Episode 9 Paul Hollywood's Pies & Puds

Flavours to savour today - spicy empanadas,

salted coffee caramel,

and the fruitiest, fluffiest marshmallows.

And they're all going to be cooked right here.

Hello and welcome to Pies And Puds.

This programme is all about

my affection for straightforward, honest food

that's easy to cook, but delicious to eat.

Here's what's on my menu today.

I find myself in a bit of a baking battle,

as two chefs fight it out over their South American savoury snacks.

And to settle their differences,

I create my own version of their spicy parcels -

my chicken and chorizo empanadas.

I go in search of what makes the perfect coffee

and discover how roasting the beans

brings out the fullest flavour...

I think I'll have one of these in my kitchen.

I might have to build an extension, though.

..which I'll then use to add an exquisite coffee punch

to my luxurious coffee eclairs.

And it's marshmallow madness - I'm joined by the Marshmallowists,

queens of the sweet and fluffy world.

-Nice marshmallow.

-Done that before.

And we work together as I make my sticky toffee pudding

with a marshmallow twist.

It's gorgeous, it's gooey,

and with those two marshmallows sitting on top,

it's going to be magic.

And if you fancy a taste,

you can look up all my recipes on the BBC website.

My first recipe is empanadas - tasty savoury parcels

that can come with a whole variety of fillings.

And if you hail from any Latin culture,

your passions for them will run high.

In London, there's a South American battle being played out -

two Argentinean restaurants with one shared belief

that each one makes the greatest empanadas

on this side of the Atlantic.

At Restaurant Constancia, Sebastian believes his are the best.

Empanada is a big tradition in Argentina.

It's one of the most traditional dishes that we have.

It's a simple pasty, but in Argentina,

it has developed a personality of its own.

But to me, the best empanadas can be found here.

At Restaurant Garufin, Ernesto is no less passionate.

We tend to believe that we're the best at doing an empanada.

We're so proud and so passionate about it,

I'd like to believe we're the best at it.

Empanadas come with many different fillings -

beef, cheese, vegetables -

and how you choose to fill your empanadas

depends on where you come from.

Sebastian's favourite recipe is all about remembering home.

The recipe that we use would be Buenos Aires.

It's been passed on by a family friend.

And his secret weapon is his family.

So, this is my auntie, Alejandra,

and she is the heart and sound of the restaurant.

She makes the best empanadas in the world.

Over at Garufin, Ernesto is still confident

that his beef filling is the one.

It's good.

The best thing about an empanada is the juiciness of the filling

and the crispiness of the dough.

That's the best thing about empanadas.

Every filling has its own elaborate crimping.

This is a traditional beef empanada with the traditional folding.

This other one - it's a traditional sweetcorn pasty.

This sort of crimp,

which is made by just pressing a fork into the dough,

to define the spinach and cheese.

The world of the empanada gets even more complicated

when you have to decide whether to fry or bake.

Nice and crispy.

The only downfall of a baked empanada

is you have to eat them straight away.

Which is fine by me.

A good empanada is juicy and it drips.

That's why I open my legs like that.

Ernesto's boss, Alberto, is in charge of quality control.

They are amazing.

Like all good baking, people care,

and this little empanada is part of a big tradition.

At the end of the day,

it doesn't matter who does the best.

But I think...we do the best.

But we think we have the best.

We make the best ones.

I'm delighted that Sebastian, Maria and Ernesto have joined me

and they've brought their delicious empanadas with them.

-Welcome. Hola!

-Thank you.

Now, this looks impressive.

I'm sensing there's a little bit of rivalry

between these two sets of empanadas.

Now, empanadas seems to be prolific between Latin America,

Hispanic community in America as well,

and in Spain, and in Portugal, and in Britain.

Obviously, everyone loves empanadas in Argentina,

so if there's a big event,

surely, you have some empanadas going around.

I'm a little bit worried,

because I think you want me to judge these.

Now I think the easiest way to do it is obviously to eat them.

-Do you have a beef one?

-Yes.

-Which one is your beef one?

-These ones would be the beef ones.

-OK.

-Exactly, yeah.

-This is the beef one.

-Yeah.

If I pop that one down there...

-Do you have one, Ernesto?

-Of course.

The beef, same crimp.

Again, very similar crimp, very similar size,

looks very attractive.

I'll just cut this one in half...

Cut this one in half.

It does look quite impressive.

-Can I pass you that one?

-Yeah, sure.

-And I'll eat this one.

Tell me what you think about it.

Mm...

Now, obviously, this is Ernesto's, OK?

-What do you think?

-Um...it's sweeter than the one we make.

You can tell that.

-And you can get a little bit of the carrot, also, there.

-Yeah.

-And the onion.

-There's a little bit of bite to it,

a little bit of heat that sort of floats in and out.

What would you mark that, out of ten?

I would give it an eight.

Eight out of ten - that's a respectable score.

So what we've got here is - this is yours, Maria.

Now, Maria doesn't speak any English,

so we're going to have to use interpretation through Sebastian.

Ernesto, would you like to have a bite

and tell me what you think of this one?

-It's slightly smoky, no?

-A little bit.

I'm getting, again, a little bit of heat coming through.

It's very juicy.

What would you mark that one out of ten?

I know what you're going to say, here.

Shall we make it an even eight?

That's what I was waiting for, number eight!

Here we go - we're back where we started from.

Now, I'm going to use chicken.

To start with, I'm using chicken thigh,

which is here, which I've roasted for 45 minutes.

You can see the juices there from the chicken.

I'm going to leave them now

while I prepare the rest of the filling.

To start with, heat up your pan, cumin seeds straight in,

And leave them to dance for a minute.

Over here, I'm going to put some raisins in there,

put the chorizo straight in the pan as well.

A few onions in there.

You happy with that, Maria?

SEBASTIAN SPEAKS IN SPANISH

-Si.

-That OK? That OK, Ernesto?

-Looks good, yeah.

-A bit more onion, but...

-You want more onion?

-Yeah.

It's one of the secrets - to get a lot of onion

and a lot of juice there.

What I'm going to do is put this into a container.

Now, the next stage is to produce the pastry.

I've got my flour, I'm going to put an egg in there,

a little bit of seasoning in there as well.

I've got some water, I've got some butter,

which I'm going to put straight in.

I'm giving it a good mix to form my dough.

Fold and knead the dough,

adding a little bit of flour...

..until it's soft and elastic.

I like that.

How does that feel, Maria?

That feel OK?

Then break the dough into sections, roll out and fill.

To help seal it, I'm just brushing egg wash around the edges.

Get my pastry folded over.

What I'm going to do is push that down,

I'm going to trim that round.

This is my home-made dough, boys.

Then, when it comes to the crimping, I'm going to bring Maria up now,

to show me something - Maria?

You can have the mate tea, if you want.

Ah, thank you.

OK...

Sebastian, can you ask Maria if it's a good dough?

SEBASTIAN SPEAKS IN SPANISH

-It's good.

-Yeah.

-Very good.

Maria's actually crimping it, and that looks...

Doesn't that look beautiful?

Egg wash on the top.

I'll place that on there.

There's one.

These are going to be baked at 200 degrees centigrade

for at least 15 minutes,

so they're beautiful and golden brown and crispy.

I baked my empanadas, but you can fry them,

and you can serve them hot or cold.

And we'll serve them later, so guys, Maria,

we'll have to wait a little longer before we get a chance to eat it.

It's time now to rediscover a traditional treat.

Do you remember opening a bag

of pink and white marshmallows on Bonfire Night,

dipping your hand...?

Forget about all that.

These are real marshmallows and these are the Marshmallowists.

-Welcome, Oonagh and Kim.

-Thank you very much.

-Hello.

These look impressive.

What gave you the idea to stick with marshmallows?

We decided to do marshmallows

because we knew we could do something different with them,

so it's all made with whole fruits and essential oils,

so all the colours that you see come exactly from the fruits that we use,

not anything artificial.

-Why marshmallows?

-I trained as a chocolate maker in Paris.

I've made them for years

and it's a traditional French recipe that we use.

I moved back to London and no-one else seemed to be doing it.

And you can be just as creative with marshmallows in terms of flavours

as you can with any other baking product or chocolate.

They look great. What flavour is this one?

The one in your hand is raspberry and champagne.

That's made with whole raspberries, pureed up,

then a glass of champagne is added to the mix,

to bring out the flavour of the raspberries.

He's doing the Bake Off look!

That...that is...that is absolutely delicious, actually.

-Thank you very much.

-It just melts, straightaway.

You do get that initial hit of raspberry,

and that stays with you all the way through,

but the texture is fantastic.

That it stunning! And what's the other flavour, then?

That's my personal favourite. It's passion fruit and ginger.

THEY LAUGH

-MUFFLED:

-This one is passion fruit and ginger?

-Yeah.

Wow...

OK, so it's your turn - I believe you're going to show me

how to make marshmallows?

Yes - we're going to teach you how to make

-strawberry and basil marshmallows.

-Lovely.

-My kitchen is your kitchen. Please go ahead.

-Thank you.

So, to begin with, we've got glucose in the pan already,

-and then we're going to add in strawberry puree, sugar...

-Yeah.

I like sitting down, watching other people work. It's a nice feeling.

We're just going to incorporate that.

Marshmallows are essentially a flavoured sugar syrup that's mixed and then set with gelatine.

So there's also some glucose in with the strawberry puree here.

-OK.

-You just do that to incorporate it.

So what you're doing,

you're actually beginning to melt down the sugar.

I am melting down the sugar, yep.

Just incorporating the glucose, sugar and puree together.

-We're going to bring that up to 112 degrees.

-OK.

You're using a thermometer at the moment,

to take it up to the temperature?

Yes - when you see it start to foam,

you know you should probably put your thermometer in

and not burn your fingers on the steam at the same time,

because it can very quickly get up to 112.

Em, and here, we've got some soaked gelatine leaves,

which we've melted down, and this will go into the mix.

So that's the melted sugar going in?

Exactly - that's the sugar, the puree and the glucose going into the pan.

Make sure you've got your mixer on a really low speed,

otherwise it'll go absolutely everywhere,

and we'd really rather people didn't burn themselves

when making these at home.

'Melted gelatine will stabilise the mixture

'so you can increase the speed and mix for a good 12 minutes.'

OK, so that's been going for about five or six minutes already

and you can see it's doubled in volume

and it's gone a lot lighter.

What you do is leave it for about another six minutes,

you're looking for it to quadruple in volume -

it should really fill to the top...third of the bowl,

and look out for a nice, long drip off the whisk.

Don't over-whip it,

otherwise it'll be a really tough marshmallow.

-So this is one that has been...

-Yeah.

-Oh, wow, yeah.

-You dust it as well,

so that it doesn't stick to the greaseproof while it's setting.

This is a mix of cornflour and icing sugar, 50/50,

because the icing sugar would absorb and the cornflour makes it stop -

it doesn't absorb into the wet of the marshmallow.

And now it's time for the big reveal -

over it goes onto the board...

..peel back the food wrap...

-Nice marshmallow!

-You've done that before.

..lovely!

It just needs dusting.

Then, as you go, you can cut whatever shapes you like, Paul.

-You can get creative.

-Really?

-Yeah.

-I'm going to cut a square.

Oh. Well...

Just slice with a hot knife and get stuck in.

That's really nice. And what's really interesting,

there's something else in there as well.

There is indeed, yes. There's a hint of basil,

which we add at the end of the mixing process.

That basil works - it works really well.

It does really work. It's one of our most unusual combinations,

but I really love it, I think it's delicious.

See, I like drinking hot chocolate,

and hot chocolate with a marshmallow on the top.

Just stirred in, makes a difference.

I'd like to try it with one of these as well, they'd be fantastic.

You should.

I've seen how the Marshmallowists make their sweet treats,

and later, I'll be showing them my sticky toffee pudding

and they might add some of their marshmallow magic.

I think it needs one of those -

two of your marshmallows, sitting on the top.

In my next recipe I'll be using a distinctive flavour

that'll be deliciousin my cream filled choux bun eclairs

but will also work a treat in my rich creme caramels.

Coffee - love it or hate it,

everybody has their own opinion on it.

But before I go ahead and choose the flavour to go inside my dessert,

I need to go back to basics

and find out what makes a good coffee.

Both my eclairs and my creme caramel are using coffee.

To give me a steer on what flavours people like best,

I'm experimenting on the good people of Musselburgh in East Lothian.

We've got three different types of coffee here - A, B, C.

Take one of each cup, have a little sip,

tell me which one you like.

'Coffee flavours vary.

'We all know that from the number of different brands on the high street.'

Try A.

'My personal favourite is very bitter coffee, A.'

What do you think of that one?

-Oh, don't like that one.

-You don't like A. Why?

-That's quite...

-Tastes like soup.

-It's horrible. Disgusting.

-Don't you like it?

Nah.

-It's got, like, a savoury taste.

-Oh, OK.

OK, fine - no-one likes my favourite.

Maybe they'll feel different once they've tried the others.

It's a little bit better.

It's a bit...stronger than the first one.

-That one's better.

-You like that.

-I like that one better.

-You like that one - why?

I like strong coffee.

Try C.

That's just as bad as A, I would say.

-Personally, you'd go for C?

-Yes.

-B.

-You'd go for B, every time?

-B.

-B.

B had more flavour.

Personally, if it was me, I went for A -

I like that sourness, I like that bitterness,

I like that hit. I like espresso.

-Yeah...it's just rank.

-OK.

And just when I think I'm all on my own...

-A.

-A. You like that flavour.

-That's better.

Lovely. Thank you very much indeed, young man.

OK, I've got someone that agrees with me.

'So the consensus on coffee is that, really, there is none.

'Everyone has their own preference.

'Not easy when you're choosing one for your pudding recipe.

'What I need is a coffee expert.

-Hello, Ralph.

-Hello, Paul. Nice to meet you.

This is Brodies, Scotland's oldest coffee merchant.

They import coffee beans from all over the world

and blend them into flavours we either love or hate.

I found out this morning

that people are very, VERY opinionated

on what coffee they like.

I think it's like everything.

Everybody has their own personal choice of things.

What we've really done is adapted to choice and taste over the years,

but now it's really the taste and the quality

that people are interested in.

And when you're talking about a good coffee, that means beans.

The two main types are robusta and arabica.

'Robusta has a stronger flavour than arabica

'and is used to create the blended flavours

'that make our instant coffee.'

'Arabica is considered to be superior to robusta,

'and has a delicate, acidic flavour and more refined aroma.

'The key to producing great coffee flavour

'is blending beans grown around the world -

'and that means roasting them.'

Paul, can I introduce you to Martin?

He's been roasting our coffee for the last 20 years.

-Wow, what a good bit of kit this is.

-Yeah, big machine.

This is obviously the roaster.

So what beans are you using to start with?

I've got three different types of beans to start with -

we've got the Java, Brazilian and Guatemalan.

Our goal is to try to roast them to a process

where the water's out and at the end of it,

it's all level, so when you look at it,

you'd think it was only one type of bean in it.

Obviously, that's why you're roasting it,

cos when it's green coffee, there's no flavour at that point,

so we do the roasting process

and that ends up bringing the flavour out.

After roasting, the beans now have a blended flavour

and are now ready to be ground down to make a delicious cup of coffee.

There we go.

Lovely smell.

I think I'll have one of these in my kitchen.

Might have to build an extension, though.

Coffees have increased in strength and bitterness,

and those two qualities are what I need for my recipes.

My two desserts will need two distinct coffees.

One thing I do know about baking, the way to impart a coffee flavour

into whatever you're going to do, the best way is espresso form.

We got out Colombian here, our straight Colombian,

we've got our Java

and we've got our blend of Brazil, Guatemalan and Java.

There is something at the end that's sitting on the tongue more.

-This next one on is the Java?

-Yeah.

Huge kick, as soon as you put it in. Bang! It hits you.

Finally, this is the blend.

Smooth, that stays like that throughout all of it.

The blend would go really well with the eclairs.

I've added salted caramel to the eclairs.

The addition of that coffee would balance well with that salt.

I'm blending textures as well as flavours

in these two puds, and I think I've chosen wisely.

I'm delighted that Ralph has joined me

and has brought some of his coffee for me to use

in my salted caramel eclairs.

We chose the blend, haven't we?

The blend is going to go inside the filling

for the salted caramel eclairs.

I'm really looking forward to seeing how they come out with the recipes.

What I'm going to do is start with my eclairs.

Now, in a pan here, I've got my water and butter.

What I'm going to do is add my flour, straight in there.

Add beaten eggs and stir vigorously until it forms a roux.

And it gets smoother and smoother as you do it.

Now, I'm happy with that.

You can see the shine on the top of the choux pastry as well.

And I'm happy now to add the eggs to that

and beat the living daylights out of it.

If you look at that now...

..you can see the pastry beginning to get nice and smooth.

You carry on doing that, it becomes really elastic.

Then put into a piping bag and trim the end,

and pipe into the eclairs.

What you do is you bake this off now, it'll balloon up

and begin to crisp up and get a strong colour.

What I tend to do as well is, because it's full of steam,

you puncture it -

get a little knife, make a hole in it,

that allows the steam to come out, put it back in the oven

and that'll dry them out.

If you don't do that, it gets very soft and soggy inside.

Your eclairs should be nice and crisp on the outside,

and beautiful, with a little bit of chew, on the inside.

I'm going to pop them straight in.

15 minutes is ample. Now to the filling.

In the fridge, I have some whipped cream,

with a little bit of icing sugar in there as well,

to which I'm going to add your coffee, Ralph -

straight in there.

Beautiful. Basically, what you've got here is a coffee cream.

And it's going to taste delicious. Look at the colour of that.

I just hope it does the job for you,

with those flavours and characteristics

-that we picked out when we tasted it.

-Oh, yes!

It's got that sharpness to it as well, which I like.

I'm going to put some of this in a piping bag.

I'm just going to cut the end of it.

That'll do. Take it all the way down to the bottom.

Then just pipe a load into your choux buns.

Get your eclairs and literally just pipe.

The icing itself, I've got in here light brown sugar, butter

and a little bit of salt. That's melted.

'Add the milk and bring to the boil.

'Add the icing sugar until it creates a thick caramel.'

You can see, now, that's thickened up beautifully

and it holds on the spoon.

Grab one of the eclairs...

This is going to taste so good.

I think I'm just about ready for this, Paul.

But also, What I have done is a creme caramel.

They - and I had one earlier on - taste fantastic.

There we have our beautiful salted caramel coffee eclairs,

and in here, we have our creme caramel,

which we used that beautiful Java coffee for as well.

However you like your coffee, there's something for everyone

in my salted caramel and coffee eclairs

and these delicious creme caramels.

Earlier, my guests the Marshmallowists

showed me how they create their vibrant flavours

and fresh, natural marshmallow colours.

I'm going to cook for them my favourite sticky toffee pudding.

And Oonagh and Kim have agreed to prepare something to add to my recipe.

For my sticky toffee pudding, this is what you do.

Start off by getting your dates, placing them into a jar

and adding your bicarb of soda.

Now, bicarb of soda will basically help inside the cake itself

and make it quite chewy.

Soften the dates in boiling water for a few minutes.

Then whisk together some dark brown sugar and butter.

Speed up the mixer, add two eggs and whisk them in.

I love this stuff. It's real comfort food.

-It really is.

-Yeah.

Sausage and mash, sticky toffee pudding - perfect.

Are you ice cream or are you custard?

This will define you as a person.

I like toffee sauce, but I like custard, you see.

I like custard with anything.

Including Christmas pudding.

Then I'm adding flour and baking powder.

I'm creaming this together. It's coming together quite nicely.

Mix together before dropping in some fudge for that toffee flavour..

..macadamia nuts for that bit of crunch,

and those softened dates.

It's absolutely jam-packed,

and that's a proper sticky toffee pudding.

Then level it off.

-Are you confident about those flavours going with this?

-Ever so.

We've made caramelised banana and vanilla

and coffee marshmallows.

I think it's a marriage made in heaven.

Now, you need to put it into an oven, 190 degrees C,

for about 30 minutes.

When you've baked it off, this is how it comes out.

Now we need to prepare the sauce.

Over here, we've got some butter

and we've got some brown sugar in again.

Add the cream and stir. And there is your toffee sauce.

I'm making some holes in the cake

so the toffee sauce can soak through into every bit.

This is going to go under the grill, just for about three minutes,

until this is bubbling.

Now, I've set the grill quite high,

And into the rest of my toffee sauce

I'm going to melt Kim and Oonagh's fluffy marshmallows.

Let me show you this.

-Look at the top of that.

-Oh, my goodness.

It's all caramelised on the outside, now.

Portion control.

This just falls through. It's like butter.

I'll take a nice wedge there.

I'm just going to serve it with some of that gorgeous

marshmallow sauce round the outside.

Which I don't think you two will complain about.

-No.

-Not at all.

I think it needs one of those - two of your marshmallows,

sitting on the top.

There you have it - true sticky toffee pudding.

It's gorgeous, it's gooey,

and with those two marshmallows sitting on top,

the addition of those flavours, it's going to be magic.

I don't know anyone who doesn't love a sticky toffee pudding.

You may feel a bit guilty, but I bet you won't say no.

Time to share what's been cooked -

there's my chicken and chorizo empanadas,

inspired by the Argentinean passion of Sebastian and Ernesto,

my eclairs and creme caramel,

using the coffee I chose with the help of Ralph,

and my sticky toffee pudding,

with that extra marshmallow twist from Oonagh and Kim.

You've all watched me, very patiently,

cooking with your delicious ingredients

you've all brought today.

It's time now to tuck it.

I think we should start, certainly, with the empanadas.

If I pass you one of those, down there...

Be nice, guys. Play fair.

Wow, it cracks really easy, doesn't it?

What do you think of the empanadas?

Very good. Very tasty.

What you give me out of ten, then?

-It's a good eight.

-A good eight.

We're all on eight!

-You like that?

-Fantastic.

-You won't need to drink coffee.

-Wow.

That's the Java in that one.

It comes right through, and just the finish - it's great.

-With the marshmallow in there as well...

-That's what makes it.

That other thing that he did?

I've had great fun today, and what could be better

than ending it with tasty food and good company?

Join me next time on Pies and Puds and we can do it all over again.