[Molly] I'm throwing an outdoor birthday pizza party
to celebrate my good friends.
-[both laughing] -Happy Birthday!
They'll love my meaty, cheesy baloney pizzas.
Caesar salad with a little surprise:
chicken parm chopped up and scattered throughout.
This salad slaps.
Five-spice limoncello to loosen us up.
[friend 1] That is so good!
And for dessert, my moist matcha red bean and almond rainbow cookie cake
covered in chocolate,
will make them feel like they're 40 again.
Happy birthday sweet friends.
[opening theme music playing]
Look at these beauties.
Hey, this is me, Molly Yeh, this is my husband Nick.
This is our growing family, and this is our farm
on the North Dakota-Minnesota border,
the place where I eat, sleep and breathe food.
My beautiful hot, smart friends are turning 40 again.
So to celebrate, we're having a pizza party.
For dessert, I am making an Asian inspired twist on an Italian bakery classic,
my matcha red bean and almond rainbow cake.
It's dense and buttery and covered in a layer of rich chocolate ganache.
It's also so satisfying to make.
To start on my batter, I'll whip up three egg whites.
You always wanna make sure when you're beating egg whites
that you don't have any bits of oil or fat or egg yolk in there
because that'll prevent them from beating up fluffy.
I'll get this onto my stand mixer
and beat until it's foamy.
And beating up the egg whites like this will introduce air into the batter.
And I'm not adding any baking powder or baking soda.
So it's important to get these egg whites good and fluffy.
I'll sprinkle in two tablespoons of granulated sugar,
and that's of course gonna sweeten them.
It's also gonna help them stabilize so that they hold all that air.
And increase the speed now and beat these to stiff peaks.
[quick whirring]
It's important to keep a close eye on these,
so that you don't over beat them.
If you over beat egg whites, they could become dry
and kind of separated and icky.
We don't want that.
Oh, yeah.
That's a stiff peak right there.
I'll scoop these out of the bowl 'cause I'm gonna use the bowl
for that egg yolk mixture now.
I'll combine one cup of softened unsalted butter, half a cup of sugar
and six ounces of almond paste,
which is an ingredient that you can find in the baking aisle.
And it's essentially finely ground almonds and sugar.
It's kind of like a candied dough.
When I moved here away from New York, I really missed Italian rainbow cookies.
So I started making them from scratch.
I thought I kind of wanna make me in cookie form.
Asian and commonly found at delis.
[whirring]
I'll mix this up until it's pale and creamy, a few minutes.
Just letting the almond waft into my nose.
Personally, I don't mind some larger chunks of almond paste,
so I don't want it to get fully broken down.
It's looking pale and fluffy to me.
I'll dump in three egg yolks now, leftover from the three egg whites that I beat up.
I'll squeeze in the juice of half a lemon.
Splash in half a teaspoon of almond extract.
Sprinkle in half a teaspoon of Kosher salt.
And then stop my mixer.
And add one-and-a-third of a cup of all-purpose flour.
So, it's not a huge amount of flour for a cake.
But the almond paste with the ground almonds kinda acts like flour as well,
so it's there to provide structure in addition to flavor and moisture.
I'll mix this on low until it's just combined.
So, typically, when you see Italian rainbow sweets,
they're in cookie form, but because of the celebratory nature of today,
I'm doing it in cake form.
'Kay, I'll get this off of my mixer
and then I'm gonna fold fold the egg whites in by hand
because I want to be careful to treat them gently and not beat out
the air that I just worked so hard to incorporate,
I do this about a third at a time.
And to fold just cutting down the middle,
sweeping around the outside and gently, gradually incorporating the egg whites.
So, the batter is basically done at this point.
But now comes the fun part.
I'll get my cake pans.
Classic Italian rainbow sweets are three layers,
and it goes green, white and red.
And they're stacked on top of each other to look like an Italian flag.
And usually it's just food coloring that adds those colors.
But today, I'm changing things up and using matcha for the green
and then red bean paste for the red layer.
I'll pop in a third of the batter
for the middle white almond layer first.
Spread it to the edge of the pan.
These are eight inch pans that I've greased and lined with parchment.
And now for my remaining two layers,
I'll divide up the remaining batter in half.
Matcha powder is very finely ground green tea leaves.
So, it provides that faint green tea flavor
as well as gorgeous natural green earthy color.
I'll gently fold this in.
And see this color come to life.
I'll plop this into a cake pan.
Then again, spread it out evenly.
All right, green layer is dunzo.
And now for the third layer, the red layer.
For this, I'm using red bean paste which is one of my favorite dessert ingredients.
It's common in Asian desserts and it's essentially just azuki beans
that are cooked down with a ton of sugar.
And the flavor is earthy and nutty.
I honestly vividly remember the first time I ever tasted it
and I thought I was eating a sibling of peanut butter.
And then I will accentuate this color with a couple of drops of red food coloring.
Once I can no longer see any streaks of the white batter,
I'm ready to add this to the pan.
[softly] There we go.
I live for making birthday cakes for my friends.
It's how I show my love.
My love language is birthday cake.
I'll bake them at 350 degrees, until they're just set.
Just about 10 minutes and the toothpick will come out clean from the center.
[popping]
My cakes are cool, they smell almondy.
And now I'll stack them up with apricot jam as the glue.
I'll spread it all the way to the edge.
You can really use any flavored jam.
I prefer apricot or raspberry.
Pairs nicely with the almond.
And now the matcha layer. Okay.
Now that all of the layers are stacked up,
I wanna give this some time for the jam to soak in
and really do its thing so that everything can be stuck well together.
So to do that, I'll wrap this tightly in plastic wrap and then weigh it down.
We got some tomato cans.
I'll stick this in the fridge to set up for two hours.
And then I'll cover it in a waterfall of chocolate ganache.
It's dark chocolate and heavy cream that I whisk together.
Toasted sesame.
Happy birthday, friends!
You only celebrate 40 twice.
Coming up, two insanely good dishes unite
to form one of the best salads of all time.
You've never seen anything like this. It's so delicious.
[clucking]
For a scrumptious side to our pizza birthday extravaganza,
that might actually steal the show,
I am making chicken parm Caesar salad.
You get the best of both worlds.
Crisp, crunchy, well-dressed greens,
and fried hot cheesy chicken.
Here we go.
I'll make the chicken parm first.
So to do that I've got some chicken breasts
that I'm pounding out as thin as you can get them.
And this tenderizes the meat.
It makes it thinner
so that you have a great ratio of crispy, crunchy, fried shell to meat.
And it also ensures that it cooks evenly.
I've got it between layers of plastic wrap so that I don't get chicken juices everywhere.
I'm just taking out all my anger and frustration.
And that's looking good.
I've got all of my anger out. I'm ready to dredge.
And now I've got a standard dredging station setup.
Some flour, beaten egg and bread crumbs.
Into the bread crumbs, I'm gonna add some finely grated parmesan,
Which adds so much more flavor.
Alright. Before I take the chicken breasts through the dredging station,
I'll season them liberally on both sides with kosher salt.
Alright, so first coat in flour.
Get it fully coated,
and the flour will help the egg stick.
I'll get it fully coated in the egg and that'll help the bread crumbs stick.
And now I'll give it a full even coating in the breadcrumbs.
Yeah, so make sure that there are no hidden folds of chicken going un-breadcrumbed.
Because the more coverage of bread crumb coating that you have
the more crispiness and flavor you get.
I was late to the chicken parm game.
For a while I couldn't understand why you would coat
a perfectly good piece of crispy fried chicken
with sauce and make it kind of soggy.
But I think that's just because I always had bad, soggy,
probably school cafeteria chicken parms growing up.
So I've since learned how to make it the way I like it,
which is where you maximize crispiness
but also have some pools of sauciness where it counts.
Now I just love it.
And it's gonna make
the perfect crouton substitute on my Caesar's salad.
Now that these are fully coated in the bread crumbs,
I'll get them into my pan here.
I've got a half inch of neutral oil
heating over medium-high heat.
That's the sizzly sound I wanna to hear.
That's how I know the oil's hot enough.
And then I'll fry for a few minutes on each side until they're golden.
These are already starting to get crisp.
It smells so good.
I don't think I'll ever be able to go back to regular croutons...
...after having fried chicken croutons.
Oh, yeah. That one's looking good.
I love seeing the craggily edges where they get extra crispy.
I'll move these to a wire rack now.
This will allow any excess oil to drip off and it'll also keep it crispy on the bottom.
So, I'm gonna be baking it on the wire rack as well.
'Kay, I'll dredge and fry the other two cutlets.
Heather and Nile are two of my closest friends here
and they actually turned 40 recently.
We had a great delicious birthday celebration for both of them.
It just seemed like there was a month with not enough celebrations
and not enough birthdays.
So I thought, "Hey, let's just celebrate again."
I feel like having a pizza party.
While these finish up frying, I'll get my mozzarella.
You gotta have meltiness with chicken parm.
Let me get these out.
These are looking golden and crisp.
I'll add a little store bought tomato sauce to each cutlet.
I like just the right amount of red sauce.
Enough to get some saucy bites
but not so much that you miss those crunchy edges.
A sprinkle of mozzarella for meltiness.
And lastly, some parm.
I'll get these in the oven now at 450 degrees for 8 to 10 minutes
until the cheese is melty.
I wish you could smell this right now.
I'm gonna let this cool slightly and then slice into strips,
that will become the greatest salad topper of all time.
Next, a chilly refreshing spirit that's easy peasy lemon-squeezy.
Oh yeah, baby.
I'm hosting an Italian inspired birthday dinner on the farm.
And for a killer side, I'm putting together my chicken parm Caesar salad.
My chicken parm has cooled slightly so that it won't wilt the greens.
And for the greens, I have a big bowl of crisp, crunchy romaine.
I'll add some creamy Caesar dressing, parmesan cheese, black pepper,
some tomatoes I roasted with garlic and oregano.
Doing the added step of roasting them just brings out more sweetness.
And my chicken.
I'll chop this up into strips.
It really takes a lot for me to love a salad that doesn't have croutons.
But when you replace it with fried, cheesy chicken... Crouton who?
I'll toss this together and get everything evenly coated with the dressing.
This is making me so happy. I'm so excited to eat this.
Alright, I'll plate it up.
That is one giant salad.
I'll top it with the remaining chicken parm.
Kind of like a random nestle as if it just fell from chicken parm heaven.
A few curls of parmesan cheese.
Black pepper
And now I will compose the perfect bite.
It's so good.
I think the kids these days would say, "This salad slaps."
A pizza party without a cocktail is every Friday night
watching princess movies with my favorite 4 year old.
But this pizza party is grownups only, so it gets a cocktail.
I am making my five spice limoncello which is sweet, bright, strong
and has tons of depth.
Just like my friends.
I start with my lemon infused vodka, which was a breeze to make.
I just peel the rind off three pounds of lemons
using a sharp, Y-shaped veggie peeler.
Then add those to a jar and cover it with some 80 Proof vodka.
Seal it up and let it sit in a cool, dark place for a week.
Every so often I checked on it, gave it a little shake.
And it's taken on this really pretty yellow color and all of that lemon flavor.
So I'll strain this through a cheesecloth.
This is a great thing to do if you ever have a surplus of lemons
from a lemon tree.
When life gives you lemons, make limoncello.
Now that I have my lemon infused vodka,
I'm gonna sweeten it with some simple syrup.
I've got equal parts sugar and water.
I'll add some sliced ginger, and sprinkle in some Chinese Five Spice,
which is [sniffs] a dark, beautiful combination of spices.
It's got anise, Szechuan peppercorns, cloves, cinnamon and fennel.
And I think the darkness of the Five Spice is a great match to the brightness
of the lemon.
A few smashed cardamom pods for complexity, and then some Szechuan peppercorns.
Szechuan peppercorns are tingly.
They have such a unique mouthfeel.
And then I'll allow it to simmer for 15 minutes,
so that all of these spices can infuse it.
Limoncello was one of those things that you stole it
from your parents liquor cabinet in high school and drank.
'Cause it was like sweet lemon juice that also got you drunk really fast
Not that I would know.
I never did that.
This simple syrup is smelling heavenly.
I'll strain these out.
And pour it right directly into the limoncello.
I'll bottle it up.
Oh, look. There's a little for me to taste test.
That is so good.
Also so strong. Wow.
Let's get this party started.
Who even needs pizza?
Still to come, baloney like you've never seen it before.
Yum!
For the star of our pizza party, allow me to introduce you to Baloney pizza.
It's got loads of mozzarella, a creamy garlic sauce, roasted tomatoes,
on a chewy, thin crust.
And it gets finished with curls of baloney.
It's so good, and there's no phony-baloney here.
I'll start by making my cream sauce.
I'll melt two tablespoons of butter in my sauce pan.
I didn't know about white pizza until I moved to New York.
And there was just a white pizza sitting there one day
and it called out to me, and I tasted it and I fell in love instantly.
They're more prevalent now. instead of red sauce,
Instead of red sauce, you just use a mornay like this one.
Okay, I'll add one globe of finely chopped garlic to the butter
and let it sizzle.
All right, once I can start to smell my garlic, I'll add two tablespoons
of all-purpose flour.
So I'm creating a roux combining the butter and the flour.
Now, I wanna cook it for about a minute,
just to cook off that flour flavor.
And then the base of my sauce is gonna be heavy cream.
I'm going for it.
It'll be extra rich.
I'll whisk it continuously to evenly disperse the roux.
I want it to be as smooth as possible.
The sauce is super rich compared to your classic pizza sauce.
I know this is thick enough because I can see the tracks of my whisk.
While it's still hot, I'll sprinkle in half a cup of grated parmesan.
And allow it to incorporate and melt down.
I'll season with some salt.
And loads of black pepper.
[cracking]
Getting cacio e pepe vibes.
And then to cut all of this richness,
I'll zest in some lemon and also squeeze in some of the juice.
Always the sift to combine.
And that's it for my sauce.
Super simple.
I'll grab my dough and the rest of my ingredients and then assemble these pies.
I'm ready to build my pizza.
I've got my pizza dough here. I'm just using store bought.
I've allowed it to come to room temperature.
And I've padded it out to about an 11 inch circle,
and this is half a pound of pizza dough.
I'll top with a layer of my white sauce.
I'll spread it almost all the way to the edge.
That'll leave a half-inch crust.
I'll sprinkle with mozzarella.
Some roasted tomatoes.
Some olives.
Halved Castelvetrano olives.
I like these because they're extra rich.
And then some fresh thyme leaves.
Lastly, some parmesan. Perfect. Extra saltiness and flavor.
All right. I'll get this out to my pizza oven, so that this party can begin.
-[woman 1 laughing] -[woman 2] No way.
My mom was like, "What?"
[woman 1 laughing]
Cheers!
-[both] Cheers! -Happy birthday.
-Thank you. -[Molly] Get a start on the limoncello,
and I'll finish the pizza.
Friday is preheated to 800 degrees,
It'll only take a few minutes for this to cook.
And if you don't have a pizza oven,
you could bake in your regular oven
at 500 degrees for a few minutes until it's splotchy and crisp.
Oh, yeah.
She looks great.
I'll pile on some thin slices of baloney.
It just kinda falls so beautifully on top of the pizza.
Mmm!
I'll finish with a drizzle of chili oil.
Okay, let's eat.
-Mmm! Yum! -Smells so good.
This looks so beautiful too, thank you.
[Molly] Oh, yeah, that's gorg'.
-Happy birthday! -Thank you!
Again. [laughs]
Thank you.
-[woman 1] Mmm. -[Molly] Mmm-hmm?
Mmm!
-You love your baloney. -[laughs]
What'd you wish for?
More pizza? [laughs]
Would cake count?
You've had Italian almond cookies, right?
[woman 1] Oh, my gosh that looks so cute!
-[Molly] So it's in cake form. -Wow, you went all out.
[Molly] You only celebrate your second 40th birthday once, usually.
[all laugh]
Sometimes twice. [laughs]