Christmas Food
You might be thinking it’s a bit early for a post about Mince Pies, after all Christmas is still a few months away (seven weeks and 3 days). Now usually I would agree with you, for me Christmas doesn’t start until the 1st December. However, I wanted to get this post out before then because I know lots of people who like to get an early start on these things.
Mince Pies
Earlier this week I spent a whole day trekking around Birmingham to visit every supermarket and check if their standard mince pies were accidentally vegan……with varying degrees of success. I want to point out that most of the supermarkets DID have a ‘Free From’ mince pie on their shelves but as I don’t have any issues with gluten I wanted to see if I could find any offerings that were suitable before I tried those. I will be doing another review of ‘Free From’ Mince Pies once I have the money to buy more.
I found four stores whose every day own brand ranges were accidentally vegan. There were Asda, Lidl, Iceland, and Waitrose. Please note ALL of them contain palm oil.
I’ll go through them in alphabetical order, then summarise with scores and outcome at the end.
Asda Baker’s Selection Mince Pies
These mince pies looked very golden with a basic eight-point star on top. It looked lovely but things started going downhill when I cut into it, it was only half-full of mincemeat. It is one of my pet peeves when pies aren’t properly filled, it’s just so disappointing. I wanted mince pies not air pies. The pastry was quite thick, especially on the lid. The pastry is quite rich and ‘buttery’ tasting with a light crumbly texture. The filling is very sweet and sticky, and it balances nicely with the pastry, just a shame there isn’t a bit more of it.
Iceland (box of 12 only)
Please note, it is only the box of 12 that are accidentally vegan, the boxes of six (although they look they same) have butter in them.
These had a nice light golden pastry with a six-point star on top. They were well-filled with barely any space between the filling and lid. The pastry was very thick all around, and it was extremely dense. It manages to completely bury the flavour of the mincemeat, and feels a bit claggy in your mouth. It was very hard to tell what the filling tasted like because the pastry just overpowered it, so it felt like all I had was a mouthful of pastry. Which was unfortunate because I found the pastry had an almost floury taste, and it was quite an unpleasant feel in my mouth.
Lidl Favorina Mince Pies
These mince pies were bordering on over-baked, I think if they’d had even a minute longer they’d have been burnt. very dark colouring with a lovely holly pattern on them. I think the longer bake actually helped them it meant the pastry was thin and crisp (even on the bottom) but crumbled beautifully when you bit into it. This gave it a really nice texture. The pie was stuffed with mincemeat, filled right up to the lid. It had a thick almost chutney like texture, with a lovely sharp taste, you can really tastes the mixed fruits. This was balanced really well by the buttery taste of the pastry.
Waitrose Essential Shortcrust Mince Pies
These were quite basic, very pale in colour with no design on the top. They were well-filled but the lid was lower that on the other pies so I still don’t think you got a good ratio of mincemeat to pastry. The pastry was a good thickness around the sides and bottom but the lid seemed very thick in comparison. The pastry was quite flaky when I bit into it but managed to turn gummy in my mouth. The taste somehow managed to be powdery and gluey all at once, then it was just a stodgy mess in my mouth. This had a terrible texture and a floury taste. It was actually so bad I had to spit it out. It was not remotely pleasant.
Verdict
For me the Lidl mince pies were by far the best. And I would avoid the Waitrose ones at all costs.