Kids in the Kitchen: Eric Lanlard's Southern Mud Pie

I'm absolutely determined to link up with Kids in the Kitchen this week. We love this linky so much as it really encourages us to get cooking each week and inspires us with new ideas to try out. Miss T hadn't been well last week so she'd lost her appetite and certainly didn't fancy cooking anything.

As cooking is her favourite activity, I knew she must be unwell if she didn't have the energy to join in with cooking. 

So I was delighted to see her back to her usual self this week when she got stuck into helping me make the Southern Mud pie we had seen Eric Lanlard make at the BBC Good Food Bakes and Cakes show last month. 

We found Eric Lanlard's theatre session hilarious. He has a fabulous sense of humour and had us laughing throughout.  He is also right up there amongst our very favourite chefs as he was the judge of the 'bakes' category at the show, where 8 year old D scooped top prize in the Junior Bakes category and got to meet Mary Berry for afternoon tea and received a stunning Kenwood K mix stand mixer. 

One of the recipes he made was a southern mud pie. The recipe was in the show guide but is pretty similar to this one found here on Baking Mad if you want to try it yourself. 

We were warned that it is highly calorific but also highly tasty. I'd never made chocolate pastry before but it turned out so well that I will be making it again. I could probably have done with rolling it a bit thinner but I thought it was ok for a first attempt.

Miss T helped roll out the dough. We used the clingfilm technique instead of flouring the pastry dough.

She broke the chocolate into pieces...well tried to, as it was a bit tricky as you can see from the facial expression. 

She also helped weigh the ingredients for the filling. She loves to turn the mixer on and off carefully under supervision. 

She is learning how to break eggs by holding it in one hand, and using the edge of a fork to hit it with her other hand and then pull the shell apart to get to the egg. She also helps get things out the fridge and put rubbish in the bin.

We didn't have any cream to whip to go on it but  it tasted amazing without. I made a mess of getting it out the pie tin so I'm afraid my photos don't really do it justice.

It tasted sooo good in fact, that even when we were trying to head off for the school run to pick D up, Miss T kept sneaking back for another mouthful!