Irene Jiang / Business Insider
- Apple pie is the quintessential American pastry.
- I ate the apple pies at McDonald’s, Burger King, Arby’s, Popeyes, and Checkers to find out which was best.
- I compared them on a scale of 1 to 5, judging freshness, crust, filling, and overall taste.
- Checkers’ cinnamon apple pies were cheapest at two for a dollar, and they were also the tastiest.
- Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.
There’s no place like home, and nothing like homemade apple pie fresh out the oven.
But if Grandma’s on vacation and you can’t bake, the next-best thing is jaunting over to the nearest fast-food restaurant for a quick sugar-and-butter fix.
As a Chinese American, I never had homemade apple pie growing up (cue the world’s smallest violin). But McDonald’s elliptically-inclined pockets of sugary goo were a staple of road trips and after-school binges.
Everything changed in 2018, when McDonald’s radically changed its apple pie’s look and recipe and left me, a hopeless baker, alone in the world without my fave pomme pastry pal.
The hunt for a new baked bestie was on.
Read more: I ate soft serve from 7 major fast-food chains, and the winner surprised me
I went to McDonald’s, Burger King, Arby’s, Popeyes, and Checkers in search of the best apple pie the fast-food world has to offer. I judged the pastries on a 1-5 scale in four metrics: freshness, crust, filling, and overall taste.
Here’s how they stack up:
BURGER KING — DUTCH APPLE PIE, $2.09. Burger King’s pie is the only pie-shaped pie.
Irene Jiang / Business Insider
FRESHNESS — 1. Barely lukewarm, the pie lacked any of the hot-out-the-oven goodness its shape evokes. CRUST — 2. Soft, soggy, no crisp whatsoever. If it had been properly baked, I suspect it would have resembled real pie crust. Instead, it was mushy, gritty, and tasted like flour. Bleh.
Irene Jiang / Business Insider
FILLING — 3. Yes, there are real apples and cinnamon inside, but the goopy filling tasted very artificial. OVERALL TASTE — 2. It was too sweet and tasted like a scented candle, and it had an off-putting mushy texture.
Irene Jiang / Business Insider
See the rest of the story at Business Insider
See Also:
- I ate soft serve from 7 major fast-food chains, and the winner surprised me
- I tried Oreo frozen desserts at 7 major fast-food chains, and the winner was clear
- I ate the same meal at both Texas Roadhouse and Outback Steakhouse, and one was the clear winner
SEE ALSO: I tried Oreo frozen desserts at 7 major fast-food chains, and the winner was clear
Source: Business Insider – ijiang@businessinsider.com (Irene Jiang)