Modern Classics Baking Made Easy

I'm Lorraine Pascale. I'm a chef and baking is my passion.

When I quit modelling, I tried all sorts of things like being a car mechanic,

an interior designer and then I found cooking and that was it.

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

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

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

Sweet and savoury, classic dishes,

delicious new ideas

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

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

I really love experimenting with baking and what I love to do

is take an old recipe and add a modern twist.

So I'm making a strawberry and mascarpone Swiss roll

which is a jazzed up version of the one my granny

used to get from the shop.

And then, focaccia.

A modern classic from Breadworld.

The dimpled surface of this Italian flat bread is strewn with sea salt and rosemary.

And it's divine, and easy, of course.

Glam mac and cheese is my edible comfort blanket.

it's a new take on a classic bake pasta I used to eat as a teenager.

And then I'm going to tackle so many people's kitchen nemesis - meringue.

But fear not, I have a foolproof method.

And then I'm using it's as the base of a delicious blackberry,

pear and apple pavlova.

It's an all-time favourite dessert for a very good reason.

I prefer to grow herbs on my little terrace so if I need a bit of fruit

for baking and I've got some time, I come down to the pick your own.

I love strawberries.

These look so delicious.

I've got a recipe in mind for those.

When I was a kid, Swiss roll, for me,

was that cake you had round your nan's house

with a soggy fish paste sandwich and a rich tea biscuit.

And much as I love my nan's version rolled straight out of a packet,

I thought I'd make my own decadent version.

Let me show you how easy it really is.

Sorry, Nan!

And I just prefer hulling to just slicing the tops off,

because I think you get more strawberry that way.

And if you need to cut them in half,

it looks much prettier, because you get a kind of heart shape.

That's those done. So I've got 250 grams of strawberries here

and I'll put two-thirds of those into the blender,

with two tablespoons of granulated sugar, roughly two tablespoons.

And then they get a nice blitz.

OK, they're done and into the bowl.

And then you need

one or two tablespoons of masala.

Pop the rest of the strawberries in as well, to macerate.

Just give it a bit of a stir.

That is going to be very good in half an hour or so.

So that's the first part of the filling.

Now I'm going to make the sponge.

Three eggs...free range or organic if you can.

80 grams of caster sugar.

The interesting thing with this sponge, is there's actually no butter in it.

And the only problem with that is, you have to eat it all

in the same day, because it doesn't keep very well.

But that's not normally a problem in my house.

And then a vanilla pod.

You can use vanilla extract, a couple of drops, but I just love to use vanilla pods when I can.

And then this needs to whisk for a good five minutes on a high-speed.

It needs to be nice and light and frothy.

OK, that looks ready to me.

OK, now I need 80 grams of flour.

I'm going to cheat rather than weigh it into a bowl and just weigh it straight into this on.

And just put it around the sides,

so we don't knock all that lovely air out. And now, fold.

Just do it really slowly, turning it round all the time.

And look, there's some flour.

That has a naughty habit of just sitting on the bottom.

So you want to make sure you get all those bits as well.

Right, now this needs a tablespoon of warm water.

I'll just get the kettle.

This stops the Swiss roll from cracking when you roll it up when it's all ready to be assembled.

And I've got this tin here.

It's quite long and shallow and I've lined it with some baking parchment.

And there's the bits hanging over the side so that when it's cooked, it's easy to take out.

So I'll just pour it in from a low height,

because if it's too high, you'll just knock out all those bubbles.

Lovely. Look at that.

Nice and smooth and velvety.

So I use my pallet knife

and then just spread it over

right into the corners.

So, this goes into the oven

for about ten to fifteen minutes at 190 degrees.

When the sponge has shrunk a little from the sides of the tin and feels springy to touch, it's done.

Turn it out on to a sheet of baking paper sprinkled with caster sugar

and after ten minutes,

gently peel the paper off and leave it to cool completely.

Ah, these strawberries look great.

They've been macerating for a good half hour, and they're all soft and mushy.

Just what I want. So I'm just going to give my mascarpone cream

another stir, make it easier to spread.

For this, I just mixed up 250 grams of mascarpone

with two tablespoons of icing sugar and two drops of vanilla extract.

So, I'm just going to use my pallet knife and just spread it

on the sponge, really evenly, all the way round right to the edges.

OK. It looks good.

And now my strawberries.

So just spread on the strawberries and all this lovely juice.

OK. That looks good. Now to roll it up.

Just take the first bit and squidge it down.

Try and get it as tight as possible.

And then just very gently pull this paper up

so it rolls over.

Try to get it even. Well, ish.

And when you get to the end, just really slowly roll it over

and if any squidges out, that's fine.

And then to finish, a few strawberries.

And then you can just spread them over like that.

Beautiful.

You know, food presentation is so important because

if the food looks good on the plate,

then people automatically think it's going to taste good.

These are a few things that I do.

For smaller items like canapes or individual cakes,

I sometimes arrange them in rows.

And always arrange items in odd numbers. Believe me, this works.

Or I go for piles because central height always looks great,

whether it's a pile of brownies like this or a serving platter of food.

Then, not too many colours or clutter.

I mostly use glass or white plates and stands

because I think it just makes the food stand out.

And so, those are some tricks of the trade.

When I make focaccia,

I like to use my very special extra virgin olive oil.

It's special because it's very, very tasty and very expensive.

So I hide it from the other family members who might use it

for deep fat frying when they could just use

vegetable oil or something else like that.

Here it is.

So, you need 500 grams of strong white bread flour.

And two teaspoons of salt. Just table salt's fine.

And seven grams of yeast.

And then some oil, of course, my olive oil,

80ml of that.

And lastly, 250ml of warm water.

So that goes on the machine for five minutes

and if you're kneading it by hand

it'll probably take a good ten minutes.

Just take it off and I think that's done.

A good way of checking is to just fold it underneath itself like that,

and then stick your finger in some flour

and just stick it in really gently

and the dough will spring back pretty much all the way.

That way you know it's ready to go.

So I just want it flat. Focaccia can be any shape.

You can even do this in a tin if you like, a square tin, but I like to do mine a rough oval shape.

So just squidge it down and it does spring back quite a lot,

but if you just persevere, it'll stay there.

Get my rolling pin.

Just roll it down and it keeps springing back,

but just keep rolling it every direction.

So I need to leave this bread to rise now.

I like to cover it with cling film.

So many people do it with a tea towel,

but I find cling film is the best way.

A bit of oil. The oil will make sure

that the cling film doesn't stick to the bread.

It's good to cover it, because it provides a lovely cosy environment so the bread can rise.

It's nice and warm and air tight, but make sure the cling's not too tight

because it needs to have that room to grow up a little bit.

Leave that to rise. It takes about half an hour,

but it depends how warm the environment is.

I like to leave mine by a pre-heated oven.

You can flavour focaccia with all sorts of things,

like olives or sun dried tomatoes or thyme.

But my personal favourite is rosemary.

It smells so good.

OK, I think my bread's ready.

It's lovely and pillowy, look at that.

So, focaccia has these dimples in it and you can just use your fingers.

So, put them in the flour so the dough doesn't stick to them.

And then just do whatever pattern you like.

Straight lines does look better though.

And then the rosemary.

Just take your rosemary sprig like that

and then snip...

..a little bit and stick it in the holes.

For the next ones, I like to pinch off the rosemary leaves

so you don't get the stubby cut off bit of the branch.

And this is just going to infuse the bread with so much flavour.

OK, then some sea salt.

A nice sprinkle.

Extra flavour and it looks really good, too.

And then this goes into the oven at 200 degrees for about 25 minutes.

I've been e-mailing with some friends and I've been telling them

about my soon to be ready focaccia,

so I promised them when it's done, I'll send them a picture.

When I was 16, a very long time ago, I used to work in here.

I started off at frozen foods,

but within a week I was promoted...to fruit and veg.

And when I was working here, my duties included stacking shelves,

taking in deliveries, making sure the quality of the fruit and veg

was of a satisfactory standard, lovely.

But when I finished working here, I couldn't wait to get on my bike,

race home and have my favourite comfort food, mac and cheese.

I still make mac and cheese today

but I add some little extra special ingredients.

Thank you. Bye.

Baked pasta has a reputation of being a bit of a family dish,

but my macaroni and cheese is really, really glamorous.

It's even good enough if friends come round as a dinner party dish.

So I've got some pancetta here

and I'm going to fry it in the pan.

I need a bit of oil.

I love pancetta. It's such a lovely flavour.

And you know, you can use bacon as well, just snip some bacon up.

Some spring onions.

OK, so whilst those are crisping up, I'm going to get on with the white sauce.

It's a basic white sauce and it's equal amounts of flour and butter.

So 40 grams of butter and I'm going to add some flour. It's 40 grams...

..and then just mix it in and make a little paste.

Get right into the corners so it goes quite lumpy and it looks a bit scary.

And then take it off the heat and add some milk.

I've got 200ml of milk.

I'm not going to add all of it, just a little bit,

and then mix.

And then some more. And adding it this way means that it won't go all lumpy.

I'm going to a add a little pinch of nutmeg and some mustard.

And this really brings out the flavour of the cheese.

And just keep stirring, and I know it's really tedious,

but just keep stirring it and it'll get nice and smooth.

A bit more. The rest of the milk there.

OK, and now I add the double cream.

And that's 285ml of double cream, it makes it so much richer.

So this needs to boil for about two or three minutes

and it'll get nice and thick,

so I turn that right up now and leave that to boil.

Just keep an eye on it. And I'll grate my parmesan.

I've got 115 grams of parmesan here.

Don't buy the pre-grated parmesan.

I think because it's been sitting around in those pots for so long,

maybe the flavour's not as good.

OK. Turn that off. That's ready.

See, it's lovely and velvety and thick.

Now I'm going to add the cheese.

Add two-thirds of this parmesan into it.

And then this Dolcelatte,

my favourite cheese.

And two-thirds of that is 200 grams.

Make sure you add it while it's still nice and hot,

because you want it to melt a little bit.

And it does go lumpy, which is fine, because at least if it's lumpy,

it won't be lumps of flour, it's just cheese. Lovely cheese.

In goes the pasta in the bowl.

And the cheese sauce.

Oh, this is going to be so good.

OK, and now my favourite bit,

the pancetta and onions.

Lovely crispiness. Just mix it all together.

And a bit of seasoning.

Again, the embarrassingly large pepper grinder.

A pinch of salt.

Not too much because the cheese is quite salty.

I'm going to have a cheeky taste.

Mmm.

The creamy cheese and the crispy bacon and the sweet onion.

It's really rather good.

Into a casserole dish and then I'm going to sprinkle on some thyme.

I'm using fresh thyme, so I put it on at the last minute.

If you're using dried, you can put it in with the pancetta and onion.

So, a few thyme leaves.

OK, now the breadcrumbs.

Sprinkle those over the top.

This is called gratinee-ing.

Sprinkle on the parmesan.

And then nice big blobs of the Dolcelatte.

This is going to be very nice.

And, you know, if you don't like blue cheese, and I know lots of

people don't, Cheddar or any other strong cheese works just fine.

This goes into the oven at 200 degrees for about 20 minutes.

Mmm... That looks really good.

The topping's all crisp and the cheese is bubbling.

All this needs now is a little sprinkling of parsley to finish it off.

And you know, this isn't only dinner party food.

You can eat it by yourself too.

I think I'll just give it a little try.

Look at that.

It needs to be tested.

Mmm. Totally delicious.

This is as good as baked pasta gets.

There are so many scare stories about making meringues,

like, don't get yolk in it, you can over-whisk it and under-whisk it,

but it really is so much more simple than that.

I have got a foolproof way of making meringues.

And - it is a little bit unconventional,

but it'll give you the stiffest, shiniest meringue you've ever seen.

I start with the sugar and one egg white with a tiny squeeze of lemon.

Then whisk them together, add another egg white and keep whisking.

Then two more egg whites.

Keep whisking the mixture until it becomes very, very stiff.

And at this stage, you can turn the meringue into shells, nests,

tart or pie toppings or the base of a fabulous pavlova.

I love pavlova. It's one of my favourite desserts and although it's

not the easiest thing in the world to make, it's very, very quick.

Making a pavlova base is a matter of dolloping the meringue into a circle

on some baking parchment,

with the sides slightly higher than the centre.

Then it gets baked in the bottom of the oven at 140 degrees for an hour to an hour-and-a-half.

It's done when the meringue's firm and crisp on the outside,

but still soft and pillowy inside and a pale, pale beige.

At this point, you just turn off the oven and leave the door slightly ajar until it's completely cool.

So the pavlova has three layers, this crisp meringue which is all

mallowy inside and then a soft vanilla cream,

and then beautiful tender poached fruits.

I'm going to get on with the fruits now.

So I've got four pears here,

all peeled and deseeded.

And some apples. Two apples there.

Right, now the spices. So cinnamon, beautiful, beautiful spice.

Try and get a cinnamon stick if you can and when you pop it in,

just remember to snap it to release all those flavours.

And then some star anise.

A beautiful aniseedy flavour.

And vanilla.

Always use a fresh vanilla pod when you're poaching fruit.

It does make a lot of difference.

And then pop the whole lot, the pod and all.

Sugar, again, soft, light brown sugar that I love.

Four tablespoons of that.

And then some Marsala. You need half a bottle of Marsala.

And you can use a good red wine as well, but Marsala really is the one to go for.

Half a bottle in.

I can just smell the flavours. It's incredible.

And then some zest. You want the zest and the juice of an orange.

Get as much juice as you can out,

because this is going to add all the flavour.

And then a nice twist of black pepper to give it a little bit of spice, a bit of a kick.

OK, so that's everything in. Now I'm going to bring it up to a boil.

As soon as it hits the boil, I'll turn it right down to a poach,

which is basically a slow simmer.

Then leave that for a good 15 minutes,

and the fruit's going to start to go lovely and tender.

And then I'll turn it off, throw in beautiful blackberries and leave it to cool.

So, the meringue is baked, the fruit is beautifully poached

and now it's time to make the vanilla cream.

So you need 200 ml of whipping cream

and 20 grams of icing sugar.

And I never bother to sift it.

And then you need the seeds of a vanilla pod.

Just whisk.

So what you're looking for is it to just begin to hold its shape.

And then, eventually, you'll get to this stage.

It's just about holding itself in the bowl.

And that's what you want.

Now for the best bit.

Put this over here.

I'm going to drain this fruit.

And this poaching liquid is unbelievably good.

Seriously, do save it!

I just have to have a taste.

It's out of this world.

It's good enough to heat up and have as a little hot toddy.

Beautiful. Now the vanilla cream.

So just dollop it on the meringue.

And these black flecks look so lovely against the white.

It just really breaks it up nicely.

And then the fruit.

Again, this fruit is brilliant to have on its own.

It's really good so make extra if you can, and then eat it in the morning for breakfast.

So just pile the fruit on,

and put extra in the middle because you want that lovely central height.

And then...

oh, just get rid of these star anise and bits and pieces.

The vanilla stick, you don't want to eat that.

And then just scatter around the blackberries.

There you are. Beautiful, beautiful pavlova.

A big piece or a little piece?

A big piece, thanks.

OK, great.

Excellent. Thanks.

BOTH: Mmm.

You've just got that twang.

Lovely.

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