Baking With Julia

Boom!

Hello, I'm Julia Child.

Welcome to my house.

What fun we're going to have baking all kinds of incredible cakes, pies and breads right here in my own kitchen.

Today, taught by master chef Michel Richard learn all about making and baking puff pastry from these charming breakfast sweets to this splendid savory tourte milanese.

Join us on...

It's hard to believe that this little flat, pale piece of dough when baked, can turn into this wonderful puffy object.

This is French puff pastry-- pte feuillete-- or mille-feuille which means it has almost 1,000 layers to it.

And it's tender and tasty and one of the most beautiful doughs.

And Michel Richard is going to teach us how to make it.

He's about the best puff pastry maker in this whole country, if not... Not the best.

Well, one of the good ones.

One of the very best.

And I am going to show you...

I have been making puff pastry for 35 years.

Starting out in France.

France, in 1962 and one of th e first doughs I learned how to make.

Okay, to make a puff pastry we need one pound of pastry flour.

I use pastry flour because you don't want to o much gluten for that kind of dough.

You only use gluten wh en you use yeast.

Okay, I'm going to use that.

Now, I'll have to... if you can't...

If you can't get pastry flour you can use a combination of plain bleached cake flour and all-purpose flour in the proportions of one cake flour for three all-purpose.

Oh!

I will use th at recipe.

You don't have to use it.

Right, and then we need 1 teaspoons of salt.

That's just plain salt.

We need one cup of water.

1 1/4 cup, 1 1/4.

I don't read well.

I am glad you are here to help me.

And then we're going to process it until we create a nice little ball.

Don't be afraid to overprocess.

Add more water th an the regular recipe.

That's it.

Few seconds.

We have to remove th e dough from the machine.

There, that's it.

See, the dough is rubbery, but not firm.

It's easy to work with.

We'll create a nice little ball.

Then we'll cut the top.

I cut the top of the dough to cut the elasticity, yo u say, cut the rubberiness of the dough.

You have to cover th e dough with a wet towel for a few minutes and I'm going to work...

I'm going to pound th e butter.

This is one pound of sweet butter.

We have to use the butter wh en the butter is... just came out fr om the fridge.

We want the butter to be firm.

Make sure the butter is cold.

Normally when I do that in the pastry shop... O sole mio... You have to sing this.

Okay, I just pound the butter nice square and you roll the dough.

That's a nice rolling pin.

It's a French one.

That's the one I' ve been using for a long time.

Okay, you see, it 's a little thicker in the middle.

Why do you want that?

Because then they're go ing to overlap.

So that'll make it even.

Okay, you reverse th e butter... Yeah... in the middle of the dough.

That's a very clever way of doing it.

See, because you are go ing to have three layers on top of each other.

It's so neat and nice.

There we are.

And then you... ta p it a little bit.

There we are.

A little bit more flour.

I notice you're very careful to keep it in a rectangle all the time.

And the flour makes sure th e dough won't stick.

You roll it.

We are going to do tw o turns because when yo u do a puff pastry you will do ab out six turns.

Mm-hmm, to make the layers.

This is one turn.

It's terribly important that it keep very cold, isn't it?

It has to be cold or the butter's go ing to melt and then go th rough the dough and we are going to have a... very bad puff pastry.

Now, every time you do that there's a thin layer of butter that goes between the leaves.

That's what makes the "thousand leaves."

Here we are, th e second turn.

And now we are go ing to have to refrigerate it for half an hour.

One, two turns... to chill it.

That's so you know...

This way I know I just did tw o turns.

And you have to do...

I will do two more in half an hour.

We will wait ha lf an hour after that.

And just before using it you're going to do tw o more turns.

And that's a damp towel.

Yes, and you ha ve to... refrigerate it... for half an hour.

Now you are re ady to do the tourte milanese.

Tourte milanese, that's Italian.

Oh, no, it's French.

When you say "torte milanaise," it's French.

I see, all right.

And the dough is ready.

We have six turns.

We have one, two, th ree... six turns.

You rolled the last one and refrigerated it.

Yes, I did it a few minutes ago.

And we have a mold... we're going to use.

I'm going to put th e dough in a springform.

This size is going to be a tourte milanese for eight or maybe two like me.

Okay.

All right let's do the dough fo r the inside for the bottom of the tourte milanese.

Okay?

Do a little ball, li ke this.

That's interesting, that you ball it out.

Because you want to do it round.

That's right.

Would you like to roll th e dough?

No.

I know you don't wa nt to help me.

( laughs ) No, I'll just kibitz.

You have to have lo ts of muscle to do this.

Yes, you do.

( both laugh ) The dough sometimes is going to shrink a little bit.

You have to always... lift it up.

Make it relax.

If you force it, it makes it kind of tough.

That's right.

If you force it, it gets tough.

What it will do is sh rink in the mold and you're going to find a little dough in the bottom of the pl ate, of the mold.

Here we are, the butter... lots of butter lots of butter.

You want to do it not for the taste but because it's going to stick to it, like glue.

You have to be able to get it out.

So, you do that.

You don't have to do it perfectly.

And then we'll do th e top of the hat of the tourte milanese, the top part.

You roll the top.

All right, I think the top should be the size of that.

Yes, it's the same si ze, more or less.

Okay, yo u have to flour.

We're going to keep th e whole thing in the fridge while we are preparing th e veggies the vegetables for th e tourte milanese.

And then we are going to cook!

Good, cook the filling!

Okay, I'll put this in the fridge.

Now, Michel, are you going to do the filling for the tourte?

We are going to do it together.

All right.

See, it's beautiful.

We are going to have a layer of spinach, omelet, ham and cheese and the beautiful red bell pepper.

The first thing yo u have to do... We have to roast th e pepper.

And here, at the same time we are going to do th e spinach.

The spinach has been bl anched, sauted.

We remove al l the veins.

And all the stems are out.

We call the veins th e stems.

The veins, just the leaves.

Fresh spinach are wo nderful.

And here, for that, we need some olive oil.

Is that extra virgin, or just good?

It's French.

It must be French.

If it's any good, it's French.

( laughs ) Okay, we need one teaspoon.

Some fresh garlic...

I try to remove on ly two cloves of garlic.

Maybe you need more.

Do you like garlic?

I love garlic.

I love garlic, too, bu t you know it's tough to kiss yo ur little boyfriend after you eat the garlic.

Well, unless he's had some, too.

That helps.

Okay, I don't sq ueeze the garlic because the odor of the garlic is going to end up on the board.

All right, yo u love garlic.

You have to sa ut it a little bit.

You have to ro ast the garlic.

Too bad you don't have th e smell on TV.

They'll eventually get smellavision.

Okay, we have spinach.

We have on e pound of spinach a little bit more, I think.

Okay, we have to saut th e spinach.

You like to add so me pepper?

Some fresh ground pe pper?

Seasonings are ve ry important for food.

We'll add some salt.

You know what?

I think it doesn't call fo r cream or butter but I think it will be dry.

Do you have any cream in the fridge?

I think we do; do you need some?

We don't have to sa y to anybody that we add so me cream.

Cream is very beautiful to have.

Well, it blends flavors.

It blends flavors and it adds some mo isture to this spinach.

How about a little pi ece of butter, too.

Yes, why not?

I love butter.

We are going to tr ansfer it to a dish to cool it down.

Now, here's a dish...

Here we are, th ank you.

And the top.

Merci, Julia.

Je vous en prie.

Let me cover it.

Now we are going to re frigerate it for a few minutes until it is cool.

Next, we are going to do the scrambled egg.

Scramble, break them.

You can do that fo r me, for a second.

Yes, I will.

While I am going to work I am going to cut the flat parsley.

We call that It alian parsley.

I prefer th e flat parsley.

It has more flavor th an the curly one.

Mm-hmm.

Add the parsley ri ght there.

Tarragon.

Tarragon is something ve ry special but very strong.

Don't chop it with a knife because you oxidize it and give a very bad ta ste to it to the tarragon.

Don't put too much of tarragon.

Tarragon is good to give a nice anise flavor.

Chives are going to give a nice oniony flavor to our eggs.

Pepper.

We don't have any salt in here.

No, add some salt.

Some fresh nutmeg.

About 30 years ago, in French cuisine... We are done, nu tmeg and everything.

Yes, I think so.

And so, let's see.

We have the salt ri ght there?

Good.

You want them very loose?

I want them... th at's loose but you're going to have to bake it again.

Those eggs are going to be in the oven fo r almost an hour.

Et voil!

I think it's ready.

Transfer that to another dish.

We are going to cover it wi th the plate take that to the fridge an d cool it down.

Now... Pepper almost ready, yo u see?

It looks terrible.

It looks terrible.

That's just the way you want it to be.

( laughing ) It does look terrible.

I will rub that in to water and we'll peel it.

We're going to remove al l the black part.

Look at that, se e... Regardez!

That's so nice.

Now we're going to cu t the pepper in two and we are going to remove th e seeds.

See?

I think we are ready no w to finish the milanese.

Everything is ready.

Great, everything's ready.

Now everything's cold and you say you're ready to go, okay.

We are ready to build that be autiful tourte milanese.

You see, I covered my dough with the plastic to make sure it won't get dry in the refrigerator.

And that's nice and cold, isn't it?

Nice and cold, yes.

And here, you know, wh ile we are working we have the top on the side you can keep the top in the fridge or you can have a plate li ke this covered with ice That's a good idea.

and we keep the top cold because, you know, you have to keep that dough firm to be able to make a nice decoration on it.

Mm-hmm.

Here we are, let's finish.

You have to press it down to...

Pressing it in, yeah.

the dough should be all the... go all the way to the corner.

Here we are, that be autiful nice dough.

Mm-hmm.

Okay, we're going to use ha lf of the eggs first.

If the eggs were hot they would melt the dough, wouldn't they, yes?

And then I wouldn't be able to do a ni ce decoration.

No.

Okay, another layer of spinach and when you lay down th e layers make sure they ar e all flat even Uh-huh.

so when you cut it, it will look li ke a rainbow.

Oh, that's going to be lovely, mm-hmm.

Okay, we have the spinach and now we have th e ham.

Okay, I use ham but yo u can use turkey, yo u can use...

Okay, one layer.

You know, you can add as much as you want-- we have plenty of ham here.

All right, we have th e cheese, we have some Swiss cheese.

Another layer of cheese.

Mm-hmm.

The pepper, the one we roasted, you know-- we put the pepper here, we remove... Now that's a nice idea, isn't it, yeah?

Okay, cheese again.

Another layer of ham.

The nice thing in something like this you can do it in stages-- you could do the spinach a day or two ahead, even.

Yeah, you could do it ahead.

The puff pastry you could keep in the freezer all ready to go.

Okay, the... okay, th e rest of the eggs.

Official...

Here's a rubber spatula so you won't miss any.

Merci, Julia.

Ah, spreading.

You know, if you ha ve some left too much... maybe to o much dough on ar ound that tourte we're going to cut th e excess off... you keep like on e inch on the sides-- Mm-hmm.

about one inch.

What's that, egg glaze?

You have to... That's just one egg beaten with a little bit of water.

Now, we need the egg be cause I have to stick to... to the dough to stick together.

And then you add that, th e top and you cut... ca n fight with it.

Mm-hmm.

Push the thing down make sure two doughs ar e connecting together... Mm-hmm.

create a marriage of dough.

And then you push it down, here we are.

And then you're going to do a little hole in the middle A little steam hole.

because while baking, yo u want the steam to ... to escape.

If you don't do that, th e skin... the tourte mi ght explode.

And it won't look nice.

You brush the top.

I mean, you do that one or two layers.

You want that terrine to look great, to be golden.

Mm-hmm, beautiful.

Now, we're going to do a little design on it.

You know, with the knife.

You have a little kn ife like this You know, don't go... you don't have to... don't go through the dough.

Just, you have to cut ha lf way down but you're going to make a nice design.

And that opens up in the oven.

Opens up and you have two different colors.

Mm-hmm.

You have the inside of the dough will be a lighter color.

You can see why you need everything to be chilled at this point.

And then you can... Oh.

And then, you do a... Oh, that's going to be nice.

That's what so lovely about puff pastry, I think are all the decorations you can put on.

We are going to bake th e terrine for almost an hour and a half in the oven, an other 15 minutes at 350 degrees.

And we will bake it.

And you're going to put it on a baking sheet and it's about in the middle level and we have a preheated 350-degree oven.

This is going to be beautiful.

Okay.

Oh, look at that.

Oh, my.

That looks great, huh?

Oh, beautiful, and smells so good.

Num, num.

But now we have to wait until th e tourte is cold.

Because if you open it up now it could collapse.

It'll collapse, it would look awful.

Here we are-- co oling rack, eh.

Good.

And now we're going to use the oven for th e oeuf sur le plat.

We're going to do oeuf sur le plat-- that means "fried eggs."

Fried eggs-- it's a nice little thing fo r breakfast.

You can serve it fo r breakfast.

You know, you role th e dough until, like, a half an inch.

Half an inch.

Half an inch.

And then you have a cookie cutter.

Mm-hmm.

This is like, what?

It's about 3 inches.

3 inches, okay-- we cut it.

I'm going to do four.

It's a nice little dessert-- a nice little torte fo r breakfast.

Okay, we're going to role those four li ttle circles in sugar.

Sugar, just plain granulated sugar.

Yeah.

Okay.

And you role the flour... Flour on one side, sugar on another.

Yeah, and you roll.

And so, it's going to be a palmier.

Like a palmier, yeah.

And is good because wh en you bake it the top is going to be cr unchy and caramelized.

Lovely.

And the inside is going to be soft and creamy.

That looks lovely... mmm, and buttery.

Leave the end a little th icker, it will be... Leave the end a little... Oh, I see, so the end will rise.

will rise a bit higher.

That's a good point.

It will look better.

Yeah.

So you don't roll it all the way to the edge you just leave it... That's a very good idea.

Only the middle part.

Oh.

Voil Voil.

Now, does that go... And then I made some pa stry cream earlier beautiful pastry cream-- I' ll show you the recipes.

Crme ptissire.

Oh, what we need, we need two cup of milk Mm-hmm.

We need half a cup of sugar.

I would use a sugar-- I don't like my pastry cr eam to be too sweet.

One pinch of salt.

Mm-hmm.

One vanilla bean cut halfway, yo u know, lengthwise.

We have to extract with th e knife the seeds.

Mm-hmm.

And you add the whole th ing to the milk.

Both the seeds and the pod.

The seeds and the pod.

Four egg yolk.

Mm-hmm.

One-third of a cup of corn starch... Mm-hmm.

and you mix th e whole thing, cold and then you bring it to a boil and you have yo ur pastry cream.

And then you have to strain it, I suppose.

No, you don't have to strain, it's perfect.

And then you usually ha ve to remove the va nilla beans... Well, how do you get the vanilla bean... Yeah, you just remove it an d put it aside.

And that's cold pastry cream.

Cold pastry cream.

I'm not supposed to use my fi nger but I will use it... That's an impeccably clean finger and it's all right when they haven't been cooked.

Right there.

Now we're going to finish th e whole thing-- oe uf sur le plat.

Oeuf... ...sur le plat.

We have some fr esh apricots.

Oh, I love apricots.

If you don't use apricots you can use cherries or apple.

But they wouldn't look like oeufs.

Oh, no-- they won't look li ke eggs, like oeuf.

( laughing ) Okay, you have to remove the seeds.

Oh, I see, so that's the... that's the egg yolk.

That's a wonderful idea.

Yeah, it's nice.

Two.

That's fun-- you want to give that to your kids to have a good time in the morning.

I give that to my little girl.

And she's surprised it isn't an egg.

Because they do n't like eggs but they do like apricot an d crme ptissire.

And we are going to ba ke them, you know, in a 350-degrees oven.

I can't wait to see what it looks like.

Yeah.

Ready for the oven-- in a 350 oven, how long are they going to bake?

35 minutes, until th ey're golden brown an d crispy and moist and... voil.

You know, I'm putting a nice glaze over that... That looks exactly like an egg, it's wonderful.

And one thing, I do that be cause the apricot they are not sweet af ter you bake them to get some sweetness to the apricots.

I see, yes.

And they look shiny, it looks so... Now, what kind of glaze is that?

It's apricot-- I boil some apricots with a little bit of sugar and some water you bring to a boil fo r a few minutes and then you strain it, an d here we are.

In France, we don't ea t eggs in the morning but we do eat th ose kinds of eggs.

But we do do this.

Then, we're going to cut a slice of th e tourte milanese.

Oh, I'm dying to see this inside.

Now, this is cooled off.

Cooled off, yes, it's be en cool for a few hours.

What would... do you sort of eat it at room temperature?

Yeah, it's ea sier to cut.

Mm-hmm.

It's easier to cut otherwise, if you cut it wh en it's too warm I can see, it would all fall apart, wouldn't it?

You won't have a beautiful slice.

Mmm.

Cut... make sure you cut al l the way down because you don't th at to stick and then you take your kn ife and it should... Whoa, look at that.

Oh, it's still warm.

That is lovely.

Well, that is just beautiful.

Let me take a little piece fo r me, I can't wait.

Now, what should we eat first?

Should we eat...

I think we could ha ve it for dessert but first we need, I think, we need so me wine to...

I think you're...

I think you're right.

We've been working so hard.

We've been working so hard we need some wine.

It's a nice Hermitage wi ne that I find in yo ur wine cellar.

It's going to go well wi th the terrine because the anise, yo u know, the anise, yo u taste the anise the pepper, it's peppery, it 's wonderful.

Oh, I can't wait to try this.

Mmm, that's good.

I'll taste it.

About the best one I ever made in my life.

Mmm, it is.

Fresh ingredients.

I think we should try some oeuf sur le plat.

Oeuf sur... oe uf sur le plat I love the way you sa y it, it's wonderful.

I cut it in half.

Oh, it's crunchy.

You cut right through the egg yolk, there.

Now I will taste it.

Crispy cream.

Mmm, that's so wonderful.

Puff pastry's so good.

Oh, it's nice.

Michel, thank you very, very much.

It's so nice to be here.

I will drink to you.

And I'll be back.

Good, I hope so.

Julia: Bon apptit!