I don’t bake much, and I never make pie crust. I know it’s easy, but I avoid anything that forces me to use a rolling pin (this includes cut cookies). Therefore, in the rare occasions when I make a pie, I buy pre-made pie shells.
Unfortunately, most store bought pie shells aren’t very good. They can be too tough, not flaky enough or have an unpleasant bitter baking soda taste. In addition, they are expensive! Enter Amazon Grocery pie shells.
At about $2 for 2 shells, these shells were surprisingly affordable – though beware that Amazon practices “dynamic” pricing, with products sometimes changing prices multiple times a day and coming in-and-out of inventory. Still, that’s half the price of the supermarket-brand pie shells. They were also surprisingly good. The shells are pretty thin, and while not flaky, their thinness stops them from being hard. They also have a pretty good flavor, slightly salty but that works well with sweet fillings as it provides a balance to them. That said, I used the shells in a sugar cream pie, and I’m not sure how well they will handle a pie with a significantly heavier filling, such as apple pie.
These shells come refrigerated and rolled up, with parchment paper separating them. Some of the dough stack to the paper, though it was easy enough to fix fix them.
I’ll definitely buy them again next time I bake a pie.
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