Misbehaving Davis, Voting Moore and Tweeting Trump. Inventing the RitzCrackerBoller

The newly invented RitzCrackerBoller by C Thomas

David Davis' comments about last Friday's agreement raised irritation in the EU 27. The UK interpretation given was, that the deal was merely advisory and that the UK would not be bound to pay the £39 bn to the EU as part of the deal if not getting the agreement it wanted. Sharp comments came from Germany and from MEPs. David Davis had to try to mend relations with Brussels and persuade Guy Verhofstadt, the EU's negotiator, that the UK's word could be depended on. It did not stop the European parliament’s main parties announcing this morning, that they had drawn up an amendment to their Brexit resolution, to be put to MEPs for a vote on Wednesday. It condemns the Brexit secretary personally for damaging trust. Apparently, the guidelines for talks on future relations have been drafted to be “Davis-proofed”, with consequences if commitments were not respected.

Across the Pond, two men were in the limelight. The Alabama Republican candidate Roy Moore looks likely to win the State election to a Senate seat, despite of, or perhaps even because of his opposing the rights of LGBT Americans, Muslims and women, and shrugging off accusations of sexual misconduct with teenage girls in his 30s. Even some Republicans were were voting for his opponent. His main aim is to bring back God and religion into politics to right the heinous state of today's America - and Britain, when interviewed on Sky News.

President Trump responded vigorously to the call for his resignation by lawmaker and Democrat Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, over the sexual misconduct allegations being made against him. he tweeted:

"Lightweight Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, a total flunky for Chuck Schumer and someone who would come to my office “begging” for campaign contributions not so long ago (and would do anything for them), is now in the ring fighting against Trump. Very disloyal to Bill & Crooked-USED!"

Gillibrand, undaunted, responded with her own tweet:

"You cannot silence me or the millions of women who have gotten off the sidelines to speak out about the unfitness and shame you have brought to the Oval Office."

Found an egg white in the fridge, left over from Jane's mince pie making, and decided to use it to make something. Came across Annie Rigg 'Sweet Things' recipe for the Danish Flødeboller. This used a meringue type mix on a marzipan base, coated in chocolate. Not having marzipan, I looked for another base I could use and came up with an interesting alternative - Ritz Crackers.

Recipe for RitzCrackerBoller now as follows:

• One medium egg white was combined with a pinch of salt, 50 g granulated sugar and a dessert spoon of water in a glass bowl.
• The mixture was whipped for a couple of minutes whilst warming the bowl to about 60 degC, until it became thick and shiny.
• The bowl was allowed to cool while whipping continued till the meringue was very thick.
• The meringue mix was then carefully spread over 14 individual Ritz Crackers in a circa 1 cm thick layer, using a teaspoon.
• The coated crackers were placed in a fan oven at less than 60 degC for an hour to partially dry.
• Made up 200 g of warm tempered chocolate using 75 g cocoa drops, 75 g cocoa butter and 50 g maple syrup, final temperature 31 degC. (You could simply melt and temper a 200g bar of chocolate of your choice).
• Immersed the individual crackers with partially dried meringue topping in the chocolate mix one by one and allowed to drain, before placing on a non stick baking parchment.
• Allowed to set for 10 minutes.

The RitzCrackerBoller tasted remarkably good! 12 remaining RitzCrackerBoller were stored in an airtight plastic container for tomorrow.

Added a handful of broken pecan nuts, a small handful of broken hazelnuts and a handful of raisins to the remaining warm tempered chocolate, mixed and poured into a 20 cm x 20 cm, aluminium foil lined tray and allowed to set.