Pete Fred

Pear and Cinnamon Bake was described as "an upside down pudding with pears bubbling in a treacle base and cinnamon sponge baking on top. When it's turned out, the treacle on the pears trickles stickly down and around the sponge". Sounds good... Now the recipe called for an hour at 200C/400F. I knew that was never gonna fly so went with 180C/350F instead. It was already excessively browned after half an hour so I turned it down to 160C/320F. I should've covered it but decided to let it be, thinking the, errrr, 'caramelised' base might be a feature rather than a bug. Anyway, it took 75 minutes in total. This was really just an upside-down pear cake rather than what I would think of as a pudding. Baking it meant it was quite cakey compared to a light, airy sponge if it had been steamed. I'm not sure what the point was. Even lashings of custard couldn't arouse much enthusiasm. It was ok, but this one won't be going into rotation.

In her latest podcast (around 19m20s), Nancy Silverton talks about "revolutionizing" carrot cakes by, errrrr, using this exact method. I don't have her book so can't comment on whether the revolution also includes pineapple and coconut. 😉

I'm not sure if dunking a biscuit (cookie) in a hot beverage is a uniquely British thing or a universal human trait, but these are claimed to be "the perfect dunking biscuit"... I made a couple of batches, varying the cooking time... I preferred the lighter coloured ones; they had a more pleasing texture when soaked, but each to their own. Stand back, in we go.... Apologies for the manky mug... it's my bashed-up, enameled, workshop issue container of choice. Recipe here if you're a curious dunker (couldn't find metric online, unfortunately).

The last time I made a carrot cake it was a Stella Parks recipe... I have no idea why it's so dark. I don't remember changing anything in the recipe. Anyway, it was good. I also tried steaming one, which was more moist, if that floats your boat... I like Pierre Hermé's take on carrot cake. It works well without a frosting. Like a lot of French cakes he uses plenty of ground (powdered) nuts for a soft, moist texture. Hit me up if you have translation issues. I also like the Rose Bakery carrot cake. It's not as heavy as a lot of recipes. They make it individual moulds in the shop, which looks cute. No matter which carrot cake I make, I always use the Rose Bakery topping. It's really good. I'm not sure if it will make a convert of you, but maybe whip up a small amount and have a taste. It's not achingly sweet like most.

I'm sure it's fine. I guess I just prefer weights.

I couldn't find it in English, unfortunately, but the one I use is pretty close to Pierre Hermé's, here or here. If you're fine using online translation, that'll give you a decent steer. Similarly for Thierry Bamas': recipe and watch him make one. Bruno Albouze is legit: recipe and video. But if you're more comfortable speaking American (cups! 😡) this one from Masterclass looks all right.

Gateau Basque would probably be on my Mount Rushmore of cakes... They usually come with a cherry jam or pastry cream filling. I prefer the latter, taking the opportunity to really load it with cream... This one is vanilla, orange and lemon, and the cream is made with semolina for a bit more texture. The dough is sort of a cakey, almond shortbread, quite soft but more crunchy at the edge. Love it.

Delia’s recipes are well tested and this one will have been reprinted lots of times, so I’d take it as written. I only had a tiny nub left and didn’t use that much, so you’ll be fine following your own taste. I love fresh nutmeg so will go all-in next time.

I guess it’s kind of a (UK) scone-cake hybrid. Recipes often say to eat them warm, when they have a crunchy exterior and quite a soft, cakey crumb. I disagree. I preferred these after a few hours when they were drier and more cookie-like. (I polished off an obscene amount the next day in a shed, ambient temperature 3C/37F.) But that preference might be a nostalgia trip: these are the kind of thing, back in the day, that would sit under a cloche for a few days in a tea shop or canteen.

Almost. That's the slightly modified version he did for his Heston at Home book and tv series. His original used way more lemon juice (more like 10 lemons!) and whipping cream rather than double cream (i.e., 35% fat rather than 50% fat). The recipe is the last one here. Bon courage!

@ElsieD I used this Delia Smith recipe. The dough was quite stiff; I just rolled 75g into balls and did it that way. They're quite light when still warm, but I preferred them fully cooled for more of a crumbly texture. Next day, even better.

I can't remember the last time I had a rock cake (similar to a US scone, perhaps 🤷‍♂️)... Delightful. Will be making more of these. Less successful were these cheese, anchovy and chilli biscuits (UK biscuit)... Tasted good, but the texture wasn't quite right. I'll be sticking with Nigella's parmesan shortbreads for this kind of thing. And I wanted to test a tarte au citron filling: the one Heston Blumenthal made in the early days of The Fat Duck when it was more of a French bistro. Rather than make a full batch I scaled everything down to ring-sized and brûléed it... In effect, a lemon crème brûlée. Errrr... lembrûlée?

Yet another custard tart (sorry)... I changed up the pastry for something a little shorter, more of a sablée dough; and the custard was essentially a crème brûlée mix. French cream is lighter than what I would ordinarily use, so I really should've thrown in an extra yolk or two for a richer mouthfeel. For those who appreciate a nice wobble...

Another steamed figgy pudding... I had some fig jam that a friend made last year, so that turned into a nice sticky topping. Overall, I preferred this to the last one; less fuss but equally tasty. For anyone with an account at the Internet Archive, the recipe is in English Puddings: Sweet and Savoury by Mary Norwak.

@ElsieD Thanks. I'm not sure that it's 'unusually silky', but it's otherwise as described (not that I've tried her grandma's Jell-O!).

Stella Parks has a recipe for pastry cream (or pudding) that uses just egg whites. Having only ever made it with yolks, I was curious and whipped up a batch... The mouthfeel was lighter and less fatty than regular pastry cream, and it tasted a little more eggy. It was nice, but I'm not sure what the point of it is. Maybe she explains more in her book. Anyway, needing to do something with it, I made some eclairs... (By the way, the cream is pale yellow because I used custard powder instead of cornstarch. Otherwise it would've been white.)

This is Tikvenik, a Bulgarian strudel/pie popular at Christmas... The filling is pumpkin, cinnamon and walnuts... I could have left it in the oven a little longer for better colour, but it had been in a fair while and I was worried the filling was drying out. It was OK but I can't see myself making another.

I don't bother much with Christmas, so I'm not sure why for the last three Christmas Days I've made a steamed Brigade Pudding... As far as I know it has no association with Christmas. But it does have a vaguely mince pie-type filling, so I think that's why it's seemingly become a tradition for me. This year I replaced half the apple chunks with grated quince from one of my trees... Accompanied by lashings of custard, as usual... Joyeux Noël à tous.

"We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Now bring us some figgy pudding, and bring it out here!"... Rather than a Christmas (or plum) pudding, this was an actual fig pudding. I've always thought of them as distinct, but it seems the internet now conflates the two (like in this article, but note the dissent from the Tudor historian.) I liked the presentation. This was old-fashioned, winter stodge at its finest, so custard was obligatory... The recipe is by Regula Ysewijn. I clicked through to her copper pudding basin. Two-hundred bucks! Dear Santa...

Caraway biscuits... I didn't much care for the texture of these. I only mention them because they were lemon and caraway flavoured. Not a combination I can recall having before, but it worked well. I think I'll try it with the almond cookies mentioned a little further up this page... errr, the previous page, it would seem. 🙄

Hmmmm, I think in a proper kitchen I'd probably get a saucepan chucked at my head for too much fussin' and wasting time. However... I still prefer doing it the old-fashioned way, i.e. rolling out a circle and lifting it into the ring, rather than cutting out strips and discs. I'm quite methodical about gradually easing the pastry down into the corners so that it doesn't stretch or introduce folds. Once there's a nice right-angle, I'll kinda work my way around, pulling the pastry away from the ring and pressing it back from the bottom to the top, trying not to trap any air pockets. The excess pastry is then trimmed away with a knife. Some days are better than others, but that's my routine for getting it as smooth as possible. After a rest in the fridge, the tart shell gets blind baked. Press together two or three large sheets of clingfilm (plastic wrap) and line the pastry right into the corners. Fill with rice up to the height of the ring; this is important because, as the pastry cooks it will stay tight against the ring and even grow upwards a little. I like to cook it long with the rice (~40 mins in a 170C/340F oven) until quite set. Carefully use the clingfilm to lift out the rice then return to the oven (150C/300F) for the base to take on some colour (still inside the ring). Remove from the oven and leave to cool fully. The rim of the tart shell will be overcooked, but if you place it on a flat surface (your baking sheet might be a bit wonky) you can trim it away with a microplane until it's perfectly level against the top of the ring. I adjust the blind bake as needed. The custard tart, for example, gets fully blind baked until deep brown and biscuity because the filling is cooked at 90C/190F so the pastry won't take on any more colour. But I held back with the pear tart because the pears were added then cooked at 180C/350F for another 25 minutes and I didn't want the pastry to over-brown (apart from the rim which got microplaned at the end). I've just read all that back and it sounds faintly ridiculous. Saucepans are no doubt bouncing off laptop screens at this very moment, quite rightly. I hope it wasn't too opaque, and there was something in there you found useful. 👍

Steamed Cranberry Pudding... For once, a blogger's hype actually delivered. I don't know what kind of diabolical alchemy is at play here, but it was delicious.

Dorie Greenspan's Pear Tart with Crunchy Almond Topping... I didn't like the look of her pastry so used my own with some ground hazelnuts. I also cooked the pears in more butter, and used Armagnac... because France. It was nice. Next time I'll increase the amount of pears so it fills the tart more generously.

Egg custard tart... This one is made with whole eggs, which means that it definitely tastes 'eggy'; a good thing in my book. I make another one that is really just a crème brûlée mixture in a tart shell; another good thing, just different. (Those striations on the custard, by the way, are where I hesitantly sliced with the knife. I really should be more bold for a clean cut when posting to eGullet!)

I hope I haven't oversold them. At the end of the day they're just a regional variant of amaretti. But they come together in seconds and I find them incredibly moreish. Original recipe here.