Episode 2 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 our celebration of baking.

Here are some of the treats we're going to show you today.

Nigella Lawson will show us a pizza with a difference.

My meatzza is a regular fixture on the menu in casa Lawson.

It is so easy to make.

And James Martin bakes an interesting pie

that involves frying.

You see, look at this.

I know it's very different cooking it in a pan,

but it just saves on washing-up.

And for pudding, we've got a plum and marzipan tart from Mary Berry.

And we finish with a favourite of mine -

a flourless chocolate cake from Raymond Blanc.

But our first recipe comes from the Hairy Bikers.

They're baking their version of a classic moussaka.

THEY SING A TUNE

-Hola.

-Look at that, then.

-A Geordie Zorba.

-Zorba the Greek.

Zorba the Geordie!

The principal ingredient of the moussaka

is the aubergine, or eggplant, as the Americans call them.

-How could that be an eggplant?

-It doesn't look anything like an egg!

Ah, moussaka. A dish fit for any Greek God.

Layers of ground lamb and sliced aubergine,

topped with a cheese sauce and baked for a fuller flavour.

And we're going to give ours a bit of a British spin.

We're putting potatoes in our moussaka.

First time I had it I thought, "It's meant to be moussaka,

"not a hotpot." But, actually, it's kind of all right.

Just go with us on this one.

Try it with potatoes. If you don't like it, go with aubergines.

Slice the aubergine into one centimetre thick slices.

You might want to salt them to draw out some of the bitterness,

but it's not always necessary with new varieties.

If you do, remember to wash it off again before you pop them

in the pan to fry them.

We've brought back loads from holidays, haven't we?

The one thing you always do bring back, I find,

is these bottles of booze that,

at the time, you have this fragrant thing made from orange flowers

on the southwest hill, north of Cephalonia, that's a speciality.

And you have it and you go, "By God, this is nectar of the gods."

You bring it home and it's like...

And it sits at the back of your sideboard, doesn't it?

Well, you see, that's what holidays are.

It's about being in a time and a place and a space.

And you fill that time,

space and place with lovely things of the region, don't you?

-Aye. It is a tonic, a holiday, isn't it?

-It is. Everybody needs them.

We've sat on that beach with our bellies out, getting all over...

-It's the fact though you're belly catches the sun first.

-Yes.

I tell you what though, it's dead funny on a beach with him.

If you put your head on the ground,

he looks just like the Eden Project.

-Right, anyway...

-Shut up, you.

-Don't hurt me, I'm old.

-I didn't...

-I wasn't going to do anything.

-Moussaka is made with minced lamb.

Minced lamb is full of fat,

therefore don't bother putting any olive oil in.

This goes into a pan.

-How do them guards walk?

-Oh, what, the Greek guards?

They have pompoms on their feet, don't they?

They've got the rifles.

No, it's a flick.

Oh, sorry.

Now, while the lamb is browning, chop an onion

and a couple of cloves of garlic and add them to the pan.

Now, to this we add oregano. Uno.

A teaspoonful and a half of dried mint.

We want power in this. This is why we're using dried herbs.

And the dried herbs will cook into the dish.

On top of that, pop in a stick of cinnamon, a bay leaf,

chopped rosemary and some freshly ground pepper,

a whole tin of chopped tomatoes and two teaspoons of tomato puree.

As you can sense, this is a rich dish,

and somehow this is why I feel justified putting the potatoes in.

Because it's just nice.

And wine, about 200ml.

We're going to bring that back to the boil and, kind of,

cover it half with the pan lid and leave it to

simmer for about half an hour,

or even cook it for longer.

Ten minutes before the end, it's time to make our white sauce,

which is pretty much like the bechamel you get in lasagne.

Step one, a big knob of butter.

Melt that down and put some flour in.

About a tablespoon.

See?

And just mix that with the butter and cook it out a little bit.

Just make a smooth paste.

And we start drizzling in about a pint of milk.

It's just a very basic white sauce.

-Now just increase the heat a little bit.

-And wait till it thickens.

A top tip for white sauce is when it starts to thicken,

get your whisk out, cos it helps prevent it going lumpy.

So, now we're going to start to build up the flavour, so we're

going to season it with salt, but, most importantly, white pepper.

Just take it off the heat a little bit.

And go careful with the salt

because we're going to put a bit of Parmesan in this.

Again, that's our touch, just to build up the richness.

-And a bit of nutmeg.

-Can't go wrong with nutmeg.

And what's nice about putting the nutmeg in it, it adds a,

kind of, spice to it, but also it's slightly sweet,

there's a sweet tinge to it, which is really lovely.

I'm just grating some Parmesan.

This isn't traditional,

but it's just going to serve to enrich that sauce.

And we're going to put some Parmesan cheese on the top as well.

This is good Parmesan, look at that.

Over a gentle heat, stir a handful of the Parmesan cheese

into the white sauce and prepare to assemble the moussaka.

-We're kind of ready to build the Odyssey now.

-We are.

Step one.

It's three layers, so you want a third of the meat to go in there.

Don't put the cinnamon stick in, that would be gormless.

Just to avoid embarrassment, I'll take ours out.

Once you've spread out the meat, it's time to layer on the potatoes.

The slices have been slightly boiled and allowed to cool.

It's going to be a nice little layer, just a layer here.

It is a bit hotpoty, you know? This is where Lancashire meets Larnaca.

Where Altrincham meets Athens.

Then add a layer of the aubergine.

And two more layers of meat and aubergine.

-Smelling quite radiant, isn't it?

-It is.

And this is just going to bake together

in this mass of coagulation.

That's it. Look at that.

Once you get to your final layer of aubergine,

it's time to finish the white sauce.

First, make sure it's cool.

Beat an egg and, using a whisk, mix them together.

If the sauce isn't cool to begin with,

you'll end up with scrambled eggs.

Lovely.

Next, we need to pour all that sauce onto the top of your moussaka.

There you are. You see?

Now the cheese.

Simply pop that into a preheated oven

at about 180 degrees Celsius for about 45 minutes.

But keep an eye on it so it doesn't burn.

Oh, the magnificence that is the moussaka.

It's like the beaten bronze of Hercules' helmet.

-Look at that.

-Oh, nice.

-Nice.

-Nice. Are you going to carve?

-Yeah.

It's nice this, if we can get it out in a square,

because then we see all the layers.

And that...is how moussaka should look.

Oh, look at that. It seems a shame, doesn't it?

It does, doesn't it?

MUSIC: Forever and Ever by Demis Roussos

-Oh, that's nice.

-It's a really good meal.

That's a good moussaka.

Moussaka - it's a British favourite, and a classic example of how

foreign influences have informed what we eat now.

Now another classic, a tarte tatin.

This recipe, according to legend, was created by accident

when a French hotel cook messed up her fruit pie

and ended up with the pastry lid on the bottom.

But the hotel guests loved it.

It's usually cooked with apple, but in this version,

Mary Berry is using plums.

I don't think Sunday lunch is complete without a proper pudding.

But it doesn't have to take ages to make.

My plum and marzipan tart is so simple,

only 15 minutes to prepare.

You don't need to peel the plums, and they want to be slightly under-ripe.

If they're overripe, you'll get too much juice.

I've got nine plums which fits neatly into the base of an eight-inch tin.

And the tin wants to have a bit of depth to it.

Because if it's too shallow, it'll bubble over the top.

This is an upside-down pudding, so the bottom layer, as you prepare it,

becomes the top layer when you bravely flip it over at the end.

Start with 75g of light muscovado sugar.

And that's what gives the lovely caramel topping.

No need to make a proper caramel as you would have to do

if you were doing the classic tarte tatin with apples.

This is my quick version.

Because on Sunday morning, I would make this

and you haven't got an awful lot of time. And then the plums.

I find it best to start from the outside

and squeeze them up quite tight.

I remember the very first upside-down pudding I did was at college,

and it was a pineapple upside-down.

And we put a cherry in the middle.

And we thought it was the bee's knees when it came out.

I think I might get another one in there, we'll see.

They've got to be tightly done together.

Just have to be persuaded and given a push.

'The next step is to roll out 100g of marzipan into a thin round layer.

'Making sure it's slightly smaller than your solid cake tin.

'Now for the pastry.

'For this tart, I use puff, and I think ready-made is just fine.

'Its buttery crispness is a wonderful contrast to those squidgy soft plums.

'Cut a circle slightly larger than the tin

'then place it over the marzipan, pushing the edges down.'

And then for ventilation to get that steam through,

just put a cross in the middle there.

That's ready for the oven.

'Bake the tart at 200 degrees fan on the top shelf for about 25 minutes,

'until the pastry is crisp and golden brown.'

That looks pretty good to me.

A lovely crisp top, and the juice just coming out round the side.

Now, it's important when you come to turn it out

that you have a plate that's got a bit of lip,

because all those juices are going to tip and run round the outside.

So a flat plate, it'd be all over the table,

and perhaps on the tablecloth too. So just put it on top like that.

Have a little prayer for me.

One, two, three!

Now, this is the part I like.

A bit of excitement, hope it holds together.

Just look at that!

I think we need a dollop of cream with that,

and I know Sarah, my daughter-in-law, would love custard.

If you've never made an upside-down pud before,

this rich plum and marzipan tarte tatin is a great way to start.

Now, that was an upside-down dish.

This next one is, for a baker, a sort of wrong way round dish.

Right up until the end,

you'd be forgiven for thinking that James Martin was frying, not baking.

But wait and see what happens.

Lazy day home cooking doesn't always mean long and slow.

Sometimes you need food you can just rustle up in a jiffy,

without skimping on flavour.

Something that I find that fits the bill

is my cream, chicken and mushroom pie,

with a golden puff pastry top.

It's a one-pot wonder, all cooked in a frying pan.

So make sure yours is ovenproof.

It takes minutes to make

but tastes like you've slaved on the stove for hours.

In my line of work, I don't really get many lazy days,

but when I do get the occasional day off,

there's nothing better really than to sit and cook a pie.

It's one of the things that's a winter warmer,

it sort of warms your heart as well as your taste buds.

We're going to start off with a few shallots.

Garlic, just chopped up.

Then add diced chicken breast to your pan.

The perfect partner for poultry is mushrooms.

They have an amazing flavour so pick and choose your favourite varieties.

That's one of the great things nowadays about supermarkets,

you're starting to get different types of mushrooms,

from chanterelles, girolles.

Just getting a little bit of colour on here.

Not too much. Just colour the chicken a little bit.

Be careful not to burn the onions as well,

otherwise it can become slightly bitter. That's probably enough now.

And then we can throw in our mushrooms.

With mushrooms, you want to cook them as hot as possible.

Because they contain a lot of water,

that's why we don't really want to wash mushrooms,

you basically just rub off the dirt.

But whenever you're frying them,

the temptation is to have the pan not hot enough.

Then they end up sweating.

And then one of the great flavourings

with chicken and mushrooms is Madeira.

What you do need to do is flame this.

Flaming it will get rid of the alcohol from it as well.

Otherwise it's too intense a flavour.

Then going to add some of this chicken stock,

this is one of the great things in supermarkets, like mushrooms,

that's readily available

and makes this such a quick dish to be able to cook.

While we're doing that,

we can add one of the great ingredients to go with chicken.

I love it, it's tarragon.

It's got a lovely aniseed-y sort of flavour

that goes well with so many different meats and fish.

But tarragon and chicken really are a great combination.

And then finally, no creme fraiche, no single cream, double cream.

And the reason for the double cream is,

we get the texture of a sauce almost straight away,

particularly when we bring this to the boil to reduce that liquid down

to create this wonderful sauce to go in our pie.

Don't forget to season it

and then let it simmer away for five to ten minutes, and that's it.

See? I said it was easy.

Chicken, mushrooms, Madeira and tarragon.

It's proper.

This is great.

You could eat it almost as it is straight away like this.

You could also put it in a food blender,

blitz it and you've got a great chicken and mushroom soup.

But as I'm making a pie, I need to crack on with a pastry top.

Now, if you've got time, make your own puff pastry,

alternatively you can buy it

but make sure you buy the all-butter puff pastry for this.

A little bit of flour.

Just roll it out.

So often with pies, they use shortcrust pastry, but for me,

really, the best tasting pie to go with chicken or beef

has to be with puff pastry.

I don't know what it is, it's that buttery layers of crisp pastry

as you break into it before you get to the filling.

But you know it's going to taste great.

Particularly, it looks great.

Make sure the pastry isn't too thick,

because you want it to cook in the middle.

But not too thin,

because I'm actually going to cook it in the same pan.

About that will do, about 4-5mm thickness would be great,

and then just very quickly, roll this up.

Once the pastry is ready, paint the edge of the pan with egg wash.

Then roll out the pastry over the top...

..and trim the edges before egg-washing the top of your pie.

When you get to that stage,

you can do your fancy little crimping around the edge.

Just take two fingers and a thumb,

really press this onto the side of the pan.

And then, to be bit fancy, a few leaves.

And then we just put these on nice and quick.

In the oven. About 25 minutes, hot oven.

Done.

So kick back and relax before tucking in.

You see, look at this! I know it's very different, cooking it in a pan.

But it just saves on washing up and let's face it,

if you want a lazy day, why spend most of the time washing up?

You just take some of this pie out.

And that combination between chicken, mushrooms, tarragon, puff pastry.

I mean, even just looking at it, you know it's going to taste good.

I've got to dive in.

That is so delicious.

It's so simple.

You can just cook it time and time again.

It's the sort of dish that makes me realise how lucky I am

to be able to make a living from food.

Well, if I said we were going to be looking at pizza next,

you'd naturally assume there was more dough coming up. But you'd be wrong.

Because this is Nigella with her meatzza, which is...

Well, actually, I'll let her do the explaining.

MUSIC: La Traiettorie Delle Mongolfiere by Gianmaria Testa

Now, my meatzza is a wondrous thing, I say immodestly.

It's like a pizza, as you might guess,

but instead of having a bread base,

it's got like a meatball mixture that's squished flat into a disc.

My meatzza a regular fixture on the menu in casa Lawson.

It is so easy to make.

You need a fairly large sized bowl with some mincemeat in it.

Break two eggs onto the mincemeat, and then sprinkle over some Parmesan.

And that's really to give saltiness and boost flavour.

And then you can add either breadcrumbs, which is

more Italian, or porridge oats.

What you want is to help the base of the meatzza firm up.

Mince over the mixture a clove of garlic

and then sprinkle with freshly chopped parsley.

These are the traditional flavourings for Italian meatballs.

So, just mix everything together in the bowl.

I find this easiest to do by hand.

Whatever implement you choose, do not over mix.

Now put this mixture into a greased round baking tin.

Squish it down gently, remembering not to press too hard.

Again, you don't want to overwork the mixture.

Open a can of chopped tomatoes and drain it.

I don't want any excess liquid ruining my meatzza base.

I add a sprinkling of dried oregano,

a small amount of sea salt,

and a drizzle of garlic oil.

Stir that to mix

and then use it to spread over the top of the meatzza base.

Slice a mozzarella ball into thinish slices.

I think of this as a cheese sunburst.

This needed to go into a hot oven for about 25 minutes,

by which time the meat base is set, the tomatoes bubbling,

and the cheese blistered gold.

Before I slice and serve it, I strew with fresh basil.

It really does look like a pizza.

Now, we can't possibly finish without bringing you a cake.

And here is one of the best. A great chocolate cake from Raymond Blanc.

I will do for you a very intriguing piece of baking,

because the baking I'm going to do here is a cake base without flour.

The base is the first stage of this recipe.

Start by whisking egg whites to a soft peak, then add sugar.

Voila.

Go slowly.

This will give the egg whites volume and stability.

Let's have a look.

I'm going to add now, OK, the egg yolk.

Voila. I whisk just the top.

Voila.

So now, just place your base here.

OK, so then you fold it, so be very gentle, OK?

From underneath, fold.

Underneath, fold, see?

Chocolate powder adds flavour

and the absence of flour makes the cake's base rich and moist.

Tres bien.

Voila. So now we are ready to bake.

Use a cake ring as opposed to a tin, line with grease-proof paper

and wrap with aluminium foil.

Perfect.

Pour the mix halfway up the ring.

So my oven is preheated, 175 degrees.

15 minutes only.

Leave the cakes to rest for an hour when they come out.

On the top of this flourless cake base,

I'm going to build a beautiful chocolate mousse.

Time for the second stage of the recipe.

Melt chocolate in a bain-marie or water-bath,

then whisk egg whites and slowly add sugar.

Like that.

Voila. I've got my mousse here.

Start by adding only a third of the egg whites to the melted chocolate,

as this will help the ingredients combine.

Then fold in the rest, taking care to retain as much air in the mixture

as possible, but working quickly, as the mousse will now be cooling.

And then fold nicely. Voila.

Taste...

Lovely.

Slice the crust off the top of the cake.

Then place back inside a clean ring and spoon the mousse mixture over.

Voila.

What you do now is actually place the mousse in the fridge

so the mousse firms up so I can cut it later.

The final stage of baking

and the crowning glory of the cake is the tuile garnish.

To a pan of water, add sugar, cocoa powder,

butter and grated dark chocolate.

Finally, add liquid glucose,

which will help control the formation of sugar crystals.

So very easy tuile, absolutely beautiful,

really a work of art on its own.

It's not me, it's it.

Melt the ingredients together, then take off the heat.

I'm going to cool down my mixture,

which I want to place between two sheets of paper.

It's lovely, it's so easy to make.

And then roll it...

..down.

Voila.

And then what you will do is to undo your paper

and you've got two very fine tuile.

Place the sheets of paper on trays, remembering to weigh them down

if you're using a fan oven.

They will only need five minutes at 170 degrees,

enough time to take the cake and mousse out of the tin.

You just...

warm it up nicely. I'll try not to burn my plastic here. Voila.

Let's try, let's have a look, let's lift it up.

Tres bien.

Decorate the cake by drizzling over chocolate melted in a bain-marie.

To really push the boat out,

create a chocolate ribbon by pouring more melted chocolate

over a thin sheet of plastic,

then smooth the mousse before wrapping the plastic around the cake.

When you apply the chocolate on the acetate with a palette knife,

make sure it's thick enough, OK? Not too thick, but it's like a fortress.

Leave to cool for ten minutes in the freezer.

Take the tuile out of the oven. It will harden as it cools.

I'm going to remove the acetate, OK, tres bien.

So move that away here, very gently.

It's OK. So now I'm going to add my tuile.

Here we are, we're going to break it up a little bit.

Voila, tres bien.

Look at that, it's beautiful.

Voila.

Lovely.

A chocolate cake with no guilt involved,

well, that definitely qualifies as a best bake ever!

And if that's not a great one to end on, I don't know what is.

That's it for today and I will say bye-bye,

but do join me again for some more brilliant bakes next time.