Baking with Julia

Esther McManus of Le Bus restaurant in Philadelphia makes a "real" French croissant.

Beatrice Ojakangas, a Scandinavian cookbook author from Duluth, MN, demonstrates how to make a series of real Danish pastries. She creates a flaky dough; apricot, prune, and cream fillings to go inside; and a sugar glaze for the outside. Finally, she shows how to manipulate the dough into a Danish braid.

Naomi Duguid and Jeffrey Alford prepare pita bread, Afghan snowshoe bread, and Middle Eastern lamb and tomato breads.

Danielle Forestier prepares French breads, including baguette, boule, pain de mie, and pain de campagne.

Pastry specialist Markus Farbinger prepares "cardinal slice" and poppyseed torte.

Charlotte Akoto prepares meringue cookies, cocoa nests with caramel mousse, and tropical napoleon.

Marion Cunningham prepares buttermilk crumb muffins, buttermilk scones, popovers, Irish soda bread, and baking powder biscuits.

Pastry chef Johanna Killeen makes miniature "baby cakes" from a basic batter. Based on a traditional American pound cake recipe, the batter is made richer with the addition of creme fraiche.

Leslie Mackie, pastry chef and owner of Seattle's Macrina Bakery, bakes a classic French apple tart, a berry yogurt tart, and a blueberry nectarine tart garnished with chopped almonds.

Julia Child observes as chef David Ogonowski makes a triple chocolate truffle treat. He demonstrates how to make the dough for the chocolate tart shell and the filling, which consists of a custard flavored with bits of chopped white and dark chocolate and biscotti. Ogonowski also shows Julia how to make a garnish for the plate the dessert will be served on, including a wafer-thin chocolate cookie topped with homemade espresso parfait, creating a complex dessert of contrasting smooth and crisp textures, and warm and cool temperatures.

Joe Ortiz, a baker from Gayle's Bakery & Rosticceria in Capitola, California, shows chef Julia Child how to make crusty sourdough bread loaves in several decorative shapes. First, he makes homemade yeast, pulling bacteria wild and yeast out of the air with a mixture of flour, milk, water, and cumin. Adding more flour, he crafts a dough which he shapes into a loaf garnished with a sheaf of wheat, and mini-loaves shaped like a star and a cluster of grapes.

David Blom, pastry chef at Chef Allen's Restaurant in North Miami, shows Julia how to bake traditional Polish cakes known as babas and savarin. He uses a single recipe to create the spongy dough; sweetens it further by soaking it in a sugar syrup after baking; flavors the cakes with a variety of liqueurs, including rum, kirsch, and champagne; and garnishes with fresh fruits, whipped cream, and a homemade custard flavored with vanilla bean.

Norman Love, executive pastry chef at the Ritz-Carlton in Naples, FL, shows how to make savory puffs and eclairs. The dough, flavored with cucumber and red onion juice, is one of the only pastries that is cooked twice: once in a saucepan, then again in the oven. The puffs are filled with a salmon mousse, while the eclairs are split and filled with a mascarpone cheese and vegetable medley.