(egg cracking)
(frying pan)
- Today it's me versus Barry.
And I will continue my reign of victory.
- And we're revisiting one
of our previous cooking battles to celebrate the launch
of our brand new cookbook.
- It's called the ultimate cooking battles.
Normal's edition.
- And the theme of today's battle is chocolate.
- Last time, as usual, Barry spent most of his time
sat on his arse and Mike swooped in for the win.
- So, will Barry be able to knock Mike off the top spot?
Let's find out.
(exciting music)
- And with a little nod to cosplay,
we asked you guys for your favourite iconic duos
and this was the favourite answer.
- I am Buzz Lightyear, space ranger.
- And I'm his best mate, Woody.
This hat really doesn't fit me.
- No hat fits you because...
- I know. It's a serious problem.
- Get cooking in three, two, one.
(buzzer)
- Microwave.
(rock music)
- So, boys as with all of our battles this year
there are badges up for grabs.
Today, basic chocolate badge.
- I've got my sheriff badge.
- I'm making a PB and J chocolate tart.
Last time around, technically I won
but, watching it back through,
technically, I was terrible.
So, I'm going to incorporate a couple of hacks
a couple of tricks, things that I picked up
in the last four or five years.
And also tweak some of the flavours,
tweak some of the processes,
to try and show off a bit,
hopefully to get a chocolate badge.
- I'm taking one of the best savoury puddings
you could ever ask for and I'm making it sweet.
(laughs) - I can't actually argue with you.
- I mean, that was your logic a few years ago
and why change it.
- I am making a chocolate Yorkshire pudding.
Think... a beautiful Cocoa Yorkshire pudding.
with white chocolate ice cream on top,
sprinkled with some mango and some pistachio
and some more chocolate on top.
Starting with my ice cream mix: mascarpone cheese,
white chocolate, and some sugar.
Whisk it up,
stick it in the freezer for a couple of hours.
- So I'm starting by making my pastry.
It's flour, icing, sugar and cold cubed butter
rubbed together to make
little breadcrumb consistencies.
Then, adding in a bit of salt,
an egg and some milk.
Bringing that together whilst playing
with it as little as possible
because that's now going to chill
out for an hour in the fridge.
- My batter is really simple: two eggs,
some milk, splash of water, then flour and cocoa.
Simple as.
Get it mixed up together, and then let it rest
for about an hour.
Water in your pancake mix is something that we took from the
how we cook book, where it makes your...
it makes the batter
and the Yorkshire pudding a little bit more crisp,
a little bit lighter.
- Now Baz, last time you just sploshed
the whole lot in together.
What you doing this time?
- What a fool.
What you're meant to do, is you're meant
to pour in slowly,
to avoid any lumps
- Or once it's kind of, a little bit of is
incorporated, you can then go in with a whole lot
and then it doesn't matter.
- And that definitely is the reason
you then leave it to rest.
- So my pastry is chilled.
It's out of the fridge and now I'm trying to
roll it big enough to basically
cover a whole tart tin.
- Come on Mike, come on Mike.
- Oooo.... Bam! There we go.
- We grab some of the pastry
from the outside and then use that to push it in
because then you don't press it with your fingers.
It stays nice and cold and you can get it right in there.
- So I guess the art is to kind of lift it up
and ease it in rather than force it in.
But the tip with the dough is really handy
saves you having to put your thumb through it.
Third batch of chocolate there, Baz.
You've used white chocolate.
You used cocoa powder.
- I did that. Yeah.
Got some lovely, rich dark chocolate going on here,
which is, we'll say about 80% probably.
- For a man who's after his official chocolate badge
and his knowledge and his research...
- I don't wanna be a bought. Do I?
- The thing with ganache is, it's easy to make,
but difficult to master.
- Now docking the pastry.
I'm now going to fill this with baking beans and rice.
Another chefy tip.
Because of the length and the size of rice,
it means it gets into more nooks and crannies
than baking beans alone.
So it's even better to use.
Just takes slightly longer in the oven.
That goes into the fridge for 15 minutes,
comes out, straight into the oven for 10.
Whip these out. Bake it again.
- Mike, you've got it all to lose and,
looking back over the past recent battles is
Mike doesn't handle himself very well under pressure.
- Right. Okay.
- I've chopped my pistachios,
sliced my dried mango,
white chocolate and shortbread.
It's all garnish at the end, as well as some fresh mango.
Then it's just a waiting game.
- So I'm making a peanut brittle
because I'm going to have
my caramelly shards sticking out at the top of my tart.
Last time, I wasn't happy with the decoration.
It looked rubbish.
So I'm going to try and get some decent sized shards
and arrange them nicely on the tart.
So peanut brittle requires a caramel.
This is sugar, granulated sugar,
covered with water only
to the point where it starts to dissolve.
Don't add any more than that.
It'll take ages to burn off.
Cause you're basically going to evaporate
all of that water before the sugar becomes caramel.
- I'm here to win a badge as well as win this battle.
So let's talk chocolate
- When making ganache, what do you need to bear in mind?
And what are the risks?
- So you want to warm the cream up.
You don't want to boil the cream.
You want the chocolate to be evenly cut
so it melts at the same time.
You let it sit in the cream for a good few minutes
then mix it up.
It should combine. It should be as simple as that.
- What if you want to warm it up again?
- It's not advised. (laughs)
You know what, if you stuck that bowl over a bain-marie
and cooked it very very softly and slowly,
you could get it back.
- Correct answer.
I learned something the other day.
Did you know that cocoa is hydrophobic.
- He has literally got far too much time.
- Literally hydrophobic. It repels water.
- So I'm just, I'm just cutting up
my mango and it's a bit brown and rubbish.
I'm going to go out and get another one.
- I'm not coming with you. (laughs)
I've got lots to do.
- Yeah, without you, I might look silly.
- Yeah. (laughs)
(silly music)
- So. This is a little bit experimental.
Cause this is not the recipe that's
going in the new book.
I am tweaking it because chilli chocolate,
I think, works really, really well.
And cocoa nibs, just even more texture.
When you crunch into one of them
you're going to get a big old sort of dry cocoa-y flavour.
Okay. We're going, we're going.
I don't know how I feel about this.
It's better than last time
but it's still not what I wanted.
I wanted, I wanted a little bit more
of an even distribution.
Whereas I have zig zag here.
- Mike, while he's shopping for a mango.
- Yes.
- Any chocolate knowledge you want to give us?
- Barry's already stolen the thing I knew about ganache
which is not boiling the cream. I did know actually.
One think I did look into is
how'd you get that really silky smooth ganache.
Because, traditionally, it is just hot cream and chocolate.
But we're kind of emulsifying it with butter.
In my case, and a bit of sugar as well.
But, this I know is an amazing,
super silky ganache.
That I actually got right last time.
- Last time you corrected it correctly.
It just took you about 15 minutes longer than it should.
Cause you had to correct it.
- But this time I don't have an extra 15 minutes.
That gets baked for 15 minutes
and James is very kindly setting me a timer
so that I don't forget.
(silly music)
- Everyone's staring at me.
You know what? I don't look so silly.
Because this costume has got a mask ready to go.
(guitar music)
- Shall we make a delicious, silky smooth ganache?
My double cream is heating up.
It is not going to boil.
I'm chopping dark chocolate into really small shards
so that when I pour my hot cream over the chocolate
and butter, it's going to melt
so much so that I can leave it
once the cream is on top for a couple
of minutes and it's all just going to do it.
Quick stir, then sugar. Done.
- I like a ganache with a nod
to a bit of honey or something like that.
But the fact that this has got the brown sugar
and the butter through it,
it is slightly looser than a, than a regular ganache
which you could even almost truffle.
- Hey.
- Hello. Hello.
This is very firm. My concern is it's not ripe at all.
- This will be amazing.
- That was the best one.
- That was the best?
- The best one.
- It's not great.
- The good thing is,
you've still got time to go and get a tin.
(laughs)
- No.
Right. As backups,
I've got proper plums and some...
I know I can't get that word out my head. Michael....
Phylasis... Physalis.
- Send Barry to supermarket
and he comes back with style over substance.
(rock music)
- You can't just ignore that?
- Oh, Oh, I didn't see that.
- Oh, he's got a hole. Is that what you're saying?
The other option is to egg wash it
and seal the hole in with egg.
- To be fair, you've probably you've got what
like an 80 to 90% chance
that we won't get that bit anyway. So....
- Back in for five.
- I will get mine done quick now.
So cream warming up.
Going to pour that over chocolate
to cream the ganache.
Oil into a cast iron pan, into a preheated oven
at 220 to get it really, really hot.
So when I drop my batter in, it bubbles.
Go straight back into the oven.
It starts to puff up.
- The pressure is really piling on here
because Barry and Jamie
have still got another battle to go.
This is your last one in this series.
And the person who wins the most battles goes head to head
in the final.
- I'm feeling a little bit threatened.
I'm gonna be honest.
- I wouldn't worry about that until the end result, mate.
- The cream going on top of the chocolate
and then do nothing.
- I'm going to chop up some brittle and start prepping.
Got my ganache ready to be stirred.
But now it's just about moving quickly and I need shards.
I'm just not happy with this.
It's not turned out how I wanted.
So I'm just going to chop it right up.
Let's stir this.
(rock music)
I'm not going to use any other chocolate recipe than that.
Cause that is banging.
- Oil is shimmering.
Pour it in.
This bit really needs to work
otherwise I don't have a dish.
- It's looking a lot better. A lot, lot better.
- Okay. About 20 minutes to go.
And at the end of that time,
Baz, you need to have yours plated and ready for sexies?
Mike, yours needs to be in the fridge setting
but you're not allowed to do any more to it after that.
- You need to cool right down right now.
- Okay. Trim, trimming time.
Got a little serrated knife here.
- So this is nice safety net.
Giving yourself excess that you can later trim away.
- I'm well aware that this is not how the pros do it
but this is how Mike, the normal, does it.
Tiny little bit came off there. Damn.
Otherwise it'd be perfect.
Ah, fell out the car, Jurassic park.
(sings)
- Ben, I can tell that you've been inspired
by these two and you want to get the recipes.
Well, I, I can tell you that they were available
in the new cookbook, which is available on the website.
And if you're a Sorted club member,
you can get 10 pounds off.
- And I've also heard if you're not a Sorted club member,
you can sign up on the website
for free and still get your discount of 10 pounds.
Alternatively, you can get an annual membership
plus the ultimate cookbook battle and hero veg
as part of like a superhero bundle for just 65 quid.
- Okay. This has now got to cool down quickly
because I'm running out of time.
When it has, I'm going to slather the bottom layer
with jam, then dollop peanut butter over the top
and sort of marble those two together.
- This was back in the day when,
instead of everything you create being yuzu,
it was peanut butter.
- Err Ebbers, I've probably done two yuzu dishes ever
and everyone just slags me off for it.
Then, my chocolate ganache goes over the top.
- Tell you what, even from here,
I can see the shine on that.
- So that's going to go into the fridge.
- Time to plate mine up for the judges.
- Is this the part of the recipe where you make something?
- Personally, I'd have used another spoon for that.
- This will do.
Biscuity crumb.
- All the textures. All the fruit.
- Some plum and some Phylisis.
- Yes.
- Dried mango, chocolate.
- Five, four, three,
two, one.
- Chocolate Yorkshire pudding, 2021.
- Let's get in the sexies.
(music)
- First up: Barry's chocolate Yorkshire pudding
with white chocolate mascarpone ice cream
and the chocolate ganache.
Cheers.
- Cheers
- In any dessert, I quite like the hot cold combination.
Ice cream and yorkie.
But I think with the chocolate pudding, it's even better.
I like the crispy outside, which he nailed before.
And it is cooked through even the cocoa powder in there.
- Cooked through is a low bar though.
(laughs)
- I think my favourite bit is actually
the white chocolate ice cream.
I think it's so rich and decadent
and it goes really well with the Yorkshire pudding.
- I'd agree.
Although I would also say
that ganache has got a wonderful shine to it
and actually is the bit that kind of draws your eye in
with all the textures.
That dish, on top of his understanding
and learning about what a ganache is and how it works,
it means Mike's tart has got to be pretty good.
- Do you know what?
- Sorry. You know, that's a pretty good shine on that
ganache. I quite like the dusting of cocoa.
Cause it, it takes the glorious shine off the top
and leaves more of a surprise for the slice.
- Yeah I like it too.
- Good, crunchy, amber brittle
that doesn't get stuck in your teeth.
- I'd love a little bit more jam perhaps.
We haven't mentioned the pastry yet.
I don't know your thoughts, but it's not crispy.
- It's a little chalky.
The chocolate ganache is as good as last time
with the addition of the cocoa powder dusting
and the cocoa nibs in the top.
It's damn good.
The question is who gets the badges and who wins the battle?
- Here we go again.
- Aww
- So James and I tasted Barry's when it was hot and fresh.
And then once yours had set, Mike,
we took a slice and we tasted that.
So let's talk chocolate badges first.
Barry, we thought you had a pretty standout
white mascarpone ice cream.
Your ganache was silky and glossy.
And as a result, on top
of your ganache knowledge, wins you a badge.
- Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
That means a lot.
I need that.
- So it's a lot worse when the other person gets a badge
- It was tough for you, Mike, because you won last time.
So you had a lot to prove.
Your ganache with the butter
and added sugar was silky smooth
but what we liked was the addition
of the cocoa powder and the cocoa nibs
on top, plus knowing that chocolate and chilli works
and, more importantly, getting the right balance.
So, you also get a chocolate badge.
The reality is you're here for the battle.
- Mhmm.
- You both did a great job.
And I think it was a much closer decision
than we all expected it to be.
In terms of overall enjoyment,
Mike still gets the win.
- It was so close.
- You know what, I'm not sure if I'm jealous or not
the fact that you are in the final. (laughs)
You've got to do it again.
- What am I going to be wearing next time?
- You've sussed it. You've won a burrito battle
and a chocolate battle.
Mike, you are in the final.
- Oooh.
- You may be joined by Jamie or Barry
and that will be decided in our next battle.
- Regardless of whether you lose to Jamie or not.
You've got a friend in me.
- So that's it: two battles down.
Two more to go.
But comment down below, who was your winner today?
- I've got to beat Jamie
I have to beat Jamie.
Have to beat Jamie at something.
- Aww (laughs)
- Some say Mr. Wippy some say Mr. Woody.
- I don't think that's going to make it into the edit.
(laughs)
- It will now.