Vegetarian Christmas Dinner ‘Cracker’

Heat the oil and butter in a frying pan. Fry the onion and carrots for 15 mins until the onion is golden and the carrots are tender. Add the cauliflower rice and cook for another 8-10 mins until any water has evaporated. Pour in the white wine and bubble for 2-3 mins until it disappears then, with a potato masher, mash everything together, breaking down the carrots until the mixture resembles a chunky vegetable mash. Stir in the chopped chestnuts, sage, red onion chutney and breadcrumbs. Season well and leave to cool completely.

When the filling has cooled, unravel one of the pastry sheets onto a lightly floured surface and cut a 2cm-wide strip from one of the long sides of the pastry. Reserve this to decorate. Cut the remaining pastry into four long rectangles – these will be your cracker bases. Unravel the second pastry sheet and cut into four long rectangles - these will be just slightly bigger than your cracker bases.

Place all the pastry onto a baking sheet and chill for 15 mins.

After 15 minutes, divide the filling mixture into four portions. Mould into sausage shapes - using wet hands can be helpful here - and position them on the cracker bases, leaving lots of room at each end for what will be the ends of the crackers.

Brush the pastry around the filling with the beaten egg and drape over the larger pastry rectangles, sealing the pastry all around the filling. Trim, if you need to, and pinch in the ends to create the Christmas cracker shape, pressing together well to seal. Repeat with the rest of the crackers.

Use the reserved pastry to cut out stars or Christmas trees and then egg wash the crackers, sticking the decorations to them with the egg wash, then place all of the crackers into the fridge to chill for at least 30 minutes.

When ready to cook, preheat the oven to 200 C / 180 C fan and glaze the crackers once more with the beaten egg. Bake for 35-40 mins until golden and puffed and then serve with vegetarian gravy.