Want to hear about Team Quattro’s favourite festive nosh? Craving a Christmas pizza? Excited by eggnog cinnamon rolls? How about a tray-load of banging hummus and caramelized onion crostini? Mouth-watering? But you’ll have to read till the end for the piece de resistance.
Christmas pizza
This Margherita with a Yuletide twist is our new favourite Boxing Day lunch. Go on, we dare you!
Ingredients
- 1 ready-made pizza base
- 5 tbsp tomato pasta sauce
- All the leftover stuffing
- Shredded leftover turkey
- Sliced mozzarella
- Basil leaves
- 1 tbsp olive oil
Top the pizza base with pasta sauce, scatter on the stuffing and turkey, then top with mozzarella and basil leaves, then drizzle oil over your pizza and bake for 12 mins until the crust is crisp and the cheese has melted.
Eggnog cinnamon rolls
Fluffy, festive and full of flavour, these sweet treats melt in your mouth for a ‘morning after’ breakfast that hits the spot.
Ingredients
Pastry
- 250g salted butter
- 4 cups plain flour
- 1 pack dried yeast
- 2 tbsp brown sugar
- A cup of warm eggnog
- 3 eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- Pinch of salt
Filling
- Half a cup of brown sugar
- 2 tbsp cinnamon
- 250g salted butter
Frosting
- 1/4 cup warm eggnog
- I small pack white chocolate chips melted
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 150g caster sugar
To make the dough, combine the flour, yeast, sugar and salt in an electric mixer using the dough hook. Add the eggs, eggnog, vanilla and butter. Cover the bowl with cling film and prove for an hour until the dough has doubled in size.
Mix the sugar and cinnamon and line a baking dish.
Dust your work surface with flour and roll the dough into a rectangle. Spread the softened butter over the dough and sprinkle with the cinnamon sugar.
Starting with the long edge closest to you roll the dough into a log, keeping it tight then pinch along the edge to seal. Cut into 12 rolls and place them into the baking dish. Cover with cling film and prove for half an hour.
Bake the rolls for 30 minutes until golden brown.
Make the frosting by whisking the eggnog, melted white chocolate and vanilla together. Add the sugar and spread the frosting onto the warm rolls.
Hummus and caramelized onion crostini
Ingredients
- 1 crusty baguette
- 1 tub of hummus
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 sliced red onion
- 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
- 1 tbsp brown sugar
Slice the baguette and brush each slice with olive oil. Grill until golden brown on both sides. Heat some olive oil in a pan and add red onion, balsamic vinegar and brown sugar. Cook and stir until they caramelise which should take 10-12 minutes. Spread hummus on each slice and top with the caramelised onions.
Christmas tree spinach breadstick
Our runaway favourite this year is this gooey, cheesy Christmas tree spinach breadstick. A fair bit of work and in the blink of an eye, it’s gone. But we promise you it’s worth the blood, sweat and tears.
- Thin crust pizza dough
- 12 ounces spinach, chopped
- 1 tub cream cheese
- 4 cloves garlic
- 1 cup mixed grated parmesan and cheddar cheese
- 2 tablespoons butter
- Salt and pepper
Filling
Mix the spinach and cream cheese, add garlic, salt, pepper and seasoning. Add both cheeses and combine.
Roll out the pizza crust and using a pizza slicer, cut it from the lower corner to the middle of the top so you have a large triangle and two smaller ones. Transfer the smaller triangles to an oiled baking tray, placing the long sides together to make another large triangle. This is the base of the breadsticks. Give it a short trunk.
Spread the spinach dip over the base and sprinkle with cheese. Place the first triangle of dough on top.
Cut slices from the middle to each edge an inch apart and leave about an inch down the middle of the tree.
Lift and twist each slice then bake for 20 minutes. Let it cool and then brush with melted butter and seasoning. Serve while it’s lovely and warm.