Pizza Cones!

These pizza cones are not only a great idea but they're also the perfect idea for a party. Fun to eat and easy to make, they're filled with your favourite pizza topping and take any mess out of pizza eating at parties!

Wow what a whirlwind the past few weeks have been. Did you feel it too? I felt as though I was standing in a train tunnel, the wind whipping by me, trying to hold onto my bag, a coat and hold my skirt down at the same time. At times I shut my eyes and hoped for the best and for the train to pass me by without doing too much damage. That's the holiday season for you!

I kid, I really do enjoy the whole relaxing part of the Christmas holidays. There were days where I would climb into bed at 9pm and just read. It felt like such a treat! It was my little reward after a hot summer's day where I developed and photographed three recipes. It was not only a good day because I got lots of work done and was in bed early but we had eaten pizza cones for dinner!

Yes I know, just take a few seconds to absorb those two words when I did when I first saw them. Pizza. Cones. The very concept of them is just brilliant and if you want to serve these at a party, they are the perfect serving suggestion requiring no plates, napkins or errant drips of cheese. I'm rushing to get these up in case you want to do these for your New Year's Eve party my lovelies!

You can always buy your pizza dough if you are short on time or shop bought pastry also works in a pinch. But once you have the dough made, it's a matter of wrapping it around some cream horn metal cones and then baking them for 10 minutes. Slide them out of the cone and then fill them with your favourite pizza topping and then bake it for another 6-8 minutes. Then presto, you have a great idea for a party! It's filling, it can be made vegetarian and you can make all sorts of variations. You can also just fill the baked cones ahead of time and then bake them fresh when guests arrive.

If you'll excuse me my Darling Readers, I'll just myself ready for New Year's Eve now. The train is fast approaching as is the new year!

So tell me Dear Reader, how was 2014 for you? And will you be making any New Year's Resolutions?

Pizza Cones

Preparation time: 20 minutes plus rising time (1-2 hours)

Cooking time: 20 minutes

Makes about 18 cones (depending on cone size and thickness)

For pizza dough

• 2 1/4 cups bread flour or all purpose flour, chilled
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon instant dried yeast
• 30ml/1 fl oz olive oil plus extra to grease bowl
• 3/4 cups ice water
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• Pastry cones

For filling

• 2 cups mozzarella cheese, grated
• 150g/5ozs. pepperoni cut into small pieces (I also cut out a round to close the filling off)
• Pizza sauce
• Fresh basil leaves

Step 1 - Mix the flour, salt and yeast into a bowl and add the olive oil, ice water and sugar and knead for 7 minutes or until elastic, using hands or a dough hook. Place in an oiled bowl in a warm place to rise for 1-2 hours. You can also put this in the fridge overnight for a slow rise.

Step 2 - Preheat oven to 200C/400F and line a baking tray with parchment. Flour a clean surface and think of the person that annoyed you the most this past year. Then punch down the dough and roll out about a quarter of the dough. Slice into triangles and take your pastry cones (you don't have to grease them) and fashion a cone out of the dough making sure to seal the bottom because you don't want cheese or sauce to drop out the bottom. Bake for 10 minutes.

Step 3 - Slide the pizza dough from the cone. Stuff the cone with some cheese and sauce and then fill with the pepperoni and more cheese and sauce. I put a round of pepperoni at the end as a stopper so that the cheese wouldn't leak out. Bake for 6-7 minutes until the filling is cooked through. Top with a basil leaf!