PICK N MIX RECIPES

Steps:

• Make the dough in your breadmaker on the dough setting. Ours takes 45 minutes, but timing will vary according to your machine.
• Make the tomato sauce. Put the chopped tomatoes and tomato purée into a pan and bring to the boil, then simmer for about 10 minutes to boil off the liquid. My children don’t like the bits so I sieve the sauce, but it’s up to you.
• Preheat the oven to fan 200C/conventional 220C/gas 7. Divide the dough into 4-5 balls, dust with flour and roll out on a floured surface or directly on to your baking sheets if you have ones with no sides. If you sprinkle a little olive oil over the flour underneath the dough, this mix acts as a glue so you can roll the pizzas really thin.
• Once the dough is on the sheets, spread a layer of tomato sauce over, then sprinkle with grated cheese and add the toppings of your choice. Bake for 15 minutes.
• Remove the pizzas from the oven. If you like an extra crispy base, take them off the trays and put them back in the oven directly on the shelves for a further 5 minutes. For those who like eggs on their pizza, I fry them to order and slide them on at the last minute.

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 200°C (180°C fan) mark 6. Line 2 large baking trays with baking parchment. To make the choux pastry, melt butter and 300ml water in a large pan over low heat. Turn up the heat and bring to the boil. As soon as it is boiling, take pan off heat and quickly beat in flour with a wooden spoon. Continue beating until mixture is shiny and comes away from sides of pan. Empty into a large bowl and cool for 10min. Using a handheld electric whisk, gradually beat enough egg into dough until a spoonful of it will reluctantly fall off the spoon if held above the bowl (it may not need all of the egg).  Scrape into a piping bag fitted with a 1cm plain nozzle. Pipe 40 small balls, roughly 4cm diameter, on to prepared trays spacing them well apart. With a damp finger, gently pat down any peaks.  Bake for 25-30min until deep golden and crisp. Remove from oven (leave oven on) and use a skewer to carefully pierce a rough 5mm hole in the base of each profiterole to allow the steam to escape. Return to the oven, hole side up, for 3-5min to dry out. Cool completely on a wire rack. Meanwhile, whip double cream and icing sugar to form soft peaks and spoon into a piping bag fitted with a 5mm plain nozzle. Chill until needed. Put the chocolate in a medium heatproof bowl set over a pan of barely simmering water and heat gently, stirring occasionally, until completely melted and smooth. Remove from heat. Pour 1/2 the chocolate into a second bowl. Dye one bowl pink and one green, adding enough food colouring paste to achieve the desired shade. Set aside to cool to room temperature. Fill the cooled profiteroles with the cream. Dip the tops of half the profiteroles in the pink chocolate – arrange chocolate-up on the wire rack.  Arrange profiteroles on a large serving platter, randomly piled on top of each other in a large wreath shape. Decorate with sweets and leave to set at room temperature, around 15min. Serve.