It’s time for the first of our 2010 mince pie reviews… today we’re looking at Waitrose’s shortcrust mince pies.
Jessica says 8 out of 10
The pastry is softer than the usual pie,not as dry. The mince meat has worrying shapes in it, it’s crunchy and has all sorts of chewiness. Very nice.
Richard says 7 out of 10
A well filled pie with soft pastry. Let down a little by its appearance and tastes a bit too buttery.
Pie from Londis
Firstly, I apologise for the changing nature of the blog design at the moment – I am trying out new designs and haven’t quite got things right yet.
Secondly, to our latest mince pie. I bought this from the local shop and it is a Viennese mince pie made by Hoppers Farmhouse Bakeries.
Jessica:
Lovely sweet but not really Christmassy. 3 out of 5
Richard:
More of a biscuit than a pie, very nice but I have to score it down for lack of mince depth. 2 out of 5
Sainsbury's Mincemeat Puffs
We were back at Sainsbury’s again today and couldn’t find a new pie to try so ended up buying these.
Jessica:
Lovely pastry with nice chunky bits of sugar and sweet mince meat make this a tasty alternative to traditional mince pies. 4 out of 5
Richard:
I’m not totally convinced by this seasonal snack – it feels closer to a sausage roll than a mince pie. 3 out of 5
Exceedingly Merry
Today we have a Mr Kipling exceedingly merry mince pie.
Jessica:
I like the Christmas tree on top but the pie itself is not the best 2 out of 5
Richard:
The pastry is very nice but far too crumbly and the filling is deep but not as juicy as I would like. I expected more from the Kipling 2.5 out of 5
Overall, a dissapointing pie – I expected so much more 🙁
Sainsbury's Pie
This time we have bought a more standard mince pie from Sainsburys in-store bakery and have a guest reviewer.
Jessica:
Crumbly and delicious… you can taste the shortbread goodness. 4 out of 5
Richard:
More traditional than the previous offering from Sainsburys. A little shallow but very nice pastry. 4 out of 5
Guest rating (Richard B):
Better than the standard Sainsburys ones. 3.5 out of 5
Sainsbury's Pie
This time we have a pie kindly bought for us by Steve. The pie is from Sainsbury’s in-store bakery.
Jessica:
Flake-tastic… lovely buttery flakey pastry with a sweet mincemeat inside. 5 out of 5
Richard:
Lovely sweet pastry with a hint of coconut. Not a huge amount of mince and unsure whether it is really a pie but still deserves 5 out of 5.
Co-op Mince Pie
This time we are trying Co-op deep filled pies.
Richard:
Sweet pastry but top is a bit too crumbly… is only half full but mince is pleasantly fruity.
3 out of 5
Jessica:
Pastry was a little bland and the mince was a bit like chutney, not my favourite mince pie so far.
2 out of 5
Today Jessica has exhibited her culinary talent by making a fine batch of mince pies – see below for our thoughts.
Richard:
Good crunchy pastry and filled to capacity – the only thing that could improve this would be to have an ‘R’ on top.
5 out of 5
Jessica:
There is a nice balance between the buttery-ness of the pastry and the sweetness of the filling.
7 out of 5
It’s now the 2nd of December and we can look forward to a month of mince pies 🙂 Each year I like to get a selection of pies from various retailers and attempt to find the best one. This year we are going to review pies on the blog… starting with Tesco’s Finest.
Richard:
Good, buttery pastry with reasonable depth of filling. The mince could have a little more flavour.
3 out of 5
Jessica:
The pastry tastes a bit like apple pie… very nice, I’m off to have another one.
4 out of 5
On Saturday me and Jessica finally found a free day to go out and do some things from the (things to do when we get a chance) list. We made our first trip to Borough market and were really impressed with what we found. As it was our first time we took a cool-bag and tried to find something interesting to take home for our dinner. After browsing around, we decided to try some Ostrich burgers (£5 for 4) and some pies from Pie Minister. The market was very busy so we found refuge in a some tea rooms in one of the neighbouring streets – after a cup or two of Assam and a piece of cake we felt refreshed enough to visit the Star Wars exhibit at County Hall.
I knew the exhibit would be expensive but the £16.50 per person was even more than I had predicted. We were told that entry was not timed but the next “Jedi School” would be in 45 minutes. There are plenty of costumes and props from the early films with the larger items being taken from Episode one (pod racers and Naboo fighters). We started to look for the Jedi training school but couldn’t find any evidence of it, or find out what it was. I asked a steward and he thrust some tickets into our hands and told us to “find out for ourselves”.
The Jedi class was held in a council chamber where a selection of kids were allowed to wield light sabres (of the type sold in Argos for a tenner). The actors had much more authentic looking sabres and used them to teach the young Padawan how to fight. I won’t spoil the story for you but I will recommend the exhibit – a bit expensive but we found almost 3 hours of amusement there.
After the exhibition we went to Oxford St. to get a new watch each – Jessica has needed one for a while and I recently dropped my old watch, breaking some of the internals 🙁
Back home again we settled down in front of Dr. Who with our ostrich burgers. Dr. Who was far from brilliant but I was very pleased with the burgers – the taste is hard to describe but I guess beefy is the closest I can manage. Apparently it tastes quite “gamey” but as this is the first “gamey” meat I have tasted it has now become a point of reference.
There are more pictures from the exhibit here.