It’s Wednesday — a little late for the weekly Crumbl Cookie report. But seriously, Crumbl cookie on Thanksgiving week, are people insane? Well, it looks like Crumbl has anticipated how strange it is to try and sell us expensive cookies so close to a holiday that is all about eating, one that also has its much beloved traditional desserts. How do you make a cookie compete with a pumpkin or pecan pie? The answer is, apparently, you don’t. In a radical change, Crumbl is ditching cookies this week and focusing almost entirely on small pies.
We’re not sure if we should be excited about that. We have some deep thoughts and feelings on where you can buy the best pies for the holiday, so it’ll be interesting to see how Crumbl’s stack up. So we scooped up all six pies (and the one cookie) dropping at Crumbl this week and ranked them from least to most essential.
Do any of these belong as a part of your Thanksgiving dinner spread? We’re here to find out.
7. French Silk Pie
Thoughts & Tasting Notes:
I desperately wanted to like this pie because, well, it’s name and the visual are so damn appetizing that it feels crazy to rank this one last. But, it is what it is. This pie just isn’t great.
The big issue here is at least 60% of the pie is just chocolate mousse. On a small bed of cookies and cream crust sits a thick layer of super sweet milk chocolate mousse, a few dollops of whipped cream, and shaved chocolate pieces. The mousse is airy and sweet, and tastes great, but there isn’t enough texture in this dessert to be enjoyable, unless your idea of enjoyment is eating straight mousse.
It’s not that this pie is bad per se, I just had higher hopes.
The Bottom Line:
The pie is mostly pure mousse. It lacks a textural element and comes across as way too airy and one-note.
6. Apple Pie
Thoughts & Tasting Notes:
Here is the thing with Crumbl’s Apple Pie — the flavor is great, but the form factor makes the dessert suffer. A good apple pie needs a delicate balance between filling, topping, and crust, and because this is essentially a mini 4-6 inch pie, you’re getting too much crust, and not enough filling here, which makes it come across as unbalanced.
Which is a shame because the filling is great. It’s crispy and tangy with a heavy dose of cinnamon spice over a buttery soft crust, with cinnamon streusel on top, which emphasizes the cinnamon spice filling and provides a nice crunch to the pie.
If this was a full-size pie, I could see it ranking much higher, but as it is, it just makes me want an actual apple pie.
The Bottom Line:
The mini size throws off the ratio for a proper apple pie.
5. Pumpkin Pie
Thoughts & Tasting Notes:
Unlike the apple pie, a pumpkin pie doesn’t require that delicate crust, filling, and topping ratio, making it an ideal choice for the mini form factor. So why is this pie sitting in the middle of this list rather than near the top? Because I’m not totally sold on Crumbl’s pumpkin filling.
The spice mix here leans a bit too heavily on sugar and ginger, I’m not tasting nearly enough clove, cinnamon, or allspice. Personally, I prefer pumpkin pies that lean more on the dark and spicy side. This pie just comes across as a bit too bright and sweet.
The Bottom Line:
Sugar and ginger forward, but not nearly spicy enough.
4. Double Chocolate Chip
Thoughts & Tasting Notes:
The only actual cookie on the menu this week, the Double Chocolate Chip is a real gem. If you’re a big Crumbl fan (and if you’re reading this, we assume you are) then you know that every week Crumbl alternates between the Milk Chocolate and Semi-Sweet Chocolate cookies, and while we prefer the latter, both are two of the best chocolate chip cookies you’ll ever have. The Double Chocolate represents the best of both worlds, a perfect marriage between Crumbl’s Milk Chocolate and Semi-Sweet cookie.
This cookie features a brown sugar and butter cookie base loaded up with milk chocolate pieces and topped with semi-sweet chocolate chunks and a sprinkle of sea salt. It’s sweet, chocolaty, and rich, with just a touch of bitter and salty sensations. Why the hell isn’t Crumbl dropping this cookie every other week?
The Bottom Line:
Quite possibly Crumbl’s very best chocolate chip cookie, we wish this one was available on a bi-weekly basis like the Milk Chocolate and Semi-Sweet.
3. Key Lime Pie
Thoughts & Tasting Notes:
What I love about Crumbl’s Key Lime Pie is that I feel that particular pie flavor can be a bit overwhelming. I can only really handle two or three forkfuls before I have to tap out, making a whole slice feel like a bit of a waste. Crumbl solves that by offering a tiny form factor.
This pie features a zesty, tangy, and tart lime base over a crumbly and sweet graham cracker base, topped with whipped cream and graham cracker dust. It’s tart, incredibly sweet, refreshing, and silky smooth. The pie is supposed to come with a decorative lime wedge, mine didn’t, but I won’t hold that against the pie as a whole.
The Bottom Line:
A delicious, tart, and refreshing key lime pie with a buttery graham cracker crust.
2. Cookies & Cream Pie
Thoughts & Tasting Notes:
I didn’t expect this one to rank so highly because I think Crumbl leans on cookies and cream recipes way too much, but I couldn’t pull myself away from this pie. It features a dark semi-sweet cocoa base with a sweet cookies and cream filling, whipped cream, and a whole lot of chalky, crunchy crumbs.
This pie is a real showcase for the power of texture in desserts — it’s crunchy and crumbly, yet melts in your mouth into this wonderful expression of rich coca flavors.
The Bottom Line:
1. Pecan Pie
Thoughts & Tasting Notes:
The way the buttery crust, brown sugar glaze, and roasted pecan filling come together in Crumbl’s Pecan Pie comes across kind of like a thick, super textured cookie. Rather than using a fork like I used for the five other pies, I just picked this one up out of the box and bit into it, and we suggest you do the same.
The way this pie is able to marry the concept of Thanksgiving pies to Crumbl’s main dessert offering — the cookie — is reason enough for us to give it the top spot, but in addition to a strong concept, the thing just tastes f*cking incredibly. It’s earthy, nutty, toasted, roasted, sweet, and buttery — I think I prefer it to a real slice of Pecan Pie, and few if any of the pies at Crumbl this week rival the real thing.
Don’t skip on this one. It’s not big enough to share at your family’s Thanksgiving dinner, but it’ll make the perfect snack to go with your Thanksgiving left overs Friday morning.
The Bottom Line:
Crumbl’s best pie. So good we hope it has a life outside of this Thanksgiving-themed menu. Bring this baby back in December Crumbl and we’ll forgive you for bumping up the weekly drop number from six to eight!
Find your nearest Crumbl here.
