Challenge no. 13 - Dragon Wheel

Make a giant piece of confectionery

Set by another fellow journalism student Mark Semmens.

Mark likes video games (http://28daysinthelifeofavideogameaddict.blogspot.com/), grind-metal and is tee-total and vegetarian. He has an amazing ability to insult people, it's really quite a talent, he does not discriminate with his insults, no-one is safe, he will tell you to your face that you look like a cheap tart (Mark would not use those words, I cannot write what he would actually say). Now you may think that is not a flattering quality in a human being, but actually it's hilarious, or to put a positive spin on it, an important lesson in life is to learn the ability to laugh at yourself.

I couldn't decide which piece of confectionery to choose, I wanted to do a Twix, but I couldn't handle making that much caramel or afford to buy that much caramel.

I then decided I would make a huge bourbon, but I then thought 'ha, that is no challenge, I am a snack-making warrior'.

I finally settled on a huge wagon wheel. With jam. Ooooh Yeah.

Here is a cross section of a normal size wagon wheel without jam.


I got my inspiration from http://www.pimpthatsnack.com/, I love that website.


I was so excited! I practically ran to the supermarket, well actually I didn't, you should know how I hate to assert myself physically, here's what you will need if you wish to create a huge wagon wheel:


1000g plain flour
1000g butter
400g caster sugar
few drops of vanilla essence
marshmallows
seedless raspberry jam
500g of chocolate
Some Alcohol (for you, not the wagon wheel)
A beautiful kitchen assistant/slave


I went for a shortbread biscuit as I believed that was the closest to the biscuity goodness in a wagon wheel. To make this I creamed together the butter and sugar, stirred in the vanilla essence, then stirred in the flour. Then disaster struck.






After cooking the stupid biscuits for hours, I started to make the marshmallow. Again disaster. I literally tried to make the marshmallow. I used icing sugar, gelatine and liquid glucose and some othe stuff which I can't remember as the experience was traumatic. I ended up with something that looked like an evil marshmallow out to punish people for eating its family. So, take 2, Puffin ran to the shops and brought some marshmallows and I melted those babies down. One giant biscuit was covered in chocolate and cooling in the fridge, the other was covered in jam and melted marshmallow.






Then you wait............

Once the chocolate on the biscuit in the fridge has hardened, cover the other side of it with jam, whack the other biscuit with the marshmallow on top, cover the whole thing in more chocolate and you will have one huge wagon wheel!




WAGON WHEEL: width - 7.5 cm, height - 1cm, calories -649


VS



DRAGON WHEEL: width - 24 cm, height - 5cm, calories - ??? Thousands!!!


Difficulty rating: erm, not that hard in the scheme of things
fun factor: High, especially if you have the whole day free
Do this if....there is no reason why you should not do this.

Challenge 13: Completed!


Holly


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