A mince pie from Morrisons has been crowned the Best Supermarket Mince Pie in a coveted Christmas food review.

Good Housekeeping's annual competition has chosen the supermarket's Best Deep Filled All Butter Mince Pies, costing less than 35p each, as the tastiest one to be found in store aisles.

The retailer saw off competition from fellow supermarkets including M&S, Lidl, Aldi, Asda, Iceland and Tesco to take the title of best supermarket mince pie.

It also placed higher than luxury offerings from Harvey Nichols as well as cake brand-favourite Mr Kipling.

The Morrisons box of pies costs £2 for a pack of six but hungry shoppers can also buy two packs for £3 - resulting in an even better bargain price this Christmas of just 25p per pie.

All the mince pies were blind tasted by a panel of 10 expert judges at Good Housekeeping. The group tested 23 classic mince pies and a further 10 gluten-free options - scoring each brand out of 100.

The judges scored the Morrisons pies 77 out of 100 - the highest of any supermarket tested.

Judges commented: "The chunky filling is made up of apple, vanilla, mixed spice and orange oil, which creates a marmalade-esque appeal. Add to that a warming touch of alcohol, sweet pastry and festive star-shaped lid, and we can see why Morrisons scored so highly with our testers."

The title of best overall mince pie went to a box of six 'classic' mince pies made by Yorkshire-based tearooms Betty's. Twelve Betty's mince pies cost £13.75 and the offering scored 84/100 with judges.

Among the supermarkets, the M&S Collection mince pies, costing £2.50 for six, were given a score of 76/100 and praised for a 'perfect ratio of crumbly all-butter shortcrust pastry to generous tart filling'.

Iceland's luxury offering also scored a mark of 76, Tesco's finest scored 75/100 as did Lidl's Deluxe pies rewarded for an excellent offering that is good value with a price of £1.49 for six.

Fellow budget supermarket Aldi's Specially Selected Mince Pies, costing £1.79 for six, took 72 marks from the possible 100, with some judges finding the pastry a 'little too sweet' albeit the panel said a mincemeat mixture including tart cranberries and lemon peel did help to cut through some of that.

The best gluten free mince pie was awarded to Costa for its vegan pie costing £2 each in coffee shops.

Morrisons says its team of expert food makers have spent months developing this year's recipe, going between test kitchens and zoom meetings to get the winning mixture.

Gareth Colling, mince pie developer at Morrisons, said: “We know our customers love a classic mince pie and this year we’ve developed our recipe to include just the right balance of tangy mincemeat versus sweet shortcrust pastry.

"We’re thrilled to have been named the Best Supermarket Mince Pie by Good Housekeeping and look forward to our customers enjoying them throughout the festive season.”

To read more about Morrison's mince pies click here.

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