Last year, I tried the McDonald’s Baked Pumpkin Pie and thought it was pretty good for what it was — namely, one of McDonald’s many pie varieties — although it had a lackluster crust and weird textured filling.

Well, I tried the fast food pumpkin pie again this year and all I have to say is that it appears McDonald’s is in cahoots with Paula Deen.

How else can one explain the flaky pastry crust adorned with warm cinnamon and buttery taste, and the warm, unctuous texture of the spicy yet rich filling that’s bursting with robust pumpkin flavor and a none-to-sweet finish that will make you swear off Pumpkin Pie Pop-Tarts for the remainder of your November?

A pumpkin junkie in my own right, I’ve had the autumnal rite of pumpkin pie flavored stuff in just about every conceivable form – and even some inconceivable ones. Pumpkin donuts. pumpkin pie yogurt. pumpkin muffins and ice cream and yes, even that standard, how-the-heck does it taste this artificially awesome pumpkin mousse that every Weight Watcher’s household has run-across. There have been some hits. There have been a lot of misses. But the McDonald’s Baked Pumpkin Pie is one of the few edible goodies that have been able to live up to any semblance of that traditionally rich and wholesome pumpkin pie your grandma bakes each Thanksgiving.

My local McDonald’s wasn’t quite inclined to recreate the Thanksgiving experience by serving me my pumpkin pie on a recliner in front of a picture-in-picture HDTV with both the Cowboys game and Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade highlights on the screen, but my store did serve it to me piping hot and in a cute little orange box which made me feel like I was getting an early Christmas present, and not just one with a buttload of saturated fat in something the size of my phone.

Adorned with a cinnamon glaze and three tiny slits on top, the pies themselves won’t win any beauty contests. Nor will they intoxicate you with the kind of siren-like aroma that causes even the most grotesquely stuffed post-Thanksgiving dinner guest to make a beeline for the dessert table. Yet for what the pie lacks in visual sophistication or intoxicating aroma, it somehow makes up in balance of taste and remarkable authenticity.

I don’t know if they changed the recipe from last year but the crust is much better from what I remember and isn’t just an afterthought to contain the warm and delicious filling. It has a delicate crumb and an enjoyably flaky texture, but it’s the buttery, croissant-like taste and baked-in cinnamon flavor which make it an enjoyable and dare-I-say sophisticated foil to the filling.

The filling itself is tough to describe outside of the prerequisite “mmmmmmm,” but I’ll do my best to exploit my non auditory vocabulary ability. Texturally speaking, it’s a bit more viscous than solid packed pumpkin filling, with specks of fall spices breaking up the bright orange. Despite looking like it might have come from a can, it tastes developed and rich, as if it’s been baked with the addition of brown sugar and evaporated milk – two staples of many a pumpkin pie recipe. The sweetness seems remarkably restrained, a pleasant surprise which allows the spices and pumpkin to shine while still providing enough textural contrast with the flaky crust.

I just don’t get it, I really don’t. I’m not suppose to enjoy a McDonald’s pie this much. A hamburger? Possibly. Fries? Certainly. But a one dollar pie exemplifying all that is right and good about autumn foods? As dumbfounded as I am at this apparent coup aimed at the family Thanksgiving table, McDonald’s Baked Pumpkin Pie cannot be denied it’s due deliciousness, especially not when it’s fresh baked and piping hot.

Thank you, Ronald and company. Whether it was Paula Deen and her Botox enhanced grins or just an assembly line of conscripted grandmothers, you’ve managed to create an affordable slice of the Holidays that’s as delicious as it is simple.

(Nutrition Facts – 240 calories, 110 calories from fat, 12 grams of fat, 7 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 150 milligrams of sodium, 5 milligrams of cholesterol, 30 grams of carbohydrates, 1 gram of dietary fiber, 11 grams of sugars, and 3 grams of protein.)

Other McDonald’s Pumpkin Pie reviews:
Foodette Reviews
Brand Eating

Item: McDonald’s Baked Pumpkin Pie
Purchased Price: $1.00
Size: N/A
Purchased at: McDonald’s
Rating: 9 out of 10
Pros: Flakey, buttery crust with warm cinnamon flavor. Filling has enjoyably viscous and warm consistency with classic warming spices and brown sugar sweetness. Not cloying. Comes in a cute box. Trans fat free. Tastes new and improved. Vitamin A!
Cons: Small, as in, three bites and your done small. Super source of saturated fat. Potential cultural ramifications of McDonald’s making a better pumpkin pie than my own grandmother. My grandmother reading this review and forcing me to sit at the kids table for Thanksgiving. Not available nationwide.

Usually, the McFlurry add-ins are mixed with the soft serve, but as you can see in the photo on the right that wasn’t the case with the McDonald’s Holiday Mint McFlurry I received.

It wasn’t a problem because I have opposable thumbs and extremely strong wrists to mix everything.

Also, I like the add-ins dumped on top like that because seeing all the red and green peppermint candy pieces made the McFlurry look more holiday-ish than if they were blended with the vanilla soft serve.

Having the candy pieces floating on the quickly melting soft serve also made the top of my McFlurry look like regurgitated crayons, a color blindness test, and the bottom of a fish bowl.

I originally thought the red and green pieces were minty candy coated chocolate, but after reading the ingredients list, it turns out they’re not chocolate and one-third of their ingredients are food dyes.

Here’s the ingredients list for those of you who are totally into food dyes: sugar, fractionated palm kernel oil, nonfat milk, corn syrup, corn cereal, modified food starch, partially hydrogenated soybean oil, degerminated yellow corn meal, soy lecithin, Red 40 Lake, natural flavor (botanical source), Yellow 5 Lake, salt, Blue 1 Lake, Turmeric Extract (Color), Red 40, Blue 1.

Mmm…degerminated yellow corn meal and Red 40.

After using my opposable thumbs and strong wrists to combine the reduced fat vanilla soft serve, mint syrup, and peppermint candy pieces, my mouth soon discovered how minty the McDonald’s Holiday Mint McFlurry was. There were no bursts of peppermint going off in my mouth, which would’ve make the cold soft serve feel even colder and make my mouth feel like it’s hosting a ski resort. The peppermint candies were equally minty and sweet, and reminded me of Wrigley’s Doublemint Gum.

The peppermint candy pieces weren’t really what I would call crunchy, but had a firmness to them. Even though they were made with corn cereal and corn meal, they surprisingly didn’t get soggy while sitting in my half-melted McFlurry. I hope whatever processed food voodoo McDonald’s is doing to prevent them from getting soggy ends up in our breakfast cereals.

One last thing about the peppermint candy pieces. I thought they were harmless, nutritionally, because they’re made with bunch of corn products, dyes, and no chocolate, but they provide eight of the 15 grams of saturated fat in this McFlurry.

The vanilla soft serve and mint syrup was a nice combination, so much so that I’d like to do a McHack that involves adding the mint syrup to an Oreo McFlurry.

Overall, McDonald’s Holiday Mint McFlurry was a delightful treat, and if I’m feeling the holiday spirit, my opposable thumbs and strong wrists could see themselves mixing another.

(Nutrition Facts – 570 calories, 190 calories from fat, 21 grams of fat, 15 grams of saturated fat, 0.5 grams of trans fat, 45 milligrams of cholesterol, 170 milligrams of sodium, 84 grams of carbohydrates, 76 grams of sugar, 0 grams of fiber, 12 grams of protein.)

Other McDonald’s Holiday Mint McFlurry reviews:
Brand Eating

Item: McDonald’s Holiday Mint McFlurry
Purchased Price: $2.99
Size: 12 ounces
Purchased at: McDonald’s
Rating: 7 out of 10
Pros: Delightful. Pleasant mintiness. Colorful, if the peppermint candies are dumped on top. McHacks. Peppermint candy didn’t get soggy in melted soft serve. Opposable thumbs and strong wrists.
Cons: Awesome source of food dyes. Awesome source of saturated fat. Peppermint candy pieces created using processed food voodoo. The candy pieces on top looked like the bottom of a fish bowl.