Trader Joe's Pecan Pie

I was pretty young the first time I tried pecan pie. It was around Christmas time. A neighbor and friend of the family that made some tasty nut rolls tried her hand at pecan pie instead that year. Somewhere buried in my foggy memories of Yuletide yore—somewhere in between playing with the dog outside in the snow, sledding down the steepest hill in the town, and helping my dad set up his model train and Christmas village—somewhere in there lies my recollection of that first taste of pecan pie. I remember liking it a lot, but I really can't recall the specifics other than some sweetness and lots of pecans.

From then on, I rarely had pecan pie any time other than Thanksgiving. It was always pumpkin pie for Christmas dinner. But in recent years, Sonia and I have been sampling whatever pecan pie products Trader Joe's offers. Last year, we tried the delightful Teeny Tiny Pecan Pies. They were absolutely scrumptious, convenient, and fun. In years past, we sampled the Chocolate Pudding Pecan Pie. Many of you guys know I'm not fond of slathering all the food​ in chocolate as Trader Joe's is wont to do, but that was a very interesting and unique dessert.

We even had pecan pie filling in a jar...and some other mini pies from more than a decade ago. Can't say this large pecan pie is the best of the bunch, unfortunately. It's not bad. It's just...not as good as those aforementioned pecan pie products. The crust is very...blah. Just quite...unmemorable. There's too much filling and it's just like an off-yellow gelatin. It's sweet but not very interesting.

On the plus side, there are lots of pecan halves. I don't know if even more pecans could have redeemed this dessert, but it might have helped. I think I just wanted a richer filling mix. The crust could have been a bit more buttery, flaky, and flavorful, too.

It's ten bucks and serves five people. I'm pretty sure we got more than five servings out of it. Well, let's just say you'll get eight. I'd go ahead and recommend two boxes of the teeny tiny pies if you're trying to serve eight people. The teeny tinies are five and a half bucks each. So, for just a dollar more, you'd still have pecan pie for eight people and I think those diminutive doodads are head and shoulders better than this pecan pie.

We'll be nice and give this offering seven out of ten stars. It's found with the baked goods if you're still interested in giving it a whirl. We'd gravitate toward any of those other pecan pie products before purchasing this one again. Bring back that Chocolate Pecan Pudding Pie, please! In the meantime, there's always the Teeny Tiny Pecan Pies.

Bottom line: 7 out of 10.