Rocky Mountain Pies

Mmm, dessert.  Mmm, pie.  Pies are always a regular item in my dessert rotation, and I'm a fan of many types of pie (fruity, cream, custard, nut, savory, etc).  I enjoy them warm, I enjoy them room temp, I enjoy them a la mode or a la whip, I like them homemade or not, I like an all butter crust, or a lard based crust, and everything in-between.  Yup, I just really like pie, and so, Rocky Mountain Pies is a company I was pleased to discover.

I encountered Rocky Mountain Pies at an event with a large dessert table, mostly filled with desserts bought from the nearby grocery store, mostly made up of cookies (which I rarely like even homemade), brownies, and tea cakes.  Among all that lackluster selection were two pies, also store bought.  I tried both.  The apple pie was awful, BJ's brand, and I didn't like anything about it - not the crust, not the filling, not the spicing ... but the other pie was what looked like chocolate cream pie, also from BJs.  I found out later that it was indeed from BJ's, but BJ's gets these from Rocky Mountain Pies, a wholesale distributor.

I tell you all this because it was actually good pie.

"Rocky Mountain Pies® knows that the difference between a homestyle pie and a manufactured pie can be dramatic. However, our philosophy is that our manufactured products should taste just like the cream pies grandma used to make and serve after dinner. As a leading frozen dessert supplier, we are committed to providing our customers with quality cream pies that do not lose their look or flavor while on display, whether they are topped with our shelf-stable crème topping or our rich, real whipped cream topping."

So, uh, they make 657 types of pie.  657??!!  No, I won't enumerate all 657 types of you, but I assure you, they make most every type of pie you can imagine, sized from 6 in to 12 inch .  Their product range starts with fruit pies (dubbed "VIP", Very Impressive Pies) in everything from classic cherry and apple to combinations like cherry pecan and apple caramel nut, then there are fruit pies with double crusts, others that are meringue topped (e.g. lemon, coconut, key lime), and then creme pies (chocolate, coconut, banana, etc), whipped cream topped (same bases as the creme pies, just with different topping), holiday pies (pumpkin, pecan, sweet potato, etc), and of course, gluten-free and no sugar added varieties as well.

I didn't expect anything of these mass produced pies, no matter what their marketing said.  Freeze and thaw pie, which I got at BJs, couldn't possibly be good, could it?

Shocker: it was.  I'd love to try more of their pies.

French Silk.

The pie looked like any generic store bought chocolate cream pie.  Still, it was the best looking option on the dessert table, so I took a huge slice, hoping for the best (I wasn't the one who sliced the pieces!).

I was shocked by every element of it.  

The chocolate pudding layer was rich, chocolately, creamy, really delicious.  The topping was amazing, light, fluffy, sweet, something like a cross between whipped cream and sweet meringue.  The layers came in about equal proportions, which was perfect, the sweet whipped topping helped offset the very rich thicker pudding.  I loved the dark chocolate curls on top.  The crust was buttery, crumbly, and sweet.

Did it taste like a homemade pie?  Well, no.  But I really liked it, and was shocked by how quickly I devoured my giant slice.  I was terrified of course when I saw the nutrition facts, 550 calories a slice, loaded with fats and sugars, due to whatever it was that went into keeping this thing stable.

But, delicious it was.  If you need a pre-made chocolate cream, er, French Silk, pie, look no further than Rocky Mountain Pies, distributed all over the country (often under private labels).

****+, and I'd gladly get it again.