♪ ♪ - I love this cake.

It's just a very simple cake that you can really eat any time of day; from breakfast to dinner.

- That's true of all cakes, Cheryl.

Come on.

- (laughs) - Well, there are three choices: double edge corner, edge, center.

- I just discovered the three choices because I always thought that would be a center, but I have been corrected by customers.

- (chuckling): If you like s'mores, this is the fabulous version.

It's so good.

It's just one of those desserts you got to make.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ - Today at Milk Street, we're indulging our sweet tooth with all-new American classics.

These are from Cheryl Day from the Back in the Day Bakery in Savannah, Georgia.

She starts with her three-citrus Bundt cake.

Then Cheryl does salt, honey, and brown butter bars.

And then my favorite: s'mores bars with marshmallow meringue.

Please stay tuned.

♪ ♪ Well, I'm here with my favorite baker, Cheryl Day.

- Thank you, thanks for having me back, Chris.

- I don't need to say nice things to you-- you just know how much I love your baking.

- Keep 'em coming.

- Keep 'em coming.

- (laughs) - Back in the Day Bakery in Savannah.

Great place if you ever get to Savannah.

So we're doing a citrus Bundt cake.

- Yes, and it has almond paste in it.

So I'm excited for you to try this cake.

So first we're going to start with our dry ingredients.

We've got our flour here, baking powder, salt, and we'll get those in.

And I just like to give it a good whisk.

I think that's sufficiently whisked.

Then we're going to move on.

This has almond paste.

So I do want to point out this is what fresh almond paste looks like when you buy it fresh from the store.

Sometimes, if you have a little bit left over, maybe you don't wrap it properly, and it is... ...hard... (chuckles) ...and crumbly, which you don't want.

- Because it's not going to mix.

- It is not gonna mix properly, so we're gonna go ahead and get that going in.

- So what's the difference between almond paste and marzipan?

- Oh, totally different.

So you definitely want to not use marzipan.

This recipe calls for almond paste.

It's finer and more crumbly, and that's not what you want at all.

- Is almond paste sweeter than marzipan?

- Yeah, it's a little bit sweeter.

It's a little bit sweeter.

I do love marzipan.

- Yeah, me too.

- But, for this recipe, we're going to make sure that we have almond paste.

All right, so we're going to just mix this for about a minute or so until it starts to break up.

And then you can just slowly start to add in the butter, Chris, thank you.

So that is starting to look really great.

And what I need from you is two teaspoons of orange, one teaspoon of lemon, a half a teaspoon of lime zest, right into the bowl.

I love this cake.

It's just a very simple cake that you can really eat any time of day; from breakfast to dinner.

- That's true of all cakes, Cheryl, come on.

Is there a cake you can't have a breakfast?

- No, that's true.

Now that you've added my zest...

Going to just get that incorporated again and then we're going to start to add in our sugar.

Just gradually add that in, and then we'll let it continue to mix, Chris, until it's light and fluffy.

May have to do a little scrapey-scrape in between, but I'll turn that up just a little bit.

So now I'm going to turn this down and let you add the eggs just gradually.

We want to make sure we're giving them time to incorporate in between adding the next.

- Now, I have to say, when I first started baking, I always thought leave 15 or 20 seconds per egg.

- Yeah.

- No, and but it turns out, actually, that's really important.

- It is important, I mean, the main thing is to really-- baking is so much about using all of your senses.

I mean, you do have to learn to visually see when ingredients are incorporated.

It's not just kind of going through the motions, and there's cake.

(laughs) So I'm adding a little vanilla to my milk, and then what I'm going to do, I've got all our dry ingredients here.

And I do love this tool for adding ingredients, I know you know that about me already, but it does make it easy.

This little simple, inexpensive bowl scraper.

We'll start to add in about a third, add a little bit of our milk, and then we'll just continue to add the dry and the wet until it's all incorporated.

And then I'll just give it one final mix by hand, and then we'll get it in our pan.

- That batter looks so... good.

- Doesn't it look good?

- I think you should put it in an ice cream freezer.

- Oh, man.

- Then it would be... - That's actually a really great ice cream flavor.

- Three-citrus almond ice cream.

- It smells delicious and I just love the color.

So I'm just going to try to get this in as evenly as possible.

So I'm just going to kind of smooth the top out a little bit, Chris.

And then I'll let you just give it a little hard tap on the counter so we can make sure that it is completely level.

- I like this part, I like the hula hoop thing.

- A little jiggle.

- Yeah, okay.

- So then in the oven, preheated at 350, 40 to 45 minutes until it is done.

- "Poyfect."

- Yeah.

♪ ♪ - Can we just have a moment to appreciate the perfection?

- It's beautiful, isn't it?

So this is confectioners' sugar.

A little bit different; it's got a little bit of butter in this recipe.

- I've never heard of that before.

- Yeah, it's almost-- well, you'll see, the texture is going to be a little different than probably what you're used to.

I do need some zest, half-half-quarter teaspoon, and then we'll finish it with orange juice.

The world's tiniest whisk, which I love.

All right, so that is our glaze.

And you can see it's a little bit thicker, but still brush-able.

I should really let you do this because I think this would be such a fun thing to do with your kids, but so you're just brushing it on.

I know you've made the cakes where you kind of do like a drizzle, and it kind of sets in the cake.

Like a lemon drizzle.

But this one, I think it's just that butter.

I mean, how bad can butter be?

So, Chris, if you could just put this last little bit on.

Art project.

(chuckles) Perfectly imperfect.

- Perfectly imperfect, that's me.

- And it's going to be delicious.

So we'll let this rest for about 15 minutes, and you'll see, it'll just kind of set up a little bit, and then we'll slice it and enjoy it.

So you ready for some cake?

(chuckles) - That's my favorite thing you ever say, "Are you ready for some cake?"

And the answer always is, yes... - Slice it up.

- ...I am.

- Yum.

That looks delicious, and that's yours.

- Mm.

- Yum.

- I love almond flavor.

- Mm-hmm.

- And it goes really well with the citrus.

- Perfect for any time of day, but really a delicious coffee cake.

- I think it's better at breakfast, brunch, lunch, dinner, and then late night.

- (laughs) - Perfect for those occasions.

- Mm-hmm.

- So that's the three-citrus almond cake from Cheryl Day.

Not hard to make.

- Not hard to make at all.

- But absolutely delicious.

So we'll be right back with our second recipe.

♪ ♪ - Well, we started with the Bundt cake.

Now we'll do the bar.

Now, you love bars, right?

- I love bars, I do.

I think it's the quintessential American bake sale treat.

So we've got in here flour, salt.

I always add a little extra salt, as you know, and then brown sugar.

So I'm just gonna-- it's kind of hard to do that with a whisk.

I'm just going to kind of do this by hand.

- I was wondering how long it would take you to drop the utensil and get in there with your hands.

- And I'm going to make you get in here with your hands, too.

So if you could just start to drizzle in the butter.

- I just like to point out that "butter" is in the title of this bar.

-That's right.

- For an excellent reason.

- That's right, and this is just the crust.

We haven't even gotten to the brown butter filling yet.

So we're just drizzling that in, and it's almost, Chris, like a shortbread crust.

It's very crumbly in the end.

I'm getting in here with my hands, just to make sure this is completely incorporated.

So I'm just going to have you flatten this in, and it can go up the sides just a little bit.

This is going to be the base of this, so it's a combination of, think graham cracker crust or cheesecake bottom with a shortbready texture, if you will.

And it's okay, Chris, if you go up the sides a little bit, because that's going to kind of hold it all in.

So once you get that all flattened, and you're doing a great job, I'll have you dock the crust with that fork.

That looks beautiful.

I know you're wanting it to be absolutely perfect.

So we're going to refrigerate this first, and then we'll pop it into the oven, 350 for about 15 minutes.

And it'll be a nice little golden crust for the filling that we're going to make next.

So we are back to make the filling for the brown butter, salted honey bars.

And guess what the first ingredient is?

- I'm going to brown the butter.

- You're going to brown the butter.

Yeah, and this is a perfect pan to start with; a nice light colored pan.

So when the milk solids drop down to the bottom, and it's starting to get that beautiful golden color and aroma, you can see it better in a pan like this.

- Well, that's true with doing caramel or sugar syrup in a melted sugar.

- Yeah.

- You want a-- a dark pan you can't see what's going on.

- You can't see what's going on.

- So I have a question; when you're doing sugar in a caramel syrup, you want to get it pretty dark, because if you don't, it's just sweet.

- Yeah.

Right.

- But you don't want to burn it; it's the same thing with butter?

You want to get enough flavor development.

- Same thing.

Exactly.

So we just need to watch that a little bit.

Tiny bit longer, it's almost there.

- Now, like with sugar syrup, when it starts to go... - I can smell it now.

- ...it'll go.

- Yeah, see, right in the middle, there it is.

And we have brown butter.

- Do you want to give it a little-- should we live dangerously?

- Live dangerously, let's do it.

- (laughing): Famous last words.

- (laughs) - "What happened to your butter?"

Uh... Oh, I'm going to go for it!

- Do it, do it!

- (groans) Okay!

- That looks good.

So now we're going to let this cool and then we'll finish the filling.

So we've got this slightly cooled, and I'll get you to help me with this, but we've got sugar... We've got honey.

- Oddly enough.

- This bar really does have a lot of complex flavors.

So the honey is going to give it kind of a floral note.

Then we'll go ahead and put-- it's got a fair amount of salt.

I'm going to start to add some more liquidy stuff.

Eggs...

So basically it's just a whisk-and-stir kind of thing, very much like a chess pie would be.

So, Chris, if you could continue to whisk that.

This is just a golden syrup, and that's going to give a nice caramel note to this recipe.

- So this is a cane syrup; is that what it's made from?

Or is it made from something else?

- This one is a cane syrup, that's correct.

- And if you didn't have the golden syrup... - Oh, yes.

You could use maple, would be a good substitution.

- With some light corn syrup, maybe.

- Then we've got some vanilla.

And then we've got cornmeal.

- Now, wait a minute, now why the cornmeal?

- Cornmeal is going to give it this little lift at the top of the crust, and it just gives it a very unusual, chess pie kind of flavor.

And then, last but not least, vinegar.

That's another very common ingredient in a chess pie.

- So this is just a sneaky way to get Northerners to eat chess pie.

- Right.

- Yeah, you call it something else, and put in a bar.

(Cheryl laughs) Okay, I got it.

- And then last, we've got our cream.

And then that's it, I mean, you're just going to pour everything.

After we get that all incorporated into the pan, and then it gets finished with flaky salt on top.

- Ooh.

- So there's that extra salt.

So in it goes.

Into our oven, 350 degrees, about 35 minutes.

And your crust is perfect, by the way.

So in the oven it goes, and then we'll finish it at the end with some flaky finishing salt.

- So the top of this, you said the cornmeal would make the top look a little puffy.

It's pretty cool.

- I can't wait for you to try it.

- So I should stop talking and just... - Cut 'em up.

Oh, I'm putting you on bar station, for sure.

- So the question is: edge or center?

Well, there are three choices: double edge corner, edge, center.

- I just discovered the three choices because I always thought that would be a center, but I have been corrected by customers.

So I'm a corner all the way.

- Corner, okay.

- I'm a corner, and what about you?

- I'm going to be an edge.

- An edge.

- And you're a corner.

- All right.

- And I'm not using a fork.

Who uses a fork to eat a...?

- No, this is, this is finger food; I want you to go first.

- Oh.

Wow.

- Mm.

- Whoo... - (giggles) - (chuckling): That's, that's serious.

You know, you look at this and go, you say chess pie, you think, sweet, sweet, sweet.

But the vinegar and the brown butter, mm.

- Delicious.

- So these are called salty honey brown butter bars, and they're not really that sweet; I know they look like they'd be super sweet, they're not super sweet.

You do that so well.

- Aw, thank you.

- You sort of balance those things out.

So stay tuned and we'll get to our next recipe.

♪ ♪ - So I need to confess.

- (chuckling): Uh-oh.

(Cheryl laughs) - (chuckling): Cheryl's getting nervous.

No, this s'mores bar recipe you came up with, I remember I got the book, and we were trying to figure out which ones we wanted to do.

- Right.

- And I looked at it, and I went, "Yeah, we'll try that."

It was even better than it looked.

- Well, I was a Girl Scout, so Scout's honor, I knew you would love these.

It starts with graham cracker crust, of course.

So I've got my salt, my brown sugar, and our graham crackers.

And we're just going to mix this up a little bit.

And then I'm going to have you, Chris, drizzle in just a little bit of butter.

I'm actually going to get in here with my hands.

You know I am.

Clean hands are the best tool.

You just want to get this moistened, where it kind of sticks together like so.

And then, just, I'll let you dump it right in and flatten it.

- Do we need sides on this?

Or this is just an even... - No sides, it's just flat.

And you can just kind of lightly press that down a little.

There you go.

Well, that looks perfect.

So we're going to get this in the oven, 350 for about ten minutes.

We're back with the double boiler.

We're going to get our chocolate melted with butter.

It's very similar to an old-fashioned brownie recipe, Chris.

- So I do have to ask, so has the world come up with better ways of making brownies, or are people just recirculating things that have been done a million times before?

- I think people think they have come up with better ways.

- But they haven't.

- (laughs) But I still think that the old-fashioned way is the best.

- Yeah.

- I mean even, honestly, when we make big batches of this, we still do it this exact same way.

All right, so our chocolate and butter mixture is melted.

So now I'm going to add sugar so that I can kind of cool this down; I don't want to add my eggs into hot chocolate.

So I'm going to add in one egg at a time.

- So when you developed this recipe, did you immediately figure out how to do it?

Or did you have a few fails... - No, no, no.

There's always a few fails along the way.

All right, gonna put our salt.

Vanilla... And then last, we're going to add in the flour.

Okay, I'm just going to kind of gradually add that in.

- You're big on one bowl, like, which I like.

You don't have six bowls, and you have this and that.

- I'm all about, Chris, anything that's going to get people in the kitchen baking again, and I think if you make things too hard and too daunting, that it's not appealing, right?

So I definitely embrace the perfect imperfection.

You know, practicing until you get it just right, rather than being afraid to try to bake.

So we're going to get this layer in the oven at 350.

It's going to take about 25 to 30 minutes until they're just set.

And then once those have cooled, we're going to add your favorite part, the marshmallows.

- So before we do the "marshmallow," whatever you want to call it, what's the difference between Italian meringue, which is whipped egg whites with a hot sugar syrup, and marshmallow?

Are they very-- basically the same thing or are they very different?

- Actually, this is not technically a marshmallow.

It's marshmallow-y.

This is more like making a Swiss meringue.

A marshmallow would have gelatin, but yeah, you're right, the Italian would have the hot sugar going into it.

But so this, we're going to do over a double boiler again, because we do need to cook the egg whites, sugar, and we've got a little cream of tartar to kind of stabilize... - Stabilize.

- ...said things, and I'll just give this a whisk.

- I have this horrible feeling you're about to give me this bowl and a hand whisk and tell me to do this for ten minutes.

- No, absolutely not.

Maybe whipped cream, maybe another episode.

But for this, I'll do a little test with my finger so that it's not granular.

Because see how grainy it looks now?

If you touched it now, it would be super grainy.

But when we finish it, you won't feel any of those grains of sugar at all.

So now we're going to go on the mixer.

Let's make sure we get our lock down.

And then now we're going to have our marshmallow-y effect.

Let's go ahead and add the vanilla.

All right, so we're going to let this whip until, probably about seven minutes or so, until it gets really nice and fluffy.

Here is our fluffy meringue... marshmallow-y goodness.

And I will not be skimpy today.

So we're going to plop it on there, and we're going to try to do a layer.

So when we torch it, we're doing these little spiky peaks.

You know, it kind of reminds me also of one of my other favorite desserts, which is ice cream, and meringue, and cake.

- Baked Alaska.

- Baked Alaska.

Another fun art project that we've done together.

So now... - There we are.

- We're going to torch.

This process also kind of sets the meringue where it's easier to cut.

You just have to be mindful of not blowing it out with your... (laughs) Just fan it if you get any flames.

That's why we have foil rather than paper, too.

(turns torch off) What do you think?

(laughs) - Wow.

So we're gonna have to wait now or something?

Or we're ready to eat?

- We'll wait a few minutes.

But I'm ready to eat.

- Okay.

You know, I mean, like, I've been sitting staring at this for no good reason.

- We've been anticipating this all day.

- Anticipation.

Yeah.

So this is coming out?

- So here we are, it's coming out.

Look at that.

- So when you go back to Savannah, am I going to be going with you?

I think I am.

- I think so, because, I mean, that's a whole place I can put you just to cut bars all day long.

That must be for you.

- It's a little small, but you want the corner piece.

- I do, always the corner.

It's everything in this little bite.

- Wow.

Sometimes taking something from the past and recreating it is just silly.

It just doesn't really work.

- Mm-hm.

- But this is so much better.

I mean, the original thing is a kids thing, but this is an adult version of it.

And the chocolate's not brownie-like, it's actually got some creaminess to it.

- Yeah.

- The meringue on top, the nice thick layer at the bottom.

So if you like s'mores, this is... (groans) ...a fabulous version, it's so good.

It's just one of those desserts you got to make.

You can get this recipe, which you are going to want, and all the recipes from this season of Milk Street Television at MilkStreetTV.com.

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