Next, jack challenges chris to a tasting of sharp cheddar cheese. And finally, bridget uncovers the secrets to oldfashioned vanilla frozen custard. Thats all right here on cooks country. Funding for this program has been provided by the following. Smallbatch, tokyostyle ramen noodles made from scratch in the japanese tradition. Fresh ingredients, stepbystep recipes delivered to your door. Learn more at blueapron. Com. Dcs manufacturers of professionally styled indoor and outdoor kitchen equipment. At dcs, our mission is design that delivers, construction to last a lifetime, and performance that is consistent. Dcs proud partners of americas test kitchen. Holland america line sails to over 400 ports of call on a fleet of midsize ships transporting guests to the worlds wonders. Information available through a travel professional or at hollandamerica. Com. Chefscatalog, offering kitchen products for home chefs and cooking enthusiasts. Chefscatalog. Com. Start something delicious orchardgrown california figs. Here in america in the 19th century, most of the cheese was produced in new york state. It started on small farms south of albany and finally became a big industrialized process by 1880, 1890. Now, sure, we did cheddar and farmers cheese. We also did brie and camembert and ricotta. And some of that was actually pretty good. Now, by 1900, wisconsin actually beat out new york state. They were very smart. They put a lot of money into Quality Assurance and into research. For example, they invented the babcock test, which was a measure of butterfat content, so farmers couldnt water their milk down to make more money. Well, the other thing that they invented in wisconsin was the spicy cheese bread. Cheese bread one of the recipes goes back to the 1920s was nothing more than grated cheese in a typical dough. But then there were also different ways of doing it. A danish cheese bread, actually, the cheese was done in a swirl like in a danish. There was also a recipe from virginia ukrops super market. They had cheese in cubes, and they also mixed that with the dough in cubes. It was finally mixed together. Now, the authentic spicy cheese bread recipe were going to make today comes from a place called stellas in madison. They invented it in 1988. There were two theories. [ chuckles ] it was an empanada recipe gone wild which doesnt make too much sense. Or they were baking a white vienna bread, a very soft bread. They had some leftover cheese, put them together, and voila. Now, what is spicy cheese bread . Well, it has sort of a spicy crust, and then the cheese is in the lower half of the loaf. Now, we went to dane county farmers market, where stellas sells that bread. We got some. We loved it, but we didnt like the cheese all at the bottom. We wanted to figure out how to get it throughout the bread. So, lets go into the test kitchen with julia to figure out how to make a spicy cheese bread that is light, not heavy, and cheesy, but not greasy. Now, i like doing studies. I like studies. So, this is a study of health and cheese, okay . Bring it so, wisconsin is obviously extremely famous for cheese. I mean, cheese curds, of course, blue moon ice cream. Ooh, thats good. Butter burgers. Uhhuh. So i wanted to know where they stood in the ranking of obese states. Ah. And theyre about in the middle. But theres plenty of other states that are way above that, and theyre known for like their fruit and vegetables. [ laughs ] so id just like to point out that, like, lets hear it for cheese. Yeah, lets hear it for cheese. Its not so bad. I agree with you. Bring it on cheese. Lets do cheese. Mmhmm, and cheese bread of course, were replicating that wisconsin cheese bread. It has a very fine crumb, and its rich, but its not overly eggy. It has a thin crust, but its sturdy enough to support the cheese inside the bread. So this is much like a challah. So, here i have 3 1 4 cups of allpurpose flour. This is 1 4 cup of sugar. And this is a tablespoon of instant or rapidrise yeast. Now, here comes the heat. This is chili flakes, and this is 1 2 teaspoon of chili flakes. And just a little bit of salt, just 1 1 4 teaspoon of salt. Were going to whisk this together. Were just going to put this onto the mixer. So, now turning our attention to the liquid ingredients, we have 1 2 cup of warm water. This is 4 tablespoons of melted unsalted butter. That adds that richness. And then 1 yolk and 2 eggs, which is very much like challah. It adds an eggy flavor, but it also adds a little bit of structure thats going to help support that cheese inside the bread. [ chuckles ] i love the way were talking about supporting the cheese. Oh, i love to support the cheese. Thats the theme here. All right. So, lets mix the dough. And were going to mix it on medium speed. Im going to add the liquid ingredients and let it go for about 8 minutes until it forms a nice, round ball. [ whirring ] so its been about 8 minutes, and you can see its come together in a very nice dough. Soft and supple and easy to work with. Like me. Yeah. Soft, supple, easy to work with. Feel that. Ooh. I like it. Isnt that nice . Yeah. Well, its not sticky, but its very smooth. No. All right. Do i have to give it back . You do. [ chuckles ] so, lets take this out of the bowl, and partly cause i love to do this, im just gonna give it a few quick kneads by hand to really help shape it into a nice, round ball. There we go. Were going to put it in this large greased bowl. Were going to let this rise in a warm, draftfree place for an hour and a half to 2 hours until its very big and puffy and its doubled in size. All right. So, its been an hour and a half, and you can see that this dough has really doubled in size. But another way to tell when dough is ready to be shaped after its first rise is you take a finger, and you press it into the dough, and if that dimple stays there, thats how you know its a good time to start shaping your dough. Okay. So, im going to take the dough out of the bowl, put it on a nice, clean counter. Im going to gently deflate the dough and begin to shape it into a nice, big rectangle before i add the cheese. And so we want the dough to measure about 12 by 18 inches. You make it look so easy. Oh, this dough is easy. You got to touch the dough. Its beautiful to work with. Ooh. All right. So, that looks pretty good. Now its time to add the cheese, and one thing we figured out the hard way is that the cheese really has to be Room Temperature because if this cheese is cold, itll prevent the dough from rising. So were going to use 12 ounces of cheese, and 6 ounces of it is provolone cause thats that good, deep flavor, and then 6 ounces is monterey jack, which, of course, is nice and stringy and melty. You just wanna take these cubes and spread them out all over the dough. Leave about an inch border all the way around the edge. Now were going to roll this up into a nice log. And i like to use the ruler to help get it started. So we roll the dough around the cheese oh, yeah, you know this is going to be good. All right. Now were going to pinch the seam closed. You want to do this really well cause you dont want any of that cheese to leak out. Gonna pinch it all the way down the length of the roll, but also really pinch the ends well. And now were going to roll it seam side down and just gently roll this until its a little bit longer and thinner and measures about 30 inches. 18 plus 12. There we go. So now were going to curl it up. You dont have to do this very tightly. Just make a nice little round. And then on the tail, were just going to tuck the tail underneath, and then were going to let this rise in a greased 9inch cake pan. We tried letting it just rise on its own, but it really needs the support of the cake pan to make sure the bread goes up and not out. Okay. Im just gonna cover it with a clean dish towel. Of course, it needs to rise for about an hour and a half longer before we can bake it. This is a goodlooking crowd. Theyre very enthusiastic. Yeah. cause they know whats coming. And this is bad. Ive done this once before, and it didnt work out well for me. We are tasting sharp cheddar cheeses. And some are orange, and some are not. And i know as a vermonter youre very much biased in favor of the white cheddars versus the orange cheddars, but most of the rest of the country thinks cheddar is orange. And so i want you to be able to make a decision with no visual information. No, you just want to embarrass me by putting this on so i look like an idiot. That was at the back of my mind as i said, this segment would be so much more fun if chris is blindfolded. Okay. Im going to remove the bags. Now, im going to have to guide you a little bit, i think, chris. So, do you want to start with the one closest to you . Oh, there you go. Thats your first sample. This is like palmolive. Now, so these are sharp cheddars they should be buttery and tangy. You know, they shouldnt be too mild. If you want a mild cheese, get something labeled mild. Give me the next one. Heres the second one. We found that the best of these are very acidic. Next. That if when we did lab work okay and we found that the ph was awfully high, it was a sign that the cheese wasnt aged properly. It wasnt tangy enough. You know, if youre going to get a cheddar, it should really taste like cheddar. Moisture level also varied considerably. We tasted them the way youre sort of tasting them now, except we didnt actually wear blindfolds. And then we also did Grilled Cheese, and we found that the flavors were very consistent whether we made a Grilled Cheese where the cheese melted and heated or like this. The orange color actually dates back to 16thcentury england as a way of passing off lowquality cheese. I didnt know that. They would take lowfat cheese and try to sell it as fullfat cheese, and its the fat that gives the color to the cheese. And so they found that they could add annatto, which is tasteless, and its an orange color, and manufacturers started doing that in part to deal with seasonal variations, and in order to have a consistent product, they just added the orange so that it was always the same color and that people werent why is this cheese a different color than the one i got last month . Can i just point out its really weird to be standing here with a blindfold on with an audience and you talking. Are you doing okay . cause i can get im done. I have my. I know what i want. Are you sure . Im positive. I dont want you to make a mistake. Yes, you do [ laughter ] you live for this. I like the first one. The middle one was the worst. It was the mildest. This had a little tang. This had the most tang. Would you like to take off your blindfold . I would love to. Well, without even turning over the cards [ applause ] ayy man and im hoping this is vermont. And you chose the cabot vermont the studio audience go, ben and jerry go, cabot agreed with you. The expert panel. Landslide out there. This is tangier. It is a little bit sharper than some of the other cheeses. This was the mildest and the plainest, i thought. Thats kraft. It was middle of the road. It came in fourth place. It wasnt bad, but it doesnt have quite the level of cheddariness that we like. And this one i thought, actually, it was a little better than that one. The Cracker Barrel was third place of the sort of massmarket ones. You know, people think, oh, Cracker Barrel that must be really very lowquality cheese. Its not. So the winner, thank you, is cabot vermont sharp cheddar [ applause ] good job, chris. All right. So this cheese bread has been rising for another hour and a half. And shes ready for the oven. And shes going to get even more big and beautiful as she bakes. Whats the rule about male and female . Bread is always she . If its good, its she. [ laughs ] thats my rule. I see. Okay. I got it. So, im just gonna brush the dough with a little bit of beaten egg. And then for just a little more heat, were going to sprinkle a teaspoon of red pepper flakes over the top. And now shes ready for the oven. Its going to bake for about 50 minutes at 350 degrees. But halfway through, im going to rotate the pan and cover it with foil because if you dont, it gets much too dark on top. All right. Were going to take the foil off. Mmm oh, isnt she pretty . That is beautiful. All right. So were going to look for an internal temperature of about 190. And so that bread is done on the inside. Boy, that looks good. I know. But now were going to gild the lily just a little bit brush it with just a little bit of butter. This is just a tablespoon of melted butter. I love watching the melted butter run down the swirl. Of course you do. [ laughs ] ah so were going to let this bread cool in the pan for about 10 minutes. Then im going to loosen it from the pan, take it out, and let it cool for another 30 before we dive into it. Ooh because if we dove into it now, that cheese is like lava, and its going to burn your mouth, so we got to let it cool off just a little bit. So, this bread has been cooling for about 40 minutes 10 minutes in the pan and about 30 minutes out of the pan. This is julias loaf, and this is my loaf, and im very proud of what ive done here, folks. This has some problems. This was baked not with a pan. Thats right. The cheese was not properly put in that spiral, which means that some of the cheese sort of plopped out and leaked all over. And burned. And burned the top because we didnt use foil for the last half. Well, enough of that. Lets dig into this cheese bread. Oh, the loaf is still warm in the middle cause even though we let it cool for half an hour, its got some oozy pockets of cheese you can just see. Ooh hello all right. Some nice, thick slices for us. This is not a bread to slice thinly. I know my piece. I see him. Not her. All right. Go for it. The center guy. The center guy. Yeah. Absolutely. Ah that smell and look how it has that soft, sort of almost cakey texture. Here. Oh, hello. Mmm mmm. Oh. [ laughs ] isnt that good . The challah is very light. I know it sounds stupid. This is light. Yeah. Its not too spicy, just enough spice to offset the cheese. Oh, my goodness. Oh, man. So, the fabulous story of spicy cheese bread starts with the challah dough of course, that has eggs and a little bit of sugar in it and a few red pepper flakes. Made the dough and then we rolled it out to a large rectangle and put cubes of roomtemperature warm cheese. Rolled it into a log and spiral, into a cake pan. The cake pan actually kept everything nice and together in the right shape. We let it rise, and we finally put it into a 350 oven for almost an hour, covered it for the last bit so it didnt overbrown on the top, and there we have it, from cooks country, one of our top three recipes of all time, spicy cheese bread. Boy, this is yummy. Im going to have another piece. Yeah. Ice cream is nothing more than sweetened cream thats frozen. The problem is ice cubes wont do it. You have to actually add salt, which lowers the freezing point, which means that you can actually get the cream cold enough to turn into a solid. Now, this has been around for about 500 years, since about 1600. It was throughout the arab world and britain, france, and italy, et cetera. Well, the french decided to add egg yolks to the mixture to make it richer, and thats where you get the term french custard or french ice cream. Now, two other inventions 1843, the ice cream machine, the original white mountain. And by the way, there were lots of patent designs throughout the 1800s, some of them actually very modern and very successful. And then the Ice Cream Cone about 1904 at the worlds fair in st. Louis. Then, about 1919, the real french custard or frozen custard came around. It was in coney island. It was the kohr brothers, kohr. They had a machine that would continuously produce this frozen custard right into Ice Cream Cones. They sold 18,000 cones in a long weekend at 5 cents apiece. It was a huge hit. So we decided to go out to milwaukee to kopps, which makes a wonderful frozen custard. Its very thick. Its very creamy. Its very rich. So lets go into the test kitchen right now with bridget to make a frozen custard that has great flavor and a very soft, smooth texture. So, speaking of ice cream, i actually have a fascinating culinary fact, which is ice cream machines have been around since the 1840s, but in the 1880s, a woman called Agnes Marshall invented the worlds best ice cream machine. Hmm it was very shallow and very wide. It was round, hand cranked. You could actually make ice cream in five minutes. Really . Yeah, because the surface area was so much greater right. And it froze quickly. Theres a guy in england in the Lake District about three hours north of london, name is ivan day, he cooks over antique cookware, et cetera. He actually has one of these, and hes tested it five minutes. Yeah. Well, thats a better design than the ice cream machine that were going to use today, which is no ice cream machine. Shocking yeah. Well, we found that a lot of people dont have ice cream machines at home. So were going to make a frozen custard not an ice cream using the equipment that most people have at home. Now, some ice creams can have egg yolks in them, but frozen custard has to have egg yolks. In fact, it has to contain 1. 4 percent volume of egg yolks per the volume of the custard. So thats quite a bit. Thats why it gets that rich custardy flavor. Do you work for the government . [ laughs ] what is this 1. 4 percent im here to make sure that we are doing it right, chris. So, this is 6 large egg yolks. Now, were going to add to this 1 4 cup of granulated sugar. To this we want to add 2 tablespoons of nonfat dry milk powder. A lot. I know thats quite odd, but the rule with custard and with ice cream is the more liquid you put in it, the more likely you are to start developing ice crystals. We wanted dairy to go in there that had no water in it, so thats why were using the powder. Whisk this together take about 30 seconds until its nice and smooth. So thats looking good, so lets move on over to the stove and get our dairy base together. Now, heres 1 cup of heavy cream, and this is 1 2 cup of whole milk. And this is 1 3 cup of corn syrup. And this is not highfructose corn syrup that so many people are afraid of. This is just plain old corn syrup. This is 1 8 teaspoon of salt. Just a little bit. Now one more ingredient for our frozen custard, and that is vanilla, and were going for a vanilla bean instead of vanilla extract. Just going to get a lot richer flavor. Is this a 25 vanilla bean . No, its not. Actually, supermarket vanilla beans are great. And you want to always buy a vanilla bean that is supple. Its not dried when you shake the jar, it doesnt go dingalingaling. The seeds are on the inside of this bean, so what im going to do is take a paring knife and slit this right down the middle. There we go. And then im going to take the tip of the paring knife and scrape out all of those beautiful seeds. Put them back into that dairy mixture. Mmm. Smells great. And ill go ahead and stir this, and now we want to cook this on mediumhigh heat, so about 5 minutes, and then well be able to temper our egg yolks. All right. So i think that this is about ready. 170. So this is perfect. Going to turn off the heat. I want to gradually whisk this into our egg yolks. Just a little bit at a time at first. So were gradually bringing up the temperature of those egg yolks. Mmm. There we go. Right, and then this is going to go right back into our saucepan. Im going to turn the heat to low. We want to cook this really slowly, and now were looking for a temperature of about 180 degrees. Another 5 minutes or so. Now we immediately want to put this through a finemesh strainer, and this is going to catch any little bits of egg that may have overcooked. Theres always some around the bottom and the sides of the pan. Its also going to catch those vanilla pods there. It doesnt get thick like a custard. It just thickens up a little bit. Thats right. All right. So, now we need to cool this down very quickly because the faster we cool it down, the smaller the ice crystals are going to form. So were going to speedcool it. First were going to put it in a bowl full of ice and a little bit of water in there. So, this is now going to go straight into the refrigerator, and were going to chill this until the custard reaches 40 degrees, and thats going to take about 2 hours. All right, chris, so this has chilled down. The custard is now about 40 degrees. You can actually see right around the edges, its started to solidify. So now we are going to increase its volume. So what we dont have with the standard ice cream maker is that churn, and as it freezes down, it actually incorporates a lot of air into it. So we are going to use our stand mixer instead. So, were going to mix this, and its going to incorporate those tiny little air bubbles right into the custard. So im going to turn the machine on to mediumhigh, and were going to let this whip for about 3 minutes, and during that time, this volume will increase to 3 3 4 cup, just shy of a quart. Okay. All right, chris, you can see that that texture has changed. It looks a lot lighter, fluffier. Were going to put it in a onequart container. Look at that consistency. That is beautiful. It looks great. [ chuckles ] all right. So now we need to just put the lid on, and this is going to go byebye for a little while. About 6 hours is the minimum that you want to let this sit in the freezer and get nice and solid. 6 hours later, i promise you, well scoop into it and eat. All right, chris, can i get a happy face . If you open the top and put it in the bowl and i can eat it, youll get a happy face. Well, theres still some in here. You get a big smiley face. [ laughs ] it has been 6 hours, so its ready for us to serve. Ive been ready for quite some time. So, what do you think 1 2 scoop for you . Would you like 1 2 scoop . [ laughs ] i dont know. Do you have half a brain . I have all the power right now. I love it. Its true. All right. One. How is that . Mmm. Proof is in the custard, right . The proof is in the custard. Are we ready . We are ready. Go for it. Mmm. Very creamy. Rich. Creamy. Mmm. Great vanilla flavor. Great vanilla flavor. Smooth. So, the secret to oldfashioned vanilla frozen custard is using lots of egg yolks. Some milk, cream, and two unusual ingredients some milk powder and corn syrup, which means fewer crystals when youre done. Heat up the milk and liquid ingredients, put the eggs in as well so they dont curdle, up to 180, 185 degrees. And then we actually let it chill down for 2 hours in an ice bath and then into a standing mixer, not an ice cream freezer, to get nice volume. Set that aside for 6 hours in the freezer until its nicely done. And there you have it, from cooks country, a great recipe for oldfashioned vanilla frozen custard. Get this recipe and all the recipes from this season, tasting and testing results, and watch select episodes of this show, all on our website. And i bet bridgets finished all of her ice cream. Almost. Yes. The complete cooks country tv show cookbook includes every recipe, tasting, and testing from all nine tv seasons, including this season. With over 360 recipes and a 55page shoppers guide, its our most comprehensive collection of cooks country tv recipes ever. The cost is 19. 95. Thats 10 off the cover price of 29. 95. To order, call. All of todays recipes are just a click away. Visit our website anytime for free access to this seasons recipes, taste tests, and equipment ratings, or to watch our current season episodes. Log on to cookscountrytv. Com. Funding for this program has been provided by the following. The heirloom tomato. Cultivated for generations to add flavor to any dish. Fresh ingredients, stepbystep recipes delivered to your door. Learn more at blueapron. Com. Dcs manufacturers of professionally styled indoor and outdoor kitchen equipment. At dcs, our mission is design that delivers, construction to last a lifetime, and performance that is consistent. Dcs proud partners of americas test kitchen. Holland america line sails to over 400 ports of call on a fleet of midsize ships transporting guests to the worlds wonders. Information available through a travel professional or at hollandamerica. Com. Chefscatalog, offering kitchen products for home chefs and cooking enthusiasts. Chefscatalog. Com. Start something delicious orchardgrown california figs. [ theme music plays ] divorced. Beheaded. Died. Divorced. Beheaded. Survived. The story of henry viii and his 6 wives is one of the bestknown in history. Theres catherine of aragon, the bitter, abandoned first wife; anne boleyn, the original other woman; jane seymour, bit of a doormat. Then weve got anne of cleves she was the ugly one catherine howard, the one who slept around; and catherine parr, the saintly nurse. But im going to tell you a very different story. Im going to take you back in time and into the private lives of henrys 6 wives