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.

Marcel Desaulniers, Chef and author of Death By Chocolate indulges our fantasies with a white chocolate cake all adorned with fresh raspberries and chocolate sauces.

Learn how on... [Captioning sponsored by Viewers Like You] We're going to have a chocolate funfest and festival today.

Look at all of what we've got here!

There's white chocolate in two forms and cocoa and bittersweet and bitter... Marcel Desaulniers is going to lead us through this great event.

Well, I hope so!

I love chocolate and if you catch me putting my finger in the chocolate bowl and licking it you'll, uh... you'll get my point here.

And we do have qu ite an array.

We're going to be melting so me white chocolate fo r the pattycake and some dark chocolate for some chocolate balloons we're going to be doing a little bit later on.

So, if we want to get ri ght into that...

So, let's begin!

I'll chop the white ch ocolate and... Tell me more about white chocolate.

There's some that's not very good and there's some that's better.

That's right-- you've got to check out the label and when you do that, lo ok for cocoa butter.

Uh, you need to ha ve cocoa butter and when you say, "W ell, doesn't it all ha ve cocoa butter?"

No!

In fact, it doesn't.

A lot of this stuff is called white coating.

It can't even be ca lled white chocolate.

So, I'm chopping this into ab out a quarter of an inch, an d if you'd like to we can start melting th e dark chocolate.

And we're using a couple of double boilers so, Julia, if you'd like to put the...

There you are.

We'll put that on this one here.

So, we've got a bowl wi th the chocolate on top and then about an inch of water on the bottom there.

And the water is not touching the bowl.

Uh, it's not.

It's going to take tw o or three minutes so while I'm chopping the white chocolate here, that will get going.

So, I'm going to start melting th e white chocolate now.

I'll take the top portion of what we call an "official double boiler" and, uh, put my white ch ocolate in here.

How much you got there?

I've got 12 ounces of white chocolate.

We're putting in a couple ta blespoons of water.

The white chocolate has a lot of cocoa butter in it.

All chocolate has cocoa butter be cause that is the fat in the chocolate.

We have to handle this a little differently and, in fact, we're adding more fat to this because we're doing some unsalted butter.

We've got four tablespoons of unsalted butter.

And I use a whisk with th e white chocolate because it needs to come together as an emulsion and in order to do that we re ally have to move with it.

And if you don't mind... we could stir this a little more because if you do that, yo u'll notice in about the time that I've got the white ch ocolate completely melted here that will be as well.

And that's good se mi sweet chocolate there and let's look at our dark chocolate here.

That looks lovely.

Actually, we can shut off th e heat on this one.

The dark chocolate-- We'll be dipping so me balloons in here a little bit later on.

Balloons?!

That's right, and we 'll have some fun!

That's going... that's going to be odd!

I hope I can blow th ose balloons up!

So, see how nice an d smooth that is.

Oh, that's lovely.

So, let's see wh at happens here... And you can see how that lo oks a little bit as if it's separating.

Yes .

But with some vi gorous whisking...

But it definitely has a different viscosity as you can see.

Definitely-- I didn't realize it was this fussy.

But here... see how it 's getting smooth now.

Yeah.

I think we can le ave it right there an d we'll shut...

I'll wipe a little.

Shut the heat off.

Shut the heat off, okay.

When in doubt when wo rking with chocolate as far as the amount of heat we're using-- ju st shut the heat off.

We can always br ing it back.

Hmm-mm.

So, if this, fo r instance, now... the optimum temperature fo r this, after melting, is about 125 degrees.

Hmm-mm.

If we put the balloons in at that temperature there's a chance we might get a little ex plosion going on.

Because that's a little high.

We want to cool it down to about 90 degrees and that's not only be cause we don't want to burst anybody's bubble.

It's because we actually are do ing something very similar to tempering chocolate-- that is rehardening it, uh, so it has that little bit of snap.

So, 90 degrees is... just two or three degrees north or south wo n't make that much difference.

No.

But in that general range.

So, I think I'll put that of f to the side right now.

We can get this ou t of the way.

We'll just set it he re on the counter.

So, I better get th is cake going if we're going to ge t it into the oven.

So, I need a half a cup of cake flour.

Plain, unbleached cake flour.

That's right.

And I'm going to si ft that, actually.

And the reason I do that is to aerate the flour and then it will in corporate... it will absorb the liquids a little bit better.

And, of course, sifting is good if you have additional in gredients in there... if we had a little cinnamon which would give some ad ditional flavor.

And the reason we're doing it on parchment paper is a little later on wh en we add it it makes it a little easier.

You can do it on wa x paper also.

Now, I've got ten eg g yolks in the bowl and I'm going to put a half a cup of sugar in there.

Now, do you use large... large eggs?

Yes.

Okay, so we're going to put it on high for two minutes.

What I'm doing here is dissolving the sugar-- that half a cup of sugar.

And, uh, eventually we want th ese egg yolks to be, uh, li ght and lemon in color.

Make the ribbon!

That's right, ma ke the ribbon!

And we'll do that by pu tting them on for an other two minutes.

So, here we go, on high.

Okay, this is lo oking great here.

And we can see that the sugar is totally dissolved-- Otherwise, we'd se e little grains.

So, the sugar is dissolved and it's nice and light an d lemon in color and I think it's...

It's interesting-- you use a paddle rather than the whisk.

That's right because, uh, we 'd create too much volume.

The next thing I'll be doing and right now I'm going to put this on low speed because if I do to o much talking which I do sometimes the eggs would get lumpy if they stayed there for several minutes without some agitation.

So, we're going to put it on low.

Now for that volume, we'll whisk egg whites.

I have six egg whites and a quarter of a cup of sugar.

I'm going to hold off a little bit on the sugar and get some volume going here and whisk until so ft peaks form.

And you've got a great li ttle tool here-- an electric whisk.

We can do it by hand, certainly but I'll use the el ectric whisk and it's going to take me ab out two to three minutes to do that.

It looks like we're in good shape here.

Those are soft peaks.

Nice, soft peaks.

So, now I'll ad d my sugar and I can do that all at once or gradually.

It really is such a sm all amount of sugar that we can just pu t it right in there.

So, it's a quarter of a cup of granulated sugar.

I'll whisk that for pr obably another two minutes and, uh, we should be in good shape... Looks like we're there.

Nice, stiff peaks and, uh, they're no t dry though.

The big thing about that is that if we dry them out then those little air bubbles th at we've created wo n't expand in the cake and the cake won't rise gl oriously out of the pan.

They're lovely and shiny-- they look beautiful.

They have that gl istening quality.

That's another thing-- if you overbeat them they get sort of this du ll, glazed look.

So, let me...

If I could get yo u to hold that ju st for a moment.

Okay, there you are.

Shut off our mixer.

Now I am going to add the white chocolate.

If I can show you this here, ho w significantly different the white chocolate is in appearance to the dark chocolate and the reason is th at we've tried to cr eate an emulsion.

We've got water in there, we 've got additional butter and, of course, lo ts of cocoa butter in the white chocolate.

So, it doesn't look as smooth as one mi ght think it should but this is fine be cause it's going to... Once it goes into the eggs it will create an emulsion.

It will create an emulsion.

Let me go ahead-- I' m going to pu t this on low and incorporate the chocolate.

You got a little bit left in there.

Oops, sure do!

Should we lick that off or put it in there?

I think we'll... le t me, uh...

I'll lick a bit.

So, I can go ahead now, ac tually, and take this off.

That looks great.

And use the ru bber spatula... You want that little bit more?

Sure, let's put it in there.

Boy, that's sticky stuff.

That white chocolate, ag ain, because of all th at cocoa butter definitely reacts a little bit differently.

Mmm, tastes good!

So, we can lose th e paddle here now.

And, uh, the ne xt item is the... th e sifted flour... and how handy it is like this.

Just put it all in at once.

All at once and give it a couple of quick turns.

And sometimes I see people fo lding ingredients in and they do it so deliberately and you want to get in there.

You're going to get a little flour dusting ou tside the bowl but it's definitely... Because you don't want it to deflate.

No, no, and we don't wa nt to play around wi th it too much because then we st art losing volume.

Don't answer the telephone!

I'm going to add about a third of the egg whites to begin with just to lighten up th e batter a little bit.

Now, let's see... does that look...

I've already failed my math test a couple of times.

Does that look good?

That looks good... to me, anyway.

Okay, and we'll ge t that in there...

So, that's looking good there and let me add the re st of the egg whites.

And this really is, uh...

I think when people th ink about chocolate they're automatically lo oking for a dark sort of turbid- lo oking situation and in this case here wi th the white chocolate it sort of surprises you.

But the flavor is definitely there.

So, a few more qu ick turns-- no t too many because we certainly don't wa nt to deflate the, uh... You don't put any vanilla or anything like that in?

Not in this one.

There's a little vanilla in the white chocolate.

If you don't mind handing me the buttered pans.

I've got two pans, an d they happen to be non-stick pans and the question might be "I f you're using non-stick, wh y go through the trouble?"

Well, a little more insurance.

We want to make sure th at when we pop th ese out of the pan they come right out.

Now, why is this square?

I didn't have a ro und cutter today so I just cut it in square pieces.

So, it doesn't make any difference?

No, it doesn't, no.

I thought there was a purpose.

So, evenly divide it in to the two.

There's a little egg white there but that doesn't make any difference?

No, it really doesn't.

No, it really doesn't.

That will dissipate wh en it cooks because, remember, we're go ing into the oven now.

It's a 325-degree oven and it's going to take us ab out 26 to 28 minutes until that old, tr usty toothpick inserted in the center co mes out clean.

Okay, how does... does th at look about even?

Hmm-mm.

I think so-- pr etty close to it.

So, anyway...

I'll get th ose in the oven.

I'll open it for you.

Already it's smelling good-- th at white chocolate ha s a beautiful aroma.

Julia: Th at's 325 in about...?

26 to 28.

26 to 28.

Julia: Why do we have balloons?

Is this going to be a kiddie thing?

Well, we're going to ha ve a party, Julia, so... Our chocolate is lo oking really good.

It has a beautiful color to it... glistening, as it should.

It's cooled off.

Actually, it's cooled a little too much so we'll place it ov er some hot water.

Hmm-mm.

And it's going to take about... oh, all of ten seconds to get to exactly wh ere I want it.

I don't know about you, bu t this is one of my favorite sights... a big bowl of me lted chocolate!

Then having to taste it to see if the temperature is right.

Well, that's the fun about co oking with chocolate!

Yes, it is.

It's not like ch opping onions!

Who wants to get a ha ndful of raw onions?

Ooh, that looks great.

I love these ribbons, too.

But I think it 's just about there.

Once you get a feeling for just the viscosity it has not too stiff an d not too thin somewhere in between there.

Yeah, just barely warm on the bottom, exactly.

So, now for the balloons.

And you really do have to use a special type of balloon for this.

Really, on the serious side, an d they're little devils and I call them li ttle devils be cause they actually they're very difficult to blow up.

If you try... and I'm not...

They won't blow.

They won't blow.

You have to stretch them out wi th your hand.

And give them a couple of tugs like this.

These are the balloons th at kids of all ages use for water ba lloon fights.

If you don't buy a qu ality balloon like this you end up... they'll pop be fore their time.

There it goes.

Must've been that cigar I smoked on Sunday.

( snorts ) Whoo!

Okay, and then you ha ve to make sure you get a good kn ot in there because otherwise th e air will run out, so that's what we've got.

And now the fun is th at the balloon goes... and no you don't wash them, I get that question all the time And the balloon goes right into the chocolate and then that's all you need to do if you want to make just a real tiny little cup.

And you just let th e chocolate drip off and put it right on th e parchment paper there.

But if we want to get a bit more decorative we can actually ro ck the balloon back and forth in the chocolate and what we're doing there is creating sort of a petal-like effect.

That's lovely.

And see how pretty that is?

And the reason you put it on there because you want it to stand up...

It will be less of a mess when we actually re move them from there.

Well, that's such fun.

Yeah, and then we put them in the refrigerator.

It takes about 25 to 30 minutes and then if you like, also, a little white chocolate you can drizzle a little white ch ocolate in with the dark and you get a marbleized effect.

That's fun and it's nice having that little petal effect.

And then, after th ey've been refrigerated and hardened, th en we'll pop them.

And actually pop them an d remove it so we'll do that a little bit later on so I think we've go t enough now for our little pl ate presentation and perhaps, I didn't me ntion that we're going... actually this will be part of the white chocolate pattycake.

It will be a garnish and we'll fill it with red raspberries.

Of course, if you want to fill it with chocolate mousse that's not a bad way to go, either.

Okay.

I'll put them in the fridge.

All righty.

Desaulniers: Not a moment too soon, I think here.

Well, that's a nifty device there.

Okay, I can actually tell but let's give it the old skewer here.

And absolutely dry, so th ey look like they're ready.

It's beginning to separate from the sides of the pan.

Yes, it is, so I'm going to put them on a cooling rack and they need to cool in th e pan for about 20 minutes before we start handling them.

Julia: They really shrunk up quite a bit.

Yeah, they did, an d I think they we re in the oven two or three more minutes th an they should have.

But once we put all th ose great raspberries... Nobody will know.

I don't think an yone's going to complain.

So, now we just turn them over and we have to allow them to cool for a bit more but I will remove th e parchment paper, however and you can see the bo ttom's a little dark, but...

They smell awfully good.

They sure do.

I think they're go ing to be delicious.

So, I'll do this other one.

And now we want to let th em cool just a bit more before we handle them because as you were mentioning earlier it is quite a delicate cake wi th all those eggs in there an d good butter...

So, can you, how much ahead can you do these, would you say?

Well, you could ba ke them ahead and actually refrigerate th e layers without putting the red ra spberries on there.

Because once we put the red ra spberries on there you'll... Eat it... within the next tw o to three hours.

But at this stage, on ce they're cool put them in the fridge.

Wrap them with some plastic wrap and you can keep them refrigerated for two to three days or if you have room in the freezer put them in there.

True, well, that's good to know.

It sure is.

You could bake them one day, and eat them another.

Certainly.

Okay, we actually have some cooled off so that we can move the party along here.

I've got two layers and you can see...

Yes, those, yes, a little lighter.

A little bit lighter.

This is, has a lovely, delicate feel to it.

Nice texture.

So, now we have to do a little pattycake and actually press do wn on the edges just to give it a little, a bit more level base.

So, I'll just slide this of f onto our cake base here.

And then we've got so me red raspberry crush.

We've pureed in th e food processor.

Two cups of re d raspberries and a couple tablespoons of su gar and a little lemon juice.

Half of that go es on one layer and we'll spread th at out a little bit.

And then the other la yer's going on top.

Are those fresh raspberries or frozen or you could use either one?

Actually, these are two eight-ounce packages of frozen raspberries, for the red raspberry crush.

We're using some fresh raspberries to garnish and of course, eight ounces is a cup, but it... they are two ei ght-ounce packages.

Could use fresh raspberries if you wanted.

Absolutely.

So, the remaining cu p on top.

And what happens is that the cake is still ju st a little bit warm and it absorbs a little bit of that raspberry.

Of course, it's so moist an yway, you know I'm going to save a little bit of this to do something fu n with that, in a bit.

But we'll spread it out, ju st a little bit.

The cake smells awfully good.

You would never think there was white chocolate in it.

Yes, really an ambrosial ar oma to it, I think.

These raspberries ar e quite extraordinary.

I don't know wh o your gardener is but uh, they really ar e incredible.

We can simply scatter the be rries on top and get going or we can be a little bit more precise and actually do some ci rcles of raspberries and it looks pretty wh en we do it this way.

I can help you.

Have to try one, too.

They are so sweet.

I'm eating all the crushed ones.

There's one.

Oh, I think you've got room for one more there, great.

It's finished, though.

It is... You don't put anything around it?

No, we don't.

No, it's...

I guess a rustic pr esentation, if you will.

It looks lovely.

Well, let me see if I can get this cut up here so we can set up a nice piece.

You're going to cut right through it.

Get through those be autiful raspberries without disturbing th em too much.

We might find a few falling, a bit askew, but I think... Well, the presentation is important.

And do you know wh at I should do is wipe this blade, an d a nice thing to do is run it under some hot water ev ery time you make a cut and you end up with a mu ch cleaner-looking cut.

I can give you some hot water right here.

You got your towel?

Thank you.

So we do that.

Well, that's always a good idea, isn't it?

And it really, as they say, it will cut like butter.

Yes, it does, doesn't it?

Do that every slice, an d you'll end up with a professional- lo oking piece of cake... You can still do that at the table, too you could have a nice... pitcher.

Sure, you can dunk it in your hot tea.

So, let's see, how do es that look there?

Oh, that looks nice.

And I saved a little bit of the raspberry sauce.

I wanted to show you on my plate presentation here.

And you know Norman Van Aken, do n't you, down in Miami?

Yes, I do.

Well, the first time I ate at Norman's restaurant they brought out th ese plates and they were ju st so wildly decorated I asked Norman how he did that and he explained to me that he actually put the plate in a deep sink and then he would take a cup of raspberry puree and just throw it down on top of the plate and this stuff go es all over the place.

So we won't, I won't ge t that animated here but I think you can ge t the idea that just by dripping it over... Well, this sort of, oh, is this the contemporary dribble?

Sure, just like that, a little splish and splash and if you don't like th at sort of look then you can actually put it in a little squeeze bottle and give it a little sq uirt like that.

And then we have a little ch ocolate sauce, too.

I'm so enamored with dark chocolate that I couldn't leave it out of the equation here.

And we'll give it a little... so it's just sort of an eclectic look.

Yeah, put a little bit on that.

Okay.

That looks kind of bloody.

( laughing ): How's that?

And... that's fun.

And so we'll put a slice on a plate here, ri ght in the center and once we put... That actually looks very nice.

Yeah, I think so.

When you're using nice ingredients it's amazing how little yo u really need to do because these fresh re d raspberries are so extraordinary that they certainly st and on their own.

Okay, it's time to pop these balloons.

I'll get my trusty li ttle knife out here.

Bingo.

Whoa!

Isn't that... that's fun.

And then you just pull it out?

And see, that's the re al little one that we did.

And then you just have to make sure that you get all of the balloon out of there.

But we can...

I can see you really have to, have it really cold, don't you?

Yeah, they do, an d actually these are starting to soften up ju st a little bit so we put a few raspberries ri ght in these li ttle cups like this and I think that's a really nice garnish.

And another thing if you'd like, a little whipped cream in there would also be nice.

Forget the raspberries, pu t some whipped cream in there because it certainly wo uld be complimentary... We could put some whipped cream on that side.

We could.

( laughing ) I think you and I are on the same wavelength when it comes to desserts.

So that's our pr esentation there.

Oh, well, that's beautiful.

Are we going to eat one?

Should as well, I think we better.

We'll have to hand in our... our dessert card if we don't.

That really is... you can see the raspberry is really soaked in to the layer there.

How would you describe the taste of that cake?

It's delicious.

I think the nice thing ab out it, on the serious side is that it has a very clean and it's not an overly su gary taste to it.

It's been great fun.

Thank you so much.

That's going to be part of my repertoire.

Good, sweet dreams.

Julia: Bon apptit!