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. Welcome to the show.

Yet again, we've got some wonderful recipes for you.

James Martin is baking up potato with bacon and leeks.

Our pudding menu today includes Nigella Lawson's

very fruity amaretti crumble.

Now, I've never met anyone who doesn't like crumble,

and I don't want to.

And one of my favourite cooks, Clarissa Dickson Wright,

makes a raised pie with damsons.

And another brilliant chef,

Simon Hopkinson, makes a classic British pudding.

But we start with a tea-time treat from the king and queen

of the bake-off, Paul Hollywood and Mary Berry.

Here is their masterclass in how to make fantastic teacakes.

Paul, quarterfinal technical challenge.

Marshmallow teacakes. I think they're really tricky to make.

They are unbelievably tricky,

so we're going to start by melting the chocolate.

Melt 200g of chocolate over a bain-marie,

making sure that the bowl does not touch the boiling water.

Here's our chocolate.

Now, it's beginning to cool and set.

Now, this is a good temperature to have it at.

It's warm to the hand.

As it comes into contact with the mould, it actually

begins to cool very, very quickly.

I'm just starting off with a blob in each one.

Allow that to cool slightly. It'll help you then build up the walls.

Begin to bring up the chocolate

up the sides of the mould.

Take your time doing this. Don't rush it.

And you've got to get that just right, because if it was too

hot it would run down the mould, wouldn't it?

You've just got to get it runny so that it clings to the side.

Exactly, and you don't want to make it too thin because essentially

it's going to be the cage that goes over the marshmallow.

That looks pretty well-covered now, and you've got that slightly

thicker layer at the top which should make it turn out well.

Exactly.

Put the mould aside to set, but don't put them in the fridge

or the chocolate will discolour and lose its shine.

What I'm making now is a biscuit,

a good, earthy, crispy biscuit to go at the bottom of the marshmallow.

Measure out 50g of plain flour and 50g of whole-wheat flour.

Then add 25g of caster sugar,

25g of butter, and half a teaspoon of baking powder.

25 and 25.

Just be patient. I've just got to do a little bit.

-That's it.

-That's one thing I'm not good at, Mary.

-I know you're not.

-Terribly impatient, it's one of my flaws.

I have learnt it.

Did you put a little pinch of salt in there as well?

Thank you. That's about right, yeah. Lovely.

I'm going to get my hands in there and begin to break up the butter.

Now, I've got that crumbed quite well.

The butter's gone into the flour very well,

and we just need that little bit of liquid now to bind that together.

One tablespoonful of milk.

This is quite a dry biscuit.

So you begin to crush and pick up all the mixture together.

Tip the mixture onto a surface and bring together into a ball,

before rolling it out to about half a centimetre thickness.

Get your cutter.

We obviously need six.

You want them quite hard. You don't want that soft biscuit

when you bite into a marshmallow.

Put on a non-stick baking tray into the oven

for about 10-12 minutes at 150 degrees fan.

The biscuits have been out now for a good ten, 15 minutes.

Could you just trim the biscuit slightly with that?

Why am I doing that?

Because you've got baking powder in there,

so what's happened is the biscuit has grown

just beyond the base of the teacake, so what will happen is it won't be

able to go inside the mould, so it's a little trick.

What do I do if I crack it in half?

If you break them, I'm just going to go

and you're going to have to do them all over again.

This is one of the most tricky things I've done,

especially when you're standing over me.

Now you know how they feel in the Bake Off.

Don't you worry. I'm doing really, really carefully. There.

Good, that, Mary.

I can be quick now and do them all,

but I was nervous of that first one.

Now, while you've been doing that,

I've been melting the remaining chocolate.

You see how loose that is.

Now, I'm going to drop each biscuit into there.

Give it a bit of the coating.

I'm just going to slide it onto the wire. That's one biscuit.

I can't resist tasting this.

it's beautifully short.

Could you patch up any little bits that have no chocolate on them?

I'm very good at patching up.

All I'm trying to do is to put as much chocolate on evenly as I can.

Last one going in.

OK, Mary, we've got our component parts.

Now we've got to start the meringue.

This, technically, is a Swiss meringue,

but we're adding golden syrup to it.

It will thicken the whole thing up and give it a beautiful shine.

Now, to start with, I need three egg whites.

I'm doing it the old-fashioned way with my hands.

Making a right mess, yes.

I love making a mess.

Now, while I'm doing this,

-could you weigh me up 150g of caster sugar, please?

-Right.

That'll do, Mary. Thank you very much.

Pop this straight into the whites.

I'm also going to add half the seeds of a vanilla pod.

Six tablespoons of golden syrup.

One, two, three, four, five, six.

-Approximately.

-Approximately.

And I need a pinch of salt, please, Mary.

A little bit of salt in there will

just dampen things down a bit, so it's not too sweet.

Whisk the mixture over the gentle heat of the bain-marie

for about six minutes, making a very stable meringue.

We have our domes, we have our biscuit base,

we have our meringue, and we have our chocolate

that will bind the whole thing together.

Pipe in the meringue into the base.

Now, you want to take it about three quarters of the way up.

Don't overfill it. Otherwise, when the biscuit goes in,

the meringue's just going to pour out.

And the next stage is a little bit of chocolate just on the meringue.

This will help the biscuit bind to the meringue.

That's just pure melted chocolate?

It's just pure melted chocolate, and what you've got to do is just to run

around the outside of each one, just pop a little bit of chocolate.

This is actually where the

bottom of the biscuit will bind with the dome of the chocolate,

and the whole thing should become one. OK. There we go.

Get each biscuit, pop it into there,

and initially just leave it in there for a second.

Ideally, you don't want to put them in a fridge,

cos it locks the dyes and turns the chocolate off-colour.

Put a bit of pressure on there, because you've got that little bit

of give where it hits the marshmallow.

And it doesn't matter a bit that you got fingerprints on there,

because it's underneath, isn't it?

Bit of pressure.

And there we have the base finally in contact with the marshmallow.

Leave your chocolate teacakes to set

firmly in their mould before attempting to turn them out.

Well done.

Now we've got to release it from the mould.

I'm glad it's you, not me.

You got to put a bit of pressure on the top.

Lovely. You shouldn't need to touch the actual dome.

It is popping out really nicely.

Yeah, lovely.

That is sheer perfection!

Wow. So beautifully formed, aren't they?

Mm!

Honestly, when you look inside, rather soft marshmallow,

lovely crisp biscuit, and an ample share of chocolate on top.

You've got it all over your moustache, young man.

That's the way it should be!

That's a proper chocolate teacake

and I hope everybody at least tries to make one.

Now, the perfect sticky toffee pudding recipe.

You'd think toffee would be the vital part of making this taste fabulous,

but in this case it's dates that are the key ingredient

in Simon Hopkinson's version.

I have always had a sweet tooth.

And I try not to indulge it too often.

But now and then, I feel the urge to

treat friends to a desert that I think is irresistible -

sticky toffee pudding made the traditional way.

I don't think I know anybody who doesn't like it.

It's sweet,

it's luscious.

The most important ingredient to get this pudding

tasting like it should is dates.

Soak the chopped dates in boiling water for about five minutes.

The dates really are important and

people do play around with this pudding far too much. It's, er,

nuts, bananas, dried apricots, prunes.

Who wants, in this really soft, luscious pudding,

bits of nut?

I certainly don't.

Drain the dates and keep the liquid.

Put all these ingredients into a food processor.

And, because I love it so much,

I'm going to put a tiny bit extra in.

Finally, add the liquid from the dates.

This looks a mess at the moment, doesn't it?

But it does turn into the most lovely, golden-looking batter.

But it is quite nice and smooth. You can still see the dates.

So, one big, sticky toffee, ready to go in the oven.

And this is at gas mark four, 180 centigrade.

Now, I'm going to do just a little idea of my own, really.

It always rises more on the middle than it does on the outside.

And, because I want the surface to be flatter than this,

to take the toffee topping, what I do is to just remove,

I know it doesn't look very good,

but it's going to be covered with the topping.

It allows the sauce to cover

without bits of the sponge sticking through,

which would scorch under the grill.

So, for the sticky toffee topping, first of all,

double cream...

and molasses sugar, lovely, lovely, dark, treacly sugar.

You'll find it amongst all the other sugars in the supermarket.

Slightly salted butter.

Melt all the ingredients together and keep stirring

until it quietly comes to the boil.

Pour over in one go.

And under the grill.

Until it's bubbling and sticky.

# Say nighty-night and kiss me... #

For even more of an indulgence,

I make an extra butterscotch sauce to serve on the side.

# While I'm alone, as blue as can be

# Dream a little dream of me... #

And that's ready.

No calories in this pudding at all!

Here it comes.

Ah!

Sticky, sticky.

Here goes.

Cook's perk.

So, the lighter sauce, we pour it around like that.

# Stars fading, but I linger on, dear

# Still craving your kiss

# I'm longing to linger till dawn, dear... #

You wouldn't think so, but it's surprisingly light, this pudding.

It's almost delicate.

It almost has, I'm not going to say a jelly-like consistency,

but it has a wobble about it. The sauce is important.

The cream, you really don't have to do,

but I love the contrast of it, cold.

What you should never, ever do, and don't be pushed into it, is to say,

"Oh, we'd love some ice cream with that."

You cannot take any more sugar.

# ..wherever they be, dream a little dream of me. #

Now, seeing as Simon just said you can't take any more sugar after

that, it seems a good time to have our first savoury bake of the day.

So let's join James Martin, who's putting together some cheese,

potato, bacon and leeks.

To me, there's nothing quite like cooking outdoors

over an open flame in the winter months.

It's one of the most rewarding ways to cook at home,

and I've got just the recipe for a chilly day like this.

Can't beat a jacket potato for a nice, winter warming dish.

I love to cook mine with bacon, Taleggio cheese and leeks.

But, to make it really special, I'm going to tray-bake it

in my wood-fired oven.

For a cold winter's day, there's nothing better.

First thing we're going to do is get our potatoes on.

And, to do that, you need some decent salt.

And I actually use sea salt for this, rather than table salt.

Just put little piles in there.

As you actually cook the potatoes, this just dries out the skins

so they become nice and crisp.

A little bit of oil on the potatoes.

And then, what you need to do is just prick them with a fork.

Just over the top. In the oven,

I've set the oven at about 200 centigrade.

I've got some already in here.

And these want to cook for about an hour, really.

And then we turn our attention to the sauce.

Dice one shallot, and slice a clove of garlic,

then sweat them down in a frying pan.

Starting off with a little bit of butter, of course. As always.

Next, chop up two leeks.

I like to use all of them, including the green part.

So, we're going to throw our leeks in here.

Pop them in the pan and pour over a generous amount of white wine.

And, of course, just like the legend, Mr Floyd, you've got

to have a glass while you're cooking as well, haven't you, really?

At this point, the sauce gives me some great cooking options.

I could blend it into a soup,

Serve it as a side dish with some brioche or add sweetcorn

and use it as a sauce with roast chicken.

And then we need some liquid in here.

And that comes in the form of double cream.

Now, the key to this, I think, is not to overcook it.

I do find leeks, if they're overcooked,

they go horrible and grey, and you lose the great flavour of leeks,

I think, so just be careful when you do it like this, not to overcook it.

So, a good amount of seasoning. Some salt.

And black pepper.

Slice the spuds into quarters and lay them

skin-side down in a baking tray.

Just take the sauce and drizzle it over the top of the potatoes.

Now, I need to crisp up some bacon in the pan.

It's the star of this dish, so I want quality stuff.

And when you've got bacon this good, and this is dry-cured bacon, you

fry in a dry pan and the fat's going to come out of the bacon.

Get it lovely and crisp.

For years, really, when I was training, when I had no money,

when my mother came to visit me,

she'd always bring down some proper bread and some proper bacon.

So I could at least have a proper breakfast.

This is Taleggio cheese, and it's got a lovely, creamy flavour

and it actually melts when it cooks.

It really is delicious, and one that goes really well with bacon.

So, what we're going to do with this is just chop it up.

And I kind of first came across this, really,

definitely not in a farmhouse in North Yorkshire.

I first came across this while working in London,

this cheese, and it was wrapped in a little bit of bacon

and pan-fried in a little brasserie that us chefs used to go to,

on our rare day off.

But it really was fantastic.

And I kind of used it, not just in the restaurants,

but at home, ever since, really.

And you just break it up.

Put it in there.

When the bacon's ready, chop it up and add it to the tray.

And don't waste the fat.

If my grandad was alive, he'd then take a piece of bread now

and just scrape this up.

And what we do now is just pop it back in the oven,

but instead of using this, I'm going to use a proper oven.

Even at this cold time of year, there is

a chance to enjoy the outdoors.

This is the kind of dish that you can cook in advance

for when your friends come over

and in a normal oven, it takes 10 minutes at 200 centigrade to cook.

HE CHORTLES

It just, it is a simple dish...

..but it just tastes so good,

with the baked potatoes especially,

because you get a mixture of sort of different textures.

You get the fluffiness of the inside

and the crispness of the potato skins, as well.

That Taleggio cheese, if you can buy it, try it.

Now on to our next dish.

And it's an old-fashioned favourite that uses lard to create

a wonderfully crumbly pastry

and damsons inside with their intense and sweet flavour.

Now, this type of pastry is made by heating together lard

and water to a rolling boil.

As the lard and water begins to boil,

add a pinch of salt to the flour.

And then pour in the boiling liquid.

Begin by stirring the mixture and, as soon as it is cool enough

to handle, it is time to knead the pastry.

It cools quite quickly and it is quite important to do it

as soon as you can so that the fat doesn't cool too much.

Otherwise it won't mix in well with the flour.

And, you see, it's a very soft, malleable crust.

And what I have here is a dolly.

This is a traditional implement.

It comes in all sorts of different sizes, for raising

a pie crust round, you just want to mould your pastry up the dolly.

As well as the pie crust, it is

vital to remember to shape a lid for the pie at this point.

Once the pastry has been prepared,

allow it to cool in the refrigerator.

The lard solidifies

and it will help the crust hold its shape for the damson pie filling.

So, here is a ready-chilled, raised pie.

I'm something of an authority on raised pies, because I have

judged the Great Yorkshire Pork Pie Contest on three separate

occasions and I have to say, it was one of the most terrifying

things I ever had to do in my life, because I could have lost

all my reputation in Yorkshire, if I'd got it wrong.

Layer the pie with quince paste,

a thick jam that will turn to liquid in the heat of the oven.

Then, the damsons.

These have been stoned and frozen to give them a delicious texture.

A sprinkle of sugar will help to sweeten the filling

but the pie should still have a sharp kick to it.

And finally, all I have to do is put the lid on and crimp it.

And then make a little hole in the top to let the steam out.

It takes only 25 minutes for the ingredients to melt together

and make the perfect pie.

So, the moment critique.

You see how it's sunk down on itself and gone into this rather nice,

medieval look, really, hasn't it?

And...

See? Look at that.

Look how lovely and gooey and sticky and,

you only get pastry like this using lard.

And you only get really good lard

from old breed, rare breed pigs.

Mm.

Lovely acidity with the damsons. And the real crunchiness of the pastry.

And there you are, you see? Terribly simple.

Nice little pie from your pudding.

What could be more delicious?

What indeed?

Those damsons needed stoning first, of course,

but for that result, definitely worth the effort.

Right. We've reached our final dish of the day now.

It's Nigella's plum and amaretti crumble.

Having people round my table makes me really happy.

And yes, I want the food to be gorgeous,

but I don't want the sort of cooking that could ruin the mood,

so I'm thinking lamb cutlets with mint and chilli,

crisp, golden potatoes,

roast red onions tossed with basil and, obviously, pudding.

Now, I've never met anyone who doesn't like crumble,

and I don't want to.

And I give you my ruby-red plum and amaretti crumble.

Just a few simple steps and it's made.

To start off with,

I warm two tablespoonfuls of butter in a sturdy pan

and, when the butter's melted,

I tip in a kilo of stoned and quartered plums.

On top of these plums, I sprinkle two tablespoonfuls of sugar.

And the zest and juice of half a lemon.

It's very important to get a good balance

between sweetness and acidity.

Obviously, the plums are going to get further cooking in the oven,

but I want to start them off so they begin softening.

So I give them a couple of minutes with the lid off and then

a couple of minutes with the lid on, so I preserve all their juices.

And then I tip these gleaming, gorgeous plums into a pie dish

and let them sit there while I get on with the crumble topping.

This is something of an Anglo-Italian enterprise.

A crumble is a quintessential British pud

but I add a bit of an Italian note by using amaretti biscuits.

So, I get 100g of these into a freezer bag

and I bash the living daylights out of them.

I find this very, very therapeutic.

First, I just go at them with a rolling pin,

then I just roll over them until I have crunchy rubble.

I sprinkle about a couple of spoonfuls of this

mixture on to the plums in their dish.

These crumbs help thicken the juices

and give their own bitter almond flavour.

To make the crumble topping, I spoon 150g of plain flour into a bowl.

To that, I add a teaspoonful baking powder.

I then tip in 100g of fridge-cold, small-cubed butter

and I work the butter into the flour, using my fingers.

Now, you can mix up the crumble topping with a processor

or in a freestanding kitchen mixer,

but I rather love the feeling of the cool butter and flour in my fingers.

Whichever method you are using, just stop

when the mixture resembles rough oatmeal.

I then fork in three tablespoonfuls of white sugar...

..followed by all the remaining amaretti crumbs.

And what I like to do is start using this to top the dish of fruit,

all around the edges of the dish

and then I proceed to fill up in the middle.

To cook the crumble, slip it on a baking sheet in an oven

preheated to 190 degrees for 30-35 minutes.

-What's your secret?

-It's not a secret at all.

-Plums, and I bashed some amaretti biscuits.

-Oh, wonderful.

MUSIC DROWNS OUT CONVERSATION

LAUGHTER

That's all for today.

I do hope you've enjoyed all of today's best bakes

and come back and see some more very soon.

Bye-bye.