Best Mince Pies 2022??

[Boodi 2]

Although not a great lover of mince pies as mentioned above, I must see if the pies Viv mentioned are available in our local Lidl as all this discussion about them has made me curious to taste them again after many years!!!

[Boodi 2]

Having walked to Lidl in the rain there was no sign of any mince pies, so the range of products available here must be different to that in the UK. To make up for the disappointment I purchased two traditional German marizpan "Stollen" instead!

[Hannah]

I've never seen Mince Pies in a German supermarket so far, Boodi.
But Marzipanstollen is great too!

[Boatbuilder]

I must see if ALDI has their Stollen tomorrow when I go there.

[Hannah]

By the way, when I first read about Mince Pies in a story (not in a Blyton book) I was very confused . I thought from the context that it must be something sweet but I only knew the expression "to mince meat" for the "real" meat that you use for burger patties etc.
Google then enlightened me to the meaning of "Mince Pie".

[Boodi 2]

My hope that Lidl MIGHT have had mince pies on sale was based on the fact that they often do promotions of products from certain countries, including the UK...mind you, I don't think there have been any such promotions of typical English products since Brexit. However, they previously had frozen fish and chips, orange marmalade, various sauces and chutney, crisps, biscuits as well as Cheddar and Stilton cheese on sale, of which we bought quite a lot, although the fish and chips were a bit disappointing!!!

[Boatbuilder]

I must see if ALDI has their Stollen tomorrow when I go there.

Bought this afternoon.....



..... but it will stay sealed until Christmas.

[Boodi 2]

Hope you enjoy it John! Mind you, you must have stronger willpower than we have, as the reason I bought TWO stollen yesterday instead of one is that my husband is very likely to want to sample some before Christmas ("just to check that it is OK" is his usual excuse).

[Boatbuilder]

Be careful, Monique. After he's checked the first one he might say, "Well that one was alright, maybe I should check the other one - just in case!"

[Boodi 2]

Don't worry John, he is not that cheeky and usually when he "samples" the first one he looks a bit embarrassed when he sees my stern face. The only problem is that I am unable to maintain my stern demeanour and usually "give in" and sample a slice or two too! I suspect that may happen tomorrow as our son (and probably his girlfriend) will be paying us a visit...an ideal occasion for some "sampling"!!! After over 30 years of marriage I have got used to the sampling but initially it was a shock as on one occasion I was expecting visitors and made a delicious (and very rich) cream cake with fresh strawberries, which I stored in the fridge overnight. Imagine my horror the next day when I discovered that half of the cake had disappeared!!!

[Boatbuilder]

Yes, I can imagine, Monique.

[pete9012S]

The next batch of mince pies for testing have arrived in our household.
These eight pies come from an artisan grocer's shop near us.

It's a very expensive shop and we only pop in there for treats - homemade dairy ice-cream, posh bread, bacon etc, etc.

When I asked for mince pies he had to go upstairs and get them individually for me.
I asked for eight in case they were really good.

On first impression, without yet tasting them, they don't look especially special, but looks can be deceiving.

Nigel has insisted I drink hard liquor whilst testing my mince pies, so I have assembled a couple of bottles of things that have recently been given to us as gifts to drink so I don't upset/offend Nigel in any way.

Will report back with the results of the test later on...

[Boodi 2]

What is the verdict Pete? I am looking forward to your test report on the mince pies from the artisan grocer's shop, but perhaps you should try them with and without hard liquor to see if you notice any difference!!!

[Boatbuilder]

He's probably still got a hangover Monique. I'm not sure from which, though.

[Moonraker]

Everything tastes better accompanied by a glass of malt!