Pete Fred

She does go on to say… “I've also had amazing results making this recipe with apricots instead of plums, and I would think almost any bright acidic fruit puree will shine.”

Looking for something to make with my surplus of plums, the plum caramel in Dana Cree's "Hello, My Name is Ice Cream" caught my eye. Very simple: cook and purée some plums, make a caramel, combine. I normally take my caramel quite dark, whereas her recipe calls for a medium amber. So I made it both ways then raided the freezer for some of the spoon cake from earlier in the week... I preferred the lighter version; it was more caramel-y with a nice, bright fruitiness. The cake-caramel combo was a winner, too.

Toscakaka, which is a Swedish toffee almond cake... A very good cake. Never fails to be a hit.

The plums from my mirabelle tree are not as good as last year, but decent enough to eat out of hand. I also used them in this Spoon Cake by Anna Stockwell... It looks a little unassuming, but it's a good dessert, the cake on top being nicely buttery. Warm cake and cold crème fraîche, job done... A kilo or two got turned into jam, which in turn made it into these mazurka bars (oats, nuts, coconut)... Another batch were macerated with sugar and crème de cassis (blackcurrant liqueur), then served with zabaglione... It was my first time making zabaglione, and it turned out to be a bit of a bust. I made a lovely thick and airy sabayon using the macerating liquor, but the next step was to combine it with a mascarpone whipped cream. That was where the problems started. Infuriatingly, my fridge had gone into overdrive and the cheese had frozen solid and wasn't useable. I have trouble at the best of times whipping what passes for 'cream' in France, so without the extra fat from the mascarpone I was always going to be on to a loser, but persevered more in hope than expectation. Anyway, the cream barely whipped, which then overly thinned out the sabayon, resulting in more of a crème anglaise consistency. If only I'd stopped at the sabayon, everything would've been fine. Oh well...

A couple of months ago when I made a Praluline (brioche with sugared almonds), a chunk of it went to an acquaintance. She asked if I could make one for her grandkids who are down from Paris for the summer... It's a reasonable facsimilie, but Pralus have multiple shops in Paris so I've recommended they pay a visit and try the original. Their homemade praline roses are a cut above and make it something special.

When life gives you lemons, make a lemon cake... I've made this Pierre Hermé recipe a few times but not recently, and found it not lemony enough. The soaking syrup had a relatively small amount of juice, so I'd up that next time, or swap in a lemon icing instead.

Far Breton... It's a flour thickened custard/batter poured over booze-soaked prunes. Very simple and rather tasty. (Recipe and YouTube)

Few things give me more pleasure in the kitchen than turning out a no-colour, soft-set, french omelette... Just a rub with a pat of butter and a sprinkling of flaky sea salt. "Faites simple", as someone once said.

They are adapted from Dan Lepard's Halva Flapjacks . Changes: 100g tahini, 125g dates/prunes, 100g raisins/cranberries, 40g dessicated coconut, 50g sesame/pumpkin seeds, and 225g oats. I add a fair bit of fine sea salt, too; 7g (1½ tsp); YMMV. Baked in a 20 cm square tin.

I have visitors this week so, rather than experimenting, I've been banging out the greatest hits. Macarons... Flapjacks (cereal bars)... Chocolate chip cookies... Chocolate Walnut Cookies... Cherry pistachio coconut cake... All received approvingly.

A recent meal I attended concluded with caillé, which, I've since discovered, is what we anglais call junket (caillé translates as milk curds (n); curdled (v)). I loved the texture: delicately creamy, silky, and wobbly. She'd acquired the milk the day before straight from a neighbour's cow (!), added a few drops of rennet and left it to set overnight. It's quite common here to have little pots of fromage frais sprinkled with a bit of sugar for dessert, but this stuff was next level. I've made curds before by adding an acid to milk, but that seemed to result in a different texture. So I got myself some raw milk (from a shop, not a teat next door, sadly) and some rennet... I can definitely see more of this ambrosia in my future. And with a bunch of curds lying around, I took the opportunity to revisit the old country and made a Yorkshire curd tart...

I made some dainty scones (the British kind)... I treated myself to a cream tea using some of the mirabelle jam that I made last year... Sadly there's no such thing as clotted cream in these parts. Might have to try making some myself. (Hmmmm... I've just remembered that a local supermarket occasionally carries an Isigny fromage frais with Madagascan vanilla that might work here, being thick, creamy, and sweet rather than tangy. Will give it a go next time I see it.)

I never tire of making (or eating!) Gâteau Basque...

I view it more as an aid to browning rather than seasoning. I don't bother weighing it, just a generous four-finger-pinch, so it's probably a touch more.

It's based on Pierre Hermé's pâte brisée. In his English translations it's often called his Perfect Pie/Tart Dough. For a 22cm/9-inch ring I use: 130g butter, 3g salt, 3g sugar, 25g milk, 15g egg yolk, 175g plain flour. You can use his method in the linked recipe, but I tend to rub the butter into the flour then work in the milk/egg until smooth. I don't notice a difference. The texture of the cooked dough is delightful; delicate and melting on the tongue. I'm not sure that another picture helps much, but who here doesn't like looking at tarts...

Onion tart... Which was the highlight of what turned out to be a rather minimalist dinner...

That strawberry/balsamic/tonka combo really surprised me. It was insanely good. Could be my contribution to gastronomy. 😜

I've long been curious what the real stuff tastes like, and wondered exactly what €220/$240 gets you. Well, now I know... The bag contains a pouring spout... The laboratory equipment-looking thing is also for dispensing. I had to look on YouTube to see what to do; apparently you suck the balsamic into the tube then drizzle/drop/smear from the other end. Who knew?!? It came with a booklet containing some history and recipes, plus there's a certificate... ...which says that the balsamic was aged in centuries-old cherry and chestnut barrels; 44 bottles were drawn on May 21st (serial numbers E** to E**); Mr Pedroni himself signed it off. It arrived on Friday, and over the weekend I tried (left to right)... First off, just neat. Somewhat comically, I used a disposable plastic spoon because I recalled hearing that metal might affect the taste. No idea if that's true, but wasn't gonna take a chance at ten bucks per spoonful. Next up, I wanted to try it with ice cream, but quite a neutral one. So I pushed out the boat and made a crème fraîche ice cream using raw milk and Isigny cream. Then it was local strawberries from the market, followed by some more with a scoop of tonka ice cream. I liked the tonka combo, so whipped up a quick tonka rice pudding topped with another scoop of the ice cream. Finally, the classic pairing with parmigiano reggiano. I discovered that I like Aceto Balsamico Tradizionale di Modena DOP. It's good; miles better than the cheap stuff. I'm glad I splashed out and finally got to try it, and will enjoy adding a drop or a drizzle here and there, probably mostly with desserts coz that's my thing, but also some savoury stuff when appropriate. And I'll definitely get a kick out of letting others have a taste. But I can't see myself signing up for a subscription, happy just to make the most of it while it lasts.

Glad to see I'm not the only one making the most of strawberry season at the moment. I had a handful of stragglers languishing in the bottom of the bowl so, after raiding the freezer for a slice of cake and a scoop of tonka ice cream, the party continues...

@Shel_B @ElsieD Yeah, it’s a great resource. Spread the word. 👍

Staff note: This post and responses to it have been split from Chilies for Heston Blumenthal's "In Search of Perfection" Chili recipe, to maintain topic focus. It's in his book 'Further Adventures in Search of Perfection' which you can borrow at the Internet Archive (free to register if you don't already have an account).

The remnants of last week's pain perdu experiments got repurposed into an impromptu Œufs à la Neige/Île Flottante... The salted butter caramel could've done with a brief nuking to be a little more fluid, and I'd have killed for a handful of pistachios to scatter around, but overall not bad. I remain a fan of Richard Sax's Whipped Cream Pound Cake, so light and airy... At the market yesterday I was on the hunt for something to pair with it. There were some deep ruby red Mara des Bois strawberries that caught my eye... They were excellent, with notes that reminded me a little of chestnut honey. Probably a one-off, but I'll be on the lookout for more next week. I also picked up some apricots and yellow peaches which got a drizzle of Armagnac and a blast in a hot oven... And today they were paired with a brown butter cake and mahleb whipped cream...

It's Euro 2024 at the moment (football/soccer) and Lidl have a range of tie-in snacks. Obviously, for Americans, it wouldn't be The Big Game without, errrr, mozzarella sticks... Their creamy Reese's knock-off is actually quite good... And I'm genuinely excited to eat a jelly bean for the first time in ages...

More French toast... This one was from a Jun Tanaka recipe. The brioche gets fried in butter, warmed through in the oven, then sugared and bruléed. At his restaurant the brioche is sliced into crustless rectangular bars and all sides get flashed with the torch for a nice caramelisation I preferred this to yesterday's. The flavour of browned butter from the pan was more familiarly French toasty, and the custard used whole eggs which lent more egginess (pain perdu is also known as eggy bread in the UK). The bruléed top added a nice caramel note and a delicate crunch. And looking at the pictures just now, the custardy inside and crunchy caramel exterior had a hint of cannelé about it, too.

I decided to repurpose the disappointing Donauwellen cake into Romkugler. After scraping off the buttercream and chocolate, the cake got blitzed with oats, jam, kirsch and cocoa powder, then shaped into balls and tossed in coconut... When making the pink brioche thing at the weekend I made extra dough try out a pain perdu/French toast that caught my eye recently. I let it stale for a few days then soaked it in a vanilla crème brûlée mix for a couple of hours. After a sprinkling of cassonade and a few minutes each side in the pan... It had a light, creamy interior and a thin, delicate crust. Trés bon. I quickly fried-off another to wolf down with salted caramel and whipped cream... For anyone who's interested, you can see how it's done here. And for those who like nothing more than to see a man squeeze his buns...