- We're making money moves. Let's go! - Welcome back to "Without
a Recipe: Holiday Season." - Oh, it's happening. - This is freaking me out. - [Eugene] It's the four of
us back together for four back-to-back episodes. - Oh, dear God. - [Keith] This week, we're
making cinnamon rolls. - [Zach] No recipe, no
skills, and no hope. - What happened? What's going on? - [Zach] This might be the
single best tasting thing I've ever made. - You know the feeling when
you watch a horror movie and you get excited? I want that to be my food this year, food this year, food this
year. (laughing maniacally) (bright adventure music) ♪ Ding, dong, ding, dong, ding, dong ♪ ♪ Dong, ding, dong, ding, dong ♪ ♪ Hurry, Santa ♪ - [Narrator] The Try Guys
are back in the test kitchen for an entire holiday season
of "Without a Recipe." - So I might be tempted
to do some dumb stuff. - I'm not afraid. - I'm not afraid. - I'll do it.
- I'm not afraid. - [Narrator] This week,
they're making cinnamon rolls. - How flat does it need to get? - [Narrator] Will Christmas come early? - Ow, ow, ow, ow. - [Narrator] Or will Jack
Frost nip at their rolls? - (sighs) What should
I do to mess this up? - [Narrator] Over the course of two days, each baker will have five
hours to complete their dish and present it to our panel of judges. - I'm Rosanna Pansino, and I host one of the most popular
baking shows on YouTube, and I also host "Baketopia" on HBOMAX. - My name's Josh Scherer,
and I host a YouTube show that my grandma thinks is very popular called "Mythical Kitchen." - I'm Alex Phaneuf. I own a couple bakeries in Los Angeles, and I've made one or two
cinnamon rolls in my day. - I am Or Amsalam, I am
also one of the owners of Lodge Bread Company. - If they're not gonna
sell it, I'm gonna sell it. Lodge Bread Company has the
single best cinnamon roll in Los Angeles. It is the size of your head. It is long fermented, high hydrated dough, with a lemony frosting. Sell the bakery, I'm selling it. I'm their hype man now. Best cinnamon roll in town. (light music) - The challenge to making
cinnamon rolls for us was naturally leavened dough. The shop started off baking bread, and serving coffee. Cinnamon rolls were a focus from day one, but if you were to ask me
what I would define one as, it's almost any fluffy
dough that's rolled up and has butter, cinnamon and sugar in it. We gleaned some base
recipes on how to craft a sourdough-based brioche,
and we worked at it. It didn't come easy. It was labor-intensive, and
it was wrought with failure. Good cinnamon, properly
proofed, fluffy, crispiness from the sugar, luscious, and I'd say, a bad cinnamon roll is dense, doughy, and lacking flavor. I would never bake without a recipe. I would completely train wreck. These are perfect, shareable,
almost classic cinnamon rolls. If they're gonna try to
make these with no recipe, try really hard.
(bright music) - Cinnamon roll is one of those foods that Americans have deluded themselves into thinking is an appropriate breakfast. I don't know that I've
ever eaten a cinnamon roll. - I've never had a homemade cinnamon bun. I've never seen one made. I have no idea how they're
made, but I like them. - Never made a cinnamon roll. The closest I've come
was in the very first "Without a Recipe," I tried
making a cinnamon-raisin bread. Look, guys, I love recipes. I love them so much, I wrote a cookbook. "Date Night Cookbook,"
available at datenight.com. (bell rings) Uh, yeah. - My soul is being able to do something that if I describe it to someone, they look disturbed, but maybe, also slightly turned on. And I think I'm gonna do that this year. Does it have to be rolled? - [Rachel] It's a cinnamon roll. - Ugh. - I don't think that
there's an appropriate place or time for cinnamon rolls
in the world, frankly. - [Rachel] I make them
on Christmas morning. - I'm not gonna disparage your tradition. (magical, holiday music) - Cinnamon buns.
- Cinnamon roll? Cinnamon bun?
- Cinnamon roll? Cinnamon roll, cinnamon bun. - What's the official-
- I think it's the same thing.
- Roll. - Roll.
- Rachel's saying roll. - Keith, are you ready
to start this season? - Yes, buckle up and enjoy. I'm so excited, hi, Mom! - [Narrator] All right, bakers. In three, two, one. Let's roll. - Here we go. Go! (bright holiday music) - Go! Go!
- Okay, I mean- - Okay, let's go, let's go, let's go. This season, I'm not overthinking it. I'm just making things that make me happy. I am making a cinnabaklava. I'm gonna drizzle it with pistachio, and then dredge it in a (beeps) of honey. Which could ruin it. - You ever watch Julia Child? - No, I didn't watch Julia Child. Who's that?
- What? Are you serious? - I mean, I know it's a person. Everyone expects me to make a
cinnamon raisin cinnamon roll. That's too easy! That's silly. That's what everyone else
is gonna be doing already. It won't be special. I'm doing something else
that's a beautiful ball that people see and they
just wanna reach toward, like a cinnamon roll. I'm gonna make a cinnamon
roll in the style of a Bloomin' Onion. It will be French onion soup flavored. I don't know if there's
gonna cheese on it yet. I'm really not sure how this
one's gonna come together, if I'm being honest. - Let's just, I'm just gonna
get the usual suspects. We're just gonna round them out. Bring them down to the
station, question them later. In this episode, I am
going to do something unprecedented in "Without
a Recipe" history. I am going to make a food
with zero innovation. All the time on "Without a Recipe," we're making all this crazy shit. So today, I'm making a cinnamon roll. No one's ever attempted it before. It's so crazy, it just might work. - I mean, it is edible. Oh, oh my God, it's in the cutest little (beeps) carafe. - Oh my God. - Look at this.
(tense music) - [Keith] What are you doing for yours? (eerie music) - Happy holidays, everyone. Whatever you choose to celebrate, I totally respect that. I'm just telling you that I am a queen when it comes to Halloween,
so I am here to represent the scary and the weird and the spooky. Evil Eugene likes testing
people's limitations. The secret ingredient of
my cinnamon rolls is blood. (dramatic music)
(fire crackling) Right? I see your comments. Oh, there's Eugene, he's
putting booze in something. He's making it spicy and Asian. Listen, no booze in anything. Evil Eugene is here to stay
for four episodes straight. - He's putting blood in it? Ugh. What kind of blood? - [Rachel] Pig's blood. - Pig's blood? - (clears throat) That's cool. That's super cool. (bright holiday music) - [Narrator] First, the
bakers will have one hour to make their dough
and prep their filling. - We're gonna start with onions. we're gonna start, look
at all these chives. Wow. - Why are you grabbing your onions? - Well, because to make sweet onions, the onions have to cook
for as long as possible. - I am certain that
there's butter in this, but they didn't put butter out for me. - I'm gonna grab a couple of eggs. - Am I wrong already? Am I already wrong? I hate this show. - Zach, just do what you do
every time, which is copy me. - With all my heart, I hate
this show, genuinely, truly. - We're gonna make some brioche dough. At its core, it is an
egg-based yeasted dough. All the wet ingredients
first, filtered water, and the starter is added
right in the beginning, that it lends well to mimicking what store-bought yeast does. - I don't really know
how much yeast to put in, so I'm gonna dump the whole packet in. - Oh, that means I have
to activate my yeast. Can I activate yeast in blood? - Wow, I mean, blood, I guess, does have sugars in it. - I mean, it is edible. All of this will cook out. Everything that has blood will be cooked. Activating the yeast with my blood. One packet. This is like, you know, you're like, at Dracula's house, and he's like, you want sparkling or still? - It is very Nosferatu-adjacent. - This-
- Oh my God. That is disgusting. - All right, 275 grams of milk. - He's heating his milk. - I think that's how you do it. - Why? - Well, it needs to be warm to yeastify. - Hmm. Okay, Ned, whatever you say, bro. I just copy Ned. - Eggs for this recipe,
it was about 14 eggs. - Now I'm not a baker, but I do love soup, and I've made a soup
that had an egg before, and you have to cool down
your shit so that the egg doesn't cook and become an egg. - Oh, shit, I think that's
what's happening to me. Look, guys, mistakes were made. I added my egg when my
milk was basically boiling. I'm gonna strain out the little egg bits. Ugh, God. Ew, look at that.
(Zach laughs) Ew. Okay, um. - Whatever, I'm just
gonna have boiled butter. I'm sure that won't affect the
flavor in any negative way. - Let's mix it. We want all of our flour. After that, we can start
adding the sugar and the salt, but only once the dough fully develops. - Oh, and there needs to
be some sugar in there to activate the yeast. - I wouldn't have sugar in from the start. It's going to disrupt gluten development. So you'll have a degraded
dough in the end. - Dude, this is already so dough. Oh, yeah. Dude, man, I'm so good at this. - [Ned] That looks pretty good. - Hmm.
- What? - [Zach] I broke the whisk. - Gluten development has begun, and it can get sweetened up by sugar, get balanced out by salt. - Does the dough have cinnamon in it? - I just put cinnamon in the dough, 'cause like, why not? - Cinnamon in the dough?
- We'll add our fat, in this case, coconut
oil, in small increments. - Is there more butter? - Is this too much butter? Hmm, whatever. It's like two and a half sticks. - [Keith] It's all of the butter. - Don't add all your fat at once. You want the dough to slowly gain strength and incorporate evenly. If it's all at once in the beginning, it's gonna get greasy. - Ooh, that's thick. Oh, that's thicky thick. - I got clunks of butter in mine. It's more of a batter at this point. And this ain't baseball. - Keith, do you just go
to sleep thinking of puns? - I don't. I can't not think of them, though. They're just always
going through my brain. - Whoa.
- Oh yeah. - I almost forgot a
very important element. Turning it red. Oh yeah. - If you don't get the
power mixed into the dough, you're gonna not be able
to get a rise or a proof. - What? - It's so goopy. This is so fun. - I wonder how much I'm
gonna need to knead this. Aw, it kinda looks like
a human heart, right? - Beautiful.
- Thank you. Does my dough match my eyes? - Very, very similar shade. - My couture baking show.
- Yeah. - Hello, welcome to "Couture Bakes." Today, we're cooking
things but not eating them. - It's so soft, which would say no, but I kinda want it to be
the most voluminous bunyon you ever did see. - Okay, cool. I'm done. Oh, this does kinda look like
I'm an organ harvester, huh? - [Alex] Our dough is done,
it's reached full development, looks luscious, and it's
ready for a nice rest, and a bulk ferment. - All right, now I'm gonna
move on to my filling. My cinnabaklava roll. - Is powdered sugar literally
just sugar but smaller? - I don't know, man. - You know things, Ned. - Onion watch, so see, onions. Look at these beautiful onions. It's just gonna cook as slow as possible for the next as much time
as we have, to be honest. - This is where my blood really comes in. - Good cinnamon roll has butter,
cinnamon and sugar in it. - I think I'm gonna do cream cheese. Maybe there's no butter, actually. Maybe it's just cream cheese. - They're getting pretty good. Sort of going for like an onion jam. It needs some kind of figs. I feel like I heard of
a fig and onion jam. - So for my filling, I have cream cheese, brown and white sugar and cinnamon. And then, blood. I'm gonna put blood into my filling. - Butter, cinnamon and
sugar, and you're golden. - Butter? No butter. Just cream cheese and milk. - Cardamom's kind of like a Greek spice. Is anyone else using like a heavy dose of cardamom in their recipe? No? - We got 10 minutes left, and I mean, look at the transformation
on these onions. Yeah, it's a different smell in here, huh? - Just gotta be very
ginger with the cloves. Easy on the nutmeg. - Oh, God, it smells so
much like cream cheese. I'm gonna put in some maple syrup. You can't stop me. (Eugene cackles maniacally) - [Eugene] Is that enough blood? Stop the blood? More blood? - You know what's so funny? Is it looks like
strawberries (indistinct). - Ugh. - Do we have Cinnamon Toast Crunch? - [Rachel] No. - Do we have any cereal of any kind? - Ooh, are you feeling
the urge to (beeps) it up? - I'm so bored. There's so many options in the world. So I'm adding some flour. - Corn starch, that's something
you haven't put in it yet. - That's a good idea. What does corn starch do? - Butter, cinnamon and sugar. - Creaming my blood filling, here we go. - Oh, oh my God. It's a murder scene.
(bright adventurous music) (Eugene cackling maniacally) - I need something exciting in this. Ooh, Graham crackers. Liquorice? Snacks for the crew. Use this for the gingerbread finale. (Eugene continues cackling maniacally) We have chocolate. Chocolate? Nutella. (beeps) yeah. - Butter, cinnamon and sugar. (Keith smacking lips) - It's sweet. But it's onions. (bright classical music)
("March of the Toy Soldiers") - [Narrator] After leaving their
dough to proof for an hour, it's now time to fill and
shape their cinnamon rolls. - I don't know. I'm trying to figure out what I'm doing right now in my head. - I am looking at my dough and
it looks very wet and soft. - This is our base dough. It's totally ready. It has gone overnight, had a
full cycle of fermentation. - Our dough has been
resting and look at this. We got some action. I see some bubles. - Mine don't really have
a ton of action here. - My blood ball feels so good. It's like squishy. But I think this might be
to our advantage, right? Shouldn't cinnamon rolls be fluffy? - [Keith] This is the
softest dough I've ever made. - Kinda dense. Kinda dense. I really would've expected
it to be fluffier. - You wanna feel mine? - Yeah, yours feels better than mine. I put a whole packet of yeast in. Maybe this is how it's supposed to be. I am a little worried about this now. My dough has not risen. - If I knew it hadn't risen, I would... (sighs) I'd start over. I'd totally start over. You'll have a multitude of problems. You can keep going and you
can try to make it happen. If it were to happen to me, nowadays, I would start over. - Maybe I should've put the
yeast in water instead of milk. - The biggest thing is,
when I'm rolling them out, I do want it to be even. - How flat do we think we want this? I mean, as flat as it can get? - If you roll this too
thin, or you beat it up, you just keep rolling it out, you're gonna degrade
the dough to the point where it's just gonna stay dense. - I'm stretching it out to make it longer, but I'm also therefore, making it flatter. - I want mine to be flat. - And you wanna take
your time and gently roll out your slab. - This is the most
Play-Doh-like dough I've made. - [Alex] Here's where you
start to feel mistakes. If the dough starts to rip, if
the dough won't stretch out, you're throwing off your
entire cinnamon roll. - Make a little cut on my dough, to really try and have
it be even on the bottom. - I would never cut the
strips individually. I would keep it as whole as possible so everything stays
inside, so when it proves, it proves all together at the same rate, and everybody gets the same size roll. - It's not a mistake, it's a choice. It's not a mistake, it's a choice. - For the inside, I take my
butter that I've whipped. I'm gonna start layering my butter. I whipped the butter for the inside so it matches the fluffiness of my dough. - So you have no cream in yours, 'cause I really thought that
a cinnamon roll had cream. - I'm doing all dry dusting, and then I'm gonna do a honey dredge. - [Alex] If I were to use
some sort of animal product, if I was gonna use
something that was denser or cream cheese, it wouldn't match how my dough's gonna proof. After butter, it's cinnamon and sugar. - I don't know how much brown
sugar I need, but it's pretty. - I just feel like this is exactly the way you're supposed to do it. - [Alex] Also, if you
use too much cinnamon, it's gonna be a cinnamon
challenge when you try to eat it. - I have somehow
independently just discovered perfect cinnamon roll technique. This is awesome. - More cinnamon. - We're gonna roll it up.
(light, whimsical music) It's just rolled over on itself. - Oh, these nails. Okay, nails, come on. - I'm caressing it enough so
it doesn't fall back open. Once you get a couple
of these first rolls in, it's a pretty simple process. - Oh yeah. Oh, yes. - That's really nice. It kinda looks like a really big tamale. - Oh, wow. Look at that. - We're gonna cut these. Serrated knife works best. It's just, cuts through the layers. - Does it look like I'm hacking up someone's limb?
- It kinda looks amazing. - Thank you. I feel like Hannibal Lecter. It does kinda look like
I chopped up an arm. Now I'm gonna make a hand centerpiece so it's like a dismembered hand. - I'm cutting up my little
honey phyllo dough layers. This is my fancy baklava
stuff, phyllo dough dough. And I'm putting it in between. Yeah, it's looking good, actually. The phyllo dough is
helping give it some width, which I was kinda worried about. So the phyllo dough is thinner, and I'm hoping that will
kind of create a sense of it's a little surprise. (tense music)
- Resist, Zach. No, Zach, give in. Spread me all over the place. I can't, I said I wouldn't this episode. But think about how much fun it would be. (tense music) (dramatic music) - Keith, do you need help? - I don't know. I think I'm gonna get,
I think it's happening. ("Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies") Well, typically, when you
order a Bloomin' Onion, it's for the table. To be an onion, it has to
have what an onion has, which is that little anchor in the bottom that you cut around and it
still holds it all together. So if I were to just do
a roll and then slice it into six pieces, it won't
necessarily all be together. It'll just be six pieces. But if I build lots of little bowls, then it would be like a half of an onion, which then, when I cut
it, it would splay out. Maybe. Building an onion and in this layer, we're gonna put all the filling in, and then we'll put a smaller
bowl, put filling in, smaller bowl, filling it in, smaller bowl, and the bowl, in this
sense, is always going to be a dough bowl. It's an onion. Like, right? Like when you cut an onion in half, and you see all the layers all at once, that's what it looks like. Onion pie. Oh, gosh, I have all this
dough and all this time. Maybe I should make some
normal cinnamon rolls. - [Rachel] Two minutes. - Two minutes. All right. - How can I ruin mine at the last minute? - [Keith] Eugene does that
old sort of Mafia game with a knife and is cutting out his hand. His hand will also be full of blood. - Zach, Zach.
- Yeah. - Listen.
- Yeah. - I know Cinnamon Toast Crunch is- - It's the taste you can see. - Taste you can see, great taste. Your vision was to make
a standard cinnamon roll. - And I got a little compromise here. - What is, it's just a-
- So that they know that it's cinnamon. - Onion rolls, sweet onion rolls. - This is very beautifully gruesome. - [Keith] That hand is grotesque. - Oh, sorry. This is like body horror,
it's like John Carpenter. - [Keith] It's really intense. - [Ned] No, you're ruining it, I think. - [Zach] One minute, oh boy. - Look at that, a little
French onion soup mix on top to look like cinnamon, but
everything in it is onions. - I'm just gonna cover it in
a lot of cinnamon at the end, so it doesn't matter. - [Rachel] Five, four, three, two, one. (tense music)
(Eugene panting) - Wow. Disgusting. But also very impressive. ("Russian Dance")
- [Narrator] It's day two, and after a night of proofing, it's time to throw their rolls in the oven and make their icing.
("Russian Dance") - Look at that onion blossom. Last night, it was concave, and this morning, it's convex. - I'm gonna get mine
in the oven right away. We only got 30 minutes. - [Zach] My big boys got big. - The cinnamon rolls are completely done. They've been proofing in
an ambient temperature. These are going in a 350 degree oven, for 45 to 50 minutes. - Is the other oven on? Uh, we're a little concerned
that this oven is not doing it. (tense music) Okay, but I, but then this is gonna burn. - [Eugene] Oh, yeah,
they're still quite pale. - [Eugene] But they're looking beautiful. - They're blooming up.
- Oh. They're still red, good.
- Still very red. (tense music)
- That's good. - They need much more time.
- They do. - (beeps) Okay. I'm making a move. We're gonna move to the better oven. We're making money moves. Let's go. - We're making money moves, let's go. - Yeah, it's still so ooey-gooey. - Yeah.
- I'm wondering if I should take these rolls to the blaster outside. - All right, all right,
we don't have much time. Did I not set a timer? - We're taking them
outside to the blaster. - Okay, thanks. Is that outside one?
- Taking mine to the blaster. Yeah, you'll wanna take
yours to the blaster. We gotta blast 'em. - Shit, it's not gonna bake in time. - You don't think it's
gonna bake in time, Ned? - Mine are very dense. - Wow, it's really,
moments in the blaster, and things are already wildly different. - I wanna make sure mine
are cooked all the way, 'cause I'm already gonna be at
a disadvantage texture-wise. So if they're like not
cooked all the way and bad? - All the butter is draining to the bottom and frothing like a soup,
swirling hot air all around. - Uh-uh, guys, it's burning, it's burning. - How much time is left? 14? I have nothing to do but freak out. - You wanna make some more frosting? - No. Do I need to make more frosting? Great idea, Zach. - [Narrator] 10 minutes. (dramatic music)
- It's almost done. Then Eugene's is gonna need
all the time it can get. - These may be overdone, to be honest. - Any more would be too much. - Gonna go inside for 30 seconds to put these on a rack or something. Hot stuff coming through,
hot stuff coming through. We have our, do I have a cooling rack? - Take a look right here, at a beautiful onion blossom, a Bloomin' Bunyon. - This might be the best,
single best tasting thing I've ever made. One minute. - The oven's ruined these. - Five.
- They're burnt. - Four.
- I think they're just inedible.
- Three, two- - Whoa, whoa, whoa. I didn't get a 10 second countdown. You can't just jump in at five. (dramatic music) - Nailed it. (dramatic music) (twinkling, magical music) - Welcome to the judging of
"Without a Recipe: Holidays." We will be judging on four criteria: taste, presentation, creativity
and is it a cinnamon roll? - [Alex] I mean, rolling it
up, it seems just so simple, yet that's the one thing
that could slip your mind when you're making a cinnamon roll, right? - [Josh] Gotta have the gooeyness factor. I also like a tender dough
that's not super crusty. I think a lot of people get them to sort of dry out a little bit. - I'm hoping to see baked cinnamon rolls. I hope that they have, are not unbaked. ♪ La, la, la, la, la ♪ (bright holiday music)
- Judges, welcome. One of my favorite desserts is baklava. I used to get it all the time after school growing up from a deli near my house, and for my cinnabun experience, I wanted to incorporate
some of these flavors, so I'm proud to present to
you my cinnabaklava roll. - Ooh.
(bright music) Okay, these look really pretty. - I mean, first off,
this looks like it is on like a Better Homes and Gardens cover. I got a lovely glaze on there. It's kinda dripping over. - [Rosanna] Yeah, they look awesome. - I made a cinnamon and pistachio filling with a little cardamom in there. Inside the cinnabuns are
layers of phyllo dough, so it has a little bit of baklava texture. I soaked it in honey at the end. - Presentation is on point. The icing grabbed perfectly.
- Yeah, it looks good. - [Alex] It's got little
crispy bits on it. - This is the creativity I love, combining two different treats. - I can't wait to see what it tastes like. - Yeah.
- There you go. - These are heavy, wow. These are, any creatine in these? - They're dense.
- Yeah. - They got some weight. - These are heavy.
- They got, that's a- - Yeah, yeah. - [Ned] I took 20 layers of phyllo dough- - Whoa. Bicep curls with this thing. - What's just scaring me
a little is the weight. - Yeah.
- It's a bit heavy. - [Josh] Did you ever think that maybe the cinnamon roll format makes baklava worse? - No.
- Okay, great. Me neither, I was just asking, 'cause like baklava,
you want the crispiness, and in this, you're just
steaming the phyllo dough inside of a bunch of wet,
yeasted dough, right? Does that worry anybody else? - Yeah, of course.
- Okay, good. (group laughing) For sure, for sure.
- Let's see a cross-section. - Whoa, this is dense, and
I wanna see those layers. Whoa! Whoa! I mean, it's definitely
not a fluffy dough. - Right.
- Very flat, lots of layers. - It tastes like Captain Crunch. It's got this classic unproved look. It's a bit undercooked.
- Yeah, undercooked, and under proofed. - Yeah, the thing that's tripping me out is the wet phyllo inside is
like a bowl of corn flakes that's been sitting for
about an hour and a half. - (laughs) Oh no. - Is that, or is this uncooked? - Yeah, try and pick it off. It's like a wonton skin. - Okay, so this is what I was saying. Ned, you're usually a great baker. - Yeah. - And then when I opened, it's very odd. I mean, the texture-
- I had one long strip. - This is freaking me out. This is really unsettling. I mean, do you have one or is it just me? - I ate it first. - Oh, wonderful, okay.
- How fun. - Ned, doesn't this look
medical or something? Like this looks like-
- That's a skin graft. - Like cartilage.
- It kinda looks like a noodle.
- It's super sweet, but I mean, it's definitely not bad. - It's about half raw,
but all the other magic really holds it up. - It tastes really good to me. Like the flavors are there. - I love when you guys combine different desserts and treats. - You get the spice, you get the cardamom, you get the honey. It's evocative of baklava,
which I really like. It's baklavocative.
(group laughing) (Try Guys clap)
Thank you, thank you. Everybody, come on. - Is it creative? - I think it's creative. I mean, if you know what we do, we do everything very
classic, very straightforward, so for what we do, it's pretty creative. - I think it's creative, but this is like
Starbucks creative, right? (dramatic music)
(Rosanna gasps) Like you could walk into a Starbucks, and you could see a baklava cinnamon roll, and you'd be like, oh,
good idea, Starbucks, but is it a good idea
for a show that you know prides itself on creativity? I'm gonna say it. You're telling me they couldn't
sell this at the Costco? Come on.
- The Costco? - At least, hold up. At least like at corporate lunch place. - I feel like you're just pooping all over my hometown, Seattle. - It's good. That's a good thing. I'm saying it has a mass appeal to it, so like I think the
creativity could be pushed a little bit farther, but
it's Starbucks creative. - Judges, is it a cinnamon roll? (tense music) - Yes. - Yeah, I'd say so. For sure.
- Yes. - By all accounts.
- Yes! - It has cinnamon, it's
rolled, and it's got icing. - Were you worried?
- And it's edible, yeah. - Well, you know.
- Gone in. - Go for it. - Just take the biggest bite you can. (bright band music) - That's pretty good. - Did you get some phyllo? - It's like putting a nice layer of tape in the middle.
- That is so funny. Thank you, judges. - Thank you.
- Thank you. (light, magical music) - Now you've enjoyed some
good cinnamon rolls so far, but I bet everyone's
thinking, where's the onion? - I was thinking that. Thank you, Keith. - Don't worry. I've got you covered. 'Cause for me, one of the most
beautiful things in nature is an onion when it's cut in half, 'cause it kinda reminds you
of a cinnamon roll, right? I wanted to combine my
two favorite things, cinnamon rolls and the Bloomin' Onion from Outback Steakhouse. - Let's go! - So I have created for
you the Bloomin' Bunyon. (celebratory music) But instead of rolling
it, I made several bowls of dough, smaller and smaller, and put a layer of the onion
jam in between each one, and then I tried to cut
it so it would be sharable the way you might enjoy a Bloomin' Onion, and then, there, your frosting is a chipotle ketchup-mayo
inspired frosting. This one is the extra dough I had, and every dry onion ingredient
in the pantry and honey. - What happened? What's going on? This is like if Mad Libs
ended up on the table. What's-
- I'm trying to bring something new.
- Where are we, man? - We have onions for
breakfast, but rarely. - Is there cinnamon in any of it? - No. - You know who couldn't sell that? Starbucks.
- That's what I'm thinking. - [Josh] Heck yeah, creativity. - I'm aghast. I don't know what we're looking at. The descriptors don't
really line up in my head. - Have you seen a Bloomin' Onion before? - I have. Those are crispy. - Yeah, but a cinnamon roll is- - Soft. - So when you combine them, you get? - Soggy.
(group laughs) - We don't know that yet. Well, just hold it. It's obviously not cut all the way. That's what would happen
with a Bloomin' Onion, too. - Okay.
- There you go. - Josh, yeah, let me just-
- Oh. - Kinda claw at this one. - The way they picked
it up is so exaggerated. - Oh, that's all raw dough.
- Yeah, it's- - Or is it a beautiful stretch? - It's like a cheese
pull but a dough pull. - Keith, this is not cooked. - [Or] Is this mozzarella
or is it just dough? - Crikey. - That's really.
- What about that one? Are we trying that one? - You have to, it's fair.
- That one looks more cooked. - [Rosanna] All right,
guys, shall we taste? (tense music) - Most of it is raw. The edges are cooked. The dough itself doesn't have much flavor. The spread is tasty. I feel like you could find, like you said, like an Outback Steakhouse. - It's like lacking
flavor, despite being just a shocked and awe of baked good. - Wow, shock and awe.
- Yeah. - I think that salt
would've helped you a lot. - The saving grace to this whole situation is that nobody has any idea what it is. You know, you see a lot of stuff, or you see a bad cinnamon
roll, and you're like, that's an atrocious cinnamon roll. Yeah, I'm not gonna eat it,
looks gross, looks disgusting. This, I'm so confused
that I'm gonna eat it, 'cause it's like, I really want to. - It's like a dare on the table. - Yeah, but it's not good. (group laughs) It's greasy, a lot of butter. - How's the other one that I
didn't wanna serve? Better? - [Alex] It's got green stuff in it. - It's like, started out
savory, and I was like, okay, this is better, but
then it's got like a lot of sweetness, too.
- The swirl. The never-ending swirl of life. - Spicy cheese paste. - You like the spicy cheese paste? - [Rosanna] I actually like this. - It's taking me to a really
awesome place, actually. So there's this Vietnamese pastry, it's like a bun with sweet
pork floss and scallions, and this tastes like a
meat-free version of that, and it's kind of weirdly delicious to me. I think it needs salt, but
I'm like, every bite of this, I'm really enjoying. - I love that for you. (Zach laughs)
- Thank you, Keith. That's what you were going for, right? - [Keith] That is what I was going for. - Yeah.
- Once, when I was back in Vietnam, I had all these pastries, and I thought, what if it was meat-free? - If you're talking pure creativity, no other judging criteria, you gotta think to the Bloomin' Bunyon, that's a 10 out of 10.
- Yes, very creative. - Judges, thank you so
much for your feedback, however critical it may be. But lastly, is it a cinnamon roll? - No.
- I say no. - We're going off the Bunyon. That one's, that's tough. I'm like a radical
cinnamon roll inclusionist- - That's not.
- I think almost, if you think it's a cinnamon roll, it's a cinnamon roll. Ultimately, since this is what
we were presented with first, I'm going to say no, this
is not a cinnamon roll. Does that DQ you from it? - No, it never does. Often, people will still
win even if it's not- - It's possible to win. A win still is around the corner. Stay tuned.
(group laughs) - [Rosanna] It's a good cheesy spread. - I think you nailed the creativity. - Mm, I'm very into this. - It smells good. - Well, after all is said and done, I will be the one that's won. Thank you, judges.
(group laughs) (suspenseful music)
- Judges, we've gone many places in this series. Sometimes, I fear I'm the
one that pushed us there, but what happens when you
travel to the end of the earth? Why, you end up right
back where you started. In a "Without a Recipe" first, I have attempted to present
a dish with zero innovation. (suspenseful music)
Knowing that creativity might just find me along the way. I proudly present cinnamon rolls. (group laughs)
- This is, it's a trap, right? - It's gotta be. - Someone's gonna come
in with a hazmat suit and like squirt us in the
mouth with a super soaker. ♪ Joy to the world, the Lord is come ♪ - Whoa.
♪ Let earth ♪ ♪ Receive her King ♪
- This is a cinnamon roll. You know, it's some dough. You got some butter and shit. I did a, like a cream cheese
cinnamon filling inside, 'cause that's what I
thought a cinnamon roll is, and maybe not, so maybe I
found some creativity there. - Zach, I also see a piece of cereal here. - But it's just one.
- But it's only on top of one. - Yeah, I was gonna do (laughs). - [Rosanna] So there's one
piece of cereal, you guys. It's Cinnamon Toast Crunch. - I wanted you to know that it's cinnamon. - Okay.
- I was gonna do a whole Cinnamon Toast
Crunch motif, and I resisted. For me, pretty creative. - Well, they look fluffy.
- Yes. - This plate is a verb. There's action to it. It's like an impressionist painting. Your eyes fall, like this one, like this one just tried to
burst out of another one. This one just sloughed off. I think it's cool, man,
it's like modern art. - Like look at this nice drizzle. Like this actually looks
like Instagrammable. - Ah, there's your favorite. - Okay. - What's going on, Ro? - So the dough inside is super, super raw. - No!
- Yeah. - On a scale of-
- Yeah. - If you see in the middle, it's like- - On a scale of one to Keith over here. - Whoa.
- Basically Keith. Look, it's got the mozzarella pull. - [Josh] Damn, look at that. All right.
- Cheese buddies. - Okay.
- There's too much cinnamon. - Impossible. - The cream cheese is still
totally soft and runny, almost, on the inside. - Well, I think it's 'cause the dough. - The dough is raw, yeah.
- Yeah. - If it didn't reach a heat
to cook the cream cheese, it probably didn't reach
a heat to cook the dough. - Guys, I really thought
I crushed this one. - I know, me, too, though. I also thought I crushed this. - I thought this was like
a runaway first place. - So this one, a little
smaller size, is cooked, but the cinnamon is very strong. - Thank you.
- I love cinnamon, but this is a bit much, Zach. I mean, this is kinda drying out my mouth. - Sugar to cinnamon ratio,
do you know what ratio you put, like 50/50, or? - At one point, I ran out of my mixture, and I definitely did just put cinnamon. - [Josh] Yeah, yeah, no, it's kinda doing the cinnamon challenge with every bite. - And now that they're
cut open in front of us, it smells like raw dough. - Zach, usually, when you make a treat, you really combine a lot of cool things. - I sure do.
- Now here, you stick to a classic. Creative-wise, it seems
a bit of a mess for you. - The flavors, the bones are there of a classic cinnamon roll. - You have bones in yours? - No, that would've been a nice, where it kinda cuts up your mouth, gets the cinnamon in there. - For me, this is the
last thing you expected. - Yes. - Wow, creative. - I feel like it's more shocking. - Judges, is it a cinnamon roll? (tense music) - Yes.
- Yes. - I think this is the most
cinnamon roll cinnamon roll we have had-
- Ever. - Yeah.
(group laughs) - [Zach] Hot dog! - A very cinnamon cinnamon roll. - [Zach] Well, let's try it. - Tastes like a cinnamon roll. - What the (beeps) would
it be, I don't know. - They (beeps) love it. - Nailed it. - Explain that to the audience. - Yeah, just the cinnamon
level is the only thing. - It's pretty freaking basic, though. I mean, it doesn't even
reach Starbucks level. It's kinda like the off-brand
airport coffee shop. - I think we're outta time. (group laughs)
(bright band music) (creature roaring)
(tense music) - I'm known in this show
for going outside the box with something with alcohol and with Asia. But then that became my box. Commenters would say, oh,
it's gonna boozy and spicy. This year, though, I'm
gonna bare my true soul, and that soul is evil.
(tense music) (eerie music) I hate the holidays, except for one. (suspenseful, eerie music) Judges, I darkly present to
you my bloody sin and run roll. - [Disembodied Voice] Sin,
sin, sin, run, run, run. (suspenseful music intensifies) - Boy. Wow.
- Oh my gosh. He goes to the Met Gala
and brings it to here. I love it. Whoa. - Are those hands?
- Whoa. (group laughs) Whoa.
- Let's go. (dramatic music) (singers sing dramatically in Latin) (group laughs) - Whoa. - Let's go, Patrick Bateman.
- Wow. - Is your favorite holiday Halloween? - How did you know? - Same as me! - Judges, I thought, what goes better with cinnamon rolls than blood? So I challenged myself and said, how can I put pig's blood in a dessert? So everything from the filling, the dough, and the icing has blood cooked out, cooked out, cooked through. - Okay.
- And blood is also in our hearts, which
I hope will be beating as you eat this with excitement. - I hope their hearts keep beating. - [Keith] Me too. - I'm terrified.
- Wow. - Creativity is great. Wow.
- I'm a huge aficionado of pork blood. I love, you get the blood
tofu and like Bún bò Huế. I love liquid blood in
like Filipino Dinuguan. So I'm a huge pork blood fan. I love that you went sweet on this. You can eat use blood to
actually thicken cakes, because it has a protein quality to it instead of egg whites. I think this is really smart. I'm really stoked on this. - Oh yeah, I mean, I've
never used blood in a pastry. - [Josh] I am curious
what flavors you're using to accent the blood. - To accent or to hide? - I'd accent it, man. It's got, you know. - A lot of cinnamon and brown sugar. - Okay.
- So. - So I'm really excited to try this, because I have never
tasted like a baked pastry with blood in it. - Hey, me neither, so. (laughs) (dramatic music) - Oh, rough, rough go on that. Sorry, it sticking, I gotta try it. - I think that it was actually designed to be ripped by hand. Maybe you should get in there. - Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- Josh, yeah, sure. - Pry it apart.
- Sure. - Yeah, it's like a tear and share. - Oh wow.
- Tear and share, here. - [Zach] Boys, do we
have to pixelate this? - [Ned] Oh my God. (laughs) Oh my God. - It looks like a heart. - It's more for the aesthetic. - Like in "Game of Thrones,"
when she's gotta eat the heart. That's. - The cinnamon roll is prolapsed. This is a prolapsed cinnamon roll. (group laughs) And we have to be okay with that. - I know we said the
other ones smelled raw, but this really takes the- - Raw, just like me.
- It smells like, yeah, I don't know what. I can't really pinpoint it. It just, you know. - Okay, well, I'm gonna get
the frosting on there, and. - [Zach] Here we go. - I don't even know if I'm ready myself, I don't even know if I'm ready for this. - This tastes more like a cinnamon roll- - Yeah. - Than most of the cinnamon. This tastes more like a cinnamon roll- - It tastes wonderful.
- Than Zach's. This is a-
- It's not... I have uncooked parts
here, but I'm trying to eat the more cooked parts
and it tastes delicious. - And the thing that I
said about Zach's, say, lacking salt a little bit
to get that savory bite, 'cause the sweet needs a counterpart, I think you get that with pig's blood. - Mm, I needed blood. - You needed blood. You should've just got some of Eugene's pig blood over there. - The flavor's really there.
- Yeah. - But can you taste the blood? - It tastes like a cinnamon roll, yeah. It does taste like a cinnamon roll. - Are you horrified,
at least, a little bit? - I was at first, but now, less, yeah. - I'm not getting a ton of blood in there. If anything, I wish there was more blood, 'cause I think, if you're
gonna sell something, right- - Yeah, hold up-
- No, no, if you're selling me a
pig's blood cinnamon roll, I wanna taste the pig's blood.
- Yeah. - The shocking miscalculation on the bake and it doesn't appear
to be proofed at all, is totally overlooked by the
creativity in the flavor. - I can't believe I'm
gonna lose this episode. (group laughs) - Eugene, flavor is great.
(dramatic music) - [Eugene] Judges, is my bloody
massacre a cinnamon roll? (suspenseful music) - Yeah.
- Yes. - Absatootly, definitely. - Yes, a very spooky one. - It looks like you killed someone. - Red-handed. - [Zach] Ro, you'd be the cutest killer. - Oh my God, thank you. - [Zach] I would let you murder me. - I'm a little disappointed
I don't taste more blood. Yeah, I put so much blood in this. - I believe you.
- Really, Eugene? - Yeah, but I had to cook
everything safely, so. - Okay.
- Yeah, I was boiling everything before, yeah. I wanted to make sure you guys were safe. - [Zach] So safety first. - Thank you, judges. - I wanna play with this. (suspenseful music) - Now we've got a really
tough decision ahead of us. - Do any of us think we're the winner? Like do you think you got first? - No, mine was-
- Do you think you got first?
- No, but I think mine's good. - I talked a lot of crap about
the Starbucks creativity, but that's a really good idea. There were some execution flaws with like the wet phyllo, but it was, aesthetically,
it's very pleasing. - Who do you think got first? - I think Keith got first. - The onion. Very creative. I've never seen a savory cinnamon roll, but there was no cinnamon. - I thought they were gonna
see the Bloomin' Bunyon, and go, wow!
- It's a worse version of cinnamon roll, a worse
version of a Bloomin' Onion, and a worse version of monkey bread. - It's exactly how I wanted it to look. It looks like a Bloomin' Onion. - Usually, Zach goes
really big on creativity. - They judged my big
ones, which obviously, those were raw, and if they
had focused on the little ones, they would've been able to focus on everything else I did wrong. - [Ned] Eugene's, yours was infuriating. - Why?
- It looked so raw, and it's got pig's blood. And you're like, oh, it looks disgusting, and then they all taste
it, and they're like, oh, it's pretty good.
- Pretty good, even though it's not cooked. - I can't help that I probably
flavored it correctly. - Yeah.
- Oh, shit, shots fired. - That's true.
- No, no, I'm just saying, if we're gonna read me- - [Rosanna] Creativity, out of this world. - Can we get over the fact that 95% of it was completely raw? - Yeah.
- Oh. - I can't, you know. - It's hard. - Yeah, I think it's gonna
be Ned in first place, Eugene's gonna get second
place, Zach's gonna get third, and I'm gonna get fourth for
being a (beeps) brilliant man. (Zach laughs)
(dramatic music) - Yeah, the fact that
you guys came in here and made cinnamon rolls
without any sort of recipe is pretty damn impressive. Yeah, I don't think we would attempt to make cinnamon rolls without a recipe. So hats off to you guys
for pulling that off. - All right, and in fourth place, we really had a tale of two bakes here. This fourth place baker, they gave us two different things. We thought one of them was pretty solid, and the other one, kind of eh. But that said, we've decided that what one may call the loser today is... (dramatic music) Zach.
(group gasps) Zach, you gave us, hold on. Hold on-
- Are you out of your (beeps) mind? (both yelling over each other) - I do what I want, I do what I want. I'm my own man. - It's my kitchen. - Wow.
- Oh. - Wow.
- Did so good. - I gave you a cinnamon roll. - You gave us a bad cinnamon roll. (dramatic music) - Well, that went well. I'll go next. (laughs) In third place was a
bake that was underbaked. Also, wasn't very
consistent, and ultimately, the issue was there was no cinnamon. I'm sorry, Keith, you're third. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, you're third. It's, there's no consistency. It's... - There's not? There's no consistency? - [Rosanna] It was
creative, and this looks, there's no cinnamon to your cinnamon roll. - I didn't have a problem with that. I was bullied by these judges, Keith. I think you're great. - I'm sorry you're all locked
in to some preconceived notion of what fun can be. Nah, I think you're right.
(group laughs) - This was difficult. Difficult to eat, hard to judge, but the winner left us
the most speechless. (suspenseful music)
And quite shocked that we could keep eating it. (suspenseful music) Eugene, you took it. You won.
(group applauds) (group cheers) (singers singing dramatically in Latin) - So you're saying evil prevails? - Today.
- Yeah. - Today. - It was a tough call, but honestly, your cinnamon roll's the
only one that I really took two bites out of and was- - Did you try the raw part
of the center, or nah? - And everyone had a baking issue, so we kind of like- - Yeah, but there's
like a spectrum, right? I don't think that was factored in at all. - Well, congratulations,
Eugene, on winning, and for potentially getting
this video demonetized. We got a whole season
of "Without a Recipe." - [Ned] Mac and cheese, sausage, and the grand finale, gingerbread houses. (singers singing dramatically in Latin) - Why don't we go out
with giving me a hand? (group applauds) - There she is.
- Ah! - Oh!
- Miss America. (Ned chuckles)
(upbeat music) - [Narrator] Next week on "Without a Recipe: Holiday Edition." - Balls?
- Balls. - [Ned] Oh God, it's Taco Tuesday. - I don't know if I would
serve my friend this. - Look at it, it looks terrible. - (gags) I threw up.
- Oh, you threw up? - A little bit.
- That's harsh. (fire crackling)
(dramatic music)
