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Serves 6

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Ingredients

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• 50g blanched hazelnuts
• 4 tbsp olive oil
• 2 onions, peeled and chopped
• 150g chestnut mushrooms, chopped
• 75g fresh brown breadcrumbs
• 75g sun-blush or sun-dried tomatoes, drained and chopped
• 3 tbsp fresh chopped parsley
• 2 tsp fresh chopped thyme
• 200g pack vacuum packed chestnuts, roughly chopped
• 2 medium eggs, beaten
• 2 tsp yeast extract dissolved in 3 tbsp boiling water
• 1 200g packet filo pastry
• 50g butter, melted

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Method

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Preheat the oven to 190°C. Preheat grill to high. Spread out the hazelnuts on a baking tray and grill until browned. Cool then roughly chop. Heat 2 tbsp oil in a pan and fry the onions for 3 minutes or until softened. Add the mushrooms and fry for a further 2 – 3 minutes. Transfer to a bowl.

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Stir in the hazelnuts, breadcrumbs, tomatoes, parsley and thyme. Heat the remaining oil in a pan. Fry the chestnuts and garlic for 2 - 3 minutes. Add to the bowl. Season, add the eggs and yeast extract and mix well.

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Lay 2 sheets of filo pastry, over-lapping, on a sheet of baking parchment to make a 30cm x 23cm rectangle. Brush lightly with butter. Cover with two more sheets; brush with butter. Repeat layering once more. Top with two more pastry sheets and brush the edges with butter. Spoon the chestnut mixture down the middle, leaving a 2.5cm border at each end. Roll up from a long side to enclose the filling. Transfer to a baking sheet.

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Brush two more pastry sheets with butter; ruffle up and place on the roll. Brush with butter (at this point the strudel can be covered and chilled overnight if necessary). Bake for 30 - 35 minutes until golden (cover the ruffled pastry with foil after 15 minutes.

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Serve with cranberry sauce and veg.

These are the Rolls Royce of mince pies, the lightest pastry – more like shortbread. A rich drunken filling, which spent the night marinating in mulled wine before being laid to rest in little tart cases.

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For the pastry

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• 170g plain flour
• A pinch of salt
• 100g castor sugar
• 100g unsalted butter
• 1 egg yolk
• Very cold water to mix

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Sift the flour with the salt in a large bowl. Rub in the butter until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Rub in the caster sugar. Mix the egg yolk with 2 tbsp water and add to the mixture. Mix to a firm dough. The pastry will feel quite crumbly, difficult to handle, but will produce a shorter, lighter result. Chill, wrapped in the fridge for at least 30 minutes before using.

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For the filling

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• 250ml ginger wine
• 50ml whiskey
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1 small cooking apple
• 60g butter
• 100g sultanas
• 100g raisins
• 100g currants
• 50g chopped mixed peel
• 50g chopped almonds
• Grated zest of 1 large lemon
• ½ tsp ground mixed spice
• 85g soft light brown sugar
• 1 banana chopped

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Put the red wine, brandy and cinnamon in a saucepan and heat gently until simmering. Remove from heat. Place sultanas, raisins and currants in the wine, allow to cool, marinade refrigerated for 24 hours. Drain the fruit and reserve. Drink or discard the marinade.

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Preheat the oven to 190ºC. Roll out the pastry and line a 12-hole muffin/tart tin. Keep the trimmings to make the lids. Line each little tart with a square of greaseproof paper, fill with dried lentils, beans or rice and blind bake for 10 minutes.

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Prepare the mincemeat: grate the unpeeled apple. Melt the butter and add it, with all the remaining filling ingredients, to the apple. Fill the blind baked cases with mincemeat. Roll out the pastry trimmings, cutting circles to top each tart. Stick the sides down with a little warm water, sprinkle with caster sugar. Return to the oven for 10 -1 2 minutes, until pale brown.

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Whilst delicious warm, allow to cool on a wire rack for at least 10 minutes before eating. Alternatively, store in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks.

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There’s a good argument you have quite enough pastry with a mince pie’s case; try topping these Christmas favourites with the following.

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Crumble some Wensleydale over the top of your mincemeat filling. Bake for 5 minutes at a pre-heated Food on Friday 180°C to slightly melt and warm the cheese. Sounds suspect, tastes tremendous.

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Pipe a little Italian meringue on top of each filled tart and then fork the meringue up into snowy peaks. Pop into a pre-heated 180°C oven for 7 minutes until your spikey top slightly browns.

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For the Italian Meringue (makes about 600ml)

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• 120g caster sugar
• 1 tsp liquid glucose
• 2 tbsp water 2 large free-range egg whites

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Made by whisking hot sugar syrup into egg whites, this mixture is more stable than the more familiar French meringue. As it holds up well ahead of time, it’s ideal for mousses. Once the syrup is all incorporated, continue to whisk until the meringue cools to room temperature.

This is my favourite Christmas cake recipe – I’ve modified it over the years and consider it to be perfect – a rich moist fruitcake that improves with keeping.

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Not everyone is confident about making a Christmas cake – probably because we only bake them once a year. Often recipes have a telephone directory’s worth of ingredients – along with the contents of half an off-licence. The resulting cake is confused, tasting of everything, usually dry, having been baked for three or four hours, and is often far too sweet.

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My recipe is sugar-free, as I prefer the deeper toffee flavour and sophistication of dark treacle with a honeyed oomph. Personally, I can’t stand marzipan and Royal icing, although marzipan can disguise a multitude of sins, potholes and cracks. My mum’s Christmas cake always sank in the middle. The embarrassing hollow had to be filled with marzipan, stuck to the cake with melted apricot jam.

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Royal icing, like snowy peaks brought up with the flat of the knife resembling a badly artexed kitchen. Personally, I prefer to brush with sieved apricot jam and decorate with glace fruits. Alternatively, I arrange split almonds and glace cherry halves in a pattern over the top of the cake – just before it goes in the oven.

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Ingredients

• 150g sultanas
• 150g raisins
• 150g currants
• 150g halved glace cherries
• 100g cut mixed dried peel
• 500ml apple juice
• 175g self-raising wholemeal flour
• 175g self-raising white flour
• 2 tsp mixed spice
• 6 tbsp (90ml) sunflower oil
• 3 tbsp clear honey
• 2 tbsp dark treacle
• 250ml Guinness
• 2 eggs beaten
• 50g toasted hazelnuts – smashed up a bit

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Place the sultanas, raisins, currants, halved cherries and mixed peel in a bowl and stir in the apple juice. Cover and leave to soak overnight.

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Pre-heat the oven to 160ºC. Grease and line a deep round 20cm cake tin. Secure with string and triple folded brown paper around the outside.

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Sift the flours into a mixing bowl together with the mixed spice and make a well in the centre.

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Put the sunflower oil in a bowl, stir in the dark treacle, honey and Guinness. Now add to the sifted flours.

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Drain the dried mixed fruit from the apple juice. Discard the apple juice. Add the mixed fruit to the cake mixture. Add the beaten eggs and toasted hazelnuts; thoroughly mix all the ingredients together.

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Turn the mixture into the prepared tin and smooth the surface. Bake for two hours or until a skewer comes out clean. Transfer to a wire rack until cold, then lift out of the tin and remove the paper.