DADDYCOOL'S MINCE PIE DISCUSSION AND RATING 2007!

[DaddyCool]

Hello laaayyddee's, I'm back with my mince pie rating and discussion forum. I missed last year as I was out of the country and stuck with only mince pies from my local bakery which tasted too much of cinnamon and not enough of brandy.

Let me remind you ladies that the taste testing is based ONLY on LUXURY mince pies and not bog-standard ones. Also, if you eat Mr. Kipling pies, you should be ashamed and you have no place to take part in this discussion ()

ok, well the start of this year's taste testing was delicious but a little disspointing as I suspect 1 company is making pies for various supermarkets.

My first taste test was Tesco Finest. Historically an unusual pie which sported a very thin, saucer like shape and very light soft pastry. This year's was different. Pastry was similar but it was a deep filled pie as opposed to it's old saucer like shape.

The dissapointing bit was that on my second taste test, the 'Asda Extra Special' pie, I found that other than the little snow flake punched into the top, IT WAS THE SAME PIE!

Both quite nice pies but I'm dissapointed with the standardisation of these pies.

Btw, I thought Waitrose Luxury pies were the best in 2005 with M&S a close 2nd.

Opinions please.

I can report that the Starbucks mini mince pies are v good. Bite size and not too crumbly

on the issue of eating mince pies when out,
house of fraser food court did a pot of tea with two mince pies and clotted cream last year and it was really nice, i kept thinking of reasons to go in there!!
Had a mince pie in pret yesterday which was not bad but today had a fab cranberry christmas crumble from pret and i have to say it was divine it was like a mince pie but better
Has anyone tried the mini luxuary topped mince pies in sainsburys they look nice

can someone just tell me the top 3 ! thanks

You moved yet then DC?

Ok DH is back and it seems he's well on board with this year's research.

The Selfridges ones have arrived. First impresions are very encouraging. 6 pies nestled in a long thin box (i.e. stacked on top of each other) in a tasteful gold box with just a simple label.

In an act of genius he has also returned laden with M&S Coniosssuer (FFS how do you spell that word) pies - which the M&S minging mulled wines ones were officially related to (M&S Mulled Wine Conio$%%5erwhkha Mince Pies being their official label).

Sadly instrcutions have been issued that I'm Not Allowed Any Until After Dinner.

More to follow.

any feedback from the selfridges ones...? DH has bought a box and they are sat in the kitchen begging to be eaten....Only problem is im nursing a hangover from hell..(yep still at 8pm...) Have spent the day in bed trying to encourage the "babies" to sleep with mummy (no such luck) have puked x3 so the taste test for me will have to wait till tomorrow. .

I will update then.

They MUST be the best though.....having cost the best part of £6 and they are from selfridges...They can't be "mr kipling" in disguise can they ..

i have dreamed all day of the waitrose ones and donean ocado order with 10 boxes in!

ok ladies. I've just had a waitrose all butter mince pie. Keep in mind that waitrose have won the last couple years....

I'm not impressed! It's a Sainsbury pie with more filling!! What the hell is going on!!?

Do we have a divide here? Do some people like the stodgy pastry with the gooey insides (sainsburys and waitrose) and others like the more coarse filling with the crumbly pastry (asda, tescos).

I'm surprised. very surprised. For me ASDA's extra special pies are on top so far! .

I need to try M&S next because methinks they'll now blow the rest away.

I'm keen to find out what the selfridges ones are like. eat them!

DC - I agree, I've got some waitrose mini ones now and to my surprise they're not all that. The pastry is a bit cardboardy. Inspired me to make some.

pennies, you are local to me, try the simmons bakery ones. i like them.

tried co-op ones, they were gross. i think i may give them to my mum lol.

The selfriges test has been compl eted and the0 resulst are in.

DD is a0lso hel0ping 0me type this. report. Apoligie for typos and any gibbersigh that is included

OK you are not going to believe this but.... Selfrigdges pies are utterly disgusting. Why? Here's why:

1. Pastry 'filling ration is wayyyyy too much. Thick slabs of pastry with a blob of filling making it dry (more on the arid nature of the pies later)

2. They've mucked about with pastry. Now in my book you can make it with butte / lard - more or less for a shorter texture or not and also there's some leniency on the topping (none, granualted, icing etc etc). Nowhere in my rule book did it say that the pastry should stink of vanilla and taste like a very sweet biscuit - v. crmbly too so lacking in substnace.

3. Filling - dry dry dry. Not much more thana table sppon ful of raisin sthat have been blended up with a pinch of cinnamopn.

In summary the effect was much like that game when you try and eat 10 cream crackers without any water. Sofa covered in crumbs and we were gasping for water ,like members of the french foregn legion. DH was however much more generous in his assessment - he said it was "like a fig roll, but a piss poor one at that"

More on the M&S ones later.

DD now safely on potty and the previous post should have read:

pastry : filling ratio waaaayyy too much.

Off to wipe her bum and get overly excited about contents of the potty. See y'all later.

WTF is going on this year?!

I remember waitrose not only being nice but the best of the best!

so strange. it's upsetting really because I think the overall standard is going down.

I might have to plot it in excel and create a colourful graphical analysis.

OK, so I have had one of the Waitrose all butter mini mince pies. It was OK. I have nothing to compare it to though. I thought the pastry was nice but the insides were a bit lacking and taste slightly sharp? May buy some Somerfield ones in a while and see what they are like.

right............bearing in mind I appear to still be suffering with a hangover a day later ..I decided a mince pie would do me good.....

The verdict on the selfridges ones...

Crap. . The pastry is to crumbly and the filling............well its more a case of "what filling". Its poor. One bit of the pie and its in your cupped hand. Not good..

So...................a box of asda classic,average mince pies were sat looking at me......Taste test number 2.........They were slightly better but I didn't get to excited. TBH not enough filling again.

Must admit,we had a box of asda ES ones last week..................now they were delicious. .

Tesco delivery due tonight with (hopefully) OUR FREE box of Tesco Finest mp. Will update later.

Keep up the PT pennies (we are fellow PT here..) but don't confuse what could be astray mince pie with something else .!!!

BTW daddycool...........THIS IS DOING NOTHING FOR MY POSTBABY FIGURE. .! 9 months on and no lighter..I blame all these mince pies .

Get plotting as well. .!!! How about a "pie" chart..Arfffff arffff arff...!

hmmmm... Asda is looking tops. Who would have thought.

I'm getting a little mince pied out. I've taken a break for a couple days until I manage to get my hands on some M&S ones.

OK then, today's offering is M&S Luxury Recipe Mini mince pies. I have to say though that I'm slightly disappointed. I'll start with the good points.

Filling is loads better than the Waitrose ones. Much sweeter and no bloody cranberries which is why the waitrose ones are so tart I think. Can really taste the brandy in them too.

Packaging. They come in a box as normal but inside they are nestled into two oven safe trays which I think is rather clever.

Pie itself looks very nice and appetising with a nice domed top complete with star shape and sugar, however when biting into it I was really peeved to find that the filling only covers the bottom of the pie. There is a huge gap of air in there!

The pastry is very very thin which would generally be OK given that they are mini pies but when holding the pie to eat I notice that the bottoms are really thin and the filling is only just being held inside. I wonder if they are better warmed and that would help crisp the pastry and keep it together more.

Really wish I'd bought the bigger ones now as the filling is really good. M&S have quite an array of pies at the moment including some mini ones in a see through plastic box (connisseur I think) and also organic ones. I may get dh to pick some up on his way home later in the week. Incidentally he has just called me a saddo for doing this - he doesn't even know I'm posting the results here .

Looks like someone else sees this as a noteworthy task.

Interesting correlation of opinions for the Waitrose and Asda samples.

What The Papers Say

I just saw some teeny but enticing ones in a large cup in a Benugo but I said to myself "that's a kilo on the hips right there" and snubbed them. I can't tell from thsi thread what's good because there is too much distracting Daniel Craig talk going on...

I am a beginner at this, but I had some Tesco Taste the Difference ones the other day - I thought the filling was nice, juicy and fruity, but the pastry a bit clarty.

honourable mention of a couple products that don't quite meet the brief for this discussion but hey ho. I'm impressed with the following Corporate monster efforts to come up with slight variations to the traditional mince pie.

1. McDonalds - I must say, i was impressed with the mince and custard, deep fried pie. Sounds gross but it was rather tasty.

1. Ikea - a very impressive mince pie with a type of chewy crumble on the top, dusted with iceing sugar. I couldn't fault this one at all. Even the filling was lovely, with plenty of alcohol!

After yet another tasting, I can confidently say don't bother with Somerfield Best ever mince pies. They are decidedly rough around the edges. Pastry is too thick and the tops of ours were all leaky with too thin filling. Difficult to prize from their cases too. I have gone back to the Waitrose ones for the time being. The second batch of these have been a lot better than the first and the filling is much improved when they are warm.

DC, you are right, the McDonald's ones sound gross...

Morrisson's "the best"... aren't the best.

pastry a little stale and crumbly, filling a little cheap and ultra-sweet (in a non-sugar additive kinda way). Not the best.

We all have to bring in food on xmas eve at work and I've been tasked with Mince Pies (of course). It's going to be Asda's "Extra special"