Episode 12 Paul Hollywood's Pies & Puds

I've been eating home-made pies and puds since I was a lad.

Now I want to inspire you

to rediscover this delicious hearty food.

Hello and welcome to Pies And Puds.

Today I'll be making some of my favourite traditional recipes

with the UK's finest ingredients.

Here's what's coming up.

'I head for the hills of Scotland to take the bull by the horns,

'as I go in search of buffalo meat.'

Wow, these are much bigger than I thought they were going to be.

'I set three jam experts a challenge to make the perfect preserve

'for a very special cake with a whole lot of heart.

'I'm joined by the masters of Stateside sweetness,

'who show me how to rustle up a tasty and towering layered treat.'

We have taken the apple butter

and we are just laying it between each of the layers.

Visually, it's... It's huge.

THEY LAUGH

'And I fly the flag for Britain when I show them

'how we do things at home, by making a meaty suet pudding.'

And there you have it.

'And all my recipes from today will be on the BBC website.'

Steak and ale pie is an all-time British favourite,

and a recipe I've been baking for years.

But I want to take this pie a step further, so with that in mind,

I headed off in search of the ultimate meaty flavour.

'My quest has brought me to this food show in Dundee,

'and I arrived to the welcoming whiff of sizzling steak,

'or buffalo steak, to be precise.

'I'm here to discover whether buffalo can maximise the meaty taste

'of my pie, and farmer Steve Mitchell reckons it can.'

-Steve.

-How are you doing?

-Nice to meet you, mate, how are you? Now, I want a proper beef.

-OK.

I've never actually cooked with buffalo before.

Is this the sort of range you're looking at?

It looks exactly the same.

Probably one of the biggest advantages of buffalo

is we're not trying to re-educate,

we sell the same cuts as you would get with beef.

It's actually healthier, the equivalent of half the fat of beef.

'That's all very interesting, but the proof will be in the eating.

That's the buffalo.

Lots of flavour.

Texture's there, it's got a bite to it, but it's not chewy.

It's just got more to it, more meat to it.

'I'm sold, but what will the folk of Dundee make of the buffalo?'

Excuse me, would you like to try this? Take a toothpick.

Oh, that is delicious, isn't it? That's lovely. Really nice.

-That's really very nice.

-It doesn't taste quite beefy, but it's nice.

It's got more flavour. More seasoning to it.

I thought the buffalo was very tender and very, very tasty.

And it's tender, more tender.

'So, it's a thumbs up for farmer Steve's buffalo meat.

'Well, from the people of Dundee, at least.

'But tasting the meat is one thing - I want to visit Steve's farm

'so I can see exactly where it comes from.'

One thing you're going to have to watch out for,

they have rather large horns.

You always have to keep your wits about you.

I made that fatal mistake exactly this time last year,

and ended up spending four weeks in hospital as a consequence!

-Really?

-Really.

I'm just... I think I'm busy, actually, Steve.

-Lovely meeting you, mate.

-You, too!

City boy!

'Staring fear in the face, I head to Clentrie Farm near Kirkcaldy,

'where Steve keeps a herd of 350 water buffalo,

'which he has grown from 100 animals which he brought over from Romania.'

We're obviously going to...

-Rather than walking, we'll take the quad bikes.

-Yeah.

-There's a bit of a good one.

-Yeah, enjoy your ride, mate!

Oh, I am getting the rotten one, am I? Let's go.

Wow, these are much bigger than I thought they were going to be.

-These are females?

-These are breeding cows, yes.

'These are big animals living in a big landscape.'

I mean, now I've got a feeling of how these animals live.

It's so hilly as well. You've got such lush grass.

We don't feed any concentrates at all. It's purely grass based.

It's all slow and easy for the buffalo.

Nothing can be done in a hurry, right down to how you herd them,

to how you look after them.

But the result is a really, really tasty product.

'But I'm not here to look at the scenery.

'I'm after buffalo meat for my pie

'and Steve is going to make me earn it.'

So, what have you got me doing?

-If you are feeling brave enough you can help with tags on calves.

-OK.

-Have they got horns? Not yet?

-The calves have little horns,

but the horns you have got to watch out for are the mums' horns.

They are quite big.

We are tagging their babies so they could be a little bit protective.

Fantastic. That cheers me up no end. Lead the way.

-Let's go.

-'Steve wasn't joking.

'As soon as I arrive, there is

'a protective mother who seems a little too keen to meet me.

If you can bake a scone, you can put a tag in a calf's ear, I promise.

'So says the man who ended up in a hospital recently.'

What we're going to do here is,

obviously we have got the cows on this site and the calvies here.

We let one cow round at a time,

let it tell us which calf is hers.

'All we've got to do now is separate mother from calf.

'And when I say "we", I mean "they", of course.

'Have you seen the size of those horns?'

It will hurt a little bit.

But it will be over very quickly, OK.

'I am a natural at talking bull.'

With that one's mum having that lovely bit of silver hair

in its forehead, do you think we should name this one after you?

-Would you be happy for that?

-Absolutely, yeah.

-Silver Fox, do you think?

-Go on! All right.

You have to look after this one now.

-You'll have to come back.

-I'll be its godfather, yes.

Come on then, Silver Fox.

-This could be a prime breeding bull, you never know.

-It could be the one.

It's showing plenty of promise as a youngster. A good calf.

Perfect.

I've got a buffalo named after me!

Joining me all the way from Puddledub Prairie is Buffalo Steve.

-Hello, Steve. How are you doing?

-I'm good.

-How is the Silver Fox?

-He's doing well.

-I have got my bill for maintenance with me.

-Don't, don't.

No, he's a wee character, actually.

Right, what I am going to do is a steak and ale pie

with that flaky lid that I think would work quite well,

that butteriness that comes through.

'To start things off, warm your pan, then add some oil and butter.

'I've already coated the meat in flour which will help it brown.'

Look at the way this meat is colouring.

It is cooking a lot quicker than normal beef.

What reason do you think that is?

I'd certainly put that down to the fat.

-The fact it is a bit leaner as well.

-It is a lean cut.

Don't forget, the fat would melt on a normal beef

and that would obviously coat it and protect it, almost.

But this hasn't got that. The brown is beginning to happen.

-You may call that caramelisation?

-Caramelisation, that's the one.

You're getting all fancy on me now, aren't you, Steve?

You've been down here too long.

'Take the brown meat out of the pan.

'Then chop a carrot.

'And add some shallots, mushroom sauce,

'and a bit of brown sugar to help with caramelisation.

'Then some tomato puree and a drop of ale.'

If you come over here a second, I'll cook this out a bit.

-You smell that?

-That is lovely.

-That is lovely, isn't it?

That is going to be the heart that goes inside the pie.

It's a shame you haven't got smellovision.

It's absolutely delicious.

'Pour in the rest of the ale and some beef stock into the pan.

'Then add the buffalo, a few sprigs of thyme, season,

'and bring to the boil. Then reduce the heat

'and simmer gently for about an hour.'

Right, the next job for me, this is the pastry bit.

I'm looking forward... Don't be letting me down.

I'm not going to.

'For the pastry, get your bowl of flour and salt

'and add a squeeze of lemon juice.

'Add some lard and butter.

'And break it up into crumbs using your fingers.'

This is what we call a flaky pastry.

It's made like a puff pastry, but in a different way.

A, I am using lard, B, I am putting clumps in rather than

sheets of butter, which I'm going to show you how to do now.

'Add just enough water to bring the dough together.

'Work a little, and pop your dough back into the fridge.

'For flaky pastry, you need to turn it four times.

'Then, you're ready to roll.'

So imagine this is the dough that you rested.

And all you do is you roll your pastry out

and then with the rest of the butter and the lard you cover 2/3rds of it.

You then fold it over and then fold it again.

That's what we call a turn.

Now this dough's had four turns. I've just given it another turn.

Right, I'll get that filling out of the fridge.

'Pour the filling into the pie dish.

'Add a line of pastry around the outside rim to help the lid stick.

'Lay your dough over the top and, using your hands,

'bind it to the rim.

'Trim off any excess with a knife

'and crimp the edges with your fingers.'

So that's your basic pie.

I bake my pie at 200C for about 35 minutes.

Now over here...that is a proper buffalo and ale pie.

Great quality meat, can't wait to tuck in.

And it's even decorated with horns.

'This hearty, wholesome pie will bring comfort

'and warmth to any mealtime.'

'When American bakers David Muniz and David Lesniak first met,

'it was a match made in cake heaven.

'They've since brought their mutual love of all things home baked

'over to the UK

'and now run a highly successful all-American style

'bakeshop in West London.

'Today they show me something rather special.

'A six-tier American apple stack.'

Wow. It's big, it's bold.

There's plenty of textures, plenty of colours.

Where did this passion for baking come from?

Neither of us were really trained. It was just something

we started doing as a pastime.

Whereabouts are you from in the States?

I'm from New Jersey, just outside New York.

And he grew up in Mississippi.

-There's bit of a difference there.

-Deep south - absolutely.

So, when you came together to come up with this idea,

was it fascinating to see how things morphed?

It was a challenge to mix the two,

because, from the south, we're always correct!

So it made it very challenging for David to incorporate

-any of the north in there.

-Yeah.

They also like everything extremely sweet. The sweeter the better.

-Generally, what do you think about British baking?

-Funny enough,

when we started researching where our recipes came from and the stuff

that we call heritage recipes back home,

a lot of them have their roots here, and it's stuff we've brought over

and changed over the years.

-Now, I believe you're going to bake an apple cake?

-Yes, an apple stack.

That's something else, that.

So, this is my kitchen.

-Be my guest.

-Absolutely. Thank you.

'Over to David and David to get the stack started.'

So just like any cake we're going to start with

creaming our butter and sugar.

And our sorghum is one of the sugars we are going to be incorporating.

What's this?

It's sugar cane, but just like maple syrup is tapped from the tree

and then pasteurised. Have a taste of it.

Wow, it is a cross between black treacle, molasses, and malt extract.

-Yeah.

-Sort of a blend between all three.

That's incredible.

'The Davids start their cake batter by creaming together butter and

'brown sugar in one bowl and mixing the dry ingredients separately.'

So what have you got inside there now?

What we've done is creamed the butter and our sugar together

and we've combined our salt,

our rising agents and our flour have all been combined.

And then we're going to do all of our liquid together.

In this case we use a lot of buttermilk

and it's very much like a muffin mix.

-You just want to do it...

-Till it comes together.

-Right.

'Next, David adds the sorghum to the creamed butter and sugar.

'Next, in go the dry ingredients - the whisked egg

'and buttermilk mixture.

'Meanwhile, I've been sidetracked by some transatlantic treats.'

-So what's that?

-That's what we call our snickers bar.

I thought it would be sweeter. I've had a lot of sweet stuff.

But I like that, that's delicious.

'The six separate cake layers are baked at 175C for 10-12 minutes.

'David assembles the apple stack

'with layers of home-made apple butter.

'Fruit butters are sweet pastes

'and can be made from virtually any fruit.

'Think peanut butter, just with apple or pumpkin.'

Would you serve it normally as six stack, or is that something

-you decided to do?

-Classically, it's served as a six stack.

'After seeing David and David rustle up their all-American

'apple stack, I want to give them a true taste of Britain.

'So I'll be back later with a traditional savoury treat.'

Smells fantastic. It's a lamb and potato suet pudding.

Jam tarts, Victoria sponges, roly-polys,

none of them would be the same with out the strawberry jam filling.

But I wanted to know which strawberries make the best jam.

'And who better to help me find out than the experts. Meet...

'..my team of jam makers from East Malling Women's Institute in Kent,

'each with years of experience in perfecting preserves.

'They've accepted my challenge to find the finest British

'strawberries for their jam,

'but from three very different places.

'Hilary's going for an everyday option.'

Paul's challenged me to make some strawberry jam using

supermarket basic range strawberries.

And I'm here choosing some strawberries that have been

grown locally - about 10 miles away.

They're nice, uniform size, which is what I want.

Good smell. Means they're nice and fresh. Should be ripe enough.

There's a huge selection here. And my problem is choosing the best ones.

Meanwhile, Elaine's hoping that posher produce means better fruit.

Paul's asked me to get a really good strawberry,

so I've come to a local farm shop.

I'm looking for some strawberries that are not too ripe,

because if they're too ripe, they won't set. And that are not unripe.

Good size, not too big.

But not too small either because if they're too small,

then all you're going to get is a load of seed in your mouth.

I think this one looks about right.

'While Hilary

'and Elaine are shopping for the best of British, Natasha's taking

'a scientific approach to her strawberries, with a visit to

'East Malling Horticultural Research Centre,

'where they use the appliance of science to develop

'the strawberry of the future.'

The strawberry industry in the UK has been a real success story.

Of course, we've got the climate,

which is very conducive to strawberry growing.

Lots of moisture to give that real sweet sugar/acid balance.

So I need the best strawberries to take away with me today.

So which do you think would make the best jam?

This is one of our latest selections.

It hasn't even got a name yet.

This isn't even out in the supermarkets yet.

The only dilemma we've got is, as these are grown commercially,

we've got lots of fruit.

With this one, we've only got ten plants.

-It gives us a very small crop.

-How much can I take away?

If you're able to make jam with this small amount,

then you're welcome to take it.

I'm sure Paul would rather quality than quantity.

I shall take those with me and see what we can do with those.

It's in short supply, so it's got to be special.

'Reunited in the kitchen, it's time for the ladies to

'get cracking with their conserves.'

'Time to put those strawberries to the test.

'And in the spirit of fairness,

'I've asked the ladies to use exactly the same recipe.'

-Cleared for action.

-I can hear that squelch!

That's brilliant.

I like to play with my food.

-It's a lovely colour.

-Mm.

'Now the ladies are going all hi tech with this fancy device.

'It's a jammy gadget, I guess.'

Oh, I'm at 60.

This is a refractometer,

and it measures the level of sugar or percentage of sugar in the jam,

and if it's about 60%, then it should be at a set.

Mm.

'So, with all that measuring, pouring,

'mashing, boiling, and, erm...

'testing, the jams are ready.'

-OK. Three pots of jam. There we go.

-We're all done.

'So, will it be jam made of strawberries from the supermarket,

'the farm shop or from the future that I choose for my pud?

'Let the jam judging begin.'

Joining me now are our jam-makers Elaine and Natasha.

Where's Hilary?

She's on holiday in Croatia.

-She's really, really sorry that she couldn't come.

-It's not good enough.

-It was booked already, so, yeah.

-It's not good enough.

So, can you tell me about the jam that we've got here?

How difficult is it to actually make strawberry jam?

It's quite difficult, actually,

because strawberries don't set very well in jam,

so you've got to make sure that you've got the right kind of

strawberry to get it to set,

otherwise you end up with something that pours.

If you want a sauce, you know, you can easily end up with a sauce

instead of a jam.

Can we start with Hilary's while she's not here?

Means if I say bad things about it she can't hit me.

We'll do it for her.

Now, this was the one made with the supermarket strawberries.

We all used the same recipe,

so it should give you a good idea of the strawberries.

So, it's the same recipe? OK.

-It's a very loose set.

-It is.

Hilary has a refractometer and it was all more than 60%, all of our jams.

The texture's OK, it's a bit watery. It's quite peppery, I find.

-Almost a spice.

-Yeah.

-Do you know what I mean?

-It's very sweet.

Her strawberries are very soft and they produced a lot of juice.

So if we move on to yours, Elaine.

Now, this one was made with the farmers' market.

I expect a good quality strawberry.

Yes, they were really nice strawberries.

It's a bit thicker than Hilary's, to be honest. It's got more to it.

But it's still what I would call quite a loose set.

Definitely more tart than the first one. That was definitely sweeter.

-The strawberries were.

-And it was the same recipe.

-Yeah.

So it comes down to the strawberries.

-OK, finally, let's try yours, Natasha.

-Oh, the moment of truth.

Now, this is the one that was the very special strawberry

-that's coming out in a couple of years.

-Absolutely.

-It's so new it doesn't actually have a name yet.

-Is there a letter?

-No.

-Just a very long number.

-Just a strawberry. Oh, it's a number.

So we call it EF45671B.

OK.

-Very different.

-Very, very different.

I could tell when I was making it that it was going to set

-really hard. It just went really quickly.

-Great flavour.

-It's a lot thicker.

-It's very thick.

-Great flavour.

And a good blend of the sweetness as well.

It feels like the tartness of the strawberry against the sweetness

-of the sugar has actually come up with a great-tasting jam.

-Hmm.

Summer on a spoon. I mean, it's...

-I like that.

-..lovely.

-Summer on a spoon.

They only had ten plants,

so they've picked as much fruit off it as they could that morning.

So this is a very, very rare jam.

I'm going to use this for my recipe. And it's called a love cake.

Now, in some parts of the country it's called a courting cake.

It's given to the person that you're with to show them

how much you love them. Now, this obviously using

a very rare strawberry,

whoever I give this to is going to be very special indeed.

'To my bowl of flour I'm adding cornflour to thicken,

'some sugar, a little bit of salt and some lard.'

The reason why I'm putting lard in there, actually,

it helps seal the pastry.

'Then add milk, a little at a time,

'and mix it.'

Now I'm going to get my hands in there and it's getting near the end.

And I would say that'll actually do.

Crush it all in the bowl, begin to fold it in on itself.

At this stage I'm going to work it slightly, but not too much.

What it's actually doing is it's building up the gluten.

You see it breaks very easily,

it almost looks like a hot-water-crust pastry.

And I'm happy with that at the moment.

Now, you begin to roll it out.

Just going to turn it into a rectangle,

a rough rectangle.

Keep on turning it again.

So there you have a very rough rectangle.

I'm happy with that.

'Add some jam and spread it out evenly across the pastry.

'Fold over the top edge and roll it up.

'Seal the ends and taper them off slightly.'

Now, this is a love cake, so what do you turn a love cake into?

There's only one thing you can - a heart.

And there you have it. A heart-shape.

Goes onto the tray.

-Isn't that sweet?!

-That looks sweet.

-Lovely!

-That's lovely.

'Brush with milk and prick with a knife to help the steam escape.

'And pop it in the oven at 200 degrees C for 20 minutes.'

So that is a love cake from the past,

ironically with strawberry jam from the future.

When it's finished, we'll have a chance to eat it.

-I'm looking forward to it.

-Sounds great.

'You'll love this sweet jam-packed love cake.

'It's perfect to share with someone special,

'or to enjoy all by yourself.'

'Earlier, my guests David and David

'brought a taste of the US to my kitchen.'

'Now it's my turn to repay the favour.

'With something traditionally British - a steamed pudding.'

I'm going to make a British pudding with a heritage that

stretches back to the beginning of the 17th century, if not earlier.

This is a lamb and kidney suet pudding with rosemary.

-How does that sound, guys?

-That sounds good.

Probably a little bit nervous about the suet, I totally understand.

-Actually I'm more nervous about the kidney at this point.

-Oh, really?

-Yeah.

-Why? Don't you like it?

-I've never had it.

-So it's all going to be new.

-OK.

'Add your lamb to the flour, which will help thicken the gravy later.

'Put some oil in a pan, drop in the meat and leave it to brown.'

Now the whole thing about suet...

-That's suet?

-That's suet. It's the fat from mutton or beef.

It's the part that's attached to all the waste organs.

You're going back 500 years. And the peasants had animals.

They didn't want to waste anything,

so they used to use the fat to render down the food.

What happens is it seals so it stops the juices from coming out

-because it's a fat itself.

-OK.

'Once browned, pop the meat on to a plate.

'Pour some red wine into the pan and add some chopped onions,

'shallots, and garlic.

'Then add stock.'

-Do you guys like kidney?

-No.

-No, sorry.

-OK. OK.

That's absolutely fine.

So what I'll do is I'll leave the kidney on the suet.

What I'm going to replace the kidney with is potatoes. Happy with that?

-Love potatoes.

-OK. I have got some potatoes in the fridge...

..which at this stage I'll put straight in there.

I'll cook them just for a couple more minutes.

The rest of the time it'll cook inside the suet pastry itself.

Now, you need to leave that to cool down and pop it in the fridge.

Now, moving on to the suet crust, over here I have my flour...

'Into a bowl of flour, add some baking powder to open it up

'and pop in the suet.'

'Roughly chop some rosemary

'and add to the bowl with a little bit of water.

'Then mix it all together.'

OK, there's your basic suet-crust pastry.

So I'm just going to work this together.

Just to form a smoother dough. Rip a piece off.

That one's going to be for the lid.

Now, this is going to be the lining for this. This is the pot.

Again, quite a traditional thing, actually.

'Roll out your pastry, then drop it into a pre-greased pudding basin.

'Then it's onto the filling.'

So, I've worked it enough just to be able to line the inside.

Pop all the mixture into the pudding.

Oh, it smells fantastic.

All those lovely juices.

'Lay a circle of pastry on top, and tuck in the sides.'

-How many will that serve?

-Probably serve a good four.

Because of the growth, it's got the baking powder in,

this will grow slightly and balloon as it steams.

If we put a slight pleat in it,

that goes over the top to allow for that extra bit of growth.

'Tie some string around the rim of the bowl

'and across the top to act as a handle.'

The whole thing goes into a pan with water underneath

and you need to steam this for about two hours.

Let's go over here and look at this one.

This one has been steaming for two hours. Let's lift it out.

And as you know, Christmas pudding's done exactly the same way.

-Oh, wow!

-Wow.

-And there you have it.

That's more colour than I thought, given what you were saying.

It's brought on some colour. Let's see if this guy will come out.

-Are you nervous?

-Yes.

-Oh!

-Oh, wow.

-Wow.

-There you go.

-Wow. Wow, fantastic.

I was a little bit nervous then, but it's all come out in once piece,

and that is a lamb and potato suet pudding.

'Indulge in this British baked classic and let its flavours

'and richness give you a comforting hug.'

Gentlemen, you'll have to wait a little bit longer

-before we can try it.

-Can't wait.

'It's been great to welcome new friends to help me

'create some wonderful dishes today.

'There's Steve, whose buffalo beefed up the taste

'of my steak and ale pie,

'David and David, who made their apple stack cake,

'which I answered with my lamb suet pudding.

'And Natasha and Elaine,

'who took up the challenge to make their tasty jam for my love cake.'

This is my favourite part of the day where we actually get

the chance to eat the food that we've made.

So I think we just need to tuck in, really.

I mean, don't be shy, just take what you want.

I think I'll start with the suet while it's nice and hot.

-I'm intrigued to see how you serve that.

-Look at the size of that!

Don't think we've got a plate big enough!

-We're just putting it anywhere.

-Exactly. Just get it on there.

LAUGHTER

The best plate of food I've ever had.

This buffalo's lovely. It's so tender.

That ale's coming through as well.

-The meat's not as strong as I thought it was going to be.

-No.

-It's very subtle.

-It's delicious and I love your pastry.

I think it could definitely be a new product in the butcher's shops

-very soon. It's delicious.

-David and David, suet?

Good. Really good. And surprisingly light.

Now I want to try it with the kidney.

I want to try that love cake, actually.

-The jam is absolutely delicious.

-The jam's very tart, isn't it?

It is, it's nice.

If it was a very sweet jam it would just be a bit cloying to eat

and it would be lost in the pastry.

-That apple layer cake is delicious.

-And it's not too sweet.

It's been great today

and I hope you feel inspired to cook some of these delicious recipes.

Cheers, guys. To buffalo, strawberries and the US of A.

-Cheers.

-Cheers.

-Cheers, everyone. Thank you.

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