The abundance of peaches, nectarines, cherries and berries during December makes them the perfect fruit to feature in this festive wreath Christmas platter that’s deceptively simple to make.

This recipe was developed in collaboration with Essteele: beautiful cookware made in Italy.

Serves 6-10

Ingredients

A selection of Red Rich Fruits seasonal summer fruits. We’ve used:

4 Nectarines (white, yellow, or a mix)

3 Peaches (white, yellow, or a mix)

400g Cherries

4 Apricots, halved

1 Punnet blueberries

1 Punnet strawberries

1 Bunch fresh mint

1 Large serving board – we’ve used the Essteele 50x3cm Large Round Board

Prepare your fruit

Rinse all fruits in cold water and pat dry with a clean tea towel.

Cut some of the stonefruit in half. We’ve opted to cut our apricots in half and leave our peaches and nectarines whole; but you may wish to go for more or less when the following is taken into consideration:

1. Fruit will start to brown once cut so if the platter will be sitting out for a while, consider either leaving fruit whole or coating the cut side  of the fruit in lemon juice (this will help slow the browning process without noticeably changing how the fruit tastes).
2. Stonefruit fall into two categories: “cling stone,” where the flesh sticks to the stone making it difficult to pull into neat halves once cut, and “free stone,” where the flesh is generally quite easy to pull away from the stone and into two neat pieces once cut. While apricots are generally free stone; an increasing number of peach, nectarine, and plum varieties are “cling stone.” Generally speaking, free stone fruit is preferred if you’re looking to present cut stonefruit on a platter. A good grocer should be able to tell you which is which.

Assembling the fruit wreath Christmas platter

1. Start with the largest pieces of fruit (in this case the whole peaches and nectarines) and place them at even intervals in a circle toward the outer edge of the platter.

2. Spread about 2/3 of the most numerous pieces of fruit between the large pieces of fruit to create a ring (in this case, the cherries).

3. Add in the larger berries, distributing them around the board.

4. Next, add the halved apricots, placing one half between each of the whole peaches/nectarines around the board. It doesn’t matter if they’re not perfectly straight or centred. Propping them against other smaller pieces of fruit will also help to give them a good angle.

5. By this stage the platter should be starting to take shape, but if you still have larger gaps between fruit or want to build outward to make the wreath shape wider, now is a good time to add in the remainder of the cherries.

6. Scatter the blueberries around the ring to fill in any smaller gaps and add volume and colour contrast.

7. Poke sprigs of mint between pieces of fruit around the platter for a splash of leafy green. Note: it’s best to add this at the last minute as mint can wilt quickly.

8. Make any final tweaks, and you’re done! Optional: Place a large gold, white or red bow at the bottom of the wreath to complete the look.