Germany Hairy Bikers' Bakeation

'By now you've probably realised

'there are two things that we really love in this world.

-'Biking and baking.

-So we've decided to combine them...

'In an epic 5,000 mile Bakeation.'

Two legs in and we're really motoring.

'Norway and the Low Countries were pretty awesome.'

-Best bread I've ever tasted in my life.

-Extraordinary.

'So this week's journey has a lot to live up to.'

-Oh, look at that!

-Oh, wow!

That's fine, because we've arrived

at one of my favourite countries... Germany.

You may know it, but it's all pretty new to me.

Don't worry, Kingy, there's loads of great baking to be had.

BOTH: Wow!

And we're not even halfway yet.

'We've got Eastern Europe and Austria.'

I love you.

'Italy and France.'

C'est magnifique!

'And finally, Spain still to come.'

We love you more than you'll ever know.

'At least it's not only us doing the cooking.

'Yeah! We've lined up some of the world's very best bakers

'to teach us a thing or two.

'So get comfy, it's time for the next leg of our spectacular...

'BOTH: Bakeation!'

# I'm going to Germany,

# I'll be back some old day

# I'm going to Germany. #

The thing is, Kingy, we can't do a Bakeation without coming to Germany,

because bread or brot as they call it,

is the cornerstone of German cooking.

Did you know, they've got over 300 different types of bread here,

-and they eat more of it than anywhere else in Europe?

-Yes, I did. I read the book too.

But there's no way we'll be able to taste them all.

Well, we've got a week to try, mate.

Where better to start our German odyssey

than the Mosel Valley in the Rhineland?

According to the book, it's all vineyards and sunshine around here.

Wunderbar!

More like yuck. Where did your sunshine go?

Oh, it's probably good for the grapes.

-Oh, it's nice to get out of that, isn't it?

-Oh, isn't it?

-Ha-hee!

-The thing about Germany is,

it has a wonder for all things foodie, I have a feeling.

Do you know why? It has such regional diversity, you know.

It's as different from north to south,

as say Cornwall to Scotland.

Everywhere has got its own specialities.

You know, it's not all sauerkraut, sausages and fizzy lager.

-No. I want beer. Proper beer.

-Real beer. Yeah.

As Bilbo said to Frodo,

"Every great journey starts with a map."

And there we are. 'Bavarian beer is what you want, Kingy,

'but there's lots of baking and biking before we get there.'

'After the Rhineland, we'll go through the regions Baden-Wurttemberg

'and Swabia, before we hit Windischeschenbach.'

The bit I'm looking forward to,

is where we should be able to get Black Forest gateau...

in the Black Forest. I've always wanted to go to the Black Forest.

It's the land of carved bears, cuckoo clocks

and the Brothers Grimm, you know.

Well, I'm looking forward to some proper salty pretzels, all chewy and lovely. Mega.

They're pretzel obsessed. They have door knockers shaped like pretzels.

Pretzels shaped like pretzels.

But, we'll still need to make some snacks to go with our beer.

BOTH: Bierocks! Yes!

Make a big bag of bierocks

-before we hit Bavaria.

-What's there?

Beer, dude.

But not any old beer. Bavarian beer is in a class of its own.

I can't wait. It's going to be an amazing trip.

ALL: Prost!

It's one enormous bite taken out of Germany. I'm looking forward to it.

So am I, man. I'm really, really up for this.

Well, you can't start an epic journey on an empty stomach,

-so let's get baking.

-And we're in Germany,

so let's kick off with some brot!

Yeah! Something really German.

Like kartoffelbrot.

Spot on. A comforting potato bread.

Just the thing in this weather.

Ho-ho, wow! What a place to cook!

Potato bread. A moist tasty bread which doesn't dry out.

Perfect for a road trip.

Do you know what? Sometimes we've been in piping hot countries and we cook a stew,

and you feel really stupid.

Or somewhere really cold and we do a salad.

This time we've got it right.

It's wonderful, it's German,

it's kartoffel bread.

-Kartoffelbrot.

-Kartoffelbrot.

-Brot of the Kartoffel.

-Potato bread.

-That's it.

And it's traditional German.

-Lots of cultures have potato bread, don't they?

-Loads have it.

Yeah. Sorry about that, I was trying to clean the table.

I've got to knead on that!

Right. Dry it off, dry it off!

Calm. Calm. Right, they'll cut that out.

-They won't.

-They will.

Do you know potato bread? It's wonderful stuff.

It's soft and white, it's like a polar bear's paw.

And you know what it's got in it? Potatoes.

'Not only do spuds add flavour and tenderness,

'but potato bread stays moist and keeps really well.

'Just the thing to pop in your pannier.'

And just poach your spuds.

STOVE GURGLES

-It's making a very odd noise, don't you think?

-I got water in me jets.

-Si?

-What?

I have an honest and fervently held belief that this will now work.

Ha-ha! Yes! Myers!

And simply poach the potatoes, 15 to 20 minutes, until soft.

-Yeah.

-But reserve the liquor.

-Rrrh!

These potatoes are nicely soft,

and the water, it's just warm.

-It's boiled, we've left it to cool.

-Because...

We want to activate the yeast with the potato water.

So what we're going to do now is strain the potatoes,

-like so.

-Oh!

Kartoffel-pan.

The leavening process.

The warm potato water goes in here.

Remember, if that was too hot you'd kill the yeast, not create life.

Take the yeast. Sprinkle it over the top.

'Then to speed up the fermentation, we add some sugar

'or zucker, as they call it here.'

Give it a mix. And then what you want to do is you want to wait

until that has a bubbling scum on the top of it.

It's going to be nice and it's going to smell very nice...

Because it's going to smell like beer, it's going to smell yeasty.

While that's kind of coming to life, we need to mash the potatoes.

And potato bread, it's mashed potatoes.

Look at those, like Wotsits.

'To make it even more moist, I'm adding a tablespoon

'of sunflower oil, and then some salt.'

Look at this, it's a bubbling, lovely mass of gorgeousness.

The yeast goes into the potatoes.

Nice.

You can do this recipe with all white flour but we found that a third wholemeal

-gives it a nicer texture.

-Yes.

Put the yeasty potatoes into the flour,

-and stir it all into a ball.

-A little at a time.

Just to make sure that you get it all the way through.

Do you think you'll get a dough out of that? Or shall we put some more water in?

No, I'm going to get my hands in to feel of it,

-which is a key to baking as well, isn't it?

-Oh, it is.

-Oh, yes, I am.

-Coming together, isn't it?

It's coming together with a little pressure. That, that's interesting.

Now you put it on a nice clean, dry surface, and knead it.

And that needs to be kneaded for about ten minutes.

You begin to smell the bread,

and smell what it's going to be like when it's cooking. Oh, it's fabulous.

Lush.

Cover that with cling film.

But we need to put this somewhere out of the draught,

for an hour to an hour and a half,

until doubled in size.

# Wonderful wonderful potato bread

# Going in the top box

# Da da da da da. #

There's worse views.

-Oh, you could sit here for hours, couldn't you?

-You could.

-Aye.

RAIN PATTERS

That yeast's got to be ready, dude, let's check it out.

If it's not ready now, we're going to have to start again.

-Yes.

-Oh, yes!

-Look at that.

So that needs to be knocked back.

And now we commence the German potato bread plait.

This is one of those young ladies from the bierkeller.

She's getting ready for a night out.

# I will plait my locks! #

'Making a plait, rather than a plain loaf creates more surface area,

-'and that means more crust.

-Top tip that.

Look at that. Done with the dexterity of a ballerina.

Fantastic. We're adding onion seeds here, but you could use poppy,

sesame, or anything that takes your fancy.

So this needs to rest for about half an hour,

and it will, indeed...

..rise back again!

'Just enough time for us to swot up on Germany.

'Would it surprise you to know, Kingy, that they have over 10,000 bakeries here?

'No. Not in the least, actually.

'But, here, you're not on Mastermind now, you know.'

Look at that.

It's a very, very soft bread. It is a chewy bread, it's lovely.

I'm just going to dust this with wholemeal flour,

so it's got like a nice rustic-y feel to it.

I don't need to be frugal. Me holes have blocked up in the rain.

That's looking great, isn't it?

-POSH ACCENT:

-Simply pop into a pre-heated oven about 200 degrees Celsius,

and bake for 30 to 35 minutes until golden and cooked through.

-Oh, isn't it?

-Oh, it is.

'I don't mind the rain

'when I know there's a slice of warm potato bread coming my way.'

Oh, how fabulous. The smell of freshly baked bread drifting across the Mosel in the rain.

-Look at this, Dave.

-That's a hell of a handsome loaf.

-Ah, man.

-Beautiful, isn't it?

-Isn't that beautiful?

-It's soft.

-It's how it should be. That's potato bread.

-Let's wrap this up.

-I don't want to eat it here, man, it's pouring.

-Come on, mate.

'Because the great thing about potato bread is that it keeps.

'Which is fantastisch,

'because tomorrow we're going to rustle up a very special...

-'And very German...

-..accompaniment to our kartoffelbrot.'

'Here, dude, how far to the hotel? I'm getting wet in places I can't really talk about on telly.

'Oh, stop your whingeing. You can't be a British biker if you're worried by a spot of drizzle.

'Drizzle? I'm not, man. I really hope it cheers up tomorrow.'

'And the following morning...

-'It has. It's cheered up!

-Did we have them fooled, Kingy?

'Nah, dude, not for a minute.'

-The sun's come out.

-Dude, we're dry.

Today should be a good 'un, Si.

What I'm excited about today is, we're on a mission, aren't we?

It's our Bakeation. We're going to meet a man called Karsten.

We've been banging on for years about, take your time making bread.

The longer it takes to prove, the better the bread.

Anyway, this fellow, he's taken it to whole new levels.

It's slooooowwwwww baaaaaaakkkiiiiiiiinnnggg.

'And heeee's oooonly a feeewww miiiles down the rooooaad.'

This is it, mate, I think.

-Look! It's even got a pretzel door handle.

-That's it.

IN GERMAN:

-You must be Karsten. Hello, I'm Si.

-Hello.

-Nice to see you.

-Hello, Karsten, I'm Dave.

We know that you do the most fantastic selection of breads.

I do my best. I make it like my grandfather have.

He learn it in 1918

and I make the most of my bread like he made it.

'Germans absolutely love their bread.

'With over 300 varieties nationwide,

'they certainly appreciate a quality loaf.

'But, as in the UK, artisan bakeries are disappearing in the face of competition from bakery chains.

'So it's up to master bakers like Karsten to keep the tradition alive.

-You do everything slowly, don't you?

-I do everything with time.

-Slow baking is my favourite, it's my opinion.

-With the heart.

Yes, with my heart. I make all of my bread with time.

What's the longest that you would leave bread to prove?

The longest time is this one. It's called wurzelbrot.

Wurzelbrot is back to the roots, I call it.

It's only water, salt, yeast.

-And it have 48 hours time.

-Wow.

-Two days to prove.

-Two days to go up.

-Yeah, yeah.

And I have make it now in this moment and, if you want, you can see how.

-Yes, please.

-That would be fantastic.

-If you have a little bit time.

-Oh, yeah.

-Yes, we do.

-Oh, wow.

-So at first we clean our hands.

-Oh, yes.

'I feel like a surgeon.

'Well, you look more like a sailor, dude.'

-He looks good in a hat, doesn't he?

-I tell you, I feel professional.

'We want to see that dough that's been proving for two days.

'In the fridge?!'

-Wow!

-Oh, wow!

In England, your mother always says you put the bread by the fire.

-Yes. And for this long time it must little bit cold, not too warm.

-Yeah?

'Ah, that's clever!

'The cooler temperature means the dough can prove for longer, and the taste matures.'

-Whoo-ooo-ooo!

-Will you get... It's the same, innit?!

It moves the same. It's wrong, isn't it?

-Is it heavy?

-Yes!

Now I want to see something from you.

-Urrrrr!

-Go on, my lovely. Go on, muscles!

-Wow!

-Ah, look at that!

Well, we've got this fine creature. But what's next, Karsten?

So we must make "love" from it.

-Loaves.

-Loaves?

-Yeah.

-I thought you said love there!

# Love is in the bread! Everywhere I look around... #

THEY WHISTLE

THEY HUM

-# Love is in the bread... #

-Come on!

Let's make the dough, stop messing about!

-You sing as well, don't you, Karsten?

-Ohh.

HE SINGS IN GERMAN

-'So we've heard a song.

-And we've had a lovely waltz.

'Now it's time for the dough to perform.'

Ah, it's got the twist.

So, it's your turn.

'This dough is just flour, water, salt and yeast,

'but it's that extra ingredient - time - that makes it so soft.'

You must take it like a girl.

Come with me, my darling. How about dinner? What about a drink?

Oh, I love you. Ooh! There you go.

'Leaving the dough to prove longer

'means Karsten has to plan well ahead to ensure there's fresh bread

'for his customers' breakfasts, or fruhstuck.'

Nice one, Kingy.

Oh, crikey.

It's difficult to handle because it's so soft and wonderful.

It's like caressing a giant slug.

'So doing things slowly doesn't mean doing things easily.

'Hard work it might be, but it's mightily rewarding.'

-If we get that in the oven we can have a cup of coffee.

-Yes.

I love this bit of the show!

'And, despite being two days in the making,

'these finely-crafted loaves take a mere 40 minutes to bake.

'Well, you can't hurry slow baking.'

-Wow.

-That smells good.

-Yes!

-Da, da-da-da, da-da!

Wowzer!

-That's perfect. You want to taste it?

-God, yes, please.

Whooaarr!

That's wonderful.

Oh, that's superb.

-It's soft inside, isn't it?

-Yes.

Soft inside and outside... you can hear it.

-A fantastic crust.

-That's unreal.

-That's perfect bread.

-Yes.

-Karsten, you must be very proud of that...

-Yes.

-..because it is spectacular.

-Wonderful bread.

Wow.

Oh, Karsten, what an experience. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you so much, dude. Thank you.

Well, I think, our German Bakeation, it's got off to a grand style.

-Happy days, man.

-Yes.

-See you, then. Cheers. Bye.

-Bye.

BIKE HORN HONKS

'Happy days indeed.

'We've got panniers stuffed full of bread - our potato bread and Karsten's loaf -

'but we need something to eat it with.'

'And nowt goes with bread quite like soup.

'Kingy, that sounds like a plan.

'So it's bye-bye to the Rhineland, and hello, Oberkirch,

'in the neighbouring region of Baden-Wurttemberg.

'As we leave the vineyards behind and head towards an area

'known for a very different crop.

'Yep. We should be hitting asparagus country just in time for lunch.

'Well, I'm not just a pretty face. It's all in the planning.

'And what I've got planned is asparagus soup.

'Bread and soup. A classic the world over.'

'The asparagus they grow here

'is not the green kind we get at home.

'No, it's white asparagus.

'The Germans call it Spargel, and they go mad for it.'

Wow!

So this is the secret of white asparagus.

Look here.

-See there's one there.

-Oh, wow! Look at that.

'The thing that makes white asparagus white

'is that unlike the green variety, it grows completely underground.

'Harvesting is very hands-on. I can see why it's so expensive.'

Phwoar! It's like finding buried treasure.

We call it the white gold of the Rhine Valley.

That's it, mate. I don't want my olive grove now, or my vineyard,

I want an asparagus farm.

'Let's knock up our very own spargel, or white gold soup.'

Do you know, mate?

-I'm so pleased that we've waited to eat this bread till today.

-Yeah.

Because it was miserable in the rain yesterday,

and now we've got some of Karsten's bread to go with

-the ultimate, freshly picked white asparagus soup.

-Rrrh! Rrrh!

'First, peel the asparagus from the tip to the cut end.

'Cut off the tips and keep them to one side.'

'This really is the Beluga caviar of the vegetable world.

The shafts of asparagus

cut into two centimetre lengths.

The soup starts with melting some butter in a pan,

and sweating down one shallot.

Beautiful.

Now just sweat that shallot down very gently,

we don't want it to colour because the soup will taste ghastly.

'Add the cut spears to the sizzling shallots,

'and sweat them down for another five minutes.'

Now, in an ideal world, we would have a pan of chicken jelly

that's been rendered down from a chicken boiling for about four hours

with a mirepoix of celery, carrots, onions and whatnot.

But, we haven't. So we've got some water...

And... one of those stock things.

So, hey, we're in a field, that's what we're doing.

Bring to the boil.

Simmer for about 20 minutes until the asparagus stalks fall apart.

'Now this is the clever bit of the soup, and, very German.

'We're going to thicken it with egg yolk, creme fraiche

'and a splash of sherry,

'which is nice, because sherry goes really well with asparagus.'

'But before we add the thickener, we've a couple more things to do.'

-Look at the colour of that!

-Oh, gorgeous.

We return the pan to the heat, and drop the tips in.

Only cook them for two minutes.

We want that textural difference,

so they won't cook all the way through. Be sweet and crunchy.

Now the time has come, we can thicken it.

Oh, the smell is fabulous.

A bit of salt.

And a bit of white pepper.

With a sprinkling of parsley, that's ready to eat.

I think you're right, mate.

'Ah, soup and potato bread, a heavenly combination.'

-Look at that.

-Oh, that's beautiful, isn't it?

And that was baked yesterday, in the rain.

It's great textured bread, that.

Oh, wow!

-You've got to bake that at home.

-Yeah.

-It's fabulous.

'Mm! Kartoffelbrot's going to make the ideal accompaniment

'to our spargel soup.

'You know, dude, I cannot decide who's the star of this late lunch.

-'This soup's incredible.

-But so is the bread.'

There's something primeval, isn't there, about bread and soup?

Well, this is pretty special soup and bread.

'It just goes to show that the humble loaf

'with the right supporting cast, can be the centrepiece of any meal.

'Mate, you're not wrong.'

BIKE ENGINES REV

'I don't fancy all that washing up, Kingy.

'We've a long ride ahead, let's hit the road.

'Aye, dude, and after that feed,

'I'm good for a few hours in the saddle yet.

'Well, let's hit the autobahn and get some miles under our belts before bedtime.

'Cue Kraftwerk.'

MUSIC: "Autobahn" by Kraftwerk

# Fahren, fahren, fahren auf der autobahn

# Fahren, fahren, fahren auf der autobahn... #

'We're on our way to Bavaria,

'but our next stop is in the Black Forest.

'Autobahns are the pain-free way to eat up the miles in Germany.

'Speak for yourself, mate.

'They're no kinder to your bum than the roads at home.'

Phwoar!

It's about 100 miles into the trip, you know what I mean?

-Yeah.

-It's like that kind of autobahn-rictus.

-Oh, but we've made it.

-Yeah, we have.

# I love to go wandering along the mountain pass.

# And as I go wandering with my motorbike combi... #

To bed.

# Morgen!

# Morgen! #

There's something about this Black Forest air, it gives you an appetite,

Can we have two?

Aah! Woah!

'It's gateau time!'

Dude, just calm down, eh?

-We got dumped on from the heavens, that first day.

-No, you're not wrong dude, we did.

Look at it, the blue skies.

You saw the cherry trees on the way in.

We're in the Black Forest making cake!

I was an altar boy!

I know it's hard to believe, but I was.

'A timely reminder of our own pilgrimage

'to create the perfect Black Forest gateau.

'The Black Forest is a huge area,

'so today we're heading deeper into the Forest, in search of the real deal.'

'Now, dude, you wouldn't go to Italy and not eat spaghetti, would you?

-'You're right. When in Rome...

-We're not in Rome, we're in the Black Forest.'

'Where amongst the trees and cuckoo clocks

'we're sure to find a cafe where we can sample

'THE authentic, THE original Black Forest gateau.

'The B-F-G!'

-Hello.

-Hello.

Kingy, look...

-Schwarzwalder Kirschtorte.

-We're in, mate, get in there.

Can we assume that this is the true home of the Schwarzwalder Kirschtorte?

This is the home, the original place

-where you can get the original Black Forest cake.

-We've done it!

OK. You find it.

-That's it, it's the source, isn't it?

-Yes. Right. OK.

This is the place. Yes.

The cake's here and the forest is there.

Wow! Oh, that's amazing.

Beautiful, isn't it?

Oh, that is fantastic!

'It's layers of rich chocolate cake, lashings of whipped cream...

'And the cherry flavours giving the maximum revs...

'That makes the Black Forest gateau so magical.'

-Oh!

-Oh, fantastic.

'Oh, wondrous. A taste of the real McCoy!'

-Wow!

-The oldest recipe.

-Fantastic.

-It looks beautiful.

-It does. Look at that.

Oh, wow!

That's the recipe book?

How beautifully written.

-Torte.

-Torte?

Well, I think we've truly succeeded in finding

an authentic Schwarzwalder Kirschtorte.

'Oh, this is torture. I'm going in!'

This is so far away from the synthetic Black Forest gateau

-we get in England.

-Mm...

They're full of synthetic cream and air.

Do you know what I'm really surprised at? How light it is.

Oh! This is lovely.

Oh, yabba dabba do!

That's going to be hard to live up to, isn't it?

-Isn't it just? Isn't it just?

-Yeah.

That's it. That's the standard we're playing at now, dude.

Let's go!

'That BFG has certainly exorcised the ghosts

'of the terrible 1970s cake trolley.

'Blown out of the water, dude, blown out of the water.

'As firm disciples of the BFG, I feel our own version coming on.

'Let's immerse ourselves in the cathedral of cakes...

'..the basilica of baking that is the Black Forest itself.

'You mean get lost in the woods before baking a cake?

-'Er, yep!

-Oh!'

DRAMATIC MUSIC

'And here it is, our Black Forest gateau!'

# I love to go a-wandering along the... #

Kingy, it's absolutely brilliant, isn't it?

To think we can cook a Black Forest gateau

in the middle of the Black Forest.

How many people have this opportunity in their lives?

Look at it, the air is so pure, the lichen is growing on the tree.

Well, this is it.

We're going to...

Kingy?

Si?

Si?

Where are you?

Well, just leave us, I would! I only stopped for a wee!

Have you not got a compass?

No, I didn't bring it.

You know where the kitchen is, it's here.

-Have you wiped your hands?

-Yeah.

The Schwarzwalder Kirschtorte.

Forget that 1970s abomination,

-we're doing it proper, aren't we, dude?

-Yeah.

Like many cakes...

and the Black Forest gateau is no exception...

you start with flour.

Believe it or not, Germans don't use self-raising flour,

so you have to use ordinary flour and pep it up

with a bit of baking powder.

This is sugar, that is butter.

That is a spoon.

'So, whilst I bash the sugar and butter into shape...

'I will add some cocoa.

'Don't be tempted to use drinking chocolate here.

'Only pure cocoa will do.'

One...

Too much baking powder, it'll erupt like Vesuvius, then collapse.

Too little, and it won't. Huh!

However, it still will make you pump.

Six eggs.

-Look at that.

-Yeah, beautiful.

And as Dave puts the dry goods in,

all we're going to do is fold that in nicely, with a spatula.

Well, this is one bowl you're going to want to lick out.

Pop in the cocoa.

'Grease and dust two cake tins, then divide the mixture.'

And you can smooth this out, quite easily, with a hot spoon.

Well, maybe not that easily!

'And bung them in the oven for about 25 minutes.'

The cherry filling...

And you do this...

..with some black cherry jam.

Now try and buy the jam that has a lot of fruit content,

because it's quite important this, because it's a very luxurious cake.

You don't want to skimp on any ingredients.

'The sourness of the Morello cherries will be complemented

'by our magical ingredient.'

'Earlier today, we secured our very own forest spirit.

'There are hundreds of cherry orchards around here and Kirschwasser,

a double distilled cherry spirit is vital for any self-respecting BFG.

'They leave the cherry stones in during the distillation process,

'and that gives it a slightly almondy flavour.

'Alcohol and baking, go hand in hand.

'But remember kids, alcohol and biking, certainly don't!'

Now we need to heat this up.

The jam will melt and the cherries will expand

and soak up all that kirsch. Happy days.

-Well, that's the cakes cooling.

-That's them.

The cherries just need to cool and they'll set solid.

-All we need now, is whipped cream and chocolate.

-Brrrch!

The building blocks of a B-F-G.

He-he-he!

'We're going for an ambitious four-layer cake here.

'But don't be tempted to cut your cake until it's cold.

'Or, you'll end up with a pile of crumbs.'

Nice dude. Keep it level. Oh, yes!

'As well as the Kirsch, we also brought a cherry liquor

'to sprinkle over the cake, sending our cherry flavours into overdrive.'

But don't soak it.

That's the jam, the cherries and the Kirsch.

Now in Germany you buy cream, ready whipped.

-'This is the fun bit.

-Aye.

'The bit where the Schwarz, the walder, the Kirsch

'and the torte all come together.'

And if you can see little sprinkles on the edge, all to the good.

'It's easy to think of the Black Forest gateau as a refugee from the 1970s sweet menu.

'You know, to follow a prawn cocktail and a well done steak.

'But before the carveries got their hands on it, the BFG

'was a real culinary classic and ours is the business.

'It's ironic, isn't it?

'Rescuing a cake from its wilderness years, by making it in a forest.'

The final...

finishing touches...

More chocolate.

-Yes.

-He-he!

There we have it. How magical in the Black Forest, making a...

Black Forest gateau.

AKA, the Schwarzwalder Kirschtorte.

-Yes!

-Come on!

Black Forest gateau...

Welcome home!

Oh, man.

-Dude...

-Mm...

That's what you call a cake!

And with all those cherries, that's at least three of our five a day!

'Bavaria and my beer beckons, as we bid goodbye to Schwarzwalde.

'Not so fast, Kingy, Bavaria's still two days away.

'Next stop is Stuttgart, in a region called Swabia.

'Famed as the cradle of the automobile,

-'it's still home of Mercedes and Porsche.

-But we're here to sample Stuttgart's other

'internationally-renowned export.

'A chewy, bready snack that's familiar the world over.

'The pretzel!'

'Its distinctive shape has been the emblem of bakers here

'for the last 700 years.

'So before we do anything, we need to p-p-p-p pick up a pretzel!

'And, I know just the p-p-p-place to get one.'

There we are, the Golden Pretzel,

the bakery of Horst Klinsmann.

Now he produces something really special, doesn't he, mate?

-Yeah, and it's well worth travelling for.

-It is.

-The pretzel.

-But the perfect pretzels.

'When I see Klinsmann, I think footy, not pretzels.

'Bang on Kingy. Horst's brother is Jurgen.

-'The Jurgen Klinsmann?

-Yeah.

Horst is not a goal scoring machine, he's a pretzel-making machine

'and right now the pretzel production line is in full flow.

'And Horst has kindly taken five to show us how they're made.'

-OK.

-Wow!

-Here.

-Ooh!

-This is our bakery.

Pretzels are very important in Germany, aren't they?

They are very important.

-And your pretzels are very famous.

-Yeah, they are well known.

-How many do you sell a day?

-Around 1,000.

-1,000?

-Yeah.

Horst, I can't wait any longer. Show us how to make pretzels, would you, please?

We begin over there with the dough.

'Pretzel dough has more fat than normal bread and it gives it a denser texture.

'They get cracking on it early here, though.'

What time do you start work, Horst?

-Bruno starts at 2.30 during the week.

-2.30?!

-Anton...

-2.20.

-2.20 to be precise.

LAUGHTER

Ten minutes he needs to open his eyes when he gets here.

I don't pay these ten minutes.

LAUGHTER

Does Rudolph ever sleep, then?

-See here is...

-Oh, right.

This is how we divide the dough now into small pieces.

That'll be the perfect portion to make a pretzel.

-For our pretzel, yes.

-Yeah.

'But the thing that makes it a pretzel is its unique shape.'

-Get a wobble on in the middle.

-That's how it is.

-Oh, so the shape's perfect, yeah?

-Yeah.

-And all you do is this.

-Right.

One, two, three...

Gah! Easy!

-Do you want to go ahead?

-No, go on, Dave.

'Long regarded as having religious significance,

'the twist is said to represent arms crossed in prayer,

'whilst its three holes, the Holy Trinity.'

It's not happening for me, Horst.

I'm having a kerfuffle with my pretzel.

'D'oh! I'm having trouble recreating both of them!

'The truth is, this bread is so ancient

'that its origins are lost in the mists of time.

'And my interpretation doesn't make things any clearer!'

I think we have a problem with quality control.

-A big one.

-Yeah.

Wow! That's a good 'un. That's not bad, Horst.

Horst's perfect pretzels,

the Hairy Bikers' assemblage of mutant pretzels.

'The next stage is what turns these pretzels into laugenbrezels,

'a Swabian speciality.'

-We have our pretzels, we have our certain types of beer or certain types of wine.

-Yeah.

But that's special to our region and that's the way, how it should be.

Each region has its character and personality

in the food that it produces and that's such a lovely discovery for us.

What does this machine do, Horst?

This machine has...

..you know, how to say, like waterfalls with sodium hydroxide.

'That's caustic soda to you and me.

'Isn't that the stuff you clean your drains with?

'Not quite. This is a special formula,

'but you still need to bake it to make it safe to eat.

'It'll not only add to the taste, but give the pretzels

'that familiar nutty brown colour, and these cuts add the final touch to a Swabian laugenbrezel,

'and, after baking, give them their unmistakable appearance.'

-Cor, thanks, Horst. We've certainly learnt a lot.

-Thanks, mate. Fantastic.

-Thank you.

Here are your pretzels, the ones you made.

-You mean these are the pretzels you can't sell.

-Yeah, the ones I don't want to sell!

LAUGHTER

And here are two of mine.

So before you eat yours, try these so you know how they should taste.

'They're crispy on the outside, and soft on the inside.'

-Oh, they're fantastic.

-They are.

'The caustic soda gives these laugenbrezels an unmistakable tang.

'But it's dangerous stuff, folks. Leave it to the professionals.'

'Oh, man, I'm all baked out.

'Me too, Kingy. Let's get the bikes parked up,

'and this evening we can paint the town red, Stuttgart-style.

'Does that mean we finally get a beer?

'You'll get a drink, feller, but Stuttgart's all about wine.

'And when in Stuttgart...

'No more biking today, mate,

'it's time for a bit of Stuttgart style.

'You can forget your cheap liebfraumilch,

'they've been making wine here since the Romans.

'There are vineyards all over the place, even in the town.

'It's the local wine we want to be drinking, then,

'and I've read that the place to do it is called a besen.

'Apparently, you have to look out for a broom.

-'A broom?

-All will be revealed.'

-Looking good, mate.

-Well, you look sharp yourself, you know.

That's it. We've found a besen.

Oh, ho!

# One night in Stuttgart and the world's your oyster! #

Come on, let's cut it with the Stuttgart glitterati.

Let's go, dude. Boom!

'Besen is German for broom.

'It symbolises the fact that the winemakers are clearing out their cellars.

'For a limited time they're allowed to turn their homes into pubs

'to clear out their surplus wine stock.

'Now that's the sort of housework I could get used to.

I'm glad we spruced up a bit.

Oh, yes. Well, I mean, it's very...you know.

Oh, this is lovely.

'Hey, they brush up well, these Stuttgart folks.'

I dunno. But it's waitress service, it's got to be, hasn't it?

-Oh, hello.

-Hello.

-Hello.

'Oh, this isn't the waitress, Dave, it's the boss.

'Tania and her mum run this particularly swanky besen.'

-We'd like whatever the house has to offer.

-The house wine.

Yes. Well, we have a very good Riesling, which is a white one.

You can try one, they're very good.

And with a besen, you have the wine in the house?

If you don't have your own wine, you don't open a besen.

'Well, if it's good enough for the locals, it's good enough for us.'

-Prost.

-Prost.

-Oh, that's good wine.

-Ho, ho, ho!

It's dry, it's fresh.

And it pulls the back of your palate as it should.

And it doesn't give you a headache, because it's a very good wine.

How did the family arrive at having what is clearly a fantastic,

busy, popular besen?

We had a vineyard.

I mean, we drink wine but not that much, so...

And we had this... we have this house.

We had this house. We had the possibility to invite people.

-Yeah.

-And so my mother started to open up the besen.

At first it was all friends, and then it went on and on and on.

-It's quite a chic affair, isn't it?

-Yes. Well, we have a little bit of a different besen.

We look for the flowers, we look for the candles.

The wine is a little bit more expensive, but...

In the old days, were the besens quite rustic, quite domestic in people's houses?

Where it really comes from is that the besen is in the living room.

Mama is in the kitchen, cooking. Papa is bringing the wine

and daughters are clearing up the tables. So we do everything here, it's all homemade.

And is it particularly a seasonal thing or...?

You're only allowed four months a year.

So you're not allowed to go full season.

What's the last night in a besen like?

Is it a time of sadness, or do people just get outrageously drunk?

The last night is always...

It's always a big...ah, brilliant.

Let's empty the bottles.

-Can we come back?

-Yes, please.

-Prost!

-Prost!

-Prost!

I love Germany.

The wine last night was lovely, but I've come to Germany

for baking and beer, and I'm still waiting for the beer.

Not long now, Kingy. We'll cross the Bavarian border later today,

and stay in Nuremberg,

a stone's throw from your special pint.

But you wouldn't want to be drinking that perfect pint, dude,

without a little nibble to go with it, now, would you?

Agreed. Which is why I've arranged for us to borrow an oven en route.

But it's no ordinary oven, it's a communal village bakehouse,

in a little place called Winterbach.

It looks like the locals have fired it up for us.

-Hello, Heidi.

-Hello!

-I'm Dave.

-Nice to meet you.

Now, this is cooking our beer snacks in style, isn't it?

What a great place this is.

-I can show you all the things.

-Thank you.

-Oh!

-OK, come in. Here's the fire.

It's just as well we've got changed, man, because...

It's a hot day, a hot oven. Phew!

'And you can't just turn on a wood-fired oven, you know.'

'No. They take a bit of graft to get it up to temperature.'

'And people have been grafting away using these ovens

'since the time of the Romans.

'This one is a couple of hundred years old,

'and the townsfolk still keep up the tradition of communal baking.'

So Heidi, these are community ovens, aren't they?

Yes. You can... each people can take it.

It's great, isn't it, German hospitality?

We keep getting given food, coffee, wine.

-And now we even get the use of an oven.

-Yeah. It's just been superb.

'And in that oven, we'll be cooking bierocks, meat-filled bread snacks.'

They're just the thing when you've had a couple of beers and want something to munch on.

We'd better get on with the job.

Yep. Pretty straightforward stuff.

'The thing that makes bierocks different

'to something like a Cornish pasty

'is that they're encased in bread and not pastry.

'It's actually more like an all-in-one hamburger.'

'Another fine German invention.'

Mix the dry with the wet, thus forming...

A dough.

'As always, with yeasty dough, the hands-on approach is the only way.'

The usual business now, just knead the living daylights out of it...

For about ten minutes.

Voila.

That'll be through the roof in an hour,

-which gives us just time enough to make...

-The filling.

Here are the ingredients for the filling.

And one of Germany's favourite ingredients,

and this is a mighty fine looking cabbage.

The president's brain is missing.

This needs the outer leaves trimming off, quartering, coring

and slicing finely.

It's a culinary building block, chopped onion.

Sweat that onion down, and we'll add the beef to this. Look at that.

I wish we had communal ovens at home. Imagine.

-I'm building one round our house.

-People of Rowlands Gill,

you're welcome to knock on the door and use his oven anytime you want.

-You heard it here on the telly.

-If you can get past the electric fence,

the five dogs, the searchlights,

the machine gun turrets, the tank,

the small armoured vehicle and 15 armed guards.

If you come, you're more than welcome. Do you have communal ovens in Barrow,

or do you keep burning houses down?

Funny you should mention that. Remember what Heidi said to us?

The houses are made of wood and in King William's time in the 1840s,

they kept burning their houses down. Everybody had a wood-fired oven.

So what he did, he banned them and he built communal ovens.

There's two in this village.

And he made people just go to the centralised communal oven,

so they wouldn't burn their houses down,

and it became rural tradition in this part of Germany. And it's mighty fabulous, too.

The meat has browned, the onion is translucent.

Time to pop in the cabbage for five minutes,

and let that sweat down as well. Cabbage is great, we eat loads of it in our house.

It's good for you, it's full in high fibre,

and it's great for your colon.

Mmm.

Water goes in first. Then we add the salt. Cracked black pepper.

Bring out the savoury. The white pepper.

-It makes you want to drink more beer.

-It's food you want to eat when you're smashed.

They're very easy to make up,

and they're very easy to stick in your gob in a oner.

Ground cumin. Now we've got three types of seeds -

caraway seeds, fennel seeds and cumin seeds,

just to kind of temper up that wonderful ground cumin.

And we just give this a stir.

The Germans aren't really famed for ramping up their spices.

But we definitely are.

And all of those dry seeds are going to plump up.

Just like you when you've been in a bierkeller for a fortnight.

Getting plumper and plumper. It's a great word.

Plump!

Now, we let our filling cook away for another five minutes

and then set it aside to cool.

That's cold.

Yes.

Let's build bierocks!

I'll get the dough.

That's enough dough for about 20 bierocks.

Put a bit of flour on.

We just knock it back a little bit. Very gently.

-Portion that up into 20 pieces.

-Three, four...

eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve...

Why didn't you just cut it in half,

then the two halves into little halves, then that into two...

and you would have got 20 exact ones?

Well, I know that now, don't I? Look at that. It'll be all right.

-Look, one, two...

-It's all over the place.

-They're not. Look. Look.

-Don't keep handling it.

-There, look. Look.

So, this makes about 26 small bierocks.

Oh, he's a one, isn't he?

Bierocks appear to be as well-travelled as we are.

They're thought to have originated in Eastern Europe, maybe Russia.

But now the bierock has cousins all over the world.

They're big in America, and in Argentina they have a bierock fiesta.

But whether it's calzone in Italy, empanadas in Spain,

or the pirogs we baked in Norway...

Chances are, you'll be washing them down with the local tipple.

We're not going to brush these with egg or milk

or any sort of glaze, we're just going to bake them like this.

But when they're cooked,

-you brush them over with melted butter. Mmm!

-Ho-ho!

Hey-hey! To the oven.

-Kingy?

-What, mate?

-Oh, very nice.

-Lovely Heidi!

-Hi, Heidi. What do you think?

-Very nice.

Do you think they'd be better baked with the seam side down?

Then we get a nice finish on the top.

'Whilst we do that, the oven's made ready for our Pilsner pebbles.'

'It's not the fire that'll cook our bierocks, it's the heat in the bricks.'

Flame or no flame, it's still proper hot in there.

Fingers crossed. Mate, this is an oven that we definitely don't know.

It's always a surprise.

Well, we love a surprise, but fingers crossed.

Yes! Oh, they look great, dude.

Bierocks!

Yes! Oh, look at them, man.

That's what you call a beer blotter.

'And as promised, the melted butter.'

-Shall we?

-Yes.

-Oh, they're good.

-Are they?

Oh, it's great.

Mmm! Oh, yeah!

'That searing hot wood oven's made a great job of our bierocks.

'And with all that stored up heat on tap,

'Heidi's also managed to turn out quite a spread.

'That's why when the wood oven was king, baking had to be an all-day event.'

Thanks, Heidi.

Thanks, Heidi.

See you! Bye-bye!

Hey, Dave, that was a long baking session.

And it's still 140 miles to our overnight stop in Nuremberg.

But we'll be in Bavaria! And you know what that means.

Yes, mate.

One more sleep till beer time!

Nuremberg, centre of the gingerbread universe.

Last time I was here, it was Christmas

-and you couldn't move for the stuff.

-I know, but it's not Christmas now. So we'll just go and find a beer.

You know what they say, Kingy, the best things come to those who wait.

Let's get our heads down

and save that special beer for our last day tomorrow.

CHURCH BELLS TOLL

-Hark! The sonorous tones of a Sunday morning.

-Oh, yes.

Even with your eyes closed, you couldn't be anywhere else. It appears

that the Germans take their Sundays seriously.

Where is everybody?

Well, everything else might be closed,

but I know that at our final stop

in Windischeschenbach, there's a pint waiting for us.

Shouldn't that be a litre?

Half of all breweries in Germany are here in Bavaria.

And this corner of Bavaria has developed its very own beer tradition.

Zoigl!

-It's beer brewed by the local community.

-And whether it's in a front room or the village hall,

they get together to drink it too.

Now, that's the kind of community I want to be part of.

And to take part, we need to seek the star.

No, it's not the star of David, it's the zoigl star,

and it's been the symbol of brewing here since the Middle Ages.

One triangle symbolises the three elements of brewing -

fire, water and air.

And the other, the ingredients - malt, hops and water.

And the age-old way brew houses combine these ingredients

makes for a beer unique to these parts.

Well, that's about as far east as we can get, we're nearly in the Czech Republic. Where are we?

-Windischeschenbach.

-Oh, you can get some ointment for that, you know.

-Tell you what, though, dude,

I've got a terrible thirst on.

Oh, me too. If you can't get a good pint here, where can we get a drink?

And we're only here for the beer, after all.

Absolutely. But first, we do have to look the part.

Ya-hoo!

-Ha-hey!

-Look at that, hey.

A fine pair of hairy 'uns, dressed up as Bavarians.

Here, where's my bierocks?

-I don't know, but they're damn cosy, your knees.

-They're good, aren't they?

Here, Dave, that sky's not looking a good colour.

These lederhosen aren't fancy dress.

They are to Bavaria what the kilt is to Scotland.

And about as waterproof.

Well, we've followed our star...

And I can hear a band.

We've made it, mate. Let's get in there!

-It's absolutely buzzing, isn't it?

-It's fabulous, isn't it?

-Tell you what,

Germans know how to have a good time, don't they?

-You're not wrong. Look at them. The place is jumping.

-Well, we're not far behind. Come on.

Hello, gentlemen.

'I've got the bierocks!'

'But first things first.'

Wa-hey! Oh, beer.

Oh, here we go. Danke schon.

Bavaria!

'We've travelled a long way for this.'

'Oh, worth every mile, Dave. Every mile.'

-Prost!

-Prost!

And like in pubs at home, if you want to know the form,

ask the locals.

That's good beer.

The first time is the best time.

Cheers! But it's worth a second go as well.

The beer is not just something for drinking, but it's a feeling.

-Oh, yeah.

-You come in, and you get this special feeling.

The zoigl feeling, we call it.

-The zoigl way of life.

-It's beer,

-it's music and companionship, and something good to eat.

-The complete package.

That's the special thing about zoigl.

This is what we've found about our travels through Germany. There is a real community feel,

and the hospitality in Germany has been fabulous.

You can come in, you can go to a table, you can sit down,

you can start to talk.

-No problem.

-Gentlemen, would you like to try the bierocks?

Don't forget the band, man.

The band love them.

'These will hopefully help keep the music and the drinks flowing tonight.'

They are good with beer. They're spicy, aren't they, and salty.

I can taste the pepper.

'Beer, food, good company and the band

'have pulled out all the stops to make us feel at home.'

BAND PLAY "LAND OF HOPE AND GLORY"

We have travelled some miles, haven't we?

Hey, dude, and what miles and what fabulous hospitality.

Oh, we've had amazing food, amazing drinks,

and we've had the most amazing welcome.

Our trip has been wunderbar!

From the rainy Mosel hillside and our kartoffelbrot...

To Karsten's slow baking and our asparagus soup.

And the Black Forest. The BFG, a classic reclaimed.

Then there was Stuttgart, pretzels and our night at the besen.

And we couldn't have come here without Heidi's help with the bierocks.

The whole country has been a revelation.

Germany, I raise my glass to you.

Do you know what? This beer's worth travelling for as well.

And I'll tell you what, I'm having a very, very, very nice time.

-Prost!

-Prost!

-Prost!

-Prost!

Next time, we're pushing into eastern Europe.

We're drawing back the old Iron Curtain...

And letting in the light on some eastern European baking.

-We'll visit Slovakia and Hungary.

-And finish up in Romania,

at a party hosted by my in-laws.

So why not join us for the next leg...

Of our fantastic Bakeation!

-Our German pronunciation needs a bit of work.

-But if you've been inspired

to master your Schwarzwalder Kirschtorte...

And your kartoffelbrot, go to:

Follow the links to the Open University.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd