Books and (hopefully efficient) memory work make up the corpus of my life right now, but that won’t stop these mini experiments.

The classic milk/dark chocolate and orange combination has been done countless times before, so I thought, why not give the slightly neglected white stuff a chance? Stuck my hand far at the back of my cupboard and broke a bar into chunks. Threw it into the mix. It did just the trick.

Ah, that char? Yeah, the oven wasn’t being a very agreeable host that morning. I made a few recipe modifications after taking all necessary photos, and am pleased to say that the final product, the second shot, went into the hoop. Pretty darn delicious. Spongy and fluffy in the middle, sweet like dessert, but the orange peel almost makes it wholesome. Firm, caramelised top and bottom crust. And of course, like pretty much most of my recipes, this is easy easy easy. 5 minutes tops for everything.

Before I leave you to it, check out these links:

Make these cookies. The only minor change I made was substituting half of the milk chocolate with white chocolate (can you tell I’m on a bit of a white kick?), but the results were glorious. The resting method that relaxes the gluten and lets the flour absorb as much of the liquid as possible yields teh chewiest, gooiest, YUMMIEST cookie.

‘Large claims and scant evidence’ indeed

Brings me to tears. Perhaps it’s all the minor keys and tinkling notes, but listening to this particular composer has a serious emotional effect on me.

Marmalade White Chocolate Breakfast Pudding (serves 1)

In a small bowl, whisk together one egg yolk, a splash of vanilla extract and 3 tbsp sugar until mixture goes slightly pale.

Add a pinch of salt, a half tsp of baking powder, 2 tbsp flour, 1.5 tbsp marmalade (I like thick chunks of rind in mine, but do so with whatever sort you prefer), and 2 tsp whole milk.

Add a handful of white chocolate chunks (around 15-20g) and mix. Pour everything into a microwave-safe mug or ramekin, and microwave for 1.5 minutes (90 seconds) on high. Check after 1 minute- it might be done by then. A wooden skewer inserted in the middle should come out clean.

My first spontaneous pairing with thick greek yoghurt convinced me that that, together with more marmalade and white chocolate, make for the best toppings to eat with this pudding.