Pete Fred

Pear, polenta and almond cake (Julia Turshen recipe)... It was so-so. I found it a little dry, and the baby food 'hack' was disappointing (I think making my own purée would've been more flavourful). Maybe my pear was a little under-ripe but the slices didn't soften much, which didn't help. You can see it better without the icing sugar... If I made it again (which doesn't seem likely) I'd try softening the slices with some butter before arranging on top.

Baked rice pudding... I normally flavour these with vanilla but this time I grated at whole nutmeg on top instead, much as I do when making a custard tart. It was good, and I'll be doing it this way from now on. Incidentally, although perhaps not unconnected, I was chatting with a friend a couple of days ago about how these days you never hear of kids sniffing glue or aerosols for a cheap high, at which point his teenage son (who seemed to have a wide knowledge of such matters) chimed in that an alternative is nutmeg. Nutmeg! This was news to me so I did a search and, yup, it's a thing. I've just thought to check what that whole nutmeg I grated represents and, according to the shadier parts of reddit, I may be currently experiencing a very light buzz equivalent to a beer or two. It brings a whole new meaning to 'baked' rice pudding. *Before any of you crazy kids rush off to the spice rack to get fried, do check out the dangers of myristicin toxicity.

Be aware that this applies to the US but is probably not the case if you're in Europe. I say probably because I've read so much conflicting advice online. When I have a fail with American recipes I reflexively blame it on this rather than operator error. 😏

There were a couple of apples and some puff left over from the Tatin so I tried my hand at a tarte fine aux pommes... I might ask Santa for a mandoline this year for neater slices, but it was simple and tasty.

Tarte Tatin...

Pineapple Pudding by Nicola Lamb (recipe)... It was so-so. I liked the (tinned) pineapples but didn't care much for the cake, which was less "ultra-light, fluffy" and more clafoutis-esque or Dutch Baby-ish. I didn't have créme fraîche so subbed-in Greek yoghurt; maybe that was the problem. Out of curiosity I might make it again as directed, but I suspect I'd be better off sticking with the spoon-cake batters I've enjoyed in the past, or even the NYT Plum Torte mix.

You might've had more luck writing to the Fawlty Towers Hotel in Torquay. Or maybe not.

I made some Singin' Hinnies, mainly out of historical curiosity and the cute name... They were unremarkable. I'll stick with Welsh Cakes for this type of griddlecake (similar, but spiced and sweetened).

I've had a jar of store-bought stuff hanging around for several months... Yesterday I saw a recipe for Preserved Lemon Bars and thought I'd give it a go. Seeing as I was only curious about the lemony bit I just made a small dish of the cream... Possibly because of trying to blitz one lemon with a stick blender, the cream retained some texture rather than being smooth... I've only just noticed that I omitted the flour, so mine was a softer set, but I quite liked the taste, lemon curd-y but 'different'. If you read the comments, however, it seems to have polarised opinion.

A couple of cookies from Jesse Szewczyk's Cookies: The New Classics... Lemon Poppyseed Tea Cookies and Vanilla Sumac Cookies. Both were a bit 'meh'. I like the lemon poppyseed combo but didn't much care for his shortbread so I'll just transfer that profile into one of my regular shortbreads. The sumac cookies didn't pop, spicewise, despite using more than the recipe called for; it was just a basic sugar cookie tasting mainly of vanilla. The vast majority of his recipes seem to contain a tablespoon of vanilla extract. He explains, "I believe it's difficult to overdo it with vanilla". I'm all for using vanilla as a seasoning in most cookies, but if I make anything else from this book I'll be a little more circumspect with the quantity.

It's simply an egg-white baked custard. I mentioned it here a few months back. There's additional info in the article linked in that post. Anna Higham's original recipe employs a water bath but I don't bother, just going with 90C/195F until set. I guess that might result in a slightly more noticable 'crust' but I quite like the clotted cream feel to it. (BTW, if you have a combi/steam oven she recommends 90C with 60% moisture at fan 3). I go with a ratio of around 20% egg whites to cream (30-35% fat), sweetened with a finger-scoop of sugar (or maple syrup, honey, etc.). So typically that'd be: 70g egg white (2 whites), 375g cream, 20g sugar. I like the smooth texture and cream-forward flavour, but often it's just a way of using up a couple surplus of egg whites!

Strawberry spoon cake... This was featured on a recent list of NYT reader favourites. I wasn't expecting much, given the basic ingredients, but it turned out to be more than the sum of its parts. The strawberries turned a little jammy, and the crusty edges contrasted nicely with the soft sponge. (Even the truly awful frozen strawberries I was forced to use didn't seem to spoil the party.) I had some vanilla baked cream in the fridge so paired it with that... Warm cake, cold cream, job done. But I'm now kicking myself having just looked back at the article accompanying the recipe and it mentions a drizzle of balsamic syrup. This would've been an ideal candidate for the real deal that I picked up earlier this summer. Didn't even cross my mind. 🤬 (Having said that, I'll be waiting until next year for much better strawberries.)

Not in English, but I'm sure your browser can lend a hand. Recipe here. Substitute a strong flour. Cassonade is brown sugar. I modified the method slightly, weighing out 80g of the chilled dough and rolling with a pin. Bon chance!

I'm continuing experimenting with my recently gifted waffle maker. This time, Liège waffles... It's a Pierre Hermé recipe, basically a brioche dough with lots of added pearl sugar. Crispy and caramelised outside, buttery and chewy inside. Rather good.

Circling back to a couple of regulars in my repertoire. Tarte au Citron... And gâteau Basque... This was a departure from my usual recipe (which itself is not exactly traditional). I met a friend of a friend who turned out to be Basque herself, and she gave me her amatxi's (grandmother's) recipe, or at least as best she could remember it. I'm not entirely sure her recollection was accurate because the cake element was more like an extra-buttery Breton sablé (cookie). But then again, her memory might be spot-on because it was absolutely delicious.