Pete Fred
participating member-
Posts
281 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Profile Information
-
Location
Dordogne, France
Recent Profile Visitors
The recent visitors block is disabled and is not being shown to other users.
-
Your Daily Sweets: What Are You Making and Baking? (2017 – )
Pete Fred replied to a topic in Pastry & Baking
(Yet) another lemon polenta cake... It does get a good soak with lemon syrup, but the photo makes it look a little more sodden than it eats. With all the leftover egg whites from recent banana pudding adventures, I made marshmallows (Thomas Keller recipe). Vanilla... And chestnut (crème de marrons)... As you can see, the chestnut purée didn't add much colour-wise, just a hint of beige, and the flavour was quite subtle, but it was pleasant enough. I picked up Yossy Arefi's Snacking Bakes on Kindle for a buck-fifty and have bookmarked a few recipes. First up were the Raspberry Mazurkas (or Polish Wedding Cakes)... Apparently, Mazurka Bars were a thing in 90s Seattle. Yay! for Emerald City. I didn't have enough raspberry jam so bulked it out with fig jam. (Figsberry, anyone?) Anyway, they were good. Crumbly, jammy, and a little chewy. Recipe here. (Oh, and like any recipe published after 1976, it NEEDS MORE SALT! ) -
Your Daily Sweets: What Are You Making and Baking? (2017 – )
Pete Fred replied to a topic in Pastry & Baking
Another one from The Joy of Sax (Classic Home Desserts), the Peanut Butter Pie... It's really just a set cheesecake, and somewhat mousse-like. The book has a Graham cracker crust with sides and a chocolate ganache topping. I used some of the leftovers from the banana pudding instead: the crushed wafers for the base, and the salted butter caramel for the topping. Would've been nice with a scattering of chopped peanuts for crunch, and the filling would benefit from a pinch of salt. All together now... 🎵 Try, try some peanut butter pie 🎵 -
Your Daily Sweets: What Are You Making and Baking? (2017 – )
Pete Fred replied to a topic in Pastry & Baking
I did a little more tinkering with the recipes from the last week or so... Banana pudding: I used my regular pastry cream recipe (more yolks) for a richer custard; infused the milk with bananas; custard powder instead of cornflour (for a yellow hue); a saltier, darker caramel; and a dusting of fresh nutmeg. All successful upgrades, so job done. Nutty cherry wafers: managed to cut super-thin slices with a regular knife so they were easier on the teeth! Big hit with the neighbours. Whipped cream cake: folded in the cream a little more, and reduced the amount of batter for the tin. Still had the colour banding at the top, and the crumb might have been a touch tighter. Seeing as you'd probably never notice the colour thing unless it was pointed out, in future I'll under- rather than over-mix. It's a good cake. -
Your Daily Sweets: What Are You Making and Baking? (2017 – )
Pete Fred replied to a topic in Pastry & Baking
Continuing to browse Classic Home Desserts by Richard Sax, the St. Louis Gooey Butter Cake sounded like it might be on to something. Gooey. Butter. Cake. What more do you need to hear? After a little digging around it turned out to be one of those bakes that stirs up strong emotions in its devoted followers. As far as I could make out there are two broad types: bready base, buttery top; or (yellow) cake base, buttery cream cheese top. I figured the bready kind was more my kinda thing... Having no frame of reference for this particular regional delicacy I have absolutely no idea how it measures up. I followed almost identical recipes at the NYT and King Arthur, and both indicated pulling it while the centre was still liquid. I'm guessing the idea is you can choose your desired level of gooeyness: corner, edge, or middle... I can't say I was particularly enamoured. It was a bit one-note: mainly sweet, and not especially buttery. I preferred the breadier bits, so I guess that makes me a corner person. I'll have another nibble tomorrow and see if that makes a difference. -
Your Daily Sweets: What Are You Making and Baking? (2017 – )
Pete Fred replied to a topic in Pastry & Baking
Pick a card, any card... These are almond, pistachio and sour cherry wafers from Ottolenghi Sweet*. The dough is chilled then sliced thinly (2-3 mm or ⅛-inch) and baked. I expected it would be difficult to slice, given the nuts, but it was pretty straightforward with a sharp knife. However, despite having what seemed to be the indicated thickness, they baked-up a little tough. Only where an edge or a side was a lot thinner were they crisp and wafer-like. He says that at the bakery they use a meat slicer, so maybe that's where my issue lies. To avoid the toughness I underbaked them a touch, yielding a more gingerbread-like texture. They're handsome cookies, no doubt, but I'll wait until I get a Benriner before tackling them again. Flicking through Richard Sax's Classic Home Desserts, I alighted upon the Whipped Cream Pound Cake... I liked it a lot. The crumb was light and delicate, and you could definitely taste the cream. I made a whipped cream cake a few months ago from the King Arthur website, but that used a different method. This Sax version is better. The only issue I had was folding the cream into the eggs/flour. Looking at the slices you can see the top is a little paler than the bottom... ...and you can make out a swirl here and there, so the cream could've done with a few more folds to incorporate better. (The top of the cake is where the last of the batter was gathered together in the bowl, getting that extra blending). Having said that, I wouldn't want to risk knocking out any more volume and impacting the texture. It's really just a visual thing. *It's an excellent book. The Kindle version is currently discounted on Amazon - five bucks on the US site, but they're practically giving it away for 99p on the UK site. -
Your Daily Sweets: What Are You Making and Baking? (2017 – )
Pete Fred replied to a topic in Pastry & Baking
Yeah, looks the same, apart from I used Golden Syrup rather than light corn syrup (which may account for mine looking a touch darker). -
Your Daily Sweets: What Are You Making and Baking? (2017 – )
Pete Fred replied to a topic in Pastry & Baking
I made some more powder puffs. Chocolate and chestnut... And because I forgot to add cocoa powder to the dries first time, another batch of raspberry and rose... The chestnut ones were decidedly 'meh'. But I'm getting quite a taste for the raspberry rose combo. Imagine an oversized, ultra-soft macaron and you get the idea. Also this week, more Fat Rascals... I candied some orange peel for this batch, but I'm embarrassed to say that the main reason for making them was to figure out the best placement of the cherries and almonds so that the face wasn't too wide-eyed and gap-toothed. 🙄 Banana Pudding isn't really a thing in the UK. I guess the closest thing is trifle or banoffee pie. And here in France I think I've only ever seen one patisserie with a banana desert (tarte banoffi) when I lived in Lyon. Anyway, this Banana Custard Pudding had been on the to-do list for a while... It might look a bit crunchy but the main body was actually very soft where the cream had moistened the biscuits/wafers. Overall, I wasn't especially taken with it: the condensed milk pastry cream was bland, the bananas didn't punch, and it was all too soft and samey. But seeing as it was a pastry chef's 'take' on Banana Pudding I was curious to dig around. After reading Felicity Cloake's article on the matter I made her version... My only additions were chopped walnuts to the layers, and brûléed bananas for decoration. This was an improvement; the knock-off Nilla wafers held up better and maintained some texture rather than turning to mush, and the pastry cream was spot-on - I even liberated a precious vanilla pod from my stash. (Oh! the luxury.) But I was still left wondering "where's the banana?" If something's called Banana Pudding then call me crazy for wanting a banana slap in the face. Having not grown up with this in my life, maybe I'm missing the point. It also might be a mistake to follow two English cooks' recipes. (I've seen enough horrific international versions of 'English Trifle' to know a lot can be lost in translation.) Next time I'll infuse the pastry cream with banana (à la Stella Parks), ditch the brûléed bananas (the caramel quickly dissolves and stains), sprinkle some crunch on top, and maybe add a little salted caramel here and there for variety. -
Your Daily Sweets: What Are You Making and Baking? (2017 – )
Pete Fred replied to a topic in Pastry & Baking
It's a laminated bread (or pastry) from the north of France. Kouign amann (pronounced 'queen a-man' or 'a-mon') translates from the Breton language as butter cake. It's basically croissant dough with (lots) of added sugar. Traditionally they're made as a large cake, but since becoming fashionable in the last ten or fifteen years you're more likely to see them in shops as individual kouignettes. Check out YouTube if you're curious. But, be warned, they are ridiculously tasty: a magical alchemy of bread, butter, and sugar. -
Your Daily Sweets: What Are You Making and Baking? (2017 – )
Pete Fred replied to a topic in Pastry & Baking
It's been quite a few years since I made Raspberry and Rose Powder Puffs, so, seeing as they're pretty much store cupboard ingredients, I made a quick batch... There's nothing much to them, really. The shells are similar to ladyfinger/savoiardi biscuits and bake-up crispy and brittle. But after sandwiching with cream and jam, and a few hours in the fridge, they transform into soft sponges. The resulting 'powder puffs' are incredibly light and delicate. I overfilled mine a little and accidentally discovered the fantastic new technique of working my way around the perimeter sucking out some of the filling before chomping down on the cookie itself. Classy. My recollection is that they soften even more after an overnight rest, so I'm looking forward to tomorrow's suckfest. I couldn't find the Ottolenghi/Goh version online, but it's very similar this one. -
Your Daily Sweets: What Are You Making and Baking? (2017 – )
Pete Fred replied to a topic in Pastry & Baking
That's me. 😉 -
Your Daily Sweets: What Are You Making and Baking? (2017 – )
Pete Fred replied to a topic in Pastry & Baking
With a surplus of oranges to use up, most went into a big-ass portokalopita... And another couple into this citrusy version of Dorie Greenspan's Everything Cake... Aware the fruit might sink, I added ground almonds to the batter to bulk it up a bit, and also because I like the texture they bring. It wasn't anything special as an orange cake - the portokalopita is always the clear winner in that particular race - but I liked the cake itself: it had a lovely, buttery crumb. Dorie says she likes it with a simple icing, and that chimed with a cake that a local bakery sells... The lady in the shop told me it's a kind of almondy madeleine cake, flavoured with rum, lemon and vanilla. It was good, so I think I'll do those flavours next time I make Dorie's cake. -
Your Daily Sweets: What Are You Making and Baking? (2017 – )
Pete Fred replied to a topic in Pastry & Baking
-
Your Daily Sweets: What Are You Making and Baking? (2017 – )
Pete Fred replied to a topic in Pastry & Baking
Made a couple of batches of Swedish caramel cookies (kolakakor/kolasnittar) with slightly different ratios and methods. These are from Kantine in San Francisco (recipe)... And these from the St John Bakery in London (recipe)... I preferred the Kantine ones. Despite appearances, they were the chewier of the two. The St John ones were just too hard. I took some round to the cows and was greeted with a mixture of indifference and curiosity... -
Your Daily Sweets: What Are You Making and Baking? (2017 – )
Pete Fred replied to a topic in Pastry & Baking
Yeah, they appear to be pretty much the same. For the dough, the only significant difference, bakers' percentage-wise, is the amount of sugar: the rascal has double the sugar. But the fishermen make up for it with half as much again of the dried fruit. It seems Yorkshire miners and Genoese fishermen know a thing or two about tasty treats! -
Your Daily Sweets: What Are You Making and Baking? (2017 – )
Pete Fred replied to a topic in Pastry & Baking
There's a small chain of tea rooms back in the UK called Bettys (that missing apostrophe bugs me every time), and one of their most popular creations is the Fat Rascal®️. I was curious to try reverse-engineering it from the information on their website, and as far I can make out it's pretty much your standard rock cake recipe: 8oz SR flour; 4oz each butter, sugar, dried fruit; an egg; and a splash of milk. All they seem to have done is add candied peel and a face... Admittedly, quite a creepy face in my copycat version. I didn't have glacé cherries so subbed in darker sour cherries, so maybe that contributed to the sinister look. And perhaps smaller almonds would've made for a less aggressive grill. Bettys use candied orange peel in theirs; I used candied lemon plus the zest of an orange. Theirs has currants, I could only get hold of raisins and sultanas. It's been about 10 years since I had a Bettys Fat Rascal®️ so I can't say how close this was, but it was very good. They sell around half a million a year, and it's easy to see why. I also made a batch of the Thin and Crispy Oatmeal Cookies that @weinoo posted a few weeks back... The top two rows were the thin and crispy... The bottom row was shaped and cooked a little more like a regular oatmeal cookie... Thinner was better. As well as the crispiness, they seemed to taste more oaty. This was also helped by having no added spice (apart from vanilla) which meant the oats shone. Good cookie.