Great British Bake Off winner Peter Sawkins chooses his favourite Christmas mince pie

Great British Bake Off 2020 Winner Peter Sawkins has chosen his favourite supermarket to buy a mince pie this Christmas from after a blind tasting test

Peter Sawkins, 22, from Edinburgh won the Great British Bake Off in 2020 as the youngest and first Scot to ever win the competition. Since then, the star baker has juggled a university finance degree, becoming a celebrity and writing two books.

For this festive season, Peter blind tasted three mince pies with the Edinburgh Evening News. One from Greggs, one, from the Co-Op and one from Marks and Spencer. Sadly, Greggs was voted in last place with a score of four out of ten as Peter thought their mince pie was “doughy and basic”.

In the blind taste test, Peter said: “This isn’t your top notch mince pie as the pastry is not as crumbly, and there's not enough filling inside, but the pastry is the big difference. You’re not going to impress anyone with that one, it’s your standard supermarket mince pie.”

Peter Sawkins blind tasting this years supermarket mince pies.

The Co-Op’s mince pie came in second place, with a score of seven out of ten for their “good pastry”. When critiquing the desert Peter said: “The mincemeat is really good, and the pastry is buttery, but it does have an air pocket at the top, so could do with some extra filling”.

Finally, Marks and Spencer won first place with a score of eight out of ten for their “boozy mincemeat”. Peter said: “The pastry has a nice thick top and the ratio of filling is really strong, but the mincemeat is really good; I just want to buy this mincemeat!”. Whilst Peter thought M&S made a great mince pie, he knocked off two marks as he justified “there’s always room for improvement!”

‘I would be a Christmas Stollen’

The baker continued to share some of his festive traditions, such as watching Die Hard as a holiday family favourite and spending months watching American YouTube videos on tips to cook a perfect turkey. Peter also said he took over the Christmas day cooking from his mum six years ago and has since been his favourite day of the year.

He said: “I absolutely love doing it, and I think my mum quite enjoys it as she can now put her feet up. I just love everything there is about it because throughout the year I don’t really get the chance to take a huge amount of time cooking, but during Christmas time I just take my time and really do it well.”

When the bake off star was asked to describe himself as a festive treat he said he would be a Christmas Stollen. He reasoned by saying: “because sometimes I’m a bit dense and slow, but then when you cut inside you find the marzipan surprise; so people think ‘ah he’s the bake off kid’, but he’s also wired and likes accounting”.

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