How To Make The Queen's Favourite Meal: Afternoon Tea | Royal Recipes | Real Royalty

royal food served on the grandest tables is so much more than just a meal historically these extravagant dishes were created to represent power they also set fashions nowadays royal food is all about showcasing the best of british in celebration of royal food we know it's the queen's recipe because we've got it in our own hand from the present and the past that is proper regal we recreate old family favorites now the queen mother had this really wicked trick with these what a mess we sample royal eating alfresco oh wow that is what you want and revisit the most extravagant times pheasant stag turkey salmon oysters and turbot dressed in a lobster champagne sauce unbelievable this is royal recipes [Music] hello i'm michael burke and welcome to royal recipes this is ordly end one of britain's finest stately homes built in the style of a royal palace and once owned by a king in the splendor of the gardens halls and kitchen of this grandest of country houses we'll be recreating the food served at the highest royal tables and it all starts here with this gem a royal kitchen maids cookbook the only surviving recipe book of its kind in the royal archive this is an exact copy of the original which is kept at windsor castle inside the recipes of mildred nichols who worked at buckingham palace in the early 1900s and for the first time in over a hundred years we'll be bringing these recipes back to life this time we're cooking food served for afternoon tea a favorite in the royal family for generations a great british mid-afternoon feast of sandwiches and cakes today in the royal recipes kitchen michelin star chef paul ainsworth puts the queen's favorite twist on a classic bake the queen i think likes a particular kind of scandal she does go for it historian dr annie gray discovers how queen alexandra treated thousands of poor maids in london to a tea party it was like society was turned topsy-turvy because ladies waited on them and mitch turner recreates a miniature masterpiece she made for the queen and that is my afternoon tea crown cake on a perfect cool britannia here in this beautiful stately home we start with a quintessential afternoon tea treat a firm favorite of the royals and we're here in the wonderful old kitchen it's all coppers and ranges and and history and michelin starred chefs like paul here how are you doing paul very happy what is it it's afternoon tea today this afternoon widely reported this is the queen's favorite meal so what are you going to do i'm going to do battenberg cake oh yes i used to have that one i was a kid this is one of the squares that's it the ones with the squares built up so what we've got here is two sponge mixtures okay this one's vanilla and this one has no vanilla in it because this is going to become chocolate so we're going to go straight in with our vanilla sponge and the important thing with this is making sure that we spread it right to the edge of our baking tray but also as well that we've got no air traps in there and i'll show you a way of how we can kind of get rid of that and what happens if you do get air trapped in well you just you know when you get like you know when you see a sponge that's got pockets in it like just oh yeah just sort of uh air pockets so that's what they so if we just kind of get rid of our bowl yeah for that one we're just going to spread that mix right to the edges oh it's going to be gooey isn't it it's lovely i kind of like that stuff before you're cooking it it's lovely it's lovely raw yeah yeah absolutely so we've got our vanilla mixture in there you know i told you earlier about that scientific way of getting rid of the technical very technical i said didn't i like this very technical talking about technical presumably it's important to get the two bits of cake looking the same absolutely michael and a nice little tip is rather than looking at your eggs by number look at them by weight so weigh the eggs yeah they can vary so much of course they can vary you can have small eggs large eggs so weigh the eggs and if you wait then you'll get your two sponges exactly the same yeah yeah it'll look as if it's been cooked by a professional it will be excited about you thank you i love you too michael yeah i know i know do you know why they call battenberg cakes no no neither do i actually but one theory one theory one theory is there was a prince louie of battenberg who married queen victoria's granddaughter victoria and that this cake was uh was created uh for the wedding actually the battenbergs in the first world war when people didn't like german names had to change their name it means mountbatten in german berg means banting and prince philip is a man batten through his uncle okay gosh that that looks good it's the same sponge mixer no vanilla and we've got chocolate so we've done cocoa powder just mixed in with milk to make that lovely paste and we folded it in here to our cake mixture now we're going to do exactly the same this one being just ever so slightly smoother it's kind of really gooey isn't it and it's important michael to make sure it's completely folded in you can't do this with kids around can you no you can't their fingers are in it because they're going to be like all over that yeah all the courses got to keep the corgis yeah all the corgis so just move and same again right to the corners quite a bit easier to work with the chocolate ones yeah yeah right to the corners like that same procedure little tap and if i could give those to you to go put in the oven i'll be very careful absolutely about 30 minutes at 160 please done thank you how're they looking michael oh fantastic well they'll take they'll take about 30 minutes 160 gas marks sort of four or five um and they'll rise beautifully great way to check them is just put a nice like pastry needle in the middle take it back out and if it's clean the mix is beautifully cooked top tip okay now we've got some marzipan love that yeah i every kid loves marzipan don't they fantastic stuff we've just rolled that out in icing sugar actually oh it's not flour no it's not flour so we don't want that horrible taste of like raw flour so we've got that lovely icing sugar so what i've got here is our vanilla sponge nice chocolate sponge that's been cooked now just for so it's nice and neat i'm just going to whip off those ends like that for you to have a little sneaky taste i can just feel by running my knife for it just how moist and beautiful it is these are the ones i made earlier so we're just cutting our sponges into these lovely strips so just straight down like that the ones i remember were pink yeah they were and the ones i had were pink as well so the maybe a bit more natural from this one yeah yeah i should think this is the one the queen probably has because she's particularly fond of chocolate isn't she yes oh that's nice too uh another nice little tip you could do as well if there was no kids having it you could just soak these sponges or just brush them with some alcohol of your choice yeah so now i'm laying them out yeah you see how they start to come together and at this point you want to be quite neat but remember you're going to fold out you're going to cut those edges off yeah so you're lucky they're not breaking isn't that a bit of a danger when you pick them up like that just be very careful just hold them yet just like that just hold them in i see what you mean about them having to be the same height did it look a bit absolutely it looks bigger and tidy otherwise now over here i've got some apricot jam on the stove okay it's great these royal recipes are fantastic i've got my elastic belt on right now i'm just going to brush that over like so and then we're going to carry the same procedure all the way to the top and we want to put a little bit on the marzipan as well yeah okay and a bit that side right next we're going to swap it over we're going to go vanilla first this time okay here we go like that more of that lovely delicious apron this is to make it stick together that's it that's your binder okay up the sides like that next one and then we go back and we repeat the process the same as the bottom you're an artist really aren't you well yes i'd like to think so michael yes okay now balance them up like that more of that lovely delicious apricot i mean look at this it's just lovely in it it's great fun to make as well great fun right we've got that all up there now we're gonna roll okay yep so we're just gonna pick that up like that keep it nice and tight yeah all right now get your hands over under like that okay keep it nice and tight yeah all right don't worry about this stage it may look a bit messy but it's about keeping it tight yeah okay and at it from this end white hands looking at it from this end as you do it yeah yeah it just shows you how i mean a lot of people say it's nothing to do with german royal families or anything like that it's an old english recipe that used to be called church window case right because of those squares oh okay yeah i see it plays your money takes your choice absolutely now you see i've brushed a bit more jam yep now i'm gonna go right over and i'm just gonna push that down like that and that's our seal okay yep cover our ends like that and we do that to not let any air in yeah now what you do is transfer that onto some greaseproof paper then onto cling film roll it up to keep it nice and tight and just let it set in the fridge for an hour that makes it solid solid nice and tight so then are you ready i am there we go oh it's perfect isn't it absolutely perfect geometric that's just by rolling it in the parchment paper then the cling film and just letting it set then the whole thing just tightens and becomes like that i'm going to cut you a slice i'm going to pour you a cup of tea yes here we go fantastic you take it with milk i do no sugar no sugar no sugar of course you wouldn't have anything fattening no not at all not at all no butter or anything like that or cream or or cake there we are there we go fork fork for you yep is that lovely apricot jam running for you yeah look at it i'm trying to do this my little finger raised i'll i'll join you that is absolutely delicious takes me back to my childhood but the ones i had in my childhood were nothing like as good as this but you know what that flavour of childhood is the marzipan yeah isn't it just straight away you're right a delicious chocolate version of this classic cake perfect for a modern royal afternoon tea you know the british habit of taking tea in the afternoon afternoon tea yeah uh started in the 17th century and a lot to do with ordly end here right okay because this was owned by charles ii yeah and tea drinking was actually brought to this country at least in part by his wife catherine of braganza she was portuguese yeah she came here from portugal had a really rough journey got off the boat and said i want a cup of tea and all they had was beer ale right okay yeah she didn't change that and i suppose the natural step then was cake yeah because they used to have sugar in the tea yeah everybody had sugar in the tea then and then later queen alexandra she loved afternoon tea but she thought the poor should have it as well right and she reckoned that was the ideal thing for the poor maids of london fantastic [Music] as afternoon tea was very much an aristocratic affair at the time the then princess alexandra decided to play her part in trying to change this by arranging a special tea party for some unsuspecting guests historian annie gray is finding out more about this pioneering royal princess alexandra was the beautiful and extremely fashionable wife of edward prince of wales queen victoria's eldest son however married to a prince though she may have been her husband was known as edward the caressa so i think it's fair to say she hadn't exactly drawn a long straw when it came to her marriage alexandra turned a blind eye to her husband's many mistresses and threw herself into charitable works quickly becoming one of the most popular royals of the time [Music] her other great passion in life was afternoon tea as described in a book written by a member of the royal household at the time the teas the author said were held in a charming sitting room places were set all around the long table and there is a seemingly inexhaustible supply of cakes both hot and cold sandwiches of all kinds rolls and jams but when the weather was fine and the king and his guests were in the grounds the queen extended the hospitality of her beautiful tea room in 1902 in order to celebrate her husband's coronation alexandra hit upon the bright idea of combining these two important elements in her life tea taking and charitable work she sponsored a whole series of teas for a ten thousand maids of all work a thousand of them came here to fulham palace to have their tea in the bishop of london's garden at this time domestic service was the biggest source of employment for women our own mildred nichols was to go into service herself six years later at buckingham palace these skivvies and grafters at the bottom of the food chain were about to be given a taste of the high life hello i'm miranda welcome to fulham palace i'm ali this is this is fab yeah it's rather special isn't it yeah miranda pollyakov is curator at fulham palace home to the bishop of london where one of the charitable teas was held so here we have my goodies that i've got out for you to see so this invitation is very special to us it was for a miss ada smith to tea at four o'clock on tuesday july the 29th to celebrate the coronation in 1902 all the ten thousand maids who attended these teas were each given a broach ada was obviously a very careful lady and she left her brooch on her invitation it's such a remarkable thing to have and so what would the maize have been eating well we haven't got an exact description of what was served here but this cutting we have from the daily graphic says that the tea was a substantial one and much appreciated and this chap here seems to be serving well i imagine it's probably just bread and butter isn't it but maybe they got white bread after all that was supposed to be much better for you i'm sure they would have had cake as well sadly the soon to be crowned queen was unable to attend on the day as the king was taken ill so the job of hosting a thousand maids was left to the newly appointed bishop he was very disappointed that the queen actually didn't come on the day but um he had his ladies he had he had a military band and he had acquire from the chapel royal so it really was all singing or dancing quite literally for all these these belabored maids he wrote in his memoirs that everything went well except that the thousand maids insisted in all kissing the band but the band didn't seem to mind so that was fine and he actually also in addition to the normal tea they were given he also provided grapes from the hot house here these very special tea parties were a chance for some of the lowest paid workers in society to have a rare day off and to toast the new king and queen it must be very special it's even his own butler by the look of it standing here um with teapots and tears it must have been amazing if you were a maid of all work used to being the lowest of the low to be invited here and sit on the lawn and be served by a butler yes and also ladies it was like society was turned topsy-turvy because ladies waited on them yeah they were it's a very special place that they would never think they'd be invited and being waited on by by people who would normally be their employers it's a lovely idea though i mean when you think to have it under royal sponsorship as well to actually go out there and show that you're thinking of some of the poorest and i suppose most look down upon members of society just 10 000 girls having a really special day that's just something really quite nice two of the classics in the afternoon tea world and indeed favorites in the royal household are scones and chocolate eclairs [Music] now for a really grand royal afternoon tea there are certain essential ingredients aren't they paul scones scones scones yes scones uh and the queen i think likes a particular kind of scandal she does orange and it's absolutely delicious it really works bit different as well so in these it's your typical scone recipe and we've got orange blossom water in there and orange zest so it's quite fragrant really delicious would you like to try it yeah yeah and what's also nice to carry on that theme with the orange is the marmalade so now do you put the marmalade on first or the cream on of course and from cornwall oh i see is that different absolutely yeah very different they do it the other way around do they yeah in their benighted way yes absolutely so we're gonna go on with our lovely jam first yeah okay and then just a b i'm just a small amount just a small amount michael i like that oh this is going to be helpful i mean come on look at that okay go for it got a bad hand well lovely and orange nice aren't they let's see what the queen means in that okay and the other thing you need to do yes eclipse yes absolutely that's what you're gonna do now yes so very simple eclairs they are choux pastry okay and we are going to fill them with a lovely what the french called creme champion so basically a vanilla cream with fresh vanilla and icing sugar so just get your nozzle right in the end and just literally keep filling it with cream until it's like just bursting out the ends and you can feel it going all the way through right to the bottom filled with all the way up filled with cream absolutely it's extraordinary how many of these uh of these dishes that are so familiar were actually come from the royal family or the royal family chefs uh one of the royal family's early chefs a man called karem correct in the 1800s is supposed to be the man who invented the eclair well did you know that i didn't know he invented the eclair but whoever invented it is um it's a true triumph because it's absolutely delicious right so we've just filled these right up with cream just getting it all in so it's literally spurting out the edges okay now next which i'm going to get you to help me with is the fun bit so here we have chocolate glassage shiny dark chocolate sauce okay so you're in there you've got um golden syrup with cocoa powder uh dark chocolate a little bit of glucose water and you just bring those and some butter and you just bring those ingredients to a simmer and then just whisk it and it goes to you've got the glucose syrup the butter uh the golden syrup that's what gives it that lovely shine and that's the point isn't it because eclair means lightening in french it's got a shine it's got a sparkle yeah absolutely yeah absolutely so just dipping it into that dipping it into that sauce like so oh that's very clever so you don't pour it you don't pour it overnight top pour it over as i would and then just literally like that one by one you're being very precious about it aren't you just write this down and then just come up like that and then just pull it back just gently over the surface so you got them like that okay yeah like a go yeah it would yeah yeah turn it upside down like that oh you know where you go you know i was saying that you know so many of our familiar dishes seem to come from the royal family well arguably the royal family were involved in inventing afternoon tea itself because it's supposed to be the duchess of bedford who was one of queen victoria's ladies in waiting or ladies of the bed chamber who invented it in the 1840s i think 1850s because dinner was getting later and later yeah and they were getting hungry in the afternoons so she invented afternoon tea well that's what all the dictionaries say anyway i don't know whether how true it is i made a bit of them yeah did you see i i hopefully you didn't see me you obviously have i've moved it over to there so it's not near my coffee i've made a complete shambles what did you do i didn't press just push it down a bit more that's it push it down a bit more yeah that's it now take it and then just just drag the excess off yeah like that that's lovely lovely oh i like the line you've got going down the middle it's called feathering that is it yes better than yours it is very much better naturally right in we go last one yep now you could take these to the fridge or you could put them in a sort of a cool place and let them set but you know what i think that's why would you that's an absolute waste of time absolutely um let's get stuck in oh now yeah let's do it let's do it here we go warm chocolate cold cream and that lovely shoe paste exterior yeah yeah yeah hang on how good are they they're not bad actually when it comes to afternoon tea pastry and scones are a must-have there's only one thing missing jam jam is the unsung hero of any afternoon tea you can't have a scone without a generous dollop of your favorite preserve wilkin and sons have been making jam in the essex town of tiptree since afternoon tea became popular in the late 19th century to celebrate their 125th anniversary the queen came for a factory tour the day the queen came oh it was just out of this world just amazing really was the whole of the village had come out literally outside of the factory to see her it's amazing in charge of her majesty's tour was walter scott joint md of the company and a jam connoisseur for over 30 years she was jolly interested in everything she obviously knew all about the jams and marmalades and did actually say that um she remembers the name tiptree from the time she was a little girl which was quite a quite a thing really the company has a long association with the royal family it's held a royal warrant for over a hundred years these are given as a mark of recognition for producers who supply the household for more than five years this is our bible of labels really of the history of the company right from the beginning we've had the warrant since around 1911 but it changes with every monarch so only the three monarchs in that time we've got one here by appointment king george v we've gone from king george the fifth there to king george vi here and then two this one is her majesty queen elizabeth oh it's it's a really important thing for us we're so proud to have it a passion for preserve kept the company going through two world wars and tough economic times and their traditional methods are at the heart of production this is where all the fruit from whichever source is sorted it comes from our own farm it comes from abroad copper boiling pans are used which heat the fruit up faster allowing the sugars to caramelize this ensures a perfect jammy flavor we've got 14 boiling pans each producing about 70 kilos of jam or marmalade every 10 to 15 minutes as much of the fruit as possible is grown on site where the company had been farming for 300 years today farm director chris newnam blends old methods with new we are a very traditional business and we we cling on to the best of those traditions you know something like little scarlet strawberry it's it's a strawberry variety that we've grown for 120 years and there is nothing to beat it so when we have a situation like that we'll carry on with it but the way they grow fruit is changing the company has increased the number of plants by filling their tunnels with rotating tears it's a great way of coping with the local weather as well well one of the great challenges that we face in this part of the world is that we're farming in the driest part of the driest county so water is a real real issue for us and it's a great limitation on on on growth and one of the beauties of a system like this is that we've got gutters on the roofs so we're able to harvest all the rainwater that falls in the tunnels this is a brand new system it's already leading to a huge increase in fruit production and that's just as well as these jam makers have noticed that afternoon tea is becoming more and more popular we export a good proportion of our production probably more than any other uk food company you're proud of the whole thing you're proud of the name but what's inside the pot is important to me and um afternoon tea seems to be coming back there's a bit of a resurgence in it with scones and cream and little scarlet jam on top [Music] one organization that knows more about afternoon tea than most is the women's institute and i'm here in the grand library of the house with yvonne brown who's chairwoman of the sandringham wi and has had afternoon tea with the queen loads of times i have yes i've been a member for 25 years and the queen's been coming to every meeting since 1943 so i've enjoyed many a nice afternoon tea with her the branch was actually started by queen mary wasn't it after the first world war it was started by queen mary and she used to come along afterwards she did she was there and she really joined in she did yes she used to like to take tea with the ladies and they even played musical chairs but i have to say we don't do that now the present queen has been coming since 1943 you said she became a member in 1943 she came with a mother and princess margaret and how often does she come now once a year to the january meeting and that coincides with the queen's break at sandringham so you know she's coming what what what preparations do you make well we you know get out the best china and the best table cloths from the floral arrangements to make the room look pretty and we make i make lots of different cakes and things is that different from the normal meeting well normally we just have a tea and a biscuit [Laughter] so how does it work well the queen arrives usually at three o'clock and we sing the national anthem we sing jerusalem and she joins in she does yes and then the queen will give us a short resume of what she's been doing over the past year and then she takes tea with three ladies um so she doesn't sit with all of you no no no no no no not at all no this is done in strict rotation how many years you've been a member and how many attendances you've got it's an incentive scheme absolutely yeah and what did you serve her we serve a selection of cheese scones and assorted sponge cakes and eclairs and things and this year because it was the queen's 90th birthday i made a very special fruitcake for her which i know she likes and we were one of the first people i think we were the first people to actually serve the cream with a birthday cake and i've actually brought you one oh just i thought you know you might like to sample one better not in the library afterwards certainly so what do you talk about um the queen when she sat with the three ladies she she talks about almost anything you know obviously there's a lot of horses and things at sandra yuma she talks about the horses she'll talk to people about their families especially some of the people that she's known a long time because bearing in mind she has been coming such a long time and so over a lot of the ladies so she doesn't know she probably knows yes yes she does yeah gosh what do you think she gets out of it i think she gets a really nice relaxing afternoon it's something completely different and from you know her everyday life where she's sort of taken around and visiting different places where she can come there and completely relax a chance to be ordinary perhaps yes yeah or as far as the queen comes as far as the queen can be ordinary and what about you ladies what do you get out of it well we get enormous but i mean we're we're so honoured and privileged that the queen is our president and we it's just a wonderful day the highlight of our year it has to be said and the next week is back to tea and biscuits absolutely the queen must be something of a connoisseur of fruit cake so much so that royal cake makers will go to extreme lengths to create the perfect cake for a regal afternoon tea baker mitch turner knows exactly what to do [Music] mitch turner has created cakes for many a-list celebrations often described as the queen of couture cakes she's also baked for numerous members of the royal family in 2010 mitch was awarded an mbe for services to the catering industry the recipe i'm going to show you this afternoon is exactly the same as the cake that i made for a larger celebration cake for her majesty the queen but today we're going to make it as an afternoon tea cake for me afternoon tea wouldn't be afternoon tea without a traditional rich fruit cake i'm starting with melted butter and sugar and i'm going to add a big tablespoon of treacle people often ask me do i feel under pressure having bait for members of the royal family and having the opportunity to celebrate cakes with members of the royal family has been wonderful um you know i've made a cake for prince charles for his birthday we painted his coat of arms on the side of the cake and we wrote in english and in welsh happy birthday prince of wales and for her majesty the queen i've made a number of cakes but particularly most memorable for me was the diamond wedding anniversary cake that i made for a private royal family christmas lunch and then the queen took the top tier with her to sandringham to enjoy over christmas so this fruitcake really has stood the test of time mitch now stirs in eggs and vanilla extract then sieves flour adds a raisin agent and a combination of spices i was really honoured to receive an mbe in 2010 for my services to the catering industry it's one of those most truly wonderful accolades that you can't apply for enter for even know that it's going to happen i was truly truly overcome it was a fabulous day to go to buckingham palace and receive my mbe i do wear it with pride and the main benefits are that my children and my grandchildren can be married and christened in some paul's cathedral which is pretty lovely mitch combines the batter with sultanas currants raisins glace cherries and ginger which have all been soaked in brandy for 48 hours quite often you can have a fruit cake that has a lot of cake with very little fruit in it whereas mine's the alternative it's a lot of fruit that's wrapped up in a little bit of cake mitch transfers the batter to a lined tin and pops it in the oven and then after two and three quarter hours the cake is ready to mold into afternoon tea sized portions the cake is baked and it's cooled so starting right at the edge of the cake we're going to take that cutter and press really evenly all the way down the top tip for cutting these out is to ensure that your cutter is nice and clean if it starts to stick a little bit you can dip it in some icing sugar but if the cake is chilled beforehand that will really really help once divided mitch brushes her cake with apricot jam and is ready to apply a base layer of marzipan lay that over the surface the marzipan itself will help to lock in all the moisture inside the cake cup it all the way around down to the base cut that out pop it through and that is the fruit cake ready to have its top coat of icing brushing the cake with brandy before icing will not only add flavor it'll also create an antiseptic barrier that'll help preserve the cake so that's brushed lift the icing up over the surface and once i get right the way down to the base take the larger size cutter press down and that's the cake use the smoothers around the edge and on the top to ensure that you've got the perfect finish and then at this stage i'm going to put it straight onto a little disc before decoration now for the intricate process of decorating the tea cakes i've made these little afternoon tea full britannias for her majesty the queen as you can see a labor of love but certainly worth the effort to show that you've really thought about making that person feel super special making these individual crown cakes is so labor intensive they can take mitch up to three days to produce a hundred i'm going to use this to pipe three leaves as i start piping the leaf i can give it a little wiggle to bring in the texture release and lift up and that creates the first leaf turn to pipe the second and then the third one here and what this will do is create three beautiful leaves that cover where the candy stripe started but most importantly give me the anchor so that i can bring my red rose into position onto the top of the cake and that is my afternoon tea crown cake the rich fruit cake i made for her majesty the queen on a perfect cool britannia fruitcake can be rich and sometimes a planar bun goes down better in the afternoon at the time of buckingham palace kitchen made mildred nichols the queen sent down a request to the kitchen it was a recipe for bath buns a hundred years and more ago our kitchen made our buckingham palace kitchen made mildred nichols seems to spend most of her time doing puddings and desserts if her recipe book is anything to go by look at this ball this is really fascinating because a loose leaf in the recipe book is a recipe actually sent down by the queen to the kitchens a recipe for baths the queen sent this recipe yup to her and she's got it in here there's a recipe though for bath buns it's a very simple recipe and actually no disrespect quite a plain thing a bass bun it is a very simple recipe as you pointed out but what makes it special is this here and this is what we now know as a ferment a starter when you're making bread they would call it a sponge and in there michael is fresh yeast milk warmed not to kill the yeast just warmed sugar and flour and that there's like a really sour yogurty kind of like it's just fermenting it's really delicious and this is mildred's recipe on the instructions absolutely yeah absolutely which is which is brilliant it's quite a thought so we've got our sugar our eggs and some butter and this is yeah simply known as creaming so we're just going to pop that down there and start it off nice and slowly once we start starts going together we can just take that speed up slightly taking off mildred presumably would have done this with elbow power yeah yeah absolutely a lot longer yes okay next bit yeah we're now just gonna we're gonna change our paddle for a dough hook because now we don't want to beat air into it michael we just want to form a dough so we're just going to pop that in there like that in with our flour yeah okay so just plain flour yeah now we're going to very gently you see that it's just rising and rising i'm just going to pop that in there and it's important to get all of this in get all of that yeah into i don't know if you can smell it it smells like that yeah it does actually quite exciting okay down and this bit just gently and what we're doing what this is going to do now is knead yeah that'll take about a couple of minutes yeah but what we're also doing we're working the gluten in the flour because we don't want we don't want to just bind it together we now need to kind of slowly knock it what we call knocking it so it'll kind of we work that gluten it's quite interesting the kind of social history of all this because this recipe came at a time when the royal family were getting a bit more austere you know some of the extravagance was uh being put behind them right and queen mary in particular she was a real stickler and she would measure out the tea leaves for the cups of tea for her afternoon tea and she'd insist on doing it herself right and that michael is our dough as mildred would have made it she must have spent you know most of her working life doing afternoon tea for queen mary the wife of king george v she wasn't always appreciative you know she was that stickler and we've actually got a note from her sent down to the kitchens not necessarily to mildred and a about bath buns and she says here the bath buns were very good when sent to windsor last friday but yesterday they were again not good they tasted too much of brioche not bread in other words too fancy french and not enough plain english do you think not a very nice note for milton to get if it was aimed at her no um absolutely well do you know what i think it probably does resemble more towards a brioche then it doesn't bread anyway so you've got the same sort of note i would have got the same name i'm with mildred right here we go so we've got this so we're just gonna knead it now just gently knead it like that like so do that for about a couple of minutes into a nice circle like that straight into our bowl yeah and over here tea towel cling film over the top and over here it's now doubled inside it's risen absolutely and how long does it take to do that that will take about half an hour so you've got this you've just got this kind of beautiful dough that's increased in size now what we do is just pull it out gently or not gently onto the board like that okay and again we knock it what we call knocking it back again but it's it's getting lighter what do you mean we're taking the area out and then it's just so it's basically rising again rising again okay now if you just grab just grab about that much yeah there and then roll that into a little like this absolutely just perfectly like that just look just nice and round keep it nice and tight just ringing your palm well queen mary had like mine not sure about yours oh isn't that fussy look mine is so much better than yours put them on here pop them onto the tray there we go okay now no a bit more space apart because they're going to prove again oh they're going to okay and the reason we do that michael is so that the dough isn't chewy okay so this will go into the oven for 15 minutes at 200 degrees quite a hot heat so they bake quickly oh wow you have these look at that look how they've puffed up yeah light sweet delicious they're ready to serve now no we just need to glaze them now so over here we have some golden syrup that we've just let down with a little bit of water it's mildred recipe so literally michael just straight just dab it over dab it on there absolutely yeah all over our buns like so a bit of shine on the top absolutely and it also i was about to say spice up but sweetens up what is otherwise a relatively it is it is quite it is quite plain but like i say the secret is in that lovely fermentness in these buns and that almost that kind of sweet sour note with the yeast delicious really good for a lighter afternoon tea i think like you say it's interesting isn't how the tastes kind of almost got more simple or yeah not so extravagant as as time went on yeah so we've got our last one here there we go they look rather marvelous they do don't they they'll they look absolutely gorgeous right what's next pearl sugar basically like little crunchy icing sugar and then straight on like that don't they look fabulous also gives a nice texture because you've got that sort of nice soft bun yes because everything else is soft and this will be a little crispy absolutely that lovely sticky glaze yeah all right lovely right there now now let's have an afternoon tea nibble yes go for it get stuck in no after you let's go on it all right which one which one this one here yeah okay i'll take this one to keep it neat look at that there we go oh yeah yes i'm gonna hmm thank you paul another fine mess you got me that's all from our celebration of afternoon tea see you next time [Music] foreign

Channel: Real Royalty

Views: 538,249

Rating: 4.8879113 out of 5

Keywords: real royalty, real royalty channel, british royalty, royalty around the world, royal history, royal cooking, royal crown cake, afternoon tea, queen elizabeth ii, british royal family

Id: kgi8_7twLhA

Length: 43min 55sec (2635 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 29 2020