Look Out! Fancy Southern: Pecan pie

Product name: Look Out! Fancy Southern: Pecan pie
Purchase details: £1.50 for an 85g pie (A Quarter of Sweets)
Calories: 380 per pie
Country of origin: USA

A few weeks ago, the lovely people at A Quarter of Sweets suggested to me via Twitter  that I tried two of their newer products – Look Out!: Fancy Southern pies which are made by the same company as the Moon Pie but are very different concepts.

My first review is for the Pecan pie which I had high hopes for as pecan pie is a dessert I love, and these Look Out! products even boasted the phrase ‘just like homemade’. I was slightly sceptical, though, as the pie came presented in one of those unfortunate transparent wrappers that give absolutely nothing away by putting a picture over the bit you really want to see. In this case, the pie’s filling was obstructed by the product’s logo so only the outer pastry and foil tin were visible through the flimsy plastic. This was a shame as it did make me doubt the product’s quality.

On removing the pie from its wrapper, I was slightly concerned by the lack of whole pecans on its surface, and the topping, generally, wasn’t the most appealing I’d ever seen. However, I could see, when cutting the pie in two, that there were, at least, chopped up pecans within the caramelised upper layer. I also noticed just how thick the curved pastry case was and, having mentioned in my first ever review of Mr Kipling Dessert Classics: Mississippi mud pies, that the pastry is usually my least favourite part of these products, I wasn’t sure if this was a good thing. However, I was pleased to see that this Pecan pie had a very deep filling which almost made the quantity of pastry seem irrelevant. That said, I did intend to eat the pastry edge first so I could save the best bit until last!

To get a true picture of what this Pecan pie delivered, I decided to eat half of it cold and half of it warm.

When cold, the inner caramel layer looked beautifully smooth and squidgy. The pastry was the main aroma on offer, although there was also a hint of caramel. However, I couldn’t sense the nuts at all. Taste-wise, the pastry was salty and buttery rather than sweet, and it also had a very crumbly texture, whilst the fudgy caramel was mildly sweet but not that flavoursome. Unfortunately, my experience here wasn’t at all exciting  since the flavours just weren’t rich enough and, whilst the nuts were present, they were too small to impact the texture and they hardly added anything to the taste. 

At this stage, I was wondering why A Quarter of Sweets had recommended this product to me! Nevertheless, I persevered, and heated the other half of the pie in the microwave for 10 seconds. On opening the microwave door, I could hear the filling bubbling slightly and I noticed that it looked slightly more moist and emitted a slightly (but not majorly) stronger caramel smell. As for the pastry, this was softer and much more flexible which meant it pulled away easily from the centre of the pie. Probably due to its warmth, I thought it tasted a bit like a Kellogg’s Pop Tart, but with a nutty element. I actually can’t believe what a difference 10 seconds made to the filling of this pie – it tasted MUCH better. It was hot and gooey with a brown sugar flavour and, this time, the upper crusty layer did provide an obvious nuttiness. Even better was the fact that the nuts were more noticeably crunchy due to the contrast with the generally softer centre.

In conclusion, then, this Pecan pie was pretty nice when enjoyed warm, but I wouldn’t really recommend it in its cold form. For that reason, I’ve scored it based entirely on its warm credentials. I don’t know what the average American would think of it, but I also can’t say it was on the same level as the pecan pies that my family members bake, so the ‘just like homemade’ claim didn’t ring true for me. Was it worth the calories? I’m not sure that it was, but I’m certainly glad I gave it a try. 

Appearance: 7.5/10
Aroma: 6.5/10
Taste: 7/10
Texture: 7/10
Overall score: 7/10