- [Ned] Let's do this! - Agh! - [Zach] Get it in the oven! - [Eugene] I would say that creatively, the flavors are a bit basic bitch. - [Ned] We're back, baby! Welcome to Without a
Recipe: the summer edition! - Ew, oh my god, Keith! - [Keith] This time, we've invited some of our friends to come
compete alongside us. - Oh, I forget my entire plan! - [Eugene] We are going to judge as well. - I'm Keith Habersberger.
I'm a Food Network star. - [Zach] Muffins! Macarons! Doughnuts! And ice cream cake! Wow,
this sounds really good! I better subscribe to this
channel so I don't miss out. - Ooh, I'd let those
kernels command my army. Sorry if that joke was too corny. (dramatic music) - [Ned] It's time. (calming music) - [Narrator] The Try Guys are back in their brand new test kitchen for an entire summer season of Without a Recipe. - That looks gross. - [Narrator] On this episode,
they're making muffins. - Pull the whole tray out. - I don't know, it's not ready, it's not ready, it's not ready. - [Narrator] This
season, they'll be joined by some special guests to up the stakes. Today, they'll be competing
alongside LaurDIY. - We need sugar. - Oh my god, I just cut my manicure! - [Narrator] Each baker
will have two hours to complete their dish and present it to our panel of judges. - This is really exciting because this is the first time I've ever judged, and one of you guys is on
this side of the table. And today it's going to be Eugene. - Which means, as someone
who has a history with them- - Friend. Best Friends. - We are coming in with former biases, so this should be fun. Maybe we should introduce the more legitimate judges first. (laughing) - I'm Rosanna Pansino
and I host a food show called Baketopia on HBOMax. And I've also judged a
lot of Without a Recipes. I'm just hoping for something edible. I have high hopes. - My name is Ben Mims. I am the cooking columnist
for the LA Times. I develop recipes for a living. I've written some baking cookbooks. I think, most importantly, I eat about three muffins a week. So I'm very excited to eat these muffins. A muffin is, to me, the best
kind of breakfast pastry. Ideally, it's really small. It's a great vehicle for lots of fruit. It is a sweet baked good, but not too sugary like a piece
of cake or cupcake. I think it's really hard
to mess up a muffin. There's so few ingredients, muffins should be really easy and you should have no problem. - [Keith] My strategy
for the summer season is savory summer, you know? We didn't have last summer, so I'm trying to savor this summer by making savory summer sweets. - I'm going to be honest,
I have a target on my back. And it's bigger than in other seasons, because I'm a cookbook author. - [Zach] This season of Without a Recipe, I'm trying to honor the
songs of the summer. I'm taking the top hits
from the music charts and I'm putting it into my food. - [Lauren] Winning over the guys on Without a Recipe, I think that means that I get to kick someone out. Like, fourth place is out, and if I win. Woo! That is fire! I get to stay. I'm here to win. - Wow. - Yeah, going down. - Stop putting up fists,
why is this the go to thing? - I've been watching a
lot of boxing recently. - Apparently. - [Lauren] Obviously had a very hardcore affect on me. - [Narrator] Alright
bakers, three, two, one! - Let's do this! - Okay, let's go, let's go, let's go! - No, no, no, it's not like that! We go and we get our things. - [Zach] Where am I going to start? - Bam. - Eggs. - Carrots. - [Keith] I'm going to need these things, and you can also have these things. - [Lauren] I was gonna
say, are we sharing? - [Keith] I'm gonna put them between us. - Big fan of Without a Recipe. Seen all the episodes. They make it so difficult for themselves and make weird shit, and so I'm just going for tastes good. I'm making an apple
cinnamon caramel muffin. I can't promise no chaos because I really don't know what I'm doing. - Cake flour, no. And corn meal. - Ooh, corn meal could be good. - I don't. - [Ned] I'm going to try
and make a savory sweet muffin that kinda is
just warm and comforting. My wife's favorite soup
is chicken noodle soup, so I'm putting it in a muffin. It's mommy's favorite. - Wow. - We got a rotisserie chicken. Ugh! Beautiful, love that. Let me just say, I don't love muffins. But there is one muffin
that I do really like. So today, I'm going to be making chicken and cheese stuffed corn muffins. That's right, everything you like at a barbecue dinner all in one bite. Although I did just realize they may end up being served cold. - I'm pretty obsessed with
Olivia Rodrigo right now. "Sour" is just an incredible album. So today, I'm making an Olivia Rodrigo inspired sour muffin. A lemon blueberry muffin, I wanna get a little bit of that tartness, and then I'm gonna chop
up little Sour Patch Kids, gonna do a sour drizzle reduction. - What's that? - We'll find out together. Also, I wore my Billy
Joel shirt for you, Olivia because you sang about Billy Joel in "Deja Vu," remember? "I'm the one who taught you Billy Joel?" - [Ben] So, the first thing you wanna do is mix your dry ingredients together. So we have flour, a little
bit of baking powder, a little more than you normally
would for a cake recipe. - I don't really know the difference between baking soda and baking powder. - None of us do. - [Ben] Baking powder
is going to be the thing that kind of lifts the muffin up and gives you that dome. Baking soda, on the other hand, makes things flat, so you don't want that. - One teaspoon baking soda.
This feels like a lot. - So here's the thing, we
found out Olivia Rodrigo follows Ned and follows
Eugene on Instagram, but not me. I just don't understand. Yeah, okay, I get that
you're following Eugene. But you're following Ned? What the, man? - Did I tell you I texted Olivia Rodrigo? - Yeah, Ned, you told
me that that happened and I'm not jealous, it's super cool. Way to go, bro. - Would you say you're sour about it? - If you take the friendship
and all the jokes, then I am gonna have nothing. (laughter) - Here's my plan. I'm going to make this
super awesome muffin and Olivia's going to watch it, she'll be like, "Holy shit!" Am I doing it? I look like the- "Korndiddy's the best! Follow!" What did you guys talk about, Ned? - That's between me and Olivia. - This feels like a shit ton of sugar. I guess we're not making healthy muffins, we're making just a
cupcake with no topping. - [Ben] So, a bad muffin would be one that is way too sweet, eats like a dessert or just gives you a toothache. - I'm going to be light
on the sugar here today. I feel like just like sexuality,
muffins are a spectrum. - Yeah. - And you got muffins over
here, cupcakes over here, but most of them live
in that middle place. And there's a fine line, at what point are you muffin and at what
point are you cupcake? - [Ben] You wanna always make sure that you use plenty of
salt, even in baked goods, because if you don't have enough salt, it doesn't really taste like anything. - [Keith] That's our dry stuff, now it's time for the wet stuff. - [Zach] Okay, I did not do the wet ingredient, dry ingredient plan. Something here's not working. I can't quite put my finger on it. - So for wet ingredients, just some good old regular whole milk. - I'm gonna guess heavy whipping cream. Glug, glug, glug, glug, glug. - I'm going to put in some chicken stock instead of milk. - So then I'm going to add one egg. - One, two. - One of the big mistakes that people make is adding too many eggs. - Three eggs. - [Ben] You just need something to kind of hold everything together. - I think that batter is pretty wet. - [Ben] You want it to
be a little bit dryer, again we're going for a dryer texture, not a cake texture. - [Zach] Ned, one of us
is very wrong right now. We're doing totally different things, and that does not make me feel good. - It doesn't make me feel good either. It looks, actually, very nasty. - Oh my god, this is a fancy microwave! - What are you microwaving? - My butter. Oh, this microwave doesn't
have number buttons! - You know what, I'm kinda with you. Fuck that. - Yeah, what the fuck? - [Keith] Get over
yourself. It's a microwave. - Okay so two and a
half minutes, that's not what I wanted but we'll start here. - I think I'm just gonna add flour, and it's all gonna look much better. Feel like an onions gonna be a little intense flavor in a muffin, so I'm gonna really easy does it. Time for my pasta to come out a nice, perfect al dente. - [Zach] Chicken noodle
muffin, I don't really know what I should be picturing here. - [Ned] Imagine a warm,
comforting soup that's a muffin. - It's like in Wonka when you eat the gum, and it's like a three course meal. - I don't think I'm gonna
put actual chicken in it, because I don't know
if that would be good. - Ned is also making a chicken muffin. - Instead of a lot of
sugar, I'm gonna infuse my butt with saffron. This little sprinkle-dinkle. - And I don't like that. (echoing) - Just a little sprinkle-dinkle. - I thought I would be the
only one to savor the summer. So I have to also make my chicken muffin be better than his chicken muffin. I should have done the butter first. - Should've melted it. - It's too late for that
now, and I don't want to over-beat the cream
or over-beat the eggs. The only option left is for me to warm them with my body heat. - Oh my god, that's disgusting. - [Keith] Just sort of
treat it like a dish soap. - Ew, that looks like
just a colossal failure and I think that you
should just start again. Just look down, just really
take in what's happening. - It's getting better. - [Narrator] Alright bakers,
you're halfway through. Make sure you give yourself enough time to get your muffins in the oven. - What even is going on here? (dramatic music) Doesn't really evoke chicken for me. Half a cup chicken
stock. Even more saffron. - Ooh. - [Lauren] Safe or not safe? - It's not bad, it's not right. Right, what's happening? - That had so many waves of weird. There's crunches in it. - You know, maybe it was supposed to be more flour and less cornmeal. - It feels very gritty. Weird taste, weird texture. - So I'm chopping up the Sour Patch Kids because whenever I've tried to bake candy in the past, they spread into this yucky something. So, fine line I'm trying to walk here. - [Lauren] I just wish I was one of those TikTok hot chef guys that knows how to cut things like (inaudible), but I'm not. - [Keith] Start all over? - You're going to start all over? - It's wrong! I'm up against a different chicken muffin. And Ned knows what he's doing. - I need chicken. They're called chicken muffins, I need some chicken in here. - [Narrator] Bakers, you have 30 minutes. (screaming) - Thirty minutes, okay, I really need to speed up. I need to get these in the oven in the next five to ten minutes. - [Ned] I do think that they might need to bake something around
the 20 minute-ish range. - Okay, we're going to put this back here. We're not going to lose this batter, but we're going to make
a new other batter. - [Lauren] A backup batter. - We're going to reverse the proportions. More of the flour, less of the corn flour. - I can't believe you're starting again. - We gotta start again. - This is the point of no return. The Sour Patch are in the mix. We can't come back from this. - [Ned] I don't have time to
prep all these chicken thighs. - Okay, so I've got everything
recombined into this one, we're just using the old-fashioned hand whisk to get it going. - Good? (spoon clatters) Stop, really? - Way better. Still a
little on the salty side. - Way better. - So now it's time to portion
the muffins into the tin. So I like to use an ice cream scoop, only because that way
you know you're getting the same size in each cup. Otherwise, you have some big muffins and some tiny muffins. You want them to all be even, you want them to all be lovely. - [Zach] Wait, I have to make 12 of these? I don't think I have enough batter for 12. No, I don't actually have
to make 12 though, right? - [Narrator] He does have to make 12. - [Zach] I don't have enough for 12. Uh-oh. - [Lauren] Oh my god, we're doing it. - I'm buttering the tops too because sometimes things pillow over, you know? So we're just buttering everything. - [Lauren] I want to put a caramel in the middle of each one. - That caramel is going
to make really sweet, since it's already sweet. - I like it. - Okay. - Okay, into the oven she goes. - So these are going to bake
for about 20 to 25 minutes and you want to use a
slightly higher temperature so that intense heat of the oven makes them rise faster and gives you that beautiful dome that cracks in the middle and looks really gorgeous. - Okay, oh boy. - I can't decide if I
should be on the bottom or the top because are you going to steal all the heat if you're on the top? - Well, now you're
letting all the heat out because you're just sitting there. Damage. How much time we got? - [Narrator] You have
22 minutes left, bakers. - [Ned] Oh, we're getting close now. - What happens if we get to the end of time and they're still baking? Ooh, okay. - [Ned] Okay, I really gotta pull the plug at 20 minutes, no matter what. Mix this in. - [Zach] I'm about to freak out, man. We don't have time and I only have enough for half a dozen. What am I going to do? I'm going to make little half muffins? Muffin buns. - [Keith] I've only
filled up these halfway, and I'm going to put in
my chicken and cheese and then cover them. Then we're going to pop them in the oven and hope they have enough time. - Isn't this such a relaxing video? - Come on. Equal distribution. Want a mixture that no one's
like, "there's cheese in here?" - I think they're gonna know. - Well, I'm just gonna say that I have six perfect ones and six demos. You know, music? Demos? - Let's do this! Let's get it in there! - Okay, Keith, I'm coming to help. - [Keith] Smooth that
for me. Comb them over. - [Lauren] Oh my god, there's just rogue chicken coming out of every corner. - [Keith] Yeah, I don't want that. Okay, that's gotta be it. (clock ticking) - [Keith] Twenty minutes! - Ugh. Muffins are in the oven. - [Narrator] Now the bakers must wait and hope they got their
muffins into the oven with enough time left to fully bake. - [Zach] Okay, I need a sifter. I'm going to extract all
of the sour from the patch. This is how the real chefs do it. I don't really know what sour is. I think it's just tartness? But, I don't need to know. - I'm going to make a
little corn salsa now. Maybe it will go on top, maybe it will be served on the side. I'm just trying to do something a little more non-traditional. - I don't know what a reduction is. I'm really just trying
to melt Sour Patch Kids and I'm hoping that the water will prevent it from sticking to the sides of the pan. Ned recommended vinegar. Maybe that will help break it down. Ned, why'd you say vinegar? - [Ned] Because it's an acid. - Acid! Yes Ned, you beautiful bastard. Oh, there are so many seeds in there. Who cares, we don't have time. - So the muffins have been in, for me about 10 minutes,
for you about 15 minutes? How many minutes? - No no, I got 14 seconds
left on 20 minutes. - Whoa, that's good. - I kinda wish I was there. - How do I thicken it? I need thickener. - Do you need help with anything? - Yeah, how do I make
this thick? Cornstarch? - And time. - Okay. Well, we got half of those things. - I'm letting heat out, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. - Boy oh boy, I need that
heat. Just do it faster. - I'm trying! I don't want to
stick an oven mitt into the- I'm sorry, I'm sorry. - What is happening?
Pull the whole tray out. - I don't know, it's not ready, it's not ready, it's not
ready, it's not ready. - Couldn't have gathered that without losing all of the heat of the oven? - It's okay, it's okay. - I demand five more
minutes because of that! That's B.S. I should have my own oven! - [Ned] Hey boss, you
wanna crank that oven up? Should we crank it up? - [Zach] Honestly, mine looks pretty good. What were you thinking of cranking it to? - I don't know, at least 400. - I'm going to add another
four minutes on the clock and then I need, not a Q-tip, what's the pokey thing? - A toothpick? - A toothpick. - Kids, don't put toothpicks in your ears. - And don't put Q-tips in your muffins. - This is tough because
I wanna give you a shot, but I don't want to fuck mine up. Yeah, Ned, I got you. - 400? - You wanna split the diff? 385? - Well I was gonna suggest 450. (laughing) - Our muffins are very different colors and I don't know what that means. I'm scared I'm gonna overcook it. Keith, would you be super mad
if I opened the oven again? - Yes! - I think it's ready. - You think it's done? - [Lauren] Yes. - [Keith] You think in the three minutes it's been since you lowered
the oven temperature back to 200 degrees- - You're being so dramatic! - Because mine already doesn't have enough time to cook! - You should have time managed better! - I know that! - He's angrily stirring the salsa. - But now it's just murky, black water. - Why is it black? - Why is it black? We put all these colors together, it should be a rainbow. - Okay, it's been five minutes. - Okay, go for it. - I'm going to make this super fast. Please don't look, please don't look, please don't look, it's going to be fast. - Please don't look? - Please don't look. - Please don't look? - Please don't look. Because what if it's not as fast as I think it's going to be? - It's definitely not going to be. - Oh shit, it smells really weird in here. Okay, okay, these look kinda weird, they look kinda not done. Oh, these don't look as good as I thought they were going to. - Alright, I'm seeing some burning on the little guys, I'm taking mine out. Okay, alright, we got a little bit of burning on top, but that's okay, it's just a nice little crisp. - Q-tip test. (dramatic music) Pretty clean. - Are they dry? They look like cupcakes. How much time do we have? - [Narrator] Two minutes. - Two minutes? - Shit, shit, shit, shit. - Oh yeah. - [Lauren] They look better than I thought it was going to. - I want a little more color on the top, so we're going to let
it go as long as it can and maybe we'll crank it up even more. 420. - Alright, we've got a
beautiful black sludge. - [Narrator] Three, two,
one! Hands up, bakers. - Okay, come on baby. - Chicken noodle. - Oh god, they need so much more time. - Maybe they'll settle. - Look at that, doesn't that look lovely? Have a little corn salsa. - Summer savor. - Savor the summer. - Today we are judging muffins, a baked good that for some reason exists. (laughter) - I need to know what muffin hurt Eugene, why do you hate them so much? - I don't like anything where it really is dependent on the top being so great. Bottoms are equally
important, if not more so. - [Ben] I'm just saying,
see isn't this already fun? - I'm excited and nervous. Okay, we're looking for four things. Taste, creativity, presentation, and is it a muffin? - Should be something
that looks really nice, should be a little leaner, not so rich, you could have one every day, ideally. - We're looking for that iconic muffin top that's also a part of the bake. I'm really excited to see
what flavors you make. - [Ned] Judges, I have
the honor of going first. Let me tell you a story, my wife Ariel- - Oh god. - [Ned] She loves chicken noodle soup. And I thought what better
way to make a tribute to her than to give you
my chicken noodle muffins, AKA "mommy's favorite". - [Eugene] Wow. You served Keith's brand? - I think I expanded on it. - I see a few are domed
and some are kinda flat. - [Ned] Yep, just pick
the best ones, though. - [Rosanna] I've noticed that every muffin has a noodle right on
the top in the center. - [Ned] That's right. - [Rosanna] So we've
created a signature look. - How fun. - Very fun. Ned there's a lot of vegetables in here. I mean, there's a lot
of vegetables in here. This is a very healthy muffin. - Yeah, cool. (laughter) - What is that? - [Ned] That's a little nugget of gold. - Oh, chicken. - [Ben] Oh, is that the chicken. - Yeah, I was about to say
it just looked like flesh. (quirky music) - Silence is deafening. - It's actually not bad. It's very very saffron-heavy, and that's a very polarizing ingredient. I don't love it that much, it's a little heavy and metallic. But this tastes like
Thanksgiving-stuffing muffin. - This is a cornbread muffin. - We'll rebrand. - I hardly taste the- - The noodles, awful. (laughter) - Is it? - It's totally unnecessary. - [Ned] It's decorative.
It's really supposed to be put to the side. - It's like a dense, dry cornbread. - [Ben] Yeah, it just kind of soaks the moisture out of your mouth. - Ned, I'm glad you didn't
make a sweet muffin. But I don't know if
this is totally outside your comfort zone, this is
literally a comfort food. - It's pretty outside of my comfort zone, you guys just calm that down, oh my god. - I would say that creatively, it's not that exciting. - The whole kind of idea
was pretty risky for me. - I will also say it might
probably save your muffins is that you wanna have a muffin, at least I do, with a cup
of coffee in the morning. This is so saffron-heavy that it would be gross to drink it with a cup of coffee. - Okay, okay. - I do like that it
means something to you. It's really special, and I have never seen a soup turned into a muffin. - Thank you so much. - And I've never seen Ned
talk about his wife before. - This is amazing. - Really outside the comfort zone here. - Judges, is it a muffin? - It's a muffin. - I was gonna say, they sound relieved. (chuckling) - [Eugene] This is not a muffin. (gong rings) - Egads! - What? - This is cold, Thanksgiving leftovers. - Alright, let me eat it. - Yeah, grab a couple. - Oh, smells amazing. (laughter) - Tastes like a hotel lobby. Overwhelming. - The are you talking about? (talking over each other) - Like an expensive hotel.
Maybe it's the saffron. - Need some water there? (laughter) - [Rosanna] We got some. - It's a little dry. - Just you wait until
you see these other ones. (laughter) Thank you, judges. (calming music) - Judges, as my first time as a Try Guy, a Try Gal, if you will today,
and an avid fan of the show, week after week I see the guys deliver you just absolute shit. - I'm a fan of the show, but also hate everything about it. Okay. - Yes, yes. So anyway, I wanted to present you with something delicious. Today I present to you my
apple caramel cinnamon muffins. - [Ben] They're a little
warm still, that's nice. - [Rosanna] Just first glance, it's flat. We can all see that. It's flat. - Did it need baking powder? - It's needed a little baking powder, needs a little bit of a rise. - This is a disgusting color. - I think the candy just
melted out the whole bottom. - [Eugene] Yeah, it melted the bottom. You have what one might
call, a soggy bottom. - Ooh, she's making a mistake I've made, not that big of a fan, apparently. (laughter) - Let's give it a taste, see how we feel. (quirky music) I hate being on this show. (laughter) - It's a little too sticky. But I'd rather honestly have something a little bit more moist than too dry. That's just what I'm
feeling, unless it's a scone. - Everyone has different
personal preferences. - This is very like a
sticky toffee pudding. - I don't even know what that is. - This is like a dessert. - Lauren, I don't know how you made it this sticky, maybe it's the candy, but I'm kind of impressed. Like, watch this, right?
So that's the problem. - That's incredible. - That's pretty impressive. - The flavors are a bit basic bitch. (gasping) Like Ned would love these flavors. (laughter) - Judges, is this a muffin? - No. - Ro, Eugene, come on. - Lauren, I love you
and I want to say yes. - Then just say yes if you wanna say yes! - It's gone into cupcake territory. - Like you went from vegetables to just a delicious muffin, so I think Ned being before me actually really me here, because we're going zero to a hundred! - Don't you pin that cupcake on me! (laughing) - Lauren. - Eugene. - More like LaurDILie. (gasping) Because this ain't a muffin. - Put some ice cream on this. (talking over each other) - This is fire. - Girl, get me a pumpkin spice latte. - Thank you judges, I'm glad you enjoyed my sticky toffee pudding. - It's really good sticky toffee pudding. - I'm so excited to serve
you all muffins today. This is a time to savor the summer. Because we didn't really
have a summer last summer, and I thought with all of the sweet treats we're having this season,
maybe it'd be better if we had savory versions instead so we can really savor the summer. So I have made for you something that is a little closer to my
roots, being from Tennessee. It's a chicken and cheese
stuffed corn muffin, and I've served it with a little corn salsa on the side. A little lunch cafe moment in the South. - Now did you know that
Ned was also making a corn-based chicken muffin? - I didn't. That's why I made a salsa. - We have a savory muffin-off. - Cornbread muffin vs. cornbread muffin. (laughing) - Oh, that's dense. - Yeah, I don't wanna get that muffin top, but I do get the density. Smells wonderful. - It'd be dope if we got a cheese stretch, don't know if that will happen. - Okay, let's try for one! Ready? Are we going to get it? Little bit! (shouting) (talking over each other) - [Lauren] We can uncut that footage. - [Zach] Almost. - [Keith] Almost. - I don't think there's
any cheese in mine. - [Keith] There is, there's
cheese in all of them. - Looks very homemade.
Rustic in a great way. - I don't get that fatty muffin top. - I will say it's a little paler than the corn breads I'm used to. - It's white flour inside, I just see specks of corn meal? - Yeah. - Yeah, because this is white flour. - Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I would say two-thirds white flour, one-third corn meal. - It's not really incorporating. - Smells wonderful. I'm
really surprised, Keith. - Always a surprise, I don't think I've ever made you happy on this show. - I'm actually surprised Keith. - Judges, should we taste? - [Rosanna] Yes. - [Ben] I'll taste. (dramatic music) - Confusion. - [Keith] It is more
confusing than I anticipated. - Looks like a struggle on this side. - He's definitely having a harder time. - [Lauren] He's chasing.
He's doing a chase. - [Keith] It's cornbread. It's supposed to be a little dry. He's not gonna puke, back off! We don't puke from dry stuff. - It's denser than I anticipated. - Now you might say,
"Oh, that's awfully dry," I wish he had paired it with a corn salsa. - Okay, well let's try your corn salsa. I like the corn salsa. (laughter) - Just you know, don't worry about talking with your mouth full, we have all the time in the world. Don't choke. - You know what I think
is consistent with you, is you are good with the
toppings and the sauces, which I'm glad that you're making sauces. - Thanks. - That corn salsa's delicious. Kinda makes me dislike your muffin more. - No! (laughing) The whole thing's a together experience! So if you like it, it actually
makes the other thing better! - I almost just want the salsa. There's just so much more flavor and creativity in the salsa. - Because it's a salsa. - I would have to give this the same creativity knock as Ned. Pretty obvious flavors
that are put together. - I wouldn't say it's not creative. The string cheese loop,
although it didn't work, makes it creative. I don't hate it. - I do think it's different. I haven't gone to a bakery and seen this. - There's probably a reason for that. (laughter) - Judges, is it a muffin? - I think so. - I would say it is a muffin. - Keith. - Eugene. - This is not a muffin.
It's a fantastic salsa and a supporting actor who
doesn't get any attention. - But maybe he's still a muffin? - No. - I love the little crunch
of the kernels in there. So fun. I must have
gotten a really good one, you got shitty ones. I think it's one of the better things I've made on this show,
so I'm happy with that. Thank you judges. - Judges, normally on this show, my baking is one step
forward, three steps back, but I think I finally
cracked something that will have you saying,
"Zach, good for you." Now, this whole damn show I've been trying to crack stupid shit in food. Today's the day. I have made an Olivia Rodrigo inspired sour muffin. A blueberry lemon muffin
with a Sour Patch reduction. - [Eugene] Now that's
what I'm talking about! - Now I found out recently
that Olivia follows Ned and Eugene on Instagram and for some reason, not me and Keith. So this is my olive
branch, my ode to Olivia, to win her friendship. - Okay. This is either a
really cool new food trend that's going to be amazing, or not. - What happened to this one? - So that one is Ro-sized. - Oh this one's for you. - Oh, Zach. - Here's the thing, guys. I made enough batter for six, and then Rachel's like, "you gotta make 12." Like there are three of them,
why do I need to make 12? My favorite muffins, personally, little mini-bites, but we
didn't have mini-bite trays. - Sounds like a lot of excuses. - It is. - What's the moisture on top? - That's the Sour Patch reduction. - It definitely has a muffin top. Let's do a nice tear. - The blueberries don't seem
to be evenly distributed. - No. - No blueberries. And
then on the backside, we've got all the blueberries. - [Eugene] Well let's
see if we can taste this. - [Rosanna] Okay, let's try it. (dramatic music) - I have no idea. - It's a sour muffin. - Yes! - I've never had a sour muffin before. - No one has. - [Rosanna] Wow, Zach. - Yeah. - It's weird and the syrup is too sour, and it makes you die. - Yes, a little too much. - But it compliments the
blueberry and the lemon. - Yes, it does. - I really wanted to capture the feeling of heartbreak that she channeled so well in that album, and so yes, the making you want to
die but you love it. - Even though you're pizazzing a lot, bullshitting out of your ass. - Yeah I do that. - The actual muffin is the most muffin-like out of all four. - No shit. - Wow. - And it was the right choice of the muffin base flavor with the sour concept. - Judges, is it a muffin? - Absolutely not. This is a kid's birthday cake in miniature form. - I have a chance! I have a chance! - It's too over-the-top. It's cupcakes. This is a kid's birthday party. - This is classic millennial
response. Gen Z, you get me. - I mean, Lauren's was really sweet, but with the right you
would eat a lot of that. This is the most creative one, but the hardest one to
have an entire muffin. - The texture of the actual bake of your ingredients, it leans more muffin. But then as soon as you soak it- - It's so much more. - It's soaked like a dessert. - That's pretty cool. - And it is a cool creation, I just think it's pushing that border. But it's still, it shocked me. It's very creative and good. - [Ben] But could you
eat this for breakfast? - Well, depends on the day, you know? - Zach. - Eugene. - All I can say is, good for you. - So good! - But is it a muffin? - Oh, it's not a muffin. (laughing) - This looks like a weed edible. Oh, wow. I'm actually very impressed. Normally you make stuff
that you just can't eat. And I can eat this. - Judges, thank you so much. (Dramatic music) - Judges, now we will
deliberate about these two corn breads and these two cupcakes. Who was won the muffin challenge? Comparing the two corn bread muffins, Ned was more successful with incorporating a more even distribution of elements. - I wouldn't even know that they were chicken noodle, really. Other than the chunks of chicken, it really tasted more corn to me. - [Eugene] Keith, while I think having a very delicious muffin,
I preferred the salsa. - But points for nostalgia, creativity. We have a parsley garnish, it's lovely. - [Eugene] The basic bee
muffin, as we determined. - [Rosanna] Oh yeah, that caramel apple. It had the density, but
it was too dense cakelike. And I think it might have been those dang candies in there. - [Eugene] This is probably,
from a flavor profile perspective, the most
universally appealing. - [Ben] Absolutely. - [Eugene] Zach's cupcake. Now I gotta give him creativity points. - [Ben] Oh the highest, off the charts. - [Rosanna] Super creative. - If my niece or nephew
or some kind of kid in my family made this,
I would eat it happily. Got kids spirit, but it's
definitely not a muffin. - But the challenge was,
make these big muffins. It's kind of up in the air
from looking at the criteria. - This is difficult for
me, the first time ever on Without a Recipe, I
enjoyed eating all of them. - Maybe it's because I wasn't competing. (laughter) - [Rosanna] This is difficult for me, I don't know which one was my favorite. - [Ben] Guys, you made
muffins without a recipe, and I think that's very commendable. I would never do that,
Ro would never do that. Any baker would never
do that, it's insane. But you guys did some great things, had some great flavors, so we're excited to deliver the verdict. - Lauren, guys, this is so exciting. - Oh my god! - I have the distinct honor and pleasure, and honestly a little bit of a turn-on, to announce last place. - You're just going for it, okay. (suspenseful music) - [Eugene] I hope you're okay. Don't think of me as a traitor. - No. - But this was my favorite
crime of a muffin. - Are you out of your mind? - Last place was Ned. (gasping) - Mommy will not be happy about this. - Ned, the flavors were great,
we loved all the muffins. But yours was the driest,
and many of the judges did not like the amount
of saffron you put in. - Damn. What am I gonna tell mommy? - But isn't this the theme
for your whole season? - Mommy's favorite. - You got three more redemptions. - That's true. - It took me two seasons. (laughter) - Third place was delicious. It tasted wonderful, it smelled wonderful. I just had a few elements that took it a little far over the edge. Third place is Lauren! This delicious caramel apple muffin. Now this was technically a cupcake, but we gave it third
because it was so good. - So the cupcake thing
meant nothing to you? - That's how good my cupcake was, it was better than your muffin. - To be fair, the criteria
was is it a muffin was moot because none
of these are muffins. - Okay. - [Eugene] So it was
a level playing field. - So the top two muffins,
one was sour, one was sweet. (talking over each other) But the first place muffin goes to Zach! (screaming) - [Eugene] We agreed that it was both the most creative and experimental while also achieving technically the most muffin-like consistency. - If you excluded the soak, like if the soak never happened, the texture of your muffin was really good. - Guys, this is probably the second most exciting thing
that could happen today. The first being Olivia Rodrigo, if you would like to follow
me back on Instagram? - You could also follow me, Olivia. I got second place today. (laughing) I make a hella good salsa. - It's Without a Recipe summer games, stick around because
anything could happen. ♪First Zach, he made a
muffin that was awesome♪ ♪I am the best right now♪ (outro song) - [Narrator] Next week
on Without a Recipe. - Not like this! Oh my god, Ned, no. - This guy has no idea what he's doing. (groaning) - There's no way I can get first place.
I really enjoyed this. I enjoyed Lauren’s energy and dynamic she brought as a new person on the show and how she said she hated the show as soon as the judging started. The editing felt very professional. Also Eugene as a judge was hilarious because he was so critical. Very different from when he told Ned and Ariel that their soufflé pancake was like a cloud when he actually thought it was terrible!
I’m so nervous for macaroons! I think those are hard to make with a recipe
The joy Eugene took in saying “this is not a muffin” every time. Also, love Zach’s Without A Recipe glow up! I think the other three do bake in their spare time but I don’t think Zach does, so it’s thrilling seeing him win.
I’m now convinced that Ned just throws all caution to the wind and does the most bonkers stuff to keep it interesting. That man definitely knows how to make a blueberry muffin for his two kids lol. I appreciate it, though!!
So the format this season is guest(s) replacing one of the try guys as they judge? It’s different I’m looking forward to how this works
I don’t remember the intro screen being this intense lmao
Zach winning is my favourite genre of try guy’s videos
Haven't watched it yet but judging by the comments, I'm excited to see the new format for the judging. Also why didn't they put Laurdiy with Zach? They always have better compatability.
I would just like to say I was right and that Eugene wouldn’t be baking in this video and Laura would be and HAHA to the weirdo who DM’d ME saying I was stupid for assuming that. It’s called using context clues. Any way I’m traveling right now but really looking forward to watching this!
I loved it I thought I was gonna hate it it but it was so good I loved Eugene judging it was so funny
I was super confused that Zach won! The judges seems to hate his creation, yet he won??