18: Heston (slight return)

Well then. Time to give Heston for Waitrose another shot. I’ve been putting these off for a few days. Firstly, because they insist on being gently oven baked and served warm, and secondly because the previous zany Heston attempt was a bitter disappointment although sadly the bitterness was not in the lemony sense. So, waited for a weekend when I could be bothered with the faffing, and I’d had a takeaway for tea, so I could have a clear run at the oven and let’s give these a shot. Round two, everything to play for.

So. Pear and fig mince pies in triple cheese pastry. That’s a lot. This time the packaging has a little mouse guy in a Santa suit with a charcuterie board of some kind. Right, mice like cheese I guess. He’s actually got the pies on his board now I look again. The pies are a rum shape as well, they’ve almost square, with slits to the filling, they’ve got something of a posh picnic sausage roll aesthetic going on. I’m feeling a little bit nervous. In the oven they go, and I assign Alexa the timer duties.

Well they certainly smell quite savoury heating up. My kitchen goes a little bit Greggs for ten minutes. And they heat up lovely, they come out looking very warm and golden and inviting. Gentle warm cheese aroma, maybe this won’t be all that terrible.

Score! These are really rather nice. Buttery, very flaky puff pastry, the effect is pretty much oven fresh cheese straw. The filling paste definitely has notes of pear, the fig texture is there, and there’s enough winter spice and nut to nudge it sufficiently towards mince pie land to win the argument. I’m going to say these are a hit, and it’s a good job too, because I can’t persuade anyone else in the house to try one, and so I must now eat six. Let nothing me dismay!