Baking With Julia; #113; Flo Braker

I'm doing trial. Welcome to my house. What fun we're going to have making all kinds of incredible cakes pies and bread right here in my own kitchen flow breaker. California's well known baking teacher and author reaches back to classic French technique for her Lady Finger Jen was which is the basis for creating these miniature cakes. Joining us baking with Duryea funding for this program has been provided by possible creators up for the women. I'm never sticks they were steel cookware for every ship harbor where millennium never stick stainless steel cookware. At this program is also funded by Land O Lakes makers of the butter. People have baked when since 1921. Baking with Julia is funded by the makers of Iman Hammer baking soda. Part of America's favorite recipes for over 150 years.

I'm going Hammer baking soda. The standard of purity and King Arthur Flour offering tools ingredients and flour for all your baking needs by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and bi annual financial support from viewers like you. This is important. And they should have in their repertoire and if you were to do it and I'm happy to do that do it first thing. And we are going to. I think it's very important when you're making squares a little song.

You want to make sure that it comes out of the pack and hear like OK that's just going to dump. Right here and there. I'm going to do. Measuring my flour. When I want to do as the recipe calls for are one and a quarter cups of flour and I like to use just as I think it's easy to do the triple. So we're going to do we're going to take our cup and we're going to measure one and a quarter cups of flour. Now if you had a scale you would be able to do that and it would be very fast but that would weigh probably one hundred twenty five

grams. At this point that is no longer on the list. Now I put my sifter back and this is my one and a quarter. So I'm going to take a tablespoon of sugar. An eighth of a teaspoon of salt. And then I'm going to do is I have my butter already this is three tablespoons of butter and I don't want to hot. I just wanted a little warmer than body temperature right and then these are my a. These are going to now have a half a cup of sugar added to the egg. This is two eggs and for an ox and the larger I used to hold them for him and the reason is that this cake I'm trying to make a little moist tender. And now we're going to add a half a cup of sugar to our A. And a tablespoon of sugar.

And at this point I want to make sure that I whisk this together so that I do not have any shoes or sitting on top of the egg just because it's in heaven. They're really puffing up and getting really. Sort of. Yeah. And then.

Thank you. And now you can see that it is this lovely sort of beautiful thing. Mixter. That stays right there. And this is not at its most fragile point. And what I'm going to do you notice that I had a tablespoon of sugar that I sifted with. That is the sort of separate the particles a little bit more finely because the flour tends to clump especially cake flour. And so I'm folding to out very slowly so you know doing I go around the room and I come up down and I always my roots and I'm in the center and I'm not getting really crazy about getting all the flour in I have a lot more folding to do. Well you're now deflating. Exactly and so what I'm going to do is add

more flour. And I'm going to add about a third of the time of the flour. I just keep folding. And then said Oh really good question because I know because I don't see any war. And when I scrape along the side then that sort of gives me an indication of what's going on also. So that is not. Just going to take the rustle of flour and put it on tough. Now you're going to notice. That this is starting to take on a little more body because it's got a lot more flour in it. You see every time I turn this over I don't see any flour. So I know I've probably done enough. Now here's our butter and we don't want to call in we don't want to too hot if it's too hot. What happens is it's going to start dissolving our wonderful little bubbles. Now we're going to have the some of the butter. Now you see I am fooling about a cup of the batter. And right now I'm going to

pour this back and you notice I'm sort of gentle about stir it at any one time when the batter is from this is where it's fragile because that fat will weigh down on the volume and I'll take the cake pan. OK. Thank you. All right on this point I just let it sort of fall out and I have to tell you if at this point you see any flower that has unfolded in I just sort of mix it together and I'm just going to ease the soon. Now the more that I want to manipulate the house then the more I'm going to start popping those lovely air bubbles that we have worked so hard to get and now we're going to put this in a 350 degree oven for about 20 to 25 minutes and that we want to put in the lower third of the oven and we're going to check it in 20 minutes.

Go live you know. I can see that it's I don't just go by color because I can do different colors. Exactly. I say. Now we're going to let this cool for about five minutes before we invert it. Now we're going to do is invert the cake out of the pan. We want to make sure that it is cleaned away from the sauce. It's been out for about five minutes and you just take a little and make sure that it is free. Just be very gentle. And then that makes sure that it will just come out nice and neat. And then what I want to do this song top White song

and write this down like that. There we go. Perfect. I like to take this parchment and I just taken off like that. Perfect. And then I put it back on top sort of the sticky side up and then I put on top of there. And easier to do than to write. And it's very tricky to. Try to write letters you know now I'm going to let it cool and when it's completely cool then we're going to do something very interesting with that time I want to show you something that I think is wonderful that you can do with the same batter that we just made for that cake. This is exactly exactly and so what we're going to do is we're going to make lady fingers and we're going to make Madeleine's really going to pour

into this one bag and just pour the beautiful. Point take that. OK I'm going to make lady fingers you notice that I have three. I think you just keep lifting it up and you can pipe them very close together all these will sort of come together in the Now this with me. But you can the same. One I like to do. You know I just. Yes and this would make me 24. All right now I want to powder sugar our lady fingers.

We're just going to tap but we get more control when we tap than just shake and you can cut them heavily. 400 degrees. We're going to take a little. Other recovery very popular No. Are these lady fingers. And then when I do cut them apart I use a pizza cutter. You just think you know we're going to do is proceed to our cake using the nine inch square Gen-Y. And I'm just going to slip the cake on the cardboard round I think these are invaluable. And the reason is it just makes it easier for me to work with what I like to do is

I like to take along to be whiter than the cake. And I put it right in the middle of the cake. And I really have to lean over. And all I'm doing is just a short little cut maybe about a half an inch into the cake and you see how it can really rotate in the car. OK now you see I have this all the way across. Now that's sort of my guide. And then at this point I'm not going to pay attention to anything except right here and I'm going to follow what I just said and I'm going to keep going a little deeper. Exactly. All right so now we're going to do is take this another car. You see the text that we've been all right now what we want to do is this this is a wine

soaking Sarah going to just the proportion. It's a quarter cup of sweet wine whatever you like. Taste the first and then what I have suggested is the at a table spoon of sugar you don't have to heated it all right now at this point. We're going to take some of our jelly. Well this is a red current jelly. And if you find that it's got a lot of I put it through. The point is that you want to. OK so we have plenty we don't want to know. And as I say don't be bothered by anything that's going on the size because that's going to be taken care of like you have going to. Right now I think we will put. On a plane. Now what I'm going to do

and I'm using pretty finally and I'm going to pour a half a cup to begin with. Going to it's going to melt there's going to be temperatures there. Now when I looking far out and concerned that it is creamy colored ivory colored and white. Exactly. Now I'm going to pour in another. Craig. Likes. To stir that I'm not whisking. You know see I want this to dissolve the chocolate. And

I'm not whiskey because I want to. And then at this point I'm going to take a sip and I'm going to pour it. Through. Yes because most of this chocolate is soft and this will sort of that all white chocolate can be different. So I want to just see how much cream it takes going to take a piece of bread and see how this is. Why I think it's a sort of test if it's the right way. And so you take a little belt and see if I think this could use a little bit more. And this is what everybody can do. It's working out very nicely. It doesn't seem to be floating down to the bar and so what I

will do is just. For you which is like two teaspoons. And you see how you kind of do this and you can tell it like right now you just like that. We're just going to spread this. You see this will make the pastry chef out of your body. Now this point we have some pastry some paper cones that have been handmade and we're going to fill one with semi-sweet and one with. And we're going to I want to test that. See how it's working fine so we're going to just make strings across and you'll see that what ever you do there

is no such thing as a mistake. It's about the paper the illustrated directions in the book. Oh my thoughts are very good. Does everyone have to go up early. Yes and what's so wonderful is that there are just small amounts. And then you discard them. Then we take semi-sweet chocolate. All right again just don't worry about any kind of unconnected. But you know this is this is what happens. Man at this point I take this pic and I'm just going to do. Oh yeah. And if you look good with a knife you could enter with toothpicks. Now you notice I go all in one direction. I don't go down an aisle and I think this sort of looks like a Florentine. Looks very professional. Thank you. All right and then we're going to set this aside we're going to let our set up which will take

about an hour but if you wish to speed along you can put in the refrigerator and then I will show you how we will turn this in Culloden two pieces of grain. Well while the cake is setting up for the Florentine squares Let me show you something else that we can do with a nine inch square general good. This one has been soaked with the same wine syrup. But instead I'm using an app or cannot jam that has been saved and spread just like we did the current jelly. These were going to cut out little circles and it will expose the outside. And I just twirling and this is a one and a half inch cutter and it was put on like that's a little. OK now we want to do is our white. This is nice and creamy. You can chill before you cut the little circles it will sometimes give you less crumbs on the side when you

start pressing them. And also whatever goes off the cake is no problem for the next three days. This is when the fun begins. And then I like to do something. And then I take a tooth. I go in front of that little circle. And so and that's like a little harder to hurt. And then you can also do little squiggles back and forth like you can do what ever you wish. I take a little bit of a lilac candy lilac and I just sort of stand in awe. Right now you can pick these up. It will do is put them in the refrigerator and we can let them get harder and they will be easy to pick up or you can let them sit out. The other thing that's very important is you take a spatula and you just rotate this a little because you're cutting off

any of the glaze from under you and then it's easy to pick them up and they won't stick to us. Now we're going to do is cut our quarantine squares. And here it is. And this hasn't totally set up but we want to show you how. You can make these little guy. All right what I do is now I cut away the sides. Oh absolutely. These are nice sweet hors d'oeuvres. OK. And then we can cut away this but you cut as close to the corner as you can because you don't want to waste too much that's why I was being so careful to get the cake to come out of the pan. Karalee and you cut all along the sides. Here we go. Now at this point I have a ruler so what I do is I take the bus. I just do one and a half like so all the way down but I'm just going to do a few right now

and make notches here one and a half on all four sides. All right. Now at this point. Now this has been set up completely but we'll just pretend it has. And what I do is I cut through the just the glaze this is what keeps it from cracking on you when you cut it because you don't want to just take a knife and just start plunging in. And then the same exact way we're absolutely that's the only reason I can stand here and speak like this right in the mix when you line up do the same thing. Always cleaning your knife. You can't rush through you know you can't. Now you've cut through your. Meat. And again if you wish you could chill this cake it would probably have less crime. It's very fresh.

When you cut all the way down and then yes you could leave just like this early in the day not get stale because they're all together and then when it's time to put them on your plate then you have to book them on your plate you. Like you always love anything rather than leave little cakes. It's been wonderful to have you talk about how the breaker. Thank you. Thank you. Complete recipes for all the breads cakes cookies and pies in this series and more are available in the Baking with Julia cook book over 500 pages detailed instruction and 100 color photos to order. Call 1 800 9 1 8 3 6 0 0 0. This program has been funded by Land O'Lakes makers of the butter. People have

baked since 1921. Baking with Julia is funded by the makers of Iman Hammer baking soda. Part of America's favorite recipes for over 150 years. Arm and Hammer baking soda the standard of purity. By Farberware. Creators up Farberware millennium never sticks stainless steel cookware durable hard over millennia never stick stainless steel cookware. And a King Arthur Flour offering tools ingredients and flour for all your baking needs by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and bi annual financial support from viewers like you. This is PBS.

Detailed recipes for everything baked in this program are available with a printed transcript of this episode of Baking with Julia to order your copy call 1 800 mine one eight thirty six hundred. The prices for 95 plus handling this transcript includes baking tips and step by step instructions. Please request the program number on your screen and have your credit card ready when you call for the Baking with Julia transcript and recipes.