golden look and crispy texture. I wondered if my specific pie was just not left in the oven long enough or not baked at an ideal temperature. I also thought it tasted fairly bland and was not very flaky.

Plus the filling tasted incredibly sweet to me, with an overwhelming cinnamon flavor. Overall, each option was quick and convenient, but I’m not sure I’d buy any of them again. If I had to buy one again, I’d choose Whole Foods’ apple pie.

Molly AllenIt was easy to head into each store and find an apple pie in the first week of September. It was a bit trickier to get a whole one at Whole Foods, but the bakery employee I spoke to was incredibly helpful. For each store, it’s also possible to call ahead of time and ask the bakery to put a pie aside for you.

But I was disappointed that all three had an underbaked crust. It takes a lot of patience to bake an apple pie — at home, it can take close to an hour — but it seemed like each grocery story didn’t leave the dessert in the oven long enough.  I thought Kroger and Safeway’s pies tasted a bit too artificial and their crusts did not impress me.

 If I need to purchase a grocery-store apple pie again, I’d only consider Whole Foods’ option because the flavor was so incredible. But in general, I’d probably just carve out the time to bake my own dessert at home.  Read the original article on Insider.