Custard

A great accompiment to all puddings and desserts. And, it's a non-Newtonian fluid!!

Custard
Prep time: 10 minutes
Serves: 4

Ingredients
570ml semi-skimmed or full-fat milk
55ml single cream
4 large egg yolks
30g golden caster sugar
2 level tsps cornflour
1/2 - 1 tsp vanilla extract

Method

1. Mix the milk and cream together over a low heat, bringing it slowly to simmering point.
   
2. In a seperate bowl, whisk up the egg yolks with a ballon whisk with the sugar and cornflour.
   
3.  Pour in the hot milk, continuing to whisk until it is all well combined.
4. Put it all back into the pan and add the vanilla extract, then stir with a wooden spatula until  it begins to thicken (the faster you stir, the thicker it will feel... shear-thickening fluid right here) and gain the right consitency.
5. Pour it into a serving jug and use straight away.
   

Gingerbread House

A Christmas classic - and so much better when you've made it yourself. Although quite time consuming, this is surprisingly easy to make (maybe a little harder to construct
aesthetically ;) ) But this is no ordinary gingerbread house - it had 'glass' windows! You can use this same technique in cookies too.
Sorry that this has come after Christmas - but hey, who wants to limit this beauty to one day of the year?! It is great for any celebration or birthday.

Gingerbread House
Prep time:  A few hours + 4 hours cooling
Serves: Makes 1 house and decorations
Cooking temp: Gas 6, 200C
Cooking time: 10 minutes (per batch)

Ingredients
For the gingerbread:
300g unsalted butter
240g dark muscavado sugar
120g golden syrup
720g plain white flour
Just under one tbsp of bicarbonate of soda or baking powder
2 tbsps ground ginger
 10-15 boilded sweets in orange and yellow (though we did use green for our windows)
  
For the icing:
2 large egg whites
450g icing sugar
2 tsp lemon juice  

For the decoration
Large chocolate buttons
Sweets such as silver balls or christmas sugar shapes

You will also need:
A large cake board
Small or medium sized star cutter
Gingerbread man cutter (different sizes are optional)
This template

Method

1. In a small pan, melt the butter, sugar and golden syrup until it is just melted (not simmering)
   
2. Meanwhile, sift the  flour, baking powder and ginger together in  a large mixing bowl and combine. Make a well in the centre.
   
3. Pour in the hot butter mixture and mix with a wooden spoon. When it is cold enough to handle, knead into a stiff (not sticky) dough.
   
4. Preheat the oven to gas 6/ 200C, and line a large baking sheet with parchment. In total, you will need 3 baking sheets - you can do this all at once, or do batches (you can be rolling out the next shapes whilst the first are baking).
5. Lay out a sheet of greaseproof baking paper on a clean surface. Weigh the ball of dough and divide into 5 equal sized balls. Then, divide one into two halves so you have six pieces in total.
   
6. Roll out one of the larger balls until it is 1/2 to 3/4 cm thick. roll it to a rough rectangle the same shape as the roof. Cut out the 'Roof' Template (see link) and place on the gingerbread. Use a knife to cut around the edges. (Keep the offcuts) Repeat this again for the other side of the roof.
   
7. Slide the gingerbread onto the baking tray and bake for 10-12 minutes, turning the tray around half way. When you take them out the oven, they may have spread so you can cut the edges to make them straight again. Then, lift onto a wire rack to cool completely (Be careful as they may be too soft to handle for the first few minutes, you don't want them breaking)
8. Whilst the roof is baking, roll out the two small balls and make the sides pieces in the same way. Cut out and keep the window shapes. 
   
9. In a mortar and pestle, bread down the boiled sweets to a sandy consistency.
   
10. Bake the sides and window shapes for 7 minutes, then remove from the oven and sprinkle a good amount of the sweet powder into each window space (enough so you can't see the sheet below). Return to the oven, the other way around, for another 3-4 minutes, until the sweets are molten.
    
    
    
11. While the sides are cooling, cut each window piece in half. After a few minutes, the 'stained glass' should be solid enough to lift. Place on the wire rack to cool also.
12. OK, you get it - roll out the last two balls to form the back and front of the house (depending on the size of your oven they may have to bake sperately). Use a star cutter to cut out the central window, and cut the lower windows out (keep - you can decorate the star offcut sperately if you want). On one side, cut out a door. 
13. Using all the offcuts, roll and cut out the chimney pieces, trees, and small right-angled triangle supports for the trees. With any leftovers you can make other shapes, such as the gingerbread men or more stars.
    
14. Bake for seven minutes, sprinkle the boiled sweets, and bake for another 3. Cut these window pieces in half too.
15. Phew. The easy bit is done. You may have something like this:
    

Assembly

1. When all the pieces are cooled completely,  you can decorate them. In a large bowl, whisk up the egg whites until frothy, then add the baking powder a tbale spoonful at a time. (You may want to use an electric whisk, it gets quite thick). Continue to whisk until you have a smooth, thick icing. Add the lemon juice.
   
2. Using a small or medium sized plain piping nozzle, pipe deocrations around the windows and walls (we just used teaspoons, hehe). You can deocrate with sweets or leave it nicely iced for a more professional effect (we chose sweets, of course =D )

   

   Warning: very messy!!

   
3. Using your window-halves, make shutters and fit to either side of each window.
4. For the roofs, tile on the chocolate buttons, overlapping each one - we did a stripey effect with white chocolate too. Stick on using small blobs of icing, and leave to dry.
   
5. By piping down the side pieces, assemble the chimney.
6. Spread a generous amount of icing over the base of the cake board, in the rough shape of the house. 
7. Stand up the front on the icing and pipe a line down either side, then assemble the walls on either side. (you may have to hold it together here for a bit). Pipe along the last two edges and add the back of the house. Stand the door ajar.
   
8. Leave the house to dry for at least 4 hours, or better overnight. Meanwile you can decorate and assemble the trees and the people around. (stick your triangles on the back of the trees)
   
9. Add the roof pieces and the chimney, piping along the slanted edges of the back and front. 
   

Samosas

Nice veggie samosas =D Two will make a great lunch, or you could serve it as finger food at a Christmas party... and as we come to the end of another year, don't forget to look at all of 2013's recipes too! (I've updated some with more photos, such as the pear pies... traditional bakes we will continue to make every year)

Squash Samosas
Prep time: 1 hour
Serves: 20
Cooking temp: Gas 6, 200C
Cooking time: 35 minutes
 
Ingredients
600g peeled and diced squash such as pumpkin or butternut squash, or potato
1 tbsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp red chili powder
1/2 tsp garam masala
2 tbsps olive oil
1/2 tsp fennel seeds (whole)
60g chopped onion
1 tsp finely chopped ginger
 60g frozen peas
Juice of 1/2 a lemon
Packet of 20 filo pastry sheets
3 tbsps melted unsalted butter, for brushing

Method

1. Heat up a large pan of water, and boil the squash until soft enough to mash (get on with the rest whilst this happens).
   
2. In a small bowl, combine the ground spices. Prepare the other ingredients (chopping ginger and onion, etc)
   
3. Heat up the oil in a small frying pan and add the fennel seeds for a few seconds, until spitting.
4. Cook the onion and ginger for 2 minutes, moving about constantly.
   
5.  Pour in the peas, lemon juice and the mixed spices, and cook for a few minutes.
6. Mash the squash up and stir through the pea mixture. 
   
7. Preheat the oven to Gas 6, 200C
8. On a clean surface, lay out a sheet of filo pastry. 
   
9. Fold one third length ways towards the middle.
   
10. Fold the other edge over so they line up, and you have a triple-layered strip.
    
11. In the bottom left hand corner, spoon a teaspoon's worth of mixture.
    
12. Fold the long strip above down at right angles, so it aligns with the bottom edge to form a triangle.
    
13. Continue to fold this way, lining up the edges each time (see pictures) and so all edges are eventually 'sealed' in.
    

    

    1. Fold the pastry behind in a straight like

    

    2. Flip up the triangle, taking care with the open edge than nothing spills out

    

    3. Fold over the flap of filo

    

    4. Fold the last bit to seal and make a triangle!

    
    

    

    5. Ana's exemplar =D

14. Brush with melted butter and arrange on a baking tray or two, lined with a baking sheet.
    
15.  (You can sprinkle over a few seeds if you wish, such as poppy or sesame)
16. Cook for 30 minutes, turning them over half way.
    

Christmas cards

So - you want proof that you don't need to be an arts and craft genius to make nice handmade cards? Look no further...

I made these two for my mum and sister. They take a few hours each (or at least for me, who's terrible with a scalpel) but the end result is very rewarding. Brilliant idea to give to a close friend of family member :)

Idea 1: Christmas baubles

You will need:
1 A4 sheet of stiff card of your chosen colour scheme (mine was blue and silver, other combinations that work well could be silver and gold; red; red and white; red and green... basically anything Christmassy. Or just, any colours that look good together)
A few sheets of white card
Ruler and set square
A round object of about 6.5 cm diameter / compass
Craft scissors
Glue (Pritt Stick and PVA)
Three designs of wrapping paper or decorative paper that go together in a colour scheme
Silver pen (fine tip and a thicker one)
Silver/Christmas themed ribbon
Small foam craft pads
Quilling paper in lustrous colours or your colour scheme
Quilling tool or cocktail stick

(I think that's everything!)

1. Fold the coloured card in half (short edges together) to make a portrait card
2. Cut out a rectangle of white card that is about 2cm smaller in width and length (to give you a 1cm edging all the way around). Glue it to the middle of the front of the card.
3. Repeat on the inside page(/s depending on how much you plan to write...)
4. Draw around a circular object (I used the bottom of the PVA glue tub) onto the white card and repeat twice more. 5-7cm diameter is a good size.
5. Roughly cut out the shapes. On the side without the pencil markings, glue a piece of wrapping paper (decorated side up, of course) to cover the piece of card. Smooth out any crinkles or blobs of glue. (NOTE: If you use decorated card, not wrapping paper, you may not need to bother backing it with white card; draw the circles directly onto the 'wrong' side of the paper)
6. Cut out the baubles carefully and arrange on the page.
7. In the same white card, cut out three 2cm x 2cm squares. Decorate with the silver pen - a simple design such as a few stripes across, and some dots around the edging. 
   
   
   
   
   
8. Glue one to the top of each circle, so they are half on. 
9. Once you are happy with the positions of the baubles, trace round them lightly onto the card. Then, cut three lengths of ribbon, long enough to extend from the top of the card (one of mine came out from below the bauble above, see image) to the outline of the bauble. Glue them down.
10. Back the baubles with mini craft foam pads (I did eight around the edges, though you may want to put some in the middle too) and stick firmly to the page. Make sure that the ends of the ribbon aren't visible.
11. Add some quilled designs (vague, i know... sorry). You can make your own quilling paper by cutting coloured paper into 3mm strips. Roll one end around a cocktail stick/quilling tool, then slide off the end. You can allow it to unravel slightly or glue it in place as a tight curl. Use PVA glue on the end of a small paintbrush to glue them down.
    
    
12. Finish with dots of silver along the lines of the quilled paper, and of course your "Merry Christmas" or "Season's Greetings".

    

    The card before the silver pen addition (step 11)

Idea 2: Merry Christmas Window

 

You will need:

1 sheet A4 white card

Pencil

Ruler (preferably metal) and set square

Scalpel 

Glue

Red decorative paper or wrapping paper

Scissors

Extra white card

Silver writing pen (fine tip)

For the owl:

Pencil

White card

Red card (of the same stiffness, thickness etc)

Black card (ditto)

Scissors

Glue

Gold pen or paper

1. Fold the white card in half to make a portrait card. On the front, mark half way up, and rule a straight line across. Make another line a third of the page above this (i.e 7cm)
2. Divide up the gap into 5: happily, an A4 sheet folds into roughly 15cm across so that should give you intersections of 3cm.
3. Sketch the letters of MERRY, ensuring that they are always connected to the paper above and below (see image). Also make sure that there is a space between each letter (Mine was 2mm). For ease of cutting, shade in the area that will be removed. You may want to use a ruler to draw the edges of straight letters (I didn't go as far as to measure the internal angles of the 'M' and the 'Y', but I imagine some would...)
   
4. Using a craft scalpel, cut away the shaded areas, without cutting into the lettering you want to keep. Rub off all the pencil marks (be careful of erasing too vigorously over the fragile letters)
   
5. Glue a square of red paper or wrapping paper in the half below, aligning the top edge with the very bottom of the letters so there is no white space between. I cut my piece slightly larger and then trimmed around the edges when it was stuck on.
6. Add the word "Christmas" (or it wouldn't make sense otherwise ;p ) in a white box just below. I used silver pen, you could go to the effort of cutting out this lettering too but then again...

For the owl:

1.  Draw out a rough egg shape onto a sheet of white card, about 5cm longways. Cut it out.
2. Trace around the shape onto red card. Then, draw in the wings and ear(s), not forgetting the nose in the middle. Cut this out.
3. Cut out two largish circles in white card, large enough for cute eyes but not too massive... then, cut out two black circles of a slightly smaller diameter. Keep two tiny offcuts of white as the glints in the eye.
4. For the belt, cut a thin strip of black card. You want the ends to be tucked under the wings, so you may want to mark out their position first. For the buckle, cut out a tiny rectangle slightly thicker than the belt in white/gold card, and remove a smaller square from the inside using a scalpel. Colour it in gold if you used white card.
5. Sketch out a rounded rectangle, just larger than the width of one ear, on white card. Cut out a red triangle with a base that is slightly smaller than the length of the white piece. Finally, another white circle for the bobble.
6. Phew. You should have something like:
   
7. Assemble the pieces, beginning with the belt and buckle, then the wing section and eyes and finally the Santa's hat (it should be pretty obvious how it goes together)
   
8. D'aww. You can stick him inside the card or on the outside, or as the focal point of a completely different card design.

An alternative or extra design is to stick another image in the area behind the 'Merry', so it can be viewed through the lettering; such as a winter scene.

 Hope you like them :)