Pastry Chef Attempts to Make Gourmet Snickers | Gourmet Makes | Bon Appétit

yeah it's - like it's - it's like taffy yeah true okay I'm gonna try again all right here I'll leave that with you no I'm gonna call it quits I'm gonna say that's not the Claire we know I know that's not the show Oh suck hi everyone I'm Claire we are in the VA Test Kitchen and today we are making gourmet Snickers bars I've had Snickers over the years mostly in the form of like a little mini Halloween candies so this is the classic Snickers bar it says peanuts caramel nougat milk chocolate so what's not to like basically one of the things that's very noticeable about the Snickers is this ridged pattern on the bottom and then it has that kind of distinctive chocolate kind of swirl on top it's ten centimeters long so inside you see three main components you have a layer at the bottom of nougat then you have the layer above which is a mixture of caramel and peanuts and then of course the whole thing covered in chocolate besides being very sweet I'm very good like really chewy caramel crunchy peanuts overall I think it leans really sweet and that's something that I kind of want to dial back and the homemade version but like all the components together so good so delicious I'm a big fan this is an almond Snickers the little minis I really wanted to be peanut this one's hazelnut I think it's a little bit overpowering I like the options with the different nuts and everything they don't go too crazy on the flavors but overall I'm just a huge fan of the classics so that's what we're gonna try to recreate peanuts all the way so now I want to try to isolate the layers so that's interesting the nougat kind of like separates apparently easily from the chocolate on the bottom it's a really thin very even layer of chocolate so of all the components in the Snickers I think I'm the most sort of intrigued by the texture of the nougat there's sort of an airiness to it do me a favor we taste this so that's the nougat does it taste peanutty to you I feel like there's peanuts in the nougats yeah there's peanuts in the nougat right I didn't really realize that that's good that's good what can we improve I'd make it a touch less sweet mm-hmm just getting that chew factor right I think yeah hey sugar man I would like better chocolate if you could find that balance between milk and dark chocolate maybe a little bit of bitterness less sweet yeah it's very sweet the corn syrup keeps you in the face number one thing is that caramel pole uh-huh if you pull apart the halves and you just have the droop very dramatic uh-huh on its own the caramel does not have a lot of complexity I think you can really make a deeper more complex tasting caramel really bring out some of those like bitter notes and the sugar and that will help temper the sweetness a lot my plan is just to make a really dark salted caramel add some butter and try to get that texture because the texture is key so now it's time for my favorite part reading the ingredients milk chocolate parentheses sugar cocoa butter peanut orange sugar Houma in black 2 solvent artificial flavor pretty straightforward what I want to do now is go do a little bit of research see if I can get some kind of YouTube video of like how they're made they're asking for money I do give money of a capilla actually it was named after the favorite horse of the Morris family how it's made Snickers Discovery Channel's good eats according to this guy if it doesn't have a squiggle on top it's not a Snickers it told me what I basically suspected which is you make the nougat which does have peanuts in it you make the caramel you make both into a slab you stack them you cut them and you come from a chocolate so that's what I'm gonna do so for the three main components we have the chocolate the nougat and the peanut caramel I'm chocolate I'm gonna worry about tomorrow but today I want to focus on the fillings so we have the nougat and the challenge with that is gonna be getting that fluffy texture and then with the caramel the challenge will be getting that texture just right so that it stretches and pulls so I'm gonna start with the nougat I'm gonna use the basic nougat method that I searched and I liked on 101 cookbooks by Heidi Swanson gently peanut butter over here Gabi no there you go oh I'm caught later I'm holding the peanut butter oops we basically pour sugar syrup into a beaten egg whites and I'm going to whip peanut butter into it oh those three and two tablespoons corn syrup let's just go with it this looks pretty good it's peanut e which adds kind of a nice savory element to offset all the sugar but I do want to whip it a little longer because I think it needs a little more air it's a little dense I think I know what the problem was I added the peanut butter too early it really does need to whip and cool down before I add anything else so I'm still going to spread this into the prepared pan and just kind of see what the texture is like nougat it's not it's not there just taste it well it's the warm it's too dense like it's too chewy that is loz I added the peanut butter too soon I have to make it again see the nougat yeah I wonder if you get like flashbacks what else did we do or you do that was uh it's not supposed to really break apart but it works so this really does aerate the mixture you have to pull the nougat I don't think that's the direction why what if it but if it were no gonna be taffy it's only tag isn't set yet tell yourself that obviously this is very it does have that kind of like Laffy Taffy texture I do know that with at least cooked sugar you can pull it and that will aerate the mixtures it is however extremely stuck to these gloves I can't what do I do I need to really boil up those gloves this is a classic example of me not starting over fast enough now I'm gonna keep going so I've already invested time it's like when the subway is 10 minutes late and you're like well I've already been here 10 minutes so I'm just gonna wait longer and 20 minutes later still hasn't come do you think it looks fluffier no what do you mean no why not because it just looks like you're stretching it but it looks so much lighter in color than it was before which means it's so look see it's a little lighter and it's more like crumbly you know it's like flat fluffy stars with my feet started alright when do you think I'm done with this alright I think I'm done okay so I want to just roll it into I don't even really care what the shape is just something that's an even thickness so gonna set this aside and cover it with some plastic and then I do want to check back on it later once it's had some time to set up it's still a little bit dense so I'm gonna go ahead and mix up another version of this and I'll adjust the method so that I don't incorporate the peanut butter until the very end when the nougat is room temperature and has had a chance to whip for longer even though I haven't added the peanut butter the egg whites have deflated on their own I think actually part of the problem is that see the recipe calls for I think more sugar than the egg whites can handle so tomorrow morning first thing I want to get another batch of nougat going and I have to go home and kind of think about the proportions and come up some a different basically different recipe and then I want to pivot and move right into the caramel because both of those components need to set at room temperature before I could put them together and then even move on to the chocolate stage all right so a little time has passed it's been four days I came out a little light flew I can't say that at least we've given the nougat some sufficient time to set so I want to try this out caramel taste anything so it's sort of a pointless exercise actually I do I do kind of taste the peanut flavor with peanut butter surprised it's not stay here though yeah it's just not doesn't have that fluffy texture that it needs and I'm gonna use the recipe from this book all right so this is that French style nougat with honey this is a different proportion and a slightly different method sugar water corn syrup honey egg whites and vanilla and then we're gonna add the peanut butter it's not really working as it's like setting too fast I met it to rewarm it so this will hopefully bring that mixture together I overcooked the sugar now it's setting too hard let me just Pat it down into a prepared baking sheet it might be okay and it does feel actually nice and light and airy so it might be okay I truly can't taste anything it's kind of pointless I think it's gonna work I hope I'm just saying that because I need it to physically I don't feel good at all physically I would but I also can't be home any more I can't be home in bed boring alright so now I want to move on to the caramel while the nougat sets I'm making a soft chewy caramel so it's not just sugar and cream and butter we're using some corn syrup and also evaporated milk this looks pretty good it all depends on what the texture is when it sets same thing with the nougat so it's a waiting game for these two the next thing will be putting them into these molds that I have that even has sort of like that slightly irregular exterior that the snickers has so the next big challenge after nougat and caramel is tempering the chocolate this is the caramel that I didn't pour into the pan with the peanuts but it does sort of have that nice stretch and pull which I think it's gonna be really important the nougat has firmed up to the point where I think it's too firm I just want to make one more batch and I'm gonna cook that sugar mixture a little bit less sort of looks like a crumbly mess it does feel really nice and fluffy so obviously it's a really thick layer of caramel that'll have to shave down so that it can fit in the mold the nougat layer looks pretty close I'm actually very happy with the texture of the nougat it has some airiness to it and winter breasts half of this mixture back on top that thing of this whole episode is boring this whole episode is not dramatic try the nougat I might pass out before I get to the chocolate part but okay okay hope really is that a viable plan pop it back into the fridge for a few minutes and then I'll take it back out and we can start cutting those slices to fit into the molds okay this feels good nice and firm so here is that center piece overall I think the proportions look good I think the nougat is like just the right texture so I'm glad we did it again in some ways I wish the caramel itself were a little bit darker it'll had a little bit of a deeper flavor I'm gonna put them back into the to the fridge while I temper the chocolate I'm gonna do a little refresher on top of tempering temperatures so my plan is to use 5050 dark chocolate and milk chocolate I'm gonna use something called a seed method I know that this is this is harkening back to the KitKat episode there's still so much seed chocolate in it oh this is supposed to set within two minutes I think so so a bar of each set aside for seating then I'm gonna chop the rest and start melting it all right so we're right at the temp add all the sea chocolate so it's basically it is the evening it's night no one's here Kat Cadden Gabi are here thank God 86 so I'm gonna take it back off first I'm gonna do a little bit of a test on this piece of parchment to set and dry so best-case scenario is this chocolate it hardens perfectly it has a nice snap worst-case none of that happens the chocolate is out of temper but I'm just gonna go with it no matter what so it doesn't really matter if the chocolate isn't in temper then it's not gonna pop out of the molds so that's a big concern of mine it is like watching paint dry what are we making again has it been three to five minutes really no I don't like that I'm not hair I'm making I'm moving forward all right not not too bad this isn't not temper chocolate I have to say unfortunately no it's very hot in the kitchen right now so that could have a lot to do with it but I want to put these in the fridge just to see if we can get them to pop out of the molds and then we might have to just try again on another day but it's not coming out of the mold so that confirms what I thought which is that it's not tempered hopefully more left to me next week when I'm not killing you I will eat pretend like Friday never existed because I was like in the throes of my illness and don't really remember like what went on here in the kitchen you know what let's just I should start over and just be like that never happened it's day to just eliminate all that film I'm saying a little more energy today I'm basically gonna start over I want that caramel not only to have a more robust bittersweet caramel flavor but I want it to be saltier starting over why because I was in like a Friday was like a fever dream no I think I just told myself it was good it was no there were a lot of problems did you wait did you try it I don't even remember the teaspoon of flaky salt flavor-wise it's excellent pivot to the nougat oh my god I waited two seconds later out that's looking really good the new cups set nicely it's pretty firm I love the flavor very peanutty and the texture is chewy and firm but also really satisfying so I'm just gonna go ahead with it so I want to just warm the top of the caramel and then press the new get into it it smells like campfire now this goes into the fridge I pop this out it feels nice and firm I have to say these I think I look pretty good I think your proportion is really nice I'm gonna chill these and then I'm gonna move to tempering the chocolate it must be cool to 82 one thing I'm gonna do differently this time it's just stir to incorporate the C chocolate and then let it sit for two minutes but that was two minutes 87 oh my god okay I feel like it's set yes okay it's set I'm just gonna go for it okay that's really my heart was racing on that okay oh I didn't grease the molds it's not good I forgot to grease the molds oh I really hope they come out god it was going too well I'm just gonna keep my fingers crossed and get them in the fridge I did Google do you have to grease chocolate molds and most answers said no so I feel really heartened by that who tried having them out and see Oh God best thing that's ever happened to me well they look perfect should I love the pattern they kind of made to on the surface so the overall proportions I would say obviously there was a thicker layer of chocolate hmm really good it's very chewy I'm really happy with the textures of the fillings it's much much less sweet than the original we that was part of the goal so I'm really happy about that I like the pattern chocolate molds no it was the molds no I know what you want to be seen on anyway thanks well it's took me three days to make it snicker so yeah this is definitely not too sweet I know their flavors fantastic huh great the only thing that really leaves out is that proportion yeah I think the best thing is it looks right so that's all that matters if you don't cut into it what are you about to drink is that a protein shake okay I won't make fun of you these are delicious they're so chewy right really chewy I would say overall like there is a lot more chocolate yeah so that I mean I think the trauma is a little overpowering yeah a lot of crunchy textures snappy chocolate yeah well doesn't have that weird thing where it like like pulls it almost gets to like that it's ready meat floss yeah yeah I think that if I left the peanuts and larger pieces where there'd be like more caramel in between it would do that Jared you want to try a piece of homemade Snickers enjoy you like it yeah it's very thank you there's a lot of work not never doing this again like overall they're sort of like endless tweaks that you can make and yeah I would change a couple of things but I'm satisfied with where this ended up so I consider that that's a win here's how you make a gourmet Snickers for the caramel combine 1 and 1/2 cup sugar 1/4 cup corn syrup and 1/4 cup water and in saucepan and stir over medium heat and dissolve bring to a boil and cook and wash the down sides with a wet pastry brush until mixture turns a deep amber slowly stream in one cup clubs 2 tablespoons heavy cream followed by 5 tablespoons butter and half a vanilla bean cook until mixture reaches 250 then pour caramel into a bowl and folding crushed peanuts work peanut caramel across bottom of a loaf pan in a thin even layer set aside to set for the nougat bring 98 grams tiny to a boil in a small saucepan cooked to 50 Fahrenheit in another saucepan combine 121 grams sugar of 49 grams water and 19 grams light corn syrup and stir over medium heat to dissolve bring to a boil until mixture reaches 280 Fahrenheit meanwhile with 19.6 grams egg whites in a stand mixer add a pinch of salt and slowly sprinkle and 5 grams sugar and whip to firm peaks when honey hits 150 slowly stream into egg whites slowly stream and sugar syrup when it comes to temperature but nougat mixture is around 140 Fahrenheit beat in 1 cup peanut butter that's been warming in a double boiler scrape nougat onto a baking sheet and let cool work a rectangle of nougat into a thin sheet about 3 millimeters thick cut with a knife to fit the dimensions of the loaf pan or on top of caramel with the torch and press nougat onto table of caramel and chill to set invert loaf pan and cut filling into seven and a half by one and a half centimeter bars chill temper of a piece of dark and milk chocolates using the speed method pipe chocolate into candy bar molds then press bars and filling cover tops of our support chocolate chill until set and invert molds and tap sharply on the counter non vult yeah the circus the Big Apple Circus which is currently in town King there's no animals there - so a Cirque du Soleil so leaving Sun in France arm

Channel: Bon Appétit

Views: 7,650,811

Rating: 4.9031372 out of 5

Keywords: pastry chef, gourmet makes, claire saffitz, snickers, claire makes snickers, candy, chocolate, gourmet, gourmet recipe, snicker, test kitchen, snickers bar, how to make candy, how to make snickers, gourmet snickers, diy chocolate, claire, claire bon appetit, bon appetit claire, how to make snicker, snickers recipe, claire makes, snickers candy, snickers gourmet, how to make nougat, make nougat, make caramel, claire makes candy, pastry chef makes, claire ba, food, bon appetit

Id: IeM8OReKzfQ

Length: 20min 44sec (1244 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 21 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/efitz11]

Claire gives $3 to Wikipedia confirmed

[u/AmericanIdiom]

Did Brad call it "Circus Olay"?

(Shout out to /r/BoneAppleTea)

[u/DentateGyros]

I think what makes these so fun to watch - besides the personalities - is seeing that even professional chefs don’t get it right the first time. We always see the easy, edited final results, but we never see the fever dream frustrations and messups. I know I sometimes get disheartened when a creation doesn’t turn out as picture perfect as the recipe, and this does make me feel better about it

[u/xxx69harambe69xxx]

i thought Claire was leaving BA?

[u/TuckedInTshirt]

Claire is the fuckin best.

[u/foxyboxs]

Going by her website, it would appear she no long works for BA.

Claire Saffitz is a freelance recipe developer and video host. Previously, she was Senior Food Editor at Bon Appétit magazine, where she worked for five years in the test kitchen.

[u/Gamer_ely]

She donates to Wikipedia? Is she some sort of paragon of human decency?

[u/Exotli8]

I have never smoked crack but I would imagine it's as satisfying as getting my Claire fix.

[u/absentmindedjwc]

"According to this guy"

Dude is fucking Marc Summers, damn youngins.