The Best Pies to Buy Online, According to Experts

Time and again, this cult, famous Brooklyn-based pie shop came up among our experts. “I still dream of their pie slices,” says Nadia Chaudhury, editor of Eater Austin and a former New Yorker. She’s such a fan, in fact, that she calls the company’s 2013 cookbook “my pie bible.” If you’re the type who likes to make pie from scratch, but if you’d rather stay out of the kitchen, the pies also ship beautifully. You can order a handful of flavors, but “for a not-typical pie,” Chaudhury says to “opt for the bakery’s signature salty honey pie, with its wonderfully gooey, sweet, luscious, and just-rightly-intense custard.”

Wisconsin is all over the news for a lot of reasons right now, but if studio food editor Amelia Rampe of the Kitchn had her way, it would be in the news for this apple pie — named the best pie in America by The Wall Street Journal and Gourmet — from the Elegant Farmer. “I’ve made the recipe for this pie a couple times in the last month, and it’s really good,” says Rampe. But if you’d rather take the work out of your pie-making, order a few of these online: The price is for two pies.

If you’re looking for a no-fuss option to serve to picky family members who prefer their pies traditional, editor Elle Simone Scott of America’s Test Kitchen recommends ordering from this Black-owned bakery. “Justice of the Pies is not just baking pies in the name of social justice, although the end justifies the means,” she says. “It’s also some of the most creative and decadent pie offerings I’ve seen in a long time.” Her favorite is the classic bourbon pecan, but it has a very Thanksgiving-appropriate apple pie, too.

Why limit yourself to just one kind of pie? Brenna Houck, editor of Eater Detroit, recommends going for this mini-pie gift box from Michigan’s Zingerman’s Bakehouse, which includes a traditional toasted-pecan pie, a chocolate chess pie, and a pleasantly tart and tangy cranberry-walnut pie. (Zingerman’s is also Houck’s favorite place to order a turkey.)

Fall and winter are the best seasons to enjoy a citrus pie, with lemons, limes, oranges, and all those other tangy fruits reaching full ripeness, and Houck says you should look no further than the Lemon Butta pies from Lush Yummies Pie Co. “Their foundation is a family recipe passed down from founder Jennifer Lyle’s great-grandmother,” says Houck. “Having personally received one of these pies in the mail, I can vouch for the fact that it arrives intact and tastes rich and bright, with a creamy citrus-custard center (similar to a chess pie) and a crumbly graham-cracker crust.” And if you’d rather go with a fall flavor, Lush Yummies has expanded its line to include flavors like Peach Butta Cobbler and Mother’s Apple Butta Spread Pie.

If you or your Thanksgiving guests have dietary restrictions, Three Babes Bakeshop in the Bay Area makes a delicious pecan pie minus the gluten. “I tried their pie a few years back at the farmers’ market at the Ferry Building, where they sell seasonal specials by the slice, and they are truly amazing,” says Caroline Schiff, pastry chef at Fort Defiance General Store in Brooklyn (which also happens to be selling its own delicious pies locally). And if you don’t have any dietary restrictions, Three Babes sells an outstanding gluten-full bourbon-pecan pie as well.

If you want an atypical pie for what’s shaping up to be an atypical Thanksgiving, consider the s’mores pies from beloved desserts shop Butter & Scotch. “They’re shipping nationwide for the first time,” says Schiff. “Their apple-cranberry and s’mores pies are so worth sending across state lines. If we can’t travel, pie can.”