4Food has taken this idea and run with it – some might say too far – to give figgy puddings a face-lift to remember. Enter Hannah Williams and Charlie Cottrell, the Gok Wan and Myleene Klass of fortified mince…

Christmas pudding meatballs

Meatballs are made of minced meat right? So why not mincemeat? By substituting the former for the latter we conjured up a sweet festive treat Mama would be proud of…

Ingredients

• About 400g ready-rolled marzipan
• About 400g Christmas pudding, pre-cooked in microwave
• Small pot raspberry compote
• Icing sugar/’Parmesan’ for dusting
• Mint to garnish

Method
We started by cutting the marzipan into thin strips lengthways to roughly resemble spaghetti – to be fair, clumsy fingers lent the marzipan more of a fettucine look but you get the idea.
Then we rolled our mincemeat into 6 meatball-sized balls and dipped them in the fruit compote to give it a tomato-esque glaze.
After positioning our sweet spaghetti strips on the plate in rough circles we popped the meatballs on top, added a few more spoons of sauce, some icing sugar/Parmesan sprinkles and a sprig of mint-come-parsley garnish. Voila, good enough to eat – literally.

Christmas pudding caviar

The Russians know how to celebrate Christmas, what with their big hats and glamorous parties. Where better to get inspiration for our stodgy pudding makeover…

Ingredients

• Blinis, pre-baked and ready to go
• 3-4 jellied orange slices halved down the middle and cut into 1cm squares
• 4 tbsp Christmas pudding pre-cooked in a microwave
• A few sprigs of mint
• Shots of vodka to serve – lots

Method
With very clean hands, roll the Christmas pudding into tiny caviar shaped balls.
Pop a jellied orange square on to each blini (hopefully, if you’ve cut down the middle of the slice you should be left with one side of the square that’s extremely sticky).
Put the sticky side facing up and then add your pudding balls in a glamorous pyramid stack.
Garnish with mint and serve with lashings of vodka.

Christmas pudding burger

This figgy transformation is a winner for Christmas and Thanksgiving – you know how our cousins across the pond love a good burger. And who’d have thought mayo and brandy butter were so interchangeable? We’ll never be bored by egg mayonnaise again.

Ingredients

• Brioche bun or a bun-shaped piece of brioche cut from a loaf and sliced in half
• Handful mint leaves
• About 200g Christmas pudding
• Spoonful of brandy butter
• Spoonful of raspberry compot
• The rind from 2 pieces of jellied orange slices

Method
Arrange your mint leaves on the bottom half of your brioche bun so they look like lettuce. Surprisingly, this isn’t as hard as you’d think.
Mould your Christmas pudding into a patty shape and place on top of the lettuce.
Add a spoonful of the brandy butter and a spoonful of the raspberry compote.
Garnish with the orange rind-come-onion slice and serve with a side order of fries – ones made from marzipan – obviously.

There you have it – three festive puds boasting more glamour than a sherry trifle with a sparkler. Pimp your puds this Christmas, because they’re worth it.

Get more great leftovers tips from Gordon Ramsay.

Deep in the rolling hills of Devon we were warming up for the imminent arrival of Christmas with snow, mince pies, turkey, a trip to the Christmas tree forest…. and a film crew!

Punctuated by the delivery of fridges, cherry pickers, Christmas lights and more, the house was filling up with all things Christmassy. The only thing missing was Willie…

Blue Peter preparation
The kids and I set about preparing the house. Being so far from the jungle and still wanting to have that Caribbean festive feel we started by covering the banisters in miles and miles of red, green and yellow ribbon. While the children cut ribbon and tied themselves up, in fits of giggles, I set about making an advent calendar and wreath for the door.

The advent calendar became a Blue Peter nightmare. It involved a spice rack and large piece of card, and then drawing, painting and glittering a twinkling town with Santa on his sleigh. Behind each door was a drawer with goodies inside. Late into the wee hours of the morning I worked… loving it, but fraught with its demand.

Willie, between the usual lengthy shifts at the factory, was busy organising his favourite thing – food glorious food.

Where’s Willie?
Over the week leading up to filming the house became stuffed to the brim with goodies but there was still no real sign of Willie… The Christmas crew were due to arrive early in the morning so we went to bed.

At 6.45am the alarm went off and just as the coffee was brewing the headlights of some eight large vehicles pulled into the driveway. The sound of familiar voices was a comfort, but as I was running late, I pelted upstairs in my dressing gown to wake the children. They were not amused. It was the first day of half term and they were having to get up earlier than on a school day. Fortunately the excitement of seeing the crew sustained them and they headed downstairs for a makeshift breakfast in the sitting room while the set up of lights, cameras and general rushing around ensued.

Before we knew it we were changing from one outfit to another, looking for lost shoes and boots (usually the dog’s department), monitoring the heat loss of the house as doors seemed to be constantly wide open, moving furniture, tidying as we went, and trying to keep an eye on three very over excited children. But where was Willie?

Suddenly he arrived from the factory and leapt onto the set to begin the making of various chocolate recipes.

Feeling sheepish
On the second day a whole sheep arrived – dead thankfully – and ready to be prepared by Willie and cooked for all our friends at our Christmas party. Little did the guests know when they arrived that their dinner was going to be dug up from the pit outside in which it had been cooking for 16 hours! The children all stood around in amazement as Willie and our friend Rob started digging and revealed this culinary delight which went down well amongst the ravenous party-goers with a glass of mulled wine. To add to the excitement it began to snow a little which was all that we had been hoping for to make it a truly Christmassy experience.

Programmes based on cooking always mean there is plenty of food about. But imagine my surprise when I went into the catering kitchen and saw four robust turkeys for the five of us! In order to have the shots run seamlessly, most dishes are shot in varying degrees of readiness. So there was one turkey to be prepared, one being cooked, one for the pack shot, and one for the next day to cook and actually eat at the Christmas dinner! Not wanting anything to go to waste the crew plus family, ate more turkey, Brussel’s sprouts and mince pies than is usually required…

Christmas trees, stockings… and hotdogs
Great winds and some freak weather meant that every morning when we came downstairs the 18-foot Christmas tree outside had blown down! It was quite an ordeal to get it back up. For the party we decorated it with stockings made from the hessian cacao sacks and stuffed them with nuts, tangerines and chocolate, chocolate, chocolate.

To wrap it up, Willie’s chocolatey Christmas was perfect. In between the shooting we all had a wonderful time, with snowball fights, a Christmas party and Christmas dinner with the family. The highlight was probably a visit to the Bath Christmas Fair where we rode the Carousel and ate hotdogs… and more chocolate, naturally!

Catch up on all the goings on during Willie’s Perfect Chocolate Christmas

For a list of Willie’s chocolate stockists, please see www.venezuelanblack.com

To say I was giddy with excitement about this recipe is no exaggeration. But not as excited as my faithful sous-chef who had prepped all the topping ingredients before I’d even showed up. There were bowls laid out along the work surface, stacked with roasted potatoes, cooked turkey, stuffing and even devils on horseback (or pigs in blankets if you prefer; let’s not argue, it’s Christmas). It was like a Christmas dinner jigsaw just calling out for the last, vital piece.

Old lady dough
Because the sous-chef has a clever breadmaker we made the pizza dough in that, but you can easily make your own pizza without any machines and it’s really worth it, as the taste is so much better than a shop bought base. Best of all, you get to stretch out the dough which is all wrinkly and super-soft. It’s a bit like stroking an old lady’s face. In a good way.

In place of the not-very-festive tomato sauce usually found on pizzas, we’re using a lovely red onion gravy. On top of that, goes a Christmassy cheese layer of Wensleydale with cranberries and then the tower of toppings.

Christmas coleslaw
Despite the aforementioned deliciousness of Christmas dinner’s constituent parts, I have to admit, the final creation did look a bit like the sort of thing Gillian McKeith would put on the naughty table. Who realised Christmas dinner was so brown? Still, we had virtue in reserve with a suitably green side dish of sprout coleslaw, made by finely slicing sprouts and onion and mixing with grated carrot, a few spoons of mayo and some horseradish sauce. Feisty.

A mere 20 minutes in the oven (the meat and roasties were precooked, remember) and it’s show-ho-ho time.

Alas, cooking the treat only enhanced the brownness and it looked like the double hit of delicious might prove to be too much of a good thing. Until we tucked in.

A very merry morsel
Like putting Rudolph at the front of the sleigh, creating Christmas pizza was a stroke of genius. The gravy was rich and kept everything succulent; the roast potatoes and stuffing created a trio of oral pleasure with the Wensleydale and the devils on horseback were as brilliant as only pig wrapped in a bit more pig can be. Even the sprouts were wolfed down with glee. Try it – Yule love it.

Verdict: Let the bells ring out for Christmas pizza!

Find more great Christmas tips and recipes in 4Food’s Christmas hub.

Yes it’s classic, but come on people – it’s supposed to be the greatest meal of the year, let’s shake it up a bit. It’s time for a reinvention – Madonna style.

Do they know it’s Christmas mine
Back in the day, Mrs Miner would pack her Cornish husband off to work down t’mine with a two course meal in one handy pasty – meat and veg in one side, pudding in the other. A man’s meal made ergonomic. Surely this uber-food is crying out for a Christmas conversion?

Gordon Ramsay says it’s OK to use shop-bought shortcrust pastry and we don’t need telling twice. We cut and roll a plate sized disc and lay half of it over the rolling pin to keep it out of the way for a bit.

Keeping with the British tradition, the filling will be meat and two veg. Turkey (of course), potato and swede all chopped finely and spooned onto the dough. Add a little onion and a sprinkling of flour and the pasty even makes its own gravy.

On the sweet side, we follow Gordon’s mince pie advice and combine the best darn mincemeat we can find with a glug of booze and a bit of orange zest and pile it all onto the pastry, a finger-width or so away from the savoury. Then it’s just a matter of moistening the joints and the gap between the fillings with milk and laying the rest of the pastry on top.

There’s a knack to making the distinctive pasty crimp. Needless to say neither of us have it. We roll and pinch the pastry closed and hope it holds.

Then all that’s left is to cut a hole in each section and baste with egg for a golden finish. I do this delicately so my pasty has a subtle sheen. My boyfriend piles on the egg making a right pig’s ear of it. “It looks like someone’s trying to make a little omelette,” I jest, laying my pristine pasty onto the baking tray. I’ve even etched little holly leaves onto it. Beautiful.

Our creations need 20 minutes in a hot oven, then another 40 minutes at 160°C. We pass this time watching crap telly, for full festive effect.

An hour later and there’s a lovely wholesome scent coming from the kitchen. There’s even been a Christmas miracle, as the oven has transformed my boyfriend’s egg smeared mess into a pasty that’s as pretty as a picture, whilst mine’s gone anaemic. You can’t even see the painstakingly carved holly leaves. I choke back my resentment – it is the season of goodwill after all.

Verdict: A Christmas cracker

Find more great Christmas tips and recipes in 4Food’s Christmas hub.

A savoury stable
Every good nativity story starts with the stable; something sturdy and warm to keep out the winter chill. My two wise men and I toyed with various building materials to house my holy family but finally decided on the Twiglet. Lumber-like in appearance and texture the salty snack lends itself perfectly to crib construction. And which Saviour wouldn’t be thrilled to enter the world amid the aroma of yeast?

To fill any unsightly cracks I rustled up some edible grout – just like the Bethlehem builders of old – from the flour and water and mixed it with crushed up Twiglets. Then after, popping on a couple of gable ends the stable was ready and fit for a king, or three.

Cheesy characters
Casting the characters was the next port of call and just like the real world, the cheese realm offered a host of possibilities of various talents and depths.

The shepherds and sheep – Goat’s cheese was pretty much a given here as anything made from cow’s milk would be an insult to the trade. The crumbly consistency of Feta also helped conjure up the rough and ready appearance of men in the field. Who’d have thought?

The three kings - I wanted something regal and imposing for the three kings’ capes so the ruby red of Edam rind was an easy choice. A saunter round the supermarket counter threw up a green-rinded goat’s cheese and a flamboyant Mexican morsel that were more than up to the job.

The holey angel Gabriel – I needed something light enough to ‘fly’ but with a holy aura daunting enough to worry a shepherd. A Leerdammer slice fit the bill perfectly – a fact for their marketing team perhaps?

The holy family - The hardest roles of all. For Joseph I wanted something solid and dependable, perhaps with an oak-smoked hue? In the end I opted for Pilgrim’s Choice Extra Mature Cheddar – well, he’d need to be.

Mary was made from blue cheese; an obvious choice for such a highly flavoured lady, and the babe himself was played by a Babybel – the purple-rinded variety for extra regal depth.

A pungent performance
With the cast assembled the performance began and the dairy thespians did themselves proud. Sure, Mary’s head melted and a bit of loose Twiglet timber killed off a couple of Feta sheep but every Christmas play needs a little drama.

As the curtain fell there wasn’t a dry eye in the 4Food team, a fact only partly explained by the pungent lactose fumes. Who needs expensive decorations to ring in the birth of Christ? Beat the credit crunch this Christmas and celebrate with cheese.

Check out the full journey of Mary, Joseph and baby cheese-us