Episode 2 Christmas Kitchen

If your Christmas wish is that your festive food problems could be solved in one morning...

Then your wish is our command, because this is Christmas Kitchen.

CHEERING

Hello and welcome to Christmas Kitchen.

I'm Matt Tebbutt.

And I'm Andi Oliver, and we're here every weekday morning in the run-up to Christmas

to bring you some inspiration for the big day.

As well as food ideas for the whole holiday season.

And it's lovely to make your own presents,

so we've got the stars of The Great British Bake Off

to dazzle us with incredible edible gifts that the whole family can make.

And with a selection box of the best TV chefs from Mary Berry and The Hairy Bikers,

to Fanny Cradock and Keith Floyd,

there's a festive recipe for everyone guaranteed.

Joining us today we have a star of one of the most popular period dramas ever -

Call The Midwife's Helen George is here.

CHEERING

She's got all the secrets of the big Christmas Day episode.

And if you'd like an alternative to turkey and all the trimmings,

Thomasina Miers has some Mexican flavours for Christmas.

And baking an edible gift today is the first ever winner

of The Great British Bake Off back in 2010, it's Edd Kimber.

He's whipping up some mint chocolate sables

with a candy cane crush a little later.

And of course Christmas isn't just about the food,

the drink plays rather a large part for some people like me.

So bringing some luxury wines, some wines that cost a little less,

and the spirit of Christmas, it's Olly Smith.

Yeah!

-Hello!

-Olly, you're mixing,

you're bringing the merry with your vodka cup shots.

Always bringing the merry. A bit of the jolly as well today I think. A bit of the jolly!

Plus we'll be delving into Christmas past with this charming man.

Hello?

Hello, Keith. It's Denise again.

Hello, Denise. What's the problem now?

I, I seem to be having a bit of a problem with your oven.

I've turned off the pilot light and I can't get the thing to light again.

What a complete and utter prat you are.

Sorry?

Yes, the legend that is Keith Floyd will be showing us how to cook

and offend people at the same time.

-Right, I think enough of that chitchat.

-Yes.

-Shall we get on and start cooking?

-Indeed, let's.

-OK.

-So I'm going to be doing lamb tagine. It's the sort of thing I love.

-Gorgeous.

It's a little bit, you know, you want those flavours at Christmas.

-Just kind of give them a bit of punch.

-Deep, deep. Warming.

It's very, very straightforward, so I'll crack on with that.

-Shall we get Helen over here?

-Hello.

-Hello, my love.

-While he's cooking, actually, I'm just going to be talking to you in fact.

-Lovely!

-You look very Christmassy.

-Thank you. I thought I'd get my red velvet out for the Christmas theme.

-Delightful, delightful.

-Thanks very much.

-So, Call The Midwife's back.

-Yeah, it is back.

-I'm a massive fan of Call The Midwife.

-Thanks.

-But I think I'm a bit behind, though.

-What series?

-We're up to...

-What series are you on?

-..series six, we've just finished filming.

-So five has been aired.

-So I'm on four.

-You're in four? You've got so much more to watch!

-So great, you see.

I love that.

So tell me what's happening with the show?

Well, so, we've got our Christmas special.

We this year went out on a limb

and we spent a month filming in South Africa

-for our Christmas special.

-Extraordinary.

-Nice!

Which is so amazing/really jammy.

We've been really excited.

-Was it interesting?

-It was, it was really amazing.

And also there's a truth to it because the original nuns

that the books and the TV show were based on actually used to go out

and work in a mission hospital in Africa.

So actually although it sounds like we just went on a jolly for four weeks...

-It really makes sense.

-..there's a historical reference.

How are you doing over there, Matt? What have we got going on?

Yeah, I'm fine.

-You've got some lamb.

-So browning off the lamb.

Little cubes of lamb in the tagine. Little bit of seasoning.

Just going to get that brown, put it on that plate.

-In with the onion, then the spices and everything else.

-Beautiful.

-Spices!

-Then, basically, just all in one pot.

-Did you like food that's richly spiced, or are you more...?

-I do.

I like the sort of Moroccan style of food as well.

-And I also like things that you can just chuck in a pot and leave for a while.

-Yes!

Isn't it brilliant at Christmas as well, don't you think, guys,

to have a one-pot dish at this time of year?

ALL: Yes.

-Get in there. Sharing, informality. Love it.

-Complicated, complicated.

-Absolutely.

-You work with a lot of spices.

Yeah, I love spices. And those warming spices.

I think some people think spice - heat.

But those lovely warming spices - cinnamon, allspice, cloves.

All that stuff, it feels quite Christmassy, too. And exotic.

-And you can put them in cocktails as well.

-Yeah.

-They taste fantastic.

I'll be doing that a bit later on, in fact.

Which I suppose is something that never really occurs to people.

It doesn't. But, yeah, they have all that fantastic Christmas buzz about them. They're brilliant.

-Hot toddies with cinnamon sticks.

-Get in!

Making it sound so appealing.

-So Call The Midwife is going to go to another series after Christmas anyway.

-Yeah.

-So...

-Just taking over.

-..in January, I think.

And the BBC have just announced that they're going to do another three more series as well.

-ALL: Wow.

-Congratulations.

That's a lot of babies!

I'll say that was a nice phone call.

Yeah, 2020, gigged up, I think that's called.

-So Call The Midwife Christmas special's going out on Christmas Day.

-It is.

Apparently it's going out on Christmas Day, which is lovely.

That means that you're becoming part of the backbone of Christmas, institution wise, really.

Oh, cheers. Yeah, us and the Queen, hopefully.

-That's a good gig.

-We'll still be there in 50 years' time!

What do you think it is about that show that makes it so appealing?

I don't know, because it's something that on paper

I think people initially thought,

"It's never going to work, it's about midwives."

You know, it's a very different type of a show and there's nuns in it, and everything.

I don't even know what it is.

I think there's something very gentle about it.

-If it's got nuns in it, I want to watch it.

-It's gentle, but...

-Babies - everyone loves a baby.

Everyone loves a baby, but what's so interesting is although it's gentle,

-it sort of has really hard-hitting moments.

-Yes.

And it catches you by surprise and you're suddenly crying.

Yes, proper weeping at home on the sofa on your own.

It's not afraid of the dramatic twists, I suppose.

And tell us a bit about your character.

I play Trixie Franklin, who is a midwife.

Someone described her as a veteran midwife last week,

and I got really offended.

-The word "veteran"?

-Like I've been doing it for 20 years!

-Do you have to ride a bike in it?

-I do.

-Every time I turn it on,

-there's always somebody riding a bike.

-Yeah, there is.

-There's always a nun on a bike.

-And I'm really bad on bikes.

I'm really bad, I always fall off them.

Shall we have a little look at you in action?

-We've got a clip, let's watch it.

-OK.

I've all manner of aids to wellbeing in my bag of tricks.

I daren't ask if you've got anything to stop my mascara from running.

I've some petroleum jelly you can take it off with.

English roses - African skies!

My jaw's starting to ache, Phyllis.

Well, this is a new camera.

-Yay! Oh, I can't wait to see that.

-Thanks. Thank you.

-How are you doing over there, Matt?

-I'm very well, actually.

This is very, very straightforward. Diced lamb went in.

Just sealing it off.

Then took that out, chuck the onion

and the aubergine in there with all the spices.

Tomato puree. Chucked in a big old glass of wine.

-One of these novelty glasses full of wine.

-Just a sip.

So that's coming down now.

And then, basically, lid on, and I'm just going to forget about it.

And is all this other stuff, chickpeas and everything,

-already in?

-That's all going to go in now.

-Right.

-OK.

-Then I'm going to make some couscous.

-Lovely.

Honestly, what are your Christmases like?

Well, filled with food.

I mean, I really do love my Christmas food.

It's one of my favourite times of years.

And we don't really do turkeys in my house.

-We're a bit of a goose family.

-Yeah, so are we.

-I love a goose.

And the potatoes that you get are so much crispier.

You know, and everybody gets a bit bored with turkey.

So, yeah, they're sort of filled with booze and food.

Tell me if I'm right, do you start your cake on Bonfire Night?

Yeah, I do. Although this year I didn't do it because I've been really lazy.

But normally I start soaking the fruit for my cake on Bonfire Night.

-That's like proper granny stuff, I like that.

-I know, I'm such an old lady.

-That's good.

-Veteran!

How about you, Edd? Are you a proper Christmas baker?

I am, I love traditional Christmas.

But my family recipe for Christmas cake,

we can make three days before Christmas, at a push,

cos we're a very busy family,

so we're always sort of a last-minute family.

But, you know, supposedly you're supposed to do it really early.

-Am I doing the right thing?

-So you're doing the right thing, but I'm just...

I think soaking the fruit early and adding lots of booze

is the actual key to a really great mincemeat or a cake.

-It's just perfect.

-It's just moist.

And I think it lasts for longer as well.

-I'll eat it up until like February, March sort of time.

-Great with cheese!

My grandad used to make a Christmas cake every year, and then would serve that year the year later.

So we always had a cake on rotation.

My, very organised!

Like vintage wine, I like the sound of that.

That's what my mother does. She makes her Christmas pudding every January.

And then serves it a year later.

Yes, and it is so killer.

Yeah, my grandad's was the best Christmas cake. It was delicious.

You know, my uncle, this is a weird, random thing,

but it actually works!

My uncle has really bad arthritis

so he soaks raisins and currants in rum,

-then he just eats them throughout the year.

-That's amazing!

He says it's for his arthritis(!)

They kind of taste really nice.

I think rum's amazing.

You can get incredible quality rums

that I think rival some of the best cognacs, armagnacs and even whiskeys.

Some of them are aged in solaris systems, like wine is.

It's phenomenal what you can do with rum.

-Dark rum or light rum?

-Dark rum every time for me.

-No, no - gold!

Gold is good.

Can I say, spiced rum as well.

Oh, yeah, Christmas time.

Matt, tell us about your Christmas.

What's happening over here? Please!

I love that, that was seamless.

-OK, this is just coming up to the boil.

-Yeah.

-OK, just going to turn that down now. Stick my little lid on it.

-OK.

If you don't have a tagine pot, can you just do it in a normal dish?

Yeah, course you can. Yeah, just casserole, something like that.

And put it in the oven, rather than on top?

-You could leave it on the top, you can bung it through the oven.

-OK.

-Hopefully.

Long and slow-cooking.

You can leave it on a high oven.

I've got the couscous already made here.

In there I've got some soaked raisins, some almonds, some mint and some coriander.

We're just going to save that for the end and stir that through.

-And did you just pour water on that and let it stand?

-Yes.

-Yes.

-Or stock.

-Yes.

-Yes.

-That's it.

Very nice. It's making my mouth water. It's so good.

-I'm really excited.

-You are looking very relaxed there, Matt.

Had you ever had any, kind of, Christmas disasters?

You know, Christmas Day, anything ever gone really badly wrong?

Only family.

Joking, obviously!

-Such a little ray of sunshine!

-So naughty!

Only if they're watching. No, no. I'm joking.

Every Tebbutt in Britain is now just, ooh, daggers drawn.

My grandma once roasted her Christmas Day spuds in the

-washing-up liquid by mistake.

-Wow!

-Oh, God.

-Why?

-I think too much rum, maybe.

-Maybe.

-Pudding!

Mine was... I had a goose that was too big for the oven,

but I ended up barbecuing it. It was delicious.

Barbecued a goose. It was a bit chilly outside, but great fun.

-Really?!

-Yeah, it was kind of like my penance.

-That sounds ridiculous!

-It was good.

I've got photographs on social media to prove it. It was delicious.

-It worked.

-You barbecued a goose?

-Yeah, at Christmas.

-I had one of those ones with the lid on.

-It sounds amazing.

-It was fab.

-Barbecued goose?

In one of those barbecues with a lid, yeah.

-Do you want me to put some on for you?

-Yeah, go on.

-Can I do it?

-Beautiful.

-Yeah, stir that through. Just have a little pile there.

-Here, do you want that?

-Doesn't that look gorgeous?

-That looks so good.

-Beautiful. Little almonds in there.

-Don't go mad.

Don't go mad! Don't go mad, Oliver.

It looks really fresh with all the herbs.

Yeah, it looks healthy for a winter feast.

-That's me all over.

-Yeah.

-Healthy food.

And fresh.

All right.

Definitely fresh.

-Getting a bit lippy over at that table.

-Gorgeous.

So, there you go, that's my lamb tagine with couscous.

Delicious.

-Hope so.

-It looks it.

Come over here and have a taste, everybody.

-Come on, guys.

-Yum.

I've got the cutlery, loads and loads of cutlery.

It looks so beautiful. I love all these herbs running through it.

-I do.

-Thank you.

-Grab a fork, grab a fork.

-Get involved.

-Thank you.

-Go ahead, get in. Don't be shy.

-Can we dig in? Brilliant.

-Mm!

-Oh, it's really good.

-Fruity.

Fruity, really fruity. Vibrant is the word, Matt.

-Fruity and vibrant.

-Fruity and vibrant, very much like yourself!

Helen, do you like that?

It's really, really lovely. And it does feel healthy.

-It does, doesn't it?

-And lamb, there's something really good about

-lamb, isn't there?

-Lamb is good.

-Lamb is just the kind of cold

-winters night thing you want to curl up with.

-Very silky, very tender.

Olly, I'd quite like to have a drink with this.

I shall go to my Christmas tree of dreams.

And you've got one luxury, one less, is that right?

Yeah, I've got a luxury, which is a bit of a splash out and then a less,

-which is a total bargain.

-OK. Well, listen, while Olly is pouring,

let's have our daily foodie festive quiz.

Now, sometimes, chefs get a little bit transfixed with food and it's

hard to know what they're banging on about. So, for a bit of fun,

we want to see if you can guess what some of

the nation's favourite chefs are talking about.

Today, it's the Hairy Bikers. Listen and see if you know

what they're on about.

If you had this instead of your Christmas pudding at pudding time

at Christmas dinner, it might be an interesting rest of the afternoon.

What? Something about pudding.

Something to do with booze on the Christmas pudding maybe.

Yeah, it's like boozy, isn't it?

-So, we think he's talking about setting fire...

-Brandy.

Possibly, yes. It was definitely something booze and Christmas

-pudding, I'm sure.

-Yeah.

-"Puddin'"?

-Puddin', I'm northern.

-Any ideas, no?

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

-Is that it?

-OK, well, let's find out.

-It's one idea...from all of us!

Let's have a look.

If you have this instead of your Christmas pudding at pudding time

at Christmas dinner, it may be an interesting rest of the afternoon.

This is our invention, it's Christmas pudding vodka.

Vodka, happiness, all the season's greetings in a jar.

Well, there you go, Christmas pudding vodka.

-That well-known ingredient. Everyone clear now?

-Hopefully.

-It looked nice.

-Lethal.

-Yeah, it did.

I bet it's quite nice, actually.

They were quite pink of face there, weren't they?

-After a little sip or two.

-A little bit slurry.

Anyway, it's wine time. How exciting.

Olly, you've got two wines for us.

One that's a treat and one that won't blow your budget.

I have, absolutely. I've always felt wine is so diverse, but when it

comes to tagine, I'm looking for sunny flavours in a good red wine.

Something nice and soft. I reckon we should start with our robin today.

Robin comes from Spain.

And it's garnacha, which is the same grape as grenache.

If you like things like Chateauneuf du Pape,

it's the same grape variety. Nice and warming for winter.

Whenever you're judging a wine, no matter where you are,

in a restaurant or at home, if the flavours linger once you've sipped

it, it's an indication of good quality wine.

I do like that. It's quite...

HE CLICKS HIS TONGUE Quite, kind of...

HE CLICKS HIS TONGUE ..at the end.

Kind of tangy? Bit of tang? Grenache has that, has a kind of spice.

-It's smooth as well.

-Yeah.

-It's easy on the palate.

-Do you like wine?

-Yes, yes, I do.

-Do you drink a lot of wine?

A little, yes, more than I probably should!

I actually love Spanish wine as well.

I think they've got some really interesting grape varieties

and I think it's really underrated maybe.

Let's all try it. Remember, one of them is luxury

-and one of them is less.

-Indeed.

-So, shall we move onto our Santa hat?

-Yes.

With your tagine, I've gone as close to North Africa

as I possibly can, by actually going there.

-This is a wine from Morocco.

-You went there?

-Well, no,

the wine went there. It comes from there. That's where it comes from.

It's true. It really is, the Romans used to grow wine

all over North Africa. This is the Syrah or Shiraz, same grape.

Nice dark fruit, you know, bit of spice. That's the kind of thing,

-bit of underfloor heating for the soul in winter time.

-It's lovely.

-It's delicious.

-Really velvety and smooth.

-It's almost like Port or something.

-Yes, yes, yes.

-It's got a certain

-richness, hasn't it?

-Really warming.

-Slightly chocolaty?

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. It's got all of that rich, mellow character to it

and you know, wines from Iberia, Portugal even, Spain,

but North Africa - amazing potential.

OK, do we have any idea which is luxury, which is less?

Which is less.

I think possibly Santa hat might be luxury and the wee robin might

be less. And I have to say, Santa hat, I'm loving.

-I don't really mind if it's not that cheap.

-Ditto that.

Ditto that? All going with that?

-Santa hat is a bit more sophisticated.

-You're spot-on.

Our robin is indeed less.

-A mere fiver at the Co-op for that Garnacha.

-Good, though.

-Yeah, good.

-Brilliant year of Spain. Campo de Borja. It's wonderful

wine, especially if you're having a party this Christmas.

Great stuff. But our luxury was, of course,

our Tandem Syrah from Morocco,

made by Alain Graillot, brilliant winemaker.

This is £14.60 from Yapp.co.uk.

-Nice.

-Bit of a spend, but you know, if you want to treat yourself this

Christmas, something off the beaten track,

-what a glorious bottle of wine.

-Great.

-Thanks for that, Olly.

Coming up, the first-ever Bake Off champion Edd Kimber here,

will be baking a gift that looks too good to eat. What is it?

They're chocolate sables, which is a French biscuit, but we're going to coat them in

-tempered chocolate with candy canes sprinkled over it.

-Nice, nice crumbly biscuit.

Nice Christmas twist to it. Yeah, totally. Delicious.

Plus Matt and I are going head-to-head in a cook-off.

A bit of festive, friendly competition

-we've called Yule Decide.

-Nice!

-Aren't we clever?

Now, today, we'll both be putting our spin on

a classic Christmas staple - stuffing.

But before all that, let's have our daily visit to the Hairy Bikers,

who are working their way through the 12 Days of Christmas.

So, here they are with their take on three French hens.

We're not going to be roasting turtledoves.

No, we're fans of game, but that's going a bit far.

No, turtledoves are a symbol of love

and this has inspired us to cook

a romantic meal for our nearest and dearest.

And yes, people, these ladies are our real true loves.

# Three French hens, two turtle doves

# And a partridge... #

Oh!

They haven't learned their lines yet,

but it's great to have them on the telly with us.

# Magic moments

# When two hearts are sharing

# I'll never forget the moment we met

# You nicked my wallet... #

Dude, not any more though, cos now we've got a couple of belters.

-No, now we've got a couple of belters.

-We have.

And they're due soon. We're doing something wonderful with our leftovers.

-Oh, we are.

-Christmas is a time of love, isn't it?

And one of the nicest things in the world is making food

for the people you love. Basically, what we're going to show

is when you've got leftover turkey, leftover ham, leftover cold cuts,

you can make really quick, tasty samosas.

And leftover grannies.

If your granny sits around and you want her to go home,

threaten that you'll put her into a samosa and she'll be off on

her Zimmer frame right up the drive.

Not that we're promoting cannibalism.

First thing we have to do is to, basically,

-put bits in a bowl and make the filling.

-What's this?

-It's a bowl.

-And this is two bits.

A couple left over old fondants. I'm going to dice those.

I think I'll just put it all in.

It seems just like a waste not to put it all in. I'll put it all in.

-Kingy, you can do what you want, it's Christmas.

-I will.

-It's Christmas!

-I love that. These orange things, surprisingly enough,

are carrots. You don't want them to go mushy,

so only part boil them, then chop them nice and fine.

-Everything is nice and fine, isn't it?

-And Christmas wouldn't be

Christmas without the odd diced carrot flying around, would it?

Well, it wouldn't.

Whenever you're making samosas,

potatoes always do seem to play a part.

They kind of take flavouring from the curry powder

and they bulk it out a bit. But fondants, because they've been

cooked in all that lovely butter and stock, these are rich samosas.

Romantic samosas.

We're going to put three teaspoons of curry powder.

For making the samosa, don't bother making your own pastry.

We've got two types that you commonly use.

One is the French brick pastry,

which I think gives a better finish.

It's more like a proper samosa pastry.

Or...good old packet of frozen filo pastry.

It tends to come up a bit Greek, but it's not bad.

For extra richness, we paint that with butter.

A samosa is rather like toilet paper,

it can be either two-ply or three-ply.

We go for two-ply, so it's two-ply, with butter in the middle.

And you know why?

Because it gives it a velvet finish.

So, you put it into the corner, like so and fold it over.

As we roll, those open ends

are being...sealed.

And there's the samosa shape we all know and love.

Passing over to the eggy wash department.

-Eggy wash department.

-That will need lots of eggy wash,

-that brick pastry.

-Oh, doesn't it?

-I feel it could unroll.

And you don't want that with your samosa. You don't want it to unroll.

No, no, because then it would be like a waffle.

But these are lovely for a party, if people are coming around, you know,

it's easy, it's finger food. It's not challenging.

-It's not formal.

-No.

-You just get tucked in.

# I'll never forget the moment we kissed

# The night of the hay ride

# The way that we hugged to try to keep warm

# While taking a sleigh ride... #

Come on, my darling. Look.

We've got little gems of loveliness everywhere.

So, ladies, Christmas is a time of love.

-What's the food of love?

-I think, for me, it has to be lobster.

-Do you think?

-Yes.

-Yeah.

No, you're keen on a lobby, aren't you, Kate?

I love the way you do it.

You can make me happy cooking me pig trotters.

You get pig's trotters, I get ruddy lobster!

-No wonder I'm skint!

-Aye.

Thanks, love.

That's going to be a great Christmas!

Let's be pulling the crackers.

# We wish you a merry Christmas

# We wish you a merry Christmas

# We wish you a merry Christmas and a happy new year! #

-Yay!

-Oh, I got one. Look at you, you ended up with two!

-Get your hats on, get your hats on.

-Nothing, nothing.

Quality hat that, dude. Quality hat.

Hey, guys. Now, we're continuing our international

alternatives to the traditional Christmas fare.

And today we're finding out what they eat in Mexico

-with Thomasina Miers. Thomasina, what are we cooking?

-Hiya.

-I love a hot ham at Christmas.

-Do you?

-Yeah.

But I'm going to just give a little Mexican twist with a pasilla

and raisin chutney.

Pasilla is a lovely, dark chilli from Mexico, which I love.

But other than that, it's fairly traditional.

Instead of a whole ham, I've got ham hock.

-It's much cheaper, just as good.

-Mm-hm.

-Really nice trick.

So, I have soaked this ham hock overnight in water.

-It just gets rid of the salt.

-It looks attractive.

-So, I've done that.

-Right.

-Once we've done that, we then have to cook it.

-Yeah.

So, to cook it, basically, we're going to get an onion and cover it

in cloves, like this, which is just what my granny used to do.

Super-traditional.

And then, we're going to cover it with water, which we've got here.

-Yeah.

-And cider.

-So, you cook it in cider.

-Just cider?

-I've got a whole can, 440ml of cider.

-Right.

-Fill it up and then fill it up with water.

-OK.

Throw in your studded onion.

Throw in some black peppercorns.

Cook it for a couple of hours, until it's really lovely and tender.

Then, we're going to drain this and I'm going to ask you to skin it.

There we are.

-So, if you keep... We've got about half a cup left in there.

-Right.

We'll put it in the pan, put it on a rack and then that'll add lovely

-moisture when you're roasting the ham.

-Sure, OK.

So, if you could take the skin,

crisscross it and then what we're going to do...

That might be tricky, cos it's really hot!

I've got some tongs. I've got some tongs for you.

-Fingers of steel, Matt. Fingers of steel.

-There you are.

Asbestos fingers. This is reminding me of my mother, Thomasina.

-You remind me of my mum with this.

-Oh, my God.

I love this, ham at Christmas is so great.

And what we're going to do... So, we're using sugars here, but lovely,

deep, dark sugars. In Mexico, they use a really dark sugar cane,

-natural sugar.

-Mm-hm.

-So, molasses is what we've got.

Molasses, we've got some really lovely English mustard powder

and some cloves as well.

So, you're going to rub all that over together

-and then just slather it all on.

-Yeah. OK.

Meanwhile, I'm going to get to making the chutney.

So, I've got a pan on here.

Now, just like spices, Mexican chillies like to be toasted,

-to bring out their flavours.

-OK, what chillies are those?

So, these are pasilla. They are dark, they're kind of raisin-like.

They're not too spicy. If you're worried about spice,

these really aren't that spicy. We're going to take all these seeds

-out and just break them up, like that.

-OK.

This is basically how you rehydrate any type of Mexican chilli.

You just take out the seeds, open them and give them a little toast.

That looks quite a lot of chilli. Are they quite mild in flavour?

Quite mild and, of course, we're mixing them in quite a lot of sugar.

Raisins and molasses and tamarind, which is a fruit from a tree that

they love to use in Mexico as well.

It goes really well with their flavour.

So, all you do to toast a chilli is just put it in a dry pan.

Now, you don't want to over toast it. I've got this pan on a, kind of,

like, medium heat. And you just want to toast it for about 30 to 40

seconds and you can normally tell once it's toasted,

little bubbles start appearing on the skin.

They start changing colour. You can start smelling the lovely fragrance.

-You can smell that now.

-Yes, it's nice.

And then we'll smell it afterwards and they will be delicious.

So, we've got that.

Tommi, how does Christmas differ in Mexico,

with celebrations and things? I've never been. I'm intrigued.

Well, the Mexicans...

What I really loved about Mexico when I first went there is

they love to celebrate with food and they love family.

It's a very kind of gregarious nation, so it's all about good food

and that for me is just perfect. So, now, these are toasted.

-Smell the difference. Smell how that is.

-Oh, wow.

-Just incredible.

So, what we're going to do with these is cover them in cold water.

So, I'm going to just grab... Boiling water.

-Sorry, cover them in boiling water.

-Yes.

And that is really to rehydrate them, because then we're going

-to just whiz them up and make a paste.

-Right.

And that paste is going to have all the flavour.

-And this was English mustard in here, right?

-English mustard, yeah.

So, it's a super-traditional, hot ham recipe, but with this wonderful

chutney that's going to be aromatic and sweet. Just like you'd have

a Cumberland sauce with a hot ham - instead we're using these chillies.

-So, I've got these chillies.

-Nice, OK. And then smear it all over here?

Smear it all over. Meanwhile, I'm going to come over

and whiz up these chillies in here.

So, these have been soaked for about ten minutes.

You can see they're all soft now.

-So, we're going to shove them in there.

-OK.

Could you use that liquor that's left over for anything else?

Do you know what, they discard it,

-because you don't know how long they've been around for.

-Sure.

So, they have impurities that come out in the hot water.

A Mexican mamma in a market would never, ever use that water,

-always discard it

-OK.

-So, we're going to add in that vinegar.

Mexico loves vinegar.

They make lots of home-made vinegar. It's very good for gut bacteria.

So, we're going to use that vinegar to loosen up...

THEY LAUGH Little laughs on the side.

-I was enthralled by the gut bacteria.

-I love that.

-I love vinegars. They're so healthy.

-What vinegar is that?

Do you know, my parents drink cider vinegar for their arthritis.

-People say it's very good for you. Yeah, yeah.

-Yeah.

-Right, is that enough?

-That looks great.

-OK.

-So, then, Matt, that just goes in an oven on a rack, with some of

those cooking juices in the bottom and we're going to roast it in a hot

-oven for about half an hour.

-Right.

And it's going to come out golden and treacly and delicious.

-OK.

-OK.

-Put that at the side.

Meanwhile, there we are. I've got the puree here.

This is going to be so sensational.

Whiz that up.

Now we need to put it in a little pan.

We've got some raisins that we've been soaking in hot water.

Just going to get rid of...

Oh! Did you see that?

I did. I caught a glimpse.

Glistening, it looks good.

And you need a spatula. Here's a spatula.

Thomasina, is it easy to get hold of those chillies?

Online, really easy.

So, I get lots of stuff online nowadays.

There are loads of Mexican stockists now.

But if you can't do that, would you be able to

-find an alternative in the local...

-Yeah, totally.

I mean, any kind of... Basically, this raisin chutney is a killer.

It's really, really delicious.

So, you could use Turkish chilli flakes, you could use cayenne.

It's basically just got a little touch of spice.

It's got deep, dark flavours and, of course, the tamarind makes it feel

-really moody as well.

-And you get that lovely sour thing

-from the tamarind?

-Yeah, lovely sourness from tamarind, exactly.

You can always add some fresh lime in there as well, which would be delicious.

-Yeah. So, it's just about gauging the heat for yourself?

-Quite fruity.

-What you can cope with and what you want.

-Exactly.

So, in this pan, we've got raisins, about 200g.

We've got about 50g of tamarind pulp in there.

We've got, again, dark molasses sugar,

which has got all that flavour.

And I think there was a little bit of vinegar left.

Do they use a lot of tamarind?

Tamarind, in Mexico, they're mad about it. They're really into it.

-What can I do with this, then?

-So, we're going to make a salad now.

So, we've got some celeriac mash to go underneath the ham.

-We're going to have a lovely crisp celeriac salad, too.

-OK.

Celeriac and apple are brilliant together.

So, if you can peel those apples and shave them, like, superfine.

-Share.

-I'm doing a little salad dressing.

I've got creme fraiche or sour cream.

I've got some English mustard, some grainy mustard.

A little bit of red wine vinegar in there.

We want a lovely, sharp dressing.

I'm going to put a tiny bit of lemon juice in here.

Toss it all together and plate it up.

-So, while you've got that, I've got the ham.

-Parsley in there?

Parsley in that. Toss all together. That would be lovely.

I've got my plate here.

Now, this mash, celeriac and potato mash - absolutely delicious.

Celeriac and apple. Celeriac and potato mash.

It's quite British-looking, actually.

Celeriac mash, apple, salad. But yet you've got that sort of...

Lovely touch, just touch of ham. Now, this is just...

-Can you see?

-Oh, so good!

-Oh-ho-ho!

-Can you see this? I mean, look, look at this.

-All hail the ham.

It's just falling apart here and I'm going to get some tongs,

so I'm not getting my fingers all over it.

We'll just...

I mean, this ham hock is so reasonable.

It's about seven quid for a ham hock.

Ham hocks are great, aren't they? They're so versatile.

They are brilliant. And we've got loads of glorious meat juices

in here. Look at this. Look at that. Oh, cor!

-Wow.

-All over.

And we've got this wonderful salad.

That is crisp and fresh to go with it,

-with the apple in it for sweetness.

-Very nice.

And then just a touch of this delicious chutney,

which is fragrant and just a touch of spice, but just smell that.

It looks amazing. It smells great.

And then we're just going to pour that over there.

That's my roasted ham hocks with a pasilla and raisin chutney.

Delicious. Can't wait to try it.

Right, Helen, Edd, Holly, let's do this. Let's do this.

Oh, my word. Heavens to Murgatroyd.

Heavens to Murgatroyd. It's all here, people.

-Heavens to what?

-Heavens to Murgatroyd.

-I can't wait to try this.

-Oh, yes!

-It's literally a fork fight going on.

-Oh, sorry.

Ham heaven!

It looks fantastic.

-That is extraordinary. Super-tender.

-Mm!

And the lovely fresh salad, to kind of give it crispness.

-That glaze is buzzing.

-It's delicious.

Ham's always one of my favourites for Christmas leftovers.

-Yes, yes.

-Leftover ham sandwiches the day after.

-The leftovers for

this are cracking. This as a sandwich would be, yeah.

-Oh, my word.

-And of course, you must keep the crackling,

-cos can cook it later.

-No, you don't keep it, you just eat it.

-Yeah.

-Wow. There won't be any leftovers if we have this.

It's delicious.

-Seriously, though...

-This is amazing.

-Totally scrumptious.

-Mm.

-Mm.

-And the salad's perfect.

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

Because it is sweet and it is rich...

-And English dry sparkling cider.

-To drink with it.

-Yeah.

That is delicious. Properly delicious.

Right, now there's one thing that everyone

has lots of at this time of year and that's leftovers, so every day

we'll be bringing you a brilliant idea for your leftovers

from one of the nation's favourite chefs,

and today we're talking turkey, with Rick stein.

Here's how he thinks you should use it,

with a dash of inspiration from Thailand.

I ended my trip to Thailand

with a little reflective stroll on the beach.

And as I started this chapter

by saying I was a bit accident-prone,

I finished it in the same vein.

Can you, can you see that, um, wound on my head?

It doesn't look very nice.

The thing is that Thai people are so small,

so I keep bumping into beams and things.

Well, you'll have to buy a hard hat.

I can't wear a hard hat!

People often ask me where I get my oriental ingredients.

The answer? St Austell in Cornwall.

Yuri Wong owns the local Thai store,

so what would she do with leftover turkey?

Right, I'm going to cook garlic turkey with king prawn...

-Leftover turkey, of course.

-That's correct.

-Great.

-And egg noodle.

-Oh, fantastic.

-Right...

-So, you've got oil in the pan, what goes in first?

-Right, garlic, of course.

You've just added the cooked turkey now?

That's correct, yes, the one left over from Christmas.

-Would you do something like this in Thailand?

-Not really.

-No?

-Because we usually found turkey in the zoo.

-In the zoo?

-Yes!

How do you mean? Don't you eat turkey?

-No, we usually eat chicken or pork instead of turkey.

-It's lovely.

I know, but you know, when it first came over here,

when my mother-in-law cooking turkey for me

and then thinking, oh, my goodness.

So you think we're probably

these dreadful turkey-eating foreigners, then?

THEY LAUGH

I suppose it must be like us eating pandas, or something.

Not quite the done thing.

Anyway, in with the turkey,

some succulent prawns and some chopped spring onions.

When they're well underway,

in go some red chillies without their seeds.

Mm, very interesting, a Thai woman removing chilli seeds.

She's been in England too long!

Then of course plenty of coriander leaves and some chopped peanuts,

ALWAYS an important addition.

PAN SIZZLES

There we go. And now we can do seasoning.

Then the fish sauce, and naturally plenty of it.

Four spoonfuls, she's putting in.

But that will be counteracted by the palm sugar.

I can sense she's keeping everything very simple.

A basic Thai stir-fry.

But if you are dealing with leftover turkey,

I think it would be so much better than simply making a stew.

What on earth are you doing there?

Oh, I massage lime to get the most juice out of this lime.

-Really?

-Yes.

-I never knew that.

-Right, now what we do is we cut it in half.

She's right, you know, I've tried it.

If you massage the lime for a minute,

you definitely get more juice out of it.

Now she adds some flat noodles, simmered for a couple of minutes

and then run under some cold water to stop them cooking.

That looks absolutely lovely. I'm really impressed with that.

-Ah, thank you.

-I can't wait to try it.

-Ooh!

I noticed you took all the seeds out of the chillies.

-Would you normally do that in Thailand?

-Er, no.

But the reason I do it here is because, erm, my husband's English

and if I put it too hot for him, it might be,

make him go retchy for Christmas.

THEY LAUGH

-Funny.

-Right, now this is done...

-You are funny.

-Yeah?

-Good.

From the beginning to end it didn't take more than 12 minutes,

and there's enough here to feed four.

-Very, um, economical in your cooking.

-Thank you.

This dish especially, you get three flavour,

-one is from fish sauce...

-Yeah?

-..one is from palm sugar...

-Yeah.

-..and one is from fresh lime.

-Absolutely.

And it's a lovely balance.

It's very healthy too, actually.

Lots of people like it and my husband likes it too.

-My husband is number one, you know, fan club of my cookery.

-I bet he is.

-He's a very lucky man.

-Aw, thank you.

Still to come, Olly's making Christmas merry with

a great festive cocktail idea. Today's tipple is vodka.

And great British Baker winner Edd Kimber's showing us

how to make a tasty gift this year -

mint chocolate sables with a candy cane crush.

And we'll be visiting Christmas past to see what the legendary

Floyd would cook at this time of year.

Now, if you've been to a supermarket recently, then you can't

have failed to have noticed the mountains of festive ingredients

and foodie gifts in store, like panettones, chutneys and Stilton,

but when you're given some as a gift, what do you actually

do with it? Probably not a lot.

So every day we're going to give you some recipe suggestions for

those foodie gifts to make sure you actually use them this year,

so Matt, here is my gift to you today.

-I wonder what it could be?

-Are you excited?

-GENTLE LAUGHTER

-What have we got?

-We have, ta-da-da-da!

-A tonne of brandy butter!

-Brandy butter, a LOT of brandy butter.

Well, I mean I'd probably just eat it with a spoon, straight from this.

-Would you?

-Yeah, cos I love...

Cold butter!

LAUGHTER I love... I do!

I love a brandy butter, but if I was going to do something with it

I would do this, and it's basically a take on a sort of crepe suzette.

-Lovely.

-So we've got these crepes, you don't even have to make them

-yourself.

-You can buy these in the supermarket.

-Obviously.

And just some oranges, got some brandy,

-some sugar and a load of this brandy butter.

-Mm.

-Pretty much it,

so I'm going to make a little caramel and then I'm going to...

It does smell good... Oh, it smells amazing.

So, I tell you what, if you could...

I was going to zest that, can you break these down into little...

Little segments. I think I can manage that.

That would be marvellous.

I HATE brandy butter.

Casually. Casual cooking.

-You can't stand brandy butter?

-One of the few things Christmassy I don't like.

Generally, I like everything Christmassy, but...

-Kimber, what's the matter with you?

-I know!

I'm like to flip open my mince pies and shove

-a load in and put them in the oven so the butter will...

-Yeah.

-Great tip.

Is it cheese you can put in there as well? Weirdly nice. Weirdly nice.

My mum's tip for mince pies would be always put almond

-paste inside before you bake it, it's the best mince pie ever.

-Marzipan...

Yeah, put a little piece of marzipan, just on the top,

bake it as normal with pastry on top, it's so delicious,

a bit richer, but really tasty.

I don't really hold with marzipan as a rule.

-But I might try that.

-You see, now I'm aghast at you.

-Yeah!

-No, you're aghast!

-THEY LAUGH

OK, so I'm just going to brown this sugar just a little bit,

a little bit more golden.

-And then I'm going to stop it with this orange juice.

-What's in there right now?

That's just sugar and some brandy butter. Sort of equal quantities.

-Lovely.

-OK and in with some juice.

It is very 1970s, this whole thing.

Yeah, it is. But that's me all over.

LAUGHTER

-To be honest.

-Fresh. Sensitive. In 1976.

-And a child of the '70s.

You were 1976?

-'73.

-'73? Ah! It's a great year.

-Great year.

-Spring chicken.

LAUGHTER Don't know about that.

You're younger than me, but let's not go into it.

Not really feeling it. You're not supposed to be eating it!

LAUGHTER

-That is so nice.

-That's half the fun of Christmas though, isn't it?

-Nibbling as you go.

-Nibbling as you go, a little sip...

Nibble, share.

A little missing there.

You're going to help me with that.

-I will help you soon enough.

-Marvellous.

So, what are you doing for Christmas?

Well, I think I'm going to spend it with my family.

Obviously, watching the Call The Midwife Christmas special

on Christmas Day, thank you very much(!)

Um, not going to watch myself, that would be awful, I'm just...

So, yeah, doing that and eating and drinking, all the rest of it.

-You know, New Year's Eve is a big thing for me.

-Yeah?

I love New Year's Eve.

Not many people do.

-I like to stay in and have open house.

-Yeah.

You invite people over...

Going out's a bit much, it's all a little bit much for me.

But I love to just have open house, cook loads of groovy things,

get loads of beautiful drinks on,

and just come round as and when you feel like it, I'll be there.

Yeah.

I'm coming round, with my bottle of English sparkling wine.

Oh, please come round with your bottle of English sparkling wine.

Lots of good food, friends, good food...

I mean, sure that's the way you want to see the New Year in?

-Yeah, it is.

-Yeah.

OK. So, this is my little caramel with the orange juice,

it's quite rich at the moment.

-Are these going in there?

-In just a sec.

In with the brandy.

Are we going to flambe?

Well, let's try. There you go.

Ooh!

-It's exciting, isn't it?

-OK.

-It is!

Do you know, Matt, you can actually do a tortilla exactly the same way?

-What?

-A flambeed tortilla.

Tortilla. You can flambe it just like that.

-Really?

-Yeah.

-Can you?

-Yeah.

-Is that traditional?

-Yeah. It's cool. You can do it.

That sounds quite nice. Sweet or savoury?

You know, a bought one, from the supermarket, flour one,

just shove it in there.

-Yeah, OK, OK.

-I don't think he's convinced.

-Do they actually make that sweet?

-Yeah, yeah.

You can soak it in cream and egg,

and you can do it like, you know, eggy bread.

-Just shove it in there.

-Nice. Nice.

Eggy bread and then loads of alcoholic caramel on the top.

-Sounds awful.

-Sounds good.

-Sounds awful?

THEY LAUGH

You know, for you, I'm going to try that.

Just cos I'm brave.

-OK, so...

-Will I help you with these?

Yeah, I'll tell you what, chuck those in.

All of them? Some of them?

All, carefully, please?

-Yeah, go on, throw those in.

-Oh, missed...

Little bit...

-OK, and then...

-Beautiful.

-Pretty much ready to go.

Shall I move these things for you?

So, all those little pancakes, I mean,

these were just sort of supermarket ready-made ones,

Just fold it over, put it in, and that'll soak up...

But that's lovely, because they're not...the greatest,

those things, when they're just on their own, are they? Let's face it.

So just soak them in alcohol and brandy butter!

LAUGHTER

-Exactly.

-Seems like a wise move, really, doesn't it?

-So, let's finish it with a bit of...

-Beautiful.

-..bit more zest.

-Oh, look at that.

-Tell you what, I'll just...

-Can you pass me that brandy?

-The brandy?

-Yeah.

-It's got a little extra.

-I'm just going to finish it off.

LAUGHTER

-This is just in case...

-Just in case he got thirsty, you know.

I just, I like to look after him, really.

-Beautiful.

-OK.

-Oh, that looks so nice.

-Look at that.

-Looks yum.

And I like the little fresh clementines on the top,

-so you get like, a little zesty zing...

-A burst of flavour.

..of freshness from those. Yeah, a burst.

All right, some of that, and I think I'll just add just a tiny bit...

-Bit more brandy.

-Just a tiny hit...

..of that. Just to pick it up again.

This is good use of brandy butter.

It takes brandy butter to the next level!

This is good, good use of brandy butter.

I'm doubling or tripling the brandy butter.

This is boosting the brandy butter into the next level.

It's tremendous.

OK, so that is my crepes with brandy butter.

That's a fine thing.

Right. Let's go and try it.

It's a fine thing, a thing of great beauty.

Do you know, I'm really enjoying this series.

It's got to be good for you, that, as well.

But look at that. Shiny, gorgeous looking things.

Surely you need a lot of cream with this, as well?

-Yes.

-I'm quite excited that this is between us and them.

I think we've got, like, dibs on this.

Edd, you said you hated brandy butter,

-so I think you should try it first.

-Yes, go on.

Why don't you like brandy butter?

I've just always had really bad versions of it.

I'm sure you can make a really good version.

Or just had it cold. You've got to melt it.

I think it has to be hot, yes, for sure.

OK, that's good.

-Is it good?

-Yeah, it's really good.

-Oh, my God. It's really good.

-Isn't it?

-Simples.

-Simples.

Simples is not a word. Just so everyone knows.

LAUGHTER

I don't think I want creme fraiche on it, actually,

I quite like it like this, just...

It's nice and zesty. Nice balance of zest and sweet.

Brilliant brandy butter. Top.

And because you've got the little fruit there,

you get the pop of sharpness. You don't really...

The creaminess would go, take it in a whole other world,

but of course, each to their own.

Each to their own.

Now, in just a moment, Edd Kimber here, known as The Boy Who Bakes,

will be creating a home-made gift that everyone would love to receive.

It's full of mint, chocolate and candy canes.

But before that, Helen. What is your favourite Christmas memory?

I always had really lovely Christmases as a child,

and my dad would like, put sweets out,

and mince pies for Father Christmas,

and a carrot for the reindeers, and...

And we always did it properly as kids, you know,

and I remember running downstairs, once, when I was about six or seven,

and seeing a BMX.

-A shiny, bright orange BMX.

-Cool!

-Which one did you get?

-A Scorpion?

-Wicked.

-I think it was...

LAUGHTER

I was so excited.

-And nothing's really beaten that since, to be honest.

-Aww!

-You're still looking for that big present.

-I know!

-I just need another BMX!

-LAUGHTER

-Still waiting for a shiny BMX! Aww!

-Aren't we all?

Anyway, lovely memory, that.

Now, here are some of our favourite celebrities

with their Christmas memories.

Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year.

My favourite thing to do on Christmas morning

is make a puff pancake, you know,

that blows up and has fruit and everything in it,

and you're still in your pyjamas,

and you open your Christmas presents,

it's a warm and fuzzy thing.

It's a tradition that we do every year.

What was your worst Christmas?

'When you stuck me on top of the Christmas tree.'

I think my first, and kind of lasting, memory of Christmas

is when I first got a Christmas cracker.

My father managed to get hold of...

Because Christmas crackers were, again, very rare,

but my father, for some unknown reason,

managed to get hold of a box of...

what seemed, I think, rather expensive Christmas crackers.

So I'll never forget the first time we pulled the thing

and a little car and a little hat fell out,

you know and I just remember it was bliss.

Sheer bliss.

I think one of the nicest things you can get for Christmas

is a home-made gourmet gift.

So we've invited the stars of The Great British Bake Off,

past and present, to give us some ideas and today,

we're joined by the first-ever winner of the show,

back in 2010, Edd Kimber.

-Welcome, Edd.

-Thank you very much.

-Pleasure to have you here.

-Is this a busy time for you?

-It is.

Christmas baking is always that big thing.

Do people expect you to make things for them?

Yes. I'll go to someone's house and it's like, "Oh, what's for dessert?"

-"I don't know, what did you make?"

-LAUGHTER

-Right, OK, so what are we doing?

-I'm going to make a really simple

kind of French-style biscuit.

It's called sable, just cos I'm fancy. Not really.

Sable just means sandy,

-so we want a kind of crumbly texture to the biscuit.

-Sure.

-So if you can chop up some chocolate and candy cane...

-OK, I can do that.

Cos it's going to have candy cane

to give it that peppermint, Christmassy flavour.

If you want to do it as a normal chocolate biscuit,

just leave out the candy cane, add a little more chocolate in.

What I'm going to do it just add some plain flour to a sieve,

along with some cocoa powder,

some salt, and the really important part of this recipe is sea salt.

-OK.

-Cos we want it to have a slightly salty texture.

-Yeah.

Because chocolate and salt goes really, really well together.

So just sieve all of that together.

So, Edd, you were the first-ever winner of...

I was, a long time ago.

I mean, and since then, it seems that baking has gone mad.

Yeah, I always find it amazing, cos when I did the show,

we got about, I think three million.

-And now 15-16 million people watch it. It's insane.

-Yeah.

It's fascinating how baking has become that new kind of, you know,

rock and roll kind of, celebrity chef kind of thing.

So all we're doing is butter, sugar,

and a little bit of vanilla in the mix there.

Pull it through for a couple of minutes,

because you just want it to bring it together as a homogeneous mass.

You look a bit fierce, doing that.

I'm getting a little bit bored, to be honest!

LAUGHTER

To be fair, what you should do is put it in a bag

and then use a rolling pin, and that way it won't go everywhere.

Oh, now he tells me.

But I thought I'd let you make a mess, cos it's more fun.

So once that's come together,

all we're going to do is add our dry goods,

and then you're going to turn it on to a really slow speed and mix it

just until it forms these little clumps,

so it's kind of still sandy-looking,

and that way, you know you're not going to get a really chewy,

over mixed biscuit.

And then what we can do is come and steal your chocolate...

..and candy canes. And then we're just going to add that.

-And mix that together just until it comes together.

-OK.

How good...

I mean, it's Christmas, it's a treat I suppose,

I guess you don't really worry about...

You know, the health aspect.

You know what, for this year,

-I've seen the whole rise of clean eating, right?

-Oh, don't!

I don't like the word clean or dirty,

I think it's an odd way to talk about food.

Yeah, so do I! I agree.

For me, it's always been, a little bit of what you fancy

does you well, because you feel better, you're a happier person,

-so go for it. Why not?

-Yeah, it's rather like alcohol-free wine.

To me, that's simply grape juice.

LAUGHTER

Exactly. Exactly.

So once that dough starts to come together,

we're just going to add the chocolate and the candy cane.

So just, very briefly, once you've added the chocolate, mix that in,

and then once that comes together...

..we can then take this dough

and we're going to form it into our cookie dough logs.

So the nice thing about this recipe is you end up with two logs.

One that you're going to bake off, give that as a gift,

and the other one you're going to give as a gift

so that they can make it whenever they want.

You're not even baking them now! LAUGHTER

We're doing half of it! We're doing half the job.

-Going to use your hands to roughly bring it together.

-Right.

And it is quite a dry, crumbly dough,

so don't worry if you have to work it a little bit.

We're going to split it into two,

-so I'm going to give you half of it...

-OK.

..so you can have a go.

-Use your hands to roughly bring it together.

-Yeah.

-It doesn't have to be perfect at this point.

-OK.

I'll show you a nice little cheat to get it perfect.

Get it roughly in the shape,

and then we're going to take some parchment paper,

and just cut off a nice piece.

Big fan of parchment.

A cheat, I love a cheat.

It's not a cheat, it's more of a tip. It's a nice little tip.

Because that, baked off, is not going to look very nice, is it?

So what we're going to do is take the dough

and then fold the parchment over

and then take a ruler...

Does it look like that when you've finished it?

It will do. Once you've taken this off...

So is this the one we're doing?

So that's the gift one. That's the one you're going to gift,

-and this is the one we're going to slice.

-Nice.

So all you would do is take the ruler and create some tension,,

-so you press it down like that...

-Right.

..holding the bottom piece, and then push along,

-and it will eventually become a much smoother one.

-OK.

Cos the dough is little dry, it's not going to get there.

-So we're just going to...

-So we'll use this?

-We use this one, yes.

-Use that one.

-That's great, though.

It just means... Basically, you can do another thing, so...

You want the dough to be really nice and round,

cos it means the finished biscuits are going to be nice and round.

If you really want to take it to the nth degree,

pop it inside a kitchen roll tube, pop that in the fridge,

and that way, because the tube is round, it won't sit and flatten.

-So, Edd, how long would these go in...?

-So these would go in cold,

straight from the fridge, for about ten to 12 minutes.

When they come out, they'll feel a little soft. But let them set...

-That's what you want.

-Yeah, exactly.

And they'll go crunchy and nice and tender.

OK. Are we going to chill those down, before...?

No, they can go in now, cos the dough is quite firm.

What you can do, if you want to keep these for even longer,

they'll keep a couple of weeks in the fridge.

If you want to keep them for a couple months,

wrap them in clingfilm or parchment in the freezer,

they'll keep for ages.

But if you want to have what I call a cookie emergency,

-so you come back late at night and you really...

-Cookie emergency?

-It's a thing. It's a thing.

-LAUGHTER

-Of course it is.

-Of course it's a thing!

-Of course it is.

We all know what that is.

What you do, is you can slice off a cookie

and bake it straight from frozen,

but the cookie dough is really hard to slice frozen,

so slice it and then freeze it and then you can literally...

So when you come back drunk from the pub...

I didn't say drunk, I said emergency.

OK. So, what about these...?

What happens is, sometimes,

the dough can be a little dry and it may crumble.

All you have to do is very gently press it back together,

and then pop it back onto the tray, and it will be absolutely fine.

Cos it will melt together, no problem.

So it's not meant to be a perfect recipe.

It's meant to be fun, and because a lot of it is done with hands,

it's a great one to get kids involved with.

-So, then, these go away?

-These go into the oven.

180, 160 fan, for about ten to 12 minutes.