Christmas fever has already started taking over the culinary world, and as usual, the UK is on the frontlines. The latest craze which is set to take over Christmas 2017, however, will look awfully familiar if you’ve spent more than a day in Malta.

After cronuts and duffins, this year sees the rise of mince pie croissants. The mash-up pastry was the brainchild of bakery chain Paul. Officially called the Croissant Nicholas, it’s a mix of French and British cuisine, and was made available for purchase online last night, just November settled in.

Have a look for yourselves though, and tell us it doesn’t look familiar.

Announcements of the new mince pie croissants were made on social media over all of last week, and it didn’t take long for photos to make it to Malta. “Why wait for Christmas when pastizzi in Malta are eaten all year round?”

Others, on the other hand, were not too happy with how the thing turned out, tweeting out things like, “Just no” and “We spent so long seeing if we could cross a mince pie and a croissant, never questioning… If we should.” Maybe all those disenchanted with the idea of a mince pie croissant should try out the real thing instead?

The all-butter croissants filled with sweet mincemeat of currants and sultanas might be considerably different in taste when it comes to your average ricotta or peas pastizzi, but they sure look like them.

Tag someone who loves Christmas… and someone else who loves pastizzi!

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David Grech Urpani

Lovin Malta's Head of Content, Dave has been in journalism for the better half of the last decade. Prefers Instagram, but has been known to doomscroll on TikTok. Loves chicken, women's clothes and Kanye West (most of the time).