Pete Fred

I'm not averse to an occasional microwave mug cake so thought I'd try the Sticky Toffee Pudding from NYT Cooking. Nuke your cake... Apply the sauce... Dive in... It was a pleasant little treat that I'd happily make again. And talking of making things again, another lardy cake so I could fiddle with the method...

Yup. Three simple turns with a third of the lard/sugar/fruit each time (no resting).

Lardy cake... Having not made one in a while, it was a nice reminder that it's worth giving butter a day off from time to time.

Clementine tart, inspired by Alex Croquet... Prettier than its apple cousin, but I think I still prefer the OG. The clementines weren't the best or particularly firm, making it difficult to get thin, regular slices, resulting in a fraction too much bite in some of the peel. If I can crack that, and adjust the sweetness better for the fruit, then it's a winner. There's a couple of videos of him making them, if you like watching that kinda thing (in French).

Far Breton... The Agen prunes were soaked in Armagnac, because it would be rude not to.

@AAQuesada If you want some homework, the bon appétit Bake Club podcast recently covered all things pavlova, explaining egg/sugar ratios, the role of acids and cornstarch, etc..

Tuscan rice pudding tarts... They weren't remarkably different from any other rice pudding tart I've made. The filling is a 50:50 mix of rice pudding and pastry cream, which I thought might lighten things, but I can't say it was a revelation. Still, they were pleasant little bites. Recipe here.

The NYT recently reposted these Salted Margarita Bars... Caveat: I'm not a tequila drinker, and I've never had a margarita, so take my comments with, errrrr, a pinch of salt. The flavours weren't particularly to my taste, but if you're a fan then maybe it'll push your buttons. I was mainly interested in the frozen cream angle, and that I did like. Straight from the freezer it was still soft-ish, kinda like ice cream (frozen custard) with a bit of density/chew. It was 3C/37F here today, so maybe not the best conditions to road test a frozen treat, but for a hot, sunny day, it could well hit the mark. YouTube (where somebody's stuck the recipe in the comments).

Moravian Sugar Cake from NYT Cooking... I *think* I've made cake(s) in the past with mashed potato, but seemingly they weren't particularly memorable, as was the case here. I liked the look, but otherwise it didn't land with me. Recipe or YouTube.

@ElsieD I'll have a slice or a munch to satisfy my curiosity, and sometimes I might stash the odd thing in the freezer, but it mostly gets given away if I can find a willing recipient. If there's no one around then, sadly, it often ends up in the bin, which is what happened to 1¾ lemon tarts. I will pay for this in the next life, no doubt.

If you don't like lemons please look away now. I was curious about a couple of things with this lemon tart from Australian pastry chef Gareth Whitton: the custard, the plain shortcrust, and the dulce de leche. First up, I did a small test of his yolk-heavy custard (a dozen-ish yolks plus a couple of eggs) against the one I normally go with (seven eggs)... There wasn't a huge difference, but I preferred my usual one (right) which was lighter and zingier. With that settled, I made a tart with his plain shortcrust and the dulce de leche... I wasn't a fan of the pastry, a little too puritan for my tastes in this kinda thing. The dulce de leche is used as a chablon rather than a flavour element. There was the merest hint of cooked milkiness at the end of a mouthful, but you'd struggle to call it if you didn't already know. But as a barrier to keep the pastry from softening it worked rather well. I'm not sure I'd go to the trouble of making a batch specially, but it's something I'll keep in mind in future. I still had a bunch of lemons hanging around so made another tart, keeping the chablon but swapping in a sweet paste... In his shops, they now glaze with a lemon gel for flavour and stability, but I couldn't find a recipe for that. Might have to buy the book.

It's been quite a while since I've had a mince pie... Obviously they're unknown in France, so I had to convince my neighbour that there was no actual mince/ground beef in there before he would try one. But he was a fan. Recipe here. (Just don't tell the neighbour that I used beef suet as the fat.)

After enjoying yesterday's Mokonuts cookie I thought I'd try another of theirs. This time the Chokochunk... It's a good chocolate chip/chunk cookie, but the multigrain iteration is better.

Mokonuts multigrain chocolate chip cookies (recipe)... A mighty fine cookie. Crispy edges with a chewy middle. Couldn't particularly taste the multigrains, but it worked as a whole. Recommended.

The day after I enjoyed the above Breton rice pudding, Ruth Reichl shared a recipe for Longchamps rice pudding with raisins*. It had a few departures from how I normally approach rice pudding (basmati rice, egg-thickened, raisins, whipped cream topped) so my interest was piqued... I'm not sure what went wrong but, oh boy, this was poor. It was a very loose consistency, except at the edges where the egg had overcooked and scrambled. The rice was mealy, and the raisins just weird (and I speak as someone who is not usually affiliated with eGullet's militant, anti-raisin faction). * I presume Longchamps has nothing to do with leather or racehorses, but rather the restaurant chain. It's not something I'm familiar with, but this article has a little history for those who recall it.