Turkey pumpkin and cranberry wreath

This recipe is sure to impress your Christmas guests. Its pretty easy, although the rolling and shaping into a wreath was a little tricky!!!

Its full of all sorts of Christmas deliciousness, like turkey, cranberries and hazelnuts.

Now I find turkey a little scary to cook. It can be very dry if you don’t get it right. To make this quicker and easier I decided to purchase an uncooked turkey breast from Woolworths and cook it in my Ninja Foodi pressure cooker. It was great, took only 25 minutes and came up so moist and delicious. I was pleasantly surprised.

Lets start the turkey pumpkin and cranberry wreath

To start the turkey pumpkin and cranberry wreath you chop the pumpkin and roast for 25 minutes. While thats cooking you slice the onion and saute in the oil and butter for two minutes. Add the cranberries and hazelnuts and cook for a further minute. Pour in the breadcrumbs and fry until lightly browned. Remove from stove and add to a clean bowl.

Next step is to add the roasted pumpkin and turkey.

The mixture looks like stuffing and does need to be able to hold together when placed in the pastry. As I said earlier the tricky part of this recipe is the pastry. I used ready made pastry squares and laid four sheets out.

In the end I did cut off a bit of the pastry from each end but I wanted to have the space to work out how to get it all filled and made in to a wreath. Once you have your log you will need to manipulate the log into a wreath shape. The weather was really warm the day I made it so the pastry became very soft very quickly which is not ideal!!! I did end up with some small holes which were easily fixed with the offcuts. Don’t panic most things a fixable.

My wreath did not exactly look beautiful before it was baked. Don’t be put off if yours is the same because once it was baked it looked great. I ended up using a leaf cookie cutter to put some design in the pastry. The last step is to roast until golden brown and decorate for the table.

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Turkey Pumpkin and Cranberry Wreath

Prep Time1 hour hr

Cook Time1 hour hr

Ingredients

• 800 gram butternut pumpkin, peeled and chopped into 3cm cubes
• 700 grams cooked turkey breast, chopped into 2cm cubes
• 1/2 red onion, finely sliced
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 2 tbsp butter
• 1/2 cup roasted hazelnuts, finely chopped
• 1/2 cup dried cranberries
• 2 cups panko breadcrumbs
• 2 tbsp chopped parsley
• 150 grams feta, crumbled
• 2 tbsp chicken stock
• 4 sheets shortcrust pastry, defrosted
• 1 egg beaten with 2 tbsp of water
• 1 tbsp sesame seeds

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 190°C. Line a baking tray with baking paper. Place pumpkin on tray and drizzle with one tablespoon olive oil. Season with salt and roast for 25 minutes. Turning half way through. Put aside to cool.
• Fry onion in remaining olive oil and butter on low heat for 5 minutes.
• Add hazelnuts and cranberries and cook for a further 2 minutes. Add breadcrumbs and fry until breadcrumbs are lightly browned. Add in chicken stock. Mix and remove from heat into a bowl.
• Add turkey and pumpkin to the bowl and give it all a good mix. Add in the feta and parsley and mix again. At this stage make sure the mixture sticks together when squeezed. If it doesn't either add a little more chicken stock or some water. Be careful not to add too much though because you don't want it wet.
• Lay out four sheets of pastry in a long line overlapping each sheet – I used the blue plastic that came with the pastry to lie the pastry on. If you don't have that option make sure you put flour on your bench to stop the pastry from sticking. Take a rolling pin and roll the joins to make sure the pastry sheets have joined together properly.
• Next step is to spoon the filling along the middle of the pastry. Remember you wont have enough filling to fill the whole lot of the pastry. Once you have the thickness you're happy with, trim away the excess pastry, leaving about 3cm extra at each end. Then roll tightly into a log.
• Now you need to manipulate the log into a wreath shape. If you can – feed one end into the other and lightly push together to seal. If you can't manage that then just squish the ends together however you can. Remember you can hide the join if its not so good with a ribbon ?. Place wreath in the refrigerator for 15 minutes to chill.
• Brush the pastry wreath with the egg and water mix, sprinkle with sesame seeds and bake for 35-40 minutes. Until golden brown. If serving for Christmas decorate with a ribbon and some Christmas picks. Serve wth cranberry sauce.

I hope you enjoyed this recipe. If you would rather try something different for Christmas try my Christmas ham or if you would like a dessert try the mango cheesecake.