Sweet Tooth Hairy Bikers' Best of British

We believe that Britain has the best food in the world.

Not only can we boast fantastic ingredients...

There we go! Look at them!

..outstanding food producers...

Look at that!

..and innovative chefs...

..but we also have an amazing food history.

-Brilliant!

-Ah, wow!

Don't eat them like that. You'll break your teeth.

Now, during this series,

we're going to be taking you on a journey into our culinary past.

Let's get cracking.

-We'll explore its revealing stories...

-BOTH: Wow!

And meet the heroes that keep our food heritage alive.

It's a miracle what comes out of the oven!

..and, of course, be cooking up a load of dishes

that reveal our foodie evolution.

Look at that. That's a proper British treat.

We have a taste of history.

-Quite simply...

-BOTH: The Best Of British!

# Lollipop, lollipop Oh, lolli, lolli, lolli, lollipop #

Today's show is a tribute to our nation's wonderfully indulgent sweet tooth.

We've got a little treat in store.

A bit of a sweet treat, haven't we?!

As a nation, we've got quite a sweet history.

After all, we've been eating honey since Prehistoric Times.

And we Brits have got a lot to celebrate.

We've got the beloved British boiled sweet, in all its many gorgeous forms.

We've got fantastic sweet recipes

that are as much savoury as they are sweet.

Over the years, we Brits have earned a bit of a reputation for our sweet creations.

We're off on a trip down Memory Lane to try some right now.

We're heading to Somerset and...

One of the most dramatic places in Britain, Cheddar Gorge.

But we're not here for the cheese, are we, Kingy?

No, we're not! We're here for something slightly sweeter than that, mate, aren't we?

Yes, a celebration of the nation's sweet tooth.

And I must confess, you know me,

I like a bit of sweetness every now and then!

Over the centuries, regional sweetie makers have sprung up across the UK

to satisfy people like us,

each producing their own unique recipe,

as well as some good old national favourites.

We're about to meet two such people, our Best of British food heroes Mark and Martin

from the Cheddar Sweet Kitchen.

# Sweets for my sweet Sugar for my honey...

# I'll never, ever let you go... #

-BOTH: Hello.

-Good afternoon. Welcome to the Cheddar Sweet Kitchen.

Hello, Martin and Dave. Pleased to meet you.

'Some of the sweet-making methods Martin and Mark use

'date back from as far as the 19th century.'

We've been going for 100 years now, through five generations of the family.

We've got lots of recipes that have been handed down through the generations.

'They're helping to preserve some truly British traditions

'and we salute them for that.'

We still believe that the old-fashioned way is the best way.

The nostalgia, it's overwhelming. The flavours...

Maybe when you're a child, your taste buds are intense. It takes you back!

'And Mark and Martin are about to take us back even further.'

Today, we're making some brown-striped mint humbugs, the original ones.

When I was kid, I always wondered, "How do you get a stripe in your humbug?"

I think that's about to be revealed.

We're going to cook up, then.

'Mark's humbug mix contains water, brown and white sugar and glucose syrup

'at a whopping 155 degrees centigrade.'

If you just stand back slightly... That is your boiling-hot molten sugar.

'He's adding caramel, dextrose and peppermint oil to his hot mixture

'and then he gets to work - fast.'

-I can smell the mint.

-You can smell it now.

-Yes, it's beautiful.

Aw, that's incredible. What a lovely thing to do!

-It's like a sheet.

-It doesn't look real, does it?

No! It's like molten madness!

Within a couple of minutes now, we'll be able to start handling it.

I love things like this. The humbug is a great British classic.

We've had them since we were children.

This is how you make humbugs!

It's a mystery until you see it done.

-You don't know how the stripes are going to end up yet.

-No!

-I have no idea!

-Neither do we, so don't worry!

-Oh, really?

We cut it in half and that will then form the centre of the sweet

-and this piece will form a casing, the outside layer.

-Right!

That, believe it or not, is going to be your stripe.

-It's surreal, isn't it?

-It is. It's unbelievable.

It's a process we actually call sugar pulling

because we're going to pull the sugar on the hook.

-You can see the colour changing.

-Yes!

-That's amazing!

-Fantastic, isn't it?

It is only air bubbles getting in the sugar now which change the colour.

'Look at that! I think I've died and gone to sweetie heaven.'

And there, we've got the changed colour of the sugar.

That's the first secret out of the way.

We need a base on which to lay the stripe.

We're going to stretch the sugar out into a long rope,

just zigzag the sugar backwards and forwards.

-That's fantastic.

-There's your stripes.

-SIMON LAUGHS

-And then that goes on the top?

-No.

We need to make sure these stripes end up on the outside,

so we turn the whole thing upside down.

We'll drop that into the middle

and then we can just wrap the whole thing up.

-There's your humbug.

-The world's biggest humbug!

THEY LAUGH

This is what we call a bat roller.

-You can see how it thins as it comes out.

-Yes.

-This is how we size the sweets.

-Yes.

We'll still finish off the sizing by hand.

-I had no idea.

-I had no idea either. It's brilliant.

-Absolutely amazing.

'Time to suck it and see, as they say.'

-You cannat get a fresher sweet than that.

-No.

-Oh, they're mega!

-That is the taste of nostalgia, isn't it?

-Mm!

While the humbugs wait to be bagged up,

we're off to see where Martin and Mark sell the sweets that they make.

Come in this way, lads. I'll show you what many believe to be

the largest selection of old-fashioned boiled sweets in the country, all made on the premises.

Ahh! I'm in heaven!

All those names that you know and love -

-mint bull's-eyes, chocolate limes...

-Black and rasps!

Mint shrimps. That's something I've read about and never had!

There were originally made for the miners in the Somerset Coalfields.

-In the North East, it was always the black bullets.

-Black bullets, yes.

South Wales were the Welsh mints. Here, it's always been the mint shrimp.

-Freshened your mouth up, didn't it?

-It kills off the dust and the dirt in the atmosphere.

-Super-sour blueberries.

-Cola cubes. Sherbet lemons!

# The candy man can... #

'Ah, man, we're like two kids in a sweet shop!

'Hang on. We are.

'Well, two very big kids, anyway.'

Sherbet pips, man! You cannat whack them!

Live the dream. I'm full of mint shrimps!

-Are you there? In your head... Close your eyes.

-I'm there.

-You are four years old.

You have shorts on.

You still have an attitude, but you are full of sherbet pips.

He's there. He's living the dream.

When people come here, especially elderly people, what is it that takes them back?

-Things like the humbugs, er...

-'Sssssh! You didn't see that.'

..lots and lots of sherbet lemons, which people love.

The other thing is the fizzy fish sweets...

'Come on, don't tell me you wouldn't be tempted.'

..which is like a sherbet pip, but it's got the fish shape.

That in itself is tremendously popular.

# Well, now, sugar in the morning

# Sugar in the evening Sugar at suppertime

# Be my little sugar And love me all the time #

Ah, man!

Our Si's going for a world record. Thankfully, it's time to go back next door.

We're about to make one of our personal favourites - peanut brittle.'

For us, this sweet is a wonderful old-fashioned treat that dates back to the 19th century,

and this time, we're allowed to make it ourselves.

-Do you want a go at adding the peanuts?

-Yes.

-There is a little technique.

-Right.

-You can take it in turns.

-Yes.

That's all the peanuts weighed out.

-There's about five kilos of peanuts there.

-Brilliant.

Mm-mm!

'The peanuts are being added to a mix of water,

'sugar, glucose, vegetable oil and a tiny bit of emulsifier.'

-When it starts to get thick, you'll need to lift the end of the paddle and turn it.

-It's thick.

'It's nice to see Dave doing the hard work for a change, isn't it?'

And don't flick the hot toffee on your thighs.

I'm liking the look of this.

Look at that. Nut brittle.

'It's over to Mark to do the professional bit.'

-You can always tell a craftsman by how easy he makes a difficult job look.

-Yes.

-I'm not a craftsman, though, am I?

-You are.

-Thank you.

Wow!

I might break it into smaller pieces for you.

'Hey, we get a go again!'

Pop it onto this table and you'll need to start thinning.

'By thinning, Mark means flattening the peanut brittle out as quickly as we possibly can,

'as this hot mixture will cool and harden within minutes.'

Everyone has different techniques.

'Do you know, it's not as easy as it looks!'

-Psst! Dave!

-What?

This is chewy.

It's now starting to cool down quite rapidly.

And it will become brittle.

BOTH: Oh!

There. THEY LAUGH

You'd die if you worked in a place like this, Mr King.

I couldn't... I couldn't...

I couldn't even speak!

-It's not a good thing to put me in somewhere like this!

-No, no.

I've been to some of the finest restaurants in the world,

but peanut brittle, you cannat whack it, man!

'I've got to get Kingy off this stuff before he keels over in a sugary stupor.

'I think it's time to spread the nutty love!'

Ladies and gentlemen, flavours don't get better than this.

-Fresh-made nut brittle. It's beautiful.

-Thank you.

Thank you!

-What's your favourite sweetie from when you were little?

-Peanut brittle.

-Is it really?

-What about you?

-I like sherbet fountains.

-Yes.

That liquorice stick!

-Strawberry bonbons.

-Dolly mixtures.

-Flying saucers.

-Coconut squares.

I think the whole celebration about our British sweet tooth

is very important

because it's about raising the profile

of the great British boiled sweet.

And we're so proud of it.

And I hope you lot are, too,

because you've clearly got fond memories.

We've still got great artisan sweet-makers

like Martin and Mark.

-We can still have a taste of the past.

-Yes.

-And it's a taste we love.

And it's really, really, really good.

Ah, yes... A delicious taste of sweet memories.

Us Brits have been driven by this flavour sensation for centuries,

ever since sugar was invented, in fact.

# Sweet dreams are made of these

# Who am I to disagree? #

Did you know that "sweet"

is the only taste we humans are born desiring?

Perhaps that's why we love it so much.

We love the taste and the instant energy hit that you get from sugar.

As a nation, we in Britain consume more than two million tonnes of sugar a year.

That's almost 400 for every man, woman, child.

-# Sugar... #

-That was in the '70s,

but back then we consumed over 200 bags of sugar each every year, more than we eat today.

-Sugar!

-Why did you say sugar, instead of what you really meant?

-Well, it's more refined!

-# Sugar...

-#

Sugar cane was first thought to be formed in Papua New Guinea

more than 8,000 years ago.

It sprinkled west across the world, sweetening India and the Middle East.

Finally, it reached the Med,

where it was grown and refined for Europe.

And when we got a taste for it, we were hooked

and would pay any price.

In Medieval England, sugar was so expensive

it was called white gold.

In today's money, it cost nearly £50 for a teaspoon's worth!

But for sugar to become an everyday household ingredient,

it was going to have to become a lot cheaper.

It crossed the Atlantic to British colonies in the Caribbean,

which turned out to be the perfect place for it to grow.

Now comes the sour bit of our sweet story.

The plantations needed labour, and thousands of slaves were forced to work

to feed our appetite for sugar.

Merchants flooded the market.

With cheap sugar pouring in, we were all getting hooked on everything sweet.

But the slavery it relied on left a bitter taste in the mouth.

Mercifully, it was abolished in British colonies

in the early 19th century.

We had to find other ways to feed our sugar habit,

so the price was kept down by improved mass production

and a new source -

sugar beet.

We slice the sugar beet. The next stage is called diffusion.

-It's a bit like making tea.

-Ooh, put the kettle on!

The sugar is then dissolved in water for purification, evaporation

and finally concentration!

# I want candy #

Now we are ready to make tons of sweets!

We were now tempted by a mind-boggling variety of sweets

in allsorts of shapes, sizes and flavours.

But for a while, we had nothing to suck on!

MAN: This is the week when ration books come into use.

In the '40s, sweets got rationed.

War restrictions meant children were deprived of their humbugs and pear drops.

It was more than ten years before the restrictions were fully lifted.

Talk about a sugar rush! Crumbs.

# I predict a riot

# I predict a riot #

Since then, we've gone on to become the biggest sweet-eaters in Europe,

and it's been a riot!

And you know, indulging our nation's sweet tooth

doesn't mean our treats can't be savoury,

as we're about to prove on our next stop,

our Best of British kitchen.

Just because you've got a sweet tooth

it doesn't mean your life's confined to biscuits, puddings and cakes.

No, it doesn't. You can have sweet, savoury and sour.

Wonderful, wonderful combinations, you see.

-It's like yin and yang.

-Throughout life, there's been double acts, hasn't there?

Bill and Ben, Burke and Hare, Bonnie and Clyde, Si and Dave, sweet and sour!

But this sweet and sour is sweet-and-sour chicken.

'A dish which may have originated from China,

'but as us Brits are very good at assimilating recipes and making them our own,

'this sweet-and-sour chicken has been transformed into a British belter.'

We start with some cornflour. We put one...tablespoon of cornflour

and two tablespoons of pineapple juice.

And you mix it together and that acts as a bit of a thickener

for our sweet and sour.

What I'm doing here is, I'm making the sweet-and-sour sauce.

That's going to be to thicken the sweet and sour, but this is the sauce itself.

'Put 300 mil of pineapple juice into a bowl

'along with two cloves of crushed garlic

'and 25 grams of finely grated ginger.'

It's about mise en place, getting everything prepped,

because by the very nature of what it is,

cookery from that part of the world is pretty quick.

So take the stress out of it

and get...prepared.

-I'm going to put plenty of ginger in, Kingy.

-Lush, aye.

-It's about balancing when you do sweet and sour.

-It is.

It's got to be that... I always liken it to sherbet.

The flavour of sherbet, to me, it's zingy, but it's still sweet at the same time.

And that's the effect you're looking for.

We want it quite chunky,

so one, two, three.

Again... Straight down the breast.

One, two, three, four. Lush.

Right. I've got my pineapple juice with the garlic and the ginger in that.

Now we start to build up the big-hitting flavours.

I've got soy sauce, white wine vinegar and ketchup.

'To the sauce mix, add two tablespoons of white wine vinegar to give it a sour kick.

'Then add one tablespoon of dark soy sauce for saltiness

'and three tablespoons of ketchup for sweetness.'

Nice.

'And we're not going to stop there. This sweet-tooth sauce

'has two tablespoons of soft brown sugar in it, as well.'

And a big chug of black pepper.

And just to zip it up, some chilli flakes.

-I like mine quite perky. Are you in a perky mood?

-I'm perky!

-All right, two pinches, then.

-That's another great double act...

-BOTH: Pinky and Perky!

-They were!

-Brilliant.

-I used to have that record. What was it?

They were chart toppers.

-HE SQUEAKS

-They were really quick.

'For our sweet-and-sour chicken, we need half a small pineapple cut into chunks,

'one medium onion in rough wedges,

'one red pepper,

'one green pepper, both deseeded and cut into chopstick-friendly pieces.'

Now, sweet and sour's nothing new.

There's was a medieval recipe.

Now, the sweet part of it, it's either sugar or honey

and that's mixed with red wine vinegar and dried fruit.

This medieval sweet-and-sour recipe was made with rabbit or chicken

and was not that dissimilar to the popular sweet-and-sour chicken dish we're cooking today.

It goes back 500 years, this sweet-and-sour flavouring.

And very often we do that,

when you use tomatoes, you'll put a pinch of sugar in and it's balancing it off.

-Thai food's the same, isn't it?

-Yes.

Thai food, you'll balance with heat and cool and textures, as well,

smooth and crunchy, sweet, sour, it all builds up.

-I think we're about ready to build up proper, aren't we?

-I think we are.

-Right.

Heat some oil...in a pan.

Right, we want this nice and hot,

so let's put the banging gas ring on.

All I'm doing is putting some more cornflour...

..in me bowl.

'And then I'm tossing me chicken chunks in the flour.'

-It feels funny!

-Doesn't it send you funny, cornflour?!

Doesn't it drive you mad?

-It's like when you rub polystyrene on your shoes.

-Ah, God!

-Have you ever done that?

-Yes!

Imagine chewing cotton wool.

-Now, look at that wok.

-That's what we want.

-Oh, aye.

-That's a hot wok.

-That's wok around the clock!

We put the veg in. Watch them bounce.

There's quite a lot of oil there, but it'll all work out in the end.

We've got quite a lot to fry, actually.

I'll be careful because I want another day out of this shirt.

Hi-ya!

What's your favourite sweet-and-sour combination, Kingy?

D'you know what? Lemon juice and honey.

-All right.

-They're two really natural flavours

that complement each other fabulously well.

Then when you put garlic into that and a little bit of olive oil,

you've got the most fantastic, simple, sweet-sour, savoury...

Lovely! Love it!

-Over salads, really good dressing. What's yours?

-I love pad Thai.

You know when you've got the lime juice and the palm sugar and the peanuts

and it's done as a dressing on top of the noodles

which, by nature, are sweet and sour anyway.

-Palm sugar's such a lovely flavour. It's caramel-y, isn't it?

-Yes.

These need about two or three minutes because they're quite big.

They still have plenty of crunch in them.

But I want a bit of brown on the onions.

'Our nation's love of combining these two flavours

'really came to a head in the 17th and 18th centuries,

'with our love of sweet-and-sour preserves and chutneys.'

-They've just caught now, Kingy.

-Lush.

-Time for Mr Chicken.

-That's us.

Just fry this till the chicken's coloured.

We're going to put the sauce in next

and poach the chicken in the sweet-and-sour sauce,

so don't worry about it cooking through.

Even with sweet things, though, with sweet sweets,

-you have bittersweet, don't you?

-Yes.

Lime goes great with chocolate, chocolate limes.

-That's sweet and sour.

-I love that!

-And it's funny, because you forget about certain combos.

-Mm.

And you just think, "Ahh!"

Dark chocolate... Dark chocolate's bitter, bittersweet.

And also, orange and chocolate.

You've got citrus, which is quite sharp, then you've got the chocolate.

-Lemon drizzle cake.

-Yes.

-A sweet cake, sharp as you like.

You soak the sugar in lemon juice on the top. Again, it's that sherbety thing.

-How are we getting on?

-It's browning up nicely.

-Lovely.

-Right!

Time for the pineapple to match with the chicken,

in that marriage, that perfect duet of sweet and sour.

HE HUMS "KUNG FU FIGHTING"

Oh, lovely.

And the pineapple, because of the sugar content,

it's going to take on a little bit of colour, and caramelise and I love that!

-Yes.

-That's such a nice thing.

-That's nice.

-Time for the sauce!

It'll fire off.

All right.

We'll just cook that now for about four minutes.

When that's up to temperature,

we add the thickening agent, the cornflour and pineapple juice.

And there we have it, all bar a bit of seasonal adjustment, sweet-and-sour chicken.

The sweet-sour combination has affinities with certain foods,

especially rich meats.

You find it in lamb with mint sauce, duck with orange sauce

and chicken with pineapple sweet-and-sour sauce.

The thickening agent.

We'll just let that bubble away till it's thick.

We're going to garnish this with jauntily-sliced spring onions.

There we go, it's ready.

This would be great served with jasmine rice, wouldn't it?

Nice big chunks of chicken.

-Look at that! That's a beautiful thing.

-It's all right, isn't it?

-Chopsticks? Traditional?

-Oh, yes.

BOTH: Mm.

It's sweet and it's sour.

It's juicy. It's crunchy, it's soft.

-The ginger comes through lovely.

-Oh, aye.

What I love about it, when you do something like this,

be it a sweet and sour or Chinese lemon chicken at home,

when you use real ingredients, not sauces out of a bottle,

it's really easy to make your own sweet-and-sour sauces.

If you do lemon chicken, it's really easy to make your own lemon sauce with real lemons.

And it just tastes like really, really good food.

And look how long it took us to make it. Not that long.

Because you've cooked it quickly, that chicken's really juicy.

-And I think the balance of the sweet and sour is perfect.

-Mm-hm.

And I love this sort of food because...

..all the veggies...

..still maintain a little crunch to them. Fantastic.

Long live sweet and sour.

It's the sweet dish that knows it's a savoury!

'And you know, pork or shrimp would also work very well with this sweet and sour sauce.'

'If you fancy it, you can replace the white wine vinegar with apple cider vinegar

'and make it that bit sweeter.'

Next on our sugar-coated trip down Memory Lane,

we're heading off to the British home of a traditional favourite.

We're off to Pontefract in West Yorkshire.

Every year, they have a street festival to celebrate a world-famous English sweet

that has been the lifeblood of the town.

Liquorice... I love it!

They do allsorts here, you know, not just sweets.

There's liquorice ice cream, liquorice cheese, liquorice pork pies,

and to wash them all down,

how about a brew of liquorice beer?

I don't fancy that, thank you!

I'm not a big fan of the black stuff but I know a man who is.

Liquorice has been part of my life, like a stick of Blackpool rock.

But it doesn't say "Blackpool rock", it says "Pontefract liquorice" right through me

and it's been my life and I've loved every minute of it.

Well, Tom Dixon, at 92,

is still dedicated to keeping Pontefract's liquorice heritage alive.

He's the last surviving member of a family that's grown it here for generations.

My great-grandfather built the house, where I live to this day, in 1810

and he bought the land round here just to grow liquorice in.

When I was a young chap, all these fields were covered in liquorice.

On a night, my friends used to come down

and we used to play Indians and Cowboys

and we were always chewing liquorice.

As you know, liquorice is a laxative,

so we never needed syrup of figs on a Friday night.

Too much information, Tom!

But liquorice wouldn't just grow anywhere.

You need a good couple of metres of rich topsoil for the roots to grow down,

and Pontefract is perfect.

A fact first discovered 500 years ago

when monks grew liquorice here for medicinal purposes.

But unlike most medicines, people love the flavour

and it became popular just for its acquired taste.

This is a stick of liquorice root. It's the sweetest thing on God's earth.

It is 50 times sweeter than sugar.

Chew it and it tastes absolutely beautiful.

Queen Victoria loved it. She was addicted to it.

My great-great grandfather used to send her a bunch of liquorice

to Osborne House on the Isle of Wight every month.

The only problem with it is, if you eat so much,

it causes very, very high blood pressure and it rots all your teeth.

They tell me that the Queen had very high blood pressure

and she lost all her teeth!

The liquorice fields not only supplied Queen Victoria with her favourite treat,

they also inspired a poet laureate.

John Betjeman came down here in the '50s,

and he came into this field here and he wrote the poem The Liquorice Fields At Pontefract.

'In the liquorice fields at Pontefract

'My love and I did meet

'And many a burdened liquorice bush Was blooming round our feet

'Red hair she had and golden skin...'

Love in the liquorice fields, eh?

If John Betjeman could come here today, he'd not see a stick of the stuff.

The last commercial crop was grown down here in 1970,

because it became un-commercial.

From setting the plant, to being able to harvest the liquorice

take seven years.

We were surprised to learn, however, that they still make liquorice sweets in the old factory

where Tom used to be a liquorice boilerman.

But today, they use imported liquorice and modern machinery.

They still produce the world-famous Pontefract cake,

a round sweet, proudly displaying the town's name.

Nice to see that you're still making Pontefract cakes after all these years.

We're still making them, Tom.

People from all over the world ask for Pontefract cakes.

-These are how you do them today, is it?

-That's right.

-In my day, they were all handmade.

-Really?

There were hundreds of girls all stamping them.

Each girl could turn out an amazing 3,500 cakes an hour.

Look at the speed of that!

Nearly as fast as today's machines.

It's been a privilege to see it, David.

-I'm chuffed to death!

-OK.

-Thank you.

Thankfully, there are people like Tom,

with a passion to keep their local food traditions alive.

I am asked to go round all the local schools

and talk to the children about their heritage, liquorice of Pontefract,

and I always tell them, wherever you go in the world,

once you say that you come from Pontefract,

people will say, "That's the town where they grow liquorice and make the cakes."

So it is very important that it is passed on

to the children to the next generation.

Keeping our nation's traditions alive

is one way to keep us Brits sweet.

Now for our final stop on our candy voyage of discovery.

We want to bring you a taste of excitement and flavour.

Oh, and a little sugar rush!

-People have varying degrees of sweet toothness, don't they?

-They do.

-If you had a sweet-tooth-ometer...

-Where would you be?

-Where would this one be?

-12.

-And a half, I think!

-It's outrageous! It's brilliant!

As well as sweet treats, it's the comfort factor, isn't it?

You've got to accept that sometimes sweet treats may be a little fattening,

a little bit unhealthy.

Standing on the diving board of self indulgence, this one's for you!

It's a big jump! It's fat, it's friendly, it's sweet, tasty.

It is our pecan and caramel cheesecake.

People may think the cheesecake is an American creation,

but historical references would appear to prove otherwise.

After all, the earliest actual recipe for a cheesecake

is found in The Forme of Cury,

one of the oldest known instructive cookery books in the English language,

dating back to the 14th century

and believed to have been written by the master cooks of King Richard II.

So it would seem cheesecake was discovered before America itself.

-Shall I do base and you do caramel?

-Yes!

-Let battle commence!

-OK!

Gird your loins, undo your corsets,

here we go.

'To make the caramel for our cheesecake,

'put 200 grams of caster sugar in a pan, together with six tablespoons of cold water,

'and heat gently until the sugar dissolves.'

'To kick off the base mix, take 100 grams of pecan nuts

'and blitz!'

I need to melt a block of butter.

This is for mixing in to the pecan nuts and my biscuits to make the base.

The pecan nuts go into a bowl.

If this wasn't luxury enough,

the biscuit of choice is the beloved chocolate digestive biscuit.

I love 'em! I love 'em!

-Are they milk or plain?

-These are milk.

But this recipe would work equally well with plain.

'Stick 150 grams of biscuits in a blender.'

Right, pulse.

I do want some texture in this. That's why I'm being quite careful.

Lovely! Put that in a bowl with your nuts

and cover with just-so melted butter.

-Ahh!

-And give that a stir.

So that's the pecan nuts whizzed up, the digestives and a slab of butter.

Put this into the tin and press.

Now, you don't need to bother buttering the bottom of the tin.

-There's quite enough there already!

-Yes!

'Meanwhile, take 150 grams of white chocolate, break into squares,

'and place in a bowl over a pan of boiling water to melt.'

-You've got some chocolate left over.

-I have.

-Cook's perks.

Press this down into the bottom with your hands.

This is a great, great cheesecake base.

And really press it quite well in.

Don't let it creep too much up the sides.

'Back with your sugar syrup, try not to be impatient, either.'

You do want it to go a deep colour, but don't do it quickly.

Look, you can see how the heat's just going through it

and it's starting to colour up that lovely golden.

-It takes eight to ten minutes.

-It does.

And, depending, actually, as well, depending on the temperature of the sugar,

if it's a freezing cold day, it could take a little bit longer.

That's the base. We pop that in the fridge for about an hour until it's set solid.

See how it's going that lovely deep, golden colour.

# Golden brown, texture like sun #

'As soon as the caramel is rich in colour like this,

'it's ready to remove from the heat.'

Whatever you do, don't touch this! This is hotter than a hot thing.

It will make your skin flake off.

Don't worry about dribbles. Dribble is a good thing.

-It is.

-We want a random drizzle,

a bit like a Jackson Pollock painting.

It's where Blue Peter meets Fanny Cradock

in a blaze of sticky-back plastic and sugar.

-I think we're there, mate.

-I think we are, mate.

we're going to use a bit more than half of this to make some caramel crumbs.

That gives us the caramel.

The rest of it, the nice lattice bits,

we're going to break off and they'll be like sails that sit as decoration on top.

The chocolate's beginning to melt. Don't stir chocolate when it's melting.

Wait till it's just about there.

Look at this. I love this. Is that not magic?

-Isn't it brilliant?

-Is that not fabulous? Look at that.

'Break off 125 grams of the gorgeous hardened caramel

'and blitz into crumbs in a blender.'

Quite beautiful, aren't they?

-It's the inside of Crunchie bars.

-Yes.

-Don't you want to...?

-Not really, no, thanks.

-Let's build a cheesecake!

-BOTH: Whoo-hoo!

Just in case there wasn't enough sweetness there, just add a bit more sugar!

'75 grams, to be exact.'

Hey, Kingy, now's the time to pump up the fat.

Here we go! It has a platter of its own!

There it is. Full-fat soft cheese. Stand by, arteries.

You could use that low-fat stuff, but you've gone this far down the line!

-Fat goes in.

-HE WHISTLES

-And some cream.

-THEY GIGGLE

Honest, this is epic. This cheesecake will serve 12 to 15 slices,

so if you look at it like that, it's not as bad as it looks.

Now, the chocolat!

I will empty it out of the bowl!

But it's that caramel crumb that gives it the flavour and the character

that is the pecan-caramel cheesecake.

Don't worry if there are bits of chocolate on the surface.

It's best to have bits than burn the chocolate.

Those bits will melt when you cook the cheesecake.

As it's a baked cheesecake, it contains eggs.

It has to contain eggs

-or it would be cheese soup.

-It would.

'For this cake, use four whole eggs and two additional egg yolks and add to your blender.'

Now, put that onto your processor.

Blitz.

-Look at the colours.

-Aww, wicked!

Te caramel gives this cheesecake the most wonderful caramel hue.

IN POSH VOICE: Oh, it's a hue of caramel! Ohh!

-Look at that.

-Ah, man! Ohh!

Let's make the cheesecake!

'Get your chilled base and place the tin in the middle of a large piece of foil.'

'Bring the foil up to size to create a foil ball around the cheesecake

'and place on a medium-sized roasting tin.'

-Look at that.

-Ahh, man!

-Golden brown.

'Now pour your cheesecake filling on top of your base

'and surround the cake tin with boiling water,

'roughly two centimetres up the sides of the tin.'

Right, put this into a preheated oven, 160 degrees Celsius,

for about 45 minutes.

'After three-quarters of an hour, turn off the oven

'and leave the cheesecake inside for it to cool for a further hour.'

'Then grab the mighty cheesecake and stick it in a fridge

'for a minimum of three hours and a maximum of 24.'

'Whether your cheesecake is one of the baked or unbaked varieties, it doesn't matter,

'they all need to chill in the fridge in order for them to set.'

-How is the mighty beast?

-Look at this!

-And how's the cheesecake?

-Absolutely beautiful.

Absolutely beautiful!

Ooh, that's set, hasn't it? Look, no cracks.

'Gently release the cheesecake.'

We don't want to crack this little fellow.

'Tighten the edges with a palette knife

'and place your cake on a serving platter.'

Ohh! It's gorgeous in its magnificent.

And now it's ready for decorating.

I'm going to whip 300 mils of double cream.

'Whip the cream into soft peaks.

'Meanwhile, break the reserved caramel into shards, ready to scatter on the top.'

'Then, using a dessert spoon,

'shape the cream into big fluffy clouds over the cheesecake.'

White, billowing folds of cloud.

Time for bling.

'Just place the caramel shards across the top at jaunty angles.'

-Oh, wow.

-It's special, isn't it?

-Mm.

This is proper.

The caramel flavour in a cheesecake is absolutely gorgeous.

-There's no two ways about it.

-Ah, yes.

You bring that to the table after dinner

and everybody around the table is going to get that view.

It is absolutely beautiful.

There's more than enough in that to satisfy

the most critical, greediest sweet tooth on the planet.

-And come back for more.

-Aye.

DREAMY MUSIC

You can see why people have been tempted by a cheesecake for centuries!

This cake would befit a royal table as much as ours.

It truly is the best of British.

From home-grown liquorice to mint humbugs,

from peanut brittle to sugary hugs...

Over the years, us Brits have been driven by our sweet tooth

to come up with some truly classic national treats.

If you want sweet dreams, you've got to live a sweet life

and we Brits certainly know how to do that.

Visit...

..to discover some amazing facts about the history of food.

And to find out how to cook up the recipes in today's show.

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