Pie

The all important pre-Christmas mince pie tasting session has been done (complete with the obligatory sherry) and the results are in.

We went for the more expensive end of the market, and didn't scour all the supermarkets since 6 mince pies is quite enough for anyone.

In 6th place with 4/10 came Sainsburys Butter Enriched. These were pretty poor - thin and rather dry but with quite a buttery taste.

In 5th place with 5/10 came Waitrose Shortcrust. These had lots of filling but with too much thick sauce. The pastry was rather thin and they were a little too sweet.

In joint 3rd with 6/10 came Sainsburys Deep Filled - good pastry and a better consistency in the filling than the Waitrose, but a little oversweet. Also Mr Kipling which had a rather over-buttery pastry which was too crumbly and a rather disappointing, bland filling.

In 2nd place with 7/10 came Sainsburys Organic. The filling was excellent, quite spicy and zesty but the pie was let down by the pastry which was far too buttery - the taste overwhelmed the whole pir.

And our prize pick is Waitrose All Butter with 8/10. Good crisp pastry which isn't crumbly and a tasty filling - not as spicy as the Sainsburys Organic, but still very creditable. Very pleasant indeed.

It seems from our experience that the best pies are the more expensive ones - which is rather a shame - but we are trying to track down some cheaper independent pies, so there may be an update to these results. It's so exciting.