I’ve been agonising for a good while about precisely what to choose for #30: Cook something ridiculously complex. We cook a bit of complex stuff already, are reasonably adventurous and have a pretty varied repertoire, so there’s not a huge amount that we haven’t done. I was considering a complicated dessert or something silly like peking duck, but I wasn’t really jazzed by any of the options.

Then on Wednesday night while making (slightly modified) quiche with prosciutto and gruyere, I had an ephiphany: I will perfect my blind pastry baking because Holy!Goodness! I need it:

bad pastry case: mostly unfilled

bad pastry case: filled

I have pastry weights, I do all the right things and shrinking and puffing invariably happens. I am determined to overcome this!

Fortunately, despite the underwhelming photo and shrunken pastry, it was the best version I’ve made and very delicious – the secret was replacing the cream with crème fraîche. Much less rich and so so good.

So yes, I’ll be spending the next [however long] attempting to bake a spectacular, non-shrinky pastry case. This will be quite a delicious undertaking!