Mince pies and festive treats

[midlandsgrimpeur]

We used to have a mince pie thread on Bike Radar where we would share our mince pie recommendations and those to be missed. Thought I would extend the tradition here, but open it to all festive food favourites.

I had a piece of iced M&S Christmas cake today. Decent but slightly bitter aftertaste and a bit too dense.

I like their individual mince pies from the bakery section. I am in town tomorrow and will see if they have them in store yet.

 

[richardfm]

It's far too early to be doing this, but my recommendation is make your own mincemeat and pasty then produce your own mince pies.

 

[glasgowcyclist]

Home made mince pies are fab. My late father-in-law made terrific ones with puff pastry, from scratch.

However, last year I discovered Lidl does a delicious amaretto mince pie. I’ve been keeping my eyes peeled for them this year but, so far, no luck.

 

[Alex321]

It's far too early to be doing this, but my recommendation is make your own mincemeat and pasty then produce your own mince pies.

Does not compute.

And yes, my wife made the first ones last week (all gone now). Not making her own mincemeat, using bought stuff, but own pastry.

 

[midlandsgrimpeur]

It's far too early to be doing this, but my recommendation is make your own mincemeat and pasty then produce your own mince pies.

Never too early for mince pies! I love cooking and most things savoury are straightforward, but I am terrible at baking. If I could make decent ones I would but I leave pastry of any kind to the experts!

 

[richardfm]

Never too early for mince pies! I love cooking and most things savoury are straightforward, but I am terrible at baking. If I could make decent ones I would but I leave pastry of any kind to the experts!

Short crust pasty doesn't need an expert. Get yourself a copy of Delia Smith's Complete Cookery Course

 

[Reynard]

Used to make my own completely from scratch BITD. But it's just the two of us, so now I don't bother and just buy some Tesco's "finest" ones - they won a taste test on Eat Well For Less a few years back.

Not a fan of Christmas cake (too sweet).

I do bake my own Lebkuchen though.

 

[FrankCrank]

I'm a fan of those Irish whiskey cakes from various stores back there - similar to Xmas cake, but available all year.

 

[PeteXXX]

I got a jar of mincemeat to make my own last year but never got around to it..
I'll have to dig it out of the back of the cupboard, gee myself up a bit and bake some.. 👍

 

[numbnuts]

I use to make my own mince pies including the mince,
but for no reason I stopped making them.

 

[midlandsgrimpeur]

I use to make my own mince pies including the mince,
but for no reason I stopped making them.

Those look rather good. Maybe this thread will inspire a new batch for this year!

 

[postman]

Please don't forget with your mince pie,a little bit of cheese.Mind you me and Wallace would be happy if you did not have cheese,more for us with our Christmas cake.

 

[mistyoptic]

Mrs O is making Christmas cookies, as we speak. White chocolate and Cranberry. I shall be forced to do QA once they are cooled

 

[si_c]

So far just had the Tesco Finest mince pies, on par with previous years, so decent with a good ratio of filling to pastry.

Will pick up some from our local bakery (Chatwins) who do some decent mince pies usually. Not baked any home made ones for a while.

Aldi's Pannetone is also decent this year. Will be sampling a selection of treats over the coming weeks from a variety of vendors and pressuring Mrs C to make some at home, but she's just made a Black Forest Gateaux.

 

[Once a Wheeler]

Nothing like a good stollen:

…but finding a good stollen is hard, and often expensive.