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Sticky Toffee Pudding with Orange Custard

Rich toffee sponge pudding covered in sinfully sticky sauce, served warm with orange flavoured custard.

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Sticky Toffee Pudding with Orange Custard

This post may contain affiliate links. I received items from Kitchen Craft to review, all opinions and words are my own.  Read full disclosure here

Let’s talk about pudding again, shall we? I’ve talked before about how in Britain the term “pudding” means any kind of dessert, well we also have a type of pudding called pudding – because why keep things simple and easy to understand! This type of pudding is generally sponge based and usually steamed, there’s lots of different types including the ever giggle inducing spotted dick and well known Christmas pudding! Sticky toffee pudding is probably one of the most loved though, it’s hard to resist that deep toffee flavour and gooey, sticky sauce it’s covered in!

Sticky Toffee Pudding with Orange Custard

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Neapolitan Pudding

Neapolitan Pudding

“What are you making?” my mum asked me. “Pudding” I replied. “Yeah, but what are you making?” she said “pudding!” I responded. “But you can have anything for pudding! Cake, ice cream, pie…” Now I see where our wires are getting crossed “It’s just pudding, actual pudding. It’s its own thing” I tell her. “Oh, okay” she says “but what is it you’re making”. I don’t think she’s gonna get it you guys!

That conversational circle went on for quite a while. Pudding in the UK is a synonym for dessert (if you read the Harry Potter books and wondered why they always ended meals with “pudding”, now you know they weren’t just overly fond of this custard like dessert!), we don’t have pudding like the US does either – the closest we have is custard which isn’t all that dissimilar really. We do have a type of dessert referred to as pudding and those are usually sponge based and steamed in a basin. However, I love America’s pudding – and not just in my cookies. It was only a matter of time until I made my own!

Neapolitan Pudding

I love neapolitan ice cream, who doesn’t? We were one of the houses where the vanilla would somehow be the only flavour left though – oh the disappointment of opening up the ice cream tub only to see vanilla left! These days I’d be happy to eat up that vanilla ice cream, vanilla is not as boring as young me thought (if it’s done right anyway!). Did anybody else mix up their neapolitan ice cream to make a brown, gloopy mess though? Oh, to be back in those simpler times! Of course, in my adulthood, I can make as much neapolitan yummyness as I want! So when I was trying to decide what flavour pudding I should make with some left over egg yolks, I thought to myself “why settle for just one?” and so neapolitan pudding it was! Being an adult is swell! 

Neapolitan Pudding

I know neapolitan is normally made with strawberry, but I prefer raspberry plus I had some fresh raspberries just itching to be used! Of course, you can make yours with strawberries, just do a straight switch. I do love the distinct layers in this pudding, it was fun to make and fun to look at – but I will admit, I couldn’t resist mixing it all up into dull brown mess when I ate it. There’s still a little kid inside of me after all! 

Neapolitan Pudding

I do love the little pudding packs you can buy in the grocery store, but you can’t beat the homemade stuff! It isn’t hard to make either, it doesn’t even take very long – you just have to be patient while you wait for it chill (which is usually the hardest part, for me anyway!). Then you just spoon it into your presentation glasses – or just mix it all up in a bowl and cut out the middle man 😉 Either way, it won’t take you much effort to get to the point of yummy goodness! And you really will notice the difference in flavour and I think you’ll agree it was worth it. 

Neapolitan Pudding

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Chocolate Magic Cake

Chocolate Magic Custard Cake

Magic cake you guys! It’s actually magic! Or it’s science, which is kind of like magic to those of us who don’t understand science (i.e. me). You mix up one cake batter, pour it into a pan, bake it and voila – you have three separate layers when it’s done. A dense, chewy layer. A creamy custard layer. And a light sponge layer. It’s magic!! I’m very excited about it!

Chocolate Magic Custard Cake

 

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Tarte au Citron Vert – GBBO Challenge Week 5 (Pies & Tarts Week)

tarte au citron vert

 

Everybody knows the classic tarte au citron, the beautiful French tart – a buttery pastry, filled with a zesty lemon custard. It’s a classic and some may say it’s perfect as it is and shouldn’t be changed. To them I say “pah!”. I’m a huge lover of lime and filling this tart with a smooth lime custard just sounded so much more appealing to my palate. Besides, I’m not one to stick to tradition! 

tarte au citron vert

This sweet and tart dessert is perfect for a sunny picnic, a celebratory barbecue or even a fancy dinner party. It’s versatile and gorgeous, a perfect choice for pies and tarts week of my Great British Bake Off challenge. I really enjoyed baking this and it was a lot simpler that I thought it would be, I normally associate French with tricky! The trickiest part was baking it just the right amount, you want to bake it until it is just set. You don’t want it to be under baked and runny, but you don’t want to dry it out either. So you have to keep a close eye on it.

tarte au citron vert

I had a fancy French week this week, baking fancy French patisserie classics and eating fancy French food. I fulfilled a bucket list item of mine on Tuesday (well, I don’t have a bucket list but if I did this would have been on it). I ate at Restaurant Gordon Ramsay! I’m a big, big fan of Gordon – I love his recipes, the way he cooks and I think he is just a great person all round. I think if you don’t watch his shows often you’d get the wrong idea about him, because yes he can be very hot tempered and brash but if he can see you are putting effort in and taking care in what you do, he is extremely encouraging and actually very nice. It’s when you’re half-assing something or being intentionally stupid that he loses his temper! I was also super excited to eat at Restaurant Gordon Ramsay because the head chef there is a woman called Clare Smyth and she is the first British woman to receive and keep 3 Michelin stars – and if there’s one thing I love it’s successful ladies! The food was absolutely amazing, we had three courses but they also brought out appetisers and extra desserts. I’ve honestly never tasted anything that good before, there’s definitely a good reason it’s so pricey! If you want to see photos of the gorgeous food I ate, check out my instagram, I posted photos on it on Tuesday and Wednesday. 

tarte au citron vert

 

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Quick and Easy Chocolate Mousse

What do you when you have 15 egg yolks laying around? Make chocolate mousse of course!

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I love most things meringue based, so while all these egg whites are living full and delicious (yet short) lives, the egg yolks are left to wallow in their unfulfilled destinies.

So if you’re anything like me you often have a lot of egg yolks laying around and nothing to do with them. There are plenty of things you make with egg yolks; crème pâtissière, custard, crème brûlée, mayonnaise, hollandaise etc. I wanted something nice and easy that could be eaten by itself (and wouldn’t require a chef’s torch!), and that’s where the mousse came in.

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I used a Martha Stewart recipe for this, but slightly adapted as I didn’t have as much cream as I thought I did and I had less chocolate (I was also going for a recipe that I didn’t have to buy anything for, it was 9pm after all). Despite the lack of cream and less chocolate it was still the richest chocolate mousse I have ever eaten, I could only eat a few spoonfuls!

Ingredients:

  • 4  egg yolks
  • 3 tablespoons sugar
  • 300ml double cream
  • 170g dark chocolate (min 60% cocoa solids), melted
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Whisk the egg yolks, 2 tablespoons sugar and 150 double cream in a medium saucepan. Heat over a medium/low heat, stirring constantly for 3-4 minutes, do not boil. Remove from heat and strain into a bowl. Whisk in melted chocolate and vanilla. You’ll end up with a custardy consistency. Chill until cooled.

With an electric mixer, beat remaining cream and sugar together until stiff peaks form. Stir 1/3 of the whipped cream into the cool custard mixture, and then every gently fold in the rest of the the cream with a rubber spatula.

Spoon into serving dishes, cover and chill for at least 30 minutes before serving.

And voila! Your egg yolks have new meaning and can die satisfied!