We are aiming to try as many mince pies as possible this Christmas, from a wide range of sources; supermarkets to farm shops to gourmet boutiques.
So to kick off the great mince pie comparison, I decided to have my first one lunch time last week.
Many of you that live or frequent the City will know that M&S stores have a little hidden gem in many of their shops – hot food on the go. Here they change the menu every so often but it usually includes a range of breakfast options, then for lunch soup, hot sandwiches, wedges, chips etc.
For the festive season, M&S has added a number of Christmas themed options. These include turkey and stuffing soup and a hot mince pie.
The mince pie looked and smelt amazing, crumbly pastry, lots of filling and served up with brandy cream. Sounds perfect right?
I’m afraid to say it wasn’t (very big sad face). While I thought that the amount of filling in the pie would make it so much better, it actually made the pie a bit too intense and sickly. Even worse, the brandy cream was far too full of alcohol, proving hard to eat and most of it ended up going into the bin.
Compared to all of the other lunch time delights on offer at the counter (I recommend the caesar chicken bun and wedges), this left a very disappointing hole in my afternoon.
Bring on some better contenders!