Gwynedd Stuart
The best apple pie at the grocery store—whether it’s the best frozen apple pie or apple pie from your local grocery store’s bakery—may not hold a candle to a pie someone slaved over and made totally from scratch. But here’s the thing: It’s still pie, my guy. When it has all the right elements—firm apples, flaky crust with just the right amount of salt to offset the sweetness of the filling, or sweet, crumbly streusel if we’re talking about the best Dutch apple pie—you kind of can’t go wrong. In fact, the best store bought apple pie can save you a lot of time and effort if baking isn’t your forte.
What we looked for in the best apple pie
In three separate apple pie taste tests, we stocked up on both ready-to-eat premade apple pies and frozen apple pies that require a good hour or so in the oven, tasting and retasting Walmart apple pie, Sara Lee apple pie, and Marie Callender apple pie. We added that enormous Costco apple pie to the mix in our most recent taste test, too.
Discernible pieces of apple: We want more than just apple-y goop—we want toothsome slices of apple that are sweet and tart in equal measure.
The right crust-to-filling ratio: We love pies with top and bottom crusts, but they HAVE to have a lot of filling to work. We tried at least a couple of double-crust pies that were just too dry
That perfect salty-sweet balance: I’ll admit that our #1 pick for the best apple pie leans sweet, but it still has a bottom crust with some savory flavor to complement the apples, cinnamon, and streusel. We want to enjoy eating an entire slice.
Six store bought apple pies were better than the rest. Here’s the best apple pie for your next zero-effort dessert. (Oh, and if you want to “make your own apple pie” but do it the easy way, we’ve ranked the best apples, best canned apple pie filling, and the best premade pie crusts, too.)
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- Sprouts Gluten Free Dutch Apple Pie
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When it comes to gluten free apple pie, I gotta say, Dutch seems like the way to go. Gluten free pie crust isn’t always great, so a double crust pie is just too much gluten free crust—streusel is much more forgiving. The best thing about this gluten free apple pie is that it has PLENTY of filling with lots of apples. The streusel is sweet and crunchy, and while there’s a little bit of a tell-tale gluten free pie crust aftertaste, it’s easy to get past, especially if you top this with some vanilla ice cream after you heat it in the oven (and you should definitely heat it in the oven).
Credit: Liv Averett / Sprouts
- Banquet Apple Pie
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Banquet makes some questionable frozen meals (steer clear of their crustless pizza, fr fr), but we consistently appreciate anything they put in a pie crust, from their turkey pot pie (one of our favorite pot pies) to their breakfast pot pie, which is literally just a tasty crust with sausage gravy inside (don’t knock it till you try it). Their single-serve apple pie is another delight. Could the filling use more apples? Sure, but the sweet, gooey filling tastes great, especially with the nicely salted crust. I cooked this pie in the oven (heating pie in the microwave is a recipe for disappointment) and took it out of the paper tray it comes in, which caused the whole thing to collapse. After the taste test, I called their customer support line and was assured that you actually can keep the pie in the paper tray to cook it in the oven, even if the instructions on the box don’t make that clear. I can’t help but think it would have tasted even better if it didn’t look like slop.
Credit: Liv Averett / Walmart
- Kirkland Signature Apple Pie
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As I wrote in my notes, “This is a huge f*cking pie.” Seriously, it has to weigh at least 8 lbs. And it’s gorgeous. There’s a layer of shimmering sugar glaze on the beautifully browned top crust. Really impressive stuff! And it tastes…pretty good! Not great, sadly. But good. The filling leans tart. The apples are tender, but like, verging-on-mush tender. It’s less gloopy than other brands, which I think is nice because it has more of a homemade feel. I do wish the crust were just a leeeetle more flavorful, too. My colleague Justine Sterling detected pops of salt; I did not. It’s something to encase the filling and nothing more. Still, for the price and the size and the overall quality, I feel good about including this pretty high on the list of the best grocery store apple pies.
Credit: Liv Averett / Costco
- Sara Lee Dutch Apple Pie
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This Sara Lee apple pie, which is topped with streusel instead of more crust, was a surprising hit. It doesn’t look like much (especially next to Marie Callender’s Dutch apple pie, which we’ll get to in a sec), but if you can get past the slightly sad appearance, this is some of the best store bought apple pie. The bottom crust is flaky and has a distinct hit of salt that offsets the sweetness of the filling. I love that bottom crust for all the hard work it’s doing! The filling is good—a little bit tart and very cinnamony—but the streusel top just can’t hang with Marie. Still, this frozen apple pie made Justine, an apple pie skeptic say, “Maybe I do like apple pie…”
Credit: Liv Averett / Albertsons
- Sprouts Double Crust Apple Pie
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We tried several apple pies from grocery store bakery sections, and Sprouts makes the best store bought apple pie by far if you want something that’s ready to roll rather than ready to bake. The crust is flaky and almost savory. The filling isn’t overly sweet, either. It’s so deeply flavorful and it seems to absorb some of the salt from the pie crust, which is amazing. I think a lot of apple pie is too sugary to eat a la mode, but this pie would be perfect with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. I’m telling ya, if you want a really good, ready-to-eat apple pie, it’s worth it to make a stop at Sprouts. I also love that you can buy this as a full or a half pie, so even if you’re having a cozy Thanksgiving for two, you can have a really good dessert without being left with a daunting amount of leftovers. Although, I will say that the full-size pie is only $1 more expensive, so you might as well splurge. Whatever you do, just don’t accidentally buy Sprouts no-sugar-added apple pie. It looks great, but the filling tastes way too much like sucralose to be enjoyable.
Credit: Liv Averett / Sprouts
- Marie Callender’s Dutch Apple Pie
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If you prefer Dutch apple pie over double crust apple pie because you’re a streusel guy, this Marie Callender apple pie is the best frozen apple pie to buy. It comes with a separate baggie of streusel topping that you add once the pie is mostly baked, and there is a lot of it. Once the streusel has been applied and baked, this is a breathtakingly beautiful store bought apple pie. But honestly, that’s not even this pie’s biggest selling point. That would be the filling, which contains way more apple than a lot of other store bought apple pies. Even better, the apples in the filling are wonderfully crisp. It’s kind of a feat. I don’t know any apple lover (or streusel lover, I guess) who would turn down a second slice of this excellent grocery store apple pie. The streusel is so good and they give you so much of it! When we sat down to taste and retaste pies in our second apple pie taste test, this is the one we couldn’t stop eating. All in all, it’s the best apple pie at the grocery store.
Credit: Liv Averett / Instacart
Best Gluten Free Apple Pie
Best Apple Pie for One
Best BIG Apple Pie
Best Crust
Best with Ice Cream
Best of the Best
Other apple pies we tried
Private Selection Toffee Apple Pie, Marketside Caramel Apple Pie, Sara Lee Apple Pie, Walmart Freshness Guaranteed Apple Pie, Walmart Freshness Guaranteed No Sugar Added Apple Pie, Jessie Lord Apple Pie, Sprouts No Sugar Added, Katz Gluten Free Apple Pie
Griffin Parker
Will Morgan
Danny Palumbo
