My assignment was to write a story about a non-earth-shaking but still demographically relevant event, especially for Baby Boomers like myself: the reintroduction of McDonald’s iconic dessert, the fried apple pie, which hasn’t been available under the golden arches since 1992.
If you’re a fan, no doubt you're saying, “I’ve got to get me one of those.” Well, you’re in luck; it’s back for a limited time but if you haven’t gone through the drive-thru lately you’ve already missed a week’s worth of tasting opportunities.
The pie went on sale a week early in Wyoming, not Tuesday as was nationally advertised for a product that’s back to honor the nation's 250th anniversary. Shortly after the July 4th birthday bash, though, it’s back to baked goods.
Before anyone thinks I’m a shill for the biggest fast-food restaurant in the world (more than 600 million annually in the U.S., plus they have franchises in 100 foreign countries).
I’ve spent the day climbing the corporate ladder to find anyone who will officially tell me how these pies are selling in the Cowboy State. It’s an important factoid.
The last rung I reached was the McDonald’s press office at corporate headquarters in Chicago, which the Wyoming corporate office assured me would help.
So I penned a friendly email, because they don’t list a phone number, and I just got an automatic reply: “Thank you for your message. A member of our media relations department will respond to media inquiries as soon as possible, within business hours.”
Climbing the Corporate Ladder
An auto-response? I happen to know that the media relations team is unveiling a 35-foot-long fried apple pie monument about 40 miles from the Mickey D’s corporate office in Chicago, which for some reason is going to serve as a mile marker on Route 66.
They’re not calling back some rube from Wyoming. I’d have better luck trying to reach Ronald McDonald.
But luckily, I thought, I don’t have to. I cruised to one of the Cheyenne franchises on East Lincolnway during the lunch hour Tuesday, looking for customers holding those pie treats — young, old, anyone really — but there was nary a one in sight.
I talked to a young assistant manager, who assured me “they’re really popular,” but he couldn’t produce any evidence and told me I’d have to call corporate.
Thanks.
I had much better luck at the Dell Range franchise, where the woman who brought me my own fried apple pie and double cheeseburger said — without even a question being asked, or knowing I’m one of those liberal media elites — “Those pies are delicious. I have no idea why they stopped making them.”
I’ll interrupt this story long enough to tell you why they disappeared for 34 years.
“This drastic change was due to (the 1990s) major shift toward diet culture, with many claiming dietary fat was the big bad wolf of nutrition, so to speak,” says mash.com, a source about all things nutritious. “McDonald's followed the trend and, for the most part, still bakes its apple pies today.”
But there’s not much difference between the two versions. The fried kind has 220 calories, 3 grams of saturated fat and 10 grams of sugar. The baked version is 230 calories, 6 grams of saturated fat and 14 grams of sugar. Nutritionwise, I’d say fried wins the prize.
McDonald’s customers have been debating the merits of fried vs. baked apple pies for years, but the former’s blend of bubbly, crispy crust and piping-hot filling also seems to be the favorite on social media. As one Instagram user said, “Sure it may be liquid radiation, but it was DELICIOUS liquid radiation.”
Cowboy State Daily, I’m sorry to say, was beaten on this story by the Washington Post, which rarely happens. This is what the Post’s reporter, Tim Carman, wrote in his review after he waxed nostalgic about how his father used to love McDonald’s coffee:
“The fried apple pie had a familiar crackle that was a pleasure all its own. But the dessert was no match for my memory, no matter how false that memory may be.”
Georgia To The Rescue
The lunch crowd had vanished, but I thought surely someone would be eating one of these things.
But everyone I saw holding them were McDonald’s employees, who probably get them for free instead of paying $2.49, the price schlubs like me have to fork over (I’ll spare youngsters from having to look up the definition: a schlub is a talentless, unattractive, or boorish person. You’re welcome).
But my ears perked up when I heard someone actually step up to the counter and, with a definite eagerness, order one. It was a delightful woman named Georgia Costello, who I talked into joining me at my table.
Costello is 74, and she has fond memories of growing up in California and regularly eating fried apple pies at the very first McDonald’s in the world, which was in Downey in the Golden State.
“I don’t know why they got rid of them, they’re so much better,” she said. “They’re not doughy. These are crispy, with more apple.”
She was obviously dejected when I delivered the bad news that they would soon be shuffling off this mortal coil.
“Why don’t they make them permanent? Even the manager here thinks they’re better,” she said.
If I could get someone in Chicago to call me back, I thought, maybe I could tell her. Instead, I pressed onward, as reporters on the competitive pie beat must.
Costello recalled taking rides to the first McDonald’s, where they served 10 hamburgers for $1. “There were five of us kids, and it was like a treat because in those days there wasn’t any fast food. That was the beginning.”
I remember those days too, so I was eager to try the fried pie. I agreed with my new friend: the bubbly crust was indeed very good. It was a welcome blast from the past.
But the innards weren’t as impressive. True, there seemed to be enough pie to justify the old recipe’s hype. But it wasn’t piping hot when I got it, which was kind of disappointing until I remembered they used to burn, baby, burn on the roof of your mouth and down your throat, so perhaps this was OK after all.
Kerry Drake can be reached at: Kerry@CowboyStateDaily.com
