Missie Cindz Pud Inn Christmas 2013
14 December 2013
Nightmare Before Christmas Day arrived in style!
Christmas Day arrived early on Saturday 30th November with our sell-out ‘Missie Cindz PudInn Club’ afternoon – serving diners a delicious taste of Christmas in five sweet ‘Nightmare-ish’ courses! A big thank you to our five guest chefs and bakers who pulled out the stops to with their generous and delightful pudding courses – all capturing the festive tastes of a season of merriment and blissful indulgence in their own unique way.
Many thanks to Chef Mike, Lee, PJ taste, Carol and Chris of Cat Lane Bakery for your fantastic Pud Inn contributions
Missie’s Pud Inn’ Clubs are Sheffield’s sweetest toothed open dining club, where the only thing on the menu are puddings! Yes, Pud Inn (pudding eaten and shared in my local pub) are rather naughty and unhealthy but I think everyone’s allowed a guilty pleasure once in a while – after all – what’s life without treats!?
I like to add touches of Missie-ness to all my events so each diner on arrival receive ‘Score and Comment’ sheets to encourage diners to mingle and talking amongst each other and provide feedback on the day’s five puds. There was also a sweet Pud Inn Christmas quiz so diners can work in their table teams to win prizes, and also incorprated a ‘RIP Diet Desserts Table‘ – this was a table where diners could voluntarily bring in festive homemade or shop bought treats for us all to try.
What was for pudding at Missie Cindz Pud Inn?
Course One: first up was the Rutland Arms’s Chef Mike serving us the Deepest Darkest Chocolate Cheesecake. A stunning gigantic cheesecake it was too! I dread to think the amount of time Mike spent on his course but this just showed Mike’s attention to detail, perseverance and pudding skill in everything he bakes up.
Mike tells me a little more about his pudding course… “I chose the cheesecake because I thought it would be wise to brush up on a recipe that I had half forgotten and wanted to attempt making again and thpught PudInn diners would be the perfect group of people to make it to. The cheesecake was made with dark chocolate, mascarpone, topped with almonds and pistachios. I suppose the problem was remembering a recipe from years ago and after the event, I’ve also had some feedback from diners mentioning how it was more like a torte than a cheesecake so maybe I need to put less cream in the recipe.”
Comments from diners (taken from the score & comment sheets) included:
- I don’t usually like chocolate cheesecake but this one was brilliant!
- Excellent! a pud with amazing flavours and loved the crunchy nutty topping. Go Chef Mike!
- The nutty topping really complemented the smooth cheesecake filling very well
- Gorgeous! Nuts add a lovely texture and wasn’t too rich or sickly as it looked & expected
Course Two: next up was Silversmith’s Head Chef, Lee Mangles (@leesimonmangles) serving us his Scary Fairy Christmas Cakes. Cupcakes are welcome at any time of year but Lee’s Christmas Fairy (Cup)cakes were extra special. A lot lighter, but still deliciously fruity and spicy like traditional Christmas cake. This course was a perfect individual treat, making a great alternative to (stodgy) Christmas Pud and presented in pretty festive paper, piped with brandy butter and topped with a (hand cut out) fairy on edible rice paper.
Comments from diners (taken from the score & comment sheets) included:
- I feel like I’ve opened the door to my parent’s drinks cabinet in 1984. Boozy and nice!
- Loved the fruit, the booze, a very moist and delicious fairy cake. Thank you!
- Light cake and loved the brandy butter cream icing. Nice touch.
- A REAL taste of Christmas!
Next up was Course Three: Christmas Spirit with Gingerdead Men made by Carol Greene. Spicy gingerbread is usually the ultimate Christmas treat and Carol surely created some magical memories with her deadly sweet course.
I asked Carol to share with us why she went for this particular course… “When the Pud Inn theme of ‘The Nightmare Before Christmas’ was announced my first reaction was Cindz is a genius, what a brilliant idea! When she asked me to do a pudding however I think its fair to say I struggled to come up with something. I began to jot down all the things I buy at Christmas – items I don’t necessarily have at other times of the year – Bailey’s, chocolate oranges, clementines, gingerbread, etc.
From there, I decided to make a chocolate orange layered dessert. Served up in small festive pots (plastic cups decorated with paper chains), I began with a caramel layer at the bottom, then dark chocolate orange fondant (made from equal quantity of chocolate orange thins and double cream melted together). Next up was a layer of rich dark chocolate mousse, and clementines dipped in Terry’s chocolate orange topped with Baileys whipped cream. For the Nightmare touch, I decided to add something crunchy as a contrast to the creamy bit of the dessert. Here, I made gingerbread men biscuits and decorated them with spooky faces instead of smiley ones. I then broke them up so that each diner would come across a few body parts to dunk in and I finished them off with some gingerbread crumbs and icing sugar. I was really pleased with how everything looked – assorted gingerdead men body parts peeking out of the festive pots!”
Comments from diners included:
- Loads of my favourite flavourite flavours in one dessert. Loved it!
- Loved the gingerbread men – a very naughty pud!
- SO NAUGHTY!! The caramel was amazing. Awesome flavours in one – what a cheeky treat!
- This was sooooooo good but wished I could finish it (generous portion). Loved the gingerdead men
- A dessert full of charming surprises! Lovely pudding
Next up was Course Four: Spookilicious Rowan Berry Trifle with Lilac Jelly and Black Custard made by Peter Moulam of PJ taste. I didn’t realise until now that it was possible to use the Rowan berries for making jelly – that PJ taste is such a clever maker! Rowan Berries are also a favourite of Hugh Fearnly-Whittingstall as shared for The Guardian. Keeping with PJ taste’s motto of using seasonal produce and using food creatively, diners weren’t disappointed. This was a beautifully clear jelly made from rowan berries with a smoky and tart taste. Peter’s course arrived at a good time too because it cleansed the palette nicely!
Comments from diners included:
- Really loved the jelly! A lovely dessert with not too much sweetness. Thanks PJ taste.
- Refreshing and a very different dessert
- Tart, but refreshing in taste with many interesting layers
- The yarrow jelly was amazing. This dessert was very tasty and different
- A really fun pudding with wild flavours!
- Really different and inventive – enjoyed the yarrow jelly & rowan berries. Lovely.
Next up was Course Five: Christmas Pimped Up Mince Pies served with Brandy Clotted Cream made by Chris Baldwin of Cat Lane Bakery. Christmas just wouldn’t be Christmas without mince pies, right!? This was a moreishing, fruity Christmas classic served tastefully with lashings of brandy clotted cream and festive sprinkles.
Comments from diners included:
- A good mince pie. My first of the season! :)
- Lovely mincemeat
- Crispy pastry with nice fruity mincemeat filling
- Christmas classic and tasty
- More mincemeat in the filling please!
A big thank you to all our pudding makers for the day’s desserts – without their generous contribution, time and effort Pud Inn wouldn’t be possible – plus, not forgetting the Rutland Arms for being the ideal place to have Pud Inn. Sorry to those who weren’t able to purchase tickets to our Christmas Pud Inn, we had a lot of interest for the event and tickets were literally sold out one hour! (I’m smiling as I type that because it makes me happy knowing Pud Inn is still very much of interest to Sheffielders). I’ll be planning our next event in March 2014 very soon and hope you will be able to join me.
Missie’s Nightmare Before Christmas Pud Inn – what’s life without a sweet scare?
{All photos courtesy of all our lovely diners – Carol Greene, Tracey Howe, Jane Farmer, John Noel and Leanne Ingram. Thank you for sharing your Pud Inn snaps – there are more photographs of the event on our facebook page here} – Missie Cindz x
Missie Cindz
