Fanny Cradock Cooks for Christmas Part 5 - Petit Fours 1975

Fanny presents the last episode in her series on practical Christmas cookery know-how. Today's show contains her recipe for choux pastry with advice on making miniature eclairs, choux buns and glacé icing.

[@barrylangford3276]

It's easy to make fun of Fanny, but she managed to shoot all five of these 13.5 minute programmes in one day, all done in one take in the most basic kitchen set imaginable, talking all the while and being extremely entertaining too. That being said, her choux buns did seem more like Yorkshire puddings than anything else!

[@darcyroyce]

Fanny, beyond the culinary delights she presented, for her 60s-70s fanbase, always came down to me as a drill sergeant with a massive heart. :DDD like you know you don't mess with her, but that she carries immense warmth underneath that stern British exterior :DDDD xx

[@MsMamabo]

A complicated woman with a difficult reputation…..but every time I watch these I think about the pressure that they were filmed under, the core skills and nerve it must have taken to get so much done in such short programmes, filmed as you say in one take with no chance to go back and do it again….from carving birds through rolling swiss rolls and icing cakes….I always admire her for that.

[@jetblack.7186]

Love them.

[@jamespassas9441]

Yeah, I always thought her kitchen was pretty minimalist!

[@jacquelinewilson2279]

Her food was awful. have a look at the channel 4 documentary about her.

[@Threebridgecastle]

Her closing comments at the end of the show were very heart-felt. It's very relevant for today's world. Most of us could do with a little bit of it right now.

[@rah62]

The holiday spirit must have gotten to her - she was almost pleasant in this one!

[@madabbafan]

Too much brandy you mean

[@janwong9437]

@@madabbafanshe did like a drink or 3

[@gayleralan]

Sarah takes out the fresh hot buns with a tea towel...Fanny uses her bare hands 😂 Gotta love TV back then

[@ultracapitalistutopia3550]

Fanny just said you need to let those buns cool completely in the oven, so supposedly the tray is no longer hot at all.

[@jetblack.7186]

No one would mess with fanny, not even the BBC.

[@AmandaEm7]

love Fanny, wish their were more clips of her

[@richardphillips1971]

Fanny was an eccentric old bird wasn't she, so camp and kitsh

[@itabrennan7420]

"It's not a complicated receipe". God, J'adore Fanny.

[@jessewhitingisafunguy]

Burn the pastry, store the cream for six months... I'm so excited to make and then die from choux poisoning.

[@barrylangford3276]

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@chrish5549]

The fanny cradock way

[@andrewjones-productions]

If she thought that the summer of 1975 was warm, she was in for a shock in the next couple of years.

[@Logans3Run]

You can't beat a bit of Fanny, for cooking entertainment 😉

[@vasilis8208]

Ha ha, that silver bell was already on the tree in the last episode! She must have forgotten that during her time orf! 😄

[@billydeeuk]

I don’t know why, but the fact they keep building up that the tree will be fully decorated by the end of the last episode, but in the final episode she just hangs one bauble and simply says “And that’s that” always sends me 😂

[@vasilis8208]

@@billydeeuk She didn't seem to enjoy decorating the tree much!

[@katewolfspirit6722]

@@vasilis8208 That's a job for the hired help!

[@jamespassas9441]

@@billydeeuk Without that last bell, it just wouldn't be finished!

[@qiviutqueen5705]

Will certainly try the petit fours. Thanks for sharing this eries. She was sucha great cook & funny at times.

[@dawnfinch8232]

Love her remember her shows

[@johnting673]

"I nearly had kittens" lmao. it's true though, there should be no raw dough when making pastries out of pate a choux

[@johndaarteest]

You don't hear that saying very much now.

[@yolandajones4990]

She’s a big fan of icing sugar isn’t she!

[@emmajanewatts4388]

They tried to get her off it but nothing could be done lol

[@yolandajones4990]

EmmaJane Watts 🤣🤣🤣

[@michelles2299]

Just love it she reminds me of my domestic science teacher when we had made our goods on the way home the boys would steal them

[@joannawood8935]

Someone's been to a tupperware party! 😳

[@lesleyscaifecomerade4853]

Love that cooker xx

[@andromalius8890]

Fanny walked so Carrie Bradshaw could run (I’m referencing the giant flower she’s wearing)

[@Chillmax]

Very very difficult to get this right & correctly cooked in a studio, she should have done them at home & brought them in, love how she doesn't mention a thing, so Fanny ;-),

[@madabbafan]

They were precooked and that oven wasn't on. They were already cold when they came out of the oven. Unless Fanny has asbestos fingers that is handling what should have been a hot oven tray.

[@stanbrown32]

@@madabbafan I think they were baked and then allowed to cool in the oven after it was turned off. She wouldn't fill buns until they were cooled.

[@agenttruecrime399]

8:32 they aren't "really dark" they are burnt

[@CleverName1]

Definite ASMR vibes throughout the show.

[@Mummabear981]

Suddenly Kay’s cooking makes sense 😂

[@AnxiousHank]

At least Fanny knew what she was doing! Kay doesn’t know what day of the week it is! 😂

[@sunkat76]

wipes choux with damp J-cloth.....

[@joshybean1289]

😂😂

[@janwong9437]

Lots of Tupperware

[@jazzyfizzle7975]

She’s like a female version of Marco Pierre white!

[@jamespassas9441]

Lol, "Time orf!"

[@Philozzi]

9:38 - If you prefer, you can oven them 30 sec. less.

[@michaeldick6227]

You could build a house with those choux buns.

[@sutrasofdelight]

Gas mark 8!? Is that like 6000 degrees?

[@regplate2923]

it's just bellow nuclear fusion

[@Nunofurdambiznez]

LOL no.. it's not anything that high.. it's 450F..

[@zeddeka]

It's 230 Celsius

[@jonathankay8079]

@@regplate2923😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

[@speakfreeley4473]

@@Nunofurdambiznez Hot enough to burn books to ashes. Remember Fahrenheit 451.

[@chrishopewynne2845]

Diabetics take note…Fanny went cross country running in her pink outfit after this and had several units of insulin straight after showering!😂

[@madabbafan]

Paul Hollywood would have a fit. Over baked isn't the word

[@internetsummoner]

Lmao

[@IceAintNice]

They aren’t. The French technique is to bake dark.

[@marcse7en]

Fanny Cremated 🤣

[@01Nick1988]

Oh God they look horrendous! The gall to say you'd find these eclairs in France - not decorated like that you wouldn't!

[@madabbafan]

To be fair you probably would. In the discount seconds area.

[@yolandajones4990]

The sound when she was cutting them open went right through me, like fingers down a blackboard

[@zeddeka]

Remember this was the 1970s

[@01Nick1988]

@@zeddeka I struggle to believe that the French had such sloppy icing skills in the 70s!

[@specialforces101]

"If you follow the recipe exactly your pastries will look like Fanny's." Where's Johnnie when you want him.

[@katewolfspirit6722]

🤣😆 At least they'll make an interesting centre piece on the table. Imagine old Aunty Hilda's face....

[@lucyhurst2534]

Doughnuts is the actual quote.

[@TheNathanj2009]

Cremated cardboard filled with custard yummy 😂

[@IceAintNice]

Not at all. Research love. Let Google be your friend. 🙄

[@lucyhurst2534]

@@IceAintNicethat is very clearly what they look like, and will taste like after being over cooked, and then frozen and defrosted. Chill out.

[@nickhickson8738]

Disgusting, indigestion for me, I reckon.

[@DIETRICHCICCONE]

Can you see the seethe...??!!

[@velocitygirl8551]

How to make shoe paste? Yumm.

[@IceAintNice]

Choux

[@XianHaos]

3:30 did she throw shade at Julia Child? I think she's coming for Julia!

[@zeddeka]

No? What made you think that? She was talking about recipes in women's magazines. Nobody knew who Julia child was on this side of the Atlantic.

[@phildurrant2422]

Burnt Choux 🤢

[@junewaldman1717]

Those larger buns look burnt. Her pans and baking sheet needs a good scrub.

[@mc-yt2rc]

awful!! it was 45 years ago, she did this off her own experience though, no youtube then. I could have had a show back then....

[@pershorefoodbanktrusselltr3632]

Look at those top of the range cookers behind him/they/her//he/she!

[@deejayC]

Annoys the hell out of me that she insists on calling pastry “paste”

[@lucyhurst2534]

Not as annoying as when yanks call the pastry they make a pie with, dough.

[@jetblack.7186]

It was an old term for pastry.

[@zeddeka]

She's not. She's quite clearly referring to the mixture that choix pastry is made from. Choux paste is the batter like mixture she put together in the pan, which you then bake to make the choux pastry.

[@cameronhamilton3717]

Burnt

[@zeddeka]

Nope, they're not

[@jacquelinewilson2279]

She's a performer - not a cook.

[@Slarti]

06:07 Only Fanny Cradock could make a choux pastry look like a turd. 08:34 she has completely overcooked those choux pastries. She shows no love in her food preparation, she would use a jackhammer for planting seedlings - although her closing words show some kindness. Fanny Cradock was a terrible cook!

[@lucyhurst2534]

Burnt buns covered in a watery iceing. Yummy lol