Mince Pie Appreciation

Knocked up a batch of mincers this morning. Jus Roll pastry and shop-bought mince but needs must when it's xmas jumper day in the office and you don't have time to craft your own artisan sloe gin mince.

Star shaped top was too thick, not having a full lid made the filling dry out a little, pastry case was good thickness and the right amount of filling. Worst of all - we'd run out of icing sugar so no dusting whatsoever.

Still enjoyable and as my first of the season gives a good base to build upon.

Lidl delux best of the meagre bunch so far this year. Little too sweet but nice hint of booze and tasty mince.

Asda bakery a surprising treat. Great pastry, really crisp and buttery.

Still holding out here. First time in a long long while I've gone this deep into December without a succumbing to a mince hit.

why would you do that to yourself?

Just got a free mincer form Konditor whilst getting BTGOF lebekuchen for teacher's Xmas pressies.

Delicious.

I'm having this week off the mincers.
Don't want a jaded palette leading into the full-on Festive Season.

Anybody in Northampton?

This looks epic
(2nd pic) https://www.instagram.com/p/B5-V0W8A_Rt/?igshid=m2r4pdq16c9e

Free mincers in the Fortnums canteen today! Unfortunately the filling is a bit too pastey this year for my liking but you know, free is free. Nom

1 Attachment

they look big.

Are those from the Pukka pie 2019 collab?

£2 a pop from Pavilion Bakery. Warmed up for ten mins at 180c.

Good shape, deep of filling and no stupid star on top, just a little porthole through which to view the mince. Extremely good pastry, not too sweet, flakey and crumbly but with dense buttery parts too. Rich mincemeat, decent size bits, might have detected a walnut but at this stage I can’t be sure. Further investigations will have to be made. Only improvement would be a bit of booze.

The best pie this year, 8.5/10 (10/10 on the pastry index).

1 Attachment

@Stonehedge All excited that I'd missed a decent Northamptonshire based baker..but that one seems to be from Miel in Fitzrovia. Shame as the photo was taken 2mins from where I work.

Yeah, realised my mistake just now. Sorry about that.

Making mincemeat now
Hoping for positive vibes.

No problem, they do look amazing. Making do with Waitrose butter enriched standards this week, two stars on top, granulated sugar, a bit average all round. 5/10

After last night's / this morning's horror show, I've decided a six deck all to myself is the best way to get through the day. I've had my breakfast one, just about to trough another for elevenses. Then It's going to be two for lunch, one for a mid afternoon snack and the last as part of my pre-commute fuelling strategy.

Despite the misses hating dried fruit in anything with a passion (Scottish) she made me 5kg of mincemeat last month. I've massively over fed it with alcohol so it keeps sort of separating, but as long as give it a vig stir before spooning it into pastry works ok.
Maybe adding more lard/trex will stabilise the alcohol?
Also made this non pie, tart? Old folks ate it so fast I was only left with crumbs.

1 Attachment

How much does a 6-pack at Greggs set you back these days?

oh man, that spread! The cheeseboard, the pate, the salmon! The pie! impeccable 11/10

Dibs the sloes, so ricard or pastis 51?

Aldi are also doing a french sloe gin pies. No idea either.

£1.75 off the top of my head

Just got served a mince pie in dulwhich area - 2.50 though - but high hopes of lifting my spirits. They didn't warn me it was frangipane topped. Talk about a downer of a day.

Oof