♪ Voice-over: I'm Prue Leith--cook, restaurateur, cookery school founder, and writer of 15 cookbooks.

Looks good, doesn't it?

I'm in my 80s, so I haven't got time to waste.

This series is all about the things that really matter to me--family, fun, food, and friends-- and some of those friends will be joining me.

We'll be sharing simple home-cooked recipes...

I don't normally tell people about that bit, only people I like.

Ha ha ha ha!

and celebrating the best produce.

For 47 years, I have been lucky enough to live in the astonishingly beautiful Cotswolds, and my long-suffering husband John is coming along for the ride.

Can you make that?

Um, under instruction.

Ha ha!

Prue, voice-over: In this episode, former Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson will be in my kitchen and cooking up a childhood favorite.

It's going to be the most luxurious.

It's gonna be gorgeous!

[Both laugh] I'll show you how to make a quick and delicious tomato sauce... Ha ha!

and I'll be cooking a classic dish from the seventies and eighties with my other half, John.

Can you whisk the whites, darling?

I'm just going to test it first.

Put it in-- [Clatters] You just hit the eject button.

Welcome to my Cotswold kitchen.

♪ I absolutely love traveling, and especially with family or friends.

♪ One of my favorite things is to collect new recipes from abroad, and this one comes from Colombia and it's called ajiaco.

Today's recipe comes from Francisca, my assistant's family, who all live in Colombia, and we went to visit them there.

And the first night we arrived, we were given this soup, and it's called ajiaco.

It's a bit difficult to say, and I'm sure I'm not saying it right, but it's something like that.

It's a chicken soup, and I've poached a chicken in this chicken stock.

I made the stock very simply with two stock cubes, a couple of bay leaves, water, and then I added the chicken to poach.

And this chicken spent 50 minutes in the stock, gently simmering, so it's really properly cooked, and it's going to go back in the soup at the end.

Now I want to cook the potatoes, but I think you need at least two kinds, and one of them should be a salad potato, the kind that doesn't break up.

Little New Jerseys would be absolutely wonderful, but some small potato like that.

And don't peel them.

Cut them into chunks.

And then another kind of potato that will break up and thicken the soup, and so these are mashing potatoes.

That's mashing potatoes.

That's salad potatoes.

Prue, voice-over: Let the spuds simmer in the stock for about 20 minutes.

Then we'll add the sweetcorn.

I absolutely love sweetcorn because I grew up, as you know, in South Africa, and we ate it all the time, mostly on a barbecue, like that.

Lovely.

♪ So they'll need another ten minutes or so, and I think I'll put the guascas in as well.

The defining thing about this soup is the flavor of this herb, and it's actually a Colombian weed.

It grows everywhere in Colombia.

They wouldn't dream of buying it in a shop because everybody has it in their back garden.

But it does have a very distinctive flavor, and that's what makes it special, so all of that's going in.

So, while all that is simmering away, I'm going to take the flesh off the chicken, but again, still very large pieces of chicken.

I'll take the skin off as well, just because it does actually taste rather good, but it will have given its flavor to the stock, and I don't like lumps of skin floating around in my soup, so...

I love traveling, and John is a huge traveler and has spent all his life traveling all over the world, but we both love different things.

I mean, what I am really interested in is the restaurants, the food markets, sort of how people live, and this soup was an absolute revelation to me because we had just arrived in Colombia, went to Francisca-- house of her parents, and we sat down and had this just lovely, homely soup, and because of the flavor of the guascas, it had tasted completely new to me.

Not too rich, just lovely.

I'm not sure I do it quite as well as Francesca's mum did it, but it's not bad.

♪ Colombia is the most beautiful country.

Fantastic mountains, fantastic in the north, wonderful beaches.

It's just lovely.

That's pretty well all I can get off that.

Now, those bones, of course, I will keep them and make more chicken stock from them.

I'll just put them in a pan, cover them in water, put an onion in there, carrot, a bunch of herbs, and probably a stock cube, too, just to make sure it gets going well.

And truly, I'm not at all snobbish about stock cubes.

I think they serve a great purpose.

At the end, we're going to put in some coriander and some spring onions, so I'm going to roughly chop the coriander.

You can chop up the stalks as well because they're very tender, so that'll be going in and...spring onions, and, well, we're going to serve with it capers, double cream, and avocado.

And we just helped ourselves to those and added them at the last minute.

These avocados are absolutely perfect.

The idea of whole chunks of corn in a soup and big lumps of avocado and big lumps of chicken-- the combination was surprisingly delicious, and it turns out to be an absolute classic Colombian dish.

Ajiaco.

♪ Prue, voice-over: Add the cooked chicken to the soup and heat it through.

♪ Right, so I think we should dish up.

So when you're dishing out the soup, you have to make sure that everybody gets a piece of corn on the cob, a good piece of chicken, and some of the sliced potato.

And then, I think you want a good bit of coriander.

That's how we had it in Colombia, and then this was on the center of the table, and everybody just helped themselves and you just put it in your soup.

So in went a bit of avocado, few capers, if you like them... and some spring onions.

A little bit of double cream.

Tell you, it is fantastic.

I want to get Francisca to taste this and tell me I've got it right, and I'll sack her if she doesn't say it's delicious.

Let's hope it's as good as Francisca's mum's.

I have made your "ah-see-ah-co." "Ah-hee-ah-co." I say it nearly right?

Nearly right.

Nearly right.

Not quite right.

So taste, because I think it's delicious.

♪ Mmm, it is delicious.

Is it?

And you actually do have the flavor.

It's that-- Guascas.

Guascas.

♪ It is so unusual to us.

I know, to you, it's a very-- it's like parsley to you, isn't it?

Well, yes, and it's just a very national dish and I've been growing up with it all my life, so there you are.

You approve?

Oh, I think it's so lovely.

♪ Prue, voice-over: Next, I'll show you a quick cookie hack.

Nice little chocolate chip cookies in ten minutes.

And former Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson will be joining me in the kitchen.

[Both laugh] Welcome back to my Cotswold kitchen.

Before my guest Ruth Davidson arrives, I have a quick cookie hack I'd like to share.

With my sweet tooth, I do love a fresh cookie with a cup of tea.

Besides, baking cookies just smell so good in the oven.

Irresistible.

♪ If you're making cookies or biscuits, why not make double the amount of dough and freeze half of it?

This is chocolate chip cookie dough... and it's frozen, and because it has quite a lot of sugar in it, you can actually cut it almost frozen.

This might be a bit of an effort because it is frozen.

You can do it in balls.

You don't have to do it in a long roll, but it's obviously easier to roll it up into one sausage than to roll individual little balls.

But if you do do it in the balls, you can cook them straight from frozen.

You just plonk the balls on there and stick 'em in the oven.

♪ I've put them a bit far apart because they will spread a little in the oven.

♪ They go in for ten minutes at 180 degrees.

♪ Nice little chocolate chip cookies in ten minutes.

♪ I love having friends over, and today is no different.

♪ My guest today used to be the leader of the Scottish Conservative Party.

She is now in the House of Lords, and she has a 5-year-old son with her wife and they live in Scotland.

Baroness Ruth Davidson, welcome to my kitchen.

Prue, thank you so much for having me.

What a lovely part of the world you live in.

I know.

Isn't it beautiful?

I've lived here... Gorgeous.

for 50 years, and I know how lucky I am.

So, Ruth, what are you cooking for us today?

Well, I'm going to cook a bread and butter pudding.

♪ Was that a childhood thing?

It was, actually, because I was born in the late seventies, and we didn't have-- we didn't often have pudding after tea, and if we did, it was, you know, a tinned pear with some angel delight on the top or--heh heh!

Evap.

Yeah, yeah, or using evaporated milk in jelly and stuff like that, fluffy pudding, so if we had bread and butter pudding, it was actually a proper, proper treat.

But I love puddings in general, and particularly when it's sort of autumn, winter, spring, you know, when you've still got the snap of the cold weather, there's something just really comforting about a bit of-- a bit of stodge.

I'm going to start by delegating, if that's OK. OK. Oh, that's a good idea.

So I'm going to get you to grease the tin that we're going to use, so while you're doing that, I'm going to start by mixing the custard.

So it's 250 mls of full-fat milk.

It goes in here, and then 300 mls of full-fat cream, so that goes in as well.

And then I might have to ask you how you turn your hob on 'cause it's very different to mine.

I've still got a gas one.

I'll turn it on for you.

How's that?

Brilliant.

Thank you.

You can stick it there.

That one?

Yeah.

Great.

And we're gonna heat that up, but not let it boil, so it's going to get to just below boiling point, and while we do that, we're going to do the second half, which involves eggs, and then we'll butter our bread after that.

So it's 3 whole eggs and one egg just with yolk, so... Just to make it a bit richer.

Yeah, well, you know-- Extra egg yolk.

Heh!

Just make sure you get a little bit of, uh, a little bit more protein and fat in there.

Mmm.

Heh heh!

Shall I butter your bread for you, or some of it?

That'd be super.

Thank you.

Who cooks at home, Ruth?

We both cook in the house.

Um, I would say probably, it's about 60/40.

I do the 60.

In your favor?

Yeah, I think so.

I enjoy cooking.

I find it quite a good sort of relaxer, and some of my first jobs were in kitchens when I was a kid.

Oh, really?

So I started as a kitchen porter in my local golf club when I was 12 1/2, and I worked there till I was 16, and it was mostly just washing pots and stuff, but occasionally, I'd be making up the salads or panning the fish and stuff like that, and I quite enjoyed it.

Yeah?

And I just--I've always kind of liked being in kitchens.

Might have had a career.

Instead of ending up in the House of Lords, you could have been a head chef.

[Chuckles] Well, I'm not sure about that.

I like it, but I enjoy it because it's not my job.

So I'm going to add some sugar to this-- it's 3 tablespoons-- and whisk it all up.

I might also just stir that as it's heating just to see how... OK. on course we are.

When I was a child... Mm-hmm.

I didn't go to Brownies because there was no girls' Brownies, so I went to the boys' club.

Mm-hmm.

And then, when they-- when it was time for Girl Guides, I ended up in the Boy Scouts 'cause, again, there was no club.

And I remember the Scoutmaster telling us, "You have to butter the bread right to the edge."

Right.

And I think of it every time I butter bread: "You've got to go to the edge."

Do you know, I think I would have loved the Scouts; I went to the Brownies, and then, when I flew up to Guides, the Guides pack shut down about 3 weeks after I arrived, and I'd got the uniform and all the rest of it.

And I like to think the two are unconnected, but I'm not sure.

Ha ha ha!

[Both laugh] No, I don't think so.

Now, if you're able to pass that back to me, I'm going to take the crusts off.

Oh, you're gonna take the--oh, no, here was I, buttering it to the edge.

I know.

There we go.

Well, it's, um, should be OK. You look so happy, Ruth.

I was thinking you probably don't miss politics, or do you?

Well, I miss some of the people in the Scottish Parliament.

But I worked-- you work very closely with colleagues in politics.

You're sort of in the trenches together.

It's quite an intense job, so I do miss some of that, but I don't really miss some of the pressures of it, I have to say; I did sort of as best as I could for as long as I could, but you kind of know when your time is done.

But I still get to contribute because I'm in the House of Lords, so I've not given it up completely, which, I guess, is, you know, is a real privilege to be able to still sort of keep my hand in.

But politics is a tough business these days.

I think we need to get back to kind of mother's wisdom, on the grounds that you've got two ears and one mouth, so listen twice as much as you speak, and you'll be halfway to, you know, doing the right thing... Heh heh heh!

Very good.

on that front.

Prue, I might need your help for this.

We need to add the heated milk and cream mix into the eggs.

OK.

So I might get you to pour it while I whisk, if that's all right.

All right.

Here we go.

This is cream and milk.

Yep, so it's double cream, full-fat milk, and that was our 3 eggs, plus an extra egg yolk for luck, and we're going to put in a little bit of vanilla essence as well, just to make it a bit sweeter.

So there we go.

This is going to be the most luxurious.

It's gonna be gorgeous.

Here we go.

Ha ha!

Give that a good mix.

And then we're going to layer this like Stegosaurus' spines... All right.

which, it turns out, having a small child that's a boy means you learn more about dinosaurs than you've ever thought you ever did.

And isn't it extraordinary... Yeah.

how children all know about dinosaurs, and why are they so nuts about dinosaurs?

Oh, what I don't understand is, when I was growing up, there was only 4.

Yes.

So there was only a Tyrannosaurus rex, a Triceratops... a Stegosaurus.

a Stegosaurus, and a Diplodocus.

That was it, and now, from the age of about 3, Finn, my son, has been able to talk about--that's it, you keep me right.

Has been able to talk about, like, pachycephalosauruses and Dimetrodons and Spinosauruses.

And at 5?

Oh, now he's 5, but he's been able to do it since he was-- you know, he was quite late to speech, actually.

We were a bit worried about him, and then, once he started, didn't stop.

How old was he then?

Dinosaur obsession has been almost since birth, I think.

So I'm going to tuck some fruit with a lemon zest in between all of this, so we get a nice, even spread.

He is obsessed with balls, trucks, dinosaurs.

But the fact that he was just--he just had two female presences for a huge chunk of his history-- But somehow-- but somehow-- it's all cars and-- Yeah, and Jen and I are not cars and digger people.

Ha ha ha!

And football?

And LEGO and football.

Oh, I like football.

To be fair, he might have got that from me.

So I'm going to pour this over.

This is going to--when it heats up, this is going to become the custard.

Look at that.

Oh I've got high hopes for this one.

This one might be quite good.

God, it looks delicious.

So I think we're supposed to kind of let it soak for 20, 30 minutes, just so that all the bread gets soaked in, but-- I think it's pretty soaked.

Pretty good.

We want to get it on.

And then just, you know, for the pièce de résistance, a little bit of soft brown sugar over the top.

Oh, my God, it looks good, doesn't it?

Heh!

Doesn't it just?

I think you can use kind of any sugar.

I usually use muscovado because that's what I have in my porridge in winter, so I just always have some in the house.

There we go.

Shall we get that in?

Yes.

Shall I show you?

This one?

Yes.

That one.

Here we go.

Oh, yum, yum.

Prue, voice-over: Cook the bread and butter pudding at 180 degrees for about 35 to 40 minutes.

One of the things that I noticed in my career, and I'm sure it's the same for you... Hmm.

is you keep thinking that next year, you'll have a little more free time.

You gave up leadership of the Scottish Conservative Party.

I remember you saying something like "to spend more time with the family."

[Chuckles] And are you doing that?

Well, to a degree, yes, I mean, because particularly in election times, it's mad, mad hours.

And it's--every weekend, you're working part the weekend, and every kind of night, you're not getting home from work till 8:00, 9:00 at night.

And so I do have more time; I'm able to cook my son's tea sort of maybe 4, 5 nights a week.

But if I've got your Wikipedia right... Ha ha!

you're on 3 major boards, commercial boards.

Yep, so-- Rugby?

Yeah, so I do, for an insurance company, a food manufacturer, and also Scottish Rugby Limited, which is good fun, but, yeah, no.

I'm passionate about sport generally and played a lot of ball sports as a kid.

My dad used to play professional football and... Oh, right.

Yeah.

Sort of part-time in those days, so he-- he always worked as well, but played for Partick Thistle and Portadown, Northern Ireland, so I've always been a fantastically passionate supporter and also a rubbish, but enthusiastic player of most sports, and I'm completely putting that onto my son as well.

So we're--we're out most weekends, tossing the rugby ball around or kicking the football, or I've started him playing tennis now, so, yeah, we try.

And my wife has instituted a one-in-one-out rule 'cause I do quite a lot of charitable boards and meetings and stuff as well, so I'm not allowed to take anything more on...

Without giving up.

until I give something up, which is a good rule to have.

I'm a terror if I'm bored, like, I cannot be idle.

I hate it, so, yeah.

I think I'm "good" busy, rather than "bad" busy.

Yeah.

I think I'll get our... Yep, you do it.

Heh!

Whoops.

OK. ♪ Oh, my God.

Look at that.

That looks all right!

That looks so good.

Oh, it's puffy.

Smell.

Oh.

[Gasps] Look at that.

I think we've got some fresh cream as well.

There's not enough cream in it, so we'll put a bit more.

Ha ha ha!

I know.

You know, you're as well being hung for a sheep as a lamb, aren't you?

Ah, there we go.

♪ Thank you.

Heh heh!

This does feel like such a treat.

Oh!

Here you go, my dear.

Thank you.

Of course, you need the cream 'cause it's so hot.

It's so hot, it will-- heh heh heh!--it will.

Yeah, it could burn your mouth off.

Oh!

♪ Oh, yeah.

I think the lemon zest makes a difference.

Oh, it's lovely.

Oh, it's like a warm hug in a bowl.

It is, and the lovely thing about bread and butter pudding is almost anything will do it.

You know, bread'll make it, any kind of bread, almost.

Yeah.

Well, we attempt to have that sort of diet bread, you know, the kind of Danish loaves, the half loaves that you get.

But that's fine for it, too, even though they're not particularly thick bits, and it still works, and it still puffs up because of the custard around it.

And you really do want to eat it when it comes out of the oven.

Mmm.

Cold, it can be very tough.

So, Ruth, what's next for you?

I think you probably have to ask my wife.

Heh heh!

'Cause I'm in so much trouble, taking things on.

But I like her rule about you can't take on a new thing unless you give up an old thing.

My son just finished in primary one, so I kind of--I see a future for me of being the mum that makes the halftimes oranges.

Now, what if Finn suddenly decides that, actually, he doesn't want anything to do with sport?

Whatever he wants to be, I will still be there cheering him on, and I'll get involved in that, too.

Ha ha ha!

He can't escape me.

I'm there.

Ha ha ha ha!

♪ Prue, voice-over: Still to come, we delve into the world of one of our hardworking bakers, and I've got another clever hack for a perfect tomato sauce.

When you're trying to soften onions without browning, there are two tricks that help.

♪ Welcome back to my Cotswold kitchen.

Husband John loves nothing more than being outside in the garden.

His recent enthusiasm is designing garden sculpture.

♪ And with the help of the local blacksmith, he is bringing his latest creation to life.

♪ Birdy: John says he knows what he-- he knows what he likes, he knows what he wants.

John: Couple of days ago, I went over and I said, "You know, this is what I want to do," and I was doodling it out.

Birdy: When he designs something, he's got it all in his head, and then we've got to try and make something from that.

It's--his sketches are a bit sketchy.

Heh!

Prue: Having given Birdy his sketch just a few days ago, John is checking on the progress of his design.

Hello there, John.

Birdy.

Man: Hi, John.

Ahem.

Prue: And it looks like Birdy and Zeno have it all in hand.

Zeno, voice-over: Every job is different.

We can be one minute altering steel railings and then making things like this for John.

Zeno: Right, so this is how we think it's going to go.

John: If I hold that there, then... that's going to come in front.

Birdy: So we've got to clamp these on here, just to... hold it in place.

How do we lift this thing on when it's finally finished?

It's going to work?

We're gonna need a crane, aren't we, John?

Yeah.

Yeah, I reckon.

So, in that one, we're thinking... [Clanks] John: So this will be right here, nesting with little, baby ones of these here, and then the big leaf going over there, and I think it'll work fine.

Birdy: I like the artistic side of things, just creating stuff with my sort of style, which is nature, I like making leaves.

[Buzzing] Birdy: My trademark is a snail, so I-- quite a lot of my work ends up with a little snail on it.

Oh, I think we're getting there with it.

Zeno: Yeah, we are.

Well, I think Birdy's going to make some more of these little things up, then we'll give you a shout in a-- Really?

In a week.

In a week or so.

Yeah.

John: OK, that's marvelous.

♪ Prue, voice-over: Birdy and Zeno have been working tirelessly over the last few weeks to bring John's sculpture to life.

And the day of installation is here.

John: And it's going to go in front of this post.

Yeah.

Prue: And it's remarkable to think that this was only an idea in John's head a couple of weeks ago.

To finish off his sculpture, John wanted a magnificent base for it to stand on.

John: Prue and I went to a quarry around here.

This comes from Guiting, and we chose a lump of Cotswold stone.

We asked him to put a little indent in it to take the base of-- stop it rocking.

♪ John, voice-over: And I'm absolutely delighted.

They've angled it absolutely right.

I asked for the best face of the stone to face the house, and they've done it.

Now we must put it all together.

♪ Prue: Oh, my God.

John.

Ha ha!

I love it.

Yeah.

Sort of like a bit--arum lilies.

John: Yeah.

I like the little snail going up.

Yeah, they're quite fun.

Prue: So this is the thing you've been drawing away?

Well, this was the stone you chose at the quarry.

Yeah, yeah, well, I knew it was a bit-- it was for a big sculpture, heh!

Well, I think it's wonderful, I really do.

Crazy, crazy wonderful.

So, quite fun.

I've got an idea for another one.

Heh!

Really?

John: Yeah, and they're going to strike while the iron's hot.

Well, what I think you should do is go into business welding and stuff, 'cause you're good at it.

But I-- And we don't want this place to end up as a sculpture park.

♪ [Birds chirping] ♪ I'm going to show you my favorite tomato sauce recipe, which is amazingly useful.

Tomato sauce is great, of course, on the base of pizzas, with pasta, and it flavors a good soufflé.

I use it as the base for Bolognese sauce, but I just freeze it in small quantities and hoick it out of the freezer as I need it.

You start off with some oil, tablespoon or so, chopped onion.

[Sizzling] When you're trying to soften onions without browning, there are two tricks that help.

One is to put some salt in.

What the salt does is it encourages the juice to run out of the onions, and the other trick is to put a bit of water in it because what happens now is the...water will evaporate while it's softening and cooking the onions, and then the onions will absorb the fat of the oil.

Prue, voice-over: A handy trick if you have a lot of tomatoes, but no time to make a sauce, is to freeze them whole.

And then, when they come out of the freezer, you put them under the tap, frozen.

You can just take the skins off like that.

So now I'm going to add a bit of garlic, so I'll just put in that for half a minute or so, and I'm going to add a tablespoon of tomato puree.

That's just concentrated tomato, and it-- pure tomatoes are not very powerful-tasting.

This ensures it'll taste like tomato.

A lot of English tomatoes really aren't sweet enough, so put in a little bit of sugar.

It smells terrific already.

It's the garlic, and it just smells great.

And then you put in a couple of cans of chopped tomato, or you can put half fresh tomato, half cans or fresh tomato.

It doesn't matter.

And that's about what I do normally, but if you want to flavor the tomato sauce in any way, you can put in oregano or basil.

Let's put in both.

Bay leaves always give depth of flavor.

After that, it's just a bit of pepper.

We've already got the salt in, don't forget.

And that's honestly it.

It takes ten minutes to make, and it's wonderful.

♪ We're spoiled for choice with good ingredients in our local area.

I think bread is the most important purchase that a cook makes.

You can't beat a fresh loaf, and I love anything on toast.

I think bakers work the hardest.

They have to get up at 4:00 in the morning.

The work is physically hard, and our local bakers, Otis & Belle, are absolutely fantastic.

♪ Man, voice-over: My name's Will.

I own a bakery named after my children.

I became a chef because I love the buzz of the kitchen and also working with my hands.

I'm quite creative.

I'd always wanted to open my own business.

I wasn't sure how I wanted to do it.

During lockdown, on our daily walk, we used to walk by the Moreton shop, and I saw that it was vacant and I said to my wife, "I'm gonna turn that into a bakery."

♪ My alarm goes off at 2:30 in the morning, and we start baking at 3 a.m. ♪ It's pretty full on first thing in the morning.

You've got to keep the ovens ticking over, otherwise you'll find yourself behind.

First thing that goes into the oven is the bread, 'cause we've got quite a lot of bread to get through.

You got to reload the ovens quite a few times.

We then bake off our patisserie and our Viennoiserie, so Viennoiserie is anything that's made with a croissant dough.

♪ So this is our Viennoiserie dough.

We make the dough the day before, and then the next day, we laminate the dough, which means to layer it: butter and dough, butter, dough, butter, dough.

Our dough has 27 layers of butter.

Prue, voice-over: This process gives the pastry its flaky, fabulous texture.

Will: In 2011, I was studying patisserie, French patisserie at Le Cordon Bleu, and it kind of started me off on my journey.

That's where I really got the sort of buzz for the-- for what I was doing.

♪ Will: I love bread, but mass-produced, yeasted bread doesn't agree with me at all, so I've always made sourdough because it's a much-- it's much gentler on your gut.

♪ Prue, voice-over: Sourdough is a much healthier bread, and the long fermentation process improves the absorption of vitamins and minerals by neutralizing the acid.

♪ Will: Sourdough is the bread of our ancestors, so the process of making sourdough is taking a sourdough culture or a starter, and naturally leavening it with the yeast that's naturally in the air.

So our sourdough starter is about 30 years old, which means we've kept it alive continuously for that period of time.

The challenge of sourdough is the time and patience that you have to put in to make a great loaf.

As your sourdough's baking, you need steam in there and you need heat, but if you've got a fan hitting your sourdough, then essentially you don't get this peel of the ear, which is what everyone strives for.

They want a really, you know, sexy-looking sourdough that's got a peel, and that's the tricky bit to do.

♪ Woman: I think I'll have a cinnamon bun, please.

The thing that I think is special about a bakery is that it's that kind of real mix of, like, connection and communities.

How's Jenny doing?

Really well.

Yeah, we're all really well.

The food is just brilliant.

Will: Our ethos is very simple.

We take the best possible ingredients, treat them very simply and with love, and if you do that, you should get a really good product.

♪ Prue: Later, my husband John will be joining me in the kitchen, where I'll be adding my tomato sauce to a cheese soufflé.

What I like is there's always seconds.

Heh!

♪ Prue: I've persuaded my husband John to join me in the kitchen, and today, we are going to make 3 foolproof cheese soufflés: a plain cheese soufflé... a twice baked cheese soufflé with a mustard sauce, and a cheese soufflé with a tomato sauce.

So many people think soufflés are really, really difficult, tricky, they won't rise.

All you need to do is get enough air in them when you whisk the eggs, because hot air rises, and if you've got those tiny bubbles in the mixture-- which you will have-- it'll rise.

Don't worry.

So I'm going to make a roux first, which is just melted butter and flour, and that turns into a sort of white sauce, and I'm going to add a bit of mustard for flavor, and we'll be off.

And next to me is John, who's going to brush out these little soufflé dishes with some butter, and then can you put in this Parmesan cheese, which is very finely grated, just to dust the edge?

OK.

Inside.

I'm good to go.

I've got melting butter here.

Flour and butter in there together now.

You cook this for about a minute just to get that floury taste off there.

And then in goes the milk, and the milk must be cold, because if it's hot, it'll start to cook the flour and butter, and you'll get lumps.

It'll seem to go alarmingly lumpy for a bit as it thickens, and then you keep going, the lumps will disappear, and it will be smooth again.

Perfect.

If you want to speed it up, use a whisk.

You see the lumps are disappearing.

That's pretty good, John.

Your patented method-- put some in and shake it.

Is this all right?

Yeah.

Can I go and wash my hands?

Yes, sir.

You can.

[Laughs] So then you can put the rest of the milk in... and bring it to a boil.

Well, that's easy.

Yeah.

Yeah.

What I like is there's always seconds.

[Laughs] Yeah, I tend to make too much.

The trick, if you're serving your soufflés for a dinner party or something and you are worried about the timing or you don't know how long it's going to be before everybody sits down, you make the soufflés the day before, and then you reheat them in a sauce and they puff up again, and then we're going to do some not like that, just that we'll eat straight away.

And I think it's a really good idea to have a sauce with a soufflé, because if by any chance you overbake it, so it's a bit too dry, if you've got a sauce with it, it certainly helps the soufflé stay up.

And then I'm going to put the cheese in.

Prue, voice-over: I used 45 grams of grated mature cheddar, but you can use whatever cheese you like, of course.

Prue: The cheese will gradually melt, and then the sauce will be smooth again.

And then you need to put in a little bit of mustard.

This is English mustard.

And some cayenne pepper.

Mustard and cayenne pepper, I think, are absolutely great mates for a cheese soufflé.

And the thing about a soufflé is what makes it rise, as I said before, is the air in it, and to get air in it, you're going to whisk the egg whites, and you're going to put the yolks into the mixture.

So I have to separate the eggs.

How good are you at separating eggs?

I don't think it's something I've ever asked you to do before.

Well, I know in your school, when you asked that question, somebody put one egg there and one egg there.

"Is that separating the eggs?"

Ha ha!

That's exactly what happened.

Right.

So I have seen you do it, so I think if I crack that... Yeah.

and then I scoop one into the other, is that right?

Yeah.

Have a go.

[Tap, crack] Ooh!

I'm not going to be very successful on that one.

Yes, you are.

Oh, that's OK.

So do you want the yolk or not?

You can put the yolks in there.

OK. That just goes there.

[Prue laughs] Am I doing all right?

That's right.

OK.

Perfect.

That goes in there.

Oh, good.

I'm impressed.

In there, quickly.

Do you see, that was beginning to break, that one?

No, I'm very impressed with this--Ha ha-- because if we'd got a bit of egg yolk in there, you would not have been able to whisk the egg whites, and, well, it would have taken absolutely forever.

Can you whisk the whites, darling?

Ooh, ooh.

Here we go.

I'm just going to test it first 'cause I...

Put it in the-- I don't do that.

That's the eject button.

You just hit the eject button.

[Laughs softly] I should have married Mary Berry.

Honestly.

She'd be much kinder.

"She'd have been kinder."

Press that button.

[Mixer whirs] And don't start it until you're in there because if you do this and go down, it'll send it... OK. OK?

Put it in.

Now start.

Do I get it up to full speed or just keep going?

Yeah.

Sure.

I must say, I prefer demolition to this.

This is, um, I find nerve-wracking.

I've got a feeling something's going to go horribly wrong.

No, it's not.

No, it's not.

By demolition, you mean rough stuff in the garden.

Out in the garden, yeah.

You see it's beginning to get thicker?

Yeah.

Can you stop?

Don't pull it out.

Just stop it... and then lift it up.

And if you...if you lift it up like that, if it's all stiff-- And it's not moving, is it?

It's remaining together in the bowl.

Yeah.

[Turns on mixer] [Turns off mixer] OK.

I'm looking for a stiff peak.

Do you see that little peak coming up?

It looks like a meringue.

Now, if you hold that over the sink, you can press the button.

You were having so much fun with it.

Right.

Then we've got to get these two mixtures together, and the secret is not to over-whisk them, not to mangle it too much because you're trying to keep the air in.

So I'm going to put just a little bit into that mixture... to soften it up, so that it will be quite liquid and go in easily.

I'm going to pour one into the other.

It doesn't really matter which way you do it.

And then fold it together.

What folding is, is when you lift from the bottom to the top and turn it as you go.

And don't worry if there's still quite a lot of big lumps in your mixture.

It's better to have a few too many big lumps then bash all the air out.

You know, if we went on just stirring and stirring, I'd end up with no air.

OK. And then you want to fill your pots not too full because you don't want them to overflow.

And you do want them to rise above the rim.

So you don't fill them completely?

No.

Prue, voice-over: I wanted to show you soufflés don't have to be difficult.

And even if you slightly overbake them, it doesn't matter.

There's a way to rescue them.

I've made four small soufflés, one pair to eat straight away, one pair twice baked, which is a handy hack for a dinner party when timings are tight, and I'm making a larger soufflé that I'll slightly overbake, which will go perfectly with a tomato sauce.

It's really got a bit of cheese in the bottom, but never mind.

With any luck, it won't stick too much.

If, when you're pouring it in, you see some lumps of white, just as you pour, knock out--knock out any huge grade lumps you've got.

So these are going to go into the oven, and the ovens are really hot.

And the baking tray in there is already heated, so there will be a blast of heat from underneath the soufflés.

Prue, voice-over: Make sure you've preheated the oven to 190 degrees.

I'll have to be quick not to let the air out.

Right.

Back again.

Will they all cook at the same time but different sizes?

Yes, the little ones will probably take 18, 20 minutes and the big ones half an hour, perhaps a little bit more.

Soufflé comes from the French word souffler: to puff up.

Here's hoping mine have.

But you can see they're beautifully risen.

OK, so I'm hoping it'll be nice and soft and almost liquid in the middle.

Do you see?

Can you see?

I can.

That's really wet inside.

Yup.

[Blows] Nice, hmm?

Oh, nice, lovely.

And quite spicy.

Prue voice-over: So that was a classic cheese soufflé.

And for my dinner party trick, turn your cold soufflés out, upside-down on a dish, and cover them in sauce.

So here we have double cream and a teaspoon of mustard.

And I'm going to whisk that up together.

And there you have instant mustard sauce.

Prue, voice-over: Just before seating your guests, pop the soufflé in the oven for about 10 to 12 minutes at the same temperature of 190 degrees.

Another handy hack is to freeze your soufflés.

They'll keep for a week or two.

For this large soufflé, I've deliberately overbaked it.

And the trick to combat any dryness is to just make a hole in the middle of the soufflé and pour some sauce in.

The combination of cheese and tomato is absolutely delicious.

And why not top it off with a glass of rioja?

John: Because this is so good with a soufflé and the tomatoes.

Ohh.

That's delicious.

Very, very good.

Shall we check on the twice baked soufflé with the mustard sauce?

Hot.

♪ Thank you.

Mmm.

The thing about the rebaked soufflés, it's more moussey than soufflé-ish because it's wet the whole way through because it's soaked up the sauce.

But it's pretty good.

Prue: Twice baked soufflé with a mustard sauce.