Willy Wonka Pudding

It's hard to describe this pudding because whilst it contains the usual ingredients, it's made in a very different way (for example you add a pint of water to the mixture just before putting it in the oven). But all you need to know is that it is the simplest yet most amazingly gooey chocolate pudding EVER.

To begin sieve the (6oz) self-raising flour and (3 tbsps) cocoa powder into a bowl, then add in the chunks of margarine (3oz) and caster sugar (6oz) before combining them all together.

Stir in the (10 tbsps) milk and vanilla essence (the recipe doesn't state the quantity but I used roughly a tsp) before spooning the mixture into a Pyrex dish.

In a separate bowl mix the (4oz) brown sugar and (2 tbsps) cocoa together, and then sprinkle it over the top of the bowl of wet ingredients (bottom left).

Then pour a pint of boiling water over the top of the ingredients (yes it does look very strange at this point but stay with it). I put it in the oven at around 180oc for between 30-40 minutes but keep an eye on it as it can sometimes flow over the edge.

And this is the end result...

Whilst the picture doesn't do it justice, I can vouch that is by far one of the best chocolate puddings you'll ever make. Thanks for passing on the recipe Nana!

Malteser Cookies

Who doesn't love cookies? Especially when they taste just like Millie's Cookies. This BBC Food recipe makes the most delicious crunchy-on-the-outside and gooey-on-the-inside cookies. Whilst the recipe includes chocolate chips, I couldn't resist adding Maltesers too, both inside and on top of the cookies!

Like most other cookie recipes, it has few ingredients. The butter (125g) and sugar (125g white and 100g light brown) need to be creamed together before adding in the egg and tsp of vanilla essence. Then sift in the self-raising flour (225g) and salt (1/2 tsp) before combining the chocolate chips (200g) and half the box of Maltesers into the cookie dough.

Then blob spoonfuls (the size depends on how many you want - as you can see I went for big!) onto the tray (preferably on grease-proof paper or a greased tin as they will stick) before crumbling the remaining Maltesers over the top of the cookies. 

Depending on how soft you want them to be, take them out after 7 (gooey) -10 (crispy around the edges) minutes. They are best eaten straight out of the oven when they are still gooey and the chocolates melted (not that you need reminding).

American Fluffy Pancakes

It took me a long time to find the perfect recipe for thick, fluffy (proper) breakfast pancakes but I've finally found it and best of all it's four simple steps.

                         
            1. Weigh out the 115g of plain flour,    2. Measure out 150ml of milk.
            1/4tsp salt, 1/2tsp baking powder
            and 1tsp vanilla essence. Combine
            together in a bowl.

            3. Make a well in the centre of the        4. Mix until it forms a thick batter.
            dry ingredients, then add in the egg       Then let it rest for 30 minutes to allow
            and milk gradually.                                  it to thicken up (I don't always wait...).
   

Then add butter to a hot pan (not too hot to burn the butter or pancakes though) and blob on the batter to form small but thick pancakes. A good way to tell if they are ready to flip is when the batter begins to bubble on the top.

  

My favourite way to eat these pancakes is with maple/golden syrup, strawberries and bananas!

Apple and Raisin Flapjacks

Flapjacks are worth making just so you can eat the mixture, especially if you pack them full with chocolate, fruit...or anything for that matter.

A fuss-free flapjack recipe is the best as you can add whatever you want to them (well that's what I tend to do anyway). To begin, melt the butter in a pan and then add in the golden syrup and sugar. Depending on how goeey you like your flapjacks to be, add in more golden syrup at this point.

When the sugar has melted (once it no longer feels grainy) pour it over the dry ingredients. This would normally be just the oats but as you can see I added a chopped apple and a (generous) handful of raisins.

Then stir to make sure all the ingredients are combined.

Then they're ready to go in the oven, flapjacks always to tend to take longer than you think but if like me you like them nice and gooey, take them out before the recommended time of 40 minutes as they firm up as they cool down.

Custard Creams

Custard Creams are arguably one of my favourite biscuits and tend to be eaten a pack at a time. So I thought I'd try making them myself, whilst nothing can compare to the real McCoy (in my opinion anyway), they were very close! I used a recipe I found on 'The Boy Who Bakes' blog.

The recipe is very simple to follow; combine the plain flour (225g), custard power (50g) and icing sugar (30g) together before adding in the cubed butter (175g) - I must point out that the recipe requires a electric mixer, I tried to combine it by hand but it proved impossible as it was too dry, therefore I added milk to make it into a dough. Then once you have mixed it into a dough it is ready to go into the fridge for half an hour. 

Then once the dough has rested in the fridge, you can begin rolling it out. They don't need long in the oven (about 15 minutes) so keep an eye on them to make sure they don't burn.

Whilst these are cooling (it's important they have cooled before piping the icing into the middle as the butter will melt) you can make the custard butter icing by combining butter (50g), icing sugar (200g) and custard power (2tbsp). A little bit of milk may also be needed to bring the dry ingredients together again - however be careful not to add too much as you still want it to be a thick icing (similar to the original biscuit).

Then place it into a piping bag and pipe a big blob into the middle of one of the two biscuits before sandwiching them together.

Then all that's left is to put the kettle on.

P.s Thank you PrintSmitten for my lovely new Bake Off tags!

Terry's Chocolate Orange Hearts

This is essentially the best cheat which allows you to claim you've made your own chocolates!

It's as simple as choosing your favourite chocolate (as you can see I choose Terry's Chocolate Orange) and melting it in a bain marie (placing a bowl over a pan of hot water - make sure the water isn't touching the bottom of the bowl) before transferring the chocolate into moulds. As you can see I choose to use a set of mini heart moulds in time for Valentines.

I received the mould in a magazine which also included individual gold foil wrappers and a box. Therefore as you can see I wrapped the chocolates up by placing the chocolate in the foil (shaped like a diamond) before turning over the top corner, the bottom and then the sides.

And there you have it, you've 'made' your own chocolates!

Sugar Mice

This was my first attempt at making real sweets (other than fudge a few years which went spectacularly wrong) and they were really fun to do.

Unfortunately I have a new obsession with a weekly baking magazine (Something Sweet) that is full of recipes and exciting things, including; sugar mice moulds with string tails, a truffle box and mini cupcake cases. This is where the idea to make the mice came from. 

I was surprised at how little is needed to make sugar mice, apart from the mould and tails (which if you purchase the magazine, will come free with it), it only requires fondant icing (200g), pink food colouring (but only if you want to make pink mice), black icing and water. 

To get started chop up the fondant icing by cutting the block into slices, then into strips and finally into cubes. Try to make sure these are all a similar size so that they melt at the same time. Then place them in a pan with 1 and 1/2 tbsp of water. 

Once all the fondant has melted (at this point I separated it into two separate pans to add pink food colouring to one), bring it to a rolling boil and then turn it back down to allow it to simmer for a two minutes before taking it off the heat and pouring it straight into the moulds (you need to be quick to do this to make sure it doesn't start to set first). 

Immediately after pouring it into the moulds, twist each piece of string into the mouse. Allow them to set for about two hours, before lightly pushing the bottom of the mould to pop them out. These then need to rest over night (24 hours) to make sure they have dried out completely.

Once they have, you can draw on their eyes (and nose if you wish). I used a black icing pen for this but you could also use icing sugar and add a tiny bit of black food colouring to it. Then apply it with a very thin point, the only thing I could find (in a house of four girls) was a hair grip. 

A final top tip would be to fill the moulds right up to the top...as you can see on the far right one mouse lost his nose because of it.

And then they're ready to eat!