'Tis the season for plenty of pie! Fred was feeling festive and wanted to sample the Limited Edition Edy's Apple Pie. These Limited Edition containers Edy's puts out are quite eye catching in their bright colors and large print. By the container's photo of the ice cream scoop, it looked to be ice cream with apple cubes. Ah, but read the fine print, there was crust to be had as well (my favorite part of the pie). Yay! For all of the big-hype type on the container, I thought the explanation of the ice cream could have been bigger. It was lost in all the big-ness.
I thought that Edy's had started implementing the cellophane-sealed lid, but this particular container did not have one. (To whom it may concern: if you find me dead, please know that the last thing I ate was Apple Pie ice cream that was unsealed. Check it for foul play!)
Before diving in, I always check the fat content. This ice cream (traditionally a premium brand) only had 13% saturated fat DV! This is good news for those wanting to count calories and fat around the holidays, but something told me it was going to be quite airy. Indeed it was. It is a compromise; texture for calories as always. I would make a deal to see how it tasted and then decide just how much of a compromise I was willing to make.
The smell was pre-tty darn good. Yum! The smell of apple pie spices was wafting right up to my nose... so good. The ice cream was a medium cream color and I could see a few apple bits at the top of the container. The ice cream container read vanilla, but I tasted all of the spices (cinnamon mostly) mixed in to the vanilla ice cream. (This is not a bad thing; just misleading from the container.) The texture of the vanilla spice was creamy and tasty (but you guessed it, a bit airy).
The apple bits were about the size of a piece of Chicklet gum, maybe just a tad skinnier. They were not raw apples, but cooked apples mixed in the pie spices. The pieces of apple looked just like they were pulled right out of an apple pie in color and texture. They were good and I was pleasantly surprised that apples held up in ice cream. I thought they would have frozen into cubes of apple. Instead they were pliable and not unpleasant to bite into. There were enough apple pieces. This is not considered to be a "loaded" ice cream, so don't be surprised if it feels like there are not as many as you thought there would be. It's normal.
The first time I found a crust piece, I thought it was a joke. The piece was tiny-tiny. I was confused because I only had two bites with crust in it and they were smaller than a pea each time. I thought, "OK, come off the crust, people!" I was disappointed. I must say, I had so little that I can't even evaluate the taste. This was a major ding for me. (Make sure to read "crust-stealing Fred"'s review.)
Overall, I have to say that this ice cream did taste on-point. The taste rates much better than a convenience store's mini $.99 pie (you know the ones) and almost as good as Mrs. Smith's. It doesn't come close to a homemade pie, but I wouldn't expect it to. This ice cream has a lot of potential if you just wanted to serve ice cream at the end of a holiday meal. It's almost two-in-one... minus the crust.
- Kris