Shortcuts to make Christmas desserts sparkle

Whether it’s trifle, mince pies or cake, turn ready-made products into home-made puddings this Christmas…

Making everything from scratch at Christmas, for a fortnight of big dinners, parties and guests, might be our idea of fun. But under the pressure of the season, even the best of us might wistfully imagine buying everything in already made.

However, it’s possible to have the best of both worlds. Choose the best of the ready-made ingredients, freshen up the flavours by adding a few key ingredients, or reinvent them into home-made dishes.

We asked our social media followers for tips for their Christmas ingredient hacks and there were some great suggestions.

Ready-made mincemeat is ripe for reinventing, and almost any jar can be livened up with zest from oranges in the fruit bowl or a little festive spirit. Sarah Cook's puff pastry mince pies have three ideas for adding fresh flavours and sparkle to a jar – from pear and cranberry, to sloe gin and apple, to cinnamon walnuts and amaretto.

If you're using ready-made pastry, grate a little orange zest over the pastry and roll it in, or switch up your pastry completely and use filo for a really crispy pie. Change the tops of your mince pies for a bespoke and homemade look. Mary Berry likes to grate marzipan on the top her mince pies as well as adding dried apricots to the filling. The Hairy Bikers opt for a frangipane top.

If you've already reached peak pie, use your mincemeat to Christmas up an apple crumble, as food writer Annie Rigg suggests.

Puff pastry

Ready-made puff pastry hardly feels like a cheat, but is a great shortcut to making instant desserts. Even Michel Roux uses it for his French apple tart and Marcus Wareing has it in the fridge for making tarte tatin.

Food writer Fliss Freeborn recommends “popping a bar of dark chocolate into the middle of a sheet of ready-made puff pastry and spreading it with a tablespoon or so of marmalade before wrapping it up and pinching it at the ends – like a giant Christmas cracker. Bake at 200C (fan) for 20 minutes. It’s a brilliant festive dessert – it’s an easy play on a chocolate orange.”

If you have leftover mincemeat, mince pies or Christmas pudding you could swirl it through softened ice cream something Anna Williams, Head Pastry Chef, Fallow, London, recommends.

Alternatively, food blogger Alex Hollywood suggests: “Try making chocolate orange or chocolate, mint and pistachio ice cream cake. This is great for using up the Christmas biscuit tin. Line a square tin and mix the blitzed orange or mint biscuits with some digestives and with some softened butter as you would for a cheesecake base. Press firmly into the lined tin and chill. Then scoop slightly softened chocolate ice cream on top (for an extra oooof you could always dollop in any leftover brandy cream) then smooth and freeze.

"Before serving sprinkle the edges with crushed pistachios and allow to defrost slightly before digging in.”

Panettone

The Italian sweet bread is a favourite at Christmas. Stocked by budget supermarkets, it can be the foundation of many other desserts…

Sarah Turner, Head of Development at catering company Social Pantry, London, suggests making a chocolate panettone French toast. “It’s a delicious, sweet treat for any time of day.” You’ll need half a chocolate panettone then, says Turner: “Whisk together four eggs and 200ml milk in a bowl with a teaspoon of cinnamon and two tablespoons of sugar. Dip 2–3 inch slices of panettone in the egg mix, allowing to soak for 5–10 seconds each side.

Fry in butter until golden brown and crisp, sprinkle with cinnamon sugar and serve with a good dollop of crème fraîche. “You could even add salted caramel,” she says.

Transforming leftover panettone into bread and butter pudding is Freeborn's favourite. “I have been known to dot in little pieces of marzipan… they go wonderfully gooey when baked.

“Leftover croissants are brilliant too for a festive breakfast bread and butter pudding. Grate some nutmeg and the zest of an orange into the egg custard mix before baking.”

Williams explains: “If you are a trifle family but don’t want the fuss of making all the elements, buy a good vanilla custard, sponge fingers, even the jelly. Then in a beautiful large bowl layer them up. Add some fruits of choice and what takes five minutes looks like hours of work.

You can also use a shop bought Swiss roll and slice to use as your sponge and layer up around the bowl to give an attractive look to your trifle in its glass bowl.” This technique, is particularly good if making a festive chocolate trifle.

Hollywood suggests using it to make cheats brandy custard. “Warm a can of custard and a small pot of single cream, whisk in a couple teaspoons of brandy to serve with your Christmas pud. It’s oh so good.”

Freeborn suggests giving a shop-bought plain cheesecake a cheaty sauce to make it your own. “A tablespoon of lemon juice mixed into half a jar (around 175g) of warmed blackcurrant jam is perfect for me, but it does depend on your own taste. Raspberry jam works really well for this too, as would cherry or apricot.”

Use shop-bought brownie bites, ginger biscuits, meringues and marshmallows to decorate cupcakes or cheesecake, or as a deluxe topping for Christmas hot chocolate

Alternatively, if you love tiramisu, Freeborn recommends: “Whip 125g (half a tub) of mascarpone with a heaped tablespoon of icing sugar and around 25ml of Madeira or Irish cream liqueur. Spread that on 400g of bought Madeira cake, drizzled with around 75-100ml of strong coffee made with two tablespoons of demerara sugar. Then dust cocoa on top.”

Ready-made meringues

“If you fancy a pavlova but are worried about your meringue skills not being up to scratch, you can buy some brilliant ready-made ones,” says Williams.

“Use large ones and then whip your own cream, add a little flavouring to this and then top with some fruits and a sauce of your choice. Even the little individual meringue would be nice if grouped together - this means everyone can grab one and then you have none of the mess when cutting it all up.”

Originally published December 2022