Today's contender for the 2018 Best Christmas Mince Pie is... 

🎉  🎊  HereEast's "coffee man outside"    🎊  🎉   ( £??? No idea ) 

Pastry: It's a delicate little pie! The pastry is soft, not under baked....just a different texture. Not too pretty as the pie's lid was way off centre but retained it's shape. Great colour but a little lacking in flavour, at least there's powdered sugar on top!

Filling: Really sweet, super tangy with a nice taste of peel. Jammy, fruity...bit boozy and just really nice! Not a lot to say here.

Presentation: It's not a bad pie but we've seen better. It's was a bit messy, a bit of the old sticky fingers. I've gotta praise the caseless bake, it's quite nice to chomp your way through the whole thing. I'd call it basic but good.

Summary: S'alright.

Current Leaders

1st: M&S - Collection 

2nd: Pret A Manger

3rd: ASDA - Extra Special

Independants

1st: The Nightingale Patisserie 

Monday / Wednesday / Friday!

Adam Cooke

Photographer / Pie Tester

***Donated and Snapped by Simon P!***

Today's contender for the 2018 Best Christmas Mince Pie is... 

🎉  🎊 FORTNUM & MASON  🎊  🎉  ( £10.95 for 6 😮) Cup of tea at the ready!

Pastry: Firstly, they survived a busy tube journey home! It tastes excellent! Great colour, quite tall, finished with a caster sugar top (oh well). Came out of the case well though I was tentatively easing it off, I'm a bit scared of this one. A buttery bottom which led to a lesser known problem of GREASY FINGERS...nothing the back of my jeans can't fix.

Filling: You can smell the booze before you even take a bite - I mistook it for a hint of coconut but the filling is nothing but traditional. A smooth paste instead of the whole fruit we're used to, what's nice is that the nuts are more prominent here. 

Presentation: The design is nice with the signature branding and they're all quite consistent. I wasn't too impressed when one of the tops came off revealing an odd air gap between filling and top but it's deliberate! I've been approaching this one all wrong. They sell a butter with the serving suggestion of "...Rum Butter eased gently under the lid". Cringe. Its quite filling and I only managed one and a half pies, this isn't usually a problem! It's definitely got top tier ingredients with flavours that carry a serious 'Christmas of old days' vibe. 

Rightly so...it stands apart from everything we've seen so far BUT CAN I RECOMMEND IT?

No. £10.95 for 6 mince pies? A bit steep for me.

Summary: Get down M&S 👍

NEXT TIME: We get back to basics...

Adam Cooke

Photographer / Pie Tester

Current Leaders

1st: M&S - Collection 

2nd: Pret A Manger

3rd: ASDA - Extra Special

Independants

1st: The Nightingale Patisserie 

Today's contender for the 2018 Best Christmas Mince Pie is... 

🎉  🎊  PRET A MANGER   🎊  🎉   ( £1.40 EACH ! ) 

Damn this is a good mince pie. 

Pastry: It's so buttery! and a new approach here with a paper case. It's a tall fella and the paper has protected the pastry well. It's got a great colour, consistency is brilliant, holds together 'OK'. Sadly though, there was a huge shower of crumbs caused by the peeling process! Not a fan.

Filling: The filling is generous, slightly bursting out but it's baked down into a set jam. Not much booze but there is a bit of a zesty tang in it's place which work great. No wait...there's the booze. It's moist, the fruit in the mix is soft and there's a nice variety of flavour all in one bite. 

Presentation: There's no disputing that it's impressive, the thing looks like a frosted winter scene! It didn't separate easily, it's crumbly and I had a pretty serious case of sticky fingers! Bit of a mission to eat but it's worth it.

Summary: Sorry Greggs. You're fired!

Current Leaders

1st: M&S - Collection 

2nd: Pret A Manger

3rd: ASDA - Extra Special

Independants

1st: The Nightingale Patisserie

Monday / Wednesday / Friday!

Adam Cooke

Photographer / Pie Tester

Today's contender for the 2018 Best Christmas Mince Pie is... 

🎉  🎊  The Nightingale Patisserie    🎊  🎉   ( £1.20 EACH! ) 

Pastry: Quite delicate and thicccck! Not a bad thing in this case though since there's a healthy portion of filling to balance it out. Brilliant colour and homely roughness really make for a heartwarming look.

Filling: Very good! Not hugely boozy but the consistency is spot on...whole fruits bound together with jammy goodness that's spiced really well. There's some leaking but it's all self contained, no sticky fingers!

Presentation: There's no getting away from the fact that they're a bit rough around the edges with the knocked pastry, leaky filling AND an uneven application of powdered sugar (though this is much preferred in place of a caster sugar top). Hear me out though because in this case I don't think it's a negative! 

These pies struck a different chord with me. They remind me of home! Yes M&S will knock your socks off, yes ASDA deserve the high praise and of course Greggs are great (that's if you can find any left). What's tough is that these surprisingly expensive little pies are pretty close to what my Mum would make and it's hard to put a price on something which makes you feel warm and fuzzy. I can't recommend a trip all the way to Clapham South for you to buy some of these pies but if you're in the area...you're in for a treat.

Summary: Caught me off guard.

Current Leaders

1st: M&S - Collection 

2nd: ASDA - Extra Special

3rd: Greggs - Standard

Independants

1st: The Nightingale Patisserie 

Monday / Wednesday / Friday!

Adam Cooke

Photographer / Pie Tester

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

🎉  🎊 CO-OP  +  PERCY INGLES 🎊  🎉   ( Not worth mentioning... ) 

Percy Ingles on the left + Co-Op on the right.

They're both quite poor. Crumbly, dry and minimal filling which somehow leaked out. Percy's tried to compensate with a heavily sugared top which only dried it out further - it's overbaked, just bin the lot. It's all rather upsetting, especially since Percy Ingles hold a dear place in my heart with their incredible Iced Ring Donuts.

Did we peak too soon? This is a desperate appeal to you all...have you had a decent pie that could rival Marks, ASDA and Greggs? This is a sad day for pies everywhere.

Hopefully something better on Wednesday!

Current Leaders

1st: M&S - Collection

2nd: ASDA - Extra Special

3rd: Greggs - Standard

Monday / Wednesday / Friday!

Adam Cooke

Photographer / Pie Tester