Publix Buttermilk Pie Review
Author’s note: Not a paid review! Not sponsored. Nada. I have no affiliation with Publix. These are my own unvarnished opinions.
Holy mother of sugarcane!
I spied this Buttermilk Pie in the Publix Weekly Ad. It was on sale, and since I’d never tried (or even heard of) “Buttermilk Pie” before, I had to get one. Pronto. I stopped on my way home from work for the sole purpose of acquiring this pie. True story.
This is a seasonal item, so Publix doesn’t usually carry this flavor. However, I realized after I got home that I’d missed out on the far more exciting (and also seasonal) Publix Chocolate Bourbon Walnut Pie. Alas, cruel world!
Anyway. This Buttermilk Pie is strangely “unbranded.” Usually, Publix products have the “Publix” logo printed on the package. This one has a designed/decorated box, but no brand of any kind. It just says “Buttermilk Pie” in big letters. Weird!
What does it taste like?
Holy mother of sugarcane! This is one sweet pie. As in, sugary. Sucrose-laden. A circular disk of potential dental cavities and hypoglycemia.
I mean. The box does say “SWEET” in all caps. So, where’s the lie?
It’s so sweet, I could only eat a few bites at a time. Now, admittedly, I am not a fan of very sweet desserts. I don’t like it when sugar overpowers the other flavors. And this is some seriously bossy sugar!
Are you looking for a “subtly sweet” Fall treat? Here is my review of Costco’s Pumpkin Cheesecake.
The texture is a soft, sticky custard. It’s not as firm or smooth as a flan, and it has some fluffiness that is closer to a lightweight cheesecake. I think the closest comparison is a lemon bar, but with a lot more milkiness, and a different flavor. There’s almost a “curd” texture, but it’s slight.
Wondering how this compares to the infamous Aldi Butter Bars? You can read my review here.
I do really enjoy the flavor, although it doesn’t taste entirely natural. It’s a “warm” flavor — sort of like vanilla — with a rich undercurrent of tangy buttermilk. In fact, buttermilk is the second ingredient. There is also added buttermilk powder, to make the taste stronger. More about the ingredients later.
In fact, the flavor is SO strong, it lingered in my mouth for a while after eating a slice. It’s STRONG. But yummy.
The Crustage
The crust is “meh.” It’s a crumbly flour-based pie crust. It’s not sweet (or particularly savory), and really has no flavor of its own. It only seems to function to hold the filling together. On the bottom of the custard, the crust is pleasantly tender. I tried a piece of the crisp crust around the rim of the pie, and it was predictably unpleasant. Kind of a dull, burnt flour taste. Most grocery-store pie crusts are “this way,” so I’m not mad.
Serving the Buttermilk Pie
This is a small pie, and the slices are itty-bitty. I measured from one edge of the pie crust to the other at 7 inches. The actual pan is about 8 inches, however. Each piece of pie is approximately 3.5 inches long. Hobbity.
The pie was easy to cut and serve, but it did fall apart almost immediately on the plate. The pieces seem to crack from the weight of the filling against the crust. Deeply burdened pie. Probably needs to see a therapist.
I tried making my slices fancy and festive by adding a Maple Leaf Creme Cookie from Aldi to the top as a garnish. But the slices were just too small for this to look normal. Alas.
This cookie look more like Godzilla terrorizing a suburban custard-city:
This pie tasted good both chilled and room-temperature. However, it gets much, much softer at room temperature.
Ingredients in Publix Buttermilk Pie
Here are the ingredients from the label:
- Sugar
- Buttermilk
- Enriched Flour (Flour, Niacin, Reduced Iron, Thiamin Mononitrate, Riboflavin, Folic Acid)
- Water
- Vegetable Oil Shortening (Palm, Soybean and Modified Palm)
- Eggs
- Butter (Cream, Salt)
- Dextrose
- Buttermilk Powder
- Food Starch-Modified
- Soybean Oil
- Salt
- Corn Syrup
- Potassium Sorbate (Preservative)
- Lactic Acid
- Carrageenan
- Calcium Lactate
- Natural Flavor
- Sodium Propionate (Preservative)
- Corn Starch
- Konjac Flour
- Baking Soda
- Xanthan Gum
- L-Cysteine Hydrochloride
Contains bioengineered food ingredients.
Do I love these ingredients? No. I’m definitely glad to see “real buttermilk,” as well as some butter and eggs. But. The rest of this is not very inspiring. I’m sad to see vegetable shortening, soybean oil, and multiple preservatives. While there isn’t any artificial flavor listed, there is somewhat dubious “natural flavor.” No vanilla.
This pie is made in Canada. So, it isn’t made by the in-store Publix Bakery. It’s distributed by WB Frozen US, LLC.
Nutrition Facts in Publix Buttermilk Pie
Whoa! Hold your buttermilks! Definitely not health food. Well, duh.
A serving is 1/5 a pie (119 grams), and contains a whopping 450 calories. Yikes. Although there is a hefty amount of fat at 21 grams, there’s a truly scary quantity of sugar with 35 grams, of which 31 are “added sugars.” That’s 62 percent of your daily value. There are 54 grams of carbs total in each slice.
You also get a pleasant 6 grams of protein, and 10% of your daily Calcium. A slice has 18% of your daily cholesterol, and 16% of your daily sodium.
Price and Servings
My 21-ounce pie was on sale for $5.99. The regular price is $6.99. Because of the tiny size, I don’t think I would pay more than that. It IS very rich and concentrated, so I actually got more servings than the label suggests. Closer to 8. But I have a wee hobbit stomach.
If you divide this into 5 servings (a strange number for a symmetrical pie, but OK), each serving costs $1.20 at the sale price. Per ounce, this pie costs 33 cents at the regular price.
Shelf Life
My pie had a sell-by date of about 4 days after my purchase. It wasn’t a refrigerated item in the store, but I kept mine in my refrigerator at home. Mine stayed fairly consistent in taste and texture.
Dramatic Conclusion
I liked the flavor and texture of this pie, but it was too sweet for me. I don’t love the ingredients. I might buy it again for other people to enjoy, but I don’t think I’d eat another whole pie, alone, by myself. It would be a fun novelty item to include in a Thanksgiving buffet. A nice change of pace from traditional Pumpkin Pie.
The End.
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