Christmas Inspiration

With a small amount of preparation you can turn a simple piece of pork belly into an impressive porchetta style roast . Buy a fairly large pork belly for this dish...

This makes a very big cake. I usually make it in a 10 inch square deep tin and it fills the tin to the top. It pays to extend the baking paper lining above the top of the tin just to be on the safe side as it does rise a small amount in the oven. Alternatively you could split this into 2 20cm tins for 2 regular sized cakes but you will need to reduce the cooking time.  You can leave the top plain, stud it with nuts and or glaze cherries before cooking as in the photo here, or top with a glaze fruit and nut topping, or ice in the traditional way with marzipan and fondant.
You will need a very large saucepan to cook the fruit in...

This is a really impressive looking dish but deceptively simple to make. It would look perfect on your Christmas Dinner table.  We chose to sit it on a bed of hummus. Using a combination of Steam Microwave and Oven all together is the key to cooking this quickly with a great result. If you aren't lucky enough to have a Smeg Omnichef oven, you can adapt the recipe but using Steam Combination, Microwave Combination or plain oven but you will need to adjust the cooking times to suit your choice of cooking technology. ...

With biscotti you can add whatever mix ins you prefer - for a Christmas theme we have used almonds, glace cherries and dried fruit. This recipe is based on a traditional Italian recipe that uses egg to bind the ingredients instead of butter or oil and is a perfect accompaniment to a cup of coffee...

This recipe is tried and true.  Its been cooked for hundreds of demonstrations and we often cook it at home as well. It is reliable and impressive and so fast to cook that its a great go to recipe when you need a lovely meal in a hurry...

This is a different yet easier variation on the Christmas Pavlova. By cooking the meringue in flat discs there is less chance of disaster . You can make this as large as you like or make small discs for individual desserts.
The quantities in the recipe will make 5 discs approximately 25cm round or 20 10cm rounds...

These make a great addition to a Home made Christmas gift bag...

These easy-to-make sweet treats, are a Christmas take on a baklava style of dessert. Instead of being filled with nuts, Christmas fruit mince is added and orange syrup completes the dish.
These are a great alternative to the more traditional Christmas mince pie...

Being Vegan or Vegetarian doesn't preclude you from this tempting dessert.  Be prepared by putting the cans in the refrigerator at least the day before. ...

With a bit of imagination, something as simple as some bread rolls can become an awesome Christmas table centrepiece, that is until it is so quickly demolished because its so delicious...

Bombolini are Italian doughnuts, usually filled with a pastry cream and then fried and rolled in sugar. In this recipe the filling takes on a Christmas theme with the addition of Christmas Fruit Mince and chocolate. Yum...

This recipe is rather magical, very easy to cook, and perfect for a Christmas dessert. It is the first recipe of several in collaboration with our friends at Imagination Distillery . This recipe uses their Christmas Pudding Gin which gives that perfect infusion of flavour to this custard based dessert. ...

This dish is much easier than it appears. Its perfect for a Summer picnic or for the Christmas lunch table . If your steam oven doesn't have a SousVide Function, choose Full Steam and the closest temperature above that specified in the recipe...

Love pavlova but no time for the real thing?
This roulade style dessert is the perfect  solution.  The filling and topping can be adapted to suit what you have in the fridge.  Try passionfuit instead of lemon curd,  swap berries for chocolate shavings, or drizzle with chocolate sauce.  ...

I find the trouble with cooking a Christmas Pudding is that it takes a LONG time to cook and then only a few people eat it, so the effort in to output is very low...