New product Wednesday, at Dallas-area Whataburgers: Hot Pumpkin Pie

by Teresa Gubbins

The limited-edition Whataburger Hot Pumpkin Pie, available September through December for 99 cents each, has been around since last year. But not being a frequent visitor to Whataburger, it took this comment from Pegasus News user Pepper (and this follow-up by John McClelland) to highlight its existence. Thank you to Pepper and John, since the Whataburger Hot Pumpkin Pie is an excellent seasonal treat.

It's basically a fried pie -- standard pastry rectangle, deep-fried -- with a sweetened pureed-pumpkin filling. But it did not fulfill my negative expectations about what a fried pie would be -- i.e., greasy and overly sweet. The crust was firm yet flaky, and seemed to be utterly greaseless (though its cardboard container sported an oily residue, so obviously that impression was deceptive). Also excellent: the filling, which was not just some generic sweetened puree flavored with cinnamon and cloves but was instead noticeably pumpkiny, and not all that sweet.

The proof is in the ingredients:

Pumpkin is the No. 1 ingredient in the filling. Bravo, Whataburger.

That said, those very characteristics -- noticeably pumpkiny, not all that sweet -- were cited by one more-conventional taster as a turnoff. So, not for everyone.

(Merritt also likes this, as seen in her summary of pumpkin items.)

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