Churros

If you're reading from the UK or the USA, you probably usually come across these tasty morsels at fairgrounds and circuses. In their home country, Spain, they're eaten for breakfast. Popular throughout Latin America too, I thought they'd be the perfect pudding to take to a Mexican themed evening. Do you want to know how I made them? Read on...

Churros

50g Melted butter

1/2 tsp Vanilla extract

350ml Boiling water

250g Plain flour

1tsp Baking powder

1 litre Sunflower oil

Caster sugar to cover a baking tray and a large bar of chocolate, melted, to serve.

1. Melt the butter in the microwave and add the vanilla extract

2. Add the melted butter to the boiling water, and watch science happen (the butter isn't as dense as the water so it floats on top!)

3. Put the flour in a bowl, and make a well in the middle where you can pour your butter and water.

4. Mix, then leave to cool for 10-15 minutes

5. Put the dough in a piping bag with a star shaped nozzle on. The dough is a strange consistency, unlike any dough I've worked with before - very runny. Fill a deep saucepan 1/3 full with oil and heat to the point where a chunk of bread browns in around 1 minute. Pipe the dough directly into the oil, making the churros as long or as short as you like. Cut the dough when you reach the desired size. You can fit two, maybe three in a pan, but no more or they all clump together and it's very sad.

6. Once they're nice and crispy, pull out of the oil with a slotted spoon and roll in caster sugar. Serve still warm with a pot of melted chocolate to dip them in, and enjoy!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Let's talk about cookies. I think cookies should have a crisp exterior that gives way to a soft, gooey inside. For years, I struggled to find the perfect recipe. I'd read different theories, melted butter vs. room temp butter, self raising vs. plain, the list goes on, but none of them made that cookie. You know the one I mean.

And then a book appeared in our flat. It isn't the prettiest book, I'd never have picked it up off a shelf. But someone gave it to my flatmate for her birthday, so we gave it a whirl, and decided to use the cookie recipe. We have never looked back. The answer was not brown sugar, or cornflour, or anything else I'd ever read. It was condensed milk. And the best thing about these cookies? No egg. So when you want to crawl under a blanket, watch The Notebook and eat raw cookie dough, this recipe is your friend. The dough also keeps in the fridge in an airtight container for about a week.

The Best Cookies Ever

225g Caster sugar
225g Unsalted butter
170g Condensed milk
350g Self-raising flour
125g Sultanas
125g Plain chocolate chips

1. In a large bowl, weigh out the caster sugar and butter

2. Pour in the condensed milk. Scrape out every last drop, then lick the spoon. It's mandatory.

3. Cream it all together, then stir in the flour. Add the chocolate chips and sultanas.

4. Spoon out little balls and place on greased baking tray topped off with greaseproof paper. I also     grease that slightly - I don't take risks when it comes to cookies.

5. Pop them into the oven at 180°.

6. Take them out after 10-15 minutes, or when they're just starting to turn golden around the edges. Leave to cool on the tray for a minute, then transfer to a cooling wrack. If you move them off the baking tray too soon, they'll fall apart!

As soon as you can touch them, enjoy with a glass of cold milk. If there's any left, keep in an airtight container and microwave for 10 seconds when you come to eat them.

You don't have to go with sultanas and chocolate chips - the book suggests hazlenuts in place of the sultanas. I've used Smarties, M&Ms, raspberries with white chocoalte, the list in endless. I'm dying to try it with 75g of the flour replaced with cocoa powder. If you have a go with other fillings, let me know how it turns out!

Goodbye Nice

As our last day dawned, we knew we didn't want to do anything new, just wander and enjoy the last rays of sunshine and the last of the peace being away from everything brought us. Throughout the holiday I realised Nice is a place with many sharp contrasts, but somehow it all fits together beautifully. There's cheap and cheerful shops and restaurants (we ended up in Quick Burger when we arrived desperate for food and super late on the first night. Just so you know, it was one of the worst things I've ever eaten).

There's high end fashion boutiques and five star restaurants.

And shops that, well, quite frankly, are indescribable. Never have I seen a more eclectic collection.

There's beautiful palm trees, pebbly beaches, museums and galleries and fantastic (seriously) ice cream.

There's something interesting to look at wherever you turn. I still don't know what these ribbons were about.

Eventually, it was time to head back to our apartment to pack the bags, and just in time too, because, for the first time all holiday, the heavens opened to an enormous storm. It made it slightly easier to come home. Very slightly. Usually, I love a holiday, but I'm ready to go home at the end. But this time, I could have happily stayed for another week at least.

I'll leave you with my favourite two pictures from the holiday - both taken on my phone! It goes to show it's the moment that makes the photograph, not the camera. Now I've finally wrapped up my summer posts, you can look forward to being introduced to some recipes, and finding out what a day in the life of a fourth year honours student is like...

Cannes

Let's hop on a train and go on another day trip - to Cannes! I'm not going to say much today - the pictures say it all I think. Sun, sea, sand and showbiz.