The next episode

Today I worked up an appetite doing some gardening in the park. Pitching in with the ‘Friends of Brockwell Park’, I was engaged in first in clearing out a woodland walk then in planting bulbs. The former activity was the better; I particularly enjoyed sawing through branches. Bulb planting in contrast involved a lot of digging and had no immediate reward. I shall return to see that in March.

Anyway, enough preamble about my activities, this blog is about mince pies. I went to Herne Hill after said chopping/digging to source the festive snacks. The hole in the wall outside Sainsbury’s was broken, and the cashier inside would only give me £30 in cashback, because “there isn’t much money”. Which was a flagrant lie, the till was chocker with notes when she opened it. This experience made me start with a prejudice against Sainsbury’s Deep Mince Pies (£1 for six), although generally I do like 'deep' versions of things. I continued my shopping at the bakery, purchasing a mince pie from Ye Olde Bakery (50p each) on Railton Road (a stupid name I know, but it is a very good bakery, I recommend their multiseed loaf).

Note the elaborate serving suggestion from Sainsbury's - contrast the simplicity of the paper bag.

Today I had neither tea nor red wine to wash down the pies, this was probably a mistake because it’s important to have something to refresh the palate between competing mincemeat flavours. I was also without an assistant, so no photo of me mid-tasting. Nonetheless I pressed on with the important task, because I was very hungry.

Ye Olde Bakery on the left

I started with Ye Olde Bakery. The first thing I have written on my tasting notes is “mmmmmm”, so it is fair to say I was impressed from the outset with this one. It was thinner than Sainsbury’s (presumably because it was not 'deep'), and the pastry was in two separate pieces – base and top. I rather like this format for mince pies, it allows the filling to bubble up during the baking, and leave little tongues of colour on the pastry. And what pastry! It was crunchy and delicious, very short shortcrust, with sugar on top. This is my favourite type, and it also had not gone at all soggy in the base. The filling was very sweet, and I detected a slight spiciness. My ignorance of what ingredients should be in mincemeat means that I cannot name this spice.

Sainsbury’s was going to have to put on quite a performance to better that, but again quoting my tasting notes I have written “quite nice”. This indicates that although it was tasty, it lacked that special something which could have propelled it to the giddy heights of scrumptiousness that Ye Olde Bakery inhabits. The addition of a pastry holly leaf and berry on top added an extra frisson of festivity. It was a sturdy, almost stodgy pie, with a hint of soggy bottom. I was pleased that the depth referred to in its name was fully filled with mincemeat. I dislike pies with an air space between the filling and pastry lid. I also detected a hint of orange flavour, which pleased me as it makes it sound like I know something about food rather than just wanting to witter on about pastry shapes.

But really this round had been won as soon as I bit into the first pie. Ye Olde Bakery gets a big thumbs up form me. I realise that recommending a pie made in a specific shop in south London may not be very useful to readers living anywhere else in the country. Though perhaps it is a little arrogant of me to think that anyone would actually follow my mince pie tips.