Pete Fred

I thought I was done with lardy cakes for the time being but then I got curious about shaping one as a loaf... I overproofed it, resulting in a fly-away crust... It was more babka-esque this way, but I'll probably stick with the previous shape. I picked up some nice gariguette strawberries and made an Eton Mess. Just a pity the sun refused to play ball that day... Another outing for my favourite cherry, pistachio, coconut cake. Never gets old... This was the first time I made it with mahleb after finally finding some at a reasonable price online. It was a nice addition. And after my recent discovery of egg white creams, I figured somewhere for the yolks to go would be useful in the future. The all egg yolk lemon cake by Pierre-Jean Quinonero caught my eye, and a dozen yolks later... It's quite a looker from this angle, not so much this one... It's always a battle with my little toaster oven to get an even rise. Just when I think I've cracked the code, this happens. Back in the day with my regular oven I was able to get the nice crowning seen in the linked video. Oh well. Anyway, it was a very good cake. All those yolks meant it was extra yellow, which made it seem even more lemony...

I've recently been poking around Anna Higham's The Last Bite. It's a good book. (I picked it up for a couple of bucks on Kindle, so keep an eye out.) Rather than being a collection of recipes, it's more a pastry chef's guide to building modern desserts that are seasonal and fruit-forward. She says of her brown butter cakes, "If you make nothing else in this book, make these". So I did what I was told... It's basically a financier made with dark sugar (I only had unrefined coconut sugar to hand). A larger version can serve as the cake part of a dessert... Great flavour, but I wasn't wholly convinced by the texture. She uses all cornflour/cornstarch (the recipe above swaps in half buckwheat flour) but next time I'll go with regular flour. Often the creamy element in her desserts is 'baked cream', which is a scoop of an egg white set-custard. I'm always on the lookout for ways to use up egg whites so this was music to my ears. I made a dish of the stuff... I pulled it a touch early, so the centre was a fraction under. I thought it might taste a bit eggy (no flavouring for this test), but it was 'clean', just the flavour of the cream. Very nice. Another pastry chef has taken a deep-dive on these egg-white custards, so I made hers, too, as a crème brûlée... This one had significantly more egg whites so set firmer. I preferred Higham's for mouthfeel. This was tonka, but flavourings can be anything that suits the dish you're building... The texture is very smooth; the bubbles you can see are imperceptible on the tongue. It's also lighter than a regular egg yolk custard. Interesting stuff, although I'll still be going classic crème brûlée in the future. But as a light, creamy element to a dessert, I'm on board. I picked up some early-season apricots at the market today and, following Higham's approach, roasted them with a splash of brandy and cobbled something together from the leftovers... It was good. I'll stash a few of those cakes in the freezer as a quick way to make a simple, seasonal dessert when various fruits are at their best.

Can't wait to take "A tasty trip to the USA" in Aldi next week. Everything your heart desires, from hot dogs to burgers to nuggets to mac 'n' cheese.

This pavlova turned out a little bigger than I anticipated... Not exactly dainty. It was mango and passion fruit, with a tonka mascarpone chantilly... The leftovers went into an Eton Mess... I mixed some Korean red pepper flakes with the fruit, and sprinkled over a pinch of sumac. (I was looking for inspiration and saw a Mary Berry Eton Mess where she uses her own-brand mango, chilli, lime dressing, and Ottolenghi sometimes does the sumac thing on desserts.) I didn't add enough of either to make much difference, unfortunately. I'm unlikely to make another one, so should've gone all-in this time. (Although mango, passion fruit, tonka, lime, chilli, sumac is probably a bit much!)

It ain't pretty. The worst kind of ultra-processed junk, mainly. But I guess it makes a nice change from, you know, frogs' legs and snails. 😉 I think Mexico gets lumped in with "America", but mostly amounts to just tacos and guacamole; although Oaxaca rings a bell, so maybe they do have it from time to time (can't think of anywhere else I'd have seen it). I will pay more attention next time. Thanks. Is there a quick explanation how to use it?

A recent episode of Kenji's podcast featured the grilled cheese sandwich/cheese toastie (listen or watch him make them). His tips for a good "cheese pull" intrigued me (spoiler: American cheese and its emulsifying salt). As you can imagine, this stuff is not easy to come by in France. In fact I'm expecting to be deported at any moment for this treacherous affront to French cheese. But it was "American week" in Lidl and they actually had some, as well as Monterey Jack. Seeing as I might not get another chance, I took the risk... Not bad. I made another... The internet tells me that this type of American cheese freezes quite well so I'll hide my stash there and hope the gendarmes don't come knocking.

A few more bits and bobs of late. Individual gâteau nantais, which is a French almond rum cake... Meh. I didn't think much of these. The texture was a bit gummy. A waste of good rum. Delia Smith's semolina shortbread (recipe)... I go more golden brown than she does, but the cult of Delia is a broad church. A Victorian-inspired take on Nankaties (or Nankhatai), which is an Indian shortbread... These were made with all semolina and therefore somewhat gritty (in a good way). I didn't have ghee, so subbed in brown butter instead. They were fine, but if I made them again I'd add ground cardamom (and, as ever, IT NEEDS SALT!!!!) I used the remaining beurre noisette in a brown butter and honey crème brûlée... The inspiration was this recipe, although I omitted the cornflour and changed the method. The author is part of the London restaurant scene so I figured maybe a phonecall or two had been made and it would be a reasonable facsimile of the original Marksman Brown Butter and Honey Tart which was the buzzy "It" dessert in London a few years back. But I was underwhelmed: couldn't taste the honey, and the brown butter was quite subtle. (Although, weirdly, 15 minutes later the brown butter aftertaste was quite strong. That's one heck of a long tail!) My beurre noisette was strained, and it's only now that I've started poking around under the bonnet/hood that I see the custard is flecked with the browned milk solids. I guess that imparts more flavour (although this discussion on Reddit suggests possibly not.) And the tart crust looks like it contains some, too. Anyway, I'm not gonna bother trying to figure it out. I'm happy to wait until the proper recipe is published one day.

Today's attempt to disprove that man shall not live by lard alone... The baking paper ensured no welding to the bottom of the tin... The base was nicely chewy/sticky. I was a touch cautious and only gave a light dusting of sugar; in future I'll be more generous to encourage extra caramelisation. No distractions this time, so the layers were decent... It very much reminded me of a kouign-amann, only spiced and fruited. No bad thing.

Another Lardy Cake... Now if this was Instagram, that's all you would see. It'd be Like's all round, ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️'s up the wazoo, and lashings of ginger beer for everyone. Hoorah!! But eGullet ain't Insta-perfect, thankfully. Just as I started laminating the lardy, one of the farmers stopped by for a chat and I got distracted, forgetting to add the sugar between the layers. I only realised after he'd gone, so I dug it out of the tin and took a chance on doing a couple more turns with the missing sugar. Not my finest idea, sadly... Most of the fruit got flattened to the extremeties, and the crumb was more compacted. I also wanted better caramelisation so opted to grease and sugar the tin rather than using baking paper. When the moment of truth arrived... ...the bottom layer was welded to the tin and pulled away. Oh well. The corners where it released were nicely chewy and caramelised, so if I grease and sugar some baking paper, and crank up the bottom heat, hopefully that will do the trick.

I guess a baking equivalent of "first catch your hare" might be first render some lard... With that out of the way, I kept my eyes on the prize... For those unfamiliar, Lardy Cake an English spiced bread made with dried fruit and, yup, pork fat. Mmmmmm.... laaaaarrrrrrrrd. 🤤

A popular biscuit in the shops here is a Galette St Michel which is a type of sablé breton (Breton butter cookie). I was talking to Jean - the guy I often bump into on the lane and who gets a lot of my cakey castoffs - and he seemed to be a fan. So I bought a box out of curiosity. Turns out they're nothing special, in fact I'd say they're quite underwhelming. I guess it helps to have grown up eating them. Looking at the box, they skimp on the butter and eggs, and bulk up the flour (quelle surprise!). So I picked up some top-notch Isigny butter and made my own to erase the disappointment... Now we're talking! I'll drop off a bagful tomorrow and see if I can lure him away from the industrial stuff. And I came across a tub of dried figs left over from Christmas when I made a couple of Figgy Puddings. So on the basis that every day can be Christmas Day, I gave myself a present... I'm not sure what Jean would make of an English steamed pudding, so I'll spare him the befuddlement.

Flicking through an old cookbook, I was tickled to see a recipe for Simpson's Treacle Roll. Simpson's-in-the-Strand (now closed) was one of London's oldest restaurants and a bit of an institution, celebrated for its roast meats. This particular pudding seemed a little incongrous for a supposedly 'fancy' restaurant, being just a square of suet pastry spread with golden syrup, rolled up like a Swiss Roll and then steamed. I was under no illusions as to what it would turn out like, but I enjoy a bit of nostalgia... It was as imagined: soft, fluffy pastry that had soaked up the sticky syrup within. Nothing remarkable, but pleasant enough. The recipe said to serve with extra golden syrup, but it would be unimaginable that Simpson's didn't have a jug of custard to hand if requested... I found a menu from 1974, and there it was for the princely sum of 35p (80c)... 1970s London must have been pretty grim if this is what passed for fine-dining.

It reminded me of Toscakaka or Drømmekage in Scandinavian baking. Works well. 👍

Anzac cake by Helen Goh... The cake has oats, golden syrup and coconut milk; the topping coconut. I liked it. Recipe here.

It's quite common in French baking to apply a sirop de punchage/imbibage (punching/soaking syrup) to cakes, especially gâteaux de voyage (travel cakes, nothing fancy). It's a way of adding moisture and, often, extra flavour. I'm not sure exactly what the 'rules' are but these soaking syrups tend not to be your regular simple syrup ratio which might add too much extra sweetness. As a rule of thumb, these light syrups are 2:1 water to sugar. Bring to a boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar, and cook for 2-3 minutes. To flavour, replace some or all of the water with fruit juice, or add whole spices (e.g., vanilla, cinnamon stick, cardamom pods, star anise, cloves, etc), or citrus peel. Throw in a glug of booze off the heat if you like. Apply all over with only one hot element, i.e., cake OR syrup, not both. Try to avoid a heavy hand; it's more of a moistening than a drowning.

Chocolate cake... It's from a Clare Damon cake (hers has a gianduja topping and the whole thing is encased in a chocolate glaze). Being oil- and cream-based, it's very soft and moist. The chocolate element is cocoa powder, so it doesn't exactly scream chocolate, but it's chocolatey enough and I like the texture. One of these days I'll get around to doing the gianduja and glaze.

Galaktoboureko (Greek custard pie)... The filling is a semolina custard (orange and vanilla) and has some texture to it, and the whole lot gets drowned in orange syrup. My recollection from the last time was that the best thing about it is the filling so I bumped up the quantity - hence the sizeable wedge. It was ok, but nothing memorable. The filo layers were disappointing. It made me think how much better portokalopita is, so I took the last few sheeets of filo and made some individual ones... Another random culinary adventure this weekend was attempting a soufflé omelette for the first time... Could've done with a couple more folds of the mixture, and cooking over induction made the task more difficult than it needed to be, but it made a nice change.

When I lived in Lyon, I think I tried pretty much every patisserie and boulangerie within five miles of the centre. Some good stuff, plenty of average stuff, and quite a few clunkers. C'est la vie, I suppose. Amongst the more memorable things I ate was the Praluline at Maison Pralus*, which is a kind of laminated brioche with pink pralines. (You can watch them being made here and here.) The main shop is slap-bang in the middle of the old town, tourist-central, so I feared it might be hype over substance. But that turned out not to be so. They're good, especially if you luck-out and get one still warm from the oven, in which case they're transcendent. Anyway, this is all a preamble to say that when Lidl had pink pralines last week, I thought I'd have a crack at making one... I unfortunately overproofed it a little, so it lost its shape and spread somewhat, but that's easily remedied next time. One thing that's immediately apparent, and shouldn't really come as a surprise, is that Lidl pink pralines in no way compare favourably to the ones that Pralus make in-house (using Piedmont hazelnuts and Valencia almonds). I suppose you get what you pay for, and in this instance I'd say theirs are worth every penny. I only had enough pink pralines to make one Praluline, so with the extra brioche dough I made a chocolate/hazelnut/almond version using the same method... And the remaining off-cuts were repurposed into a couple of mini Tropeziennes (just with whipped cream rather than the traditional filling)... *There are shops in Paris and several other cities around France, should you be nearby. They're renowned chocolatiers, and I'd give another thumbs-up to the Barres Infernales, especially the milk chocolate one with Piedmont hazelnut praline. Diabolically good.

Sabrina Ghayour's Carrot Cake from her book Persiana... Very moist with a delicate crust on top. It was ok, but unremarkable. The accompanying rosewater whipped cream livened things up... Recipe on YouTube (although it appears to be somewhat overbaked compared to the book).

Another one from Snacking Bakes by Yossy Arefi. Date and Pistachio Coffee Bars... The picture in the book looks like they were made with light brown sugar but I used the dark brown called for in the recipe. They had a nice chew, and the flavour profile was coffee with a very dark, almost bitter, caramel note. The coffee and coconut combo is a new one on me; I couldn't taste coconut, but could tell there was something different to the coffeeness. I quite like unusual and somewhat challenging flavours like this. I'd be interested to try light brown sugar next time, just to see if the dark, bitter character is the point of difference.

Biscoff bars from Snacking Bakes by Yossy Arefi... They were a little bit chewy with crumbly edges. The icing is a rum butter glaze. They were fine, but I won't be in a rush to make them again. Any speculoos cravings are better served by the plain cookies, I think.

Fruit cake is not something I have much of a history with. This one caught my eye, being a little different (egg-free and using condensed milk)... I can't decide if it was nice and moist, or simply just wet and stodgy. The cake in the online recipe looks drier and more cakey, so I'm not sure what accounts for the difference. It was certainly fruit-packed (almost a pound and a half!) but I'm not sure you could distinguish the individual elements. For such relatively expensive ingredients, I'm unconvinced the game was worth the candle. But I'll probably happily pick away at it in the coming days.

(Yet) another lemon polenta cake... It does get a good soak with lemon syrup, but the photo makes it look a little more sodden than it eats. With all the leftover egg whites from recent banana pudding adventures, I made marshmallows (Thomas Keller recipe). Vanilla... And chestnut (crème de marrons)... As you can see, the chestnut purée didn't add much colour-wise, just a hint of beige, and the flavour was quite subtle, but it was pleasant enough. I picked up Yossy Arefi's Snacking Bakes on Kindle for a buck-fifty and have bookmarked a few recipes. First up were the Raspberry Mazurkas (or Polish Wedding Cakes)... Apparently, Mazurka Bars were a thing in 90s Seattle. Yay! for Emerald City. I didn't have enough raspberry jam so bulked it out with fig jam. (Figsberry, anyone?) Anyway, they were good. Crumbly, jammy, and a little chewy. Recipe here. (Oh, and like any recipe published after 1976, it NEEDS MORE SALT! )

Another one from The Joy of Sax (Classic Home Desserts), the Peanut Butter Pie... It's really just a set cheesecake, and somewhat mousse-like. The book has a Graham cracker crust with sides and a chocolate ganache topping. I used some of the leftovers from the banana pudding instead: the crushed wafers for the base, and the salted butter caramel for the topping. Would've been nice with a scattering of chopped peanuts for crunch, and the filling would benefit from a pinch of salt. All together now... 🎵 Try, try some peanut butter pie 🎵

I did a little more tinkering with the recipes from the last week or so... Banana pudding: I used my regular pastry cream recipe (more yolks) for a richer custard; infused the milk with bananas; custard powder instead of cornflour (for a yellow hue); a saltier, darker caramel; and a dusting of fresh nutmeg. All successful upgrades, so job done. Nutty cherry wafers: managed to cut super-thin slices with a regular knife so they were easier on the teeth! Big hit with the neighbours. Whipped cream cake: folded in the cream a little more, and reduced the amount of batter for the tin. Still had the colour banding at the top, and the crumb might have been a touch tighter. Seeing as you'd probably never notice the colour thing unless it was pointed out, in future I'll under- rather than over-mix. It's a good cake.