These three shortcut ingredients are your secret weapons for effortless festive cooking

Cheap and hard-working, these products are your new best friends for the party season – stock up and ace your Christmas spreads without breaking a sweat.

During the festive season, party food reigns supreme. And not just at actual parties. Sausage rolls for breakfast? Sure! Canapés and cocktails for dinner? Yes, please. And if there is any time of day when a mince pie is off the cards, we’re yet to discover it.

Whether served with drinks to friends or on dinner plates in front of the telly (because who doesn’t love a festive picky tea?), finger food is where it’s at in December.

This means some of us will end up spending extra cash at the supermarket or time in the kitchen, buying packets of party food or making our own from scratch. But we’re here to tell you that there are three affordable and always-available products that can help create delicious homemade party food with barely a whisper of effort or extra spend.

Meet your new best friends for the festive season: puff pastry, filo pastry and flatbreads. Here’s why they’re the ultimate Christmas party food staples and how you can use them.

Ready rolled puff pastry

There are so many different ways you can use this chiller-aisle hero for Christmas snacks. A tear and share-style tarte soleil sees chutney-filled fingers of puff pastry baked around a whole camembert, perfect for breaking off and dunking into the warm, oozing cheese. This makes a great Christmas Eve centrepiece, ready in little over half an hour.

Our pesto and cheese Christmas tree is based on a similar concept – just sandwich the filling between two sheets of pastry, cut to shape, twist the branches and bake. You’ll be left with golden and flaky cheese straw branches to rip off, perfect for Yuletide buffet spreads.

There’s another cook who likes to get artistic with her puff pastry, too: make like Mary Berry with her salmon en croute and go all out with the off-cuts to make decorations, for extra festive feels.

Food author and teacher Charlotte Pike loves the versatility of ready-rolled puff pastry. “Personally, I think all-butter has a better flavour, but the standard version is great for vegans. I like to make sausage rolls for with it for the festive season. You can buy pre-seasoned sausage meat or try a vegan filling, made from richly herbed mushrooms and chopped, roasted nuts. It’s delicious.”

There are all sorts of other canapés you can make with puff pastry too, not to mention mini savoury tarts filled with festive ingredients, and the kids’ party staples of pizza pinwheels and cheese straws.

This flaky pastry is just as useful for sweet snacks too: try light and airy puff pastry mince pies, or peach turnovers (which are great in the air fryer).

Filo pastry

As filo is naturally plant-based with no dairy involved, it’s great for vegan treats like these mince pies . But that’s barely scratching the surface of this thin and delicate pastry’s festive potential.

“Keeping a pack of filo in the fridge or freezer can be key to easily elevating your dishes over the festive season,” says chef and author Lucy Parr, whose favourite party pud is filo crisps.

“Melt together butter with clementine (or lemon) juice and zest – brush over three sheets of filo and sprinkle each with icing sugar. Stack on top of each other, add another dusting of icing sugar and then cut into shards or decorative shapes. Place between two baking trays and bake at 200C (180C fan) for 8–15 minutes until golden and crispy. Serve with whipped and flavoured mascarpone (vanilla, lemon zest or clementine zest work well) and fresh fruit for an easy but beautiful festive showstopper.”

That can easily be made vegan too, by swapping the butter for a plant-based version and the mascarpone for dairy-free cream cheese.

Tom Tsappis, chef patron of Killiecrankie House, Perthshire, says, “Brush a couple of sheets with butter and toast in the oven until golden. Crumble them into some vanilla ice cream with any leftover mincemeat from making mince pies and maybe a few chopped nuts. And voila – you have baklava ice cream!”

Tsappis also suggests creating Moroccan pastilla. “They’re little filo pastry parcels filled with dried fruits, nuts and leftover meat, liberally spiced with ras el hanout and a healthy amount of fried onions.”

A great shout for any surplus ham or poultry you’re looking to give a new lease of life to.

Chef Stuart Gillies’ suggests using filo for samosas. “Keep the pastry cool so as not to dry out, then cut into wide strips. Choose a festive filling (turkey, chopped vegetables and curry powder, perhaps), fold up into triangle parcels, seal with a little melted butter, then deep fry or bake.

“Alternatively, filo makes a nice spring roll-style sausage roll, again, filled with anything chopped and moist, then rolled up and deep fried or baked, served with a dipping sauce or mint yoghurt.”

Filo is a great option for tarts – whether you prefer a large sharing one like this leek and cheese filo number or small canapés like, say, brie, bacon and cranberry bites, sweet potato and feta parcels or mushroom purses.

Flatbreads

“A pack of flatbreads will be invaluable over the festive season,” says Parr. “Cut into small bite-sized pieces and top with cream cheese and chilli jam, or a dollop of cranberry sauce, slice of brie and perhaps some stuffing. Failing that, any combination of melting cheese and antipasti works well! Bake in the oven for delicious party snacks or festive pre-dinner nibbles.

“Alternatively, cut into strips and serve with a dips such as tapenade, whipped feta or hummus for an easy starter or snack.

“You can also keep the children happy with an impromptu festive pizza on Boxing Day. Top flatbreads with pasta sauce and a melting cheese and then garnish with any leftovers going. Or slather with garlic butter or olive oil and bake for a lovely addition to a bowl of soup.”

Another option for Boxing Day comes courtesy of chef Thomas Law. “Flatbreads are perfect for leftover wraps. Soak one side in gravy to make them pliable then fill with whatever the fridge has to offer.”

They aren’t just for savoury dishes, either: “Layer with mincemeat and mixed dried fruit, sprinkle with cinnamon and brown sugar then bake to create a ‘mince piezza’,” suggests Law.

The great thing about all three of these hero products is that their versatility makes them perfect for experimenting with. So, if you’re feeling creative, just go with it and you may soon have a new festive family favourite on your hands – not to mention extra space in the fridge from using up all those Christmas leftovers.

Originally published November 2023