Discover Martha Stewart's (and Snoop Dog's) treasured family heirloom dishes in this collection of classic recipes. From timeless comfort foods to cherished culinary legacies, Martha shares her favorite recipes that have been passed down through generations. Learn how to recreate these iconic dishes with Martha's expert cooking tips and techniques. Dive into the heartwarming stories behind each recipe and embrace the nostalgia of family meals!
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00:00They're are they good? Yeah, they're gonna be delish. You
00:10gonna put black pepper on them too? Put what? Black pepper? Oh
00:14yeah, a lot of black pepper. But we have white pepper for
00:16some reason but I like black pepper. Here now, a whole a
00:19cup of a quarter of a cup of warm milk and a quarter of a
00:24cup of heavy cream cuz you're skinny. You you you dance all
00:28the time and and run around. I stay in shape, baby. I'm
00:30athletically built. That's what you call this size. You are.
00:33You are. You are really good. Yes. So. Athletically built.
00:36Salt to taste. A little bit of salt. Sprinkle a little bit.
00:39Pepper to taste. This is white pepper. I ain't never seen
00:42white pepper. Y'all getting. Smell. Smell. I don't like
00:45that. I like black pepper, man. Come on. Can we have black
00:47pepper? Please. Black pepper, please. I agree. Step y'all
00:52game up. Come on. They're they're just being fancy.
00:54They're they think they're. Thank you, love. They think
00:56they're being you know. That's what I'm going for right here,
00:59Martha. I don't know. So, put black pepper in. I agree. Yes.
01:01Yes. So. My granny be proud of me right now for this what I'm
01:05doing. Um. Can I add something to it? A little bit of this
01:08yak yak. Look at this body. You know. That's cute. What is
01:15that? You like her body? Yeah. I do too. See? Yeah. Her dress
01:18is too low though. Gotta pull it up just a little bit. There
01:22it is. Okay. Her shoulder. Yeah, that should come down a
01:24little bit. Flavorful sausage, juicy burgers, tender
01:29meatballs, homemade meatloaf. These tasty recipes all have
01:33something in common. Ground meat. Accessible, economical,
01:38and so very versatile. There are many varieties of meats
01:41that can be ground. Beef, pork, lamb, poultry, or even
01:46seafood. And they all yield delicious results. First, the
01:50classic comfort food that always takes me back to my
01:52childhood. It's my mom's recipe for a meatloaf with a
01:56sweet and tangy glaze. A very popular recipe. And for those
02:00of you who aren't lucky enough to have a good butcher in your
02:03neighborhood, my good friend and butcher extraordinaire, Pat
02:06LaFreda, is here to teach the simple technique for grinding
02:09meat at home. And he's also gonna share his family recipe
02:13for Italian pork sausage, whether you like it hot or
02:16sweet. Then, for your next backyard barbecue, I'll teach
02:20you how to make the ultimate burger by combining different
02:23cuts of meat to suit your very own taste. And show-stopping
02:27giant meatballs made tender with ricotta cheese for a hearty
02:31family meal. Stay tuned. I think you're going to find this
02:35show right up your alley.
02:39Now, this is a very, very easy, basic recipe. But it has a
02:51couple little additions that really make it very tasty. Mom
02:55used to make this, oh, at least once a week. Because we would
02:59eat it and then we would also make sandwiches of it to take
03:02to school. Start with four slices of white bread right in
03:08the food processor. And so now just pulse until these become
03:13breadcrumbs. Mom always made her own breadcrumbs. She never
03:20thought of buying them, heaven forbid, because we always had
03:24ends of bread left over from sandwiches. So this goes right
03:28into two and a half pounds of ground beef. Mom always used
03:32chuck. And now back into the food processor, two whole
03:37carrots, peeled, cut into pieces, and two ribs of celery.
03:43These vegetables add a nice moisture to the meatloaf and a
03:48lot of good flavor. You should check the blade in your food
03:54processor. Make sure that the blade is nice and sharp. After a
04:00year or two of use, you might have to have it sharpened or you
04:03might have to even replace it and get a new blade. So look how
04:07pretty that looks. Wow. That looks so great. And now grind
04:11up your onions, yellow onions, one big yellow onion, peeled
04:17and coarsely chopped, some Italian flat leaf parsley, about
04:22a half a cup of leaves, and two cloves of garlic. Now all of
04:27these vegetables and the breadcrumbs too really do
04:31lighten the meatloaf, make it less dense and certainly more
04:37flavorful. Perfect. So that's the basic solids for this
04:43meatloaf and you can make three or four if you're having a big
04:48family get together at the beach or at the camp. Now add
04:55salt, one tablespoon of salt, and two teaspoons of pepper, a
05:04half a cup of ketchup. Mom used a lot of ketchup. She liked it
05:10a lot and she also liked dried mustard, two teaspoons of dried
05:15mustard and one egg and you can mix it up with a fork, but I
05:22remember mom just throwing it into the whole mix. Now start
05:26with a wooden spoon or a spatula and then you can really
05:30mix the rest of it with your hands. So now use your hand and
05:37I like to keep one hand kind of clean just in case I have to
05:40answer the telephone. So there you can have a free form
05:45meatloaf if you like, but I find it works really well in a
05:49bread loaf pan like this and I have buttered the pan. You can
05:53also use olive oil just to have an easy release. Okay, so now
05:58just pack this into the loaf pan and it looks like a lot. It
06:03does cook down and shrink a little bit during baking.
06:06Preheat your oven to 375 degrees and as mother said always
06:12get every last speck out of the bowl. Do not waste. So you
06:18don't want any air pockets and I like to go with my fingers
06:22just down the sides so that it will kind of mount nicely when
06:27it bakes. Okay. So now for the topping into a half a cup of
06:34ketchup, add a teaspoon of that same dried mustard powdered
06:40dried mustard. And here you have two tablespoons of brown
06:48sugar. So that's a little bit surprising as a topping for a
06:53meatloaf, but when you taste it, it's mom's version of
06:58barbecue sauce. That's really what it is a simple barbecue
07:03sauce. So coat well. I like using a brush like this. It
07:07works very easily. Is your mouth watering yet? This bakes
07:13for 90 minutes or until a thermometer in the center reads
07:18160 degrees. So here's the meatloaf. I've let it cool just
07:23a little bit and it baked on a rack in a parchment lined
07:26baking sheet. There's a lot of juice. So let the juice just
07:31pour out and the meatloaf comes right out in a loaf surprise
07:37surprise like it's supposed to there. So now this sliced is so
07:45good for dinner. Perfect slice. You can see all the lovely
07:50vegetables in the meat and continue slicing a range on a
07:55platter and serve your meatloaf. If you're lucky to
08:00have any leftover, just remember it makes the best
08:06meatloaf sandwich. Tell everybody what is it's one of
08:09my favorite things too. Well, paneer is actually like
08:11something like cottage cheese and you know it's a vegetarian
08:14dish and my mother always said it's it's what the vegetarians
08:17eat for meat. So it has that texture to it. It has a
08:20slightly meatier taste to it and usually it's it's a common
08:24side on an Indian dinner table. So you start with the chilies
08:28green chilies. Well, yes before the chilies, we're going to
08:30take actually some minced garlic and we're going to add it
08:33to it. We're going to work. Is that olive oil or that's olive
08:36oil is about two tablespoons of olive oil in it and you want
08:39to actually wait for just two minutes or for a minute as as
08:43long as the the garlic starts to turn color. We add some
08:47soy sauce soy sauce soy sauce. You know you know Chinese food
08:51Indian Chinese food is very different from Chinese. We've
08:53eaten here what you would eat in in in China and you know a
08:58lot of our cuisine actually borrows things from them. We
09:01put some soy sauce. We put some black pepper. This is usually
09:05to taste. I usually think one tablespoon is enough. It's some
09:10salt and then we work with some sugar and sugar is usually
09:15for the vinegar. I guess right and caramelization caramelization
09:18here. We have some jalapeno peppers, but then you can use
09:21green chilies. Okay. I usually like to cut them bigger slices.
09:25So if if you if you're serving to someone who's not too fond
09:28of biting into a red chili or a green chili, you can take it
09:32out. They can take it out. It's always visible so pretty and
09:35and it actually adds to the aroma of the dish as well. So
09:38what you have here is once it's been cooking for about 2
09:41minutes, we go straight into the paneer and you want to add
09:44the paneer. The paneer is usually cut it into cubes. I
09:48would soak it in water for about two two to 5 minutes. So
09:51it just gets to be a little bit moist. So it's a real dense
09:56like a dense farmer cheese. Exactly. So I order it every
09:59time I go to an Indian restaurant. I order either have
10:02sog all the time. That's spinach. It's spinach exactly
10:06And the good thing about working with this, you want to
10:09actually add the paneer first because you want all the
10:12flavors the paneer to soak up all the flavors and then you
10:15add your peppers. Let me just turn this down a little. Okay.
10:20You work with your bell peppers, you know, green, red
10:24and yellow and this is actually a great dish because if you're
10:29not an entrepreneur, you can also make a non-vegetarian. You
10:31can work with with chicken or with shrimp. True and or lamb
10:35or lamb as well and lamb is a is a very popular dish. And
10:40then you add the scallions right towards the end. You
10:44want to mix it up really well. Okay. And what about now the
10:46cauliflower you add almost towards the end because when
10:49when when the dish gets too watery, you want it. Oh, it
10:54soaks up. It soaks up the water and it it makes the paneer a
10:58little bit crisp on the outside as well. Oh, beautiful. So how
11:01long would this cook? You know, this is a quick dish. My mom
11:04was like, my mom was a working mom. So, she's always looking
11:08for recipes that she could cook under five minutes. Okay. And
11:11always working very well. So, corn flour. Corn flour, yeah.
11:14That's something you just add towards the end. And here it is
11:17finished. And here it is finished. It is so delicious. I
11:20tried a piece of the paneer and it's so great. Oh, colorful and
11:26flavorful and not and not so many spices. No, it's not so
11:30many spices. It's called, you know, because of the peppers,
11:32we call it a chili paneer but it it really isn't that spicy.
11:36My, you know, we have it at our place. My kids eat it all the
11:39time. Oh, there. And and oh my gosh. Where is, are these your
11:43plates? Yes, they are. And these are his napkins. And this is
11:48your paneer, chili paneer. Isn't it good? It came out great.
11:51Really good. Whether it's hot or served cold with sour cream.
11:56The first thing you always have to do as my mom taught me is
11:58prepare the beets and so what we're doing is roasting them.
12:01It's real easy. You could boil them if you'd like but roasting
12:04them keeps in all those flavors and what are you doing mom? I'm
12:08peeling the last. Oh, the last beet. Oh, so mom's peeling one
12:11that's already been cooked but she wanted me to show you how to
12:13do this. So, in a piece of parchment paper inside, a piece
12:17of foil, just wrap up the beets and place them in an oven. Oh,
12:23forgot to sprinkle them with salt. Have to sprinkle them
12:26with a little bit of coarse salt and a little bit of pepper.
12:29Okay, and a little bit of pepper, right? Talking away.
12:33And some people put a little olive oil inside of even a
12:37little bit of water but I don't think you really have to do any
12:40of that and then get this into a 400 degree oven and bake until
12:44they're really tender. Well, you can check the tenderness with
12:48a knife or a fork. And it takes about how long? Your way. It
12:51depends on the size of the beet, maybe an hour. Okay. But
12:55it's a less messy way of doing them than boiling them. So now,
12:59we grate it on the coarse side. And so only four beets for this
13:04entire soup. This is vegetable stock, Martha. Okay. Made with
13:11carrots, celery, onions. Did you put any garlic in? Yes.
13:16Another thing that we can add to make it a very pecan kind of
13:19a borscht is soaked mushrooms. So, you have some morel and some
13:25what porcini? Porcini. So, chop the mushrooms. Cut the
13:30they've been soaking for a couple hours. Now, you don't
13:32throw the water away, do you? No, we put it. In the soup?
13:36Yeah. Okay. But should I strain it? Because that might be a
13:38little bit of dirt in the bottom. I'll just not pour in
13:42the last. Alright. So, the mushrooms go in. Do the beets
13:46go in? Mm-hmm. Oh, now, right? Yeah, we can put them in now.
13:52So, slide those beautiful beets right into the
13:55This is a such a simple soup. So, now, this cooks what about
14:01the parsley? Yes, we'll add everything. Oh, okay. And a
14:05clove of garlic. So, this is what? Two tablespoons of
14:08chopped parsley and a third of a cup of chopped celery leaves.
14:13I love celery leaves. And how much sugar? A teaspoon.
14:20I think sugar always is very important in a soup like this.
14:24It just brightens it up, don't you think? Okay. So, now, we
14:29cook that for about how long? Well, we'll cook it about 20
14:32minutes. And we have one that's already simmered and this is
14:37it. And look at how it really does change appearance,
14:40doesn't it? Oh, that looks so good. Now, what happens? Well,
14:45now, we add sour cream. I'll mix a tablespoon of flour just
14:51for thickening. A half a cup of sour cream. So, this isn't
14:59thick enough for you. Oh, you make it pink though, right?
15:02Yeah. Oh, okay. Sour cream adds a little flavor. Now, if you
15:06want to, you can add a ladle full of the liquid. Okay.
15:16Gorgeous. And does this cook a little longer so the flour gets
15:21cooked? Yeah. So, that looks good. So, add this? Yes. So,
15:26that'll thicken the soup beautifully.
15:31You always add the liquid to the sour cream. Otherwise, it'll
15:34curdle. How pretty. And borscht is supposed to have a sour
15:39flavor. And over the years, I've always used sour salt which is
15:45like citric acid. So, one of those little secrets that
15:48mother has never showed me before. I never saw sour salt
15:50in our house ever. Well, this is an old joke. It's taken this
15:55many years for my mother to tell me about sour salt. And if you
15:59have any vegetarians in your family or if you really are
16:02practicing Catholics and not eating any meat during Lent,
16:06this is the best. Another way to serve borscht is with boiled
16:11potatoes. And then at the very end, we add chopped fresh dill.
16:17So, a big scoop for you.
16:22What a color. Isn't that nice? Oh, and it's not too thick.
16:25It's just thick enough. And another thing you can do is to
16:29garnish is to put a little sour cream on top. Oh, we must. Now,
16:34that is the perfect soup. Delicious. And I'll tell you in
16:38Polish, smacznego. Smacznego. Meaning? Very delicious.
16:43Try the borscht. It's really good. When I last saw Tatiana,
16:48we just started talking. You said, I make pickles. And I
16:52said, oh my gosh, Russian pickles? And you said, yes. And
16:55I just adore Russian pickles. So, I'm so anxious to learn
17:00your recipe and this was really from whom? Well, this is my
17:03grandmother's recipe. My grandmother, Marie Nikolaevna.
17:07So, the first thing we put dill pickle and it's a flowering
17:12pickle and it's you just put like this the whole thing. It's
17:16much better to use this type of dill because it's much more
17:19flavorful. Yes. For this jar, we put four all spices. Okay.
17:25Half of a bay leaf. So, not too much stuff goes in here. No,
17:29because Russian pickles are very mild. I see. Two gloves of
17:34garlic cut in half. Okay. When they cut, they just smell and
17:38taste. Russian hardneck garlic? Yes. Yes, you have to find that
17:41in the marketplace. There is there is definitely a nice
17:44Russian garlic available. And one slice. Tiny. Tiny. Just for
17:49a little bite of a jalapeno. And we start stacking the
17:53pickles and. Now, these are Kirby cucumbers and they're the
17:57really nice pickling cucumbers and these are washed. Washed.
18:01But you still towel dry it so there won't be any extra
18:07moisture. Exactly on them. And the best thing is to put them
18:10on the side. It's just much. Yes. Easier to stack them like
18:15that. I think. Now, do you have a, do you put the tops up or
18:17the down? It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. You just stack
18:20them as many as you can get into the jar. And you just put
18:24the couple of. Okay. And a couple across the top. Yeah.
18:28Yes. Okay. This one will fit. Not really. But. You have to
18:32sort of find the ones that'll fit. Yeah. Okay. Do it like
18:37this. Okay. So we stack the jars and then we're gonna put
18:43the boiling water. We just maybe do it with this one.
18:47That's easy. Easier. Oh so just plain boiling water. Plain
18:51first boiling water. And you do this for cucumbers will
18:58absorb water and when you put the brine you will have full
19:02jars. So you keep them like this for 10 minutes like
19:09covered lids. Oh so these were covered. Yeah. Oh these were
19:12already covered. And look at. No just like this to keep them
19:15for 10 minutes so they absorb water. And we have the jars
19:19right here. But they absorb. That's what I'm saying. These
19:21absorbs. They were covered to the top so they really plump up.
19:24Absolutely. Oh okay. So then we'll take them and we have
19:29this little things. One for you. Okay. Just cover over. And
19:34we. But you don't wanna lose the allspice berries. No. No.
19:39Okay. So we have to be careful. We drain them. To lose the
19:42berries. Okay. We drain them back. They already. We put them
19:48right here. Okay. They already smell like. I know. Like
19:50pickles. Yes. And then we put on top extra garlic. Okay.
19:58Extra dill. And first we put one tablespoon of vinegar. And
20:08you put it first because then you when you pour the brine it's
20:12not overflowed and you will have the. Oh so only one
20:14tablespoon. One tablespoon. Russian pickles are very mild.
20:18They're not as strong and vinegary as. Okay. Any others.
20:23So and then. So you can use the cup measure again? Yeah. Okay.
20:26And we pour the brine. Now the brine is what? The brine for
20:34six cups of water. Anything else in here? Yes. Or just water?
20:41No. No. Salt. Two tablespoons of salt and one tablespoon of
20:46sugar. Okay. I think it's easy to do this way. Yeah. And you
20:51always overflowed your. Yes. Pickles with the water. And you
20:57right away put a lid. Oh okay. And as it cools it will seal.
21:02Yeah. And you very important to turn them down so if you can
21:07see if the lids are leaking or something. Sometimes they're not
21:12released tight. How beautiful. Exactly. And you leave them in
21:17the counter overnight and I cover them with. A cloth right?
21:21Cloth or towel. Yes I do too. So they kind of cook inside and
21:25next morning. What a simple recipe and these are that?
21:28Absolutely. And they too die. These are utterly delicious. One
21:36side dish always on our table especially around the holidays
21:40was my mother's cream spinach. And I'm going to share her recipe
21:44with you today. Look at this amazing spinach. Look at the
21:47size of the leaves. This is what you look for. Really
21:50beautiful bright green leaves. Very important to wash the leaves
21:54and shake out the excess moisture. This is two and a half
21:58pounds of spinach. So just put this right into your deep pot
22:04and you can turn this up to sort of medium. So spinach is very high
22:12in vitamin C, E and K as well as beta carotene,
22:16folates, riboflavin and other antioxidants. It should be
22:21fresh, crisp. So there. That's two and a half pounds. See how
22:25it compacts itself right down into there. You can cover it.
22:30So now where did the spinach go? It's right here. You can take them out.
22:38See how wet they are? Really wet. You can squeeze out extra moisture with the
22:43tongs. But if you made a cream spinach with
22:46this wet spinach it would be too watery. Secret is to make
22:51it a little bit drier. There.
22:57So two methods. One result. Drier spinach.
23:04So put a little bit in here. This is called a ricer and it works very
23:10well. Just be real careful if the spinach is
23:14really hot not to press too hard but you have to
23:18pour out the top as well as the bottom.
23:22So that's one way. Now the other way and the way my mom did it was
23:27in that damp towel. You squeeze it out. It takes a little bit more work but
23:33it's effective. There. So we now have our semi-dry
23:40cooked spinach and we will make our bechamel. The butter has
23:48melted. That's three tablespoons of butter. A
23:51quarter of a cup of flour and stir that around.
23:58So cream spinach really doesn't have cream in it unless you add cream but
24:02it's a bechamel which is a flour-based milky sauce.
24:06Now add one cup of milk. I'm making it right in this shallow pan
24:13which is a nice way to cook it because you're going to add the spinach right to
24:18the pan. Add one teaspoon of sugar.
24:25A secret ingredient. Oftentimes southern cooked vegetables taste so good
24:30and it's generally because they add a little tiny bit
24:34of sugar to the vegetables. So there that's your
24:38very nice bechamel and a little bit of nutmeg.
24:44You can use the pre-ground nutmeg out of a can but
24:48it's so much better if you use a real nutmeg.
24:52So there that is your bechamel. Turn that on low low
24:56and chop your spinach. Two and a half pounds.
25:02Use a sharp sharp knife or cleaver. You want a fine texture but don't put it
25:09in a food processor. I think it will only mush it. So this can
25:14go right into your pan. It's such a great
25:18color.
25:22That is good creamed spinach.
25:27Season with salt and pepper.
25:34Beautiful. So good. And spoon that into your serving dish
25:41and serve it hot. And my mom, well actually she always
25:46served it with a little bit of sour cream on the side.
25:49I hope you enjoyed this recipe as much as my whole family did. So I've made a
25:53graham cracker crust out of graham crackers, sugar, and
25:56butter. Yep. Okay so the simple traditional
25:59exactly graham cracker crust. Yeah you can use a fork or a spatula or even your
26:03hands. Did you know that my mom had a cheesecake too with a
26:06sour cream topping that she was famous for? Oh really? Oh yeah.
26:09We should get our mothers together. Yeah well I wish we could.
26:13We can't. So we're going to go ahead and press that in.
26:17And over here we've got. Just up the sides or just on the bottom? I think just
26:21on the bottom. And this can go into a quiche mold or into a springform pan or
26:25into a pie pan. Whatever shape you like. Okay.
26:27For me this this just. The squares work right? It does and it's just a taste of
26:31home. So how do you pre-bake this? I don't. I
26:34don't. We're going to throw on a cheesecake layer which is just
26:37one block of Philadelphia cream cheese. Okay.
26:41Two eggs and some sugar. Oh that good old Philadelphia cream
26:47cheese. You know it yeah. And don't get that. Don't get the
26:50fat-free kind. Please don't. No. Please don't. And don't. It's Thanksgiving come on.
26:53It is. If you need if you need less calories
26:57just whisk it by hand. It doesn't taste as good right? It definitely does not.
27:00Yeah. So we'll go ahead and whip this up until it gets nice and
27:04smooth and frothy. And and I think the best thing about this and the best thing
27:08about any of my Thanksgiving recipes is almost all
27:12of them can be done the day ahead. You know Thanksgiving. That's important.
27:15It's about spending time with your loved ones and your family. So
27:18you should not be running around like a headless chicken. You should be
27:21spending time. Headless turkeys. Headless turkey to to be
27:24to be fair. Um I'm not quite sure how this works. Oh here that
27:28it lifts up. You have to unlock it. Oh okay.
27:31See I'm still learning. It's not quite mixed but we'll give that a quick
27:35things to it. A quick once over. That's not in there tight. Okay. So
27:41should I mix it a little bit more? I think so yeah. Just until it's nice and
27:44frothy. Okay. And then yeah that will go on top and
27:50we preheated our oven to 350 degrees. So no no no uh pumpkin goes in this. This
27:55is the cheesecake part. Cheesecake part. Okay so I'll spread that.
27:59You want to make the cheesecake part? Yeah. I mean the pumpkin part. Yeah so the
28:02pumpkin we use good old-fashioned canned pumpkin just like everybody does.
28:06Um although the first time I made this was in London
28:09and there was no canned pumpkin and so I had to roast pumpkins whole and it was a
28:14disaster so. No but it was good wasn't it? It was good
28:17but um but this is plain and simple and quite
28:20easy. So we've taken a canned pumpkin. We're going to add milk. Canned pumpkin
28:25is one of the few cans I open because it's
28:27pretty much a stable simple ingredient. It is. It is. It's
28:31it's consistent too and so we're going to add half a cup of sugar.
28:35Does it matter that I have a few lumps of cheese in here? Um I'm going to say no
28:39only because we're friends but if you were if you worked for me Martha it
28:43might be a different story. You mixed it. I know.
28:46So I'm going to add three egg yolks. You rushed me
28:49on my own show. Not many people can say that trust me.
28:54Um and a quarter teaspoon of salt. Okay. I'm going to go ahead and mix this up.
28:59So that will go into the oven 350 degrees. Oh by itself? Yep. Oh okay.
29:0420 minutes. Okay so we have one that's already baked. Yeah
29:08and so this pumpkin mixture um as soon as I started making this my son always
29:12says cinnamon because it's got that great
29:14traditional cinnamon smell. This goes over a double boiler.
29:18Basically it's going to cook for about eight minutes just until those egg yolks
29:22start to thicken up a little bit. So is this one done enough? That is. It's
29:26beautiful. You can see it's thick. It's actually gone a little bit more opaque
29:29um and then you can add the gelatin. Ah right while it's hot? Yep. Okay. Yeah it
29:34has been softened with a bit of water. Oh okay. Um oh and then we're going to go
29:38ahead and uh whisk that just until it incorporates
29:42and then it gets pulled off to room temperature. Oh this changes the
29:46consistency totally. Yeah yeah and once it goes to room temperature it will be
29:49it looks a bit thin there but once it goes to room temperature it will
29:52it will thicken right up to something a little bit more like this.
29:57I see. Oh lovely. Yeah. Okay. So here we've made a
30:00a meringue. This might seem complicated but at the at the end of the day you can
30:04make this in about half an hour start to finish and then your whole day is free
30:07the next day. How's that taste so far? Good. So this is
30:12the baked cheese mixture. Yep. Cheesecake pumpkin. Yes. With the you
30:17can see the crust on the bottom. So we're gonna go ahead so that goes
30:21into here. Yeah I don't want to rush you though Martha this time.
30:24Don't worry. I learned my lesson. So we're gonna go ahead and actually if
30:29this comes off. Yeah you can shake that off.
30:32I kind of like to just use this to to mix it in as well.
30:36Oh okay. Yeah if you can get that for me it'd be great. I
30:40certainly can. Okay so we want to refrigerate once it's
30:45baked you want to refrigerate it right? Yeah.
30:47Yeah so this this pumpkin mousse will go on and you can refrigerate it
30:51overnight. Oh so this doesn't get baked? No. Oh okay. Yeah at least eight hours
30:55but overnight is best. So so yeah just to
30:59we can incorporate air and just you know I know at this point all the pastry
31:03chefs of the world will tell you don't mix it too much but
31:05my mother's been doing this for almost 40 years. Does she work in the restaurant ever?
31:10She does not and I love her even more for it. Does she want to?
31:12So she does not want to be in the kitchen with me that's for sure.
31:16I think we both appreciate each other's cooking but I think she's very set in
31:20her ways as am I. Oh really? Yeah yeah. So I'll go ahead and
31:25pour this over top. Actually if I tilt it and you can.
31:29There you go. This looks so good. Yeah this this really is amazing. I
31:33I think we're doing our country a favor by
31:36sharing this recipe. Because pumpkin is indigenous to our
31:39yeah to us too. This will be a memorable one.
31:42Great way to end a long Thanksgiving meal. Okay so
31:46much lighter. So just yeah you can even just tilt it
31:49um and shake it and uh whatever gets in the corners. Level it out.
31:53There you go. You can even leave a bit of texture on top if you like it.
31:56Kind of like that rustic look. So don't we have a piece for me to taste? Oh yes
32:00we do. And so you can do creme fraiche. You can
32:03do yogurt. You can do whatever you want um on the side. But
32:07look how pretty it is. It looks like striped. Yeah it's it's very really is
32:11pretty amazing and uh and I as I said to to eat it is to love
32:16it. Babka in Polish means grandmother. And this is truly grandmother's cake.
32:22This is my mother Martha and she's going to show us how
32:24she makes what I think is probably the best babka
32:28around. Well you're very generous Martha. Well
32:31so to start the dough mother um we have a lot of ingredients in front of us.
32:36We start out with uh beating eggs. Okay. So we have four whole eggs. Okay.
32:43Now we have the like number of egg yolks. I'll say
32:46four. Okay you can add your salt. How much salt? A teaspoon.
32:52Teaspoon of salt. We can make that go a little faster.
32:56And you add a cup of sugar.
33:00Okay. Now while this is beating we've already
33:05uh scalded the milk. Two cups of milk. And we added two sticks of butter to
33:12melt. Okay. About a half a cup of warm water to
33:16proof the yeast. Okay. And then you add that. Put the flavorings
33:20in. Okay. How much vanilla? A teaspoon.
33:26So a teaspoon of vanilla. And a tablespoon of Grand Marnier.
33:33And you could use Cointreau also.
33:37So the very finely grated zest of how many oranges? I think two oranges
33:43and one lemon. You know you don't have to
33:46stick to a definite measurement because if it's a little more
33:50it doesn't hurt. All right now you can add the yeast
33:53which has been dissolved. And we use fresh cake yeast instead of
33:58powdered. And where do you find the cake yeast?
34:01Usually in a supermarket. Now I will add the flour.
34:08We have about eight cups here.
34:13We're adding the milk and the melted butter
34:16a little bit at a time.
34:20And now we can put in currants,
34:28raisins,
34:33golden raisins.
34:43Transfer this batter to a mixing bowl. And this is what we
34:47do to knead the dough. It's fun to see your mom doing this.
34:52Oh is it?
34:55That looks great. And then let it rise in a warm place
34:59covered until it reaches the top of the bowl.
35:02That'll be the first proofing. Now that batter there
35:06is ready to be punched down. And we have little post-its on here
35:10just to remind us of what's going on. This is
35:12first proof. And so I'll punch this down? Yes.
35:16Okay while I'm doing that, why don't you make the
35:19crumbs.
35:23Cut in the butter.
35:28Oh this is beautiful dough. It's so great. So now this gets to rise
35:35yet again to the top of the bowl. Okay so that will now be
35:38the second proofing or second rising.
35:43And I'll change the post-it to second. Easiest way to do this is
35:49to do with your fingers. Okay. My favorite part of the entire cake
35:53is the crumb topping. Really? By far. And the raisins.
35:59And I will sit with the cake. I won't eat the cake. I'll just eat the raisins and
36:03the crumb topping.
36:06So this is second. Now I just punch this down and then
36:10we'll form the cakes. Right. So to form the dough I'll just
36:14flour this surface. Add some brown sugar to the crumbs.
36:20Add a little cinnamon.
36:24This is laden with numerous raisins. I love this.
36:29So you can see that this is well buttered. Every single little
36:32indentation is buttered. And this is where I put the crumbs so that when you
36:37turn it out the crumbs will be on top. Yeah. That
36:40means you have to turn the cake out immediately upon taking it out of the
36:42oven. Right. Okay. So I'm just making a little bit of a
36:48rectangular piece here so that it can be placed in the
36:52Gugelhoff mold. And then these should just be put
36:57in a warm place to rise. So you beat an egg up
37:01and brush the top of the cake.
37:07Just egg nothing else? No. The oven's preheated to what temperature?
37:11About 350. Okay. And you just cook them until they are
37:15brown. I hope all of you love this cake as much as I love this cake.
37:20Thank you so much for divulging yet another one of your family
37:23recipes. Well it's no secret. No it's not. Bath buns, spice buns, penny buns, Chelsea
37:29buns, current buns, hot cross buns all have one thing in
37:32common. They're as English as afternoon tea.
37:35And traditionally these soft and slightly sweet cakes are served on Good
37:39Friday. My mom made really delicious hot cross
37:42buns every Easter in our home in Nutley. I had them for Ash Wednesday. Right. And
37:47then for Good Friday. Right. And they were tender and delicious and
37:52full of currants. And I always ask mom to make put more
37:55currants in them because she was always skimping on the currants. I also used
38:00citron from time to time. That's right. Well here's a recipe that
38:04is an adaptation I think of mom's original. One cup of milk right mother?
38:08It's been heated just till it's lukewarm. Lukewarm. If it's too hot to touch it
38:13it's too hot for the yeast. And you're pouring in two envelopes of
38:17dry yeast. And that's just the regular dry yeast.
38:21Right. Fleischmann's. Okay. And you stir to dissolve. And you need
38:26your sugar. Half cup and two teaspoons of salt. Half
38:30a cup of sugar. Two teaspoons of salt.
38:36Okay. And now the melted butter. Oh yes. That's been melted and cooled.
38:41Yep. Twelve tablespoons. Twelve tablespoons of unsalted butter.
38:46And for flavoring I used cinnamon and nutmeg. Oh great. Three quarter
38:52teaspoon of each will do it. Okay there's the cinnamon. So
38:56it's three quarters of a teaspoon of grated nutmeg.
39:00Look at this beautiful nutmeg mother. This is so strong I'm not going to add a
39:03whole three quarters because this is fresh and pungent. So we'll
39:07see how that tastes. I can smell it all the way here. Oh yeah it's very fragrant.
39:10To this we add the flour. Okay. Five and a half cups. And I'll beat up
39:18four eggs.
39:21Now this is a really easy dough because it's just the liquid and the flour.
39:32Yep. Really easy. Five and a half cups. How about that?
39:38And this was acceptable for lent? Well there's sugar in them. How did we get
39:42away with the sugar? I used to give up sugar for lent.
39:47We gave up candy. Oh candy. Sugar in baked goods.
39:53We didn't have cakes or too many pies but
39:56hot cross buns were acceptable because it's sort of a bread.
40:01And bread you know it's a staff of life.
40:05There's always some rationalization. You know
40:09Easter is the season of the resurrection
40:12and a rebirth of spring. So bread had a very important part.
40:19That looks good don't you think? Okay so why don't we take this
40:22off and see how we're doing. Okay. So how many currants are you adding?
40:27About a cup of them. Okay. The more the merrier you know.
40:31I like fruit in my cakes and buns. Looks beautiful.
40:39Take all this out and I'll get going on kneading it. Okay how much kneading do
40:45you think it's going to require? Well we'll have to mix all the
40:50currants in first.
40:57And the scraper please. There you are.
41:00And it doesn't stick. Lovely. And now this has to rise until it
41:08doubled in bulk. I like to turn this around so that the
41:12top gets a little bit of butter on it too. Good idea.
41:16Now you cover it. So we're going to let this rise for an hour and a half but we
41:20have one already made that really did rise
41:23beautifully didn't it? Nice and spongy. So I'll turn it out on a
41:28lightly floured surface. Give it a couple more. And I'm making the
41:32little egg wash. It's really an egg white wash
41:35for the tops. Just a little bit of salt, water and egg white. One egg white.
41:42So now this makes 24 buns and you can form the buns
41:46and I'm going to brush them with egg white.
41:51And I'm rolling these between my hands. Okay.
41:55And what's nice about an egg white glaze like this
41:58is that it doesn't really add any color but it does add a beautiful shine.
42:03And this dough is dark because of all those spices.
42:07One thing my mother is very good at is high speed
42:11big production. I think that comes from having such a big family don't you?
42:16Perhaps. Nice. Okay there you go. So this here you can
42:20cover that lightly with plastic wrap and let these rise until
42:26they're doubled in bulk and look like this. They'll be ready to be baked. Now
42:30we're going to cut the tops of these in a
42:33cross that, who was it, Queen Elizabeth required.
42:39And so now these go into what temperature oven? About 350, 375.
42:43Okay for approximately 25 minutes. And here is a finished batch. Oh they
42:50look so good and they are tender. And to make the glaze, confectioner's
42:55sugar. Right. What else? Well we add a couple of spoons
42:59of milk to the confectioner's sugar. Just a little bit.
43:03Like one. That's enough. Two. And a little lemon juice for
43:11flavoring and perhaps a little rind. And we'll pipe this on. You can do it with a
43:15spoon but it works so easily with a piping bag.
43:22And a nice little secret so everything doesn't leak
43:25out of the pastry bag is that the tip is covered with a piece of plastic wrap.
43:30See. So we can now decorate our hot cross buns
43:39with beautiful crosses. Yeah right into the cross.
43:42I always used to lick off the cross. I think most kids do.
43:47And then I would eat my hot cross bun. Let's see if they're as good as I
43:51remember.
43:56Really good. It's better. Today mom's here.
44:00You all know my mother. She's going to show us how
44:06to make this wonderful wonderful strawberry
44:09banana summer sherbet. I've had plenty of experience. Where'd you get the recipe? You
44:13know you've never told me where the recipe. Well I wish I could remember but
44:16I was talking to your aunt still the other
44:18day and she has the recipe too. Oh she does. Yes so maybe it was just one of
44:23these family things. I think she got it from you.
44:25Well I'll take the credit but. So with all these strawberries how many
44:29strawberries did we find in the oven there?
44:32Well this is a good quart I think. Okay. So the first thing to do is to
44:36mash your berries. Sometimes I use the wire whip on the mixer.
44:42But I did use this recipe in one of my books and
44:46because I just love it. But I actually really wait for my mom to make it every
44:51single summer. It's a very refreshing. Every time. How
44:54about the deal is you come over to my house and every time you come over you
44:56make sherbet. Good. Okay. I will keep bananas. If you have
45:00blueberries. Oh yes. We'll use those if you have
45:03raspberries. So you don't have to really mash this
45:07smooth because it's good to have a chunk. Yeah you want
45:10the chunks. Okay now you take your bananas and
45:14now someone in the kitchen here at the studio said oh you don't want to use
45:17these bananas. They're horrible looking. But they're horrible looking but they're
45:21not bruised and they are perfectly ripe. Very nice.
45:27Make sure all the fibers are off. So four bananas.
45:31Usually I use at the base four bananas. And you'll need for this recipe four
45:36ice cube trays. Mom always made the sherbet in ice cube
45:40trays so that we would have little cubes to eat. And how much sugar? I'd
45:46start with a half a cup. Should I start mixing the strawberries
45:49with the sugar? So a half a cup of granulated sugar.
45:53To a quart of strawberries and four bananas.
45:56And then what I really love is the addition of fresh
46:00orange juice and fresh lemon juice. So you're adding one cup of orange.
46:08Okay now this has to be freshly squeezed.
46:14And we also have how much lemon juice? Well to taste. So about three tablespoons.
46:20And what makes this a sherbet is the milk.
46:25So those mashed up very well and two cups. I think this is exactly two cups.
46:29Yes pre-measured. Two cups of milk. And that's it.
46:34Can you imagine how simple it is to make your own sherbet?
46:37And the kids, I must tell you, are going to love this. But it's also a spectacular
46:42summer dessert for guests. Well that was one of our popular desserts because it
46:46was so easy. But it's also so good. And it's good.
46:51Yeah so now I'll just scoop this out and make sure you
46:55have room in your freezer. So about two cups fills one
47:00ice cube tray. You can use the plastic ice cube trays
47:04which don't have that kind of a divider.
47:09And as usual my mother's recipes are efficient and
47:12fast, simple and delicious. Well here we go. Here we have four wonderful
47:19trays. It makes just the right amount. It does. It's great mom.
47:23Would you open that freezer door and we can show what they look like.
47:29And look at the color it becomes. When it freezes it becomes this beautiful
47:34rosy color. And it comes out very nicely into
47:40perfect ice cubes. And well another thing that you did that I really
47:44I still suggest to a lot of my friends is to freeze
47:47good juices. Like good unsweetened pineapple juice
47:50right out of the can. You can freeze apricot, nectar. Mom
47:54always froze apricot, nectar, pear, nectar. Remember those wonderful
47:58wonderful wonderful things. So these are perfect. Well do you want to
48:02taste? Of course. They're a little hard.
48:07Well that's why it's good to put them in a dish or a little glass and sit down.
48:10Set for a couple minutes before. They'll soften and then you take a spoon
48:14or a little fork and starts breaking them up. And it's a
48:18very very nice tasty dessert. And I'm going to show you how to make
48:22it. It's a very very nice tasty dessert. And here mom here's yours. Thank you.
48:27It's very delicious and try Martha Kostyra's.
48:30Thank you. It's a pleasure. Thanks mom.