Original subtitles

The cost of living is still affecting the way we all shop,

so I really want to help in the best way I can -

by giving you some delicious recipes that won't break the bank...

Full of flavour, full of love,

and it's good on your wallet, as well.

...inspired by classic money-saving techniques in the kitchen,

as well as old-school tips and tricks that Nana would be proud of.

This method is just gold and I love it.

I'm going to show you £1 wonders

which will come in at a pound a portion or less...

We're talking 75p, so it's really good value.

It's exciting.

...and a whole host of other money-saving meals -

from DIY takeaways

that are a fraction of the price of a delivery,

to price-drop puddings that go as low as 21p a bun.

Humble ingredients that are super good value

that make big flavour - that is what this is all about.

When it comes to keeping costs down and delicious food,

you'll find that Italian grandmothers know best.

This recipe is a fantastic one for making use of any leftover pasta

and I think it could be another family favourite.

Inspired by those clever Italian nonnas,

I'm making a spaghetti frittata

from cooked leftover spaghetti

costing 61p a portion.

It's a real £1 wonder,

with a price-cut pesto -

swapping in ground almonds

and cheddar to keep costs down -

and frozen peas,

one of the thriftiest ways to buy veg.

This is a really fun way to be frugal with leftovers.

I do this kind of thing very regularly in my home,

because sometimes I make a nice pasta for my kids,

but they never turn up on time.

So, when it kind of goes a bit dry and not very nice,

then I add some eggs to it and I put it in the oven,

and I make a beautiful al forno.

That means "cooked in the oven".

But I want to kind of mix that with a frittata,

which is an Italian-style omelette.

So, we have pasta here that I've boiled.

It could be leftover, right? Which is very, very cool.

And then, frozen peas that I've boiled.

So, then, over to the food processor.

What I'm going to do is give you

a different concept on making a pesto, OK?

So we're going to use peas in here, right?

So, we're going to kind of make a PEA-sto.

Take 30 grams of mint

and just rip it off the stalk.

Mint and peas are very, very good friends.

I'll season with a little salt and pepper.

Four tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil.

Then, let's talk cheese.

I'm going to use cheddar,

which is completely unclassic.

I WOULD use parmesan,

but parmesan is a lot more expensive than cheddar.

75 grams will still make a beautiful flavour.

Just break this in.

And then, normally you would have pine nuts in a Genovese-style pesto,

but I've found out that ground almonds

actually is the cheapest way to get nuts into this lovely pesto.

Delicious.

So, about 50 grams goes in.

Two cloves of garlic.

Lid on. Whazz it up.

And that is a very, very easy pesto.

Oh... It's really...

HE CHUCKLES It's really good.

I'm going to leave a little bit of this pesto in here,

and the pesto in there.

Then crack in your eggs.

Six free-range eggs.

And then, I'll beat the eggs and "pea-sto" into the spaghetti,

and we've made this incredible concoction.

Get this pan on full whack, right?

Let's get this hot.

I've got the oven on at 220 degrees Celsius,

which is 450 Fahrenheit,

and when all that cooks together,

it is going to be like a cross between

a pasta al forno and a quiche and a frittata.

We'll go in with this glorious pasta.

Look at that.

Let it sizzle for about one minute,

and then in the oven for around about...

...25 minutes.

And it'll puff up a bit, it'll go golden,

and that - with a lovely little salad - is a thing of joy.

OK, so it's had 25 minutes and it is smelling amazing.

Just turn it over, one, two, three.

Look at that!

Put a little bit of that extra pesto...

...with a little cheese.

You can see the little cross-sections of the pasta -

the crispy bits, the soft bits...

Really, really beautiful.

Very delicious.

It's both crispy and delicate.

The sweetness from the peas and the mint

is just a beautiful harmony.

Being thrifty and clever with leftovers and with waste,

that's the true value.

So, guys, what are you waiting for?

Love it.

Assuming you already have salt, pepper, and oil in the cupboard,

this frittata feast serves six,

costing a canny 61p per portion.

To deliver really reliable pricing,

I've taken the average cost of each ingredient

and the quantity used across three of the biggest supermarkets.

I really enjoy making these beautiful pastries.

It's memories of my childhood,

my mum, my grandma.

A savoury little pie,

something you can have at home,

something you can have in a picnic,

you know, in your lunch box...

It's just the most beautiful thing.

And borrowing from the money-saving techniques

of our nans is totally genius,

when my piccalilli, pork and apple pies

are coming in at a delicious £1.31 a portion, using pork mince -

which is great value -

and home-made, tasty flaky pastry.

Served with a carrot and apple and walnut salad,

this budget-beating recipe keeps costs wrapped up.

So, look, one onion.

Finely slice it,

and in my head at the moment,

I'm thinking about this filling.

We're going to use pork.

So, pork, apple and thyme -

very nice -

and then we've got these gorgeous onions.

So, what I want to do with the air fryer,

instead of just putting raw onion and apple in the pork mince,

go in with the onions, straight into that tray, no oil, no seasoning.

And we're going to use that circulating hot air

to dehydrate the onion and the apple,

to make those flavours more intense.

It's going to go in at 200 for ten minutes.

That's enough time for us to make some home-made pastry.

So, I've got some strong flour,

250 grams.

Right, a nice seasoning of salt.

What I have is 125 grams of cold butter

and we're just going to dice it up.

Clean hands, right?

Use our fingers and thumbs

just to push through the butter and the flour.

Go in now with, like, 70, 75mls of cold water.

You just want to bring this dough together.

Work on a clean surface, here.

I'm going to cut this into quarters.

And then you pat this into a little ball.

This is fun!

Cut this into little squares

and put a little oil on the paper here.

This will stop it sticking.

Bit of flour on that, as well.

And this will make four pies.

You could let this rest for half an hour.

I'm going to do it for, like, ten minutes,

and I'm going to put it in the freezer.

I want to kind of show you how quickly and brilliantly

you can make this at home,

cos I really, really want you to do it.

OK, a little clean down.

Let's get that out on the board.

Grab a knife, and just chop it up -

rough and ready.

The apple is more, like,

edging towards dried apple than fresh apple,

so we go from sweet and sour notes

to just sweet and kind of chewy notes.

I want to show you a nice little hack that I love.

You can turn your beautiful piccalilli

into a lovely smooth sort of sauce - a dip.

You've got loads of different spices and herbs and veggies.

Such good value.

So, this can now go in the blender.

Just nick a little bit of water, half a jar.

And put that to one side.

So, this can now go in the fridge.

Love that.

I can take my pork out.

So, 250 grams of pork mince there.

Put that piccalilli in,

so that's our flavouring.

Two nice, big tablespoons.

Pork is an incredibly economical mincemeat to get.

The cheaper pork's around 15% fat,

and, actually, for pork pies, meatballs, meatloaves,

I think that's a better ratio of fat for flavour and juiciness.

So, this is brilliant for this time of year

if you're trying to save a few pounds.

So, we'll go in with this onion and apple.

And then we just grab a little bit of thyme tips here.

Salt. Plenty of black pepper.

One more ingredient -

a little grating of cheese.

Just, like, 20 grams.

So, I'll put about ten grams in...

...and then I'll put ten grams on when I've finished it,

but imagine that melting in the middle

next to the onion and the apple.

Ah, it's going to be amazing.

Roughly divide it into four.

Back to the pastry.

I can feel the butter has solidified.

Roll these out to about half a centimetre in thickness.

I'm going to take this pork and place it in here, like that.

Press it down.

Gorgeous.

What I'm going to do is steal a little egg for egg wash.

Now, you can use milk and make it cheaper.

Just go around the edge, like that.

This is going to help it stick

and also make it go golden.

Take the first bit of pastry up,

press it against the pork.

Kink it towards you and twist it.

Think of it as a pleat.

Super rustic, right?

Pleat, pleat, pleat.

Egg wash around the rim.

Go around the ripples...

...and just make this glaze.

Look at that!

Home-made pies.

Made with love.

Like, your family are going to go wild for this,

I'm telling you.

Sesame seeds.

A couple of tablespoons around the edge.

You don't need much.

A little bit of the cheese on top.

Cor, this is going to be so good!

A few bits of thyme.

If you buy a pot,

growing herbs is the cheapest way to do it.

We're going to put two in here.

I'm going to cook this for 15 to 20 minutes

until golden and delicious

at 200 degrees Celsius.

OK, we're air frying.

Boom.

But these,

these are going to go in the freezer,

and will be an incredible gift for another day.

Right, let's clean down.

I'm going to make a nice little salad.

I'm using some of the cheapest veggies you can get your hands on.

Walnuts.

With the apple, they're like best friends.

And then a couple of pork pies here.

Hallelujah. Come on!

If you came home to that,

you'd be well chuffed.

A little extra piccalilli.

Let's cut one of these open.

Look at that,

steaming.

A little bit of piccalilli.

Come on, we've got this!

Mm!

Flaky, decadent,

and you buddy up that hot, crumbly pastry with the pork.

It's full of texture.

I love the apple and the onion inside there.

And that piccalilli seasoning, it is so good!

We want to celebrate recipes that are great value.

We want to save a couple of quid,

but if we use techniques from our grandmothers, right, pastry...

This is kind of like clever, shrewd cooking,

but it's so delicious!

Beautiful.

These will make four people very happy,

and are coming in at £1.31

per pocket-pleasing pie.

Using great value mince

and making pastry from scratch,

these pies are total winners for your wallet.

I really believe that if you learn how to batch cook,

you'll see the benefits of saving time in the long run

and money.

So I'm making...

...which is my take on an Indian classic.

Coming in at 85p per portion,

this £1 wonder uses great-value red lentils

with optional hacks of making your own cheese

and taking a few store-cupboard spices to amp up flavour.

I do all kinds of dals,

but squash is one that I love.

It's around at the moment, and it's very, very good.

I'm going to use the whole thing.

So, if I can get that going straight away,

this is definitely a good thing.

I love butternut squash,

my kids love butternut squash.

Be careful when you cut this, by the way.

What I love about this is the skin is very, very delicious and tasty -

and almost candy-like.

Rub it with oil,

and just season it up with salt and pepper.

So, simple prep, simple seasoning.

This comes over to the oven.

Now, I'm going to do a baked dal.

You can cook the dal on a hob all the way through,

but when you do it in the oven,

I think it dehydrates the dal in a really nice way.

It catches at the edges.

I really like it.

So, what I'm going to do is put the squash straight onto the bars -

upside down, like that -

and that is going to cook over this dal once it gets going.

It's going to make it nutty and sweet.

Now, this is an Indian cheese.

It's called paneer.

You can get it in all of the supermarkets and it's brilliant.

But if you're trying to save money,

we can make our own paneer for less than half the price.

How cool is that?

So this is going to go back into the fridge for another day.

I'm going to get a pan on.

We'll need four pints of whole, full-fat milk.

Bring it to a boil.

So, let's talk about dal.

Get a large casserole-style pan onto a medium-high heat.

Take three or four cloves of garlic and a thumb-size piece of ginger.

Just chop it up.

I'm going to steal a little bit of these coriander stalks.

A little drizzle of oil.

I'm going to go in with the garlic and the ginger

to start frying. Gently, gently.

I'm going to go in with a teaspoon of dried chilli.

I want a little glowing heat,

I don't want it to be hot at all.

Then I'm going to use a little hack, a little cheat -

I'm going to use a curry paste.

I'm using a jalfrezi spice paste.

So we're going to put two tablespoons into this,

and, immediately, the heat and the garlic and the ginger,

it's all marrying up in the most beautiful way.

And again, I want to give you another little hack that I think is helpful.

I like this one.

It'll save you time and money.

Frozen sofrito base.

It's carrots, onion, celery.

You can take what you want.

It's all cut up for you,

and it's often very good value, as well.

300 grams, in it goes.

Let's introduce the main part.

Red split lentils.

You buy these often in kilo bags.

They're really, really cheap.

Let's put all of that into that beautiful spice mix.

This is a proper batch cook.

We're going to get about 12 portions made out of this.

I'm going to add two tins of tomatoes.

I can see my milk is coming up to boil,

so I'm going to go in with two tablespoons of white wine vinegar.

It could be lemon juice.

It's going to split the milk.

You can see it happening already.

So, at that point,

heat off completely.

You'll get a much smoother paneer.

Season that milk with some salt.

The curds and whey are obviously moving.

This is one of the most simple expressions of cheesemaking.

It'll get you hooked.

Like, it's a really brilliant, fun thing to do with your family,

and it's a great way of saving money.

So, I'm going to get myself a little colander.

I've got a clean tea towel here.

Rinse it in cold water.

Now, this goes into our colander,

and, very simply,

over the pan here,

pour it into your tea towel.

This is where we can separate the curds from the whey.

The whey will just essentially be like flavoured water.

There's no reason to throw that away at all,

so we'll use that in our dal.

So we're being thrifty through and through.

Take up the corners of the tea towel,

and you can just gently, without burning yourself, just squeeze it.

Put it under a cold tap.

Just wring it out, like that.

I want to show you what's going on.

You can leave it overnight and it will set,

or let it cool down while the dal is cooking.

That is like a basic cheese.

Come on! Like, this is cool.

So I'm just going to fill these up

with some water. So, look,

as this comes up to a simmer,

I want to put one more curveball in.

In the supermarkets, you're going to see these uncooked poppadoms.

Little discs made out of lentils.

Literally scrunch them in your hands.

Not completely traditional,

but it's utterly delicious.

Let's get our dal under the squash

for about 40 minutes until the lentils are soft and delicate.

Let's take the squash off here.

Look, that's just roasted beautifully.

It smells amazing.

I'm going to keep a little bit of this squash back.

The rest, I'm going to break up like this.

Just twist it, break it, cut it, mash it.

The skin and the flesh,

it's all beautifully edible,

and I'm going to season it up with a final flourish of spice into there.

And, of course, you don't have to do it, but the flavour is amazing.

In a pan, put in some sunflower oil.

Go in with a tablespoon of mustard seeds.

They'll start to pop.

A nice teaspoon of cumin.

Fenugreek, like a teaspoon.

And another pinch of chilli.

Let that toast,

and as it starts to sort of pop a little bit, like this is,

then we simply stir it through.

Sizzling on the top.

And then I want to show you this paneer.

So, the pan's on.

Just break this up.

And just give it some colour.

That's it.

I love it. This is exciting cooking!

Put a nice spoon on, like that.

And then let's just take one of those poppadoms.

A bit of this squash.

Home-made paneer.

Just a few bits of coriander to freshen it up.

I mean, that's a cool dish,

and we've got a batch here that we can, you know,

put in the fridge or freezer.

It's going to save you time another day

and certainly money in the long run.

If I come home late from work,

reheat it, fry an egg,

you know, and I'm good to go.

It's like the gift that keeps on giving.

Right, let's have a little try.

Enough yapping.

Mm-mm.

So good.

The squash has just been mushed into that dal, so more flavour.

It's got the little pops of mustard seed in there from that temper.

It HAS made a difference.

It's like taking stereo into surround sound, flavour-wise.

Really, really good.

Our home-made paneer.

This is elegant,

but also it's a fantastic carrier of flavours.

Mm.

And don't forget, over there,

11 portions to be used and enjoyed another day -

maybe next week, maybe in a month's time,

but that is a really cool thing to do.

And whenever you choose to eat this flavour-packed dal,

it's coming in

at a thrifty 85p per portion.

This batch-cooked £1 wonder

delivers delicious food

at a fraction of the cost.

So many of us love a cheeky takeaway,

and, at this time of year,

if you're trying to keep the costs down,

then why not have a go

at making your very own?

My chicken shish kebab

is finger-licking good,

and at a very tasty £1.74 each,

it'll seriously make you stop and think

next time you want to order in.

I'm using clever cuts of chicken

and a premixed spice blend that'll save you money and time.

But the best bit -

it'll cost you around a quarter

of your average kebab on the high street.

I'm going to show you first

how to make the chicken

absolutely delicious, tender and succulent.

These are boneless, skinless chicken thighs

and they're a really good-value cut.

But I've noticed that when you're shopping around,

if it's got skin on or bone in, it's even cheaper.

Often, chicken, by the way,

is discounted as well,

so you can keep your eye on that.

I'm going to use this,

which is baharat spice mix.

You can get it in the supermarket.

It's a blend of spices -

smoked paprika, cloves, cumin, cinnamon, dried mint -

but you can use any spice blend that you absolutely love,

and this is going to take your average, everyday chicken

to the next level.

So, two teaspoons goes onto the chicken.

Add two tablespoons of natural yoghurt.

Some salt and some black pepper.

Lemon zest and juice.

Get a fine grater.

If you've got a box grater,

just use the fine side.

Catch those pips.

Those naughty, cheeky little pips.

I'm going to use a whole bulb of garlic.

Yes, a whole bulb.

It's going to caramelise and go sweet, like candies.

But then we've got these little ends that we've just taken off.

Just grate those into the marinade.

Beautiful.

Then, I've got two onions here.

Cut them into quarters.

These are going to roast with the chicken.

But some will be for my little salsa that I make later

and some I'll grate into the marinade.

That is going to really flavour and tenderise the meat

in the most beautiful way.

Go in with some oil, just a tablespoon.

Right, I'm going to cook it now,

but if you really want to get the flavours to penetrate,

then do it overnight.

The results are amazing.

I want eight nice slices of lemon,

and we're going to inter-skewer the chicken and the lemon.

And you get the sweet-sour

and a kind of little hint of bitterness

that is really, really nice.

You can use any skewer you want

and it's almost like a little mini shish that we're going to do.

So, take two skewers, take the lemon,

and I'm literally just going to go either side.

Then, I'm going to take the chicken thigh, fold it over,

and we'll just repeat that.

Now, the beautiful thing about this

is the lemon and the chicken

will cook together

and you can eat them together.

They're delicious.

I've got the leftover marinade here.

So, I'm going to put this into a preheated oven.

The oven is at 200 degrees Celsius,

which is 400 Fahrenheit.

I'll put that in for around 20, 22 minutes.

While that's doing its magic,

I'm going to go into a liquidiser

with a tin of tomatoes...

...and then a tin of water.

Salt and pepper.

A drizzle of olive oil, about a tablespoon.

And then two tablespoons of red wine vinegar.

And then, this is like a 30-gram bunch of mint.

The stalks here I'm going to use to flavour this beautiful dressing.

Often, herbs in a supermarket are discounted and reduced, OK?

So keep your eyes peeled for that.

So, lid on, whizz it up.

So, in, like, 30 seconds,

you've transformed all of that

into a nice little dressing.

I'm going to get 300 grams of couscous

and this is an absolute staple in our household.

It's so quick and convenient.

This is going to slowly absorb all of that gorgeousness,

and in wintertime,

to have some beautiful rose-tinted couscous

is a little ray of sunshine.

Those little sprigs -

the little tips of the mint -

are very beautiful,

so I'll use those to sprinkle on the salad at the end,

and then this mint here, slice it up nice and fine.

In the lovely world of fresh herbs,

often I hear people say,

"Oh, I'm not sure about buying it, cos I might waste it."

Whenever I have any leftover herbs,

if I just push these out,

can you see how cool they are?

So that is just bashed-up herb -

it happens to be rosemary -

with olive oil and you freeze it in these little ice cube moulds,

so you don't have to waste anything.

Nice little tip.

I love all that!

So, let's check on the chicken.

It smells amazing.

It's had about 22 minutes.

Just flip it over, like that.

And one last ingredient which I love -

tinned chickpeas.

Super, super cheap.

Drain the juice...

...and shake this into the tray.

And they'll almost roast up like peanuts.

So, back in the oven for another 22 minutes.

Now I want to show you how to make a very simple crunchy salsa.

So, I have cucumber.

Go as thin as you can.

And let's use those odds and ends.

A little bit of olive oil.

And the chicken is nearly done,

so let's have a clean down and let's serve up.

JAMIE CHUCKLES

So, that's what I wanted, right?

Beautiful.

Caramelised and jammy.

Some beautiful onions.

Take some of the mint and just sort of tear it over the top here.

Squeeze these bits of garlic out of the skin.

And just give that couscous

a nice little toss in that tray...

...to pick up even MORE flavour.

Let's get into this beautiful chicken skewer.

Get yourself a sharp knife

and then we're going to cut all the way down.

So, just look at that contrast

between the gnarly exterior

and the pearly white, juicy interior.

That is a brilliant way to cook chicken.

Right, let's serve a portion up.

Couscous.

Amazing salsa.

And then our chicken shish.

Put the lemon there.

And then a little teaspoon of yoghurt.

I want to remind people about how cool that spice blend is.

When it's cold and dark outside,

you can have something colourful and interesting inside,

full of flavour, full of love,

and it's good on your wallet, as well.

Right, enough talking. Let's try.

My kids always take the mickey out of me

for doing a little bit of everything on the fork...

...but this is the way.

Mm.

Heavenly.

I love it. The hot chicken that's gnarly,

with the cold couscous and the crunchy cucumber,

and I'm just getting now a bit of that lemon.

It's like candied, sweet, sour...

Wow!

With all those spices,

it's a thing of joy.

Full of flavour, full of optimism.

Happy days.

Really good.

Coming in at a tasty £1.74 a portion,

these mouthwatering kebabs

with all the trimmings give you a taste of a takeaway at home

for around a quarter of the price.

I'm not the only cook who's passionate

about getting good value for money.

Mandy Yin is a restaurateur who's been wowing foodies across London

for a decade. Cooking some of the best Malaysian food in the country,

her business started out as street food,

so she knows a thing or two about knocking out delicious food

on a budget.

These ready-to-go pastes are such great value

and save so much time, as well.

When cooking Malaysian food,

specialist supermarkets offer great value,

as they sell ingredients in bigger quantities.

Look at the wide variety of dried spices and herbs.

They'll be much, much cheaper, better value,

than in any other supermarkets.

It's time to cook.

Mandy's making a cheat's laksa,

a spicy Malaysian-inspired soup

that's coming in at a delicious £1.33 a bowl.

Using one of the best value cuts of chicken

and a money-saving curry paste,

this tasty soup is around eight times cheaper

than the average laksa you'll order in.

Sounds like it's time to make some soup.

It starts by using chicken thighs.

Skin on, bone in,

because they're cheaper and so flavourful.

Use the knife to just scrape off the chicken skin.

Pull at the same time.

I was, born in Malaysia.

Every day at primary school,

I pretty much had laksa for lunch,

so hence my lifelong commitment to laksa.

It's a spicy noodle soup. It warms you up from the inside.

Get a can of coconut milk.

I want the coconut cream that has settled at the top.

We're making a saving here by not using any oil

and making the most of what's there already.

So, good two tablespoons of the Thai red curry paste.

There's at least 15 ingredients in this red curry paste

that you haven't had to buy yourself,

you haven't had to prepare.

You are saving a good,

probably six to eight hours of your life.

Add some water now into the pan.

The rest of the coconut milk...

A good glug of fish sauce.

And another amazing Malaysian southeast Asian ingredient

is tamarind paste.

So, today, I'm letting you into a secret.

Worcester sauce has tamarind and anchovy,

so I love this ingredient.

Malaysian food is all about balancing

sweet, spicy, bitter, sour.

I'm just gonna add a tiny bit of dark brown sugar.

Add in the chicken now,

and we can just leave it to come up to boil

and simmer for about 20 minutes.

So the next step is to get all of the vegetables

that I'm going to blanch.

Frozen whole green beans,

it's cheaper than buying the fresh ones, so, winner.

Two good, big handfuls, for three minutes.

So, the chicken and broth is pretty much done now.

Pull the green beans out of the water using a slotted spoon.

200 grams of beansprouts.

Boil about three minutes, all one pot.

Less energy, less washing up.

And they're now boiling.

Now, noodles.

I'm using thin egg noodles.

Take off the heat,

and just stick three of these pucks in

and leave them around three minutes.

Now I'm just going to shred the chicken,

pulling them off the bones,

and remember we have the bones in there

for extra flavour, free flavour.

What's not to love?

Look how much meat comes off the chicken thighs.

So, just before building the bowl,

run the noodles under the cold tap.

A bit of noodles.

Vegetables for health and crunch.

Thigh meat.

And then it's the broth.

Mint.

Squeeze of lime.

That's my cheat's laksa.

A real hug in a bowl.

Can't wait to tuck in.

It's all about that broth.

It's so delicious.

Spicy, sweet, salty.

Don't wear white when eating a laksa.

But gorgeous.

Juicy, tender chicken, full-on flavour.

You know, a laksa is just a truly wondrous dish.

This incredible noodle soup costs £1.33 per portion,

and when the average takeout laksa costs £13,

it's a money-saving no-brainer to make this time of year.

You van definitely save some cash when making your own sweet treats,

and my beautiful mint choc chip whoopie pies

are a belter for your budget, at a super 72p each.

There are all kinds of stories about how they were created,

but they're a £1 wonder and lip-smackingly good.

Famous from America,

they say the original recipe was by having leftover cake batter

that they used like little cookies on a tray.

Cooked it, it worked, they stuffed it,

made it into a beautiful little sandwich,

and it was so good, the person that invented it went,

"Whoopie!"

So that is the whoopie pie.

I'm gonna go with that story cos I like it.

So, first up, I've got 85 grams of butter.

I'm gonna whack that into the microwave just for like,

20 seconds, just to melt it.

And then let's go in with the dry stuff.

200 grams of self-raising flour.

Now, that has a raising agent,

but I'm also gonna use half a teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda.

That just makes it a little bit more fluffy and airy.

So, into the flour,

go in with 100 grams of white sugar.

100 grams of chocolate chips,

standard ones you get from the supermarket.

And just to give it that extra kind of hit of chocolate,

three tablespoons of cocoa powder.

And a nice pinch of salt.

Now, in this bowl here, with the butter,

add two eggs.

Whisk the butter and eggs up just to make it a little bit lighter.

And then just fold the eggs and chocolate together.

And it kind of turns into this cool little dough.

Get a tray with a piece of greaseproof paper.

And then just roll it out into a little cylinder.

And then into 16 balls.

And, look, if you've got a couple of small ones,

you can give that to the person in your life that's misbehaved.

HE LAUGHS

They're gonna kind of poof up and bake out and be beautiful.

Lay your whoopie pies out on a tray like that.

Now, a whoopie pie is a sandwich,

and a sandwich has a filling,

so I'm gonna make a delicious filling

for these whoopie pies.

I'm gonna use a mint chocolate bar.

It's got lots of bubbles in it.

I'm gonna reserve a little bit to the side,

and this, I'm gonna crumble up and melt in the microwave,

just for like, 30 seconds. Super simple.

When it's melted,

I'll beat it into 150 grams of cream cheese.

It's fresh, it's tangy,

it's rich and it's kind of cheesecake-y vibes, right?

I really love that in these whoopie pies.

So, that looks good.

150 grams of the cream cheese goes in.

Equal quantities.

So, filling done.

You can cook them straight away and they'll be delicious,

but if you let them rest for an hour,

it gives you the most amazing kind of cracked top

that just looks so beautiful.

So, in the fridge they go for one hour,

and then I'll show you how to cook these

and stuff 'em with these, and then put them into that.

Joy.

We've had an hour to chill out.

Let's put four in the air fryer,

and they're gonna cook at 170 degrees Celsius,

which is 325 Fahrenheit,

and we're gonna cook 'em for 12 minutes.

Now, if you wanted to cook all of them at the same time,

you'd use the conventional oven.

Same amount of time and the same temperature, OK?

But I can whack these in the freezer,

which means I've got a beautiful sweet treat for now

and then I've got some nice little sweet treats

to get me out of trouble further on in the month.

So, have a look at these. They smell amazing.

Currently they look like nice cookies,

right, but the minute that we stuff them in this mint choc chip filling,

it's gonna be a thing of joy.

That little bit that I reserved here,

break it up, and you get those whacky colours,

and we can sprinkle it with that.

So, just a few minutes to cool down.

Control yourself, don't be tempted,

and then we can make the whoopie pie.

Take a little teaspoon, like that.

Take that to the edge.

How beautiful is that?

Minted chocolate.

Take a little bit of the crumbled up stuff.

Look at the colour.

And then we take the other one and we sandwich it,

and you can just go around the edge and see if anything sticks.

But look at that.

That is your whoopie pie.

A thing of pure indulgence.

In with some crunchy bits,

on with the topping.

A little light squeeze.

All I've got to do now is have a little try.

Oh, yeah.

So crumbly and delicate.

That sort of minted chocolate chip vibe, like, it's memories.

It's out of this world.

A sweet treat for well under a pound.

Utterly delicious. Home-made gorgeousness.

You've got to try it.

Well, they certainly made me go "Whoopie"!

And at a tasty 72p each,

these mouthwatering treats are

a great price drop pudding

to have up your sleeve

to make life a little bit more fun.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media