Easy make-ahead Christmas recipes to impress

There are few more thrilling ways to dazzle a surprise guest than with a cheese twist, plucked from the freezer and baked until the heady scent of Manchego and Ibérico ham fills the house. These are made with all-butter pastry for that melt-in-the-mouth finish, ideal for pairing with a mulled wine or a cuppa.

Continuing to think about cheese and all the many ways it can and should be combined with all-butter pastry, this is a particularly festive one, arranged in the traditional palmier heart shape. They’re made with Cheddar cheese and laced with onion chutney – a classic flavour pairing that never fails to please.

In case it’s not clear, the answer to so many questions at Christmas is M&S handcrafted all-butter puff pastry. For more ideas on the theme, this puff pastry pinwheel recipe is secretly in fact 3 puff pastry pinwheel recipes: olive and Manchego, cheddar and red pepper, and mozzarella and pesto.

The fourth and final iteration of the cheesy puff pastry snack in this list is arguably the most Christmassy – it’s brie, rosemary and cranberry sauce. Like the previous recipes, you can bake, freeze and then reheat these puffs whenever you’ve got a festive mouth to feed (including your own).

Nothing says party food quite like a sausage roll, especially if they’re homemade and warm from the oven. The recipes here use M&S ready-rolled puff pastry and come in 3 flavours: sausage, ’nduja and Cheddar; hoisin duck and sesame; and potato and pea. Bake them, allow to cool completely, freeze and then reheat from frozen.

The best guests deserve a great big starry quiche with a mustardy dressed salad on the side. Be ready for them with this rich, savoury and sweet secret weapon, packed with crispy pancetta, creamy brie, cranberry sauce and Christmas spirit.

For the more discerning Christmas visitor, these medjool dates can be stuffed with brie and wrapped with bacon in advance. Then, when you’re ready to deploy them, they just need to be baked and glazed.

Incidentally gluten-free, these Sicilian-style almond biscuits can be quickly assembled with just almonds, egg whites, lemon zest sugar and a little vanilla – and then drizzled with M&S Collection dark chocolate with raspberry. Keep them in an airtight container for up to one week.

Also almond-based, also gluten-free, these jewel-like amaretti biscuits are filled with decadent Pistachio Crème. Keep them for a week in an airtight container for any unexpected coffee guests, or to enjoy as a late-night snack.

There’s something uniquely comforting about wrapping a square of tiffin in greaseproof paper, either to bring as a gift or to pop in your pocket for later. This one gets its festive Italian feel from sour cherries, pistachios and M&S Collection blood orange dark chocolate. It will keep in the fridge for a week – ideal for when sweet cravings hit.

This one is a variation on the fridge cake/tiffin theme, as above. It’s made more traditionally with pretzels and a pack of our Natural Fruit and Nut Medley. This can also be made up to a week ahead.

Another fridge cake, but with a jubilant twist – this one is packed with toffee popcorn, honeycomb, marshmallow and biscuits and has a white chocolate swirl on the top. Once cut, these squares of fun will sit in the fridge – ready to provide a guaranteed good time whenever you need it – for five days.

When you’re not quite ready for Christmas pudding (or perhaps you’re never quite ready for Christmas pudding), this is an excellent hybrid dessert you might want to add to your repertoire. It’s a cheesecake, inspired by the layers of a trifle, and you can make it a day ahead.

Another cheesecake that fits the make-ahead bill is this cosy, boozy Espresso Martini version, perfect for a grown-up Christmas lunch. Just save the shaved chocolate part of the recipe until right before you serve.

Tom Kerridge’s individual creamy honey, orange and pistachio possets can be kept in the fridge overnight (in fact, they benefit from being made a day ahead) and they won’t take up huge amounts of space either, which can be at a premium at this time of year.

These muffins have all the flavours of a traditional stollen loaf – dried fruit, cinnamon, lemon zest, marzipan – but with no need for any stressful rolling. They can be frozen once baked, then dusted with icing sugar once they’re fully defrosted. And if you bake a double batch, you’ll have one for every day of advent.

Every mince pie eaten in someone else’s home brings luck to the eater for the year ahead. Bestow the gift of luck on your loved ones by cooking a few batches of these. They’ll keep, baked, in the freezer for up to 4 weeks and can be reheated from frozen (and maybe even served with cream).

If you’re a starter on Christmas Day sort of family, this is a make-ahead soup you’ll be delighted to see, as if by magic, on the day. It’s rich, creamy and comforting and full of celebratory winter flavours. You’ll just need to save the truffle and hazelnut pesto for making and drizzling to serve.

Bread sauce needn’t be an afterthought – not in your kitchen. This velvety, creamy accompaniment to Christmas dinner takes things up a notch, with buttery croissants used in place of white bread. It can be made and frozen one month in advance. Defrost it on the day, before warming it with a little extra milk.

A mushroom Wellington makes for an unbeatable vegetarian centrepiece, but arguably the best thing about it is you can have it all wrapped up (literally and figuratively) the day before, so that all you need to do on Christmas morning is brush your beautiful diamond-scored bundle with egg wash for a golden glow – and bake.

This year, Stir-Up Sunday falls on 22 November but that’s the latest you’ll want to be making this Christmas cake, which can be made, stored and fed with brandy for 2 months. It’s packed with vine fruits, glacé cherries, citrus zest, warming spices and a splash of M&S Orange Brandy Liqueur.

Preparing a really good stuffing can feel a little like making a whole other meal. This one is alive with festive flavour – dried cranberries, apricots, macadamias, brown butter and herbs – and you can make it right up to step 6 when it’s all combined in a baking dish, and freeze. Then, on the day, drizzle with olive oil and bake until golden brown.

This chocolate salami is a fun make-ahead gift, especially for fans of M&S Peanut Butter and Jelly Munch. It would be a lovely one for a child to make for a beloved teacher, for instance. Present it rolled in greaseproof paper and twisted at the ends, like a Christmas cracker.

This is the fudge you mean to make every year, but better. It has rich, buttery toffee notes and a warming kick of M&S Toffee Vodka. It’s a great make-ahead gift strictly for adults that will keep in an airtight container in the fridge for up to a month.

This is an extremely straightforward thing to do for someone you love that is guaranteed to radically improve their December. You simply infuse some vodka with M&S Morello Cherry Conserve and hand it over with a bow on the bottle, and perhaps a handwritten recipe for Christmassy cherry Cosmos.

Velvety vegan chocolate truffles, rolled by your fair hand in toasty desiccated coconut – that’s an act of love, if ever there was one.

Find more Christmas recipe inspiration here.