Mince Pie Appreciation

Sainsbos top tier, wildly out of date cider brandy butter, exploded in the meekrowahvey

6/10

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Had a Gregg’s the other day, first time I’ve had a Gregg’s in years. Solid 7/10 pie, nothing flashy, workmanlike, got the job done and filled what hole remained after two sausage rolls and some potato wedges.

Had a couple of boxes of these fancy sainsbos mincers over the last week. Too sweet for me!
And sainsbos bakery 4 packs are underwhelming too.

Best I've had this year are Morrisons bakery mincers.

Maybe this is the year I try the Gregg's.

Do it. I’m not saying they are the tastiest (the fancy posh ones usually win that one), but for overall score including price point and availability, they always top the table for me.

Greggs sorting us out a treat for our 50 min wait at Ipswich station

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No pastries at Nero this morning, so first mincer of the year instead. Neros 'Classic' Mince Pie.

Not a full pastry lid, a star shape instead with sides like a lemon tart. Nice filling though, and the pastry was nice.

7/10

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Anyone tried one of these before?

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No, nope, never!
2 for 1.89!
Walk further along the counter, shortcrust mincers, 6 for 1.75. they'll see you right.

Yeah - I gave them a go bc I’d been for a run and was feeling decadent.
Shouldn’t have bothered.

Fortitude bakery (my favourite London mince pie) start there’s from 1st of December.

fyi https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/nov/17/aldis-29p-mince-pie-a-close-second-to-waitroses-winner-in-blind-taste-test

for some reason can't get seem to find the full which? ratings ...

Gail’s: great pastry, enjoyed the brown sugar cinnamon sprinkles. Filling was a bit underwhelming and not gooey enough. I’d guess it wasn’t given months of booze under the stairs.

If you have to take one pie into school as your snack, is there a LFGSS approved pie transport system?

I recon a cheese tub with a removable lid - like Boursin - could be your friend here - provided that you can get shot of the smell of garlic.

Good shout.

Know anybody with a 3d printer?

Do I?
(Do you?)

Massive jewellery box?

"Once you've accessorized your addiction, it's no longer an addiction but a personality trait"

Oscar Wilde.

Side bar:
A 3D printer that could produce the pastry shells & lids for mince pies would be quite a thing.

An SLS machine full of pastry crumbs instead of plastic powder would probably do that...

Tesco Finest are awful, avoid!

Their salted caramel, crumbled topped ones, were alright. Though not really a true mince pie.

Had a couple of these last week when I stopped at a motorway services with a Greggs and they were delightful.

The thing I get most upset about with a mincer is the filling to pastry cavity ratio. If everybody kept it uniform then it would be possible to accept 75% filling as the norm, but when sometimes you're biting into a mincer and there's 50% stale air, it's hard to not make it one of the major points of evaluation.

To that end, Greggs are high up the leaderboard with ensuring a high % of mincemeat filling, and it's wonderfully flavourful. Not boozy but also not cloying, and that's OK when you're getting well baked pastry that's not too crumbly nor too claggy, it's a well rounded offering that works as an ensemble in your mouth.

Dunns still hold it down as my favourite without being too exorbitant a price at £1/pop.

If you Dunn know, now you know.

Pastry on the Sainsburys TTD is a bit meh. Filling is nice enough but the whole thing is a bit bland.