Pete Fred

Yeah, I remember that ad from the 90s. (This YouTuber says 1997. Sounds about right.)

Another Galette des Rois, using the last of the Grand Marnier crème pâtissière in the filling, together with some inverted puff from the back of the freezer... This was a partial fail. The amount of pastry was a little smaller than I would normally use for a 24cm (9½-inch) galette, and in making it stretch (literally!) I compressed the layers too much. The top lost its shape and contracted in places, and towards the centre you can see where the layers failed to separate. The bottom was overworked and leaked butter. The final insult was the disappointingly muted flavour, with just the merest hint of orange. I'll get me coat.

I had some leftover cream from the choux puffs and, after admonishing others for being unseemly, I thought it unwise to simply plant my face in the bowl and inhale. So I made fairy cakes instead... Strictly speaking, I suppose these are more of a fairy cake/cupcake hybrid, combining a dainty base with a creamy swirl on top. And I'm kicking myself for not doing the fairy wings.

@Katie Meadow @JoNorvelleWalker Ladies, please! Control yourselves. This is a public forum. What I get up to in the kitchen late at night is not for idle speculation or gossip. You're better than this.

Choux au craquelin... The filling is a Grand Marnier crème légère.

I think I checked out the same video as you. So, I will see your meat chopper... ...and raise you the citrus press... But the question is, will anyone go all-in with the takoyaki pan?!?

I was just being silly. Oeufs de Lompe is lumpfish roe. For the avoidance of any doubt, I do not have a monthly supply of Sevruga sturgeon caviar, whereas I can often be seen shopping in Lidl. 😉

I guess you'll either love it or hate it, Jason Atherton's Marmite tart... It was Insta-famous for ten minutes before everyone moved on to the next thing. Given the ingredients, they really should stick it on the lunch menu at the Museum of Iconic British Brands... I liked it. It's essentially just a savoury crème brulée, not too strong, with a nice tangy note. In his restaurant, Atherton adds a scoop of caviar, so that was all the excuse I needed to break the seal on this month's tin of Sevruga* ($400/100g)... If anyone's curious and wants to take a stab, the recipe is here. *It's a bit cheaper at Lidl ($3/100g ) if you're lucky enough to have one nearby...

I was particularly taken with the Grand Marnier, but I've liked them all so far. For me, chocolate is probably more suited to a smaller soufflé, as it's quite rich. I'll try to make more with fruit purée as the base; I have a fig tree so thanks for the nod. The copper moulds are by Mauviel.

The first time I saw something similar was by Tom Kerridge, a multi-starred UK chef. He roasts rather than grills the minced beef, and for longer. His seems to have better colour than in the chilli video. Kerridge also uses star anise (a Heston Blumenthal thing, which I recall is supposed to boost the beefiness by, err, magic.) The only place I could find a clip was on facebook.

When I first started on my soufflé tests it was to make a Ritz recipe that called for 10x5 cm (4x2") ramekins. I don't have any so improvised with the only thing to hand: 10x5.5 cm stainless steel entremet rings. Obviously they're useless if I ever wanted to serve guests - plonking a red-hot baking tray down in front of someone and saying "dig in" would certainly be an usual end to a meal - but these were just tests to satisfy my own curiosity. I do like the large serving, but can't see myself ever buying an appropriate dish, unless I stumbled across something at a car boot/garage sale. Although if I ever won the lottery I'd treat myself to the copper moulds in the Comice video.

Experiments in soufflé, day 432... This was raspberry, simply using purée as the base. I liked this; clean, bright flavour, and easily adaptable depending what's in season or in the frozen aisle. And the best cheesecake in New York, circa 1971... I made the adapted version which called for whipping the mix somewhat, whereas the original version seems to me to be attempting to limit aeration. Anyhoo, it was very good, quite mousse-like with a nice tang. I had some leftover purée from the soufflé so made a raspberry version as well...

Here's the butter rack in my local supermarket for @rotuts... It's not a huge selection, sadly, and there's a few lines missing. (Just to the right is the same amount of margarine.) In the larger supermarkets, the Wall of Butter is really quite impressive. Páturages and Merci are own-brand. Doux (sweet) is unsalted; demi-sel is salted (2%). I mainly buy the red blocks, bottom left. Lots and lots of red blocks. President and Elle & Vire are for those who would never be caught dead buying own-brand or 'basics'. Isigny Sainte Mère and Grand Fermage have salt crystals (3%). My favourite is raw-cream Isigny sea salt butter, but I've only seen that in big cities. If I'm after unsalted butter for a specific use (brioche, lamination) then I look for the AOP protected status stuff (Charentes-Poitou, Isigny, Bresse).

Saffron and Lemon Syrup Cake by Honey & Co... A handsome, tasty cake. I gave a few slices to a plumber working on site to take back to his family, but only after jokingly 'warning' him that these dense, syrupy Middle Eastern cakes are meant to be this way. But it's a very good cake, so I expect it'll be a hit. Recipe here.

@rotuts The regular supermarket butter is around €4.80 for 500g ($5 for ~1 lb) and can sometimes be made with EU milk, but for an extra 30c or so there's 'extra-fin' which is guaranteed 'origine France'. Then there's brands like Isigny or Charentes-Poitou from regions which are known for their butter, and they might be another buck or two extra. These are readily available in all supermarkets. And in the larger cities you might find premium stuff like Échiré at €12 for 500g. I will take a snap of the butter fridge on my next visit. I've got two medium-sized supermarkets in my small town (pop. ~3000), Intermarché and SuperU, as well as a Lidl and, until recently, an Aldi (Trader Joe's) which unfortunately relocated to the next town. There's a market on Saturdays which is pretty vibrant and has plenty of local traders, and there's a small organic market (half a dozen stalls) on a Monday.

I don’t have a blender, but will test a batch if I ever get one. 👍

My soufflé adventures continue with a David Lebovitz recipe, using chocolate pastry cream as the base and serving it family-style in a shallow dish (I only had a deep dish to hand). He also suggests waiting ten minutes for a more mousse-like texture rather than digging in immediately. So out of the oven it's at maximun height... After the requisite ten minute wait... The pause seemed unnecessary to me. It was still plenty light and airy, but now missing the visual impact of a well risen soufflé. It was fine, but I'll stick with the ganache-based method which is more streamlined and avoids the need to make pastry cream. Once fully cooled, it had sunken chocolate cake vibes...

@RobertM This is a Fergus Henderson recipe. I always scratch my head when it's mentioned that it's traditional to eat these with cheese (even Delia chimes in); but then again I'm not from Eccles.

Eccles cake, so called because they originate from the town of Eccles in the northwest of England... It's a (rough) puff pastry traditionally encasing spiced (Zante) currants, which aren't readily available here, so I used regular raisins instead.

Apple turnover redux, using an inverted puff with even more butter, because.... France. And the scraps got rolled in sugar to make arlettes for a quick treat while waiting for the turnovers to cool...

Cinnamon and Sesame Cookies by Ottolenghi... I was hoping that they'd be worth the 13 km (8 mile) walk into town and back for the sesame seeds. Sadly not. I found them a bit bland (probably due to my usual refrain of NEEDS MORE SALT!!). And you'd think with orange, cinnamon, olive oil and tahini in there, they'd be quite punchy, but it was not to be.

A (very) brief mention of Heston Blumenthal being an eGullet user back in the day. Here from 40m58s.

He's off to the Financial Times, along with Marina O'Loughlin (formerly The Sunday Times food critic) and Tim Hayward doing more long-form articles. It'll be behind a paywall.

I stashed some of the puff pastry from last weekend in the freezer, not having anything in particular in mind for it. And then I thought, chaussons aux pommes (apple turnovers)! Still warm from the oven they were irresistable, which goes a long way towards explaining the utterly shameful fifteen minutes during which I gorged all four.

Just tried this method. It had nice browning and temped at exactly 71C/160F. Sorcery indeed.