I'm not exactly organised with Christmas this year. I'm not exactly organised with ANYTHING this year, 


I'm not exactly organised with Christmas this year. I'm not exactly organised with ANYTHING this year, 




Within about a minute I'd found at least three recipes for Queen of Puddings, and my mind was made up.
I love the Queen. It's one of those things. Immediately upon entering my room you see this poster on the end of my desk, and at school we can't go a day in the Common Room without drinking a cup of tea 'to the Queen!' In fact, just to reinforce my point - about an hour ago I got a text from my friend Ed Philip adressed to me Elizabeth, signed 'HRH', which made me laugh no end.
To make this pudding my own I combined about three similar recipes I came across and changed the base a bit- usually it's just white breadcrumbs, milk and caster sugar, but I made it into a chocolate affair and replaced the raspberry or strawberry jam layer with black cherry. This is also generally made in a large dish but I made it in individual ramekins for a bit of a change =]
Chocolate Queen of Puddings
50g dark chocolate
400ml milk
2 heaped tbsp drinking chocolate powder (cocoa powder would also work, but we had none in, and you'd probably need to add more sugar if you used it)
80g breadcrumbs (usually they'd need to be white, but with this being a chocolate version I don't think it matters)
25g + 100g caster sugar
2 eggs, separated
4tsp black cherry jam
1. Oven to 180C. Break up the dark chocolate and melt it in a saucepan with the milk and drinking chocolate until it has melted and all combined together.
2. Place the breadcrumbs in a large bowl with 25g caster sugar and pour the chocolate milk over it. Mix well and leave to soak for about half an hour, then beat in the two egg yolks. Divide between four ramekins and bake for 30 mins, or until firm.
3. Whisk the two egg whites in a large clean bowl into soft peaks. Gradually, whisk in the 100g of caster sugar to make a thick, glossy meringue.
4. Spread a heaped teaspoon of black cherry jam over the top of each dish of baked chocolate mixture, then pipe or spread the meringue over the top of that (I used a flat knife to twist it into peaks). Return to the oven for 10-15 mins (mine took 12) until the meringue is crisp and golden.

Excuse the poor photography D= My camera's being even more temperamental than usual, and the terrible weather (meaning bad lighting) doesn't help much. Though probably the real problem is more about the person behind the camera... X__X
I'm pretty experienced with cheesecake.


If I lived next door to you (and we'll assume that I don't, since it would be a crazy coincidence if the people who do live next door to me were reading this. Hey, if you are, let me know, it would be like a miracle) this is the point where I'd be coming round to your house with a loaf of warm raisin bread and begging your forgiveness for ignoring you for so long.Actually, I probably wouldn't do that; I'd probably do the British thing of repressing my feelings and settle for nodding awkwardly at you in the street. But fortunately you don't have to worry about that, since you don't live next door to me.
The point is, I'm really sorry for the big delay in this post (one word: A-Levels. Does that count as one word? One full word and one hyphenated letter, then). So as an apology, I'm bringing round a virtual loaf of raisin bread, and a promise that now my English Coursework is finished, I can be a little more regular round here. It'll be the blogging world equivilant of camping out on your doorstep with (okay, so it's half eaten) heaps of bread and cake under my arm, I swear. You'll be glad to see the back of me.
Due to internet limitations however, you may want to make your own bread in the meantime.

500g strong white flour
(my dad got stuff with seeds in X__X as you may be able to tell from the pictures. It worked okay, but would be better just normal)1. Make the dough by putting the flour in a large mixing bowl withthe yeast, salt and raisins. Measure the milk into a jug with 125ml warm water, then break the egg into that and whisk it together with a fork. Pour the eggy liquid into the bowl of flour, spoon in the marmalade and stir it all together with a wooden spoon into a mass of soft, slightly sticky dough (if it's too sticky add a little more flour; if it's not coming together add a little more warm water).
3. By the time your arms have got insanely tired, you can shape the dough into a neat ball, put it back in the bowl and cover it with cling film (or a damp tea towel) to prove. Put it somewhere warm, away from draughts, but not too hot (like a radiator) or the yeast will die. If you have an Aga, apparently you can leave it in the warming oven with the door open, my mum tells me (but I didn't know this at the time, so I just left it in the kitchen).
4. Leave to rise for about 1.5 - 2 hours. I went off and did some coursework redrafting for an hour or so, and then I got bored, so I casually overlooked the rest of the rising time. It should have risen to 'a great big puffy ballooned mass, at least twice its original size'. I hadn't been paying attention when I'd left it, so I had no idea what its original size had been. Therefore I pretended it was done.
5. Grease the base and sides of a large loaf tin (aprox 13 x 23 x 7cm). Pull the dough out of the bowl and knead for about thirty seconds on the work surface, then flatten it out a little into a round disc. Roll it up roughly like a carpet so it's a puffy sausage shape, then tuck the sides underneath the base so it's like a pillow. Place it in the loaf tin; it should come about halfway up the sides.

Cover it with cling film or the tea towel again and leave to rise for 20- 25 mins. I had a guitar practice (grade four exam on Monday, sigh...)
6. Heat the oven to 220C. Place the tin in the oven and leave to bake for about 12 mins, then turn the oven down to 190C for another 10 mins. I didn't need quite this long (perhaps I put it at a too high heat?). To see if it's done, turn the bread out of the tin and tap on the base - it should sound hollow. If it doesn't, but it directly on the hot oven shelf for 10mins.
7. Let the bread cool on a wire rack, and begin to make a glaze for the outside. Put the sugar and water in a small pan and stir with a wooden spoon over a medium heat until the sugar has dissolved to make a syrup. Let it simmer for 1 min, then remove from the heat. Use a pastry brush to brush the warm syrup all over the top and sides of the bread; this looks stunning ^__^
You might be able to tell from the pictures that my bread wasn't actually fully cooked in the middle after all; it was still doughy on the inside (oops). Fortunately my mum and I both like it like this <3

I made this in the evening when there was no natural light, so I don't have any pictures of the glazed outside in nice light, since it was mostly eaten by then, haha. But you can get the idea from these:
This one on the right is what I believe professional food photographers call 'giving up and using the flash'...

'Go on, have a pasty,' said Harry, who had never had anything to share before, or, indeed, anyone to share it with.
(On the left is my best friend as Tonks, and on the right is me as Bellatrix ^__^ The fun to be had with spray cans of hair dye...)So since I wasn't up to much on Halloween (our celebratory party was actually on Friday instead) I came over all Molly Weasley-esque and decided to recreate the food =D
My mum avoided the kitchen while I was cooking, as I generally don't like people hanging round, breaking her silence only to darkly predict that they would taste disgusting (she once tried to cook with pumpkin after Halloween with no success, and didn't want me to have a go apparently, haha) but they were actually lovely; just like a vegetarian version of a regular Cornish pasty. If I hadn't known it was pumpkin I'd have had no idea what the mystery ingredient was, to be honest.
Naturally my mother is extremely bitter about this as a result.
Pumpkin Pasties1 tbsp olive oil
300g pumpkin
1 onion, chopped
1 potato, cut into cubes
500ml hot vegetable stock
3 tbsp plain flour
1/2 tsp thyme
500g ready-to-use shortcrust pastry
about 50ml milk to glaze
1. Oven to about 220C (I did mine at 200C for 18mins but the higher temperature would shorten this a bit). Heat the olive oil in a large pan then add the chopped onion and cook for about five minutes, until softened and golden.
2. Cut the pumpkin into squares of about 1 or 2cm (mine was scooped from the inside of the pumpkin, so I just cut it into bits really). Add the pumpkin and cubes of potato to the pan, and season with salt, pepper & thyme. Pour in the vegetable stock and bring to the boil before leaving to simmer for ten minutes or so. The pumpkin should be tender.
3. When I did this I was hoping the liquid would mostly evaporate but it didn't really, so I stirred in the flour (one tablespoon at a time, see how much you need cause you might not want it all). Give it a good stir to get rid of lumps, and let the mixture thicken a bit over a low heat. It shouldn't be too sloppy, you're going to be putting it in a pastry circle. Leave to cool.
4. Roll out your pastry fairly thin (I was worried they'd be too thin, but it was fine, so there'll be enough). I used a smallish dessert bowl to cut around to make medium sized circles (at a guess, about 15cm across?) Cut out 12 or 13 circles.
5. I found that either one generous tablespoon or two stingy dessertspoons of filling was enough for the pastry circles, otherwise they'd collapse. Put the filling in the centre of the circle, then use a pastry brush to brush milk all around the outside. Fold the pasties in half, into a semi-circle, and use your fingers to press the edges firmly together. Then use a fork to print around the outside edges.
6. Brush the pasties all over with milk to glaze and place on a large baking tray in the oven at 200- 220C. They should take about 15 minutes (mine took 18 at 200C) but keep an eye on them; when the pastry is golden brown take them out, as obviously the filling is already cooked.

My friend Tonks (^__^) and I ate these pasties last night before going out to the bonfire and firework display near my house. What can I say, it was just like being on the Hogwarts Express. Sort of. If you used your imagination a bit.
Well alright, not really, but they were good pasties.


5. Make the rest of the rice balls in the same way, but add peas or sesame seeds or what-have-you to the mix if you want.

I don't think she really got the idea.