Oh, world. You've won me over again. I don't know if it was the presence of some of the loveliest people around on the comment page of my last post (thank you so much; I was honestly so touched by each of you, and am feeling a lot better), or the playlist of Glee Christmas songs, or teaching the most hilarious and adorable class of Japanese teenagers this morning (at the end, some of the girls came up and gave me cut-out paper snowflakes and told me they had 'very very enjoyed' my lesson; I had to restrain myself from flinging my arms around them). But Christmas has got me now, and I'm one viewing of 'The Muppet Christmas Carol' and a batch of cookies away from being obnoxiously seasonal.

Everyone knows that 'The Muppet Christmas Carol' is basically the ultimate Christmas film, right? I'm just checking. Call it a public service.

Anyway: earlier this week I mentioned the scones I made for my latest One Green Planet column, so if you should be feeling that uniquely December urge for dried fruit and pistachios and soft, sweet marzipan, I'm talking about stollen scones over here. Yes... I plan to bake my fourth batch tomorrow, although in my defence they're going to go in the freezer for Christmas morning's breakfast. Probably. I'm planning to bake no small amount of other sugar-filled things too, and I can't make any promises. The recipe is reproduced below for the purposes of organisation, but please check out my OGP post too! If you 'like' it on Facebook, I'll like you for real. That's my... new tagline?

Last pre-holiday weekend plans: two loaf cakes to bake for my neighbours, Christmas cards to write, two last presents to buy, three cookie recipes to veganise, a second rewatching of Love Actually, unlimited repeats of the Coca-Cola Christmas advert, chocolate coins to stock up on for my students, and a hell of a lot of laundry to do (there are so many abandoned piles of clothes on the floor here that it looks like a small crowd of people have spontaneously melted around my flat). 

...And a partridge in a pear tree.

Stollen Scones

280g (2 c.) plain flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp allspice
Zest of 1 satsuma
60g (1/2 stick) vegan margarine
50g (1/4 c.) white sugar
120ml (1/2 c.) non-dairy yoghurt
1-2 Tbsp soy or almond milk
90ml (1/3 c.) mixed dried fruit/peel
90ml (1/3 c.) shelled pistachios, roughly chopped
1 recipe (below) marzipan, or 1/3 c.

Preheat oven to 220C (420F).

Whisk the first eight ingredients together to combine, and add to the margarine, rubbing together with your fingers to make a reasonably fine-crumbed mixture. Stir in the sugar, then the dried fruit and chopped pistachios.

Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients, and add the yoghurt, gently working in with a round-bladed knife to form a soft dough. Work in any loose bits with the non-dairy milk, one tbsp at a time. Don’t overwork!

Lift the ball of soft dough out of the bowl and place on a lightly floured surface. Now, take your marzipan and flatten to roughly the size of your palm, then dice into cubes (experimentation tells me that I like fairly large chunks; your call). Scatter on the top of your scone dough, then fold the whole thing in half and knead a couple of times to check it’s all glued together and free of cracks.

Use your hands to shape this into a disk, around 1-1/2 inches in height, then cut into six wedges by pressing down firmly and quickly with a sharp knife – don’t twist it. Place the wedges on a lined baking sheet, and if you like, brush with extra non-dairy milk and sprinkle with raw sugar.

Bake for about 15 minutes until risen and golden, then cool on a wire rack, uncovered. Eat warm, but these also freeze wonderfully and yes, I have been known to eat them still-frozen straight out of the freezer. No judgment, please.

Ten-Second Vegan Marzipan

70g (2/3 c.) ground almonds (almond meal)
35g icing sugar (powdered sugar)
1 1/2 Tbsp water
optional few drops of almond essence

Stir the almonds and sugar together til fully combined and add the water and almond essence. Mix with a spatula or knead in with the fingers so that it all comes together to a dough-like texture. Now you just have to try not to eat the whole thing singlehandedly... this may be the hardest part.