Speed Baking Baking Made Easy

I'm Lorraine Pascale. I'm a chef. Baking is my passion.

When I quit modelling, I tried all sorts of things,

like being a car mechanic, an interior designer...

Then I found cooking and that was it.

Since then I've worked in restaurants, run my own business,

and I'm going to share some chef's secrets with you.

For me, baking is anything that cooks in the oven.

Sweet and savoury, classic dishes,

delicious new ideas,

and baking you thought you'd never be able to do - but you can.

Baking's not always fast, but it's always easy.

Everyone loves the smell of baking,

but baking does have a reputation for being a little bit long-winded.

So I've got some fabulous recipes for when time is of the essence.

In pastry world, two super-fast canapes:

The shortcut secret is shop-bought puff pastry.

And there's no guilt attached whatsoever.

Then:

I've had a life-long love affair with them

and I have a super-speedy recipe.

And there's more in the quick tray-bake category.

Flapjacks - totally divine.

And what's not to love about this?

French patisserie, made in a flash.

Skinny tarts have all the glamour

of French pastries

but they're easy on the waistline and on the clock.

And I haven't finished yet.

How about bread in a hurry?

A wartime-inspired no-knead Doris Grant loaf.

Unbelievably quick and delicious

served with baked Camembert and roasted garlic,

the fastest, most incredible baked treat.

This is speed baking.

MUSIC: "What You Waiting For?" by Gwen Stefani

# Tick tock, tick tock, tick tock, tick tock

# La la la la, la la la...#

I find one of the best shortcuts when you're baking

is shop-bought pastry.

It's not a dirty word and there's no shame in it at all.

You can get everything, from filo to shortcrust.

But the one I need today is puff.

And if you can get the all-butter puff versions,

you'll win every time.

What I've got in mind

are some shortcut canapes made with puff pastry.

I'm thinking a sun-dried-tomato palmier...

and some good old-fashioned sausage rolls.

Do you know, I haven't had sausage rolls for ages.

So, puff.

Start off with lots of flour.

You don't want it sticking to the board.

I'm going to roll it into an oblong.

Before you start to use it,

get it out of the fridge about five minutes before

so it's not too hard.

It does take a bit of experience

to get it into a perfect rectangular shape.

Don't worry if it goes wonky. You can trim it down afterwards.

It's not a problem at all.

When you do buy puff,

try and get the most expensive puff you can afford

Often the cheaper ones have lots of oil and it doesn't taste that good.

OK. Now the sausages.

So I've got these lovely pork and leek sausages.

You can use any sausages - venison, lamb, whatever you like.

Or even veggie.

Just get the best sausages you can.

I'm going to cut them in half.

OK. So I'm going to put my sausage down there

and then cut all the way down,

because I need 16 of these.

I like to flavour my sausages,

even though these taste really good already.

You can use some rosemary or thyme.

Anything you want. Get creative.

I'll sprinkle some thyme over,

put them underneath.

I need to give it one little line of egg wash

so the pastry sticks nicely around the sausage.

So I need one egg.

Give it a nice whisk,

and just brush it like that.

Roll it up.

Ah!

There you go. One gorgeous sausage roll.

Now for the next 15.

So, a quick hand wash,

and then I'll pop the sausage rolls in the fridge for about 20 minutes

so they keep their shape in the oven.

MUSIC DROWNS OUT HER SPEECH

So these have been chilling for 25 minutes,

and now they're lovely and firm.

I'll just take off the cling film.

I'm going to prick them with a fork

for no other reason than I think it looks pretty.

You can use a knife,

do slash marks if you want,

or nothing at all is good too.

Then they need this egg glaze.

The glaze makes the sausage rolls look so lovely and shiny.

Try not to get it down the sides

like I have there - I'll just wipe that off.

We want the sausage rolls to puff up a bit

and, if you get the egg wash on the sides of the sausages,

it'll stick the layers together and you won't get that wonderful rise

that is so characteristic of puff pastry.

I can't wait to eat these.

OK, so into the oven for 25 to 30 minutes

at 200 degrees.

So, sausage rolls aren't the only super-fast canape

I can make with puff.

These little beauties are called palmiers,

and I've made them with sun-dried tomatoes and rosemary.

This is where I'm up to so far.

First I got 500g of puff pastry onto a well-floured board,

and then I rolled it out into a large rectangle

until the pastry was about as thick as a £1 coin.

I chopped up a jar of sun-dried tomatoes, that were drained,

and spread them all over the pastry,

sprinkled it with some rosemary,

and, with the shortest edge facing me,

took the long edges of the pastry

and rolled them up to meet in the middle,

got it onto a baking tray

and let it chill in the fridge for half an hour.

Now get a really sharp knife

and slice them

into about 1cm pieces.

You can make these with all sorts of different things.

Tapenade or some strong cheese - Parmesan or Cheddar.

The other day I had them sprinkled with icing sugar

and then they served them dipped in chocolate and they were so good.

Now they need to go on a baking tray

and get glazed.

You can put the egg wash all over it.

Because these are flat,

it doesn't matter if you get it all over the sides and edges.

These need to go into the oven for 15 minutes with the sausage rolls.

SHE GIGGLES

So there we are. Sausage rolls, palmiers, in no time at all.

This is Witney, where I grew up

and where my brownie obsession began.

My obsession was so bad that, when I was eight years old,

I needed more money to fund my brownie habit.

So I hopped on my bike and scoured the shops for gainful employment.

Finally, the ironmonger's wife took pity on me

and she paid me £1 an hour to iron their smalls and sheets.

So I had enough money to support my brownie habit.

Needless to say, now I have a fantastic super-fast recipe

for chocolate brownies.

Making the brownies couldn't be easier.

I've melted 165g of butter in the pan

and then turned the heat off.

I'm just finishing grating 200g of dark chocolate.

When you go to the cooking section where all the flour is in the supermarket,

often they have baking chocolate.

Avoid that because it doesn't taste very good at all.

I don't like bain-maries and all that for melting my chocolate.

This is just a super-quick way to getting your chocolate melted.

I've got three eggs in here and two yolks,

and my favourite thing, the vanilla pod.

Just all the way down the centre of the pod.

Split it open and then get the back of the knife

and scrape it off.

Get that whisking. We'll make a sort of foam.

There's no raising agent in this,

so the only air it's going to get is from whisking.

Brownie purists will shoot me down in flames,

but I like to use brown sugar for my brownies.

It just gives a little bit more of a caramelised flavour.

165g.

This is now perfect.

It's important to add the sugar in two lots.

This way you won't knock out all the air

and you'll give it a chance to whisk up again in-between goes.

I can't tell you how much I love brownies.

I love experimenting as well.

I've had a few disasters but this one really works.

I bung the other half in, then give it another whisk.

I'm not looking for this to increase seven times, like a big meringue,

but it will get a little bit more voluminous.

See how that's frothed up a little bit

but it's still got some lovely bubbles in there?

And my chocolate's all melted.

We don't want to knock the bubbles out,

so just pour the chocolate around the edge of the bowl.

Oh... look at that.

I'll have that later with a teaspoon.

Two tablespoons of flour.

And I really never bother sifting.

And one of cocoa powder for extra chocolateyness.

A little pinch of salt.

And I'm going to fold it all together.

Folding is very different to mixing.

It's a very slow and gentle process.

A lot of people use metal spoons, but I prefer a spatula

because you can really scrape down to the bottom of the bowl.

It does take a little bit of time, but that's fine.

Keep folding it around.

So that'll do for me.

There's a few lumps in there

but there's no point losing sleep over that.

Next add the chocolate-and-cream cookies.

So just crumble them in.

I've got 100g here.

I like to put half in now

and, once I've popped the mix in the tin,

I crumble some more in afterwards.

So, just a few more cookies on top.

And then I'll pop it into the oven for about 25 to 30 minutes

at 180 degrees.

But do check after about 20 minutes

because brownies need to have a bit of gooeyness in the middle.

You don't want to overcook them, and ovens vary so much.

Once they're done, leave them to cool completely in the tin,

and then cut them up...

and sprinkle them with icing sugar.

There.

Mmm. Dense, gooey, fudgy...

You're going to have to excuse me.

I've got brownies to eat.

I always like to take pictures

of the things I bake.

It's just a really good way

of keeping records.

And I've already confessed to my obsession for brownies.

But there's another super-quick tray bake that I like to make:

flapjacks.

Just melt 175g of butter in a pan over a low heat.

Dip a brush in the butter and brush around the baking tin,

that's been lined with baking parchment.

Then add 175g of golden syrup

and the same amount of muscovado sugar to the butter

and heat it through very gently.

Once the sugar has dissolved,

take the pan off the heat

and stir in 350g of porridge oats,

followed by the finely grated zest of half a lemon.

Pack the mixture into the baking tin and really squash it down,

making it nice and flat.

Then bake it in the oven at 150 degrees

for about 40 minutes,

and once it's cooked

get it out to cool for 15 minutes

and cut it into 12 squares.

Flapjacks.

That's it.

MUSIC: "Alors On Danse" by Stromae

So lovely.

I used to live and work in Paris

and I'd spend a lot of time

just walking around, staring into patisserie shop windows like these.

Just so perfect.

It's almost like a work of art,

this edible tapestry.

Stunning.

Really inspiring.

MUSIC: "Alors On Danse" by Stromae

Now, this...

is one of the most famous patisseries in Paris.

I'm going in.

Wow! Look at these.

You've got Mont Blancs, little Gateaux St Honore,

these beautiful Strawberry Charlottes,

and their fruit tarts.

Merci.

Now, it's fruit tarts like these that got me thinking,

wouldn't it be great to have something you could make at home

that was a little bit easier on the waistline

and on the wallet?

So I came up with my 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 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.

With silicone brushes, you can't get the same amount of butter on.

All this butter will stop it from drying out whilst I prepare it

and from burning when it's in the oven.

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

So you need a really sharp knife to cut the filo pastry.

And 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 we layer filo pastry is because it's so flimsy

that 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.

Don't put your finger in it,

but, if you do, it's no big deal.

To help you push it right down into the corners,

just take an offcut, 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 for 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're cooling, I'm going to make my filling.

So, 500g of yogurt.

This is low fat, but you can use no fat.

I like to flavour the yogurt 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 yogurt as you like,

because it's 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're from Thailand but you can get them from the supermarket.

You just cut them in half.

Inside they have this fantastic, white, almost poppyseed texture.

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

I love that pink colour. Look at that.

Scoop it out...

and then just cut it.

I'll 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!

Ooh, 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.

SHE GIGGLES

When I was at college,

we made this really interesting wartime bread,

and I've just been doing some further research on it now.

I even bought a book off the internet about it.

The fascinating thing about it is

it has a really quick technique to make it.

Most people don't make bread at home.

They just think, "Ugh, bread! Way too much faff."

But this bread, the Doris Grant loaf,

has a really good shortcut because it doesn't need to be kneaded.

I'm going to start with my wholemeal bread flour,

and I need 225g.

Wholemeal flour is really good

because it has this grain that gets left in the sieve.

This grain can be used to sprinkle over the bread when it bakes.

It makes it look really pretty.

And I don't bother sieving my strong white bread flour.

We need 225g of that.

You might be thinking, "Why is she using white and wholemeal flour?"

Because the Doris Grant loaf is a really healthy loaf,

but if you use just wholemeal flour,

it'll be really, really stodgy and heavy.

So the white flour helps to lighten it a bit.

7g of fast-action dried yeast.

Salt is one of the most important ingredients in bread.

It can make the difference between a good loaf and a bad loaf.

So I'm going to put in one teaspoon of salt.

Table salt is fine.

Then mix it all together and then make a nice well.

Then I'm going to add 300ml of water.

Make sure it's warm because it helps the yeast work more quickly.

I'm going to add a big tablespoon,

a big squidge, of honey

to make it nice and sweet.

You can use some brown sugar or even caster sugar,

just to sweeten the crumbs slightly.

This is quite a sticky dough,

but, as I say with bread, the wetter the better.

With a nice wet dough you'll get a lovely big rise and a soft crumb.

So it's all come together.

So a little bit of flour on my hands.

I'll just take it out of the bowl.

The extra flour will stop the ball from sticking to my hands.

I won't knead it. I'll just bring it all together.

I fold the edges to the centre,

squeeze it together and rock it,

and you get a nice soft top.

Flip it over, put it around like that

to make it a nice ball shape.

And then straight onto the tin. You don't need any flour or grease.

So, now the bread needs to rise.

I find the best way to do that is to get some cling film

and spray it with vegetable oil.

It doesn't have to be anything fancy. This is fine.

I know some people like to cover their bread with a damp tea towel,

but I prefer cling film.

And spraying vegetable oil on it

will stop the dough from sticking to the cling film.

So, now the bread needs to rise.

And I find the best place for this to rise

is on a chair next to a pre-heated oven.

And the technical reason for that

is that I don't have an airing cupboard.

After about 30 minutes, when it's almost doubled in size,

take the cling film off,

slash the top of the bread with a sharp knife, or use a blade,

and then the bread gets brushed with milk.

I like to sprinkle over the bran I saved when I sieved the flour.

Throw 10 ice cubes in the bottom of the oven and they'll produce steam.

This will make sure that the bread rises before the crust sets

so you get a lovely, big, puffy rise.

And the bread goes in an oven heated to 200 degrees

for about 30 to 40 minutes.

Ah! My patience is rewarded.

I'll leave it to cool completely in the tin

and then serve it with baked garlic and Camembert.

Sometimes when I come home from work, I don't feel like cooking.

The baked garlic with Camembert is ridiculously easy to make

and it tastes divine.

What you need is two cloves of garlic.

You don't even have to peel them.

And use a really sharp knife, because they're quite tough.

So I'm going to put both of those into the bowl,

cut side down,

a nice sprig of rosemary,

cut it in half.

Bung that in there.

And I've got two bay leaves - I'll put three in for good measure.

A pinch of salt.

Some black pepper. A couple of twists of black pepper.

A bit squidge of honey.

And about 40g of butter.

And finish off with some extra-virgin olive oil,

a nice big drizzle.

If you want to be exact, about 80ml.

OK. And that's it. Done.

I'm going to pop it in for 40 minutes at 200 degrees.

Easy-peasy.

Get your Camembert.

-SHE SNIFFS

-Mmm!

Take it out of the box,

and if there's any paper or plastic, take that off too.

There's sometimes a little sticker, so peel that off.

Pop it back in its box

and just do a cross on top.

And the beauty of this dish is there's not much washing up.

And then chuck it in the oven for 10 minutes next to the garlic.

It smells amazing.

I know. It doesn't look great, but it tastes so good.

Why put them in that way round?

So that all the flavour from the oil and the rosemary

can go into the cloves.

OK, I'm going to go in.

Oh, God. Look at that.

-Bon appetit.

-Bon appetit.

Mmm! Wow. Mmm...

-This is amazing.

-It's so good. But this is not date food.

-SHE LAUGHS

-If you've got a date...

-It really isn't.

If you've got a date or a business meeting the next day, best avoided.

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