Value for money: apple tarts

Marks & Spencer Tarte aux Pommes €7.99 for 600g €13.32 per kg Highs:From its golden coloured apples speckled with cinnamon to the delicate sugary glaze, this apple tart looks the business.

It is a whole lot posher than you might expect from a supermarket-bought pie and it tastes pretty good too. While the sweet bramley apple compote is nice and the pastry flaky and buttery, it is fresh and tangy apple slices that make this tart really memorable.

Lows: Some people might find the apple slices a little too sour and the packet's promise that this tart will feed six seemed to be a little optimistic. Or maybe we were just being greedy.

Verdict: Exceedingly good

Star rating: ****

Mr Kipling's Mini Apple Pies

€2.49 for 300g €8.30 per kg

Highs: The pastry in these pies is nice and crumbly and they are widely available in Spars and Centras countrywide, should you develop an unexpected craving for an apple pie late in the evening.

Lows: "I hope you enjoyed my delicious cakes," says a simpering Mr Kipling on the back of the box. Well, we're sorry to say, Mr Kipling, that we did not. PriceWatchthought they were horrible. Made with just 21 per cent apple, they were the only pies to include entirely unhealthy hydrogenated vegetable oil in the mix. The apple filling tasted like apple drops rather than real apples, almost as if someone had lost the run of themselves with apple flavouring. The goo was incredibly sweet and had a vile and lingering aftertaste.

Verdict: Exceedingly bad

Star rating: *

Maison des Gourmets Tarte aux Pommes

€5 for 100g €50 per kg

Highs: Coming from an excellent boulangerie in Dublin, this is a very fine tart indeed. The flakey, buttery pastry was the finest we tasted. The apple filling is sweet rather than fruity and the caramelised sugar lends it a flavour which is (slightly) reminiscent of a toffee apple. Served with a good vanilla ice cream, this would make for a flawless dessert if you really wanted to impress at a dinner party.

Lows: If you're just having your mates round, however, it will prove far too expensive. It's more than 20 times pricier than the cheapest of the products but could hardly be said to be 20 times better.

Verdict: Great taste, awful expensive.

Star rating: ***

Genesis Apple Tart

€1.99 for 600g €3.42 per kg

Highs: This tart was bought in Dunnes Stores so it should be widely available and is certainly on the cheap side. It is a classic store-bought apple tart in that it tastes fine if completely unremarkable. The apple retains some of its texture and taste while the pastry is sweet and sticky and quite pleasant.

Lows: It is all a bit middle of the road. It's fine but hardly memorable. Although it makes much of its home-made roots and includes an ear of wheat on the front of the box to suggest wholesomeness, we were less than impressed with the lengthy ingredient list, which contains just 38 per cent apple.

Verdict: A bit ordinary

Star rating: ***

Aldi Apple Strudel

€1.49 for 600g €2.48 per kg

Highs: Made in a strudel house in the South Tyrol, this is the cheapest of the pies tried. It is also, remarkably enough, up there with the best of them. The puff pastry is light, the apple tastes of real apples and the cinnamon and raisins add an extra dimension to the whole affair. It needs to be cooked before you can eat it, which lends it a home-baked appearance.

Lows: It can't be faulted in taste or value for money terms which leaves us with little more to complain about than its cooking time (the box said 40 minutes, it took nearly double that) and the need to find a pastry brush at the last minute so we could coat it with an eggy wash to give it the browned look the box demanded.

Verdict: Excellent

Star rating: *****