Yeah! It’s Christmas and that means mince pies. For years I made my own, but only Molly and I like them, and I also wanted to review store bought mince pies, so I gave up baking them as we had a glut year after year. We’ve taken a look at gluten free, vegan mince pies. Most gluten free products have eggs in them, which we really can’t have at all due to severe allergies.
I’m really disappointed that both Asda and Tescos gluten free mince pies have egg. I can’t tell you if they are any good, as we couldn’t test them. I went to our large, newish Holland & Barrett and couldn’t find any mince pies. Seems they are concentrating on beauty products, rather than food in the Christmas section.
So we were a bit bereft of choices, thank goodness for Sainsbury’s and Waitrose who’s gluten free mince pies don’t have egg. So vegan, and gluten free. Sainsbury’s has the widest range to choose from – ice topped, large open with a star, and traditional. Waitrose have the large with a star, and closed as well. You can see from the photo that the pies all look very similar.
The Sainsbury’s pastry is slightly darker than the Waitrose pies where the pastry is quite light. Both fillings are lovely, and frankly very similar in taste. It seems they are aiming for the same market.
Overall, our favourite is the Sainsbury’s range as we prefer the pastry. The iced mince pies are just too sweet for my taste, the traditional topped pies are lovely, good amount of filling and a crumbly lovely pastry. For sure the Waitrose ones are worth buying if your a Waitrose shopper, but Sainsbury’s have a wider range, and we think a slightly superior mince pie.
You can order on line here:
