[PJ2]

What brand's have you tried and which ones are your favourite?

I like the pastry and amount of fruit filling in Mr Kipplings but they are lacking in classic mince pie spice.

Lidls pastry is nice, but there more sauce than fruit pieces than Mr Kipplings, however, there's more classic mince pie spice flavour to them.

Iceland's are sort of in between with more fruit filling than lidls and less sauce, but they have more spice than Mr Kipling's.

I don't think there's much, if any difference with the pastry on all of the above.

M & S all butter mince pies with brandy, port, glacier cherries and fancy raisins have nice pastry, you can taste the butter, but fruit is a tougher to chew and there is absolutely no spice flavour whatsoever. To me they just taste of raisins with a hint of brandy. These were the most disappointing at £2.50 for 6.

For me, Lidls are the best mince pies. They could do with more fruit pieces but they are definitely the most tasty when it comes to filling.

The perfect pie would be the filling of Mr Kippling's, with the flavour of Lidl's filling and the pastry of M & S fancy pies.

[Lushness]

I quite like Tesco's Finest mince pies, they are delish, M&S close second.

I'm going to make my own ones this year, but I'll still buy some shop ones just in case!

[Toby LaRhone]

I saw a comparison of about ten makes on telly last week - can't remember the programme.
It included a range of leading supermarkets and stores such as Harrods and Harvey Nicholls.
The price range was significant.
It was a blind taste by five "respected" people in the food industry.
Anyway - yada, yada, yada......
Lidl's came first.

[Simon_More]

I bought some "seconds" from a discount place. They were 45p for 6. They were so so nice. Nice filling and the pastry was nice and crispy. They sold out I tried the iced ones from Asda. They were nice too. Very very sweet though.

[Hotgossip]

Only ones I've tried this year are Aldis and they are very nice. The ones we tried were just the basic ones but the pastry was good and there was plenty of tasty filling. They also do more expensive ones and tiny weeny ones which looked lovely.

[daisiesfan]

I've tried Aldi's and Greggs so far. Both very acceptable.
For me though, homemade mincemeat wins every time. Made a batch a couple of weeks ago, so i'll be making some pies soon. Also gonna try making a shortbread mincemeat slice this year too.

[Gogfumble]

Quote:

Originally Posted by daisiesfan

I've tried Aldi's and Greggs so far. Both very acceptable.
For me though, homemade mincemeat wins every time. Made a batch a couple of weeks ago, so i'll be making some pies soon. Also gonna try making a shortbread mincemeat slice this year too.

yummy, I love shortbread and while I am not a huge fan of mince pies I think I'd like that.

Send me some?

[mklass]

The best ones I have tasted are from Waitrose, they do them in a normal size or a mini.... they are delicious. .. I only discovered them last xmas but I will defo be buying plenty this year!..... as a matter of fact I was in Tesco last weekend and bought a couple of boxes of theirs and they are a real disappointment the fruit in them seems to be all mushy..... I wont be picking up any of those again, I will make sure I am well stocked up with the Waitrose ones......

[walterwhite]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hotgossip

Only ones I've tried this year are Aldis and they are very nice. The ones we tried were just the basic ones but the pastry was good and there was plenty of tasty filling. They also do more expensive ones and tiny weeny ones which looked lovely.

Loving the Aldi ones with the frangipane in the pastry.

[Hotgossip]

Quote:

Originally Posted by walterwhite

Loving the Aldi ones with the frangipane in the pastry.

I'll look out for these! Thanks

[daisiesfan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gogfumble

yummy, I love shortbread and while I am not a huge fan of mince pies I think I'd like that.

Send me some?

Doubt there's be any left with the gannetts in this house.
I'll let you know how they turn out though

[newda898]

I like the Asda posh bakery ones, deep filled and nice pastry.

Only thing is, I refuse to buy any if they stack them all up at the entrance and have none at all, not even a place for them, in the bakery section itself.

[pugamo]

The Tesco bakery ones are by far my favourite. The shortcrust ones with a star on top, not (heaven forbid!) the puff pastry ones.

[Simon_More]

Quote:

Originally Posted by walterwhite

Loving the Aldi ones with the frangipane in the pastry.

I will pick up some of these tomorrow. I seen an advert for them. Can't wait to try

[Espresso]

Greggs do nice ones.

[LaceyLouelle3]

I don't like mince pies but the ones made in the bakery at Morrisons are lovely.

[wampa1]

Costco all the way.

[cakehole]

I bought some Lidl ones yesterday (Snowy Lodge) and found them to be unbearably sweet.

I bought some from a farm shop last year which were delish but expensive.

[Welsh-lad]

Top of the pile this year has got to be M&S... for the first time in ages.

I've liked the Morrisons ones and the Lidl ones over the last few years, but M&S has trumped this time with their 'Christmas star' mince pies.

They're small, fairly thin buttery pastry, beautiful condensed filling, not too wet.
And, key for me, *not* excessively boozy.

http://i1.birminghammail.co.uk/incom...nd-spencer.jpg

Several packets have gone west already

[asyousay]

Marks and Spencer's are lovely and that's from somebody who never eats them. But my dad brought some and I have been eating them.

[Mark in Essex]

I've had a couple of packets of the most expensive Lidl ones (think it was £1.15 for 6 (not the £1.49 they said in the paper)) after my father-in-law said Harrods only just best them to the number one in the taste tests (at £8.95 for 6).

You can tell they were good as I had 10 to myself in about 5 days!

Time to go down the gym though at 29% of your saturated fat for the day in each pie!

Here is a link here to the article: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...-8-95-six.html

And another one I've just found:
http://www.mirror.co.uk/money/19p-ea...ortnum-6849108

[chloeb]

Had the misfortune of a co op one...ghastly...bitter and dry

[Simon_More]

I have tried the Asda iced ones. So so sweet! But since I have the worst sweet tooth I love them haha.

[Missli]

I'm currently liking the Co-ops finest ones a little too much. . The ones I tried were moist, but weren't the bog standard. It would be helpful to note what range people used so others can make informed judgements.
Would thoroughly recommend!

[moonlily]

I like the Lidl ordinaries, pack of 12- I haven't tried the ones in the box so similar to the Waitrose boxes but are Lidl's version of posh