Episode 17 Paul Hollywood's Pies & Puds

I'm on a mission to celebrate the best of British pies and puds.

I hope you'll take inspiration from my recipes

and try some of this tasty grub for yourself.

Welcome to Pies & Puds.

Sweet or savoury, there's something for everyone,

as I show you how to make simple recipes,

many of which create an entire meal in a dish.

Here's what's coming up on the show today.

I give an old favourite, chilli con carne,

a new lease of life,

topped with freshly baked cornbread

and an injection of heat, thanks to the Clifton Chilli Club.

That's got a beautiful flavour as well.

Queen of conserves Victoria Cranfield rustles up

the perfect preserve for my flourless almond and marzipan cake.

-Wow!

-That's got the jasmine. Woo!

And sugar paste perfection.

Cake designer Peggy Porschen shows me some incredible edible flowers

to decorate my delicate strawberry mousse cake.

Would I go through to the next round with that?

Well, I'd give you another try!

And all my recipes on today's show are on the BBC website.

The good old chilli - we British love it.

It's heat and flavour, whether in curries, on pizzas

or even in chocolate.

But there are some people who take things just a little bit too far.

Meet the Clifton Chilli Club.

Based in Bristol, they get together to share their love

for all things hot and spicy.

I'm not much of a heat-fiend myself

so I want to meet them to find out what makes them tick.

What have we got here? What's this one?

It's called an Aji Hot, from the family of Aji chilli peppers.

You get an Aji Lemon,

and other Aji citrus-flavoured chillies.

It has got a real citrus kick to it, actually.

Really good-flavoured chilli,

but citrusy.

The heat of a chilli is measured in Scoville units.

The hotter the chilli, the higher the number.

Your average jalapeno on a pizza

might well be around 4,000 on the scale,

but that's nothing.

These guys wouldn't even look at a chilli below 20,000 Scovilles.

I was always told the smaller the chilli,

the bigger the punch with the heat. Is that about right?

It's not necessarily, but it is pretty much the case.

If you think of a bell pepper, what you'd use to chop into salad,

that's pretty much the starting point.

On the Scoville scale, that's zero.

Then it goes up from there.

So this chilli looks pretty harmless.

Anywhere between 20,000 and 30,000 Scovilles.

That is nearly seven times hotter than a jalapeno chilli.

What are these yellow-green ones?

That's another form of the Aji family.

So, a Mexican chilli.

Spicy and flavourful, but that citrus flavour again.

-Is it quite strong on the Scoville?

-Yes.

-Hot?

-Yes.

-It is?

But the Aji family is sort of 100 to 200,000,

so we've gone up quite a level.

Moving on to this one, you've got the green and the red.

Obviously, that looks more like a pepper

-than it does a chilli.

-Like a sweet pepper.

What is this, then?

That's a Krimson Lee.

Really, really nice. It's very sweet.

It is a chilli, but you could probably call it a chilli pepper.

The Clifton Chilli Club want to put my delicate and refined tastebuds

through their paces and assure me

that there won't be any lasting damage.

This one here, smoked chipotle - what sort of level will that be?

That one is like a nice spicy Daddy's Sauce.

Jalapenos are around 3,000 to 5,000 as a standard.

So here goes - a sauce with jalapeno chilli in it.

That's really good, that. That didn't affect me too much.

Wasn't a serious kick.

The Chilli Club, though, have something stronger up their sleeve.

Chocolate Habanero chilli is the chilli.

A Chocolate Habanero chilli

can be as much as 500,000 on the Scoville scale.

You can taste the habanero in it.

Yeah! It's actually hit...

..the sides and right at the back.

My eyes are watering - is that a normal reaction?

What's happening in your body when this is all happening?

First of all, it's your pain receptors.

That's what gives you the heat, the sensation of burning.

How do you combat eating a chilli,

feeling the reaction of what's happening inside my body?

Milk, any dairy product, is very, very good.

What is does is go in and coat the mouth,

so it instantly tries to cover the nerve endings.

It's like a milky, oily layer straight on there.

This is when Chilli Dave ate a raw, 7-pot Habanero -

over a million on the Scoville scale.

CHOKES

Eating chilli regularly

does allow your tastebuds to acclimatise to the heat,

but I'm not after anything hardcore,

I need something milder to work in my pie.

These are Hungarian Hot Wax.

It's quite a meaty chilli, quite a fleshy chilli.

On the Scoville scale, I would say they're about 2,000 Scovilles, so...

Are these ripe now?

As you can see, some chillies are yellow,

and turning green.

Others are going orangey and red.

From our point of view, use a red one - that's at its ripest,

most mature, most flavoursome and most hot as well.

In terms of heat value in a chilli,

people think the seeds are the hottest part of a chilli.

They're not. Where the seeds join the chilli is like a membrane,

like a pith in an orange.

And that contains all the natural oils of the chilli.

And that's the hottest part.

When chefs deseed chillies,

what they're doing is scraping out the oil and the membranes,

-rather than the seeds.

-Right, OK.

But generally, down here is not the hottest part of the chilli,

-so if you want to try a bit, that's a good place to start.

-OK.

You'll find it's quite a fleshy chilli,

good flavour, and a bit of heat slightly builds up on it.

Mmm. It's a slow burn, isn't it?

-Yes.

-Very, very low.

That's got a beautiful flavour as well.

Very pepperish, sort of chilli pepperish.

I'm liking this more than I expected.

There's flavours going on here, not just heat.

I'm quite enjoying that, actually!

I'm going to take some of these, actually.

Do you mind if I use...? That bit of heat now -

I can feel it building up - is perfect for my recipe.

-Thanks very much indeed, guys.

-Thanks.

-Thanks.

I know this is much milder than what these guys eat,

but I'm stopping here. This will do nicely.

Along with my Hungarian Hot Wax chilli,

my pie has a rich, meaty filling of slow-cooked shin of beef,

topped with an easy cornbread lid to soak up the spicy sauce.

Hot-footing it here from Bristol with the ingredients

for my chilli beef cornbread pie are Jim and Dave. Hi, fellas.

BOTH: Hi.

The chilli boys have brought with them

some of the hottest chillies they know.

This one here is the Dorset Naga,

which used to be a world record holder,

and that's created down in Dorset, as the name suggests.

That one alone is about 900,000 on the Scoville scale,

which is a nice one.

-That's a hot one.

-Yeah.

This one is the Butch T. This rates about 1.4 million Scoville.

The juice of raw chillies can be painful in your eyes or cuts,

so handle them with care.

You're going to have to eat one of these hot chillies. Which one?

One of these super-hots?

Or the other one - the Dorset Naga.

I'll go for the Dorset Naga.

Do you want me to cut it?

-You can cut it.

-Right.

Don't try this at home, folks.

Leave it to the professionals.

-This could be painful.

-It won't be!

I've got mine - this is a Hungarian Hot Wax.

-What's this one?

-About 3,000 to 6,000.

Here we go. I'll try this one.

-I've got some milk if you want some.

-Cheers.

I'm feeling the heat on this one, and you're at 900,000!

It's certainly hot. You get the different heat.

So how are you feeling, guys?

Yeah, good, but that's one hot chilli.

That is one hot chilli -

900,000 on the Scoville is nothing to be sniffed at.

OK, I'm going to get cracking with the cooking.

Over here, I've got a pan, little bit of oil inside.

I'm going to be using shin of beef - it's got more kick to it.

Ironically!

So what we're going to do is add the chilli to this as well,

but not at this stage.

I'm going to put the meat in and brown it off.

When the beef is sealed, I'm allowing it to rest

and re-using the same pan for my chopped white onions...

..oregano...

..tomato puree, garlic

and some unsweetened cocoa powder.

-Bit unusual.

-A bit unusual.

It goes with beef. Game, it goes particularly well with.

But chilli and chocolate?

The whole thing about chocolate is it's not just sweet.

The purer the cocoa, the more bitter it is.

-Then the bitter goes with the savoury dish.

-OK.

Just browning off those onions, sweating them down a little bit.

This chilli is a Hungarian Hot Wax -

mild to these guys, but certainly hot enough for me.

Having tried this raw,

I feel I can take this fella.

-You sure?

-I feel quite cool with this one, yeah.

Next add tinned plum tomatoes

and sliced roasted peppers,

a tin of red kidney beans and beef stock.

Give that a stir. And at that stage,

you can put your meat back in.

And then leave that to cook for about two hours,

just on a simmer. Just pop a lid on it

and leave it alone. All those juices will infuse

and it'll break down. It'll be a magnificent colour.

Earlier, I made a filling suited to my tastebuds.

It only has one mild chilli in it.

I think I need to whack this up for you.

Listen, guys, you're the chilli people here.

I'm making, technically, a chilli con carne with a cornbread top.

Which one do you want in yours?

You can have both!

BOTH: Dorset Naga.

-How many - two?

-Yeah.

So that really is a proper chilli beef sitting right there.

Now, the topping. I'm going to use cornbread.

I'll run through the ingredients. You've got polenta -

that beautiful yellow -

baking powder and flour.

I then add two eggs...

and melted butter.

Then what I'm going to do is chop up this chilli.

It's like a chilli-fest. You've got chilli in the dish,

chilli in the cornbread as well.

Again, just roughly chop this up.

To stick with the theme I'm adding a green Hungarian Hot Wax chilli,

to the cornbread. I also add buttermilk to make a thick batter.

So I'm happy with that.

So what we need to do now is fill these little trays.

Get some of this gorgeous mixture,

and make sure we get those chillies in there.

I've just seen a massive one go in there now!

You must cook with these things a lot as well at home.

What do you think happens to the chilli when you cook it?

A lot of the heat in the chilli will obviously dissipate through the dish.

You've got quite a nice rich sauce there,

so it will pick up all the way through that gravy

the flavour and the heat of the chilli.

It won't be lost by heating it up.

Yeah. I'm looking forward to trying this.

-Are you going to try one of these hot ones?

-Maybe.

Generously fill each pie dish with your chilli beef pie mixture,

before topping with your cornbread batter.

Then top with some grated cheese and voila!

Now, this is going to go straight in the oven to bake.

180, 35 minutes, golden brown.

And what I did a little bit earlier is something which I find

suits MY palate more.

With a slightly milder chilli in there.

So these...

beauties...

..are my chilli beef cornbread pies.

The rich, meaty filling and soft but crunchy cornbread

make these pies a comfort food masterpiece.

Guys, you're going to have to wait a little bit longer for yours.

Indeed. They look lovely. Absolutely lovely.

Nature makes many flowers that you can eat,

but these have all been crafted by hand from sugar.

These edible flowers are attracting a lot of attention

and it's hardly surprising that their creator

already has an impressive list of clients,

including Kate Moss, Sir Elton John,

Gwyneth Paltrow and Sir Anthony Hopkins.

And I'm honoured that their designer, Peggy Porschen,

has come into my kitchen with her assistant, Olivia,

to help her prepare the sugar pastes.

Welcome, Peggy. Looking at these flowers and these cakes,

botanically, are they perfect?

Probably not botanically.

I do take inspiration from the real flower,

-but my flowers are stylised rather than botanically perfect.

-Right.

The one that stands out for me at the moment

are those over there. They look incredible.

Yeah. They are sweet peas,

and it's made up of four petals per blossom.

The next one at the front is a peony,

very intricate and very frilly.

And then on the front you've got a vintage sugar rose

with hydrangeas and orchids,

an anemone and a dahlia.

OK. What's it actually made from?

It's made from flower paste, sugar flower paste,

which is basically made of icing sugar.

I've never made anything as delicate as this

so I'm in for a treat.

So I thought we'd try something simple to begin with,

which is a moulded sugar rose.

-That's simple, is it?

-Fairly. It's a good beginner's rose, I'd say!

Also for this rose, you don't need any tools or cutters.

You just literally need the paste

and a plastic sheet from an office supplier.

This is just an acetate folder you might buy in any stationer's.

Take small pieces of sugar paste

and roll into balls about the size of a hazelnut.

-It's weird. It's a bit like Plasticine, isn't it?

-Yes.

Exactly. It's sort of stretchy

-but it will set eventually quite firm.

-Yeah, OK.

The petals are formed by smoothing down the ball to an oval shape

and thinning one side.

A little bit thinner there,

-otherwise your petals look a bit chunky.

-Oh, right.

Don't want chunky, do we?

This feels great, doing this!

To create the petal, roll round the sugar paste,

keeping the top open.

Then take the second petal and overlap the first.

Tuck in the next petal and repeat the overlapping technique,

just like I'm attempting to do.

And now, go with your last layer of petals.

Same process.

Over the open edge, the first one, then lay the petals around.

-Slightly higher again?

-A little bit, yes.

-OK.

-That's not too bad!

Oh, thank you!

I just fold the upper part of the petal back.

I give it a little pinch.

It makes it look quite realistic and natural.

I mean, if I saw that on a cake...

What would you mark me out of ten for that?

Would I go through to the next round with that?

Well, I'd give you another try, yes!

OK!

Well, it sounds like my first attempt

at making roses wasn't so bad.

Later on, Peggy will be making some more sugar-paste decorations

to go on top of my strawberry mousse cake.

My next recipe is a delicious flourless cake,

using grounds almonds and semolina instead.

but the real secret to this cake...

is marmalade.

And who better to turn to for marmalade

than a champion marmalade-maker?

Artisan preserve maker Victoria Cranfield

has been concocting scrumptious preseves in North Devon for years.

I've asked her to work some of her marmalade magic for me,

to make a brand-new flavour for my cake.

This one is St Clements,

which is 50% oranges, 50% lemons.

It's light, zesty.

This one is a sweet orange one,

which is basically sweet oranges

with that little baby!

Even Victoria's marmalade can't escape a chilli

and these are hot - Scotch Bonnets.

It works really well with fruit toast.

Victoria's passion for creating the best flavours

has won her some seriously impressive awards.

This one is the pink grapefruit marmalade

that got the double gold in 2012 at the World Marmalade.

If you like pink grapefruit, it knocks your socks off.

I've set Victoria a challenge.

I've given her the recipe for my almond and marmalade cake.

If anyone can come up with the perfect preserve for my pud

Victoria can and I can't wait to see what she's come up with.

It's a great challenge, and I love that kind of challenge.

To come up with something that's going to complement another flavour

is what I really enjoy, to be honest.

But it's not going to be easy.

So, did Victoria manage to come up with

the right combination of flavours for me to use in my marmalade cake?

Well, I can ask her, because she's here in the kitchen with me.

-Hello, Victoria.

-Hi.

Fantastic-looking marmalades, and a champion marmalade-maker.

-Yay!

-So let's run through some of these flavours you've got here.

-Now, I'm looking for one to go in the cake.

-Yeah.

Right, I thought really what you wanted was something

that would add to the cake,

and I sort of had a little Middle Eastern feel.

Victoria's marmalade

is thick shreds made of Seville oranges and jasmine.

Oh!

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

-Mmm.

With this one, I thought, add another flavour,

and on that basis, I thought jasmine.

-What's this one?

-This one is softer.

I have learned a lot doing this.

So this is orange and jasmine marmalade?

Orange and jasmine again, but I've taken out the big chunks

and just used the zest of the fruit.

So the flavour should come through more.

What do you figure?

Wow!

That's got the jasmine. Woo!

That does carry some huge flavour.

I mean, very, very tart.

The reason I thought that would work

is it's going in a cake. It's going against the eggs, the butter,

-so it's got to have punch to come through.

-OK.

-I understand.

-That would be my preferred choice.

This one is orange and apricot.

Have a go at that.

I'm letting you go first on that one.

-Aren't I nice?

-It's got a bit of body to this.

Again, that's because you're actually using

proper shreds rather than the zest.

Lovely taste of orange. Almost saffron-like.

Normally, I wouldn't think so much about what marmalade to use,

but Victoria's jars just show what a difference

it could make to my cake. It's decision time.

Now, I've chosen to go inside the cake...

this one.

-I'm surprised.

-Orange and apricot.

-Yes.

-But...

in the icing on the top,

I'm going to use the orange and jasmine marmalade

for the topping as well.

I'm going to incorporate that somewhere.

I like that flavour. You're right - it's a great flavour.

But for the cake, I'll use this - I like the chunky bits.

-That one is much more marmaladey as marmalade is understood.

-Exactly.

Whereas the other one's playtime!

Right. Fantastic. Love to see what you think later.

For the cake mixture,

I'm creaming together the butter and the caster sugar.

Add the eggs.

Then, to start the orange flavour, the zest of an orange.

Now, what I'm going to add to this now

is some of the drier ingredients.

Now, I've got some semolina going in there -

adds a little bit of crunch to it, little bit of depth and body.

And then I've got some ground almonds,

which are going to go in there as well.

Now, if you like, you could just put ground almonds in there

or flour and ground almonds. Baking powder in.

Give that a good mix together.

Finally, I'm adding a small amount of orange juice,

which will help to loosen the mixture.

Now, I'm going to put three

tablespoons of your marmalade in there as well.

Again, that'll slacken it down a little bit.

This is where the flavour's going to come in -

those chunks in there.

There's my mixture. I'll pop it straight into a tin.

The tin is greased and lined and the whole thing goes into the oven

for 35 minutes at 180 degrees C.

And when it comes out, that's what it looks like.

It's lovely and flat.

Now, the thing I'm going to add to that

is a lovely mascarpone-based icing.

For the topping, mix together mascarpone from the fridge,

icing sugar,

then stir in soft unsalted butter.

Mix this all together. That's your basic icing for the top.

Today I'm lucky enough

to have another of Victoria's marmalades on hand.

But normally the same marmalade that went into the cake

would work in the icing.

And swirl the cream cheese icing

over the top of the cake with a wooden spoon.

I'm going to get some more of this...

And I think that with the icing, which is quite sweet...

-It'll help cut through.

-Yeah.

And I think it gives it a bit more gumption.

You've got something with jasmine on it with orange.

I think that, together with that orange and marmalade cake,

will be absolutely delicious.

This rich and zingy cake is best served chilled,

so that the cream cheese icing is stiff and cold,

then drizzled with marmalade just before eating.

Earlier, cake designer Peggy Porschen

showed me how to make a sugar-paste rose.

A little bit thinner there,

-otherwise your petals look a bit chunky.

-Oh, right.

Don't want chunky, do we?

Now Peggy and her assistant, Olivia, are going to help me decorate

my next pudding.

I'm going to make a strawberry mousse cake.

It's a very light cake,

and it's got strong flavours of strawberries all the way through it.

I've got fresh strawberries and I've got the puree going into the cake.

Now, Peggy, it's not like a stodgy cake

that you can just lump stuff on.

It's going to be quite a delicate thing. You all right with that?

Sure. I'm going to make some tiny sugar strawberries.

-Cute!

-Then I thought I'd do

some very light strawberry blossoms with it, and little leaves,

to create a lovely garden theme.

How very me!

This dessert makes quite an impression,

bursting with strawberry flavour.

The light and fluffy mousse rests on the top of a Genoese sponge.

OK. To start with, what I've got in here at the moment...

I've got a straight Genoese sponge at the bottom of this tin.

The next thing I'll add is a mousse,

and this mousse will really liven up this.

I'm using proper strawberry puree and jelly in there as well.

But to kick off with - evaporated milk.

Into a bowl.

Whisk the evaporated milk until it's bubbly,

add cool melted jelly to help it set and finally,

fold in the puree made from fresh strawberries.

The smell is absolutely gorgeous on this.

Fold round the outside...

So that's your filling.

Park that to one side.

Oil around a cake tin. This will hold your lining paper in place.

Top and tail them. I'm going to cut them in half.

Arrange your half strawberries around the outside of the tin

with the cut side on the paper.

Now I've got my mousse here.

I'm going to pour that into the middle.

You can see how light it is - you can still see all the bubbles in it.

I chill my mousse cake in the fridge overnight

although four to five hours should be enough.

I'll show you one that has been in the fridge.

And here's one that has chilled.

Pop the...

..springform case off

and peel the paper off.

What you've actually got is that beautiful Genoese base,

then you have the strawberries...

And that, even on its own,

is absolutely gorgeous.

But at this stage, I'll pass it on to Peggy.

Peggy works her magic by decorating my cake with beautiful

sugar strawberries and blossoms.

They look so cute.

Very cute. And actually,

I really love the colour combination of pink and red.

It's a real strawberry-fest!

Then I made some of these leaves.

They're so delicate, aren't they?

These are just the little white blossoms,

and you know when you get a strawberry plant,

it's got little strawberry blossoms on it, which are really cute.

Thank you very much, Peggy. That looks fantastic.

Thank you, Olivia.

That...

is a beautifully decorated strawberry mousse cake.

Not everybody's got a Peggy in the house,

but what I would normally do is dip strawberries into melted chocolate

and put them on the top.

My guests are ready to eat.

Today it's been all about stretching our imaginations

when it comes to ingredients.

My chilli beef cornbread pies

were given an extra kick thanks to the Dorset Naga

and chilli boys Jim and Dave.

Marmalade escaped the toast rack and ended up

in and on top of my almond and marmalade cake,

thanks to the expertise of Victoria.

And my strawberry mousse - light, fluffy, irresistible

and beautifully decorated with Peggy's cute miniature strawberries.

I think it's time to tuck in.

I think it's only right to try the chilli pies to start with.

Gentlemen, choose your weapons!

The aroma's amazing. You get the mixture of the chilli and the cheese.

Have you hit any of the chillies yet, boys?

It's definitely flavoured, but still you can really taste the shin.

It hasn't actually overpowered it.

Next, my strawberry mousse cake.

It's a beautiful cake.

You've given yourself a very big piece!

What do you think of the presentation?

-Beautiful.

-Wonderful. Absolutely brilliant.

It's the attention to detail. It's a form of art.

Finally, that zesty marmalade and almond cake.

It's such a lovely bitterness and sweetness,

then the scrumptiousness of the mascarpone goes really well together.

-A good job there with your marmalade.

-Thank you!

I'm relieved! Really relieved.

I think we've experienced some real indulgence today

and some great food and some great company.

I hope you can join me next time,

when I'll have more pies and puds on the menu. See you then.

I think we need some more of this hot chilli.