- You know, everybody's, well, wrong about whipping egg whites.

- So I'm not really one to take a long time to make desserts, so this mascarpone mousse is perfect.

- That has all the nostalgia in it that I could ever wish for.

- And the texture is unbelievable.

- I'm super excited about this recipe.

Let's get started.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ - This week on Milk Street, we explore the world of simple but satisfying desserts.

We start with a rich and moist chocolate olive oil cake.

By the way, olive oil is a common baking ingredient in Italy, to a simple mascarpone mousse from Milan.

And then a rice pudding flavored with bourbon, orange and cardamom made with arborio rice.

Please stay tuned.

- Funding for this series was provided by the following: - That meal.

You sautéed, you seared, and you served cooking with All-Clad, bonded cookware designed, engineered, and assembled in the U.S.A. for over 50 years.

All-Clad-- for all your kitchen adventures.

♪ ♪ - Okay, so we're going to be making chocolate olive oil cake.

Chocolate and olive oil may seem like a strange pairing, but it's actually very, very common in Mediterranean countries such as Spain, Italy, Greece.

It actually makes sense, since olive oil was more readily available in that area than butter.

I'm going to get started with four ounces of bittersweet chocolate.

I'm going to go ahead and finely chop this.

And over here, I've started about an inch of water over medium heat.

I just want to bring that to a gentle simmer for melting our chocolate.

You want to make sure you use a good quality chocolate for this too, because it's part of the main ingredients.

A serrated knife works really well for chopping chocolate too.

I'm going to transfer this to my bowl.

You want to make sure you use a heatproof bowl for this as well.

This is called a double boiler or a bain-marie.

And when you use this, you want to make sure the bottom of the bowl doesn't actually come into contact with the water, you want it up above.

So it's really just the steam that's melting the chocolate.

And that way we make sure we don't burn our chocolate.

I'm going to stir it every now and then, it's gonna take a few minutes.

All right, this looks great, the chocolate is all melted.

I've been stirring it pretty regularly.

Okay, I'm going to go ahead and turn off the heat.

So next we're going to add a half-cup of sugar.

And a quarter-cup of cocoa powder.

We recommend Dutch processed cocoa powder.

It's a really nice deep color.

You can use regular cocoa powder as well.

It'll totally work in this recipe.

And then I'm going to add a teaspoon of instant espresso powder.

That really just amplifies the bittersweet notes of the chocolate.

All right, and now I'm going to add three-quarters of a cup of olive oil.

Now we're using just a regular olive oil.

If all you have at home is extra virgin olive oil, and it's a real peppery, grassy one, you can always use about half of that, and then cut it with a little bit of regular vegetable oil to tone down the flavors.

Because olive oil, in addition to adding some nice floral, peppery notes, is going to really enhance the texture of this cake.

It's going to give it very moist and tender, kind of, brownie-like texture.

It's so good.

I can smell the olive oil now, it smells amazing.

So I'm just going to whisk this together to combine the ingredients.

Now, at this point, your mixture still feels pretty warm to the touch, you just want to let it cool down for a couple of minutes before we add our eggs.

So, our chocolate mixture has cooled down just enough, and we're ready to add our eggs.

Here I have four eggs that I've actually separated already.

I'm going to go ahead and add the yolks now.

I'm going to stir those in, And then I'm going to add another rather unusual ingredient.

I'm going to add six tablespoons of lemon juice.

Similar to how you might have, like, an espresso with a little lemon peel on the side, the flavors actually work really, really well together.

Because it's acidic, it's also going to interact with the baking soda that we're going to add to the recipe.

It really works well together with chocolate.

Okay, next we're going to add our dry ingredients.

It's just a third of a cup of all-purpose flour, and then a half-teaspoon each of table salt and baking soda.

And I want to whisk those together first just to evenly combine them.

All right, now I'm just going to go ahead and gently whisk this in.

Okay, this looks good.

Okay, so I have the four remaining egg whites here.

I'm going to beat them until they're nice and foamy, before I start adding the sugar.

So this looks great, I'm going to start gradually adding the sugar.

All right, I'm going to keep on beating now that all the sugar's added, until we get nice, soft peaks.

All right, these look great.

They're nice, soft peaks, perfect.

Okay, I'm going to start by just adding a third of the whites just to lighten the chocolate mixture first.

I'm going to go ahead and fold that in.

Just taking my spatula, kind of running down the middle of the mixture and along the bottom of the bowl, and then coming up over the top.

And then I give the bowl, like, a quarter turn each time.

Then you want to work really gently.

You don't want to beat out all this air that we worked so hard to get into our egg whites.

Really don't want to over mix it at this point, but just enough.

You don't really see any big streaks anymore.

Okay, I'm going to call that done.

Okay, this is ready to go into our prepared cake pan.

This is a nine-inch springform pan, and I just sprayed this with cooking spray.

And I'm going to very gently scrape this in.

Again, we don't want to deflate it.

And it's pretty smooth, I'm just going to gently smooth out the top a little bit more, just make sure it's nice and level.

So now we're ready to go into our 325 degree oven.

I set my rack in the lower middle position.

It's going to bake for about 45 to 50 minutes.

It's going to rise way up, and it's going to develop a really nice crust on the top.

Okay, this cake looks fabulous.

I took it out of the oven, and then I quickly ran a knife around the edges, and it will indeed sink.

When it came out of the oven, it was totally risen, but it will sink as it cools.

And I've been letting it cool now for about an hour, so it's still nice and warm, and I'm gonna eat it with some ice cream.

I'm going to go ahead and dust it with some cocoa powder.

Look at that nice, crispy crust.

It looks absolutely gorgeous.

Get all the edges there.

Okay, great.

You can hear it, the knife just going right through that crust.

The crust is, like, probably one of my favorite parts.

Oh yeah, look at that, look at that.

Ooh, it looks so great.

Nice and fudgy on the inside.

Got some vanilla gelato over here.

Really nice, especially when the cake is still warm.

Oh, it's so tender, mm... wow.

It is intensely chocolatey.

You can get those nice fruity, like, peppery notes from the olive oil, and I can really taste the lemon juice come through.

It's just kind of nice and bright and fruity.

And the texture is unbelievable.

It looks dense, but it's actually incredibly tender.

Mmm.

Chocolate olive oil cake, it's delicious.

♪ ♪ - So I'm not really one to take a long time to make dessert, so this mascarpone mousse is perfect for dessert, not too sweet, just lightly flavored enough.

So we learned this recipe after a trip to Milan.

Just outside on the outskirts, Max Masuelli has a tiny little spot that serves unpretentious, delicious food.

Now, when we tried this, we had initially mixed it up with a zabaglione, but this is lighter, and not as sweet and definitely not as boozy.

The only modification that we've made from Masuelli's recipe is that we've added a little bit of dark rum, because we found that we missed just a little bit of that boozy caramel flavor.

So to start it off, I am going to beat two egg yolks with a tablespoon of sugar.

You're going to beat this until it's a pale yellow.

Not quite there yet.

All right, so now we've got this pale yellow egg yolk mixture, and to that we are going to add our mascarpone cheese.

Now, this is an Italian cream cheese, and it's been softened at room temperature, just so it combines with our yolks a little bit more evenly.

And you don't want to over-beat this cheese, because it can make your recipe a little bit grainier, and sometimes it'll separate, and you don't want that to happen.

So we're just going to incorporate these lightly with our whisk.

I want to make sure some of my streaks are gone.

All right, now I'm going to add just a little bit of dark rum.

You want to use dark rum here, because the caramel flavor just highlights beautifully.

So just tip a little bit in, you don't need a ton.

We're going to mix this up, make sure it's nicely combined.

With a zabaglione, you'd be only using a little bit of liquor, sugar, and egg yolks.

But with this, we use both parts of the egg.

So I'm going to put my yolks aside and beat the whites.

So you've noticed we're not cooking this over a double boiler.

We are using fresh, raw egg.

It's very important to use fresh eggs here.

To know where your eggs are coming from is going to guarantee you a great final product.

And it's also just generally good practice.

So now we're going to start mixing up our whites, and I'm going to start slow.

And as I beat them, I'm going to tip in about two tablespoons of sugar.

So you'll see some of the air bubbles are forming.

Now, we want to beat this until it reaches soft peaks.

So these are starting to look good.

It's very important to not overmix these egg whites.

And if you can see, we've got nice little soft peaks for me.

So I'm going to go ahead, and set this aside.

All righty, so I've got my soft peak egg whites here, and I'm just going to add about a third of them to my cheese and egg yolk mixture.

And I want to fold this gently just until only a few yellow streaks remain.

You don't want to deflate your egg whites here.

A few streaks remain, maybe one more fold.

So now I'm going to add in the rest of my egg whites gently just to make sure that I don't deflate them.

And now that it's lightly combined, we have mousse.

So this should feel nice and light and airy, and it's deceptive because it came together so easily.

So we're at a good point here.

I'm going to serve up a bowl.

All righty, I've got my mousse and a little bit of cocoa powder does so much visually, but also adds a lovely little chocolate taste.

There we go.

And you can add berries, cookies, whatever you see fit.

I'm a big raspberry fan so a couple of those.

We can add in a couple of blueberries and blackberries as well.

So with five ingredients and 20 minutes, I made a simple, elegant, and beautiful mascarpone mousse.

♪ ♪ - You know, everybody's, well, wrong about whipping egg whites.

Stiff peaks is what most recipes call for.

Now, I was at Claire Ptak's Violet Bakery in East London a few years ago, and she showed me how she whipped her egg whites, which is not even to soft peaks, very soft, and it was very easy to incorporate those whites into the batter, and it turns out you've got great lift and great texture.

So let's start at the beginning.

If you whip your egg whites with no sugar, you can tell this foam is not stable.

And when you fold this in, or try to fold it into a cake batter, it's just going to fall apart, and you're not gonna get good height.

So the basic rule is one tablespoon of sugar to two egg whites.

These egg whites have sugar in them, but we've taken them a little bit too far.

These are very stiff.

Right, you have a stiff peak, and a lot of people and a lot of recipes, go like, "Oh, this is a stiff peak, this is fine."

But if you try to fold this into batter, this is a chocolate cake.

You can tell they're folding in, but it's not easy.

You still have large patches of whites.

So let's try a better method, which is to slightly underwhip the whites.

You start by aerating the whites for about 30 seconds.

Then we're going to gradually add the sugar.

One other ingredient we like to add, you could add a little lemon juice or cream of tartar.

This acid helps stabilize the whites as well as sugar does.

So we'll add that into this.

It's good to finish egg whites by taking it out of the stand mixer, and using the whisk itself to finish.

This is going to take a little more time, but you have more control over the final product, you're not going to overbeat it.

So that's almost it.

If it's not a stiff peak, it falls over.

Most people would say these are underwhipped, but this is exactly what Claire Ptak showed me.

We'll take a little bit of it.

Fold it in.

So now we have two textures that are very similar.

The lightened batter for the cake and the egg whites.

And so this is going to incorporate much easier.

One last tip from Claire.

She also said you don't have to fold it until you see no streaks of white.

You can see a little bit of white there, so I'm good.

Now let's go get those cakes out of the oven and compare the textures.

You can see there's just a huge difference in these cakes.

I know it's a little counterintuitive to say if you beat to stiff peaks, you actually get less volume when the cake is baked.

That's because you have to destroy some of that foam while you're folding the egg whites into the batter.

So the rule is, if you want great height and great texture, under beat, slightly underbeat your egg whites.

They're easier to fold in, and you'll end up with a better cake.

♪ ♪ - Today, I am very excited to bring you a childhood memory that's all grown up.

We're going to make a rice pudding, but that has bourbon, cardamom, and orange in it.

I'm super excited about this recipe, let's get started.

To begin, we are going to use arborio rice.

This is essentially a risotto dessert.

The arborio rice has a lot of starch in it, and we're going to use that to our advantage to create a wonderful creamy consistency for this dessert.

A little salt.

And some water.

Now I'm boiling the arborio rice in water to start.

This is going to speed up the process for us.

We're going to add the dairy later.

If I add the dairy too early, it doesn't tenderize the grains as quickly.

So I'm going to bring this to a boil.

Then I'm going to reduce it to low, cover it, and cook it for 20 minutes.

So my rice has been cooking for 20 minutes.

It looks great, it's very creamy, and it's going to get creamier still.

Let's move on to the next ingredient.

I am going to zest one whole orange straight into this pot.

So the orange zest is going to add lots of citrus and a little bit of bitter flavor to our dish, which is delicious.

Next, I'm going to add the juice of this orange straight into the pot.

This is smelling so good already.

All of those wonderful orange aromatics are in the air.

And I have some fresh orange juice going into my dish.

Still more flavor to come, I'm going to add cardamom.

This is a very familiar flavor to me, but not necessarily to everyone, I highly recommend it.

You've got some earthy, subtly citrusy flavor coming from the cardamom.

But I highly recommend you start integrating cardamom into your kitchen.

Some sugar, Some "mommy juice."

(chuckles) I have some bourbon here.

You can use whisky or rum if you prefer, but I, today, am a bourbon girl.

And lastly, I'm going to add heavy cream.

Now, make sure you don't use half-and-half.

We want full fat heavy cream.

This is going to make sure the citrus juice and the bourbon doesn't break the cream.

Okay, I'm going to stir that all up, and then keeping it on a low heat, I'm going to cook this for another 15 minutes.

So it's been 15 minutes, my rice is done cooking, I have one last thing to do to finish this dish.

I'm going to chop some roasted pistachios as garnish.

So this is going to add texture, beautiful green color, and, of course, the flavor of pistachios.

The perfect pairing, the orange, the cardamom, the pistachios, and, of course, the bourbon.

Time to eat.

You can already see this incredibly rich and creamy consistency.

I am very excited to taste this.

Some pistachios.

This is so beautiful, so elegant, and it's so reminiscent of a time long ago.

That has all the nostalgia in it that I could ever wish for.

The crunch of the pistachios against the creamy, wonderful toothsome texture of the arborio rice underneath, the orange and the citrus rind coming through.

And, of course, that little kick of bourbon, take the edge off.

Super easy, very yummy and all grown up.

This is our bourbon, cardamom, and orange rice pudding.

You can get this recipe and all the recipes from this season on MilkStreetTV.com.

- All episodes and recipes from this season of Milk Street Television are available for free at our website, MilkStreetTV.com.

Please access our content, including our step-by-step recipe videos, from your smartphone, your tablet or your computer.

- Funding for this series was provided by the following: - That meal.

You sautéed, you seared, and you served, cooking with All-Clad, bonded cookware designed, engineered, and assembled in the U.S.A. for over 50 years.

All-Clad-- for all your kitchen adventures.

♪ ♪ - If you want a really great and quick education about tacos, the place to go is Los Angeles.

You've always said about L.A. is it's... you can get into very personal specific regional areas, and find your food.

- This is like nothing I've seen before.

- It's really the taco that has everything.

- You're getting the true L.A. experience.

Right now, we're five minutes away from L.A.X.

This is a backyard restaurant.

(conversing in Spanish) - I'm really excited for Chris to try (speaking Spanish).

This is as L.A. as it gets, let's go eat.

- We've just arrived at Manousakis Winery.

We've come here to find out about the history, the wine.

- This menu that we created is an invitation to our real home.

This is how we would cook if you came to our house.

- Man, are those good.

- (speaking Italian) - (speaking Italian) It's all about good ingredients, and the labor of your hands.

- I feel like we're doing surgery.

Scalpel!

(laughs) - In the neighborhoods of Fez, Morocco, there's a unique and fabulous approach to flatbread, it's called khubz.

Which is baked in a communal oven called a ferrane.

- (speaking Arabic) - In Bari, Italy, they let the dough proof for hours.

It rises, it collapses and then rises up again.

- Sort of expands to-- - You ever used to do magic tricks when you were a kid?

Is that what's gonna happen?

I'm here in Istanbul.

There's tons of people in the street, lots of food on the street.

It's a very exciting place to be.

- My father brought me here and his father before him.

So it's the culture and the heritage... - There you go, now I feel like I'm really cooking.

- This really is so much more than the sum of its parts.

- We're going to search for the pies of Yelapa.

Coconut pies, corn pies, chocolate pies.

- I explain to the people, this is the same pie for my mama for almost 44 years.

- You know, beach, pies, and great cooks.

What more could I want?

- There is so much flavor, it's almost hard to believe.

- That has all the nostalgia in it that I could ever wish for.

- This is seriously one of my favorite things to cook for myself, for others.

Mostly for myself, it's a good time.

- Are you gonna stop talking so I can eat at some point?

- I'm sorry.

(laughter) - I thought it added a certain je ne sais quoi.

- (laughs) - Definitely a big step up.

- When a dish is simple and it has complex flavors at the same time.

That's the Holy Grail.

♪ ♪ - The New Milk Street Cookbook is now available and includes every recipe from our TV show.

From fried shrimp tacos and Thai-style vegetable stir fry to Mexican chicken soup and Swedish cardamom buns, The Milk Street Cookbook offers bolder, fresher, simpler recipes.

Order your copy of The Milk Street Cookbook for $27, 40% less than the cover price, and receive a Milk Street tote with your order at no additional charge.

Call 855-MILK-177, or order online.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪