Sainsbury's Deep Mince Pies

Sainsbury's Mince Pies have always been one of my favourite, and is usually the first stop on my search for a winning mince pie, this year is no different.
I originally wrote this review last week when I first had the idea of starting this blog, but I left the review I wrote at work. I think this could have been a sign, because I would have posted this review had I not decided to take some pictures to place with it. This resulted in buying another box and inevitably eating them too!

The Facts

Sainsbury's only recommend that you oven heat these pies, not microwave which I agree with, its how a mince pie should be eaten. This is another average pie at 259 calories and 9.5g of fat. These are "Butter enriched shortcrust pastry cases with a mincemeat filling". The pastry is stated to be 52%, mincemeat at 47% and sugar at 1% which sounds like a nice even ratio.

I don't think Sainsburys have changed the design on the box from last year, but I may be wrong.

First Impressions

This looks almost perfect, a nice brown around the edges and on the decorative mistletoe, and a very light sprinkling of sugar on top (that must be the 1%). It looks like a solid, well filled mince pie. Although this is a picture from my second batch of Sainsbury's mince pies, the first were not as great. They looked a little over-cooked and dry.


The Bite

Now, this one is a nice mince pie. The buttery shortcrust pastry is lovely, and a good amount of moist filling helps this go down very easily. This does not fall apart completely in your hands, but is very close to - it might be wise to have a plate/hand/someone elses hand underneath when taking a bite.

The filling is very tasty, it has a good visual content of fruit, not too sweet and a good level of (for lack of a better word) moisture. You can taste mostly apple and raisins, but this is not a bad thing by any means. I like that the water from the mincemeat has not soaked into the pastry causing the pastry to be come soggy. I could quite easily sit and eat 3-4 of these in one go!

There was a very different story to tell for the first pie I had. The pastry was passable, maybe a little dry but the filling was its downfall. It was a pureed mess. It had a couple of whole raisins or currants and was sweeter than I would have liked. I was very disappointed.

Overall

First impressions count greatly in this game, I usually only give a mince pie one shot. Sainsbury's got lucky and had another, and fortunately it was a great improvement over the first, but it's shown me that there can be a bad batches in an otherwise good mince pie, and hopefully this was the case here.

Mama always said life was like a box of Sainsbury's Mince Pies. You never know what you're gonna get!

3.7 / 5


If you have tried this mince pie, share your thoughts in the comments below.