Pete Fred

I mentioned it last summer when I had a super-abundance of plums. If you don't have Dana Cree's book*, she says that it's from a Chez Panisse recipe. But if this is it then it's not quite the same (although at the end of the day it really is just puréed fruit mixed with caramel). @ElsieD tried it with peaches and liked it. *PM me and I can give you some pointers.

It's around freezing here at the moment, so a hot, steamed pudding seemed like a good idea. Plus I was looking for an excuse to christen my newly acquired individual moulds... With Bird's custard, naturally; and a blob of plum caramel because it was just sitting in the freezer not doing much.

My thoughts, too. So I made some more with a generous dose of almond extract replacing the cinnamon... The raw dough smelled and tasted almondy - almost too almondy, in that artificial way. But they baked up surprisingly muted. Go figure. No worries. I imagine it will be fine with vanilla, cardamom, tonka, etc...

I was browsing some of the baking recipes over the weekend on the Glen and Friends YouTube channel. It was a good watch. I made the Almond Slices from a 1936 book promoting an aluminium (al-yoo-min-ee-um 😉) cookware company... Calling them almond slices is a bit misleading. It's really just a visual thing; they don't in any way taste of almonds, just cinnamon. But the texture was spot-on with that perfect biscuity crunch. I'll make them again and switch up the flavourings.

Inspired by this Ultimate Tiramisu Recipe from James Hoffmann, I've been on a tirami-soon-to-be-400lbs odyssey the last couple of days. I wasn't too fussed about the speciality coffee part, but was mainly intrigued by the sous vide eggs in the cream. Unfortunately I don't have a sous vide machine, so had to MacGyver it instead... Stood swirling a probe and finessing a gas burner is certainly one way to kill half an hour. Anyway, I figured it was best to do a comparison so ended up making three... (l) Hoffmann; (m) same recipe but raw egg; (r) my usual tiramisu (by Pierre Hermé). I'm not sure if it was just my shonky sous vide setup letting me down, but the mascarpone cream in the Hoffmann version didn't quite hold soft peaks and was a little ooze-y... The raw version held it's shape better... My regular tiramisu is a slightly different beast in that an Italian meringue is folded into the mascarpone cream, resulting in a lighter, mousse-like texture... If you're interested in Hoffmann's tiramisu journey, there's a handful of videos on YouTube. So, that's my tiramisu allowance for 2025 blown in the first week of January. For whatever reason, I'm not feeling the sous vide eggs, so it's a thanks but no thanks. If I want a very light, less rich tiramisu then Monsieur Hermé does the job. But I found I actually preferred the raw egg version, which is itself just the "official" tiramisu recipe from Le Beccherie with the sugar reduced to 100g...

After making the tipsy cake the other day there was leftover brioche, so I made half a dozen little bouchons. Today they got turned into rum babas... It was mainly a test to see how saturated with syrup to make the cakes, but what started out with the intention to poke, squeeze and nibble a little here and there ended up with me eating all six! By the end, guilt led me to throw in a slice of poached quince in an effort to distract from the sheer decadence of it all.

God-level punnery in the comments below a video about French toast...

🫡

For anyone looking to kill half an hour, the HyperFixed podcast took a (superficial) look at this.

@rotuts It's towards the end of that post.

A couple of recent low-fuss efforts. Nigella Lawson's Apple and Almond Cake... It's just apple purée, egg, sugar and almonds blitzed in a food processor. I wouldn't go as far as to recommend it, but I guess it works as a cake-like substance and is surprisingly buttery. Brian Levy's One Bowl Lemon and Olive Oil Cake (NYT gift link in article)... I had issues with this bake. The texture was a bit spongey, with weird tunnelling and gummy streaks... I'm not entirely sure what happened. It might've been down to my Arctic-like kitchen and the white chocolate not incorporating properly with the other ingredients (despite the batter seeming smooth enough). Or maybe it's just American and French ingredients tripping me up again. Otherwise, it was actually a very pleasant cake, nice and lemony with a creamy/fruity background note. I'll probably take another run at it out of curiosity when the temperature ticks up.

That's in the KP recipe, which is different. I used Heston's recipe and adapted it to the method used in the KP post, i.e. scaled down slightly and made as a large cake for sharing. Feel free to PM me if you have other questions.

The Substack I linked to is called Kitchen Projects. The smoking syrup is for the roasted pineapple accompaniment. I only made the cake.

I used Heston's recipe but mostly followed the KP process. Don't forget to casually mention that it's a 2-star Michelin dish. 😉

Not quite (rather appropriately). Her brioche isn't as enriched. Here is the original. Also check out this Substack for some pointers. Good luck!

Tipsy Cake... It's the signature dessert at Dinner by Heston Blumenthal, his restaurant inspired by historic British gastronomy. I ate there maybe fifteen years ago and the Tipsy Cake really is remarkably good (don't just take my word for it, these two muppets are on board, too). There's actually not much to it, being little more than brioche dough cooked in a booze-spiked cream, but some kind of magical alchemy occurs and it's definitely more than the sum of its parts.

My fourth annual Christmas Day Steamed Brigade Pudding... The crust is a suet pastry; this year the filling was <deep breath> apples, pears, black treacle, dark brown sugar, raisins, ground almonds, ginger, mace, cinnamon, mixed spice, rum, lemon zest and juice, oh and tequila... and sumac. I only really make it for a bit of a goof (hello tequila and sumac 👋), but I do look forward to the leftovers through Christmas week. Next year I might try to get hold of some individual pudding moulds; I think they'd make for a nicer presentation.

Shauna Sever's Chocolate Chip Cookie Brittle (via Food52)... It was a little too brittle-y/crunchy for me. I prefer something more biscuity (in the English sense). But if brittles are your thing, then it does exactly what it says on the tin.

I'm not sure if it may just have been inexperience with this type of pie, @Jim D.. I made it the night before and left it out in a (very) cold kitchen, and when I came to cut a slice for lunch the next day I had the problem trying to remove it. But later that evening I reheated the pie (in the tin) in the microwave and it released just fine. This is not something I've encountered before making European-style tarts in rings. Baking pies in dishes/pans/tins is not something I do very often, so I'm curious if this cold/warm thing is, y'know, a thing. Or should a well made pie come out of the dish just fine, hot or cold? Hopefully wiser pie-heads can chip in and help us both out.

I absolutely DID NOT gnaw away the stuck crust from the packaging. That is !FAKE NEWS!

I can't recall ever making an English/American-style apple pie previous to this one... After browsing a few recipes, the pastry was made with butter and lard, and the filling was a mix of eaters and cooking apples (pre-cooked into a purée). I also made an 'apple stock' from the peel and cores that supposedly adds flavour and helps thickening thanks to the pectin. (Hmmmm, not sure about that; it certainly didn't taste of much.) I misjudged the amount of apples needed so was unable to pile 'em high enough to account for sinkage, and the pastry welded itself to the tin in places, hence no clean slice. It tasted good, though. I'll have some with custard in the traditional English way later but, as this is France, a dollop of Calvados crème fraîche seemed appropriate...

Just to finish up my little experiment, I made the cake in the tart ring... On the left, shallower tart ring; on the right, deep tin using a cake strip (from the other day, that I'd stashed in the freezer). A slight improvement, but not much in it really. So no great revelation. Cake strips work, and deep tins can contribute to doming (at least if underfilled).

Dorie Greenspan's Devil's Thumbprint cookie... These were a pleasant two or three bites, soft inside with a bit of crunch on the outside. As I didn't have any jam, the blob was a ganache made with the syrup from a jar of sour cherries. The cherry-chocolate combo was a winner.

Stollen is more dense, chewy and bread-like, whereas panettone is light and airy with a very tender crumb like the best brioche. Do be sure to warm it through before eating, though. I do slices in the microwave for one minute at 30% power. Or you can do a whole one in the oven...

Yeah, the tin is 7.5cm/3" deep and may be part of the problem. It's essentially the same as the one Stella Parks recommended on Serious Eats several years ago. I quote: "This eight-by-three-inch anodized aluminum pan from Fat Daddio's is far and away my favorite. It's the brand we kept at the cake shop where I used to work, what I've always ordered when stocking a new restaurant kitchen, and the only thing I use at home." I bookmarked the link at the time, but that article now redirects to this one which is not of the same opinion and prefers a shallower tin. (The original Parks article is here.) Unfortunately, I don't have a shallower tin to make a comparison. All I've got is a 20cm/8" tart ring that's 3.5cm/1⅓" deep. Out of curiosity I might give that a go when I've got the ingredients.