IT'S THE GRAND FINALE!

Today's contenders for the 2018 Best Christmas Mince Pie are... 

🎉  🎊  ALDI Chocolate and Cherry  🎊  🎉   ( £1.99 for 6 ) 

🎉  🎊  Morrisons Famed "UK's Best"  🎊  🎉   ( £2 for 6 ) 
🎉  🎊  M&S Icing Topped  🎊  🎉   ( £2ish?? for 6 )
🎉  🎊  ALDI Classic Mince Pie  🎊  🎉   ( £2ish?? for 6 )

Who would have thought that doing 3 a week would still leave us with backlog like this! Hold on tight, cup of tea at the ready, time for a quick fire round up...

1. ALDI Chocolate and Cherry

Pastry: Lovely brown colour and I can't fault the moulding as the 'Noel' survived well. Bit light on the chocolate flavour but it's still nice and buttery!

Filling: Cherries! Very jammy, little bit boozy, big on chunks...really nice!

Presentation: It's a bit different this one. The whole chocolate cherry thing usually turns me away with little chocolate liqueurs but this is alright! If you're sick of mince pies and want something else then give them a bash. Serious warning though for sticky fingers.

Summary: Nice but not a proper mince pie is it. Sorry not sorry!

2. Morrisons Famed "The Best"

Pastry: Excellent. Buttery, structured, melts in an instant but it does have a bit of a greasy bottom - It's okay, we saw that with the M&S one too. Came out of the tin just fine and very little mess.

Filling: Excellent. Right up there with the best. I'd say it's balanced really well with lots of nice whole fruits to give a great bite. Not the booziest but it's definitely there, more delicate than ASDA's punch in the mouth.

Presentation: It's a solid pie, little bit of overspill on the pastry top but they've done a great job making these and they stand up well against strong supermarket competition. 

Summary: MOZZAS DESERVE EVERY BIT OF PRAISE THEY GET. It chips ASDA off the 3rd spot since it's a more rounded flavour and certainly beats Pret on bang for buck. NEW 2ND PLACE.

3. Tesco Icing Topped 

WHAT?! Just...what?! Who thought this was a good idea?

Summary: Nope.

4. ALDI Classic Mince Pie 

Not 100% but I think I may have tried these already. 

Pastry: Moist, delicate, melts away with no fuss. Wonderful flavour that's sweetened nicely by the sugar. Came out of the case well with faintest hint of a buttery bottom. 

Filling: It's certainly above your average Kiplings or basic in-store bakery but there's something missing. I think it need more of the fragrant spices to bring it up to par. The fruits and currents are great though, very sweet!

Presentation: There's nothing classic about them, these things mean business! I'd describe them a pretty good copy of Mark's offerings...very nice. 

Summary: It's alright!



It is with great pleasure that I can say my favourite, most reliable, most mouth watering and pocket pleasing pack of mince pies is...

Leaving the leader board looking a little something like...

Big Brands

1st: M&S - Collection 

2nd: Morrisons - 'The Best'

3rd: Pret A Manger

Independents

1st: Blackbird Bakery 

2nd: The Nightingale Patisserie
3rd: Konditor & Cook

Finally I'd like to thank the numerous people for these final submissions. Again, thanks to all who contributed their time, effort and pies to this ridiculous process. It's been going for nearly 2 months! I've found that it's spurred on our warm communal spirit and grew to be much larger than I had anticipated. I must share a recent submission from Ebrahim, inspired by the process he created this...




















I now relinquish my title of Pie Tester.

***NEXT TIME...I'll be doing some sit ups***

Adam Cooke

Photographer