Mince Pie Appreciation

I rate mince pies as the pastry is delicious and the filling is also delicious

Lancashire cheese.

Mince pies and gorgonzola is a similarly good, but slightly more hardcore, combination

My sister married a gentleman from Yorkshire and he has a slice of cheddar WITH a slice of Christmas cake.

oh, now that's definately happening on my christmas day

Heresy!!! She Who Must Be Obeyed has been given mince pie ICE CREAM CONES from Iceland and declares them a hit.

4 for £1.50 for any other worshippers of false gods out there...

Red Iceland : shit

H&B were OK in the end.

M&s mincer for breakfast. Warmed in the oven.

Nearly a perfect mincer for me in terms of filling and flavour but the pastry is too crumbly. Pretty good effort though.

I'm still deeply infatuated with the Bread Ahead offering. I can't wait to get another two at lunch to help pace the afternoon.

Noticed that Rodda's are now making a brandy clotted cream. Probably need to wait a couple of weeks until I've built up mincer form, but I feel like that's a combo that has potential.

M&S pie served hot with double cream. It’s like someone turned up the zest and booze too high. This is a cold serve pie.

Iceland luxury today. Pretty good, can't complain - but nothing outstanding. Could imagine accidentally eating a whole box in an hour.

Are we talking m&s red box?

That's my go to pie. But I don't bother about warming them up.

warming up mince pies is actually very yewtree

No, M&S Collection.

Collection branding finally makes a comeback! Like the Video Collection from 1988. Thomas the Tank Engine on VHS but in a mince pie form from Marks. What a world we live in.

I haven’t tried the red box ones yet.

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Happily, mrs bought me a box of collection mincers on her way home yesterday.

Will be sampling shortly.

Had my first today, from Percy Ingle (three for £2.10).

Quite flat and the amount of visible filling doesn't look promising, but when you bite in the mincemeat is good and tastes a lot thicker than it looks. Mince is nicely seasoned and succulent.

Nice crispy top varying in colour from light to golden brown, plenty of sugar on top, but the pastry underneath was a little undercooked I'd say. This is a fresh pie so that may vary from branch to branch.

Interesting construction with a slightly offset lid.

8.2/10.

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the pastry underneath was a little undercooked

literally impossible please delete these comments

Now a sharp chalky cheddar is excellent with christmas cake.

EDIT - There are other cheese that go well with fruit/christmas cake. But I do like a really sharp chalky consistency cheddar with any thing?

Ok, think that the reality is that I don't like the mince pies I have tried and have given up looking. So have made a filling that I like, similar to mincemeat and pastry that I like. Also there is always too much white granulated sugar.

EDIT: If I go on the christmas day ride will bring some home made pies. Eat at your peril.

I've conducted an initial assessment of m&s collection mincers.

I ate one, then left a suitable pause for reflection. Then ate another, which confirmed my initial observations. Then ate one more, just to be sure.

The filling is good. It has a fresh citrus note and a booze kick, as well as a good balance between sweetness and acidity.

However; the pastry...

This is an issue. It's way too soft and crumby. It doesn't adequately encompass the filling. It seriously hinders pie ingestion. This aspect of the pie requires significant improvement.

I conducted a similar experiment driven analysis and reached the same conclusion.

Pie #2 FELL APART while relieving it from its foil prison.

It's way too soft and crumby

Thirded. If the pie doesn't stay together when removing from the case, then points are heavily reduced. Quite liked the filling though.

A strongly worded letter to the board of directors of m&s will be sent.