Christmas Pastries

Place all the pastry ingredients into a bowl and mix quickly by hand into a dough, taking care not to over knead. Place the dough in a cold place to harden.

Roll out the dough on a floured board, folding a few times to make a puff pastry. Finally make a 1/2cm thick sheet. Cut the sheet into 7 x 7cm squares and split the corners of each square.

Place a small amount of prune puree or plum jam in the middle of each square, fold over every other split end onto the centre, to form a windmill-like pastry. Brush with the beaten egg and bake at 450F/gas mark 8/250C until light brown.

To make round pastries, cut into circles, fill, and fold in half and bake as above.