Everything you need for your book club

• Watch the Q&A with Francesca
• Book Club: Two Terrible Vikings Extract
• Book Club: Two Terrible Vikings Reader Questions
• Check out Francesca's reading recommendations

About Francesca Simon

Francesca Simon is one of the nation’s most popular authors and has written over fifty books for children of all ages. One of Francesca’s most successful and irrepressible creations has been the famous (or rather, infamous) Horrid Henry, who first appeared in 1994.

Snack Recipe

What makes the perfect Viking snack?

Author Francesca Simon recommends fruits and nuts for a perfect hunter-gatherer inspired treat – paired with porridge, this recipe will keep you going for a long read or book club chat –

Porridge with a Trail Mix Troll Print.

Trail Mix Troll Print

You can buy mixed fruit and nuts but here are some suggestions for making a mix yourself. The best trail mix has a mix of tastes and textures. You can create your mixture in advance or you might want to let everyone choose their own combination by setting the ingredients out.

Here are some ideas and a suggested mix but you can experiment to find your perfect combination.

Crunchy (3 spoons)
Nuts
Cereal – wholegrain hoops or cornflakes work well
Popcorn
Banana chips

Sweet (1 spoon)
Chocolate or carob chips
Coconut
Banana chips
Fresh berries – blueberries, strawberries or raspberries work well

Chewy (1 spoon)
Any dried fruit such as apricots, raisins and sultanas

To make your mix into troll prints you will need:

• The plate or bowl you are serving your print on
• Greaseproof paper (or other food safe paper)
• A pencil
• A clean hand
• Some scissors – please ensure if children are using scissors that an adult is on hand to help

Method:

1. Wash your hands with soap and water to ensure they are clean.
2. Draw around a bowl or plate using a pencil, then cut out the shape using scissors- ask an adult to help with this step.
3. Make a fist and put it in the middle of your paper and draw around it – if you have a particularly big bowl or small fist you might have space for more than one. This is a good cheat for getting a footprint shape, feet free!
4. Draw your own troll toes – make them quite big as you will need to cut them out
5. Cut out the footprint carefully with scissors– ask an adult to help you with this step – so you are left with a stencil.
6. Place your stencil on the plate and fill it with your trail mix and fresh berries.
7. Remove the stencil and admire your troll print before enjoying!
8. Make as many footprints as you like or just enjoy the rest of the mix from a bowl. Our favourite nut free creation is cranberries, raisins, bananas and chocolate chips!

If you would like to use the trail mix to make a porridge topping, complete steps 1-5, then prepare your porridge.

For each portion of porridge (would serve 2 as a snack), use 50 grams of porridge oats and 300ml of any milk or water or a combination.

Put the oats and liquid into a pan and bring to the boil. Keep bubbling for around 5 minutes until it gets gloopy! You will need to stir all the time – don’t forget it like Hack and Whack! Alternatively, you can microwave the mixture – heat for 2 minutes 30 seconds, then stir and heat for another 2 minutes 30 seconds. You could also use your favourite ready mix or quick porridge.

When you are happy with how your porridge looks serve it into the bowl you made your stencil with.

Smooth out the top of the porridge then use your stencil to create a troll print on the top

Enjoy with the book!