Christmas Masterclass The Great British Bake Off

So, Mary, what are your memories of Christmas?

I think my memories always start off with a Christmas tree

and getting, you know, you have a cardboard box that says

Christmas Decorations, so you open it up and it all floods back.

I have in a little box these two little Father Christmases

and they were part of my husband's first Christmas in the 1930s,

and then I remember Thomas and Sarah, just before they got engaged,

and my son came back from Prague and gave us this one.

But absolute favourites are the bells that all three children

made at their first school.

I must have about 30 of those, so I've divided them up

so Tom's got some and Annabel's got some and we have some on our tree.

And, of course, we get very sentimental about it all.

For me, once the tree's up, which I think is a big part of it,

I can then become Santa Claus.

I've been a Santa in our village now for some years,

so I put the suit on, I go round the kids who are all in my son's school,

and the parents tell me stories about whether their kids have been good or bad,

so I know everything before I walk in.

I've even put the little bell on my hat.

Last year we had a bit of snow, so when I went down to see the kids

-it was Santa in his full suit in the snow with the bells ringing.

-Oh, how lovely.

And your beard, do you put flour on it to make it white or do you have another one?

Well, to be honest with you, my hair's going white enough.

To ensure your Christmas is a gift that keeps on giving,

Mary and Paul have six stunning recipes to show you.

Mary divulges the secrets to the perfect Christmas cake

and Christmas pudding,

and proves that this delicious Buche de Noel

is a lot less complicated than it looks.

And Paul's unique twist on a classic mince pie recipe,

a show-stopping panettone and a fantastic way

to make use of the leftovers from your Christmas dinner.

How long have you been making Christmas cake

to this particular recipe?

Well, I think I made it since I've been married,

and I was married in 1966.

Oh, that was the year I was born, so I'm not going to forget that in a rush.

Poor little chap.

For this classic recipe that's as old as Paul Hollywood himself,

you need time.

Make it at least three weeks before the big day.

I've got a kilo here of currants, raisins and sultanas,

and I put a lot of cherries into it.

Now, these cherries are natural ones, so they're a bit darker.

They're all cut in half, they've all been washed in warm water

and then put on kitchen paper and really dried.

To give the fruit mix an extra bite, add the grated zest of two oranges.

and for a real festive kick, you'll need something stronger.

Now, I'm soaking it in brandy, about a quarter of a pint, five fluid ounces,

and it looks as though there's going to be

a great surplus of liquid, but there isn't.

Now, not everybody's got brandy in the house, so you could use sherry.

-Cognac?

-That's a bit expensive.

You always were extravagant. I've seen your car outside!

-PAUL LAUGHS

-Cover the fruit with Clingfilm

and leave it to absorb the brandy for three days.

Then you're ready to make your cake mix.

I like to do the all-in-one method.

You'll need four eggs at room temperature.

250 grams of soft butter

and a tablespoon of black treacle.

And I find if you use a tablespoon dipped in hot water it will run off.

That gives a nice colour to it.

You'll need 250 grams of light muscovado sugar.

A teaspoon-and-a-half of mixed spice...

..and 75 grams of blanched almonds, roughly chopped.

I'm just going to leave that mixing until the butter is all one colour.

When everything has been thoroughly mixed, add 175 grams of plain flour.

Mix this slowly until the flour has been completely absorbed.

And it's at this stage it seems awfully odd not to have

little people around saying, "Can I lick, can I try?"

That looks a good consistency. Here's the bowl of soaked fruit.

-Here, let me do it.

-It's good to have a man about the house.

There's no surplus liquid in the bottom.

That's soaking the fruit for three days.

If you did it for less time,

there'd be a lot of liquid and that would make it too slack.

And also, if you've had the fruit in the cupboard for some time,

it becomes pretty dry and so it's a jolly good idea to soak it.

Now, the little flecks there are the nuts.

Right down...

It smells so good.

Doesn't it? It's really boozy.

You'll need a well-buttered 23cm cake tin,

lined with a double layer of greaseproof paper.

Take two pieces like this and put them together,

bend it over like I've done here,

and if you just snip along at an angle,

when you put it in the tin, you see that's lying down there.

Twisting it round.

To ensure there's no risk that the top of the cake will burn

before the centre is baked,

make sure the paper is twice the height of the tin.

My nan used to put newspapers round the outside.

-And a piece of brown paper and string as well?

-Yeah.

This is your forte. Pop it in there and I'll hold the tin steady.

And I just level it.

Pop the cake in the middle of a preheated oven at 140 degrees,

or 120 for fan-assisted.

It'll take four to four-and-a-half hours to bake.

It's best to check the cake after two hours, and if you're worried

that it may be getting too dark too quickly, just cover it with foil.

And now it's shrinking away from the sides of the tin

and it's a good colour, not burnt at the edges,

and put that slowly down into the cake,

hold it for a moment, and then let's hope it comes out clean.

Clean as a whistle.

While the cake's still warm, unwrap it and turn it out.

Then I'm going to put that onto the plate.

Just turn it upside down like that.

Traditionally, Christmas cake has two toppings.

For the first, you'll need 675 grams of ready-made marzipan

rolled out to about the thickness of a pound coin.

I'll get the apricot jam.

Warm it to get it over...over the top there.

That helps to not get bits of the cake mixture in with the marzipan,

and it also helps to keep it moist.

-It essentially acts like a glue as well, to bond the marzipan...

-Yes.

Right, if you put it on the rolling pin...

I think that looks just about enough.

And then gently press it down all round.

As we're going to rough ice this, it doesn't have to be too perfect.

Exactly, yeah.

Once covered with marzipan, you should leave the cake for three days

before adding its final topping.

So royal icing is just simply egg whites beaten to a froth

and then icing sugar added and a little glycerine and lemon juice.

Whisk three egg whites until they're just frothy.

Then add 675 grams of sifted icing sugar.

Then mix in three teaspoons of lemon juice

and one-and-a-half teaspoons of glycerine.

I want it to hold, like you would meringue, to get peaks.

When you think it's the right consistency,

check that the icing holds its shape on a flat surface.

That's about right.

And if you start by putting the whole lot on, you know where you are,

and then, from that top, I'm going to do the sides first.

So I'll just push that down.

And it's just the right consistency.

-It's not running off the cake.

-Yeah.

You can do what you like here.

I know that you can do fancy other icing beautifully smooth,

-but this is the easiest, and doesn't it look Christmassy already?

-It looks great.

Allow the icing to dry

and then complete the Christmas look with a ribbon

and then let your festive imagination run wild.

Then you have a look in your Christmas box,

and you could always use Christmas tree decorations.

I've got some little angels that I've had for years,

and you just put those on. So that's simplicity itself,

but choose your favourite things to go on top.

Can't wait to try this one, Mary.

So, remember, the only tricky thing about this classic recipe is timing.

Always make the cake at least three weeks ahead.

Always soak your fruit for three days,

and always let your marzipan and then your icing dry out completely

before adding a final flourish.

So, Paul, how big a slice do you want?

It's probably best to take a little slither for yourself

and just leave the rest for me.

That's what I like to see - the cherries in it.

We've kept them in halves and they really do look good,

and you can see them in the cake.

Got to have a bite.

PAUL LAUGHS

MARY LAUGHS

Mmm.

What do you think?

Oh, that's delicious. Those cherries really come through.

It's the textures.

It's lovely and moist.

The sultanas, the currants, the edginess of the nuts

gives you a totally different texture because you get that lovely juiciness when you hit a cherry

and there's quite a few of them in there as well.

I think it makes a huge difference and it's delicious.

The royal icing is perfect. It's got that little bit of crunch.

It's not too crunchy.

But that with a cup of tea, a little bit of Earl Grey... Fantastic.

-Or a glass of champagne.

-Yeah. Mmmm.

Alongside a good Christmas cake at any festive spread should be

the classic mince pie, a popular yuletide treat since medieval times

when entire joints of meat would have been served with dried fruit

and spices inside giant pastry cases,

each pie serving dozens of diners.

Nowadays, we eat around 70 million mince pies each year

and they've evolved into the small, round, seasonal snacks

that stack up on our supermarket shelves.

But mince pies haven't always been so commonplace.

For a short period in the 18th century, they experienced a golden age,

transformed into an exquisite, intricate and decadent delicacy,

a sure sign of wealth and status for the Georgian upper classes.

Mince pies have always been associated with Christmas.

And in the Stuart and Georgian period

they are a true test of the pastry chef's ability.

They are very, very difficult to make.

They are hand-raised and then they were stuffed with minced meat,

with raisins and sugar and spices. Absolutely beautiful.

So the shapes of the pie are really, really intricate.

You get heart shapes, tear shapes, star shapes,

lozenges, moon shapes...

So the range of shapes that you get in pastry really is quite remarkable.

Pastry chefs took inspiration for their mince pies

from fashionable architecture and design which at this time

used symmetry to create beautiful shapes.

If you were to look at Stuart and Georgian garden design,

you've got lots and lots of interlocking shapes that fit together.

If you were to look at Baroque architecture,

you've got a sense of lots of shapes and lots of forms coming together

to be exciting, to have movement within them.

So your mince pies, which are very interesting shapes,

interlocking, forming a composite whole, reflect exactly

what is going on in wider society.

These elaborately-shaped mince pies didn't just look attractive,

they also performed an important social function

within the discerning dining rooms of the Georgian aristocracy.

When you have lots of small, beautiful pies forming a whole,

those small, beautiful pies reflect the small, beautiful diners

sitting around the edge.

On a wider level as well, pies could also be used very much

to point up to the guest of honour. So if your pie is pointing at your guest of honour,

it's a clear indication that this is the person who is to be honoured.

So when you've got pies like that, you've got exactly what's going on

around the table, on the table.

Only the very rich had access to pastry chefs skilled enough

to bake such magnificent pies.

And by offering them at the festive dining table,

aristocrats could assert their wealth and status

in a rapidly evolving society.

You've got the start, really, in the Georgian period of a lot of social pressure from below,

so the new middle classes really want to emulate their social betters.

So when you are putting mince pies in various shapes on your table,

you really are saying, "Look how great my cooks are."

If you're middle class,

it's very difficult to even think about doing something like that.

This truly was a glorious era for the mince pie, but it couldn't last.

As the 18th century drew to a close,

society and dining styles were changing.

The need for mince pies that represented the elitism

and affluence of the upper classes diminished.

The way the pies are laid out like this, the way that they are shaped,

it's really anchored in this particular period.

It is fashion on a plate, but it's also society on a plate.

At the end of the 18th century, the French Revolution breaks out

and we have equal social turmoil in Britain.

Meanwhile, the pie stops being shaped.

Society perhaps becomes more open.

And by the Victorian era, pies are just small and round.

And again, it is reflective of wider social trends.

Round pies reflect this sense that no longer should we create divisions,

but we should actually all come together.

You no longer need a pie that reflects a fashion that is long gone.

They may have taken 500 years to evolve in style and substance.

Paul's mince pies can be on your table in less than an hour.

Mince pie used to have real fruit in it until 100 to 150 years ago.

So I use that and blend a little bit of the modern

with a little bit of history as well.

This simple recipe will make 12 mince pies,

but as they're so tempting, that might not be enough.

Now, I'm going to make the sweet pastry first.

Take 375 grams of plain flour, 250 grams of softened butter

and 125 grams of caster sugar.

-You know what I'm going to do now.

-You'll put your hands in it.

-I'm going to get my hands in because I love this job.

-You don't cut it into little cubes?

-I'm cutting it into bits now.

-You're enjoying doing that, aren't you?

I love doing it because you get messy. I get my lad to do it now.

-Do you? And what happens when the phone goes?

-It's messy.

Add an egg and maybe a little cold water

to bring the ingredients together.

Turn this out onto the bench. A bit of flour onto there.

I don't want to work it too much.

I just want to turn it into a ball.

But because I've done it all by hand, I know it's controlled.

So you end up with a beautiful, smooth, sweet pastry.

-You like?

-I do.

Cover it with Clingfilm and chill it in the fridge

while you make your filling from two jars of mincemeat,

a couple of tangerines and an apple.

Could you chop up that apple for me?

Core it and then just chop it up as small as you can, really.

At home, I can remember Mum spinning out mincemeat with stewed apple

because mincemeat's quite expensive

-and also I think we children didn't like it quite so spicy.

-Yeah.

And apples, of course, were... If you lived in the country, as we did, apples were free.

Just put a little bit of zest in there as well.

Again, just to lift it. As soon as you start grating a tangerine,

it smells... And it just reminds me of Christmas again.

Then peel and roughly chop the tangerines.

Thoroughly mix all the fruit and mincemeat together.

Next, take your chilled, sweet pastry out of the fridge

and roll it out onto a floured surface.

I've taken it to around three or four millimetres, actually, the depth of this.

Use a deep muffin tin to get more filling into your pies.

And you'll need two pastry cutters...

One the same size as your case for the lids

and a slightly larger one for the base.

And all you do is then push up the side gently,

don't try and force it, so it goes to just below the level of the lid.

Because of the high sugar content in the pastry,

there's no need to blind bake the cases before you fill them.

-How full would you like them?

-A bit more than that.

Just so the lid bulges slightly.

Maybe a little bit more than that. Thanks, Grandma.

You're being cheeky.

Use the crimped side of your cutter for the lids.

-Are you going to wet them?

-No. I mean, to be honest with you,

as long as you make sure it sits just in the lip but not too...

-No pressure. No pressure.

-No, it's all right. It's OK.

-Like that.

-Yes. That's absolutely fine.

It's quite an easy pastry to handle.

Quite robust because it hasn't been touched by a machine.

It's only been mixed by hand. I think it's more controllable.

To give the tops the rich colour once baked,

dust them with a little caster sugar.

We're going to bake these at 200 degrees for about 15, 20 minutes.

What you're looking for... It'll go golden-brown on the top,

the sugar will caramelise and the middle bit should be baked. That's the key bit you look for.

It's a good indication that the bottom is also baked.

So that's 200 degrees, or 180 degrees for fan-assisted.

And no more than 20 minutes later...

Ooh! They're a lovely colour.

-Gosh, they're deep.

-They are.

-Deep and delicious.

And they really are full.

A little bit of icing sugar, please, just to finish this off.

It's just like snow.

-It makes you feel Christmassy.

-It does.

I'm really looking forward to trying these.

And it's as simple and as quick as that.

Mix flour, butter, sugar and an egg by hand, before chilling the dough.

And then mix together mincemeat, the zest and fruit of two tangerines

and an apple for the filling.

Roll out and cut your pastry to fit deep muffin cases.

Fill them to ensure a domed top and bake for 20 minutes.

Freshly baked mince pies in less time than it takes

to go and buy them from the shops.

Do you know, as I put my fork in there...

Did you just hear that? Listen.

-You can hear...

-It crumbles.

-It crumbles. It's lovely.

I'm going to pour...

In that hole... I would put brandy butter in there.

..cream inside there. I'm not going to use a fork, Mary.

Mmmm.

Do you know what I like about these?

-It's the fact that the base is just as well cooked as the top.

-Yeah.

-Let's check in here.

-Are you going to check for soggy bottoms?

-I am.

-No soggy bottoms here, Mary.

-Perfect. I wouldn't expect that from you.

And I like the way you just suggested that the fresh fruit

was put in in big pieces.

I think it's lovely.

If you're not a fan of Christmas cake, never fear,

as Mary has something for those who prefer something different.

And this spectacular Buche de Noel

is a lot less complicated than it looks.

Buche de Noel, chocolate log, an alternative to Christmas cake.

Which is handy cos actually my little boy doesn't like

Christmas cake, but he does like chocolate and cream and Yule log.

It is quite rich. So you need a Swiss roll tin.

And I write on the bottom of my Swiss roll tins the measurement

and then you don't have to get out a tape measure each time or remember.

So this is 33 by 23 centimetres.

-That's 13 by

-9. In old money.

-In old money.

Butter it well and then line it with baking parchment.

Take that and then push it into the corners

and stand some up all the way round.

There's no need to cut the corners. Just push it in all the way round.

So that's all ready.

Now all I've got to do is to make the chocolate sponge.

First, you'll need to whisk four eggs with 100 grams of caster sugar

until it forms a thick, but not stiff, mixture.

So there it is. And so it should hold its shape...

but sink back in quite quickly.

Then sift in 65 grams of self-raising flour

and 40 grams of cocoa powder.

And then you just go round the edge and cut through the middle.

OK, more. It can just sprinkle down like rain.

That's it.

Don't overdo it.

If you overdo it and do it too briskly, the volume goes down.

So let's have that last little bit in.

And it's not difficult to know when you've done it

because you'll find no streaks of cocoa.

Make sure every little bit is in.

Then don't work it any more than you have to.

Then add the mix to your tin.

And just gently edge it to the side.

And pop into the middle of a pre-heated oven at 200 degrees

or 180 if it's fan-assisted.

It'll only need about eight to ten minutes.

That is shrinking away from the sides.

And when I press my finger on it, it bounces back again.

Dust some greaseproof paper with icing sugar.

Turn out the sponge and peel off the baking parchment.

I'm going to roll that up and I want a nice tight roll.

so take a knife and then just press that down all the way,

almost through,

so I can get that tight, tight roll.

And then put the paper inside.

This is the secret of the very best roll.

So you want to put that in all along.

-Once you get started, it's quite easy.

-Yeah.

Go on rolling it very, very tightly.

And it's still hot.

Even though the sugar looks a bit motley there...

it's right because otherwise it would stick.

So you then have that little sausage and you let that get stone cold.

Once tightly rolled, you can get on with the fancy-sounding,

but very simple, ganache icing.

Warm 300ml of double cream.

And I've heated it until I can just put my finger in it.

And add 325 grams of mild, dark chocolate.

Something around 30% to 40% cocoa solids will do.

And there's enough heat there to dissolve that.

Just remember that chocolate melts in a child's pocket,

so it doesn't need great heat.

The big mistake of melting chocolate is people get it too hot.

Then sometimes it totally changes texture

and certainly loses its gloss if it's too hot.

-Now, this is absolutely perfect.

-That's lovely. Yep.

And you can see it's got a lovely shine to it.

All you need to do is to take the spoon out of that

and put it in a cool place,

-on a windowsill if it's a cold, wintry day...

-Yeah.

Or in the fridge.

While the ganache is cooling,

fill your rolled sponge with 300ml of whipped double cream.

You want to do it right to the edges

and then into this roll here.

And it is very important, just like making a Swiss roll,

you've got to get that first roll really sharp

otherwise it flips over and isn't a roll at all.

And let the paper do a little bit of help.

And also, just pinch it with your fingers, like that.

A few cracks may appear on the outside,

but we don't mind a bit about that.

-You're going to cover it anyway, essentially.

-I know.

But I'm edging that in so I get a really tight roll.

-That's it.

-Lovely.

-Right. Now, I've got a serving slate.

-Slate, yes.

Take a sharp knife and cut the branch off...

at a really sharp angle. Something like that.

Place the larger piece on a serving plate

and gently press the angled edge of the smaller piece into its side.

Right. Now to the ganache.

-I've got that here and it's firmed up nicely.

-Yup.

And I'm going to fill an icing bag and tube.

This is a rose tube which will give a nice star effect.

-I'm going to pipe down as though it's sort of rough bark...

-Yep.

..in reasonable straight lines and then down like that at the end.

You don't need a piping bag at all.

This is just making it extra special.

You can spread it on with a fork and it's fine.

Cover the exposed ends of the log with a spiral of ganache,

dust with icing sugar...

Just imagine the snow is falling.

..and add your own final touch.

So there's our dear little robin on top. Happy Christmas!

Happy Christmas, Mary.

A great-looking Christmas cake without a great deal of fuss.

Just remember to whisk your eggs and sugar to the right consistency.

Gently cut in your flour and cocoa.

Roll your sponge as tightly as you can.

And there's nothing wrong with just using a fork for the ganache

if you don't have a piping bag.

Now, I've taken that one slice off.

How does that look at the end? A nice tight roll.

-Is that about your size?

-Yeah, that'd be lovely.

-Oh, the smell!

-And there's no need to add sugar to the cream

because there's plenty of sugar in the sponge

and the cream makes it moist all the way through.

-What's it like?

-It's all right.

Oh, Mary! Chocolate, sponge, cream...

You're leaning against an open door with me.

And the way, actually, you showed people how to make it...

It is simple to do.

But I think people just needed to know how to get it finished.

I think it looks great, it tastes fantastic and I think everybody would love it.

Well, you certainly don't need a big slice of this, do you?

It is very rich. Actually, I wouldn't mind it with some single cream

and perhaps a splash of brandy.

Now, you're going a bit far, Mary. Come on.

I mean, the amount of chocolate in that!

I was on a diet recently. There's enough calories in that to last me a week.

We've still got three fantastic festive recipes for you.

There's Mary's perfect Christmas pudding,

a look at how this British classic

once helped Britannia rule the waves.

And Paul's delicious way to use up all those Christmas dinner leftovers.

But first, a real festive classic, the Italian way, via France.

Realistically, it's my style of panettone because it's become very, very popular now, panettone.

-At Christmas time, yes.

-Yeah. But I prefer a brioche

cos I want that lightness whereas panettone can be quite cake-like

because it does dry out. It's great for bread and butter pudding.

My version is a cross between France and Italy.

So I use a brioche and, for me, it's a good alternative

to a heavy pudding or a heavy cake.

It's got a little bit of lightness to it and it's filled with fruit.

Christmas guests are sure to love this show-stopping dessert.

And following Paul's method, it's simple to make.

To start with, could you weigh me up 500 grams

of the best strong, white flour, please?

-This is the very best.

-This is the very best.

I always put the flour in first because all the other ingredients

sit on the top and it's easier to mix in. 50 grams of caster sugar.

Again, it's an enriched dough. It's got sweetness in there

and this sugar will really help the colour, and the feeding of the yeast as well.

You'll need 14 grams of fast-acting dried yeast.

You think that's a lot of yeast to go with 500 grams of flour.

Now, the reason being, the amount of fruit that I put in this mix,

it needs that. It really needs it to get it to lift.

Now, I'm also putting in seven grams of salt as well.

Straight in. Five eggs. Try and keep your eggs at room temperature.

If that's a cold egg going in there, it just retards the yeast

-and stops it from activating.

-It makes it sour.

-Exactly.

So what I'm adding to this as well is 140ml of warm milk.

OK. You mix this on slow to begin with.

Mixing in this recipe is crucial, so take your time with it.

You can even leave your machine to get on with it while you do something else.

-Can you see the strings beginning to form?

-Yeah.

You can see when you look in, actually, the string beginning to bind to the sides.

What's happening is the gluten's beginning to develop

and the bonds are getting tighter and tighter and tighter.

Inside the molecules of flour, it's releasing the protein

which is then locking in and that's why it's getting stretched

and stretched and stretched.

This first mix will take at least five minutes.

-Oh, that's elastic!

-You see where it was mixing, the webbing that was beginning to happen...

The webbing is an indication that the gluten is beginning to form

and it's pretty much there.

So at this stage, you get your softened butter...

which is 250 grams.

Pop it straight in and then we mix again for a further five minutes.

Again, starting on slow. Let the butter break in.

You may have to scrape down a little bit halfway through,

just to make sure the butter isn't sticking to the sides.

Let's have a quick look.

Yeah, it's beginning to go there, see?

It's beginning to go stringy.

I reckon another couple of minutes and that'll be ready.

At this stage, a buttery sheen should be forming

on the strands of the dough.

We've got a very light, totally enriched... Cos there's butter in it...

You see the shine on the top of the dough.

Now, all that needs to go in there is the fruits.

I've got dried cherries. I've got currants, sultanas

and I've got some almonds as well.

You need to mix in 100 grams of the almonds

and 120 grams of each of the fruits.

Again, we've made and we've developed our dough.

Obviously, at this stage, Mary, we've got a very sloppy mix.

And we have to chill this down now so pop it in a bowl,

Clingfilm it and chill it down. Two-fold.

One, because we can't manipulate it because it's so wet

so we need to chill that butter down to harden the dough to allow us to move it and shape it.

But mainly, it's to ferment the yeast over a long period of time in the fridge.

It will still grow, but it'll grow very, very slowly

and that'll develop the flavour of the bread

and that's what brioche should taste like.

Again, this needs time. It's vital you leave the dough

in the fridge overnight.

OK, Mary, here we go. Here's the bowl.

It's got a nice seal there, look.

You can see the amount of carbon dioxide that's been produced

as the yeast has been growing. Let's take this Clingfilm off.

-Smell that.

-The moment it came off, it...

-It's intense.

-It's strong.

-Lovely.

-It's like a brewery.

-It IS like a brewery.

Not that I know what a brewery smells like!

A little bit of flour on the bench. Tip this dough out.

Now it becomes more pliable. You can work on it now.

You can use and manipulate that dough into any shape you want.

Now, a little bit of flour.

All I'm going to do is shape it enough to go inside this tin. OK?

-So I just need to shape it into a ball.

-So you're knocking it back.

-I'm going to knock it back by flattening it down...

-Right.

..shaping it up...

..and again tighten it up.

Now that... Because of that shape,

I need to make it quite round and thin.

If you can, use a high-sided panettone tin.

Melt some butter and thoroughly coat the inside.

In it goes. Down to the bottom.

So now we'll just leave it and it'll take two or three hours to rise up.

That's because of the high proportion of fat and a lot of sugar with the yeast.

Also, the amount of fruit. It's got to try and move that fruit so it takes time.

Well, that wasn't too difficult.

Very simple.

For this final rise, just leave the dough at room temperature.

You'll know it's ready when it just begins to dome

over the top of the tin.

It's perfect. It's domed. Now, the last thing we're going to do

just before we bake this is egg-wash it.

Brush the top liberally.

It creates a lovely, little shine on the top of it as well.

I'm going to bake this at 180 for about 20, 25 minutes to start with,

then I'm going to drop it down to 150.

And that 150 will remain so for the rest of the bake,

for another 35 minutes, so the total bake time is an hour.

It smells good.

It smells fantastic, doesn't it? Look at the colour.

-That looks all right, doesn't it?

-The colour of that!

-All I'm going to do is pop it on there for now.

-Help.

-Push.

-Oh, well done.

-And that should come straight off.

-That looks true to form.

-It's best to release it as soon as you can, really.

That's unlike a cake because a cake you would leave

-in the tin to shrink back.

-Is that releasing?

-Yup.

Fantastic. There you are.

That is my take on a panettone filled with fruit.

Looks brilliant.

The only skill that this panettone recipe really needs is patience.

Just remember to mix the dough for long enough before adding the butter

and then the fruit.

And take your time with the first rise,

preferably leaving it in the fridge overnight.

I'm just going to take a little triangle out.

-Right.

-Just so I can show you the inside of it, really.

There you go. If I show you that, it's a little bit different.

It's got the brioche flavour with the panettone look...

It smells beautifully yeasty.

..with the fruit. It's lovely.

It's lighter than I've had before.

And I think this adds to a panettone.

I think it doesn't take anything away.

But what it does is give you the richness

and that little bit of lightness.

Sometimes you can feel a bit heavy over Christmas.

-I like the way you've kept the almonds whole...

-Mmmm.

..so you really recognise them. Mmmm.

It's surprisingly good.

Carefully locked away in the historic Portsmouth dockyard

is a Christmas pudding with a past as rich as the fruit cake itself.

It is the oldest Christmas pudding in the world,

dating back to 1900,

and it's of great significance to the British Navy.

From the packaging on the tin and the labelling,

we can see that it was presented or given to the Naval Brigade

serving in the Boer War in 1900.

So it's a very early example of some of the Christmas gifts

that went out to the forces serving overseas.

You can see the rust has actually been removed from the tin

as part of the conservation process and you can see the pudding inside.

This was a teetotal pudding,

so it had no alcohol involved in the process.

After 112 years, we certainly wouldn't recommend tasting it.

Also on the label you can see the name Miss Weston.

This refers to Aggie Weston who was a well-known figure

and would have been well known to the sailors of the period,

so much so that the sailors actually nicknamed her the Mother of the Royal Navy.

Miss Agnes Weston was born in 1840

and raised in Bath as a devout Christian.

Aggie, as she was affectionately known, loved to help others

and saw an opportunity to look after sailors at port by setting up

sailors' rests as a safe place for them to stay and feel at home.

The sailors' rests

were really good news for the guys coming off the ships

because what would tend to happen, they'd come in from the ship,

which would inevitably be at anchor,

and once they got ashore, there was nowhere other than pubs

for them to go to. The younger lads, who had no money, would be

walking up and down the streets, looking for shelter

until they got the boat back to the ship the next morning.

So the rest, which was somewhere warm and dry with a hearty meal

and a cup of coffee and then eventually a warm bed as well,

was just a present from heaven for these guys.

Aggie wasn't just concerned about sailor welfare

when they were at shore. She also began to write them letters,

keeping them abreast of news at home

and letting them know that they remained in her thoughts.

The sailors really enjoyed getting these letters because

many of them were from backgrounds where there was nobody to write to them other than Aggie.

Even if they did have a family, perhaps the family couldn't write

or wouldn't have been able to get a letter to them.

The letters became more and more popular and Aggie continued

to write them, but eventually she had to resort to publishing them

because there were just too many people who wanted to hear the news from home.

She started to include them in a journal and it was known as Ashore And Afloat.

By the end of her life, she was sending that out to 55,000 people every month.

At Christmas in 1900, British troops were embroiled

in brutal battles on South African soil in the Boer War

and Aggie decided to send them a Christmas package

including her famous pudding to boost their morale.

So Aggie had these puddings especially made.

Unlike the normal Christmas pudding of the time,

they were teetotal. There was no alcohol in them

which tied in very much with her views on temperance

and trying to dissuade sailors from being so reliant on alcohol.

Aggie just did what she thought was right at the time.

She offered a slender thread of human kindness

and this pudding was just a great example of that.

When she sent it out, I don't for a moment imagine that over 100 years later

she would have thought that people were still following her example

and sending gifts out to sailors when they were deployed over Christmas.

Aggie's plum pudding set in motion the long tradition of sending

Christmas gifts to British servicemen abroad.

When she died in 1918, Aggie was buried with full naval honours,

the first time to have been bestowed upon a woman,

and her surviving Christmas pudding stands as testament

to the achievements of the remarkable Mother of the Navy.

Christmas pudding. Isn't that exciting? Don't you feel Christmas

-is coming when you start to make it?

-Absolutely.

I think Christmas pudding, for me,

is one of the best parts of the whole Christmas dinner.

Do you have it with brandy cream?

Do you have it with brandy butter? Do you have it with custard?

-What do you normally have it with?

-We have it with brandy butter.

But for Sarah, my daughter-in-law, she likes custard.

-She comes from the north.

-Ah, you see!

-She comes from Liverpool!

-It's a northern thing.

You have to have... It's the law. When you go past Watford, it's a law you have to have custard with it.

-Well, Sarah comes from Liverpool, you see.

-There you go.

-And you do too.

No matter what you serve it with, this delicious pudding

will keep eight Christmas guests happy and probably wanting more.

Let's line the bowl first.

You want about a two-and-a-half pint bowl.

This is on the generous side.

And I'm going to WELL butter it because you want it to turn out.

Really generously butter it.

And I'm going to take a disc of foil.

This is parchment-lined foil.

I'm going to put that at the bottom because sometimes it sticks.

And you have that sort of feeling, you put it on to re-boil

on Christmas morning and you think, is it going to turn out?

Now we know that that's going to turn out.

You just pop it over there and we'll get soaking the fruits.

And I've got 450 grams of mixed fruit

and I've put some apricots in here

and I think that makes it rather different.

As well as the dried mixed fruit, Mary's recipe includes the zest

and juice of a fresh orange and a roughly-chopped cooking apple.

You've peeled a few apples in your time, haven't you?

-I used to do fruit salad at the hotels.

-Did you?

We'd spend hours doing buckets and buckets of fruit salad.

And then we come to the booze. Three tablespoonfuls.

If you haven't got brandy, you could put sherry in if you wanted to.

You could this with a shaky hand, really, couldn't you?

I'm doing it with a steady hand.

And actually, as you soak it in booze,

-it stops the discolouring of the apple.

-Yup.

And I'm going to give that a good stir...

so that it's all mixed together.

Then you want to soak that to really plump up the fruit a bit

for a good hour. It could be longer.

While the fruit is soaking, you'll need to cream

100 grams of light muscovado sugar with 75 grams of butter.

You know, sometimes muscovado sugar, when it's been in the packet,

-it gets in lumps...

-Quite solid, yeah.

..when it's been hanging about a bit.

I find, to get those lumps out, if you warm it in a small bowl

and put it in the microwave, and that will just separate it.

When you have a light and fluffy mixture, gradually beat in two eggs.

My aim here is to let it just thicken up.

-As you can see, it looks a little bit sort of curdled now...

-Yup.

..but with a good beat...

That's a lovely consistency now.

You'll need 100 grams of self-raising flour...

You don't have to be nearly as delicate as if you were making a Victoria sandwich

when you would fold the flour in if you were doing the creaming method.

..and 40 grams of white breadcrumbs.

I want fresh bread that's, you know, a day old or something.

-Let's have a feel. That's about right.

-Right.

Put it in the processor and just crumb it.

Don't use old bread because it comes into too fine a crumb

and it won't give a good texture.

Then add 40 grams of roughly-chopped almonds

and a teaspoon of ground mixed spice.

And you know in baking when it says a teaspoon,

it is a LEVEL teaspoon.

So when you read in baking books, always level.

Now we're ready for the fruit. So that can go in all in one go.

And as you see, there's no surplus liquid in the bottom.

Can I lick that bowl?

I shouldn't. Come on.

So it's a really fruity pudding and, you know,

you can vary the fruit to what you've got in the cupboard.

Some people put cherries in it and you can put different nuts in.

So that's all ready to go in the bowl. In that goes.

-You can just dollop this in, can't you?

-Dollop it in. That's right.

-Gosh, you can smell the brandy, can't you?

-I know, it's amazing. I love it.

Then push that down, levelling it off.

So I've got a bit of foil that is parchment-backed.

If you haven't got it, use parchment

and put that on, and then put the foil on top.

So put it over the top like that,

and then carefully tuck it under all the way round

because there's a rim here and it goes underneath that rim,

folding it round.

And as you do it, with the other hand, move the bowl round.

Just tuck it in, tuck it in, all the way round.

Next, take a large pan that's deeper than your pudding bowl

and place a jam jar lid at the bottom.

This will separate the pudding bowl from the direct heat of your stove.

And then take a piece of foil and fold it in four.

Then take it like that and put that...

So that will help you take it in and out of the pan.

So put that on like that, and then you can leave those two like that.

Now, you want to fill it up with water halfway up the pan.

Bring it to the boil and let it boil very, very gently

for about seven hours. But don't go out and leave it.

Keep checking and also check the colour.

It gets darker and darker with long, slow boiling.

Or you could do it in a steamer.

I haven't got a steamer.

Always make sure that the water is kept topped up

throughout the seven hours.

You're waiting to see that familiar, deep-brown colour

of a good fruit pudding.

Now brandy butter. So simple to make.

It is butter, icing sugar and brandy.

You have double the amount of icing sugar, just over, than the butter.

Start by creaming 100 grams of unsalted butter.

Then I'm going to gradually add the icing sugar.

You'll need 225 grams of icing sugar.

You just need to turn it down a second to start with

because it'll shower over you a bit. So I'll give that a good mix.

That's all blended together

and I'm just going to add the rest of it now.

That's it.

Brandy.

You can add rum if you prefer. It'll take about three tablespoons.

If you add more than that, it will curdle.

After adding the alcohol, whisk the mixture until it's fluffy.

That looks just right.

At this stage, it's lovely and soft and this is how I like to serve it.

In Victorian times, they used to do it as a hard butter

and let it melt over a hot pudding.

I think it's nice like this.

Is that what you used to have when you were a little girl?

I'm not going to answer that.

Do you know, I think you get more cheeky as the days go on.

-I know. I know.

-Yes!

Once the pudding has been steamed for seven hours,

you can store it in a cool place overnight

or in the fridge for longer.

Then on the big day, you'll need to steam it again

for two hours before serving.

-So, let's see how...

-Let's have a look. Ooh, yes.

-The smell's coming, anyway, isn't it?

-Yes.

If you can take away the hot water, that would be a help.

And at the bottom there is the tin lid

so that it didn't actually touch the bottom.

-Then we want to take the top off. So there it is.

-Lovely.

Tip it to one side

and then the weight of the pudding will go down

and pull it away from the edge.

I'm just checking that it is quite away from the sides

-and not sticking.

-It smells lovely.

Yup, I think we're all the way round.

Then if we put this on the top like that...

and then the cloth over the top.

I'll do it on my own because that's what we would be doing at home.

-Whenever I want any help on Christmas morning, nobody...

-Nobody's around.

Nobody's in the kitchen, except when things are ready for tasting.

Absolutely, yeah. Or the carving of the meat.

Exactly. So I'm going to turn that, like that.

Now, just a tip about turning out the pudding.

At home, what I do is I turn it out before lunch,

just as I'm serving lunch, leaving the pudding basin on top

which keeps it nice and warm.

-So off with the bowl.

-Watch your hands, Mary.

That's right.

-Now, you remember we did that disc of paper in the bottom?

-Yeah.

There is the disc of paper

and it did mean that it came out absolutely smoothly.

To serve with a final flourish, warm four tablespoons of brandy

in a pan, pour over the warm pudding and set it alight.

Lovely.

-It smells good, too.

-You can see it. I love that blue flame.

It just screams of Christmas.

It's lovely. Has it died down over there?

-Yes, it's gone. It's gone.

-It's ready to cut.

Isn't it nice, the way the fruit is in nice, big pieces?

You can see the apricots.

Now, I'm very sorry. I haven't done the custard for you.

-But I have got... Do try...

-I'm prepared to try the brandy butter.

So, what do you think?

Oh, yeah.

Mmmm.

It's fruitier than most puddings I've had before.

It's really tasty because it's the texture of the apricot

that's just broken down slightly.

It makes it chewy, fruity, moist.

That, married with the brandy butter...

I think it's absolutely gorgeous.

You could have turned me, Mary, to be honest, but I'd love that with custard as well.

Well, I'm sorry I haven't got any.

Once the pudding's been eaten and everyone's gone home,

you're left with that classic Christmas dilemma -

what to do with all those leftovers.

This recipe, it's been around in my family for about ten years now

and my son's sort of grown up on it

and on Boxing Day I have to get baking.

Now, normally, a baker like me needs a day off, but oh, no.

Boxing Day, six o'clock in the morning I'm up,

playing with his toys and also knocking up a quick dough

to produce something that's slightly different.

And what I'm going to do is make a Chelsea bun.

I'm going to fill it with cranberry, stuffing and the remaining turkey.

They may not have a traditional filling,

but Paul's turkey, ham and cranberry Chelsea buns

are well worth the effort.

Into a large bowl, pour in 500 grams of strong white flour.

Add 14 grams of fast-acting dried yeast and ten grams of salt.

That goes to the other side of the bowl.

Even at this stage, salt in contact with yeast

will actually sit on it and retard it slightly.

So just keep them away at this stage.

Add to that two eggs and, because this is a sweet dough,

50 grams of caster sugar.

What I've got in this jug, Mary, is 150ml of milk

and 90ml of warm water.

Now, this is the tricky bit for people like me,

when I'm trying to teach people how to make bread.

No-one can actually give you a definitive answer on how much liquid

should go in a bread mix.

So the aim of the game here is to watch. And I'll show you

what consistency we're looking for. All right?

Now, you start with fingers in, like a mixer

and just move the flour into the liquid at this stage.

Now, you can see here, I'm beginning to scrunch the dough together.

Just to be practical, I know quite a few people wouldn't want

to do that by hand, so you could do it with a dough hook, couldn't you?

You could do it with a dough hook in a mixer, no problem.

But the beauty of this is it just encourages people

to use their hands and they remember more.

A machine is not going to remember how much liquid

you put in last time, if you just happen to buy a different flour.

Hands in, you're feeling it.

When I was a kid, when I was growing up and my dad used to stick me in the bakery

when I was 12 years old as a Saturday lad,

he'd give me a lump of dough and say, "Play with that, son."

So I'd sit in the corner and play with this dough.

And you learn, you remember things.

If you feel something, you remember what it should feel like.

Now you can see here, I'm beginning to scrunch the dough together

to create a soft mess.

You think, how am I going to make something delicious from that?

I know you will.

Get this dough...

..and chuck it into the flour.

Now, a little bit of flour on the top

and roll it around in the flour at this stage.

Don't worry about it too much.

Now I'm just going to start building up the gluten in it.

Roll it up...

..and flatten it down.

So you are adding extra flour to your mixture.

An enriched dough, I always do. If you've got a really soft dough,

the addition of this flour is not going to make any difference. The dough will still be soft.

So, I just rolled it up to start with, just to build up that...

softness and build up that... start of elasticity in the dough.

Then I begin to stretch it.

Hold the base and pull away from the dough.

And you can see the more I'm manipulating this,

the better it feels, the softer it's going.

You carry on doing that for about ten minutes.

OK.

Nice and moulded and soft.

Once covered, leave the dough to rise in your kitchen

for around an hour-and-a-half,

enough time for it to have doubled in size.

Put some flour on your bench.

Tip this dough out.

All I'm going to do is just gently shape it into a rough ball.

-OK?

-Beautifully elastic and soft.

-It's lovely.

Because it's rested and the gluten's built up,

it's created that stretch which is what you want.

Use your fingers to start with. Flatten it down.

And then, using a rolling pin... OK. Roll it up.

You want to make it into a rough rectangle.

Now, with this side, you just want to tack it to the bench like that.

You'll see why in a minute.

All the way along.

I'm intrigued.

Next, spread 270 grams of your leftover cranberry sauce

all over the flattened dough.

-It smells lovely, doesn't it?

-Mmm.

Top it with 200 grams of sage and onion stuffing.

And finally, 300 grams of leftover roast turkey.

Grab your pieces.

Break them up. This has been shredded into little pieces.

So pick all the little pieces off the bone

that you didn't quite get to on Christmas Day.

Spread that all over the top as well.

Now, at this stage, we need to incorporate this.

We're going to roll it up, similar to a roulade.

I've tacked this down just so I can stretch it a little bit.

So you start by rolling over the top...

to make your line,

like breaking its back on the roulade, essentially.

And then you lift it up, tug it and then roll it.

Lift it up, tug it and roll it. OK?

Lift it up, tug, roll.

And you do that...

until you reach down to the seam here.

There.

OK. Now you're down to that seam, line of flour, lift it up

and drop it in the flour. That's the wet bit

-that I've just wet when I drew it down with my finger.

-Yes.

And then just gently roll with the weight of your hand.

Don't put any pressure on it.

Now, with the scraper...

These are the bits you can bake off separately.

Just tidy up the ends.

Make a big cut.

Normally, a good two inches, you know.

Make cuts like that all the way down.

So if we haven't got a scraper like that, we could just use a knife.

Yes. So I've got a tray here. Non-stick. I've just brushed it

with a little bit of butter.

Quite deep. A good two to three inches deep.

Place them into the tray.

You'll then need to leave your buns to rise for around an hour

until all the gaps between them have been filled.

Then bake in a pre-heated oven at 200 degrees for around 20 minutes.

When done, they should have the same light-brown colour

you see in a standard Chelsea bun.

Ooh!

Lovely.

-The yeasty smell is lovely.

-Absolutely delicious. Now...

It's nice and brown. It's bouncy. It's a bit hot at the moment.

But just hang on there for an hour. Leave it to just cool down a bit.

-We'll try it a bit later.

-Ooh, lovely.

They may be unconventional, but sure to be a family favourite.

Remember to use your hands with this dough,

so you can feel how much liquid to add,

and keep kneading until it feels soft, smooth and elastic.

Flatten and tack your finished dough to your work surface.

Once filled, always stretch as you roll it up.

If I break that open, split that into two...

There you go. Just tear a little bit off that.

You can see the structure inside, what's going on.

You can see the turkey, cranberries, everything in there.

It's a lovely soft dough.

And then using up that...

turkey and stuffing...

really works. Essentially, what you've done is a ready-made sandwich.

It's heaven on a plate. It's absolutely delicious.

It is so soft. It's not tough.

I'd like that perhaps with a green salad as my lunch on Boxing Day.

That would be so good.

It's new to me, but it's your original family recipe,

and I can tell you, this is one I'm going to copy.

If you fancy making any of Mary and Paul's Christmas classics,

you can find the recipes at...

Wow. What a cracking selection.

I hope this is encouraging everybody at home

to have a good Christmas bake.

But it makes you feel very Christmassy,

looking at this on the table.

And if I was going to have a favourite,

I'd probably go for your Yule log.

I think I'm going to have a go at your mince pies.

I love the idea of having the tangerine in it too.

But I'm going to have them hot

and I'm going to have them with a lot of brandy butter.

Well, that's your call, Mary. That's your call.

But I'm feeling extremely festive. Merry Christmas, Mary.

Merry Christmas.

Merry Christmas.

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