Pete Fred

I made a couple of brioche, one to give away, and one so that I could make fig leaf bostock... I toasted a bunch of fig leaves; some got blitzed into a powder and added to the almond cream, the rest were used to flavour the syrup for the brioche. It was good. I'll make some more powder and syrup for future use.

On the previous page I linked to a video of the Cassonade cannelé shop in Bordeaux who make theirs with T80 flour (less refined) and cassonade sugar (also less refined). I was curious how this would compare to my regular recipe (adapted from Pierre Hermé). So, Cassonade at the back, Hermé in front... The Cassonade ones took a little longer to colour evenly (5-10 mins). There wasn't much difference in appearance outwardly, except the Hermé were ever so slightly taller... The Cassonade were a shade more beige inside, presumably from the sugar... The Hermé were a touch more yellow, presumably helped by the extra yolk... Flavour-wise, it wasn't a huge difference. The Cassonade tasted 'browner' somehow, but I doubt in a blind test I'd be able to put my finger on the specific flour or sugar. Texture was where things got interesting. The Cassonade had a crisper shell, but the inside was more dense and not as soft and creamy as the Hermé. I don't think the crispness was down to the slightly extended cooking time, because that tends to make the shells thicker and crunchier rather than pleasingly crisper (hard to explain!). Overall, I still preferred the Hermé textural contrast between inside and out, but the Cassonade shell was good, so maybe I'll punch T80 and brown sugar into Hermé's recipe and see if I get the benefit.

Salted butter caramel macarons... There was a bunch of meringue left over so I baked that off and folded it through some mascarpone whipped cream for a peach and sumac Eton Mess (inspiration here)... Lemon and Poppy Seed Bars by Melissa Clark (YouTube)... There were highs and lows with this one. They smelled and tasted absolutely divine, but I was not enamoured of the texture and mouthfeel. She describes it as a pound cake/cookie-bar hybrid, but for me it fell into a weird no man's land between the two, kinda like an underbaked shortbread crossed with an overmixed cake. However, all was not lost. I stuck 'em in the fridge for a few hours, which transformed them from claggy and cloying to something with a bit of bite. Not bad at all; in fact, pretty good. Judging by the comments in the NYT article, the texture thing doesn't seem to be an issue for others, so don't let me put you off.

@AAQuesada I listened yesterday evening while on stage 32 of Botrytis Cinerea. I'm struck by how 'different' he sounds these days. He's made several appearances in UK media recently discussing his mental health problems, and seems noticably medicated at times. Hopefully he's back on track after some dark times.

@Dr. Teeth This guy has been to many of London's higher-end Chinese restaurants multiple times. Something in his timeline might catch your eye.

Spiced crumble plum cake... The plums were reine claude (greengages) from a nearby tree, and the crumble spices were cardamom, all spice, and sumac. Served with a healthy dollop of mahleb whipped mascarpone cream, it was a big hit.

@Smithy For the pastry cream, I infused the milk overnight with toasted fig leaves (~50g for 500g milk). I was first turned on to it by Nicola Lamb's Substack, and Edd Kimber has recently done a post on it, too. Edited to add: It's the toasting of the fig leaves that takes it over the top for me, giving a grassy, coconutty flavour that is totally unexpected.

I had a not insignificant amount of fig leaf cream left over from yesterday so was in need of ways to use it up. I baked off another choux or three and tried an alternative presentation... If I'd have cooked down the cherry juices to make a thicker syrup then I might've avoided the cerebral haemorrhage effect when sliced... Mmmmmm.... brains! Some decent strawberries from the market meant I could break out the extra vecchio... There were a couple of twists of Kampot, and a glug or two of kirsch in there, too.

Choux puff... Choux au craquelin with toasted fig leaf crème légère and some of the cherry compote I stashed in the freezer a month or two back.

A tale of two blueberry cakes. Une tourte des Pyrénées / tourte myrtilles... Read about it here (although I made this one with an added 150g blueberries and some pearl sugar). Sometimes these simple, 'maman'-style cakes are surprisingly good, but, apart from looking quite nice, this was just too close-crumbed and ultimately disappointing. With the rest of my myrtilles I was hoping Nigella would save the day with her Blueberry Polenta Upside-down Cake... It was good. The blueberries cooked down into a jammy consistency, and the cake had a slight rubbly texture from the polenta. (Recipe in the NYT or here.)

Claire Ptak's banana buttermilk bread... The result of an unfortunate confluence of boredom and gifted bananas, this cake did nothing to change my opinion that banana bread is a waste of a good banana. (Recipe here if you couldn't disagree more.)

A couple of old favourites revisited. Portokalopita... And an individual strawberry and vanilla cheesecake...

I guess if you're gonna have cake for lunch then you might as well go all-in and have cake for dinner, too... This is the Midsummer cake that @OlyveOyl mentioned a few posts back, here made with nectarines and raspberries. It was a nice cake, particularly where the edges crisped against the tin. Next time I'd probably use a different berry to reduce the moisture. It went well with more of that mahleb cream... And for dessert (!) a fruit salad cobbled together from several of my trees: figs, red and yellow plums, and cherries (plus nectarines, raspberries and an orange) macerated and lightly sweetened with mead and vanilla sugar... oh, and look, more of that whipped cream... Tomorrow I'm going carnivore.

Fig and hazelnut cake... My early figs are usually a bit 'meh' but the ones I picked this morning were pretty decent. I wasn't expecting fireworks from this cake but it turned out rather good. Essentially a financier batter, it had a nice, nutty flavour, and the edge had a pleasing chew. I had it with some mahleb whipped cream... Recipe here (I bumped up the figs to 400g).

Apricot and Muscat Tart by Sarah Johnson... Looks alright from that carefully composed angle. However... The horror! The horror! I think the problem was one of two things, or a combination thereof. I used more apricot purée on the base than the recipe called for - otherwise it would've just been a smear - so maybe the extra moisture bubbled up through the filling causing the fissure. And I was suspicious of the time and temperature: 30 minutes at 180C/350F until "golden brown" for a pretty shallow, clafoutis-like batter seemed like it was asking to be overcooked and crack (and it would've been even thinner if using the indicated 25cm/12-inch ring rather than 22cm). I had it with the Muscat-roasted apricots and a splodge of vanilla crème diplomat leftover from the weekend's cream puffs... After all that, if it had been a knockout taste-wise then I'd revisit it and make a few tweaks. But it wasn't, so I won't. Next up, the Feta and Honey Cheesecake from Honey & Co... I had this years ago at the restaurant but don't remember much about it. I decided to make it when Lidl had in some kadaif pastry, presumably riding the wave of the Dubai Chocolate craze. It was precooked and shredded, so I just mixed in some melted butter and sugar, figuring it was in the ballpark. The cheesecake mix was fine but unremarkable. I knew as I dolloped it on top of the kadaif that it was gonna rub me up the wrong way, given my issues with smooth-on-rubble, but what can you do when it's the whole point? Ho-hum.