Pieminister: Gluten Free Mooless Moo Pie Review

Like a non-league team beating Premier League opposition you sometimes get those that defy the odds. How could part time players beat full time players, some of the best in the world, when at such a disadvantage? The shock winner of the Supreme Champion award at this year's British Pie Awards seems to be a case of a pie punching above its weight in a similar manner. The Mooless Moo winning by from Pieminister not only excluded all animal products because it was Vegan, it was also Gluten Free. Myself and Pierateer ALL have had some pretty awful Vegan Gluten Free pies as pie companies try to cater for all those with special dietary requirements in one hit. By doing away with all the usual ingredients of pastry they are surely competing with one arm held behind their backs when other pies have all the ingredients of the world to choose from. So how did this pie win against all those pies packed with meat and gluten? Pieminister kindly sent us some to try and see if the free from pie has finally come of age. Or have the British Pie Awards cooked up what might appear to be yet another serving of publicity stunt (having previously crowd a pasty as 2016 and vegan pie as 2019 Supreme Champions). 

Pieminister are no strangers to fantastic Gluten Free pies, with their Gluten Free Moo Pie being a regular favourite of coeliac shipmate Pierateer ALL. As someone modestly reducing meat intake I am partial to some Vegetarian pies myself with Pieminister's Kevin being a regular favourite, potentially the best I have had. So between us we thought we could give this pie a fair going over. We had it alongside a Gluten Free Moo to compare. 

The pie had an excellent Condition and appearance although it has cracked somewhat in transit, but had been delivered by post so it would have been challenging to avoid this. It was well glazed, with an unusual sticky substance very visible on the pie before cooking. This alternative vegan glaze worked a treat, producing a near perfect golden brown Colour.

Cutting the pie in half, it was packed to Capacity giving a lot of Content as we have come to expect from Pieminister pies. But it was immediately apparent that the pastry was quite hard, compared to the regular GF moo it shattered rather than crumbled. It was hard to the bite too, with a somewhat biscuity taste. It was by no means bad but having tried a lot of GF pastry Pierateer ALL was certain it wasn't as good as the regular Moo. I felt like it would be difficult to disagree with this when trying them alongside each other. 

So, after briefly questioning the pie we delved into the filling. There was a lot going on here with a huge list of ingredients. But it was immediately apparent to me that this was a standout pie filling. It was somehow amazingly meaty in flavour, capturing the flavour of some sort of slow cooked steak casserole. Jackfruit helped given the slightly meaty texture but I am not sure how they captured the flavour, perhaps the use of gluten free ale helped. There was also the taste of carrot, mushroom, whole baby onions and plenty of herbs. Given the strong flavours it is perhaps not for everyone, ALL was not as keen as I was, much preferring the regular Moo. We did note that the consistency was much the same between the two, both being quite soft and melt in the mouth. Perhaps a bit more bite to the filling could have been nice but at least it wasn't Chewy.

Overall, we certainly aren't going to make it our Supreme Champion, but it comes in as a Pie-rate Recommend pie, and one of the better Gluten Free pies (but below the excellent Gluten Free Moo). It is without doubt the best Gluten Free and Vegan pie in our rankings and perhaps does suggest that such pies have finally come of age with this being a strong effort that we would have again. It wasn't many year ago that finding any commercially available Gluten Free & Vegan pie that Pierate could recommend seemed completely unfeasible. It is noticeable that Pieminister continue to lead the way in terms of sustainability amongst the big pie producers, having done away with pointless plastic windows in their boxes and not a trace of polystyrene in their pie deliveries. This sits in their growing roster of top notch Vegan pies.

Gluten Free Mooless Moo (Pieminister)

5.20/7

SJL/ALL

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Yes, British Pie Week is over. We hear ya! Pie specials will disappear from pub menus. Pie Week discounts will no longer apply. But we’ve got one important message for pie fans: “A pie is for life, not just British Pie Week!” We all know that pies are far too good to celebrate just one week of the year! So here's 7 ways to survive post British Pie Week:

1) Enjoy a pie as soon as possible post British Pie Week - after all, there's no need to just eat pies in British Pie Week!

2) Reminisce about your favourite pie or pies from British Pie Week and plan to eat them again soon!

3) Save up your money to buy some top pies even once the promos and discounts have disappeared.

4) Petition your local pub or pie shop to bring back some of their specials if they were only on sale for British Pie Week.

5) Search our pie rankings list of over 600 pies to find a new pie to try in the coming weeks!

6) Use your extra time to catch up on all the crazy antics the Pierateers have got up to over the years and read our reviews!

7) Remember - it's now less than 365 days until we do it all again, for British Pie Week 2023! It'll be from 6th-12th March 2023. Get it in your diaries now!!

And as if you needed any other reasons, the 14th March is actually American pi(e) day - as it is 3.14 in the States - so what further excuse do you need to eat another pie today?!

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With British Pie Week in full flow, here's an update on what's going on in the world of pies in the best week of the year!

Pierate Birmingham Pie Night

While last year was an obvious exception due to the UK Covid Lockdown, we always feel it would seem rude not to celebrate British Pie Week without going to a local pie shop with friends of the blog! Therefore Pierateer Rob organised a trip to The Botanist in central Birmingham on Monday evening, which was popular with his friends from badminton too. Pierateer Rob had a lamb and mint pie, which will be reviewed soon!

Pierateer Rob [left] at the British Pie Awards

British Pie Awards

A few years ago the British Pie Awards moved their awards to coincide with British Pie Week, and this year celebrate their 14th year! Last year it had to be postponed to September, but the show still went on. While we weren't there in person this year, a lot of the regular judges were out in force in Melton Mowbray this Wednesday - such as Katie @awaydaypiegirl and Life of Pies book author Martin Tarbuck @thelifeofpies - and we look forward to hearing the results later today.

Pierateer Rob even managed to be featured in the main photo of the BBC News article on the British Pie Awards, even though he wasn't there this year!

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With British Pie Week kicking off today, here's an update on what's going on in the world of pies in the best week of the year!

Pierate Birmingham Pie Night

While last year was an obvious exception due to the UK Covid Lockdown, we always feel it would seem rude not to celebrate British Pie Week without going to a local pie shop with friends of the blog! Therefore Pierateer Rob has organised a trip to The Botanist in central Birmingham. We have enjoyed a few pies from there in the past but it is definitely due a revisit, so look with a lovely sounding lamb pie on the menu, look out for the review later this week.

British Pie Awards

A few years ago the British Pie Awards moved their awards to coincide with British Pie Week, and this year celebrate their 14th year! Last year it had to be postponed to September, but the show still went on. While we won't be there in person this year, judging happens in Melton Mowbray this Wednesday and we look forward to hearing the results this Friday!

British Pie Week 2022 is from 7-13th March!

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With British Pie Week kicking off on Monday 7th March 2022, we thought you might want to find out everything you should know about the greatest week in pie! With the impacts of covid-19 reducing in Britain and the o-pie-tunity to get out and about visiting pie shops and hosting pie parties, there's no excuse not to celebrate again properly this year! So read on to find out more!

When is British Pie Week?

British Pie Week is held the first full week of March, which this year is 7th-13th March 2022. That means it is the latest in the year it can possibly be this year!

What is British Pie Week?

Originally set up by a pastry maker as a way to sell more of their pastry, it is now Britain’s main celebration of pie! Pubs, restaurants, pie shops and more have used British Pie Week to run com-pie-titions, pie specials and the like, while supermarkets sometimes use the week to discount their pie ranges. The British Pie Awards have even moved their awards to this week, to coincide with British Pie Week, back in pie week again after being moved to later in the year in 2021 due to Coronavirus!

However it’s also an excuse for pie lovers like the Pierateers to do various pie stunts and for the average pie fan to excuse their pie eating for a week! (“Well it’s Pie Week, so I have to have a pie!!!”)

British Pie Week 2022 is from 7th-13th March!

How can I get involved?

Well, the pies the limit! Of course the more traditional ways include eating a pie from a pie shop or pub, purchasing a pie from your local supermarket or make an online order from your favourite online pie supplier (or try out a new one!)

Or you could of course make your own pie at home. There are plenty of reci-pies out there to use, including a number we have tried and rated ourselves. Or you could still do some crazy pie stunt like only eating pies for a day (which we’ve done numerous times) or create an unusual filling for a pie – like we did with our Pie-thon (python meat pie).

Online Pie Order Ideas:

You can order pies from our Number 1 rated pie maker MyPie on their website here: https://www.mypie.london/store

You can order pies from British Pie Awards winners Turner's Pies on their website here: https://piesbypost.com/

You can order pies from Pieminister on their website here: https://pieminister.co.uk/shop/category/pies/

The infamous Python meat pie!

When did it all start?

British Pie Week was created by a pastry company in 2007 to sell more pastry, but it seems that company have now ditched the idea, with the lucrative www.britishpieweek.co.uk webpage now just re-directing to their main pastry website and their @BritPieWeek twitter account not having been updated since March 2016!

This means the new home of British Pie Week is really www.pierate.co.uk, who don’t care about making money or selling more pastry, but want to celebrate the pie – with well over 600 pies already rated and numerous pie-related stunts highlighting their love of pie! For more information on what Pierate have got up to over the years since first celebrating British Pie Week in 2011, check out our dedicated British Pie Week page!

The Pierate Logo Pie made for us in British Pie Week 2014! Find out more about this Nice Pie here.

How can Pierate help me this British Pie Week?

Well, there's no denying we are the web's pie-remier pie resource with almost 1.5 million pie fans visiting our pie blog! You can browse our Pie Rankings of over 600 pies rated and ranked so that you can avoid the bad ones and grab the best ones, plus we have a pie pun dictionary (so you can pun-ctuate your conversation in pie week) and more pie trivia than you can shake a stick at! We truly are the home of the pie review at www.pierate.co.uk and you can find out more about the piefessionals (pie experts) in our About Us section!


So whatever you’re up to this British Pie Week, we hope you have pie and enjoy it! For more ideas, why not check out our #PiePledge video below?



RAS

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