The pick of the pies

The best mince pies to buy this year

WHAT would Christmas be without that little pie filled with a sweet and spicy fruity mix? Their origins may be British, but Christmas mince pies are certainly a South African favourite at this time of year.

The team at Independent on Saturday, who love to eat but are by no means gourmet foodies, decided to test what was on offer at supermarkets.

All the pies came in packs of six and ranged from R22.99 to R32.99 a tray. In the blind taste test, the reviewers did not know where the pies had been bought, and rated them based on appearance, texture, taste, and ingredients. The mince pies from Pick n Pay overwhelmingly convinced our tastebuds that they were the tastiest of the lot.

The reviewers were: Tanya Waterworth ( TW), Duncan Guy (DG), Arthi Gopi (AG), Frank Chemaly (FC), Sithembile Mkhwanazi (SM), Sacha van Niekerk (SVN) and Lloyd Govindsamy (LG).

SPAR

R32.99 TW: Looks appealing. Pastry lovely and soft, could do with a little more mincemeat filling. 3

DG: The pastry was a bit soft, otherwise the appearance was fine and it had a satisfactory amount of mince inside. However, the mince was not that exciting. 3

AG: The pie itself had a caved in top, which I didn’t like and the dough was very soft which I also did not like, it had a very sweet filling, not a favourite. 3

FC: Pure dough ball. Thick pastry was undercooked and the filling was just sweet with little flavour. 1.5

SM: It was nicely filled (appearance), didn’t taste awful but was average – not sweet enough. 2

SVN: The pastry was not very light or crispy, however it still had lovely flavour and was packed with a sour-sweet punch in the juicy filling. 3.5

LG: Had a light and soft pastry, not too sweet - overall very nice. 4

WOOLWORTHS

R29.99 TW: Great balance of fruit filling and pastry, nice hint of spices. 3

DG: This one “wowed” me. I could taste the spice. It had the perfect balance of pastry thickness, mince content and it also looked like a mince pie should look in my mind. 4

AG: I took one bite of the quarter piece and couldn’t eat the rest. Soury taste coupled with dough was not a winner for me. 1

FC: This was better, a good pastry and much better spice in the mince. I detected a hint of guava roll. 2.5

SM: Had interesting after-taste, but had nice pastry. 2

SVN: This one had more of a variety of fruit pieces in the minced fruit that offered a good flavour. 3

LG: Light pastry, very sweet. Not the best taste but looked the most appetising. 3

CHECKERS

R24.99 TW: Soft pastry, lots of mincemeat, this was my favourite. 4

DG: Tasty pastry but perhaps a bit heavy on the pastry and a bit lean on the mince. 3

AG: This looked appealing, it had a rounded top and was golden brown, slightly crunchy dough and a very sweet filling, almost like jam. 3

FC: Pastry was way too thick but at least it was short. These may have been a shade overcooked. The filling was very sweet. 2.5

SM: Crunchy and very sweet, really good. 3

SVN: This pastry was much crispier than the others which I really enjoyed. The filling was jamlike in consistency. I found myself taking another piece. 4.5

LG: Fruity, good sugar consistency, very nice crunch to the pastry – nicely covered in icing sugar. 3

SHOPRITE

R24.99 TW: Good fruity flavour and generous sprinkling of sugar. 3

DG: A bit bland. The taste did not excite me. 2

AG: Very thin dough, and very sweet, definitely not to my liking. 2

FC: Another offering of uncooked flour but at least there was some spice in the mince. 2 SM: Good taste, but too crunchy. 2 SVN: Not a great overall flavour, I found this one to be rather bland. 2

LG: Fruit had too many seeds, slightly bitter, good crust. Did not have the best look. 2

Last week in the Christmas Cake tasting test, The Independent on Saturday tasted a Windsor Fruit Cake from Shoprite. This is not a Christmas cake and should not have been included in the testing. The cake which came out top according to the panel was the Checkers Iced Festive Fruit Cake, which is available at selected Shoprite outlets.

FOOD LOVER’S MARKET

R22.99 TW: Topped with a sprinkling of icing sugar, looked and tasted good. 3

DG: The icing sugar on top is its draw card. The filling was jammy. 3

AG: I liked the look of the pie, very “country-ish” with the toasty brown top and dusted with sugar, but one bite and it was too sweet, nothing amazing about this pie’s taste. 2

FC: Probably the best filling although it was very sweet and slightly jammy. Pastry was nice and short, perhaps a shade too short. 2.5 SM: Great crust, very sweet. 4 SVN: This pie was packed with a very sweet filling. I found the flavour slightly one dimensional in that respect. The dusting of powdered sugar was a lovely touch and a change from the crunchy grains found on all the others. 2

LG: Too sweet, I bit into seeds and the pastry was too thin. 2

PICK N PAY

R26.99 TW: Mincemeat had great taste, slightly crunchy pastry which works with a good topping of caster sugar. 4

DG: A bit on the bland side but at least it included a healthy portion of mince. 3

AG: This pie is deceptive. It looked plain whitish so I had not much hope. But one bite into it, I was converted. It had a crunchy top, almost shortbread like. The filling was not very sweet, so the combo for me was delish. 4

FC: Crisper pastry that was almost shortbread-like. The sugar on the top also came through nicely. 3

SM: It was best overall, fantastic pastry and nice sweet taste. 4

SVN: The crust on this pie was too thick, it was still very tasty, but overshadowed the fruit filling. 3

LG: Best taste, pastry was good, nicely cooked, had good crunch to the crust. Filling was not too sweet. Definitely the one I would buy. 5