Sara Lee Oven Fresh Frozen Cherry Pie Review

Yesterday I went shopping for a few groceries, and when I entered the frozen foods aisle I saw that a few of the pies by Sara Lee were on sale. I usually don't buy frozen pies, because I've had some that didn't taste too great, but since they were on sale I decided to try one. I wanted an apple pie but they were sold out, so I bought a cherry pie.

Price of
Sara Lee Oven Fresh Cherry Pie

A 37oz pie retails for $7.99.

Ingredients In
Sara Lee Oven Fresh Cherry Pie

The pie contains cherries, enriched flour (wheat flour, niacin, iron, thiamin, mononitrate, riboflavin, and folic acid) water, vegetable oil (palm, soybean, and/or cottonseed oils) sugar, corn syrup, modified corn starch. And it contains 2% or less of each of the following: high fructose corn syrup, salt, and soy flour.

Nutrition Facts for
Sara Lee Oven Fresh Cherry Pie

A 1/8 section of pie contains 340 calories, 150 of which are from fat. 16g of total fat, 7g of saturated fat, and 0g of trans fat. A slice also has 370mg of sodium, 45g of total carbohydrates, less than 1g of fiber, 17g of sugar, and 3g of protein.

It also has 4% of the daily recommended value of vitamin A, 2% of vitamin C, and 10% of iron.

Claims For
Sara Lee Oven Fresh Cherry Pie

The front of the pie box has a seal for the 2009 American Culinary Chef's Best Taste Award. While the box claims "Trust our time-honored recipe to bring family and friends together. They'll love our light, flaky crust filled with plump, juicy Montmorency cherries, picked at the peak of freshness."

Texture of
Sara Lee Oven Fresh Cherry Pie

I followed the instructions and baked the pie at 400 degrees for an hour, and I allowed it to cool down for about another hour before I cut a slice.

Even after an hour the pie was still pretty warm, so the cherry filling was runnier than I preferred. Plus the top layer of crust collapsed when I cut the slice, it just wouldn't hold up. So the first couple of slices looked awful and didn't have a ton of filling because it oozed out.

Once the pie really cooled down the filling did become a bit thicker, but the upper layer of crust still kept crumbling. After it was refrigerated the upper layer became a bit stronger.

Taste of
Sara Lee Oven Fresh Cherry Pie

Even though this Sara Lee pie received a Best Taste Award, to me, it just wasn't all that great.

The cherry filling was sweet because of sugar, while the cherries added a sour after taste. But besides that the filling didn't have any other flavoring so I thought it was a bit bland. The cherries were really mushy and the filling was thin, so I didn't really care for it.

When it came to the crust, I could taste more of the flour in the dough than a buttery flavor. It kind of reminded me of the crust that's used in chicken pot pies. Overall the taste of it was decent, but I just wish that there wasn't a full top layer of crust.

The top layer just overwhelmed the weak filling and I felt like I was eating more crust than cherry filling. Either the top layer of crust could've been left off altogether, or it could've been cut into strips and made into a lattice pattern, so that more of the filling could be tasted.

In the End...

I don't think that the Sara Lee Oven Fresh Cherry Pie was awful, but it wasn't the best cherry pie I've ever tasted. I wouldn't buy it again because the flavors were too bland, and there was too much crust. However I'd be willing to try one of the Oven Fresh Apple Pies, because I don't think the crust would overpower the apples.

Overall, I give the cherry pie 3 out of 5 stars.