Pretzels

Ingredients

Makes 8 large

300g strong white bread flour
2 teaspoons castor sugar
1 x 7g sachet fast-action dried yeast
¾ teaspoon salt
225ml lukewarm milk
1 large egg

Method

Put the flour, salt, sugar & yeast into a bowl and combine
Add the milk
Press and squeeze everything together so it makes a soft dough
Add a little extra flour or milk if needed
Lightly sprinkle the worktop with flour and knead the dough thoroughly for about 5 minutes
Put the dough back in the bowl and cover with clingfilm
Leave to rest and rise for about 30 minutes
Turn it out onto the worktop, no need for flour
Divide into 8 equal pieces and leave on the worktop for 5 minutes, uncovered
Using your hands, roll each ball of dough out to about 45cm, if it starts to stick use a little flour on your hands
Try and get the width of the dough even along the whole sausage shape
To shape: bend it into a U shape and then cross over one end from right to left and then the other from left to right, so that the bent ‘legs’ of the U now cross in the middle
Carefully lift onto a lined baking sheet and leave enough space for expansion between each pretzel
Beat the egg and add 1 tablespoon water to it.
Lightly brush the dough with this mixture and add any other toppings you would like at this point, e.g sea salt flakes, or cheese
Place in preheated oven 220⁰C/425⁰F/Gas 7 for approx 15 minutes
Meanwhile, melt 30g butter  and have it ready with a pastry brush when they are cooked
Remove from oven and brush lightly wit the melted butter to give them a lovely sheen
Place on wire rack to cool

Enjoy!

Rudolph Cupcakes

 

Ingredients

• 200g butter, cubed
• 200g plain chocolate, broken into squares
• 200g light soft brown sugar
• 2 large eggs, beaten
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 250g self-raising flour

For the icing

• 200g plain chocolate, broken into squares
• 100ml double cream, not fridge-cold
• 50g icing sugar

For the reindeers

• 12 large milk chocolate buttons (we used Cadbury Dairy Milk Giant Buttons)
• 24 white chocolate buttons
• 12 red Smarties
• black icing pens
• mini pretzels, carefully cut in half horizontally

1. Get started: Heat oven to 160C/140C fan/gas 3. Line a 12-hole muffin tin with paper cases. Gently melt the butter, chocolate, sugar and 100ml hot water together in a large saucepan, stirring occasionally. Set aside to cool a little while you weigh the other ingredients.
2. Make your cakes: Stir the eggs and vanilla into the chocolate mixture. Put the flour in a large mixing bowl, and stir in the chocolate mixture until smooth. Spoon into the cases until just over three-quarters full. Bake on a low shelf in the oven for 20-22 mins. Leave to cool.
3. Ice the tops: To make the icing, melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a pan of barely simmering water. Once melted, turn off the heat, stir in the double cream, sift in the icing sugar and mix well. When spreadable, top each cake with some icing.
4. Have fun decorating: Position a milk chocolate button on top of each cake, then 2 white chocolate buttons above it. Use a little icing as glue to stick a red Smartie onto the milk chocolate button for a nose. Then use your icing pens to draw black dots on the white buttons for eyes. Stick 2 pretzel top halves into the top of each cake for antlers, and stick the bottom half of a pretzel under the Smartie for a mouth. These cakes will keep in a sealed container for up to 3 days, but we doubt they’ll last that long!