Mr Kipling Apple, Apple and Blackcurrant and Cherry Pies

Whether it be a British Pie Week “eat as many pies as you can Pieathon”, a roadtrip or a casual Pierateer get together, there always seems to be a reason to pick up a box of 6 handheld Mr Kipling pies to help us on our way. They have become synonymous with Pierate gatherings – the consistent little pie hole filler that allows us to have pie for breakfast, lunch, pudding or supper (and it has been known dinner too, when Pierateer Rob ate just apple pies for the day in 2013!)

And one of the leading pie manufacturers in the small handheld pie market are the legendary cake and pie makers Mr Kipling. They claim on their boxes to be the nation’s favourite apple pies and to be honest, for years now we have relied on the consistent goodness to keep us filled with pie on many a roadtrip and outing or simply as an easy breakfast or dessert pie option.

But it has come to our attention that these reviews are quite old now, being over 7 years since they were pie rated, so they are in need of a review. With so many other pies having been eaten since these initial reviews (some of the first on the blog) are they still that good? Add to the mix that we’ve never actually reviewed the Cherry pie yet and we thought that better change!

Mr Kipling Fruit Pies (l-r: Apple and Blackcurrant, Cherry, Apple)

The question the box poses to us when pie rating is whether the Mr Kipling’s range really is exceedingly good pie? I can assure you – they are!

After all, there’s a reason why they are called the nation’s favourite apple pies (their branding and claim to fame, not mine). And there’s got to be a reason we keep going back to them time and time again! Packed with crisp apple-y goodness, the Mr Kipling Apple Pie ticks all the boxes and ensures it is the premier portable snack sized fruit pie. The apple and blackcurrant pies have a nice sweet mix of apple flavouring balanced with small pieces of blackcurrant (though the seeds can get in your teeth at times!) and the cherry pie is also nice and sweet, though again no fruit pieces to get your teeth into.

Sadly none of these pies have a particularly strong natural fruit content with pieces of fruit in your pie, relying more on a fruity jam like consistency. The capacity of these pies is also quite low – though if you eat one you’d probably agree you don’t want much more sweet filling if you’re going to finish said pie! But then this has been the case in nearly all of the small, portable fruit pies you get from supermarkets and similar companies. However if you want pies with actual pieces of fruit in, it’s best to go for pies from bakeries or farmers markets, which tend to be sold in larger sizes to cram the fruit in!

In summary, whether on a roadtrip, at a cake and pie sale, having just played sport, or at a friend’s leaving meal... the possibilities for cracking out a top tasting Mr Kipling Pie are almost endless! In terms of the small fruit pie market they are one of the best out there, consistently available across many supermarkets and corner shops up and down the country. And there has certainly been no lack of consumption of these pies in the past 10 years or so (easily pre-dating the creation of the Pierate Blog!) I would make a relatively safe guess that between the Pierateers there have been well over 200 Mr Kipling Apple Pies eaten alone (often all 6 in a pack eaten in one group sitting), which make these surely the most eaten pies in Pierate history!

Mr Kipling Apple Pie
Score: 5.82/7
[Colour 6/7; Consistency 6/7; Cheapness 6/7; Chewiness 5.75/7; Condition 6/7; Content 5.75/7; Capacity 5.25/7]

Mr Kipling Apple and Blackcurrant Pie
Score: 5.61/7
[Colour 6/7; Consistency 6/7; Cheapness 6/7; Chewiness 5/7; Condition 6/7; Content 5/7; Capacity 5.25/7]

Mr Kipling Cherry Pie
Score: 5.61/7
[Colour 6/7; Consistency 6/7; Cheapness 6/7; Chewiness 5/7; Condition 6/7; Content 5/7; Capacity 5.25/7]

RAS

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With a swathe of their pies in our top 20 pies (out of over 600 we have rated) you won’t be surprised to hear we eagerly await any new offering from the number one modern pie shop in London - Piebury Corner. With such a high bar set by their meat and veggie pies, the more recent addition of fruit pies to their selection (albeit not that recently!) was something we were intrigued by. Could Piebury – famed for their football-related pies and puns – still push for the title with their fruit pies? Or was it a case of second season blues – like Leicester City struggling to maintain the form they showed in their previous outing?

Piebury Corner Fruit Pie Review

Well the good news is that these fruit pies are far off mid-table mediocrity! In fact, as fruit pies go, these are some of the better individual fruit pies we’ve pie rated. Gone are the Arsenal-related footballer names (such as the “Thierry Henry” or “Viera-getarian”) and instead you get pies that do exactly what they say on the tin (or in this case, cardboard box) – Apple, Apple and Blackcurrant, Blueberry and Cherry.

Here’s our overall impression of the fruit pie range, followed by some individual comments. Please note that all these pies were heated for 20 minutes in the oven but then eaten as they were – without custard or cream or other additions – to ensure we were rating the pie accurately.



Overall Im-pie-ression:

Piebury Corner Fruit Pie Review

These pies are noticeably quite shallow and wide, but this is the Piebury way! Similar in shape to their meaty teammates, the fruit pies also have a lovely golden pastry shell which particularly crisps up well on top. The main difference: that fine sprinkling of sugar on top of the pastry, which does add that extra sweet taste to an already sweet fruit pie! A couple of the pies we cooked caught slightly and were a bit more golden in some places than others, but overall I’d say this is a nice golden colour.

At £3.50 per pie to take away cold, these certainly aren’t the cheapest fruit pies on the market. But then these aren’t your typical pies on the market either – with a much bigger capacity than most fruit pie boxes you’d buy in the shops and a strong pie capacity as opposed to some of the “fruit” air pies you can get your hands on! I also mention fruit because you can actually see and taste the fruit in these pies, rather than the fruity mush that a lot of fruit pies contain.

Overall, I would say these are a tad expensive for the size, but they are some of the best fruit pies we’ve had on Pierate. The pastry (specifically the lid) is delicious as part of the pie or even eaten on its own. While the content of all the pies is nice and fruity – sweet but generally not too much! They fill the hole and – while I’d suggest you probably wouldn’t want two in one sitting – leave you wanting to try another!

Piebury Corner Apple Pie Review

Apple

The classic fruit pie flavour and done well. Some decent sized pies of fruit – though could perhaps have been a few more large pieces that had a bit more of a bite to them. They were rather soft, so not much to bite onto! The flavour worked well with the crisp sweet pastry. Would definitely want again.

Piebury Corner Apple and Blackcurrant Pie Review

Apple and Blackcurrant

Another classic fruit flavour – the apple was nice but again could have perhaps given a bit more bite to the pie if they were a bit less soft. The blackcurrants were also very noticeable, particularly because the seeds got rather caught in my teeth during the eating of this pie, which spoilt my enjoyment of it a bit. However a good balance to the flavour and in combination with the pastry.

Piebury Corner Blueberry Pie Review

Blueberry

We don’t seem to see many blueberry pies out there on the market, so Pierateer Sam was particularly keen to try this one. While quite sweet, the flavour was very nice and again complimented the crisp pastry well. Well worth getting hold of.

Piebury Corner Cherry Pie Review

Cherry

While perhaps not as famous as the apple pie, the cherry pie is still another regular flavour and the pieces of fruit were very obvious upon slicing through. Quite sweet again, but not overpowering. I’d happily eat another of these.





Overall, while these pies are not going to compete against the Piebury Corner meat pies for our affection, they are very good individual fruit pies that I’d happily enjoy for dessert as part of a “Double Pie” main and pudding option. I’m Gunner have to go back to Piebury Corner and get some more soon!

Piebury Corner Apple Pie
Score: 5.89/7
[Colour 6.5, Capacity 6.25, Consistency 5.75, Condition 6, Chewiness 5.5, Cheapness 5, Content 6.25]

Piebury Corner Apple and Blackcurrant Pie
Score: 5.75/7
[Colour 6.5, Capacity 6.25, Consistency 5.5, Condition 6, Chewiness 5.25, Cheapness 5, Content 5.75]

Piebury Corner Blueberry Pie
Score: 5.89/7
[Colour 6.5, Capacity 6.25, Consistency 5.75, Condition 6, Chewiness 5.5, Cheapness 5, Content 6.25]

Piebury Corner Cherry Pie
Score: 5.82/7
[Colour 6.5, Capacity 6.25, Consistency 5.5, Condition 6, Chewiness 5.25, Cheapness 5, Content 6.25]

RAS

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ASDA blackcurrant pie review

I bought this blackcurrant pie from my local ASDA for the grand price of 25p. Well, 50p for two pies – and that was reduced from a £1 for the pair. I was very intrigued by this pie – not so much for its blackcurrant flavour, but more for what was lying beneath that bump on the right-hand side.

Here’s a cross-sectional view of the left-hand side of the pie:

And here’s the view of the right:

What’s going on here?! As you can see, the air:filling ratio on the left-hand side is quite impressive, but on the right the air:filling ratio is appalling! This is very surprising, and such a lopsided pie is not something I think I’ve personally come across before. Look at that enormous gap of air!

The content itself is okay. The blackcurrant filling has quite a jammy texture, which is quite nice but I’d have preferred a few more whole blackcurrants rather than just what was essentially jam. The pastry was a bit pale in colour and also a bit dry, but it held itself together well.

Overall, it was the enormous air gap on one side of this pie that really let it down. Perhaps if I had bought a different pack of these pies then I wouldn’t have been faced with this issue, but I have to rate what is in front of me. I also bought these pies reduced, so I have to rate these pies at the normal price of £1 for two.

ASDA Blackcurrant Pie Review
Score: 2.98/7
TJP

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Sainsbury’s Bramley Apple and Blackcurrant Pie Review

When the lid comes clean off your pie upon lifting it from the foil, you do have to ask a few questions about the quality of the pie in question. When the lid comes clean off several people’s pies in quick succession, that’s when the alarm bells start ringing! However, despite this obvious design flaw and a slightly larger air to filling ratio than would be ideal, the standard range of Sainsbury’s Bramley Apple and Blackcurrant pies were appetising and nicely fruity. The pastry was crisp and the fruit mix tasted good, if a bit sweet. All in all, a nice addition to the snacks on offer with friends at Church homegroup!



Sainsbury’s Bramley Apple and Blackcurrant Pie
Score: 4.15/7
RAS

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Sainsbury’s Blackcurrant And Apple Pie Review

So on going round to a friend’s house recently - who clearly know me very well! - they cracked out a Sainsbury’s Blackcurrant And Apple pie for pudding, served with a cheeky bit of vanilla ice cream. The pie was split into the 3 of us, which was just about right for a decent sized portion. The pastry was lovely and crisp, giving a good chew which complemented the content. While there was perhaps a slightly low filling of apple and blackcurrant, it was certainly still a good mix and would have ticked off at least one of your 5-a-day (which is good going for a pie!)



Being an own-brand, it is significantly cheaper than some of the alternatives, while still being of a good quality due to the Saino’s values which cover many a webpage and shopping aisle. One certainly hopes these values have helped make the pie as good as can be, and I would agree it is well worth a purchase. While the pie’s condition after heating was rather crumbly, this certainly didn’t detract from the great taste and satisfaction of eating a pie with friends. The only drawback is that we didn’t have one each, but had to share!

Sainsbury’s Blackcurrant And Apple Pie [Family Sized]
Score: 4.8/7
RAS

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Some products are clearly over-branded. Some manufacturers grossly over exaggerate their products pulling power or - dare I say it - even lie or make-it-up-as-they-go-along (MIUATGA) about the quality or effects of their products! But then there's Mr Kipling's Fruit Pie selection, which does exactly what it says on their box...



That's right! Whether you're tucking into an apple, cherry or apple and blackcurrant fruit pie from Mr Kipling, you know what you're getting every time - just exceedingly good pies! And the condition of the pies when straight from the box is always top notch, with special patented plastic pie holders and individually placed foil holders. Just don't let anyone run the box over with their car tyres first!

One of the great things about pies like this is that they are snacksize and can be eaten absolutely anywhere...Southend (Bucks), Southend-on-Sea, Southend Garsington... need I go on?! The only question mark is the cost, as Mr Kipling pies are defo on the luxury end of the price spectrum. But while supermarkets try to bring the average cost of pies down with their own pies, you can't beat Mr Ks for consistency in quality, wherever you are in the country. You can’t get brand consistency like that with any other fruit pie!



But even when not on a roadtrip, the convenience of such a pie is ideal and you don't need to heat it up for full flavour behaviour. Plus it's great with a cheeky bit of evaporated milk, custard, ice cream or even Lacey's family farm milk. (have you seen them in the field?!)

So with the Apple and Blackcurrant pie doused in evaporated milk, it's time to give out some more scores...



The colour is lightly brown, standard pastry colour and fits the bill perfectly. The content of the pie is very good, with almost no air space in the pastry shell. The capacity is well used to pack in fruit, fruit and more fruit, while still getting a good balance of pastry to content ratio (probably about 1:1). All in all, it's definitely fruitilicious. You can defo get at least 1, if not 2, of your 5-a-day there while enjoying the great pie taste!

While you could argue that a few of the pieces of fruit make the content a bit chewy, this is no problem and certainly doesn't detract from the great taste. All in all, they really are just exceedingly good pies!
 
1. Colour 6/7
2. Consistency 7/7
3. Capacity 7/7
4. Chewiness 6/7
5. Cheapness 5/7 (but worth it!)
6. Content 7/7
7. Condition 7/7

Average: 6.42/7

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