Frozen pie crusts can be hit-or-miss when it comes to flavor and quality. Some are bland, while others have a ncie buttery flavor. Some are too thick to bake in the time needed for the filling to bake, while others are just right. Trader Joe’s stocks frozen pie crust dough that you can roll out and fit to any pie dish you might have, but this year they added a new pie crust option to their freezer case: Trader Joe’s Gluten Free Pie Crust.

It is an all butter crust made with a blend of rice flour, tapioca flour and cornstarch as the base. The frozen crust is unbaked and comes already shaped to a 9-inch aluminum pie plate. It has instructions for use in a single and double crust pie (if you want to combine two of them), as well as for parbaking the crust on its own. The crust needs to be defrosted for about 10 minutes before going into the oven – which I did while my oven was preheating. I filled my test crust with a homemade pumpkin pie filling and popped it into the oven.

The frozen crust baked up beautifully and took on an attractive golden brown color in the oven. It baked evenly all the way through – even though it was filled with a fairly liquid filling that can make any pie crust a bit soggy. Even more surprising was the fact that the crust released nicely from the aluminum pie plate that it baked in, so I was able to slide the entire pie onto a serving plate and slice it from there!! Looks aside, the crust had an excellent consistency. It was not as flaky as a regular wheat pie crust can be, but it was both crisp and tender. The crust has a nice buttery flavor and reminded me a bit of shortbread – though it was less sweet than a typical crumb crust would be.

This crust is gluten free and that makes it an excellent choice for those with dietary restrictions, but it is delicious enough that I would recommend it to anyone looking for an easy pie crust option this season. I know that I’ll be stocking a few in my freezer for times when I want to throw a pie together on short notice!

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