Orange & Hazelnut Stollen Squares

Mince pies are great and all - especially with a sliver of cheese under the lids of the pies, and baked till warm. Seriously. - but shop bought ones aren't great, and I just ran out of time to make mincemeat. I spied Dan Lepard's orange & pistachio stollen bars on The Guardian and they looked like the perfect Christmas treat to knock together. The master of baking, I knew Lepard's recipe would see me right. I made some substitutions and what emerged from the oven was festively spiced, nice and squidgy and perfect with a glass of mulled cider.

Orange & Hazelnut Stollen Squares

175gr caster sugar
75gr butter
125gr full fat cream cheese
1 tsp baking powder
1 egg
2 tsp orange extract
1 tsp orange zest
1 tsp glycerine (I found this in the baking section of Sainsburys)
1 tsp mixed spice
3/4 tsp cardamom seeds, ground and husks discarded
100gr dried currants
100gr chopped hazelnuts
75gr ground almonds
250gr strong white flour
250gr marzipan
Melted butter and icing sugar

Beat together the cream cheese, butter, sugar, orange extract, zest, glycerine and spices. Add the egg and mix well, then add the baking powder, ground almonds and flour. Mix this well; it's quite a dry mixture.

Add to a foil-lined baking tin and use your fingers to press into an even rectangle into the corners. Bake at 180 degrees C for 30 minutes so that it is puffed and golden.

Remove, brush generously with butter. Once cooled, peel off the foil and dust heavily with icing sugar. Apparently this keeps for a fortnight but it didn't last more than an evening in my house.