Mary Berry's Ultimate Christmas

That's not the only thing I'm getting ahead with today. My classic apricot and chestnut stuffing can be made up to three days before. And it's a dish my family and I absolutely adore. I've tried all different stuffings. My favorite, certainly, is the chestnut and apricot. And if there's some left for Boxing Day with the cold cuts, I'll be very pleased. My first task is to chop up the apricots. And these are ready to eat dried. One and a quarter cups gives just the right amount of fruity flavor. I usually cut these in about four. I like these bigger pieces so you can actually see it. I don't want it to just be a mash. And the joy of doing it in an open dish means that it's all beautifully crisp. Right, there we are. They're done. (cheerful music) These need five minutes to simmer in two and a half cups of water, along with two roughly chopped onions and four sticks of celery, finely chopped. Once lovely and soft, strain and leave to cool. So my next job is to do these chestnuts. These are frozen. I find them brilliant because they have real crunchy texture. They're very easy to chop once they're thawed. (soft music) There we are, roughly chopped into fairly big pieces. Now those have got to be fried. Melt half a cup of butter. I'm using half to fry my chestnuts and the other half will go into the stuffing mix. Then in goes the chestnuts all in one go. Gently fry that and brown it. While that's browning, I'm going to chop some parsley. I love Christmas Eve. Making the labels, wrapping parcels. And I, as mom, has to have a drawer full of extra paper. There's always people, "Mom, I didn't have time to do the parcels. Have you got any wrapping paper? Have you got any string?" And they're much better at tying the bows than I am. So chop this very coarsely. It gives me such pleasure in my old age to do coarsely chopped parsley. Per my training, we always had to do it very finely. And really it's much nicer to have it in pieces that you can see. That's all the ingredients prepared. Now to simply bring it all together. First, add two cups of white bread crumbs, the apricot, onion, celery mix and a tablespoon of thyme leaves. (cheerful music) Then the parsley, coarsely chopped. That'll be bright green. Then we've got the chestnuts. Now they really are the most lovely color. And the remaining melted butter. The butter binds it all together. And of course, that'll be what will make the breadcrumbs crisp. A little salt there, little pepper. Then mix it all together. And that's it. Tip that glorious mix into a well buttered baking dish.