Episode 1 Best Bakes Ever

The wonderful smell of bread just out of the oven,

the perfect pie crust,

the snap of a biscuit

and, of course, cakes.

Cakes of all shapes and sizes

and for every occasion.

We've got something for all the senses here

as we celebrate some of the best bakes ever.

Hello and welcome to some of the BBC's Best Bakes Ever.

We have some really special treats for you today.

We've got two fantastic pie recipes,

with Nigel Slater using butternut squash

and James Martin going for beef and mustard.

It's pretty good, that, isn't it?

Mary Berry serves up a delicious gratin.

And Paul Hollywood bakes pitta bread with souvlaki.

Raymond Blanc demonstrates the perfect apple souffle.

It's like making concrete,

the nicest concrete you have ever made,

and you cannot go wrong.

It's so simple. It is truly simple.

Lorraine Pascale creates some French-inspired tarts.

And, of course, there's cake,

today's being a pecan caramel cheesecake from the Hairy Bikers.

Let's build a cheesecake. Woo-hoo!

But we're getting things started today with a different cake

that was recently voted the nation's favourite.

It's the carrot cake

and this recipe from top chef Michael Caines might just be the best yet.

So, for this recipe, we're peeling the carrot

because we're going to just remove those bitter tannins from the skin

so that we just have that lovely, sweet, tender carrot

which we're going to grate.

The bitterness of the skin is great in savoury dishes

but this one is all about the sweet carrot flavour.

What I love about grated carrot is it's not just good for baking with.

In France, we used to have these lovely salads,

they used to call it sort of crudites of salads,

where we used to just grate the carrot

and serve it with a little bit of vinaigrette,

mustard, vinegar and oil,

seasoning, salt, pepper,

and perhaps a little bit of chopped dill in there.

It's just absolutely fantastic.

Great texture, wonderful flavour.

Careful of your fingers.

Then we add some texture with walnuts.

So...

Just a light chop.

They have a slight bitterness to them

and that contrasts really nicely with the sweetness of the carrot.

So now we're ready for our mixture.

Combine some flour, eggs, cinnamon,

sugar and bicarbonate of soda.

For me, one of the key things about carrot cake that I love is

the moisture of it and that sweetness that you get from the carrot.

Natural sweetness. It's just absolutely delicious.

And then the texture of the nuts and of course that lovely cinnamon

flavour that gives you lovely persistent lengths on that palette.

For this recipe, it's important to use oil rather than butter.

It helps give the cake its moisture.

The moisture of the cake is coming from the oil

and of course the carrots themselves.

My grandmother, when she was making her Christmas cakes,

swore blind that if you added a little bit of grated carrot, it

gave it that real dark colour that she used to get from her Christmas

cakes and it's something of a tip I still use today in my own recipe.

When mixed well, put it into a lined cake tin.

Here we are. Now we're going to put that in the oven and bake.

Once it is baked and cooled, turn it out onto a plate.

I've got a little tip for you.

I have turned it upside down

so that the dome of the top of the cake

fits nicely into the bottom of a plate

and that gives you this lovely flat surface to be able to ice.

I'm using a simple icing mixture of butter, sugar and cream cheese.

There we go.

And then to finish,

I've got a few candied carrots which I have just blanched very quickly.

There we are. My classic carrot cake.

You can just feel it is so moist.

You can just see how lovely this cake is.

I love this recipe.

So moist.

You've got the texture of the nuts and then you have that cinnamon spice that persists on the palate.

But it's just stunning.

Stunning indeed.

But if you are looking for something a little bit lighter,

how about this next recipe?

Inspired by Lorraine Pascale's trips to the patisseries of Paris,

these are what she calls her Skinny Tarts.

This recipe calls for filo pastry.

Filo is my absolute favourite pastry.

It's very, very thin so you have to handle it really carefully.

Just have a look at that. You can almost see your hand through it.

And because it dries out so quickly

it needs to be brushed with loads of butter.

I like to use bristle brushes

because you can get so much more butter on it.

The silicon brushes, you just can't get the same amount of butter on.

All this butter is going to stop it from drying out

whilst I prepare it and from burning when it goes in the oven.

And it's the only naughty bit of the whole recipe.

You need a really sharp knife to cut the filo pastry.

I am cutting it into squares, four like that,

large enough to fit inside the muffin tin.

Cut it all the way across

and then take one leaf and put it on the board.

Take another one and put it slightly offset so you've got like a star.

The reason why you layer filo pastry is because

it's so flimsy it needs lots of layers to make it sturdy.

I'm also going to brush the tin because sometimes it sticks

and it's very difficult to get them out.

So brush all around.

And then just layer it over the top of the tin.

Gently ease it down really carefully because you don't want

to put your finger in it, but if you do it's no big deal.

And to help you push it right down into the corners,

just take an off-cut, roll it into a little ball

and then just push it right down like that.

There. Right, now I'm going to get on with the rest.

Beautiful.

OK. Pop them in the oven, five minutes, 180 degrees

and they will crisp up perfectly.

Once these look crisp and golden brown, take them from the oven

and just leave them to cool completely in the tin.

Whilst they are cooling, I'm going to make my filling.

So 500 grams of yoghurt. This is low fat but you can use no fat.

I like to flavour the yoghurt with vanilla.

It's best to use vanilla pods and not vanilla extract.

Then some honey. A big squidge.

Give it a good mix.

Pile it high with as much yoghurt as you like

because it is a skinny mix after all.

Now for the fruit.

I like to use different types of fruit to top the tarts.

You can use exotic fruits or just basic fruits.

I'm going to start off with these black grapes, always seedless.

And then these fabulous dragon fruit.

They are from Thailand but you can get them from the supermarket.

You just cut them in half and inside they have this fantastic white,

almost poppyseed texture.

Then you get a spoon and scoop it all the way round.

I love that pink colour. Look at that. Scoop it out.

And then just cut it.

I will put those in there.

And figs. I love figs. Simple, wrapped in Parma ham.

But for the tart, they really give some nice height.

Beautiful redcurrants just to finish it off.

So nice and shiny.

How beautiful does that look?

Oh, here's a chefy tip.

Bowl, a couple of dollops of jam, raspberry and always seedless.

Then get some hot water and add a drizzle,

just enough to loosen the jam up a bit.

OK. Mix it well together.

Look. A beautiful, gorgeous Skinny Tart in under an hour.

Now we have a recipe from Paul Hollywood.

Here he is making two classics - souvlaki and pitta bread.

Pitta, from the ancient Greek word for solid, it is versatile,

yeast leavened flat bread that puffs up in the oven.

Its reputation might be tarnished by some bad memories of late-night

kebabs, but I lived in Cyprus for several years and I love the place.

And I associate pitta with my favourite lunch, pork souvlaki.

I've invited two Cypriot friends, Abraham and Georgina, to join me.

Hello, guys. Now, what we are going to do is make some pitta and you are going to help me.

-Have you made pitta before?

-No.

-We buy them in.

-You buy them in.

Well, it has got to be made somehow, hasn't it?!

What I'm going to do is add the flour in here.

Straight into the bowl. Now, this bowl came from Kouklia.

This is the village I used to stay a lot at when I was over in Cyprus.

Yes, we have some of these.

I'm going to add some maia, some yeast to that.

-Yes.

-A little bit of flavouring of salt in there.

Then I'm going to add the nigella seed. You might know it more as black cumin.

A little bit of that in there. And of course, the olive oil. Yes.

-Then the last thing to go in, I'm going to add some water.

-OK.

Move the flour around. Don't worry. Just get your hands dirty.

Just move it around. You have a go that side, Abraham.

You should be able to get a feel of it. Do you need more water? I think you probably might do.

-A little bit more water on this side, yes.

-You need a bit more water.

When I used to go to Kouklia, we used to do this with all the families up there.

It is such a good laugh, I really enjoyed it.

A friend of mine lives in Kouklia and he is the baker.

All he does is he makes the pittas in the old woodfired oven.

What we're trying to do is replicate what you can do in a woodfired oven at home.

So I want people to get involved with making pittas.

If you get the dough, just tuck it into the middle and then push.

It's that rhythmic action that begins to build up the gluten strands

which you need inside the flour.

You say you've never done this before but you have picked it up.

-It's in your DNA!

-You are probably right.

Let's have a look at that. That is perfect.

I love the fact that I'm teaching Cypriots how to make pitta bread!

That's fantastic!

The dough needs to rise until it's doubled in size,

then it's ready to make into pitta.

I'm just going to divide this into a few balls.

You can make big pittas or small pittas.

I'll make some fairly big ones.

I want a lot of souvlaki in there, if I'm honest.

Shape it into a rough ball. Slap it down.

Then you need to start to stretch it out.

I'm going to shape these into a pitta shape.

No need to prove it again.

We're going to put it straight on and what we call sting it in the oven.

It's going to be hit with a lot of heat very quickly

and we should start to see that puff and rise in the oven.

You've got to be quick. Nice and hot. 250.

This is quite an active dough.

When you put this on a hot tray, gravity holds the base down,

yeast begins to work very quickly because it's very hot

and the top will begin to puff up because it's thin.

The trick is bringing it out at the optimum time.

Too much colour, it turns like a cracker. That's ready.

Flecks along the top. It is still quite pale as well.

As the air temperature begins to drop the temperature of the bread

that will then soften up and this drops down.

Now I'm going to make my filling.

Souvlaki could be with lamb, pork, could even be with chicken.

But I prefer pork. Pork is by far and away my favourite.

I've decided to use belly of pork.

For me, I love that bit of fat on there.

The crispness you get from the fat.

Thread chunks of pork belly on to a skewer

with chopped onion and peppers.

We are going to get a bit of colour on these.

As the skewers sizzle on the griddle,

baste them with olive oil, season and sprinkle with dried oregano.

Finally, brush them generously with red wine for an authentic flavour.

Now, we can put it all together.

Cut your warm pitta open and stuff with shredded cabbage,

lettuce, onion and tomato.

Top with the griddled pork and vegetables

and serve with a chunky Cypriot salad.

Here you go, guys.

I hope you like. I have even served it on the paper as well.

-It looks great.

-I love it. I used to have this for lunch.

And dinner, actually.

And if I could have it, I would have had for breakfast as well!

-This is nice and healthy.

-You did a great job.

-Thanks, guys.

-I appreciate that.

-Yamas.

-Yamas.

Mary Berry is next,

using a vegetable that like Paul's pitta and Souvlaki

originally came from the Mediterranean - fennel.

It's one of my favourites and it's an important ingredient

in this terrific gratin that Mary is making.

I'm a great believer in simple food

that makes life easier in the kitchen.

My next recipe, a fennel and potato gratin, allows you to bake

all the vegetables in one dish all at the same time.

So I've got three bulbs of fennel.

I'm very fond of fennel and once it is cooked you rather lose that

aniseed flavour and you just get a nice crunch and a good flavour.

It's well worth trying.

Remove the feathery tops from the fennel,

cut each bulb in half lengthways, then slice into thirds again.

Next, chop three onions roughly the same size as the fennel

to ensure that they cook evenly.

It's important when cutting up the onions

to leave the root on the bottom.

You see, this is holding together here.

If you cut that root off it all falls apart.

Now I'm going to par-cook the fennel and the onion.

If you roast it on its own it never becomes tender.

It becomes stringy.

Bring the fennel and onion to the boil in salted water for five minutes.

In the meantime, chop three large potatoes into wedges.

Then add to the pan and allow to simmer for a further five minutes.

Once the time is up and the vegetables have been drained,

return the pan to the hob, add 50 grams of butter

and two cloves of crushed garlic.

As soon as the butter is melted,

return the vegetables to the pan and season with salt and pepper.

And then just gently turn that in all that lovely butter and garlic,

just until it's really coated with the butter.

Tip the mixture into a greased oven dish,

level it out and grate over some Parmesan.

That will melt in the oven and give a lovely crust on the top.

You can do all this ahead,

the day before if you like or earlier in the day and let it get

stone cold and then cover it with cling film and put it in the fridge.

Then into a hot oven and you've got your veggies sorted.

The gratin needs about 30 minutes at 180 degrees fan.

If you have chilled it overnight,

it will take an extra five or 10 minutes.

That looks so crunchy and delicious.

A great alternative to just roast potatoes.

Let's move now from something crunchy to something light

and luxurious from Raymond Blanc.

It's a creamy apple souffle, cooked in a buttered baked apple.

Icing sugar. Icing sugar, please.

Hello? Can I have icing sugar, please?

Raymond's final dish is a light and creamy apple souffle

cooked in a buttered baked apple.

To prepare the apples, scoop out the flesh of the fruit, brush

the insides with Calvados butter and bake them for nine minutes.

Then cool them in the fridge.

All we have left is to do our souffle.

For the souffle, first make the base.

OK, so it's very, very simple.

Sugar, vanilla, milk, eggs and flour.

Simmer 170ml of milk

and a teaspoon of vanilla essence in a pan on a gentle heat.

You need two egg yolks.

In a bowl, separate two egg yolks.

So keep your egg white for the souffle later.

You add 20 grams of sugar.

You cream it.

Add 30 grams of plain flour.

It's like making concrete,

the nicest concrete you have ever made and you cannot go wrong.

It is so simple. It is truly simple.

Pour the heated milk and vanilla slowly into the bowl

while whisking to prevent lumps.

At the moment, it's very thin.

It needs to be thickened up with the heat.

Then pour the mix back into the pan and return to the hob.

You can see these lovely little bits of vanilla popping out.

It's beautiful.

You can see it is already thickening a little bit.

It has thickened, it is smooth, it is shiny and you know it's good.

Raymond adds Calvados for extra flavour.

When the pastry cream has thickened, remove it from the direct heat

and put it in a pan of warm water.

It's very important for all souffle to keep the pastry cream warm

because it does help to give it extra lift.

Equally, to mix egg white to a cold pastry cream, good luck to you!

It's very hard.

Next, whisk five egg whites in a bowl, add a squeeze of lemon juice.

Then slowly add 55 grams of caster sugar, whisking all the time.

I'm just laughing about this egg white.

Adam.

Adam, can you do it quicker?

I'm knackered!

I'm absolutely knackered! I don't know why.

More?

OK, tres bien.

That's perfect.

In a separate bowl, whisk a third of the egg whites into the pastry cream.

Of course, my base is warm and I can quickly lighten my base.

Tres bien.

Gently fold in the rest of the egg whites.

Don't over mix, that's a big mistake.

When you over mix the bubbles of air go psh, psh, psh.

And all the lightness is going away as well.

Apples, please? Can I have them, please?

Remove the cooled apples from the fridge and spoon in the souffle mix.

Shaping the tops so they are round.

A bit of icing sugar just to create a lovely crust on the top.

Then place each souffle in the oven

on a square of greaseproof paper to stop them sticking.

Those will take about seven minutes.

The apple souffle can be eaten on its own

but Raymond serves it on a layer of sabayon with caramelised apples

and adds a sorbet topped with an apple crisp.

There are three main components of food which are crucial.

The ingredients, the creativity and the people I share it with.

Then food gets exciting.

Perfect. Enjoy. Celebrate it.

We've got two great pie recipes coming next

from two of our best loved chefs.

First, Nigel Slater.

He has chosen butternut squash for his filling.

It needs a bit of work in the peeling,

but it's always worth the effort in the end.

One soft and crisp recipe that never fails to please is a pie.

It's that moment of crunchy crust and a soft filling and it doesn't

matter to me whether it's sweet or savoury, as long as it's a pie.

What is essential is getting that light and flaky pastry with

something soft inside and butternut squash works beautifully in a pie.

Scoop out the seeds and the fibres.

They are of no use to anybody but they are very good on the compost.

Cut the flesh into equal sized chunks so it cooks evenly.

Butternut squash takes ages to roast in the oven

so I'm giving this a head start by steaming it first.

I haven't got a proper steamer.

So I make one.

With a kitchen colander balanced over a pot of hot water.

You pop that on to steam.

For about 20 minutes or so.

Next, I'm going to get roasting.

Olive oil or groundnut would work. I'm using rapeseed.

A little bit of richness. I'm going to add some butter.

There is masses of natural sugar in any of the squash family and what

I want to do is to caramelise that sweetness in the oven.

A little bit of cinnamon in here.

It works beautifully with the pumpkin family.

It isn't just a spice for sweet recipes.

It adds a depth to savoury dishes like this one.

The really important thing for any pie is to have a crisp pastry

and to have soft filling.

So I'm going to mash my squash.

Then that goes in the oven for about half an hour.

Next, the crust. I'm going to use puff pastry for my pie.

Light as a feather and crisp.

It's nice to make it from scratch,

but I often take a shortcut and use ready-made.

Give it an extra roll.

Although this is really thin and ready rolled,

I want it to be even thinner and crisper.

I want these edges to stick together firmly.

So I'm going to brush them with a little bit of egg wash.

Put the other piece of pastry on top of that.

Then press the edges round very firmly to seal them.

Two of three slits in the top will let the steam out.

Although I do like a really crisp crust and a soft filling,

I also like that bit just underneath the top bit of the crust,

where the filling or the sauce meets the pastry,

to be partly crisp and partly soft and it's sublime.

And then into a really hot oven.

That will take about 20 minutes or so.

You can't rush a pie.

There is no shortcut when you are waiting for the filling

to cook through and the pastry to turn gold.

Patience is all.

I've got a crisp crust there.

There is that thing of something very soft and fluffy

encased in something crisp and crunchy.

And it is textures that just work.

Don't be scared of pastry.

Take that little shortcut with good quality ready-made

and you will still get a brilliant result.

When you get that combination of luscious and crunchy right,

a pie is a thing of beauty.

And the simpler the better.

And now for another pie.

A real beauty from James Martin who has invited his friend Jez round

to enjoy one made with beef and mustard.

I think it's great when you know the journey your food makes from field to fork.

So I've invited Jez Clay along to my house to see what I'm going

to do with some of his excellent produce.

So do you cook much at home? Somebody tells me you are a better farmer than you are a cook.

-Who told you that?

-I have my sources, you know.

-It's not far away down the road.

-Definitely.

I'm going to make him a classic beef pie.

A dish that's guaranteed to brighten even the most miserable day.

And I'm jazzing it up with a bit of mustard

and topping it off with a puff pastry lid.

It utilises this wonderful meat that you produce

but also a cut that people don't really use normally, it's the skirt.

You either cook it very, very quickly or very slowly with a cut of meat like this.

If you cook it to in between,

it becomes tough and almost like eating your shoe.

The French like it... They just take this and let it warm up.

They take the hooves off the animal and...

I used to work in France and they used to say the steak used to walk through the kitchen...

-And that's it done!

-..allow it to get to 30 degrees and then serve it.

That was it, really. But it is lovely.

And then just a small amount of flour.

Now, this is really the key

to making stews and pies is this next bit.

Not too much flour.

If you add too much it just thickens it up way too much.

Nice hot pan. A little bit of oil. Seal off the meat.

Get it really, really hot.

Why such big chunks?

To me, it's the kind of thing my mother used to do.

It was all to do with decent sort of chunks.

So even the carrot, you top and tail it and throw it in, you know.

This is where you get the colour on the beef stew.

Whether you are doing a beef stew, a beef pie, it's this bit.

And often, too many people cut the meat too small,

put too much in the pan and it ends up sweating.

That is where you have to get the pan really hot and you can see

you've got that colour on the piece of meat which we've got in there.

Then we can start to add other things.

We've got some grain mustard.

-I don't know whether you are a fan of mustard.

-Dijon.

You've got grain, is that all right?

-Horseradish?

-Horseradish is banned. This is my house.

Horseradish is the food of the devil!

Don't you watch a certain Saturday morning show?!

It's disgusting.

You don't need much to accompany meat this good.

Just some good quality vino, beef stock.

Onions.

Carrots, a sprig of thyme and seasoning.

Then it just needs patience.

Gently simmer it for a couple of hours.

Luckily for you, I've got one that I've got over here.

Now, allow it to cool down.

And now for the lid.

I'm using some home-made rough puff pastry.

-This is my grandmother's rolling pin.

-Really?

-Yes, look at that.

That is where she hit me the first time!

Old rolling pins to me are just, I don't know,

it's one of these things that I always buy.

Whenever I go to an antique shop, you get an old rolling pin

because, I don't know, there is something about them.

Surely if you've got one, you've got enough.

I've got loads of them. Look, there is another one in here. There's that one. How weird is that?

But you can't actually roll that one out flat.

I don't know what the hell you do with that one. I just like them.

I need to get out more obviously!

But when you are doing puff pastry, less flour

because it toughens up the pastry.

And using all-butter puff pastry is the only way you can possibly

top this indulgent treat.

Now, if I was back in the restaurant I would get my chefs to do this a bit fancy.

But you are at my place, so that is about as fancy as you're going to get it, all right?

Glaze with a couple of egg yolks and be generous.

It will give the finished dish a beautiful sheen.

And I think comfort food should look as good as it tastes.

It needs to go into a hot oven for half an hour.

This stuff really is fantastic.

-Do you cook much of your own stuff at home?

-Yes.

Well, my wife does all the cooking.

Rustic pie. We've got beans with that as well.

Do you want to eat it out of the pot? I suppose I had better plate it.

You made the effort to come some 15 miles and all that!

And then a good dollop of the pie.

Dig around for chunks of your beef as well.

Dive into that.

-That is lovely.

-It's pretty good that, isn't it?

And before you say it, it doesn't need horseradish!

It's amazing how it just falls apart.

It's all to do with the quality of the cook!

And the beef.

It's really good, that.

I think the flavour is deeper.

It is deeper and more mature. More rich. It's not far off being gamey.

You know what I mean? It's not far off that. Cheers.

-Best of luck with everything.

-Thank you very much.

I suppose I'd better wash up now, really.

I will do it for you.

Yeah, right! Enjoy.

So there you have it, my simple warm and tasty beef and mustard pie.

Perfect to cheer you up on a winter's evening.

That almost brings us to the end of today's bakes,

but we've got room for just one more.

And we're going out with an explosion of really sweet ingredients.

Here are the Hairy Bikers.

-Let battle commence.

-OK.

Gird your loins, undo your corsets, here go.

To make the caramel for our cheesecake,

put 200 grams of caster sugar in a pan together with six

tablespoons of cold water and heat gently until the sugar dissolves.

Then, to kick off the base mix take 100 grams of pecan nuts and blitz.

Now, I need to melt a block of butter.

This is for mixing into the pecan nuts

and my biscuits to make the base.

So the pecan nuts go into a bowl.

If this wasn't luxury enough,

the biscuit of choice is the beloved chocolate digestive biscuit.

I love them. I love them.

-Are they milk or plain?

-These ones are milk.

But this recipe would work equally well with plain.

Stick 150 grams of biscuits in a blender.

Right, pulse.

I do want some texture in this, that is why I'm being quite careful.

Lovely. Put that in a bowl with your nuts.

And cover with the just so melted butter.

Give that a stir.

So that is the pecan nuts whizzed up,

the chocolate digestive whizzed up and a slab of butter.

Now, put this into the tin and press.

Now, you don't need to bother buttering the bottom of the tin.

-There is quite enough there already!

-Yes.

Meanwhile, take 150 grams of white chocolate, break into squares

and place in a bowl over a pan of boiling water to melt.

-You've got some chocolate left over, haven't you?

-I have, yes.

Cook's perks. Press this down into the bottom with your hand.

This is a great, great cheesecake base.

And really, press it quite well in

and don't let it creep too much up the sides.

Back with your sugar syrup, try not to be impatient either.

You do want it to go a deep colour, but don't do it quickly.

Look, you can see how the heat is just going through it

and it is starting to colour up that lovely golden.

-It takes eight to 10 minutes, doesn't it?

-It does.

And depending actually as well on the temperature of the sugar,

if it's a freezing cold day, it could take even a little bit longer.

That is the base.

We just pop that in the fridge for about an hour

until it sets solid.

See how it's going that lovely deep golden colour.

As soon as the caramel is rich in colour like this,

it's ready to remove from the heat.

Whatever you do, don't touch this. This is hotter than a hot thing.

It will make your skin flake off.

Don't worry about dribbles like that. Dribble is a good thing.

It is.

We want a random kind of drizzle, a bit like a Jackson Pollock painting.

It's where Blue Peter meets Fanny Craddock

in a whole blaze of sticky back plastic and sugar!

-I think we are there, mate.

-I think we are, mate.

We are going to use a bit more than half of this to make some caramel crumbs.

That gives us the caramel in the cheesecake.

The rest of it, the nice lattice bits,

we're going to break off and they are going to be like sails

that sit as decorations on top of the cheesecake.

The chocolate is beginning to melt. Leave that.

Don't stir chocolate when it's melting. Wait until it is just about there.

Look at this. I love this. It's kind of... Is that not magic?

-Isn't it brilliant?

-That's fabulous. Look at that.

Break off 125 grams of the gorgeous hardened caramel

and blitz into crumbs in a blender.

Quite beautiful, aren't they?

It's the inside of Crunchie bars.

-Yes.

-Do you want to? No, all right.

-Not really. No, thanks.

Let's build a cheesecake. Woo-hoo!

Just in case there wasn't enough sweetness there,

just add a bit more sugar.

75 grams to be exact.

Hey, Kingy, now is the time to pump up the fat.

Here we go. It has a platter of its own. There it is.

Full fat soft cheese. Stand by arteries!

You could use that low-fat stuff but hey,

you've gone this far down the line!

Fat goes in.

And some cream.

Honest, this is epic

and this cheesecake will serve 12 to 15 slices.

So if you look at it like that, it's not as bad as it looks.

Now, the chocolat.

FRENCH ACCENT: I will empty it out of the bowl.

But it's that caramel crumb that gives it the flavour

and the character that is the pecan caramel cheesecake.

Don't worry if there are bits of chocolate kind of on the surface.

It's better to have bits than burn the chocolate

because those bits will melt when you cook the cheesecake.

Now, as it's a big cheesecake it contains eggs.

-It has to contain eggs or it would be cheese soup.

-It would.

For this cake, use four whole eggs and two additional egg yolks

and add to your blender.

Now, put that on to your processor and blitz.

Look at those colours. Wicked!

And the caramel gives this cheesecake

the most wonderful caramel hue.

Oh, it's a hue of caramel!

-Look at that.

-Oh, man.

Let's make the cheesecake.

Get your chilled base and place the tin in the middle of a large piece of foil.

Bring the foil up the sides to create a foil ball

around the cheesecake and place on a medium-sized roasting tin.

-Look at that.

-Oh, man.

Now, pour your cheesecake filling on top of your base

and surround the cake tin with boiling water,

roughly two centimetres up the sides of the tin.

Put this into a preheated oven,

160 degrees Celsius for about 45 minutes.

After three quarters of an hour, turn off the oven

and leave the cheesecake inside for it to cool for a further hour.

Then grab the mighty cheesecake and stick it in a fridge

for a minimum of three hours and a maximum of 24.

Whether your cheesecake is one of the baked or unbaked varieties,

it doesn't matter.

They all need to chill in the fridge in order for them to set.

-How is the mighty beast?

-Look at this.

-And how is the cheesecake?!

-Absolutely beautiful. Absolutely beautiful.

-That has set, hasn't it?

No cracks.

Gently release the cheesecake.

We don't want to crack this little fellow.

Then tidy the edges with a palette knife

and place your cake on a serving platter.

-It's gorgeous in its magnificence.

-And now it's ready for decorating.

I'm going to whip 300ml of double cream.

Whip the cream into soft peaks.

Meanwhile, break the reserved caramel into shards

ready to scatter on the top.

Then, using a desert spoon,

shape the cream into big fluffy clouds over the cheesecake.

White, billowing folds of cloud.

Time for bling.

Just place the caramel shards across the top at jaunty angles.

-Wow!

-It's special, isn't it?

This is proper.

The caramel flavour in the cheesecake is absolutely gorgeous.

-There is no two ways about it.

-Oh, yes.

You bring that to the table after dinner

and everybody around the table is going to get that view.

It is absolutely beautiful.

There is more than enough in that to satisfy the most critical,

greediest sweet tooth on the planet.

-And come back for more.

-Aye.

You can see why people have been tempted

by a cheesecake for centuries.

This cake would befit a royal table as much as ours.

It truly is the best of British.

The best of British indeed and a definite best bake ever.

That's it for today. I hope you've enjoyed all of today's chefs.

There will be plenty more of your favourites next time.

See you soon. Bye bye.