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.

Johanne Killeen, chef and co-owner of Al Forno in Providence, Rhode Island bakes two American classics that you can easily make in your own kitchen-- gingerbread baby cake and Johnnycake cobblers.

Try one, on: Here's an American classic, the fruit cobbler.

Look at those lovely juices that have bubbled out of the baking dish.

And the other great classic is gingerbread and these are both done for us by chef Johanne Killeen and the wonderful thing is she's added her own touch.

For one thing, they're warm.

For another, they're individual and she's going to show us how to make them, right?

I will.

Good.

Let's start with the cobbler and I've heated up some butter.

Now, generally you think about cobblers with berries.

And that you can put together and put it in the oven and everything will be cooked but we have some nectarines that I'm putting in and we have some plums which is a little bit different for a cobbler.

Yes.

And I think that it always tastes better if you get the juices going a little bit with some butter first and some sugar.

So, I'm sprinkling in some... some sugar.

I think sugar makes an awful lot of difference.

I hate it when your served, say, cut-up fruit for dessert and they're so afraid of sugar they haven't added any sugar so the juices haven't flowed...

Right.

and it's horrid.

It's... it is, and I think the... People is nuts, sometimes.

( both laugh ) We're the food police.

The food police are here to tell you sugar's not so bad.

Now, we're just going to turn it and just keep moving this fruit until it oozes a little bit.

I have about six cups of fruit here.

Mm-hmm.

And for every cup and a half of fruit I have a tablespoon of sugar, so it's not a lot of sugar.

But you want to be sure there's enough.

Exactly, exactly.

Yes.

You do want to bring out the natural flavor of the sugar.

And there's nothing nicer than butter...

Yes, yes.

to give it that special flavor.

That's a nice combination.

We'll let this cook down just a little bit, Julia and I'm going to show you the technique of cobbler.

Now, one of the ingredients that I really love to use at... at the restaurant is Johnnycake meal or Rhode Island... Oh, Rhode Island white cornmeal.

Oh, that's wonderful.

Yes, and this is made from flint corn.

Goes into our food processor...

If you... if you can't get... get it from Rhode Island I suppose a health food store would have stone-ground... A health food store is fine.

Absolutely, and this is white corn flour but it would be just as nice if you use yellow corn flour.

Mm-hmm.

Just make sure you have nice, fresh cornmeal.

And I have a total of a cup and a half of flour that we're adding.

Is that all-purpose flour?

This is all-purpose flour.

Unbleached?

Unbleached, yes.

Or does it make any difference?

Well, I think it makes a bit of a difference, don't you?

I think it's tenderer, unbleached.

Yes, I think so, too.

And to this we're adding a teaspoon of kosher salt.

Now, the kosher salt has no anticaking ingredient, no chemical.

You always use kosher salt.

I use either kosher or sea salt.

And you say that it all melts...

It all melts.

and we have to believe you.

( laughing ): Yes, you will.

Well, you can... you'll be able to taste.

And we have a tablespoon of baking powder that I'm just going to level off.

That's double-action baking powder.

Double-action-- goes right into the processor.

And, let's see-- let's put in a half a teaspoon of baking soda.

Now, why do you use both?

I use both because... what happens with the cobbler is you want a little bit of lift and you want a little bit of lift up and you get that from the baking powder and you also want a little bit of spreading action and you get that from the baking soda.

So we use them in combination.

I also have a little bit of fresh ginger in this batter.

Oh, good.

It's gingerroot that's peeled.

Yes, that... that's good and fresh.

And finely chopped.

Yeah.

And I'm going to put this in and ginger has just enough acid in it that you like to have a little bit of baking soda to neutralize the acid.

I see, so that's what baking soda... is neutralizing acid.

Yes, yes.

Yes.

It's very good for neutralizing acid.

Now I've got my dry ingredients and my ginger and I'm going to pulse this on and off.

Mm-hmm.

( food processor clicks on and off ) Okay, well, that's actually enough just to combine the flour.

That was eight times.

That was just eight times.

We just want to aerate the flour and combine it.

Now that we have our... we're going to be putting our butter in-- this is where we pulse it a little bit more.

I have my butter cut up into cubes and this is unsalted butter.

And how much?

This is four tablespoons of unsalted butter.

Or one-half stick.

Or one-half stick.

And make sure that it's very cold and after it goes into the food processor being very careful not to cut yourself I just like to coat the particles of butter so that they don't stick together as I... as I start the processing.

So those little cubes are all... Well, that's a... that's a good idea-- just mixing the butter with the...

Right, and then it combines with the flour a little bit more evenly.

Without cutting your fingers on the blade.

Without... that's right, you have to be very careful.

Okay, now, this is where we're going to pulse it... Yeah.

on and off 18 times.

( food processor clicks on and off ) Exactly 18.

Let's see if it's ready.

Yep.

Now, all the particles, the butter has... is small.

This could go a little bit more because I have a couple big chunks but can you smell that ginger?

Mm-hmm, and butter.

And the butter.

( food processor clicks on and off ) Now, it depends on how sharp your blade is.

Mm-hmm.

But I think this is a bit better.

I think they're a little bit more equal.

You can have a blade sharpened, can't you if you send it back to where you bought it?

I believe you can.

I think so.

Now, the next process I'm going to do by hand.

Just make sure you get all your things out.

Make sure everything's out of the processor.

And with a fork, I'm going to make a little well in here.

And I have a cup and a half of... of cream which might be a little bit too much so I'm going to pour it in.

Is that heavy cream?

This is heavy cream.

I'm going to pour it in.

The real stuff.

The real thing... about a cup to start with.

Mm-hmm.

And then, very quickly, we would just want to combine this with a fork.

I may need more, but you never know.

Depending on how much moisture is in the air sometimes you need more or less liquid.

Do you have sugar in this batter?

I don't have it yet, but let's add it right now.

I'll put in three tablespoons of granulated sugar and I can tell that this mixture needs a little bit more cream so we'll put in a little bit more cream, as well.

And here's our third.

A little bit more of the heavy cream.

It should be a delicious batter.

It should be.

So, now, it's pretty crumbly.

You don't want it completely homogeneous.

Mm-hmm.

And now this is ready.

Is our fruit ready?

I don't know, what's the fruit supposed to be doing?

The juices have come out and I just want it to be tender.

Yeah, mm-hmm.

Now, did you see the beautiful cobbler dishes that we have?

I do, right here.

Okay.

I mean, you can use, really, any shape you like but we thought these ovals were so pretty.

Oh, they are pretty, yeah.

They're really very, very beautiful.

Put our ginger aside.

Okay, now our fruit...

I think that's good.

This is going to bake a little bit more... Mm-hmm.

and it'll continue to soften in the oven.

So, let's... And the juices have come out.

Yep, we've got some nice juices there.

So, we'll put some fruit into our cobbler molds.

You could use any fruit, I guess.

Apricots, wouldn't they be nice?

Apricots would be delicious.

Figs?

Figs and apricots together would be nice.

Mm-hmm.

I don't know that figs would have enough of their own juice because you... No, they wouldn't much.

With cobblers, you really like to have something with some juices that'll flow out of it.

Cherries?

Cherries are beautiful for cobbler.

And then, of course, you have anything in the berry family-- raspberry, blueberry makes a delicious cobbler.

Mm-hmm.

Smells good already.

Yeah, I love the smell of this.

Well, this is certainly... nothing difficult about this.

No, the most important thing is that you start with really great ingredients.

Mmm.

Because, you know that if you start with great ingredients there isn't very much that you have to do to it but if you don't start with great ingredients there isn't anything you can do to make it better.

Well, that's true.

Douse it with bourbon or something.

( laughs ) Okay, now let's top these with the cobbler mixture.

And I'm putting them on a baking pan... Mm-hmm.

so that it's a little bit easier to handle in the oven.

We've got our mixture.

Just scoop that on top.

It's kind of a biscuit dough, isn't it?

It's just like a biscuit dough.

In fact, this... this dough with a little bit less cream makes a delicious shortcake.

Ohh.

Want a little taste?

Taste that.

You'll have that... that flavor in your mouth of the baking powder and baking soda kind of dancing on your tongue.

It's good, though.

Yes!

And just a little sweetness.

Just a little bit, because... Not too much.

Yeah, you want the sweetness of the fruit to really come through.

Mm-hmm.

And that's another thing, I think, about our desserts; they're not overly sweet, they tend to be rich.

But I don't go out to a restaurant to diet.

( laughing ): No, I don't either.

I want a good meal.

And please don't come to our restaurant to diet.

No.

Now, it's not necessary to cover all the fruit but just get a nice topping on there.

And you wouldn't want it smooth, what?

No, not really...

I mean, this is a country dessert it's an old-fashioned dessert.

Mm-hmm.

Now, let's bake this at 425 degrees and we should check it after about 14 minutes, 12 to 14 minutes.

Oh.

Here we go.

Mmm, look at that.

Oh, they look great.

Mmm, they have a wonderful... they smell wonderful.

Boy, look at that.

You know, that's one way to know that they're done-- just by smell.

And then, where the fruit's already cooked...

The fruit is already cooked so we're not concerned about that so much but you want a nice, golden crust.

I'll bring them over here.

And I'll just transfer them to our... our waiting tray.

These big spatulas are pretty handy for jobs like this.

Now, you serve them warm at the restaurant.

We serve them just about right out of the oven and we have different accompaniments.

Sometimes we serve it with ice cream which is always a good idea.

Mm-hmm.

Sometimes whipped cream, and today we're serving it with just plain poured cream.

It's heavy cream that we just pour right out of... right out of a little pitcher and I happen to love heavy cream like that either with shortcake... Well, that's not the kind of thing you're going to eat every day.

No, it's not.

So, let me... Let's eat one.

All right, let's try this one.

This one looks like a good one.

That looks lovely.

You can smell that fruit.

And I think, as you said, you can tell by... by eyeballing it that the...

Exactly.

that the crust is done.

You want a little bit of brown.

Mm-hmm.

You want the golden color and you can... you can tell just by... by feel.

But, really, smelling that... that's such an important part of telling when something is ready to go.

Mm-hmm.

Well, now, you show us how to eat it, please.

All right, what I'd like to do is just separate the cobbler a little bit and we're going to pour some cream right down in there.

Oh, cream into it.

What a good idea, look at that, going down in.

Mmm.

Would you like to taste it?

Well, I certainly would.

Okay.

That's a lovely crust.

Nice and hot.

Hot, hot, hot, hot.

Very hot.

I need a little more cream in it.

Little bit more cream?

( laughing ) Mmm, that's delicious.

Johanne, thank you.

I've haven't had a cobbler in a coon's age and I'm delighted to eat one, thank you.

You're welcome, thank you.

Now we're going to do gingerbread.

That's about as American as it can be.

Yep.

I love the way you do them, individual so you get enough.

You get enough.

Everyone gets the same amount.

Everybody gets the same amount.

Now, before I show you my dry ingredients I just want to mention that our pans are buttered and floured which again is very, very important.

Let's see what size they are.

That's four inches.

Four inches.

By one inch.

By one inch.

How much do they hold?

The capacity is about three-quarters of a cup.

I suppose you could use anything, muffin tins... Sure, little soufflé dishes would work just fine.

But our dry ingredients, again, we just... we measure them carefully, kind of aerate our flour and dip it in, and then level it off.

That's so important, every time... Every single time.

Do it this right way.

And be consistent, that's the most important thing.

So dip it in and level it off.

Just like that.

Now, there's our flour.

That's two cups of all-purpose flour.

Unbleached?

Unbleached, which we think has a better taste, don't we?

Yes.

It's a little bit more tender.

Then we have a quarter cup of instant espresso powder.

Oh, is that just for color?

It's not only for color but I think that coffee really enhances the flavor of ginger as well as our next ingredient which is cocoa.

So there's our coffee and we have three tablespoons of cocoa.

That's interesting.

Now, you could use the same technique of leveling off.

Make sure that everything is consistent.

That's one, we have two... And I see you're doing that sensible thing of getting everything out so you don't forget anything.

Absolutely, this is a real professional trick called the mis en place.

And it's very important to see that you've measured everything especially when you have so many ingredients.

It's very easy to forget something or you answer the phone and... Then we have one tablespoon of dried ginger powder.

Put that over here.

You want to make sure all these are very fresh and fine.

Absolutely-- now, you see how tender this powder is, no clumps.

When it's old, it tends to clump together which doesn't necessarily mean that it's bad but you have to sift it, if it's clumped.

It has one tablespoon... One tablespoon-- we have 24 turns of the pepper mill.

Now, if you have a handy little gadget like this it measures everything for you and this is roughly, this is roughly a teaspoon so let's put that right here.

That's interesting, putting pepper in a cookie.

Yeah, well, it makes it nice and spicy.

I mean, I really love the robust flavor of good gingerbread.

Now, salt is also important.

We have kosher salt, which is coarse, but this will break down.

And you always use it.

I always use it, or I'll use fine sea salt.

And then you have... Because there ain't no chemicals in it.

That's right.

No anticaking ingredient and you can... you can really taste that.

We have a half a teaspoon of baking powder.

Now, these are... That's double-action baking powder.

Double-action, exactly.

It's very fresh.

Now, that does have a shelf life and you have to have fresh powder.

Now, I'm going to just combine all my dry ingredients in a bowl.

Now I know I have everything together.

Put it right in.

You missed a little tiny bit of baking powder.

I'm going to put that right in, there we go.

Now I'll just use a whisk and just combine it.

Since this is nice and powdery and fluffy it doesn't have to be resifted.

We'll just combine it make sure that everything is just together.

I kind of spin the bowl as I... That's a very good idea, isn't it?

It is.

Okay, now, the thing that takes the most amount of time is creaming the butter, and that's very, very important.

We have our paddle attachment in the standing mixer and our butter is already in here.

We have two sticks of butter in here.

Soft butter?

Yes, it has to be at room temperature, 70 degrees and all the ingredients should be at the same temperature.

Supposing it's 90 degrees in your kitchen?

If it's 90 degrees in your kitchen the butter will not be able to absorb the dry and wet ingredients as much as it should.

Now, we have one cup of packed, dark brown sugar going in right in there.

Now, we'll start it up.

This is where we have to be patient because this can take six or seven minutes, maybe more.

Another important thing to remember is to scrape down the butter periodically.

Now, this machine works very fast.

So we're almost at the stage that we need to.

But I just want to make sure that all the sugar is in with the butter.

Now, that looks pretty good.

And we'll just whip it a little bit longer.

Now let's scrape it down just one more time and then we'll add our eggs one by one.

Well, that machine really did it very fast.

Look how fluffy and light it is.

That's lovely.

It's really beautiful.

That didn't take any seven minutes.

No, it didn't... About three.

This is super machine.

It certainly is.

Okay, now with the motor running we'll add the eggs one at a time.

And these are U.S. graded large eggs?

These are large eggs, yes.

You always use large eggs.

I do.

Consistency is very important in baking.

Now, I let each egg combine very well before adding the next.

Now, I let each egg combine very well before adding the next.

And those four eggs, that's three tablespoons each so it's three- quarters of a cup.

So if you're using smaller or larger eggs remember it's three- quarters of a cup.

Exactly.

I think it's safe to measure.

One more yolk.

One more.

That batter's nice and smooth.

It's lovely, lovely and fluffy-looking.

Our next ingredient is more ginger.

More ginger.

For our gingerbread, we're using not only the powdered ginger but fresh gingerroot.

And we have three full tablespoons here that will go in.

Put that on a grater?

Yep, you can either put it on a grater or you can hand-chop it, either way.

They're both efficient ways of doing ginger.

You can probably put it in an electric blender, could you?

An electric blender would probably work all right.

If you just pulsed it.

Yep, you just pulse it.

Now, the last ingredient which is also big, big boost of flavor is molasses.

Molasses.

Old-fashioned molasses.

Is it sulfuric molasses?

Yep, sulfured molasses.

And how much is going in there?

That's two full cups.

Two full cups of... And that gives... sulfured molasses.

Yes, that gives it a great flavor.

And we'll just combine this.

Mmm, that already has a wonderful smell.

I love molasses.

I do, too.

Let's do the next step by hand.

You can see that we have this really nicely mixed.

Everything's together.

Julia, can I have the dry ingredients and we'll put those in next?

Okay.

I'll bet this is the best gingerbread.

I like it.

Well, I think with all that ginger and the molasses, it's going to be lovely.

Well, I worked on this formula a very long time with one of my staff members, Lauren Falsone and we just... we worked on this until we just got it right.

That's fun.

It is, it really is.

And you could if you wanted you could do it in the machine.

You could easily do this in the machine.

I like to do it by hand just so I stay in touch with my batter.

I'll pour these into the prepared pans.

I'm just going to bake four.

But how many does it make, eight?

This will make eight.

This will make eight individual cakes.

And again, you can use a soufflé dish if you like.

Or you could bake it in a big... in a big pan, I guess.

Yes, you could easily do this in one large pan.

Like an eight- inch round pan?

Eight-inch round or you can even do it in a tube pan.

That would make a nice gingerbread.

Then you could have a lot of whipped cream in the middle.

( laughing ): Yes.

And that's about...

It's about half to two-thirds full.

And these cakes get baked at 350 degrees for approximately 20 minutes.

And you'll notice that the tops... And that's all?

That's all.

The tops will crack a little bit but you want to be sure not to overbake them because they're best when they're really moist.

Do you test them with a straw?

I test them with a little skewer.

Good.

And those are still warm?

Still warm.

Lovely, and you serve them warm at the restaurant, too.

We serve them warm at the restaurant.

That's lovely.

And we serve them with all different types of topping.

The most simple is whipped cream so we have a little bit of whipped cream here.

And for a nice little crunch, we have candied lemon peel.

And we've just chopped up a little bit for garnish.

And we have that recipe in the book that comes... that comes with this television series.

You have the recipe in the book.

Yes, and it's a real simple one.

But it adds a nice little crunch.

And it's lovely that it's your own.

And lemon is a nice counterpart to the cake.

I think it gives it a nice, fresh flavor.

So you get to taste.

Let's see if it's any good.

Yes, yes, that's the important part, right?

Nice and tender.

It is.. it's so... look at that, that's... and it's, it is tender.

Nice and warm.

Can you taste all that ginger in there?

That's a really... it really tastes of ginger.

That's the best bread I've ever had, I think.

Well, thanks, thank you very much.

Well, look at what we did today.

All this wonderful stuff.

And these lovely cobblers with their fruit in it.

Thank you so much, Johanne.

This has been a wonderful lesson.

I'm going to make my own now.

Thanks a lot.

Thank you.

Julia: Bon appétit!