Chili Cheese Straws

This week I have been feeling really sad about the fact that I am no longer a student, that our house in Southampton is no longer ours and that I have to grow up, get married and have babies etc etc.

So I thought I'd take a little trip down student food memory lane. One of my house mates Simone would never let me go to bed at a reasonable time and so we'd sit there, pretending to do work and my mind would often wonder to food. After a while we would usually come to one of two decisions 1. to drive to Tesco (even thought it's a 5 minute walk) to get nacho materials and lychee juice. Or 2. to make chili cheese straws. We ALWAYS had the ingredients for the chili cheese straws between us, so we would end up making them for midnight snacks whenever we were too lazy to go on a nacho run. So I made some this week with some chilies that my dad grew and did a little cry about having to grow up.

To make around 30 you need:

150g flour
100g cheese
100g butter
1 tbsp finely sliced fresh red chili
Salt and Pepper

1. Preheat your oven to 180 degrees.
2. Put all the ingredients in a bowl, season with salt and pepper and rub between your fingers to form a breadcrumb consistency.
3. Bring the dough together in your hands to form a ball, then pop on to a floured surface.
4. Roll the dough out (with a wine bottle in true student style) so it's around 1cm thick, cut into straw shapes and place on to a grease proof lined baking tray. 
5. Bake in the oven for 10 minutes until golden brown.
6. Serve up warm and enjoy! 

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It's Christmas (cake) Time

I know some people hate the whole Christmas starts in October thing, but we all know that Santa Claus will be sliding down our chimneys quicker than we can say gingerbread house (sorry).

Here's a picture of my friends looking festive, to get you in the mood

So I've started baking along with the fabulous Pink Whisk to make my very first Christmas cake. I'm around 2 weeks late, but she says that even one week of soaking your fruit is better than none. Here's her instructions if you want to bake along too. Any way I'll update you with the progress in a few weeks, keep your fingers crossed for me (I've had many a kitchen disaster). Here's the first stage of the Christmas cake, the boozy fruit:

It smells like Christmas in a box! 

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Tropical Eton Mess

I thought I'd try and squeeze one last summery dish on here before this heat wave turns into full on winter next week. I've also decided that to survive watching the Great British Bake Off without a cake run after, I need to eat pudding before it's on (I realise it's a bit late, it being the finale tonight and all). So today I made this, if I was being a proper housewife Hef I may have made the meringue from scratch, but I wasn't, I was being lazy so I cheated and brought some... Life's too short! Enjoy! 

For 4 you'll need:

1 passion fruit
1 papaya
1 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp icing sugar
400ml double cream
100g raspberries
6 crushed up meringues
Cape gooseberries/ Physalis' to decorate

1. Smoosh together the insides of the passion fruit and papaya and then mix in the lemon juice and icing sugar and put to one side.
2. In a separate bowl whisk up the cream until it's nice and thick.
3. Then create your lovely layers, starting with crushed meringues, then cream, then the Smooshed fruit, then some raspberries and repeat until you get to the top.
4. Finish with a layer of cream and meringue and top with the physalis' to decorate.
5. Serve immediately and enjoy! 

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Tiny Oreo Cheesecakes

I know I'm not supposed to be being a fatty until holiday and I've been being good, honest, but life's to short to not be naughty sometimes. After I made the Oreo stuffed cookies I was searching the internet to see where they originated from and stumbled across this blog and oh my, I have fallen head over heels in love with it! My friend Leanne is coming over to help me with a photoshoot today and asked me to make her some cookies, but after I saw these Little Oreo Cheesecakes I knew I had to make those instead, (we are great lovers of cheesecake, you see) so Simone and I got to making them last night. You can find the recipe on the blog but I'm going to put the english measurements up here just to make it easier.

Makes 22 (we used fairy cake cases, would make less if using cup cake cases

28 Oreos, 22 whole, 6 crushed

450g cream cheese

110g sour cream

110g caster sugar

2 eggs

1/2 tsp vanilla

tiny pinch of salt

Start by turning the oven to 180 degrees and placing the cake cakes in a cake tin, fill each case with 1 Oreo. Mix the cream cheese in a large bowl with an electric mixer until smooth, then slowly add while mixing (this is where it's handy to have 2 bakers), then mix in the vanilla extract. Beat the eggs in a separate bowl and then slowly add them to the mixture while mixing, then add the soured cream and mix in well. Add the crushed Oreos and salt and mix in by hand. Pour the mixture in to the cake cases until just full and put in to the oven. Cook for 22-25 minutes, turning halfway through. Chill in the fridge over night (or 4 hours if you can't wait) and enjoy.

P.s Don't eat them out of the oven, as Simone and I discovered hot cheese cake is not right.

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