Consumed on 28 September 2012 (In Singapore)
Price $1.13CAD = ~$1.15USD
Calories - 330kcal
Review, Receipt, Ingredients and Nutrition breakdown after the break.
This review is only possible because of my mother, who came to visit me in Singapore a few weeks ago carried one over from Canada for me. I thought I'd ask her to pick me up a Baked Caramel Pie, which was the promo dessert at the time and because it was baked, I figured it would survive the trip. McDonald's Canada had also introduced a new 'Bistro' line of grilled Chicken sandwiches, but I somehow didn't think that one would survive the 24 hour journey from Canada to Singapore. She arrived late, by the time we made it back to my apartment, it was nearly 2am, and I didn't have any interest in eating a pie right before bed. I took a quick look at it, and it seemed to survive the 16,000+km trip with ease, I didnt force myself to eat it right away so I stuck it in the fridge to have the following day.
Even though the pie was in my mothers carry-on luggage for 3 flight connections, it hardly took any damage, it was actually still in one piece, I fully expected a crushed mess. McDonald's pies are always served warm, so I used my new microwave for the first, (and since only) time to give it the most authentic tasting. When I opened the microwave a strong sweet smell quickly followed, which smelt noticeably like smell cinnamon sugar more than caramel. Even after being nearly 72 hours old, the crust still was soft and relatively flaky. The filling was a pretty thin layer, now I'm not sure if that was because it lost some water (and thus volume) in the transit, of it the original product didn't have much caramel filling to begin with. The crust of the pie actually had caramel baked into it (as you can see from the ingredient list at the bottom of the review), but I'm not sure if that led to the edges of the pie being overcooked. Coupled with the age of the pie, and also after being reheated made them a bit too hard for me to enjoy it, after the first bite, I picked off most of the dark bits around the edge before focusing on the rest of the pie.
All in, a pretty respectable pie. Total sugar rush, but it's called the 'Caramel Pie' you know what you are getting yourself into before you even take your first bite. It's exactly what it says it is, and nothing more. I'm glad I got a chance to try it. Might not become a full menu item, but it will probably make its way down to the US soon enough (as they seem to use Canada as a test market more and more these days)
3.5/5
Caramel Pie Ingredients -
Pastry: enriched wheat flour, vegetable oil shortening (palm and canola and modified palm oils, soy lecithin, artificial butter flavour, citric acid, natural colour [beta carotene]), water, sugar, yeast, salt, l-cysteine hydrochloride, flavour (maltodextrin, modified corn starch, corn syrup, natural flavour).Filling: water, sugar, glucose, modified corn starch, sweetened condensed whole milk, modified palm kernel oil, salted butter, caramel, sodium acid sulphate, salt, potassium sorbate, pumpkin juice, gellan gum, colour.
Topping: sugar, caramel (contains soybean oil).
Nutrition
Calories - 330
Sodium - 160 mg
Total Fat - 18 g
Saturated - 10 g
Total Carbs - 40 g
Fibre- 1 g
Sugars - 17 g
Protein - 2 g
Cholesterol - 2 mg