Christmas The Great British Bake Off

"Paul...

"wishing you a very happy Christmas.

"My love, Mary."

Mary!

This Christmas, Mary and Paul's bakes will take you through

the festive season in spectacular style.

-Wow, it's good.

-That's lovely.

The idea is to get people trying something different this Christmas

and hopefully it becomes a tradition in their houses.

Mary makes a snowy white Christmas wreath Pavlova...

Oh, it is Christmas.

Don't you dare!

Don't get it too close.

..a supremely boozy trifle with an unusual twist.

There's only half a bottle left,

there was a bottle there last night, Mary.

I'm not listening.

And a fruity rosace a l'orange.

I'm always down like that to see,

obviously you've got eyes in your hips.

Paul bakes new life into mincemeat with his Chelsea bun Christmas tree...

That is something else.

..puts leftovers to delicious use with his turkey pie.

I'm getting decidedly hungry.

That's spot-on.

And finally, he makes an Italian Christmas classic,

a towering pandoro.

Don't be panicked, thinking, "I could never do that."

Watch what we do, get your pen and your piece of paper ready

and prepare to bake for Christmas.

Right, Mary, Christmas again.

It comes round every year, but aren't you excited? Cos I am.

I love Christmas. Have you done all your shopping yet?

I haven't anywhere near, but I've made a few lists.

-I've got you a great present.

-Have you?

Am I going to like it or is it going on the shelf?

-I think it's probably going to go on the shelf.

-What is it, then?

-I'm not telling you!

-A little hint.

-No.

Kicking off the festive season,

a lighter alternative to heavy Christmas desserts.

Mary's cream and fruit-topped pavlova

is pretty enough to adorn any Christmas table.

First of all, I've got the six eggs there,

if you'd be kind enough to separate them,

and it's terribly important not to get any yolk in with the egg white

cos you've got to have a sparkling clean bowl and no grease in sight,

otherwise you won't get the same volume.

That's it. You're chancing your luck just using two bowls.

Do you want to take that one and tip it in the bowl now?

I think that would be a very good idea. So that's two in there now.

I don't want you kicking off over Christmas, Mary.

Well, it is very important.

Wait a minute. That's all right.

-You're chancing your luck, come on. That's it.

-There you go.

-We've got six in there now.

-They're all in there.

Right, so I'm going to whisk this now until it looks like cloud.

Now, that, to me, looks like cloud.

It's not stiff.

You look when I take a bit out, it's got...

It hardly stands up.

As soon as you add the sugar, it will get stiffer and stiffer.

In a pavlova, you add cornflour and white wine vinegar,

a teaspoonful of each.

If you are using a hand whisk, choose a big bowl, move it around,

and you'll get maximum mixing, and if you're just doing it with

an ordinary whisk, it'll take a long time,

but in Victorian times, that's all they'd got

and no wonder they had such muscles but, you know,

it's getting a lot of volume in, that's the idea. So...

Show us your muscles then, Mary.

I'm going to use my muscles and turn it full speed and

add the sugar little by little.

Continue to add in the sugar, 350g in total

and whisk until the pavlova is stiff and glossy.

Now, look at this.

That is holding its peak. And I know exactly...

It is Christmas, don't you dare!

Don't get it too close.

Be very careful, I might do it to you one of these days.

Actually, amongst that, it wouldn't show, would it?

It wouldn't show, my hair's white.

Right, I'm just going to put this in. You've given that a good stir.

That's a teaspoonful of cornflour and a teaspoonful of wine vinegar.

And then it's safer, really, just to do it like this.

And all I've got to do is to spread it.

No piping, it's Christmas - not time for that.

Next, draw two circles on a piece of baking parchment -

one 15 centimetres and one 30 centimetres in diameter.

I'm going to just stick it down with a little bit of the mixture.

Then spread the pavlova onto the parchment.

It is such an easy thing to do and also it's not really expensive,

-it's six eggs, isn't it?

-Yes, and it will feed a mountain of people.

And Christmas is all about showing off, doing something special,

something that people are going to say, "Oh, gosh, did you really make it?"

Yeah. So, is it normally you that does all the cooking on Christmas Day?

I don't do all the cooking because everybody else is

hanging around the kitchen, so I give them a job.

It's strange now my mother's no longer here.

She always used to do the sprouts.

-Russell pouts, that's what my son used to call them.

-Russell pouts.

And you know, Mum always used to put a cross on the bottom

of the sprouts and it was Paul, my husband, said to me,

"Do you know, they'd cook quicker if you cut them in half?"

So I now always cut them in half and they cook in half the time.

Yeah. I like Russell... Er...er...Russell...

I was going to say exactly the same thing!

I love Brussels sprouts because it's something which...

-I'd have them all year round, you know?

-I do have them most of the...

Well, you know, you've got to wait to the winter, haven't you?

-Keep you regular, Mary, keep you regular.

-Right!

Next, create a trench on top of the pavlova for the cream to sit in.

You're a bit of a sculptor, aren't you? You'd like to be doing this.

Well, you are not going to, cos I am enjoying it.

With the trench completed, bake the pavlova at 120 degrees

in a fan assisted oven for one to one-and-a-quarter hours.

Then leave the pavlova to cool in the oven.

There we are, and if there is the odd crack or it breaks

when you're moving, it doesn't matter a bit.

See there? There is a little bit of a crack across there.

It doesn't matter at all, that's part of the charm.

To make the cream topping, combine 50g of icing sugar,

600ml of double cream

and one teaspoon of vanilla paste...

Smells lovely.

..and whisk them all together.

Gently. Now, not too fast.

If it goes all over my shirt you are...

If it goes on my shirt, it's coming over and going on yours.

-Right.

-Look at it.

You are rotten! Turn it down.

That's better.

I'm going to fill that trench.

-And if you could quarter the strawberries.

-Yes.

-No booze in sight, you notice.

-I know!

-Are you feeling all right, Mary?

-Yes, I am.

So that's perfect, and I'm going to start off by putting

the strawberries on.

And if you've got any young cooks in the family,

a lot of the young are perfectly capable, with a bit

of supervision, of making pavlova and decorating it with fruit.

Garnish the wreath with raspberries and blueberries.

It is a lot easier than decorating a Christmas tree.

When we decorate the Christmas tree at home,

I'm afraid I keep to all of the things that I've had over the years

and particular things that friends have given me

and the children are always trying to add other things to it.

Keep to the old ones we've had for years and years.

They all mean rather a lot.

Now you can put some pomegranate

and that really does give that sort of jewelled effect, doesn't it?

Then finish the wreath with fresh mint leaves...

I'm just taking the very tops.

..and a sprinkling of icing sugar.

Icing sugar in a shaker makes a lot of difference at Christmas time

because it gives you the effect of snow.

That looks smashing, that, Mary.

-It is a great centrepiece for Christmas.

-Looks great.

A festive delight for all the family to make and enjoy.

Paul, this is my Christmas pavlova wreath.

It looks good enough to hang on the front door, don't you think?

It does actually, yeah. I mean, I'm dying to eat it.

I've been sitting here looking at it thinking,

"Oh, yeah, I could do with some of that, please."

-Do you want me to cut a wedge off for you as well, Mary?

-Yes, please.

And the great thing is you can make the actual pavlova ahead of time.

That does look good.

And all you've got to do is to fill it

and put the sparkly fruits on the top.

How about that, then?

That's lovely, that, Mary. That hits all the right buttons, that.

It's that beautiful marshmallow down the bottom and then

the crispy meringue, but that cream tastes beautiful with that fruit.

That's staying here.

I'm going to try and work my way around past nine o'clock

-all the way.

-It is good.

-Mm.

Next, Paul's making a Chelsea bun Christmas tree.

Filled with mincemeat and bejewelled with candied fruit,

it's a delicious alternative to mince pies.

You know when you get family around leading up to Christmas,

either dropping off presents or you're taking presents round to someone,

this is a Christmas tree made out of Chelsea buns.

I think that's a brilliant idea, you know.

When people call and you've perhaps got some mulled wine

and you just pop this into the oven

and you know a crowd are coming round,

serve it warm, break it off, share it. Great.

-Now, could you weigh me up, Mary...

-I'll try.

..800g of strong white bread flour?

To the flour, add one tablespoon of salt...

-And the tray that you've given me, I've put that on one side.

-Yes.

..15g of fast-acting yeast...

-On the other side.

-Yes.

..two eggs and 60g of butter.

That's about 57, that.

I hate having you looking over my shoulder cos I know that

you'd do one sweep of the knife and it would be there.

-Oh, and it is 60!

-No, it isn't!

-It says 67.

-That's the paper.

-Put your glasses on, it says 67.

Yes, but what's that between friends?

Yes, but there's more than that. It's 65 now, actually.

That's the paper. Come on, you'll do. What's it to you?

What do you mean, "That'll do"?!

Then melt the butter together with 400ml of warm milk.

Add it to the flour and mix it all together.

So what have you got me for Christmas?

-I bet you haven't got me anything.

-I've been thinking about it.

-Yes.

And it will be something to do with cars.

Are you going to buy me a car?

No, I wouldn't... I couldn't possibly buy you a car, could I?

I'm happy with that, it's brought it together.

Actually, I can't just sit here and do nothing and watch it.

Honesty, I was amazed that you even did it on the machine.

It's quite a big mix though, because it's 800g of flour, you see.

So there's your dough. It's pretty elastic already. See?

You've got a bit of power behind that.

It's the weight of your arm, that's all.

Now, you need to work this for a good, you know, five minutes.

It's already started off in there, it's come together quite nicely.

What you're looking for is a nice, smooth top

-and that has gone quite smooth, see?

-All right.

So you carry on working this, rolling it up...

-..and I'm happy with that.

-There you are.

-Thank you. That is my dough.

In there, seal that up a bit and basically just leave it.

You need to leave it for about an hour, maybe two.

It'll at least double in size and it'll be good to go.

-Let's go down to that showroom down the road.

-For that expensive car?

Yes, we'll have a look. I like green.

Now, you can see how it's domed, it's grown.

Now...

that is beautiful. It's lovely and soft,

full of air. It's perfect.

Park that to one side for a minute.

Now we need to prepare the filling.

First, combine a diced pear and apple with a jar of mincemeat

and 100g of candied peel.

Now, I'm just adding the zest of an orange to this as well.

This gives it a nice kick.

Now I do need 75g of pistachios

if you wouldn't mind chopping up some of those as well.

You don't want them too small, do you?

No, I'd be here all day.

Don't be cheeky, do it yourself. Go on.

-You've chopped far more nuts than I have.

-Yes, probably.

I'll put these straight into the bowl.

Then add one tablespoon of fragrant ground cinnamon.

Do you know, that really smells pretty good.

It's Christmas, isn't it? It's lovely.

Now, I'll park that to one side, get my dough,

throw it onto the bench.

A little bit on the bench.

Get your dough and you need to roll it out.

Keep relaxing it. Try and keep it as rectangular as you can.

I always think Chelsea buns is like making...

It's a bit like making pain au raisin.

It's the same method, actually, but we use butter on this one.

I'm going to leave it at that for now.

Pinch this down into the bench to give it a little bit of tackiness

to this when I roll it up. Now, I'm brushing this with melted butter.

So we've already got some butter in the dough to enrich it

and now we're having even more butter.

Mm-hmm. All over the top.

Then grab your mixture, drop this onto your dough.

This is better than Chelsea buns

because it's got far more mixture on the top.

Yes, absolutely.

What you want to do, spread it out all over the top of the dough.

Dad always said, "Use your hands, son, you've got some hands."

Father Christmas is at the door, how are you going to open it?

Now, watch this - this is great, this bit. It's the best bit.

-I've got a good idea of what I think you're going to do.

-OK.

Fold over the top first.

-A Swiss roll.

-Like a Swiss roll.

And then roll it up.

Put a bit of tension in there.

As you lift it up you pull it slightly,

and it spreads out the mixture too.

I'm just going to put a line of flour down there,

and where the seal is there,

you just push it back into that and then you gently roll it out.

Use the weight of your arm.

Get a good bread scraper... And I'm just going to

trim off that bit, cos we're going to use that bit.

-Do you know how many you're going to do?

-Yes.

Three...

..9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15.

You didn't know you were going to do 15, it was just...

-That just happened.

-No! I knew!

OK.

OK, 15 pieces of Chelsea bun.

Now, over there, Mary, you'll find a baking tray.

This is where the fun bit begins.

Now we need to make a Christmas tree.

Now, pick the best stump. That's a pretty good stump.

You start with five.

Don't forget these things grow.

And then go four.

Give it a bit of space.

Three.

Two.

You did know, after all, didn't you?

HE CHUCKLES

And one.

Just get any old bag, cover it up.

You need to prove that again now for a good three quarters of an hour or

an hour and that will prove up, join together and then we'll bake it off.

I think that's such a clever idea.

-I'm going to expect to see this in your book.

-Most likely.

Back page.

That's grown!

It is, it's perfect. You see how light it is?

Sponge-like. Now that's ready to go in the oven.

I've preheated the oven to 190 fan.

It's going to go in for about 25 minutes, half an hour,

and it'll be beautiful and golden brown when it comes out.

There it is, Mary.

You can see the beautiful shape of the Christmas tree,

but it's not finished yet.

Over here I've just got some apricot jam, which

I've just basically added a little bit of water to.

Brush this all over the top.

Then weigh out 200g of icing sugar.

Just put the zest of about half an orange into this.

Add water gradually, mixing to form an icing.

Run it just along the bottom...

..like that, of each one.

-It looks as though snow has come on the Christmas tree.

-Exactly.

That's the general idea. Give it a little brush.

Pop a cherry right in the middle of the...of each one of those buns.

I'll start at the top.

This is really advanced stuff for me, isn't it?

HE CHUCKLES

Looking good!

-It's got a sort of jewelled effect, hasn't it?

-It has, it has.

So you've got pistachios, and I'm just adding little flecks

of colour coming from the citrus peel as well, so what it ends up

looking like, it's something that looks quite festive with the colour,

but the flavour of these, I kid you not, are just stunning.

And for carol singers, you know, when they come round, to hand one

of these round, they can lick their fingers clean. Absolutely wonderful.

But you end up with a Christmas tree made of Chelsea buns.

Now, could you stand about there?

All it needs is the fairy on the top.

-That's me!

-There you go.

Fancy a bit of Chelsea bun, Mary?

I think it looks amazing, and what I really like about it is you don't

need a special mould, you can do it even in a roasting tin, can't you?

You can. Now, this is a tear and share

so you've just got to tuck in and rip one off, Mary.

You rip it off for me. I hate to take the first bun.

That is something else.

-Lovely.

-It is good.

I think the mincemeat with the extra, the pear,

the apple in there, it tastes delicious. I'm glad you liked that.

But you can unravel it, you see, that's part of the fun

and then you get the middle bit.

And it goes well with a glass of wine here.

Come on, cheers.

Cheers, Mary.

Paul's Chelsea buns are not the only Christmas bakes

to benefit from a festive tipple.

In the 1700s, King Stanislas of Poland was dethroned...

twice.

So he moved his court and his pastry chef to France,

bringing his favourite recipe for the baba dessert with him.

Baba is from Poland. It's originally a dry brioche.

We know that Stanislas was eating baba in Lorraine

and he was soaking it with wine of Tokaji.

The babas were soaked in the Tokaji, a sweet Hungarian wine,

for at least 12 hours to tenderise and enrich the dough.

But the babas didn't stay with Stanislas.

His daughter married and moved to Versailles,

taking her father's pastry chef, Monsieur Stohrer,

and his baba recipe with her.

After five years of service at the court of Versailles,

Nicolas Stohrer decided to take the ground-breaking decision

to open his own patisserie in Paris,

something very novel because patisserie didn't exist

in those days and it's the oldest patisserie in the capital of France.

Of course, he had to put the baba on the menu

but he decided to give it a bit of a twist.

He got rid of the Tokaji wine, replaced it by the new fashionable

alcohol in France, which was dark rum, straight from the colonies,

straight from the boat, and of course

he's jazzed it up a little bit as well, including some whipped cream,

some creme Chantilly, decorated with some beautiful glace fruit.

Very festive.

With their indulgent flavour and rich texture,

it's little surprise that rum babas

have become a firm favourite at Christmas time.

From one potent festive recipe to another,

with a chunky fruit compote and a custard and whipped cream topping.

Mary's unusual trifle is sure to convert any dessert cynics this Christmas.

I think of Christmas and I think of trifle.

I don't have it much at any other time of the year, do you?

I love trifle and I must admit the only time I do have it,

the odd occasional birthday party and then at Christmas time.

-Well, let's get going.

-Right.

So, first of all I'm going to cook the fruits for the compote.

Start by weighing out 250g of ready-to-eat apricots

and 150g of dried pineapple...

They do smell amazing.

..and then 150g of dried cranberries.

So, I'm going to tip those into a pan.

I need grated zest of one lemon.

And then 600ml of water.

That's it.

Bring it to the boil and then leave it to simmer

for 40 minutes at a very low heat.

Then pour out the fruit and leave it to cool for at least four hours.

Or preferably overnight.

Now for the custard.

600ml of milk and 300ml of single cream.

If you can weigh out 35g of cornflour and three egg yolks.

I find that if you add cornflour to it, you get success every time.

If you try and do it with more egg yolks for the custard,

-sometimes it separates and I want everybody to have success.

-Yes.

Then whisk it all together until smooth.

That's a job that I've always been doing at Christmas time.

Even at home, before I was married, I used to make the trifle

because I liked it. I really like using a compote.

It's totally different

and the layers are delicious.

I'm looking forward to trying this,

it is different using a compote, I must admit.

Gradually add the milk and cream mixture,

whisking constantly to prevent curdling.

Return the mixture to the pan and stir it over a high heat

until it's thick enough to coat the back of a spoon.

And that is absolutely perfect.

I'm not going to cook that any more.

I don't want a skin on that custard

so I'm going to put a little bit of clingfilm on and I'm actually

going to let the clingfilm touch it there so there's no skin on it.

Right, leave that to become cold.

Trifle sponges at the ready.

I've got 16 trifle sponges. They come in packets of eight.

Packets!

Packets, yes. I wouldn't make those.

Mary Berry!

If I had some sponge left over, some fatless sponge, I would use it,

but at Christmas time, I wouldn't set to and make them.

So, I'm going to split those and put them with apricot jam.

-Can you cut each one in half?

-I can.

I've got some apricot jam here and this is home-made apricot jam.

Oh, you've actually made some apricot jam then!

Spread the trifle sponges generously with the apricot jam

and sandwich them together.

Mary, you're messing them all up!

They're all top and bottom,

-top bottom, top bottom.

-I'm not too fussed.

-You're not bothered?

-No, give me just bottoms then.

-Just bottoms.

And you put the tops on.

Now, to assembling the trifle.

First of all the trifle sponges at the bottom. So, there's the dish.

I'm going to put six together.

And then fill in the gaps

at the side.

Then strain the fruit compote, reserving the liquid...

I can see you're going to be very accurate about this.

..and add 250ml of medium dry sherry to the strained fruit juices.

Then I'm going to take some ratafias,

now ratafias are little almond biscuits.

So, about 20.

-They soak up the sherry mixture.

-Lovely.

A nice bit of crunch as well.

Right, now, I'm going to use half of this over the top here.

Just gently like that.

Smell that.

-Pungent, isn't it?

-It's lovely!

There's only half a bottle left.

-There was a bottle there last night, Mary.

-I'm not listening.

That's it. Then I'm going to put half the fruit on top.

Now, it's lovely and plump.

It is a seriously chunky trifle, this, isn't it?

It's different and it's good.

I mean, a lot of people have this sort of thing at breakfast

-at Christmas time.

-Breakfast!

-No, fruit!

-Oh, yeah.

-I thought you were saying THAT at breakfast!

-Oh, no.

Well, I wouldn't mind if there is some left,

I know some people who'd like it like that.

So you just push that all over.

Repeat the layering once more.

I've left that one whole for a bit of a change.

Then pour the custard on top.

And that custard will semi-set, so it's sheer indulgence.

Then you just spread that all over.

That looks lovely, that, Mary.

-I love custard.

-I know you love custard.

You see, I have Christmas pudding and custard.

I have Christmas pudding and whipped cream with brandy in.

Brandy cream. I don't like brandy butter with it.

And brandy cream on anything that's about at pudding time.

-I bet you just like brandy, don't you?

-Well, at Christmas time, isn't that the time to indulge?

-Yes, I think so.

-That's it.

Leave that to set. So I'll pop that to one side.

For the topping, whip double cream to soft peaks.

Dollop half the cream on to the trifle.

Gosh, this is generous and Christmassy, isn't it?

Then whisk the rest of the cream and spoon it into a piping bag.

Now, what I do is I twist it round my thumb, like that,

and then I've got a rose nozzle

and I'm just going to do little rosettes all the way around.

-OK.

-Fairly bold ones.

It's important if you're doing just rosettes

to keep it absolutely straight. It's a smart finish.

I'm not going to be tempted to put any piping in the middle.

I like to see a plain middle.

And decorate the trifle with sliced apricots and dried cranberries.

Just a sprinkling of the flaked almonds that have been toasted.

That's about right.

So there you have my very different Christmas trifle.

You're not going in now, we'll taste them later.

All right, Mary, do you want to help yourself,

rather than me making a mess?

I think that's a very good idea.

So, down we go.

-Now, doesn't that look good?

-It does look great, yeah.

In fact, I'll hand it over to you.

OK. You've got a bit of everything in there, haven't you?

Well, it's all coming out. Let's go down again.

And there it is.

It's quite delicious because there's a bit of texture in the fruit still,

which tastes unbelievable with that custard and the cream.

And we've left it in big chunky pieces

so that you know as you're eating them.

It is just the right amount of sherry.

-Gorgeous.

-All right.

We've still got three delicious Christmas recipes for you.

Mary makes a beautiful rosace a l'orange

and Paul bakes an impressive pandoro.

But first he transforms turkey with his mouthwatering pie.

You know, Mary, on Boxing Day there's normally a little bit of

meat left over and there's probably a little bit of ham left over

as well so this is a turkey, ham and leek pie.

Paul's meaty pie, flavoured with tarragon and topped with buttery

puff pastry is the perfect winter warmer to share with all the family.

To start with, these leeks have been washed.

-Would you mind roughly chopping them up, please? Thank you.

-Right.

I have got some butter here. I need to put 45g butter into the pan.

Do you like pie, Mary?

I love pie and I love a turkey pie, and I like a lot of sauce.

There will be a good bit of sauce.

I'm using a bit of stock, a bit of chicken stock.

You can use gravy, you know, if there is anything left.

-I always leave a bit of the green on because I like the colour.

-Yes.

You know, one of the vegetables I do at Christmas,

I often saute a few leeks and put them with frozen peas

cos the children all love peas, it's their favourite vegetable.

-This makes them a bit different if you put some sauteed leeks with them.

-Yes.

I'm just going to drop my butter in the pan,

so I'm just going to melt that down and cook them off with the leeks.

So what do you do, Mary, with the leftover turkey then?

Well, to be honest, Boxing Day we always have cold turkey

and we do open sandwiches on the sort of Danish style.

Then add the zest and juice of one orange,

and a generous splash of sherry to the pan.

I'm going to throw our leeks straight in there.

-That was a medium sherry.

-Yes. What do you like, Mary?

Do you like the medium or do you like the sweet?

That'll do me. I quite like a dry.

-Oh, do you?

-Yes.

-Do you like martinis?

-No, I don't.

Hard luck.

Not even with an olive in it either.

HE CHUCKLES

-It's quite trendy, Mary!

-I'm sorry, well, I'm not trendy.

I'm going to cook these until they're just a little bit tender,

so they're coated now.

Pop the lid on top.

Then simmer the filling for six minutes.

Remove the lid and reduce the liquid before adding

three tablespoons of plain flour.

This is obviously going to be the thickener for the overall sauce.

This is like a self-saucing pie, it's beautiful.

I've got 500ml of chicken stock here now,

I want to make sure there's no lumps in there

and the whole thing binds together nicely and that's pretty much done.

You've got the whole stock gone straight in, which is lovely.

I'm putting some mustard in.

Delicious. 200ml of the cream.

Give me a good rip of the tarragon, if that could be chopped up as well.

-Thank you.

-I love the smell of tarragon.

-Yeah, I do.

Over there, Mary, I've got some turkey, and I've got some ham.

About 650g of the turkey and about 250g of the ham.

If you've got more or less than one of the other, it's not too much of a problem.

If you have got some chicken, throw that in there as well.

Also, I think, many people, unlike me, don't like the dark meat

-on a turkey, so a perfect way of using the dark meat.

-Absolutely.

Then add the meat and the fresh, chopped tarragon to the pan.

I'm just going to have a little try of this.

I don't trust you.

-I think I should try some too.

-OK.

You're really getting into this, aren't you, Bez?

-Now, you haven't put any seasoning is that yet.

-That's what I've just tasted it to see!

Oh, right.

Can you pass me some of the pepper and salt, please, Mary.

-That's delicious, though, isn't it?

-Very, very good.

I better have another taste because I want to know it tastes right.

-All right, let me stir this in first.

-It does look good.

Isn't that a great filling for a pie?

You could do all sorts of things with that, couldn't you?

I mean, in a vol-au-vent, it would be spectacular.

We're almost doing a vol-au-vent because we're using a puff anyway.

And also you could have it, you know, with rice, couldn't you?

-Yes, yes, absolutely.

-I'm getting decidedly hungry.

-I am.

-Mm.

-That's spot on as a filling.

-Spot on.

-Seasoning is good.

Now, I've got my steamer in the middle here, which allows,

as the pie cooks, all the steam to come out the top.

Now, I'm just going to pour the mixture around the outside.

Watch your hand, Mary, I don't want to burn you.

Leave the filling to cool in the dish.

Now we need to make the pastry. Now, this is a sort of cheat's pastry.

That's unusual to cheat puff.

It is very unusual for you to make cheat's pastry. I'm watching it!

Could I have 400g of the flour into a large bowl, please, Mary?

Then add salt and butter to the bowl and rub it all together.

This is what the kids like doing.

Christmas time, what you can do is prepare this a long time before.

You make loads of cheat's puff pastry or full puff pastry

if you wish, and just leave it in the freezer.

I've got some water in there.

A little bit in to start with, and get it mixing around with my hand.

Start rubbing it in, pushing it into the flour.

It takes a little bit more.

That might be about it.

Fold it from the outside in, push it in and turn it over.

Push it in again with your knuckles.

And there's the pastry.

So, I'm just going to push this down, just work it a little bit.

Then roll the pastry into a rectangle

and coarsely grate chilled butter onto the pastry.

And then fold it over and then again, like an envelope.

What we need to do is roll that out again very quickly.

So get your dough, roll it out the same size again.

Get the other half of the butter.

I'm just going to spread that out across the top.

Fold it over halfway,

and then lift it over to the top again.

Now, that is nice and neat, it's got two layers of butter in it.

Thank you, Mary.

Wrap that up,

and then we need to chill that down for a good hour

before we use it and it'll be good to go.

-Now, what we need to do is roll this out.

-Right.

-Put the lid on.

Right.

Cut the pastry into two pieces.

There's plenty for there.

One for the pie lid and one for the decorations.

I'm just going to cut out the middle, which is a snowflake.

Then cut out a small star shape from the middle of the lid section.

I've got to prize that over the bird, so lift that up...

Cut round the rim.

Neaten it off.

Give you this little star cutter,

can you just cut a few stars in there, for me?

-How many do you want?

-About 20.

-OK. I'm doing it as quickly as I can.

-OK.

I'm just crimping this around the outside,

just to give it a nice, neat pattern.

I'm going to try and cut a hole in the middle of here,

which I'm going to put over the bird.

I'm just going to spread this snowflake over the top.

It just makes a neater pattern on the top.

Now brush the pastry with egg wash.

How many of those little stars have you got, Mary?

-16...18...23.

-That's lovely.

What I'll start doing is placing these basically

round the outside, just to form a nice pattern around the outside.

-It does look very Christmassy already.

-I think it does, yes.

I'm just going to get a little bit of egg wash again,

-little dollop on them.

-It looks good.

Bake the pie for 35 to 40 minutes at 180 degrees in a fan assisted oven.

-Can you smell that?

-I can, I can't wait.

Oh, I love the shine on that. It looks amazing, doesn't it?

That is going to be perfect to eat.

We'll just leave it to go off hot, just a little bit cooler

and we'll have that to eat.

What do you reckon, Mary? It's ready to eat.

I can't wait for you to get inside.

You see, you're cutting through that beautiful, buttery pastry.

Oh, I like that. Lots of sauce.

-I'll give you more filling.

-Yes. Wow.

-Look at that.

Oh, I can smell the tarragon.

Have a go at that, Mary, tell us what do you think.

Don't worry, I don't need any encouragement.

Mm.

The ham and turkey have softened up in that sauce.

It is a self-saucing pie.

You've got a beautiful crispy top,

and married up with that sauce that's in there.

It is absolutely scrumptious.

It's real, proper, comfort food, don't you think?

I think it's the best way of using up that leftover turkey and ham.

A very exciting way too.

From deliciously savoury to sweet and stunning,

Mary makes a rosace a l'orange.

Featuring Genoese sponge and creme legere, it's decorated

with delicate orange slices to resemble a stained-glass window.

I have got something rather spectacular now. Rosace a l'orange.

It's a French classic, you'd find it in a patisserie

and it's great for Christmas.

To start we need a nice orange.

There we are. And it needs to be in very thin slices,

about 3mm, and you've got a mandolin there.

Use the guard, part of our kit at college was to have a mandolin

and we could do fine chipped potatoes on it,

we could do julienne, we could do all sorts. And if you haven't got

a mandolin like this, just very thin slices with a sharp knife.

-There you go, is that all right, Bez?

-That looks very good.

And we can use all those odd bits too.

Next, combine sugar and water over heat to create a sugar syrup.

Now, it's absolutely clear and I'm going to add the oranges,

though it's just a matter of a gentle cooking them until

they've got that lovely shine and they're tender, so on with the lid.

Then simmer the oranges in the syrup for two hours.

So, to the creme patissiere, I'm taking 600ml of milk,

and this is full cream milk. If you haven't got full cream milk

you can always add a bit of cream to it.

Then I am going to add a little vanilla paste to that.

Next crack four eggs into a bowl.

Gosh, they're lovely yellowy eggs.

Aren't they?

Then add 100g caster sugar, 60g plain flour and whisk it all together.

I'm letting the milk come to just under boiling.

I'll keep on stirring this.

That's it.

-You want that back in the pan?

-Back in the pan.

That's it.

Then back on the heat and stir all the time.

It doesn't matter even if you get lumps at any stage during this

-cos you can whisk it out anyway.

-You can.

And it's lovely and thick now.

I want to make quite sure that it's having a good bubble,

then it will need a good whisk.

As it gets cold, it sets, so if you give that a bit of a beat.

Some people at this stage put it into a mixer,

but there's no need to, I've got Paul Hollywood.

Now, into a bowl, and that's got to get stone-cold.

That is a straight creme patissiere.

-There's a bit left in that bowl, come on.

-Mary!

-Waste not want not.

-That's it. There's quite a bit left in there too!

-All right!

That was mine for later.

That's it.

Cover the creme patissiere and leave it to cool.

Now it's time for the Genoese.

So, if we can start off with four large eggs.

Then add 100g caster sugar and whisk to combine.

You can see the impression

and if I wrote M on the top, it would quickly sink in.

I don't want it too firm.

Then I'm going to sieve half the flour in.

Gradually fold in 50g melted, cooled butter.

So that's half the butter in.

And then the rest of the flour.

Some recipes say add it all at once.

It's just an extra precaution

cos if you over mix it or you put the butter in too quickly,

it will go runny and you won't get the same rise,

so as I fold in that, in goes the butter.

That's it.

Gently pour the mixture into a greased and lined 23 centimetre tin

and bake it for 25 to 30 minutes at 160 degrees in a fan assisted oven.

Once baked, the sponge should be golden brown

and coming away from the sides of the tin.

This Genoese sponge has come out of the oven, it's a beautiful colour.

So, the oranges, they have been totally cooled

and we've drained them from all that syrup.

They've got that lovely shine to them.

Then add orange liqueur to the syrup from the drained orange slices.

-It's very tempting, you know.

-Go on, have a swig, I know you're dying to.

I might a little bit later.

-Now it's down to business of assembling the whole thing.

-OK.

Can you cut that very carefully in half,

cos you're good at that sort of thing.

You...

It's pretty difficult not to interfere.

Go on, I know you're doing it really well.

What were you going to say?

No, it's just that I'm always down like that to see

and obviously you've got eyes in your hips.

-I've got eyes in my hips.

-About that level.

Now we're going to cut a circle out of that to put

on top of the oranges in a minute.

It needs to be about 15 centimetres.

There's a bowl there to give you as a guide. And any trimmings,

you can either eat or use in trifle or something like that.

Then line a 23 centimetre bowl with a double layer of plastic wrap.

Then I'm going to put these orange slices.

Now, they're beautifully tender and you have got to be

really, really delicate, so I'm picking that up

and putting it absolutely in the middle there.

Then I'm going to put the others around the outside.

Carefully lift and put around the side.

This, of course, when you turn it out, will be the top of the cake.

Then you've got to fill in those holes,

and so we need a quarter in each one.

Add whipped cream to the cooled creme patissiere to make creme legere

and pour half of it into the bowl.

It wants to just come to the top of the orange rind.

OK? Which we've done.

Lift that in. Plonk it on top.

These are the odd bits of the end of the orange,

and it would be nice to put them in with this creme legere

and it'll give a different layer.

So, it can go straight in here and we've got this boozy syrup here...

-Yeah.

-..and I am going to brush the top. Lovely.

Then we put this in the next layer.

Can you tip it in and I'll hold the bowl steady? Right on top.

Place the second half of the sponge on top...

Edge it in. Press that all the way round.

..and drizzle with the boozy orange syrup.

Pop that on the top like that

and then take a loose-bottomed cake tin and put that on the top.

And a gentle, gentle press down.

And you leave that overnight in the fridge

and then all the glory comes the next day when you turn it out.

Ta-da, ta-da!

So, what we've got to do is take that

and then peel off the paper, which should come up in one fell swoop.

Like that. Put that over the top.

That's it. Over we go.

And then what you do is keep hold of the paper.

You see if it'll come off. A little prayer.

-OK.

-It's coming.

Yes, it's off, it's off, it's off, it's off.

Then brush the top with the remaining syrup.

-And there it is, a real touch of France.

-Merci, Madame.

An elegant and irresistible dessert for your Christmas table.

Rosace a l'orange, a touch of France. What do you think?

I think it looks amazing.

I'm dying to see what those oranges taste like inside that legere.

The whole thing looks beautiful.

-Pop it there. Shall we not share it in between us?

-We could try.

Cos that's far too much for me.

Have a go. I want to have a nice piece of that orange.

Right through.

It's not very often I'm speechless, is it? But, wow, it's good.

That's lovely.

The orange liqueur really gives it a lovely kick as well,

with the creaminess and the silkiness.

It's gorgeous, it's really refreshing actually.

I thought it might be a bit heavy, but it's not.

-I think it's delicious.

-That's gorgeous, that.

Refreshing.

-That's spot-on, that, Mary.

-For me, that's a winner.

That's a proper Christmas bake, that.

A proper Italian Christmas bake is the pandoro.

Originating in Verona and baked in a star shaped mould,

it's based upon a regional yeast-leavened enriched bread.

The definitive date of the modern pandoro is

Tuesday, 14th October 1894, when Mr Domenico Menegatti,

a baker of Verona put together this wonderful cake

and patented it and it's the pandoro that we know today.

While the pandoro was winning over stomachs in Verona,

it was the panettone that the Milanese couldn't get enough of.

The panettone have a combination of flavour.

It makes by the candied fruit inside, the raisin and the vanilla.

Its mushroom shape can be traced back to 1920 when a Milanese baker

bound the tin, forcing the dough upwards rather than outwards.

It's very rich in butter so you need to let it rest upside down

because you need to cool down the butter,

that it gives to panettone the right strength to stay up.

So, the Italians now have two Christmas cakes to choose between.

Panettone or pandoro, it's the eternal Christmas dilemma, you know,

half the family likes panettone, half the family likes pandoro.

There are rows, there are arguments, there are discussions.

I think the panettone is better from the pandoro.

If I have to choose I choose the pandoro.

When I was a child you know I couldn't really say

what I wanted so now I'm over 18, it's pandoro.

The Italians may not be able to agree on a favourite but Paul has clearly

made up his mind about which one he's going to bake this Christmas.

Right, Mary, I'm going to make a pandoro.

Now, are you pandoro or panettone?

Definitely I want pandoro...

Say it again, pandoro.

Paul's sumptuous pandoro, flecked with citrus zest

and sprinkled with icing sugar is an impressive Christmas centrepiece.

I'll show you how to make it.

Could you weigh me up 450g of flour, please?

This is actually, I suppose it's a hybrid between a cake and a bread.

It takes a long time to prove.

That means that it's very rich,

it's got a lot of fat in and sugar which slows it down, doesn't it?

It will. An enriched dough tends to be a bit slower proving

and this is certainly the case with this one as well.

Then add salt, sugar, yeast and butter to the flour.

-Now I'll add the zest straight in.

-Right.

Because this is enriched and it's golden, we need a rich yolk.

Now, you get that from a hen's egg, such as a Bedford Brown.

So, what I need is two whole eggs in there and two of the yolks

as well, now this makes it really rich in colour, you know?

If you haven't got these rich yoke eggs,

you can use a conventional egg.

It's just that your actual bread won't be as golden as it should be.

But it will work just as well.

What I need in there now is two teaspoons of vanilla paste.

Thank you very much. Now, I'm going to do this in a mixer.

I've got a dough hook in there.

Start this up.

Then add 100ml of warm milk.

If the milk looks as though it's got a tinge of brown in it,

I just rinsed the spoon in it that had the vanilla,

-to make sure it all went in.

-It saves on the washing-up, Mary.

Mix the dough until it's just starting to come together.

Let's have a quick look at this, Mary.

Now, look, this is the important bit.

You see in there, the light coming through there,

where it is beginning to break, and now it is splitting, see?

-You see where it's fallen away?

-You have a positive window.

Yes, we want that to hold on the blade, we don't want that to split,

so the more that you mix it the more the grip is held

and then it begins to stretch, and that's what I am looking for.

It's not like a cake mix. A cake mix would break quite readily.

Right.

Excuse me, Mary.

A little bit of flour on the bench.

Now, that is glossy.

-Now, as you say, it's clinging to the dough hook.

-It is.

Let's have a look.

Now I'll bring this out.

The other thing you can do when you're bringing this out is actually

use olive oil on your hands and that stops it from sticking too much.

That's what you sometimes put on the work surface, don't you?

-Yes.

-When you don't want extra flour in it. I'll take that away.

Thank you.

You have to be quick and a little bit of flour.

It's warm, it's been mixing in there a while.

And actually the more that you work it, if you leave to rest

on a bench, it'll stick, so you have to keep this sort of thing moving.

Now cover the dough and leave it to prove until doubled in size.

Now, there you have it, Mary, it's got a bit of air in it.

Still a bit sticky,

which it will be, and this is the mould we're going to make it in.

Now, inside here I've brushed it with some butter so it's good to go.

Leave that to one side for the minute, drag out my mixture.

You can see it's very different.

It's lighter, it holds together

and you can see it's stretching beautifully as well.

Now what we need to do is get that into that

so we need to knock the air out of it.

Now, you can see all the gloss is actually coming from the butter.

Once you've got it in a little bit of flour, you're going to try

and make it into a cone shape, domed at the top,

just run around in your hand, get your mould ready.

So you end up with a little cone at the bottom,

and then drop it in there.

Push that down, make sure it's covered.

Then prove the dough again until it rises to the top of the tin.

Right, Mary.

There you have it. See how light that is.

It's just stuck its head up above the parapet there.

That's going to go in the oven at 180 fan for about 30 minutes,

35 minutes. This has got rich eggs in it.

This has got sugar in it, this has got butter in it.

Any one of those factors will make that colour very, very strongly,

very, very quickly, so don't panic.

The top is immaterial which you'll find out later.

Once the pandoro is baked,

leave it to cool for five minutes in the tin, then on a wire rack.

So, there it is, Mary.

Out of the oven and cool. You see how rich that colour is,

how dark that is? What I want to do is trim this down a little bit.

You don't waste it, you can use it as anything.

It smells like brioche to me.

It does, it's got a huge whiff of that, for sure. Can you smell.

-Oh, it smells of Christmas.

-It does.

It really works, you know?

What I've done is trimmed off the top to make a nice base,

then I'm going to take off another layer.

-Right. So that is... A Christmas star.

-Mm-hmm.

Then, continue to slice and layer the pandoro.

So put another layer there.

Then finally we've got this to go on the top.

So you end up with something that resembles

a little bit of a Christmas tree,

but this is a pandoro and this is how they present the pandoro.

-But there's one last thing we've got to do.

-What's that?

A stencil, and the whole idea now is to represent the Italian Alps,

the snow.

So you start at the top.

Loads and loads of icing sugar.

-Is that a reindeer?

-It is a reindeer.

You can buy a stencil or make your own

if you're feeling inspired this Christmas.

Lift that off.

-There you have.

-Isn't that splendid?

Well, there you have it, Mary. The pandoro.

Well, that's a first for me

and I think it looks absolute stunning and so different.

It's going to taste gorgeous.

Shall we celebrate a little bit of an Italian Christmas

with the pandoro. Now, you've never had this before, have you?

I certainly haven't and I think it's so original and really different.

What you've got to do is just break a piece off.

It would be a shame to waste the stag on the top.

It's really tasty. The crumb.

Eaten any time during Christmas, but something to dip in and out of.

It's a marriage between brioche and Madeira cake,

-that's why I'm liking it.

-I think it's lovely.

I mean, it rivals panettone in a very different way.

But the overall look, making it look like a Christmas tree,

I think is quite special.

So what do you think, Mary? Pandoro or panettone?

Having tasted that, pandoro.

I think you're probably right,

I think it's unique and tastes fantastic.

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

you can find them at...

-We should do a bit of a celebration.

-We should.

-Happy Christmas.

-Happy Christmas.

-Happy Christmas.

-Happy Christmas, Mary.