Mary Berry’s Ultimate Christmas: Much-loved home cook Dame Mary Berry is joined by some famous friends for her ultimate Christmas feast, packed with tips to plan and get ahead for the big day. Planning is Mary’s top tip for a successful and enjoyable day, and here she shares her definitive recipes, perfected over 50 years. Her festive feast begins with a deliciously simple stilton and sage mini scone canape, followed by her traditional Christmas feast, including her lemon and herb roast turkey with all the trimmings. Her crispy roast potatoes, honey glazed carrots and parsnips, ruby red cabbage and apricot and chestnut stuffing are all complemented by turkey gravy. To complete the meal, Mary is joined by Rylan Clark. They visit a pick-your-own vegetable farm and cook up brussels sprouts with peas and cashews to try to convert some brussels-hating kids.
Mary is also joined by some chef friends who share festive recipes from their own heritage. She visits Angela Hartnett at home, where she cooks rich pumpkin ricotta tortelli, a seasonal tradition for her Italian family. Monica Galetti welcomes Mary to her restaurant kitchen, where she prepares a twist on Samoan palusami with smoked haddock, cavolo nero and sourdough, which she’ll be serving to her family on Christmas Day.
To create the perfect table setting, Mary shows how to create a sustainable and cost-conscious centrepiece from foraged greenery before Rylan joins her at home to share a festive cocktail with fizz and cranberries.
To complete the festive feast are two sumptuous desserts. Mary’s traditional British Christmas pudding recipe goes back to medieval times – a rich mix of dried fruit and nuts that is steamed for eight hours before being served alongside a boozy cream. Alongside this is a festive trifle with layers of custard, cream, sponge and pear, topped with spun sugar.
Mary Berry’s Ultimate Christmas
Rylan’s Festive Fizz
Rylan makes Mary a delicious cocktail with cranberry juice, Prosecco, and orange liqueur. Rylan shows Mary how to make ‘Rylan’s Festive Fizz’, which includes cranberry juice, prosecco, and orange liqueur. He then shows Mary how to add granulated sugar to the rim of each glass, before toasting to their festive drink.
Mary Berry’s sumptuous Christmas stuffing
In her kitchen, Mary discusses chopping the apricots, what gives the right amount of fruit flavor, and how long they need to be simmered in hot water. She then discusses how to chop the chestnuts and how half will be fried and the other half will be incorporated into the stuffing mix. This is followed by Mary chopping parsley, adding white breadcrumbs, apricot onion, celery and thyme leaves.
Mary Berry’s perfect turkey gravy
In her kitchen, Mary instructs how to make the perfect Christmas gravy. This includes melting the butter, adding flour, giblet stock and mixing. She then adds the fat from the turkey, salt, pepper and Worcester sauce, then finally brings it to boil.
Mary Berry’s fabulously fruity Christmas trifle
Mary has drained her pears and prepared cherries. She halves the cherries, divides the pears. She then instructs how to prepare her trifle sponges, including what to do if audiences only have regular sponge. She then cuts the trifle sponges lengthways, puts half the pears in the base of the dish and positions them as the double-layered foundation of her trifle.
Mary Berry’s Ultimate Christmas: Much-loved home cook Dame Mary Berry is joined by some famous friends for her ultimate Christmas feast