Pastry Chef Attempts to Make Gourmet Combos | Bon Appétit

I took I'm beyond that side, it looks like you took an ambien this morning, yeah, once a minute and then I slept for six hours, so it's supposed to be worth it, it's not like eight hours, yeah, I'm really frustrated by this. . Hello everyone. I'm Claire, I'm going to

make

a request and I'll hold court today. Hi everyone, I'm Claire, we're at the VA Test Kitchen and today I'm making

gourmet

combos

. The last time I had

combos

, it was probably 12 years. old was at Camp Thunderbird for girls in Bemidji Minnesota. In fact, I had a childhood where I don't remember them being that good, but I also remember liking them.

My memory of a combo is like a slightly crunchy pretzel. tubes filled with cheddar cheese sounds pretty good to me this seems like the standard size and flavor to me this one just says combos sandwiches filled with cheddar cheese true some combos I guess are crackers and others are Presley so we'll try both, it has that powdery cheese aroma cheddar, there are some light flakes, I guess our salt is good from the beginning, very good, there is a lot of sweetness in the biscuit and the filling itself, the biscuit itself does not have much character, but the is very crunchy and somewhat tender and that combination with some salty creamy cheese reminds me of eight out of ten of these, maybe not as good, but first bite I think they're great, let's not like them. combos I get more and more excited about combos.

Oh, Delaney, you talk a lot about combos, it's not something that exists in the culture, yes, but people like them, right? I mean, there are supposed to be good people like them, they are the best in the world. the best gas stations huh, how come no one talks about combos, they never talk about cheez-its if you're hanging cold fish what's your favorite kind? I mean, pizza. Oh, classic, it's so good. Annie doesn't seem busy. imir Andy. I have no idea what. These are pretzel tubes and cheddar-stuffed crackers, and what have you ever eaten that wasn't a combination?

They look a bit like dog treats, sorry, I know that pretty well, Susan. I would like tomato powder, as opposed to ranch powder. Yeah, this is good when you bite into them, they're crunchy, but they almost get a little shiny, right? mm-hmm, so I want it to be a little more snappy, aha, you got it,

make

sure you get the Filling it with it I'm going to use a little bit more on the fill, yeah, I just need more balance, even just the pencil itself, it's like it falls apart, yeah it doesn't feel like it has a real snap mm-hmm.

At this point I think the only thing that stands out about the cookie part is that it's sweet. My hope is that the dough is the same for the pretzel and the cookie and they are just making the pretzel. You know, they're just trying to make it look good. the shiny brown outside I think I already do it very well, yes, I wouldn't be surprised if there was no leavening agent here, it just swells due to the water content, looking at the cut surface of the tube, I actually think they are individually baked initially I thought which is fine, they are factory made recluse fare, maybe they are baked in a long tube and then cut, but actually I think the first time it is baked the cookie part is already this length and that is because to the uniform color around the cut sides if they were baked and then cut they would look more like this it would have a very distinctive cut surface here is the pretzel type.

I'll compare it side by side to one of the crackers. The cookie filling may be a little more yellow. I guess it seems like a slightly different Joe and slightly different consistencies. Now it's time to read my favorite part. Ingredients wheat flour vegetable oil parentheses homemade seed oil palm oil corn oil hydrogenated palm oil and/or hydrogenated seed oil rates form maltodextrin sugar salt modified corn star less than 5% baker's cheese and cheddar blend rates cultured milk salt enzymes close friend this leavening pen disease sodium bicarbonate sodium acid I wrote phosphate close friend appeased extra color of soy lecithin and this is yellow 5 like yellow 6 playing with a lake near hydrolyzed corn gluten a lactic acid churro flavored eats to extract lactose whey a trick acid so in the dough itself it's mainly wheat flour and sugar in oil, it ranks pretty high on the ingredients list and then it has a little bit of yeast, That is interesting.

There is good basic information here. It all makes sense, but I want to go to the computer to actually see if there is any information about the inside of the factory and how it's made. It's a very short Wikipedia page. I am concerned about the lack of information and transparency around combos on the Internet. This can't be right because apparently this guy is saying that a bunch of guys with portable cough guns load the cheese filling into the hollow pretzel. bits tens of thousands of times a day with a high degree of precision. No, there's no way that's correct, but this says that the combos were developed from a patent acquired in the late 1970s, so maybe there's top-secret proprietary information that you didn't expect not to find. anything, so it makes the job a little bit harder, on the one hand, and on the other hand, maybe it makes it a little bit easier because I don't have a particular method or approach in my mind that I feel like I have to stick to.

I can let you know that you can go anywhere with it, so my plan is to make a basic cracker dough and then take a little bit of that dough and try a pretzel style to give it that shiny brown color on the outside and try to shape it and and bake it in tubes. I'm going to start with the dough, so I'm going to start with flour. Well, women add a little whey powder, why not cornstarch? Maybe 15 grams of sugar, let's do 5 grams of salt, let's do a little bit. of baking powder now all these dry ingredients will go into the blender in sufficient quantity for the liquid, it will be a combination of water and oil, maybe I will use a mixture of avocado oil and refined coconut oil.

I am very frustrated with this. There are no working scales at this station, they all go everywhere, okay, let's go measure this there, oh no, not yet, no, it doesn't work yet, you think it's me, wait, Sola, I'll be there. here and you and I will tell you what to measure is nonsense it's working there goes that theory let's try it on a scale it's working you're fine just porn I'll tell you when to stop what is what is 50 grams look like it's 54, can you add 25 of oil coconut? Then I'll add it all in and start mixing.

I want a pretty dry joe. Basically, I'll just need it. Yes, I think I have to add more water. I know what I'm going to do next. What I'm going to say. Joe has to rest. Today I'm really looking up. I took a power nap. I had a coffee when Gabi warmed me up. Some mortadella and I had a Salter. This is a good day. It's a Christmas party later, yeah, totally not, you're doing great, here's the door that's been resting, it's a little greasy, what kind of oil? I'm going to try rolling it out and just baking a piece to see. what's the texture like Oh Brad, do we have metal shoes moving metal straws metal straws yeah, I don't know Abby, we need straws to form a hollow tube of dough, it's not a small thing, like it's not a circle enough big? the inside okay, okay, never mind, let me ask dad this little piece of dough in this little short sleeve of parchment.

I'm going to try to form the dough around the straw and use it as a mold, this is the seam, I mean, these edges come together. together you really want to pinch yourself this should have been my technique all along this is doing it really even just had that thought I always have during

gourmet

makes that what if I nail it on a first try trying to really grab this? parchment paper Oops, okay, I'm going to bake it and see what happens here is my other idea, so we have used these two tubes quite a few times in gourmet brands for Mentos and I never use the last one, they are just metal molds. and I slid the whole parchment wrapped tube of dough in and that's to help keep the shape so it doesn't sit on a flat surface while it's baking and I'm going to put it in the oven.

I'll be back in 10 minutes. Look now what I'm looking for is just the heat of the oven to set the dough, the dough is very insulated and that and there can't be much moisture loss because of that, although we see that it doesn't seem like that. it shrunk a little bit so where the seam was it pulled away from itself a little bit, it worked, it's the first pass so I just wanted to bake the dough enough to set it so it could be sliced ​​and then I'm going to bake it. Again, there are my little pieces of pale dough.

I wish to the whole world it was bigger and it's obviously not centered, so next time I'll do a better job of shaping it around the straw, but before I try to adjust the dimensions, I want to put them on. Place them back on a baking sheet and put them in the oven until they are completely baked and look a little golden brown. Hey, maybe they need to be baked at a lower temperature, but let's see, I mean, they turned a little brown, actually they turned nice. of a little grill marks the way that the actual combos have and in fact, one thing that I didn't really notice when I was looking at them is that there's kind of a seam right here, they all have a seam.

Wow, I didn't even pay attention to it. which I wasn't really doing my job before, now they have a seam, I know it's pretty simple, it doesn't taste bad, just a little soft, okay, take my notebook again. I'm going to make some changes to the dough formulas. double the sugar here really is surprisingly sweet, so the baking powder I'm going to increase to 5 grams. I'm going to make everything else and put it together in the blender years ago, it didn't come together at all in the blender the same as last time, all good, now I'm afraid we're actually going to take a lot of rest, it just won't hold up as well .

What's that? Oh, Mike, those seconds are weird, so we're like, Did I get the only people under 30? Yes, wow guys. This is the most fun I've ever played with I love you okay oh that was fun okay the dough is hydrated so I'm going to use the same technique I was using before where I create leverage with a parchment paper to compress and even out the thickness of the dough with a top thread is a cotton, I'm trying to make something, so here's my idea, I'm going to make a pre, I'm going to pre cut, yes, I'm going to cut. all the way, just make sure the thread is in the positions I'm pulling, pulling completely parallel, so I'm pre-cutting the combos so they look more like combos.

I guess it's like they have too much face cut when I make this after baking the first time and now I'm wrapping it again by putting it in the molds and baking it instead of taking them out of the straw. I'm going to leave them on the straw but just separate them because part of what's happening is that as they bake without the straw, they're closing in on that space and I don't want that to happen. I want the whole straw area cut off if that makes sense and now I'm going to bake it again at a slightly lower temperature and then I'm going to play with that toy again because it's like it does something to my brain.

Putting up with this one is fine, no, no, I hate it, but I don't ever want to use it. again, they look good, they browned evenly using that method where they are baked a second time still on the straw, did a good job of keeping a very sharp cylinder in the center. I think the outside is a little thick. so next time I would roll the dough thinner before wrapping it around the straw, so what a great thing to do, as much fun as good energy, where's that toy? Nothing until it's time to go, so I don't know what happened to the comas that were actually cooked last night, but this is the same dough, let me spread it out.

I wonder if the pasta roll where will be good? It's not cool. I just crushed the dough into small pieces. Well, I just had an idea based on the pasta roller. If instead of trying to roll a single uniform thickness of dough around the straw, I spirally roll a super thin layer of dough around the straw until I get the thickness I like on all sides, then I just trim it and bake it . because the combos had Blair's, that's what I was thinking about last night, like take a look at this, not like, not like, I think that's how they're doing it, but like this kind of flakes and everything, kind of So I liked that idea, but it doesn't mean that you have to create a dough that has some extensibility and elasticity, what you could do is keep the same recipe and then add the water first and then try to work it.

I'm increasing the amount of water and I'm not adding sugar, I'm adding honey and I haven't added the fat yet because I want the liquid to hydrate all the flour first, oh yeah, that's the finger rolling. The plan is to wrap it around the straw until you reach the total. thickness of dough that I like and then use the same method of cutting and forming as before still feels quite soft altered due to the increased amount of hydration will probably need to bake longer the dough has really come together so now I'm going to go back Cut them again and separate the pieces well, they look so smooth and good that they are very off center.

I will use a different way oftechnical, but I really like the way they look. I think there's good progress from today to today. yesterday and today it seems to be getting a little better every time wow it's very good it's very light in the way it's a combo like well it's very similar to cake the flour makes a big difference it's a much lighter textured cookie it would benefit of a layer of seasoning on the outside like these. I think this needs more salt in general, like a lot more salt, well I know what I want to do next.

I'm going to make another batch of dough with these settings, so I'm working one piece at a time. I'll keep the rest covered. I made a much thinner dough so I wouldn't have such a dramatic difference in thickness. upside down and it actually looks good to me, it really does so I forgot to add baking powder to us. I think I did and it's too salty too. I think I'm going to start over at the dome, but maybe it's a good time to stop. Same thing but doing it right this time oh, they look great. Look, they're definitely inflated.

I think they look great. This for me is the best version, but the hole is pretty well centered. They look much better. They are very soft. the color is nice and even, they also have well placed centers, they are nice in the middle which is good and that was just a matter of rolling the dough thinner and wrapping it more times, that worked great, they look super put together. II, my God. Look at it so crispy and good so flaky mmm very light well seasoned I love the combos now yes it seems like a good time to finish it at this stage at this point the hard part is over Oh gently sail the ship into port that day three no, No, everything will be okay, the only thing is that you are enough, don't remind me of what I did because I won't be back here for a while, okay, it's a brand new year, what day is it? the second the second day of 2020 I barely remembered what we had started, but now it's combos, it all comes back to me today.

I'll focus on production, making more of these, turning some into a pretzel shell. I'm not literally making pretzel dough because there's like yeast involved and I'm not going to go through that whole process. I'm just using the same cookie dough, but I want to create a shiny, very golden pretzel layer on the outside and there are a couple different ways to do it: one is to use baking soda to make the baking more alkaline, which then it makes it more effective to create the pretzel layer, you have to bake it at a low temperature and some kind of molecular change occurs, although I don't really understand that complete transformation.

I know I want to bake some baking soda in the oven because it takes about an hour and we'll make it strong enough to irritate so I'll have to handle it carefully. Remind me not to touch it with my bare hands. after that comes out before I start making the actual dough, I think I'm going to make a couple of spice blends that I can use to flavor the different doughs. I guess I want one of them to be like an Italian fish type seasoning. and then the other one is maybe more of a pretzel type seasoning II, like with powdered mustard in both cases, so I'm starting with a buttermilk base, so let me add that now on each of these cayenne onions powder on both for the pretzel. flavor garlic powder brown mustard paprika cheddar cheese powder I'm going to shake this up and give it a try it's really good now for Italian seasoning I have parmesan powder tomato powder dried oregano whole fennel seed hmm really good overall I'm happy with how each of the mixtures turned out with chili, label these.

I'm going to make both versions of dough so this is za pizza and this is L for pretzel so I've got my dough here they had a lot of time to rest and now I'm I'm going to roll them out on my pasta rolling pin which looks great it looks like industrial and it has no soul, but it is perfect, but in a good way, but in a good way, then it is baked like this, why is it baked? The cannoli is shaped just so that it doesn't have a flat side as it bakes, it stays very round.

I know where I would be. It will have a flat bottom, but we can all imagine what it would look like without the flat side. down, yeah, when you take it, the next little bit, thank you and it's just oh wow, we gotta make her have fun, you know, the rest, thank you. I'd say I haven't broken a sweat with this one overall. Wow, what I want. The next thing I do before I make more of this flavor is figure out the baking soda solution to make a pretzel layer, so I'll move on to that while they're in the oven, so I went back to Harold McGee's article on baking. soda, the proportion you gave was about a hundred grams, oh right, I forgot, it's okay, nothing has happened so far, okay, make a solution, dissolve the baking soda in the water, it did, it vaporized, oh no, actually, they're all under the hood and then.

I dip the unbaked dough into the solution, let it sit there for three or four minutes, blot off the excess, and bake it and it should have that shiny, burnished pretzel shell look. Sorry, that says 450 degrees, how hot is this top? oven 350 this is an oven that is at 100 degrees temperature, it is actually a very beautiful color. I wonder if I need to wash egg to make it shine. They don't smell that pretzel ewwww so these are the two. It's the same mass. The one on my left. Your right. I got that dip I dipped in the baking soda solution so obviously it changes the color dramatically the color looks good it looks like a pretzel but I'm going to try it before I put them in the second round of baking where they dry out when brushing them with a little egg white to encourage a shy finish, well, I have done it, it remains to be done, burnished is polishing.

Don't they look amazing? I'm going to choose, they are not burnt and they look amazing, look at that look. In that pretzel that covers anyone, I will show you my enthusiasm. Do we think they are too dark? Because it tastes very like a pretzel. Leave it, but then you like Italian seasoning. It's a bit strange. I think next time I have to do it. less soaking, I'll cut it in half and do it for two minutes where they darkened a little, for my less time theory, I'm actually surprised how well the baking soda works, no, no, I'm sure we're except, so we have Italian pretzel, Italian salty and pretzel salty, it smells very good.

I am very happy with the taste. The pretzel worked better than I thought. Overall, all the shapes look very uniform and blended together. I'm so glad there's no d3 curse and I know we'll finish it tomorrow. No one got burned by the baking soda chemical solution, so I was going home last night and had been reading about baking soda and how to make pretzels. something I didn't read in the last sentence, we said to rinse it after soaking and before baking, that explains why they turned very dark and it's a bit of a question mark if they are acceptable to eat or not.

Yesterday I ate two of them. I felt good. I just don't want to do it again. What I'm trying to say. Good. It's probably fine. I think it's probably okay. I would probably eat it. Yes. I would wait twenty-four. okay, so what I heard is that I'm not going to remake it. I don't think so, that was the answer I was looking for. Thank you very much in conclusion Chris said that's fine. I'm going to put this in the dehydrator while you then focus on making the filling, filling the combos and then trying what is that, oh gosh, that was too much, that's too much, that's too frenetic, this is a block of aged cheddar cheese from 18 months.

I think this is a good place to start flavor-wise. I make a simple cheddar cheese flavor and then instead of jalapeño, what if I make Calabrian chili, which is very gourmet for pizza instead of pepperoni? I'm a cannon, do you fill? Julia is a type of Italian sausage spread, it is spicy and delicious. I'm really going to enhance our homemade calm, so I'd like you to have more spicy mustard, maybe some Dijon, maybe some horseradish or something like that with the cheddar cheese oqp. I approached us to make just one type of simple cheddar cheese blend in the food processor and then divide it into three and then just add the flavors for the three types of fillings, oh you know what I want, cheese, obviously, that one is the obvious choice, which will be an excellent signal for the soy sauce and then the cheese little by little.

Cheddar cheese powder and Parmesan powder Calabrian chili oil and garlic powder, so I have about 300 milliliters, so I'll start with the mustard flavor. I'm going to put a third of this mixture. This is the savory seasoning mix. This is Coleman's mustard. English style mustard, it really packs a punch, now I put a little bit of horseradish mustard on it. I also want to add a little bit of very, very, very finely chopped chives. Okay, I guess it's not spicy enough, so I'll add a pinch of cayenne. To this, okay, the mustard is ready, the next cheese I'm going to make is Calabrian chili, which all I'm going to do is chop it finely and if you use chilies and then mix them with the next third of the cheese mixture , remains a success. you're at the end and it's subtle not that these aren't incredibly hot chilis but they are incredibly delicious okay so here's an unopened induye so it looks like salami but then it has a very soft and smooth consistency like that , put this in the food processor. you know, I'm going to add a little bit of the pizza flavoring too a little bit, although I don't want to be overwhelming, it's hot enough in the food processor for the engineer to incorporate it, so I'm going to do it by hand, he's going to work it with a spatula and then I'm going to very, very, very finely chop some of the pepperoni and put it in so that there are little cubes of pepperoni in the filling, just like all of that finely.

Here's chopped pepperoni. I think it looks good. I'll give it a little flavor. Very very good. I'm really happy with the flavors of all of them, but now they'll go in the refrigerator to settle a bit before putting them in. the last thing we'll be filling and tasting hopefully no one dies from the pretzel I'm going to grab the cookies from the dehydrator it smells great they look great so I chose this baking tip. I'll feel like I would feel like cannoli if you've ever seen that made. I decided I'm actually just going to film. I'm going to make all the possible combinations so that there are 12 in total because three fillings multiplied by four different shells, do you think we are?

I'm going to label this, you think? So I'll know what this is. All the arts and crafts I can do in this. I enjoyed it so I'm going to start with favorite pretzel + just salty spicy mustard + spicy mustard and then Italian pretzel wait. looks very similar, almost the exact dimensions, same color of filling, ok now I'm going to move on, I'm going to make the Calabrian chili and also my favorite part of this so far is just filling in, the second filling is ready, just not could. more about all this symmetry and everything I love. I'm making a spin board so people can spin the wheel and find out which one they're going to try.

Chris knows it works well, what do we call this one to make our own? funny on this show, oh okay, a tasty pretzel and spicy sausage, that's good, we think you'll be fine, eat it, this is much better than a thank you. I wish the bar was higher, but thanks anyway, yeah, just a quick, oh, here we go, well, what's in the middle? You have a salty and spicy sausage filling. Thank you. Hey, it looks like a mandala. This prosperity is now a board game. Okay, oh, you won. You have the one where there is only one left: Halle and pretzel.

Calabrian chili mm-hmm no, I know, I'm looking wait, I see, I see the bite part, oh, it looks pretty good Asia, the camera, oh, it's so good, delicious, it's like doughy, it's creamy, but That pretzel breaks and it even tastes like a pretzel, like it really was a nap on the outside mmm, the monster, I had a great time. I would open it a little more. They look great. I think the pretzels look a lot more attractive than the original pretzels and overall there's a lot of fun, I use a lot of different techniques, a lot of fun equipment and I had to make this little board, this little combo game board.

I think more than average combos for me allow me to simultaneously achieve the look and make it much taller. With higher quality than the original, you can't always achieve both, but I think in this case it was kind of a film on both counts, so it's certainly a win. Here's how to make gourmet blends: Bake baking soda at 275 Fahrenheit for an hour to alkalize it, then let it cool, dissolve two-thirds of a cup of baking soda in two cups of water, and set aside to make a tasty powder. Combine 2 tablespoons buttermilk powder 2 tablespoons brown mustard 2 tablespoons cheddar cheese powder 2 teaspoons onion powder 2 teaspoons paprika 1 teaspoon garlic powder and 1/4 teaspoon reserved cayenne pepper to make the powdered Italian seasoning, combine 2 tablespoons buttermilk powder 2 tablespoons parmesan powder 1 tablespoon tomato powder 2 teaspoons onion powder 2 teaspoons dried oregano powder and 2 teaspoons ground fennel seeds reserved for the dough, combine 240 grams cake flour 10 grams kosher salt 15 gramsof cornstarch 8 grams of baking powder and 30 grams of salty or Italian seasoning powder in a bowl make a well in the center and 100 grams of water and 30 grams of honey mix just to hydrate and then add 50 grams of avocado oil Eat until the dough is smooth, then cover and let the dough rest for 10 minutes.

Roll out small portions of dough on a pasta roller until very thin, lightly brush with flour as needed to prevent sticking, and cut into rectangles measuring about 8 inches wide and 2 and 3/4 inches wide, roll Firmly wrap the dough around a straight metal straw and then use fine thread to pre-cut the length of the dough into crosswise segments. Dip some of the dough tubes into the baking soda and place the straw seam side down into a metal cannoli tube and placed on a rack in a small baking machine and bake at 350 Fahrenheit until the dough is firm. , about 10 minutes, cut along with the same Qudsi made with a thread and separate the links of the dough by sliding from the straw on the rack and bake again until the dough is lightly golden and completely dry. for about 15 minutes, let cool to make the cheese filling process 4 ounces room temperature cream cheese, cubed 1/4 cup Kewpie mayonnaise a dash of Worcestershire sauce 1 tablespoon soy sauce and a food processor until is very smooth add 3 ounces grated aged white cheese cheddar cheese 5 tablespoons yellow cheddar cheese powder 3 tablespoons parmesan powder 1/2 teaspoon Calabrian chili oil and garlic powder to taste and process until very smooth divide the mixture into thirds up to 1/3 of the cheese filling add the savory seasoning coleman's mustard horseradish mustard finely chopped chives and cayenne pepper to taste up to another third add the very finely chopped Calabrian chiles and up to the last third Add the softened induye Italian seasoning powder, add finely chopped pepperoni, transfer the fillings to a piping bag and fill each combination individually and as much as possible. cookie filling combinations what do you know what it is?

I'm not a show. Nobody realizes that I'm not a

chef

. No, I'm not. I work in a restaurant making cakes.