My Christmas take on Jammy Dodgers 

Yesterday evening my housemate and I decided it had been far too long since we'd done any creative baking together, and so decided on making these as the pudding for a dinner we were invited to. Needless to say they went down well...

Recipe: (makes 24 and some snowflakes)
125g butter (I used Flora, which meant I had to add more flour, but feel free to experiment!)
150b light brown sugar
2 egg yolks
225g plain flour, plus extra for dusting
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp mixed spices
Grated rind of 1 orange
Pot of jam of your choice- we used Bonne Maman Raspberry jam. Yummy!

Cream the butter and sugar together, add yolks and stir well, then add rind and spices, and finally the flour. Depending on which you used - butter or margarine -  don't be afraid to add more flour, if it's sticking to your fingers it's not going to work !

Wrap the mixture in cling film and refrigerate for 30 minutes (when you do this it firms the mixture up a little, gives the finished biscuit a nice crunch, and overall makes rolling it out/your life easier). Think of it as an opportune moment for a cup of tea and bit of relaxation.

Preheat your oven to 180'C and line a baking tray or 3 with baking parchment.

Flour your work-surface well and roll out the mixture till it is about 3 mm thick, or as thin as you dare. (We, as poor students, used a glass to cut out the circles and spend the money on the snowflake cookie cutter set instead. Well worthwhile.) Using a snowflake cookie cutter, or any Christmas-themed cutter, cut the middle out of 1/2 the circles. We decided to cook these too rather than recycle the mixture. Cook for around 6 minutes, take out of the oven and spread jam on the whole disks, placing the tops on etc. and put back in the oven for a further 3 minutes approx. , or until the tops have started to turn golden brown (see photo below). Be careful when taking the biscuits out the oven as the jam will be uncomfortably hot and has tendencies to randomly spill out from the sides if you aren't careful!

Enjoy, and happy 1st December. Christmas is officially coming :)

How cute do these look! Very nice as little nibbles, and would make great stocking fillers if you put a handful in a bag!

http://www.onesentence.org/


There is something fascinating about writing just one sentence and creating so much intrigue, emotional response and curiosity. Reading novels nearly everyday since I began my degree, and not coming across such powerful language makes me ask: what is so different about these short stories? I think maybe it's because of the indulgence of the imagination, and being conditioned to expect a beginning, middle, and end from a story; there is no space for such tradition in a sentence, and so we form the rest in our heads for the biggest impact and emotional response. A few years ago, I read a book of Saki's short stories which were also very effective, yet I wonder whether postmodernism has taken the story one step further and shortened it to merely a sentence, or whether it is a less abstract and prosaic haiku. Food for thought there.

Enjoying this luxury called 'time', (I don't really have spare time, it's all a self-imposed delusion that I don't have essays to write and I don't have multiple books to read and analyse!) I have indulged in new music. 

Youth by Daughter, and all her other songs are really quite astoundingly beautiful and sometimes chilling, but gorgeous on the ears when reading. Finding 'reading music' is actually quite difficult because you don't want something that is too upbeat and be distracting, yet if it is too subtle it gets lost or makes you unhelpfully sleepy! So besides Daughter I have also been enjoying Tracy Chapman, The Cinematic Orchestra, Of Monsters and Men, Radical Face, Noosa, Penny and Sparrow and The Oh Hello's. Here are some links to get you guys started. If you like one I'm sure you'll like them all- no surprise dubstep I promise!

After finally getting past the last few crazy weeks at uni, I've treated myself to an afternoon of doodling and creative activities :D
Will try and replace this terrible quality photo with a better one soon :S

http://www.crunchybetty.com/diy-picture-tiles-you-will-never-buy-a-photo-frame-again

So those photos that I wanted to print. I think I've just decided how !
Moments like this are when I wish I had a place of my own where I could decorate as I pleased...
Such endless possibilities: I think these photo tiles could work really well in a kitchen, or if you were feeling very artistic you could use very small tiles and photos to create a larger mosaic picture. As I'm writing this I've realised I'm getting to that stage again where I have 'creative itches'. The last few weeks of summer resulted in one such creative splurge of activity, and being back at uni drowning in work and reading have resulted in wanting to be creative again...only I have no time to do so.

Things I've decided in the last few days I want to try and do as a result of this 'itch':
- buy a roll of magnetised sheeting with a white varnished side, draw one massive doodle on it with multiple sharpies and colours, then trim it to the size of my fridge.
- multi-tiered ombre cake
-picture tiles
-variously flavoured cake-pops (I've only ever made chocolate sponge ones), I'm talking about ones like sticky toffee or ginger cake dipped in caramel, or banana cake with dried cranberries

The list goes on really.

Thankfully, my university have finally jumped on the bandwagon and given us a reading week, hallelujah! Only a week and a half to go before I will be able to get a heavy creative session in. *little excited dance*

Hehehehe. Reminiscent of the Nicholas Cage cats

Internet is now up and running (hooray!), now we just need to get our oven fixed so I can get baking again :(