Pastry Chef Attempts to Make Gourmet M&M's

Do we have a fan?

What, what is that?

[fan blowing]

[Claire laughing]

Where did you find that?

Oh.

It's too much, it's too much.

Perhaps a more concentrated stream of air.

[chill music]

Damn it. Hi everyone, I'm Claire.

Today we're in the BA Test Kitchen

and I'm making gourmet M&M's.

[upbeat drum beat]

M&M's are everyone's favorite candy, right?

It's like everyone's favorite.

Iconic, all-American, there's no wrong occasion for M&M's.

I eat them in a very particular way.

I like to bite really gently, crack it like an egg

all the way around

and then like, kinda bite off the candy coating

and then chew the chocolate.

And then just chocolate.

I think that there's maybe no better candy

than Peanut M&M's.

Oh my god, they're so good.

I love Peanut M&M's because they're less sweet

'cause of the peanut.

Oh my god, these are so, seriously, they're so good.

I'm not familiar with the other kinds.

Ooh, I remember Crispy.

These have like, puffed rice in them?

Is that what the crispy is?

I mean, not bad at all.

Hazelnut Spread feels kinda fancy.

Caramel, I want this to be good

but I'm afraid it's gonna be too sweet.

One is really, really good.

And then like, three, you feel sick.

Ooh, English Toffee.

What makes it Thai Coconut?

I don't like the looks of these.

I think you should try.

These are emphatically not good, here.

Do I not get to see what this is?

You'll know.

Ooh, no.

I know. Why did they do that?

This is like coconut bubble bath

when like, you accidentally lick a bubble.

[everyone laughing]

So you have to make Peanut M&M's.

It is the ultimate M&M.

Interesting, this might be a first for Gourmet Makes

where I don't just make the classic.

Probably the best M&M product.

The peanut? Yeah.

Yeah, here. I'm okay.

Just try one. I know how they taste.

Just try one, Brad. It's cool, I'm good.

It's for the camera there, Brad.

You have to try one.

You can eat a half. Jesus Christ,

I know exactly how it tastes.

[Claire] You can eat a half.

They're so good. Oh wow, that's good.

Never had that before.

[Claire laughing]

If it's even half as good.

Yeah.

You'll still be in a great place.

It's so good. Needs to have a little shine

on the exterior.

Okay.

Thin, crispy exterior. Okay.

The coating is pretty miraculous.

Like the candy shell obviously as well.

They managed to suspend the peanut perfectly

in the chocolate.

Yeah.

Which is interesting.

Yeah, I think this one will be a little,

little more of a challenge than the old Pochy, Cocky,

Pocky sticks.

I don't know, Pocky still took four days.

Did it really? Three and a half.

There's lots of consensus around Peanut M&M's

being the superior M&M, although I will always

have a soft spot for original.

I feel better about making Peanut M&M's

than I do regular M&M's, weirdly.

It just might be easier to figure out like,

the mold situation with the Peanut M&M's.

So I actually like that idea is good to me.

[Brad] Overall, it's not gonna be that hard?

You're trying to bait me to say

that it's not gonna be that hard so later on,

you can edit it so that then yeah.

I think it'll be fine.

[Carla laughing]

I got it.

[pan bangs on floor]

Claire, you got that, good!

Oh Claire, need a hand?

Peanut M&M's, it's a pretty well toasted peanut,

like golden brown all the way through.

It's not pale.

It's not always the same thickness of chocolate

all the way around the peanut itself.

So like this one is a larger peanut,

and this one is like a smaller peanut, thicker chocolate.

I'm feeling like this gives me more license to

have them be like a little more irregular,

not perfectly uniform.

It's just hard for me to think of a way

to perfectly suspend the peanut in chocolate

if I'm not doing it in a mold.

I'm not sure about it otherwise.

Each one has an M on it.

I would really like to see that on video,

how they get the M on.

It is a very, very thin, very

sort of shattering candy coating.

They are pretty solid.

[tapping]

This one is kinda egg-shaped.

And it's, like at its longest point,

it's about two centimeters.

We're gonna get you a, what do they call those?

Where you can measure things just with the little,

with the two pins, brr.

Caliper right?

[Rhoda] Caliper.

Caliper, that's what I said Rhoda!

[Claire and Brad laugh]

Okay, we'll getcha one.

Can you get me one of those.

You earned it this year.

Do you have your jeweler thing?

My what?

The like.

What's that, you mean an eye loupe.

Boom, no problem,

Where's you get it?

I bought it.

So what you do is you put this to your eye

and then you adjust focus with this,

that's what I do.

[Claire] Aha, ooh!

[Brad] What is that, like four carat?

One very interesting thing that I noticed.

It looks like there's multiple layers of the candy coating.

Preliminary layer, a white sugar layer

and then the color.

It almost looks like a coconut,

like a cocoa butter filling,

then it's a candy coating

and then a colored coating.

Do you think so?

No but it looks like more waxy,

you know what I mean?

Yeah, yes.

[Brad] Claire, what are you seeing?

Hold on, I can't tell.

[Brad] Nothing?

No I can see, I'm just--

God?

[Claire laughs]

It's time for my favorite part,

reading the ingredients.

Milk chocolate, parenthesis, sugar, chocolate, skim milk,

cocoa butter, lactose, milk fat, peanuts,

soy lecithin, salt, artificial

and natural flavors, close parenthesis.

Sugar, peanuts, cornstarch,

less than 1% palm oil,

corn syrup, dextrin,

coloring, includes blue one lake, red 40,

yellow six, yellow five, blue one,

red 40 lake, yellow six lake, yellow five lake,

blue two lake, blue two,

Carnauba wax, gum acacia.

That's a lot of lake colors.

I've definitely heard that the lakes are not great for you.

The best thing to do is to go over to the computer

and do a little bit of research.

So M&M is the flagship product

of the Mars Wrigley Confectionery division

of Mars, Incorporated.

The candy-coated chocolate concept was inspired

by a method used to allow soldiers

to carry chocolate in warm climates without it melting.

And you see a thicker layer of white

and then a thin layer of the colored coating.

[Woman On Video] The first step

is you want to mix the liquid materials into a paste.

Send the chocolate through tempering.

[eerie music]

Wait a minute!

[Woman On Video] The next step

is you send the chocolate through tempering.

[gentle music]

I'm so mad!

[Man] Everybody hear that?

I mean, [mumbles] heard that!

I'm very upset that we watched this video now.

Kinda have to temper it now.

Do you have a history with tempering chocolate?

Yeah, why do you provoke me, yes.

[smacking]

Nope!

[smacking]

Oh yeah, this we need to hold together very well.

[squeals softly]

Whole thing just fell apart.

[sighs] The test strip did not set.

So I don't think it's tempered.

I feel comfortable tempering chocolate at this point.

You make the sous-vide that does the work all for you.

It's no big deal.

Okay I think that there's four parts to this process.

One, is really easy and that's toasting

and salting some peanuts.

Two will be tempering the chocolate

and putting it in the molds to set.

Three will be applying some kind of candy coating.

Possibly in stages.

And then four will be adding the coloring on the outsides.

I can't really do a lot without a mold.

I will look through where we keep all of the molds

and see if there's anything I can work with.

I don't think there's anything.

The plan is we'll get the ingredients and materials we need

and we'll get started day two.

[Brad] How confident are you

that you can get this done?

Pretty confident.

[Brad] Choose your words--

I'm gonna be, I wanna be careful.

[upbeat drum beat]

We're starting a little bit later today,

I already had lunch,

and then I proceeded to come over here and without thinking

eat 15 Peanut M&M's, 'cause they're so good.

First I have to take a look at some of the equipment

that we gathered

to help me with the fabrication.

I might have gone a little overboard.

Okay, I love that.

But I wanted you to have options.

Overboard is just the right amount.

Alright this will look familiar

to anyone who remembers the Oreo episode.

This is something called Easy Mold,

which allows you to mix

and form your own food grade silicone molds.

So this is like mini egg molds.

This could be really good for with peanut.

What's this?

[gasps] Little surprise. Ooh!

This is a caliper,

which I didn't even really know what that was

This is what Brad was talking about.

You could like measure the inner layers and stuff.

That one's just gone.

So I got these,

but I also ordered some fancy Virginia.

Ooh!

Wow, look at these, these do look like fancy peanuts.

The egg is the closest shape we can get I think

at this point.

But we can also play around with this.

Let's do both.

Let's do both!

[upbeat drum beat]

I think I wanna start, I'll toast the peanuts to start.

[upbeat music]

I'm going to think more about molds.

Peanut M&M's though irregular,

are not egg-shaped.

Like they don't have one wider end and one tapered end.

The other option is making our own

from this food safe silicone putty that we got at Michaels.

So I might pick out a classically shaped Peanut M&M

and use that as the mold.

[upbeat drum beat]

Alright, there we go.

Now I'm gonna use my molding stuff.

[rubber glove snaps]

These are the two halves of the putty,

I mix them together.

When the color is totally seamless, without streaks

then I have three minutes of work time to create the cast

and then it just needs to sit for 20 minutes.

I'm trying to press them down halfway,

I don't really care how close they are to each other.

Totally hardened.

So I'm gonna let this sit until it's cured 20 minutes.

While I'm waiting for this,

I think work on tempering some chocolate.

[Brad] What's tempering chocolate?

Are you kidding?

I refuse to say 40, probably 12 times

what temper chocolate is.

So we just gonna go to the tape on that one.

Just pick our episode.

Tempered chocolate is chocolate that is heated, cooled

and then heated again to specific temperatures

to that the chocolate has a firm snap.

I'm working in such small quantities,

it's gonna be a little bit easier.

So I feel okay about it.

Okay, so I'm gonna weigh out my chocolate

equal weights milk and dark.

I like how soft and creamy milk chocolate melts.

But I like the reduced sugar and bitter notes of dark.

[upbeat drum beat]

So these are gonna go into the water.

And I'm going to weight it.

This contraption moves water and keeps it

to a very specific temperature,

so I have it on 115.

I submerged the chocolate,

and so this just going to slowly start to melt.

This is melting and coming up

to it's high temperature point.

Alright, let me see.

Do you think 150 degree water is too hot

to put your hands in, 115?

No, I think it should be fine.

What does tempering mean?

[Claire laughs]

Nevermind.

Queue the tape.

No. Nevermind.

So then let it came down to our low temp,

I'm gonna bring it back up to our working temp,

which is gonna be 95.

But once this hits 96,

I'm gonna sit here for the next five minutes

and agitate it.

So let me pivot back to the molds.

Here's how I'm gonna do this.

I'm gonna take little bits

and carefully form them around each M&M.

[wax paper crinkling]

Hey Brad, can you hand me that rolling pin real quick?

[Brad] Ciao!

[Claire] That means yes.

Any preferred style?

Nope, just one as quick;y as you can.

[laughs] Not, I don't, okay.

Not this one.

Oh so you do have a preferred style?

I thought they were all the same.

As long as I don't end up fusing the two halves,

I feel pretty good about it.

[upbeat drum beat]

Oh my, I think it's stuck.

I shoulda greased it.

[moans]

Eeh, Rhoda something bad happened. [laughs]

Do you want like a offset?

[Claire grunts]

[Claire laughs]

No we've got this, it's fine.

You think it's okay?

Don't worry, Claire.

No, nice, nice, nice, good.

But what happened

was the two sides of the mold kind of fused.

Rhoda rescued it and made it better, thank you.

You're welcome.

Okay so here's the two halves.

This side is really like two thirds

and this side is kinda one third

and they fit together like this.

I do have to be very certain

that I have lines up the molds really well,

but there is a way that it naturally wants to fit together.

So I don't think that part's gonna be too challenging.

The right shaped peanut should fit

very easily inside the mold,

but without a lot of room on any one particular side.

I'm gonna pull out one of the bags

to start working with it.

I think I'm going to skip the part where I chill one side.

I don't know, I'm just gonna wing it

and seen what happens.

So I'm putting a small amount of chocolate in,

followed by the peanut.

'Cause I want it to be suspended in the chocolate

and not be pressing through to the very bottom of the mold.

So I might actually end up using this whole bag

to do this half.

And then I can use the second bag

to fill the other half of the impressions

and then combine them.

The question is how does this fit together?

So now I'm going to chill this

and wait for the chocolate to set.

Come back tomorrow and see how they look.

[sighs]

[upbeat drum beat]

I'm so excited to look,

'cause if it works out

then we're gonna have,

we'll have 13 Peanut M&M's part way done.

Ooh!

Well, as a first pass,

maybe it's not that bad.

But there is definitely areas

where I did not put enough chocolate.

This is a good one.

I can just gently smooth out these edges

and then I have a fully coated chocolate.

The size looks pretty good.

Like the overall proportions and everything

I think look good.

Wow, this feels like a very dim statement,

but you mix peanuts and chocolate,

it tastes a lot like a Peanut M&M.

So let me clean off these molds,

I'm gonna get them in some hot water

and then start all over with the tempering process,

making two more bags of chocolate.

[upbeat drum beat]

And now, I'm going to think about the candy coating.

What we learned from watching the video,

the candy coating is sprayed on in dozens of coatings

and left to dry.

So I'm gonna get out the airbrusher

and see if we can play around with that.

This is our official Gourmet Makes airbrusher

that we got on Amazon

and we used this last

for Reese's Peanut Butter Cups

where it did not work,

but I was glad that we had it as a resource.

If I can make a sugar solution to make the candy shell,

just the final layers of the shell,

I just add food coloring to it

and build up the color that way,

is what I'm thinking.

[Brad] What about the stamp?

I've not figured out the stamp.

I'm gonna think about it.

What is this?

How does this work?

Hey Brad, I don't know how to use the airbrusher.

[Brad] The what?

The airbrusher.

[Brad] The airbrusher?

The airbrusher machine.

[laughs] That sounded funny.

Is that what it's called, an airbrusher?

[Claire] I don't know.

Hit the gun.

[gun blowing air]

Hit it again.

[gun blowing air]

Hold it.

[gun blowing air]

Let it go.

I don't know.

I don't know, I gotta go.

[Claire grunts]

I'm gonna make a sugar solution and 360 grams of sugar.

Think I'm gonna need a bigger jar.

Okay so this looks good.

And by that I mean it's clear.

I'm gonna airbrush it on

and then the idea is that the water evaporates

and the sugar recrystallizes

and so eventually with enough layers

it'll look white.

That's my idea.

[airbrush spraying]

Oh god!

[Brad] Oh no!

Or that close because.

I probably need to do that many sprays

and instead I kinda did more than that.

But like how many times do I have to do this,

'till there's a candy shell that's like 1mm thick.

Like 1000 times.

We don't have time for this.

Let me just try dipping it.

Do we have a fan?

This is how you fan in kitchens.

I know oh, but I need like a real fan.

Let's all blow together.

[Claire laughs]

Things have gone off the rails.

So I'm trying to encourage evaporation.

This is just the one coat?

It is evaporating,

but I'm not getting really even coverage either

so I wanna try rolling it in cornstarch.

Here, I'm just gonna put this right here.

Cornstarch, it doesn't have really any flavor.

It's doing what I want it to do,

which is kinda filling in those rough areas,

hopefully creating a smooth surface

where everything will cling to it.

I think that the one with the cornstarch

did have a better coating.

I don't know how these are gonna be,

I might have to come up with a plan B.

Although this already feels like plan B,

'cause plan A was the airbrush.

I have to kind of sit so I can evaluate.

I'm gonna go back to the chocolate tempering

and focus on filling the molds.

[upbeat drum beat]

These are, molds are chilled,

but fridge temp,

not freezer temp.

What I'm gonna do differently this time

is I'm gonna be more aware

of how deep I'm pressing the peanut into the first half

and I'm gonna just fill more over all.

[Brad] Do you feel like you're getting better at this?

I think I'm getting worse at this.

Because I put so much more chocolate in this time,

I wanna make sure that the molds

are fully in contact.

So I'm gonna weight this down,

and then chill it.

[upbeat drum beat]

Okay let's see.

Oh my god, they look so good.

[sighs]

The chocolate looks good.

Adding the extra chocolate

and making sure the molds are really full.

There are some areas where the molds met

and some of the chocolate formed a seam.

Probably, we'll just use a pairing knife

to smooth that off.

But these look really good.

I'm really happy with these.

I'm gonna do one more round.

[upbeat drum beat]

Alright, I feel good about this.

This just goes on top.

Right now, I'm gonna take a little dab of chocolate

and I'm gonna basically smooth out the surfaces

of all of these.

The smoother the surface,

the smoother that candy shell will be.

I'm gonna get my molds out

and pop out that last batch.

[chill music]

I managed to make these look worse.

Put these aside.

I'm a little upset about these.

This is that original M&M that I dipped.

Can you see really, really, really, really, really close up.

There's a thing white layer,

do you see that?

Do you need the eye loupe?

See the little white outline?

So I have an idea about adjusting the methods

so it's more like the actual method for making peanut M&M's

which is using sort of like a drum

to rotate the candies constantly,

while the syrup dries.

So we don't have a big candy drum in here,

although I've been asking for one for years.

But in the mean time, I'm gonna try to fashion my own.

[Dan] What about the salad spinner?

But the salad spinner,

because of centrifugal force,

the salad spinner, like they won't move.

So I might try to use the bowl of the kitchen aid.

Maybe I move at an angle?

I have these rejects from earlier batches

and I'm gonna do a test with them.

[clinking]

Oh, it's 100% gonna crush them.

Oh god! [laughs]

I'm really glad I did a test.

Just like a light tap.

Give me the salad spinner, Dan.

[Dan] What's your plan here,

and who's idea was it?

[men laughing]

Dan had an idea to use a salad spinner

and put the bowl in it.

Which I was like, It's definitely not gonna work,

but I think it might work.

The idea is to make a homemade candy pen,

where the M&M's are constantly in motion

and they get layer upon layer of syrup drizzled on them

and then that evaporates,

and because they're constantly moving,

the coating is really even and kinda smooth.

You don't wanna help?

[Brad] What?

I wanna make a drum.

Have fun, a drum?

Like a candy drum.

Yeah, five o'clock on a Friday, let's do that.

Like a candy pen.

Yeah, it's 05:01.

I'm gonna add of the syrup to the bowl.

Ooh, [gasps] oh my god!

You know what this reminds me of?

The power ball.

[Brad] Yes.

[Claire and Dan laugh]

So what worked about that was it did get the motion

that I was looking for

of constant agitation.

What doesn't work is one, there's no air circulation inside

and two, I think I have to redo the syrup

without boiling it, it went wrong.

So this is your drum?

Yeah.

Not a bad idea.

It was Dan's idea.

Alright Dan.

How big holes do you want?

As big as you can make.

Are you sure about that?

Yeah but let's try this one first.

Let's try the other salad spinner.

How about we just it like this.

Oh god, ah!

[laughs]

[drill buzzing]

I hate the noise that that makes.

[grunts]

Drum roll.

That's nice though.

[Claire] I mean they look kinda wet,

but they are getting coated.

[Brad] They are getting coated.

It's working, so this test was moderately successful.

I have a couple of base layers on a portion of the M&M's.

Kinda wish I was back tomorrow,

because it's kind of exciting,

we're really innovating here.

But I'm gonna have to wait.

I'm taking a break from shooting.

I'll be back in a month

and I gotta go.

Happy June everyone.

[upbeat drum beat]

Okay where to even start.

It's been 30 days

since I was last here.

I had forgotten what episode we were even on

and then it all came back to me in waves.

I had started to add the candy shell to one batch

and they look really good,

and I'm gonna continue to build up that coating

a little bit more.

I don't think it'll be a complicated process,

but it might take a little bit of time,

because I let them dry in batches.

Like coat, spin, let dry and then repeat.

Have a look.

Nice, where are you gonna put the fans?

I think once they-- They're out?

Yeah like put 'em on parchment,

just let 'em dry in between batches.

Yeah, check these bad boys out.

Boom, boom.

Acceleration, what happened?

Is it on, no.

Loose wires? No we're good.

Is it on?

Yeah, it's on, it's just spinning so fast

you can't even see it right.

But there's no air coming out of it.

Yeah this way.

A little bit.

[Brad] Here, I got a bigger fan too.

Yeah, yeah, maybe go with that, okay.

This only has a couple layers on it,

maybe I just do everything together.

[upbeat drum beat]

Ah, hold on, I gotta tape it.

[upbeat drum beat]

Okay.

Okay, they're no longer moving.

Damn it, why'd I just tape it?

I also can't really see what's going on in there,

But there we go.

Here, I think I fixed it.

I can't tell if anything's happening.

[upbeat drum beat]

Okay, I think I probably

put a little bit too much syrup in there.

Maybe I have to switch them out into a different bowl.

[upbeat drum beat]

Ideally right there, thank you.

I switched sides.

Ooh okay, they look good.

They're not terribly sticky, which is great,

so there's been sufficient drying inside the spinner.

And now I'm just gonna let them finish that drying process.

I think that the coverage looks pretty good.

Like there aren't those patches,

where the syrup didn't quite coat.

So I'm happy about that.

[upbeat drum beat]

They look great,

so you can see they have,

they've started to get that bloom.

And now we're--

[Brad] If you had to guess,

how many coats are you gonna be at?

I think maybe like four coats is a guess.

Could be more.

[gentle music]

[upbeat drum beat]

I'm thinking, I have a couple thoughts I'm considering,

By the time this coating looks fully okay to light

it's gonna be too thick.

There's patches where the syrup is thicker

and it's dried thicker and it's white

and there is patches where it's thinner

and you can see some of the chocolate through there.

It broke apart a little bit,

but I'm still able to see coating.

The thicker parts, I think are too thick.

Let me compare it to an actual Peanut M&M.

Oh, okay, we have a problem.

This is a much thinner candy coating.

These are huge now.

They kinda look like Jordan Almonds actually.

I'm so glad I didn't do three more layers.

I have a new approach.

I need to actually take off some of the shell.

Me maybe painting them or rubbing them

with a little bit of water so dissolve some of that shell.

That might be a horrible idea.

Maybe I wanna do this with a paint brush.

So I'm using this paint brush

dipped in a little bit of water

to try to dissolve away some of the thicker parts.

It doesn't bother me so much if it's a little uneven

and some parts are thicker and some parts are thinner.

I just want a smooth surface for air brushing.

I think it's not bad.

[upbeat drum beat]

[sighs] I've kind of given up on this plan

because I did seven M&M's and realized

that they looked the same, if not worse

than the ones that were still in the bowl.

So, I've arrived at a new technique

which is doing this.

[candies grinding]

A lot, it's kinda working,

I have what is basically powdered sugar

in the bottom of this bowl.

So I know that some of the coating is coming off.

And them I'm gonna just try to airbrush them

because we gotta move it along.

That's a plenty thick sugar coating.

Let's try to airbrush these white.

So we have a couple of things to try.

One is this Edible Art Decorative Cake Paint

which is white.

I wanna see what this looks like,

I've never used this before.

An ingredient listed is also shellac.

[laughs]

At least if I get this on my clothes,

I'm not really staining it.

Oh, ah, [laughing].

Oh well.

[upbeat drum beat]

Can see it works pretty well.

[airbrush sprays]

Ooh, it does not smell good.

[airbrush spraying]

It does not smell good.

It really smells bad.

It does smell like shellac.

[airbrush sprays]

[candies grinding]

They look like little rocks.

It looks like what's in someone's driveway.

So I wish they looked better,

but that's about,

that's par for the course, I feel like.

My concern is that one, they're not smooth,

two, they're not gonna taste good,

three, the candy coating is gonna be more powdery

than crack kind of, like hard.

I don't have another plan for the candy coating,

besides the one that I've been doing.

So this is just how they're gonna be.

Maybe the gourmet M&M doesn't have quite

the shattering texture of the candy outside.

Oh well.

[sighs] What are the other airbrush colors?

So six colors,

I'm gonna divide up the Peanut M&M's that I have

into six groups.

I guess I'll start with red, I'll go in order.

[upbeat drum beat]

[airbrush spays]

Oh god, you guys, I have to put on seven more aprons.

[upbeat drum beat]

I have the feeling

that it's not going to be the layer that I want it to be.

But let's just see.

[upbeat drum beat]

The intensity of the color's good,

I put a lot on there.

But, It's so not smooth at all.

Can we shoot all of the beauties as cross sections,

'cause this looks pretty good.

Even layer of chocolate,

and even enough looking white coating.

[upbeat drum beat]

[airbrush sprays]

It really does look like blood,

it's kinda grossing me out.

[laughs] Yeah, they look amazing.

[Brad] They look great!

Then they stop moving and they don't look very good.

I'm not thrilled with how they look,

but I think that continuing to work on something so smooth

is like a pointless exercise.

So maybe I can compensate

by making a really great M on them for M&M.

But I think tomorrow, I'm just gonna go with what I have

and airbrush the other colors.

[upbeat drum beat]

It's not great.

I really with they were smoother.

Rhoda, yesterday we did the salad spinner method.

It didn't not work.

It creates more of a powdery sugar coating,

than a hard crack kind of shattering.

Food coloring settles into the textured parts

and creates a modeled finish,

rather than something really smooth and shiny like this.

Might I remind you

that in the beginning,

you liked these,

because the peanuts are not perfect themselves,

so each one is a little bit different.

That is true.

So you shouldn't worry too much

about it being 100% smooth and perfect,

as long as it tastes amazing.

I like what you're saying.

I think you're--

I could try to do a thin royal icing,

'cause when you dip it,

it does leave a really nice, smooth finish.

Thanks Rhoda!

While we wait for that to dry.

Always fruitful, thanks.

I need to devise a system for dipping them

where I don't have flat surface,

'cause it needs to be evenly coated all the way around.

Basically need a way to suspend these

either from something or above something while they dry.

Ooh but what if I,

does anybody have any fishing line?

Thank you so much.

This is what they're usually like

but this is all I have left of it.

Oh okay. Which you could use.

So prop stylists often have stuff like this,

little tricks of the trade.

I think I can just make parallel lines,

as long as I pull it tight enough.

So the idea is dip and then place like that.

So it just very gently sits on top

of these tiny little lines.

Royal icing is powdered sugar mixed into egg white.

It dries very, very hard,

so I might get more of that shattering texture.

I'm starting this process, I'm nervous.

So I'm going to dip,

so like sorta spear the M&M, dip

and then gently, somehow place it on to my rack.

So here it is.

So much smoother looking, that's for sure.

I hope it's not too thick.

[Rhoda] Is that water?

Yeah.

[upbeat drum beat]

Okay. I'm so impressed.

Really?

Yeah.

That's all I care about, thanks Rhoda.

Looking underneath, there's a big drip,

so I just have to be like,

I have to scrape it.

Cool.

This is working really well.

Yeah but it's been 10 minutes,

and I've done one.

So now I'm gonna go into production mode

and get them all coated

and then get them on my rack and let them fully dry.

This is taking way too long.

I'm getting frustrated and bored.

My new plan is just to pour the glaze over all of these.

'Cause I can't, I'm gonna kill myself

if I have to dip each one.

My concerns are that I'm not gonna get coverage

on the bottom.

So I have to turn them as they go.

Plan C. [laughs]

Plan C is then just dipping them with my hands.

[upbeat drum beat]

I'm so hungry, who's making pasta right now?

I can smell it.

[Brad] Yeah it smells good.

I smell like butter.

Good news, the deviled eggs being over there

coincides with me needing to let these dry.

The process went well I think.

My sense is that there aren't gonna be big marks

from the fishing line.

[upbeat drum beat]

Okay so here they are.

They're not sticky,

but there is a tackiness,

so I don't really know what to think about that,

but we have to move things along.

Gone through a few of these,

and I have not that many left,

so I'm gonna only do a couple of each.

Ooh, some of these are stickier than others.

The strings worked really well,

I have to say.

They definitely are smoother than before.

I think it's an improvement.

We'll know when the color goes on.

[upbeat drum beat]

I need a hazmat suit.

It's really not covering that well, huh?

[airbrush spraying]

They look so bad.

[sighs] [laughs]

How many am I down to now?

It's pretty self explanatory,

they don't look good.

So I think it probably would be best practice

to go back to this, allegedly 100% edible white cake paint.

This is the stuff with the shellac in it, I'm sorry.

Maybe people shouldn't eat these.

[upbeat drum beat]

Is it wafting?

[Dan] No, it's great.

It's wafting at Kevin.

[laughs]

Oh, Jesus Christ, ow,

I hit my hand on it.

The royal icing was so thin,

and it had such a high proportion of egg white,

that it's like is it ever gonna dry?

Idea is basically to coat them in powdered sugar,

to basically absorb and accelerate drying.

[upbeat drum beat]

[airbrush spraying]

If these don't look any better

than the red ones I did yesterday, I quit.

So, while these finish drying,

I'm gonna move onto the final phase,

which is putting an M or some kind of stamp on it.

I don't think this is very useful.

[Dan] There's other sizes.

There's the M, it could work.

I hate that airbrush machine.

I was really excited about it

and now I just think it's terrible.

Maybe even like Q-tip or something, like to dab it.

So here's the stencil,

I just cut out the M and taped all around it.

The plan of action is to use the stencil

to make the letters in the royal icing.

[Dan moans]

It's not bad.

So I can really only do this on ones where they're dry,

and these are, some of them are a little bit tacky still.

This is one of those moments,

where I just think to myself, thank God!

It's her, not me?

That it's her and not me.

I'm so proud of you.

I think that's overly generous, but thank you.

No, it's not.

I'm so proud of you.

We'll see if this works.

Thank you Chris, that means a lot.

There's a lot of issues here,

one, it wasn't dried,

two, the royal icing is to thick,

three, I'm tryina put a flat thing on a rounded thing

and that's not easy.

I think I have to use the white paint.

This is a tough one, hey?

Yeah, it's pretty tough.

They look fossilized.

Brad. [laughs]

[upbeat drum beat]

I'm gonna do better on the next one.

It dried really fast.

I put an M on one of each color and now I'm done.

While I clean up, these will continue to dry

and then we move on to the final tasting phase, thank God!

It tastes like a Peanut M&M.

I'm still getting that layers of--

Of sugar?

Candy with the chocolate and then there's separation.

Peanut is lovely.

I need to warn people that the food coloring

will dye their mouth.

Her mouth is red is mine a little red?

I think you should be very happy about this.

Please. [laughs]

Which one is the original?

Yes, which one do you think is the homemade?

I wish that I had almost leaned into the rustic look.

I was delusional if I thought

I was gonna get a perfect, smooth, shiny coating like this.

When it comes to the shape,

and the size, I think you pretty much nailed it.

Thank you, I'm happy about that.

I did use Peanut M&M's to make molds. [laughs]

It's a touch more bitter,

which I appreciate.

Christina has a bad look on her face.

No, I think that's surprisingly really good.

[Claire] [gasps] Thanks.

Actually not surprisingly, but--

I know I was surprised, you can say that you're surprised.

I like the way that shell kinda crumbles

very gently in your mouth.

Andy can you stick out your tongue?

We'll all do it, ready?

One, two, three. [laughs]

If you wanted to put a glove on to handle it,

I would understand.

It's also gonna dye your mouth.

[Chris and Claire laugh]

I haven't done the side by side.

Wait, that cut really well.

Are they using food grade shellac or something.

I don't know what they're using.

[Chris] What are they using?

That's what I used.

The peanut flavor is great.

Thank you.

It's really nicely developed.

It's there, it's present and it's got texture.

The chocolate is nice.

The one thing I miss is just in M&M

you get that crunch of the clear coat.

Honestly, the visual's not 100% there.

Big freakin whoop. Yeah.

I've got a nicely toasted peanut in the center.

In the center.

In the center, okay.

Also, I forgot this,

and would like to add that it's a month old.

It still tastes good.

What?

[Claire] These.

Oh, oh yeah. 'Cause I took a month off.

Feels like this one really got me at the end.

Last couple days were frustrating,

but if I were to do it again,

I would make a couple changes,

but ultimately I'm happy with the flavor

and shape and all that.

So it was a qualified success, unqualified success.

[upbeat drum beat]

Here's how you make gourmet Peanut M&M's:

Use food-safe silicone putty to create a two-sided mold

and close a dozen or so nicely shaped Peanut M&M's.

Let the mold cure.

Separate the two sides and pop out the M&M's.

Roast whole, skinless peanuts on a rimmed baking sheet

in a 350 degree oven until golden brown and fragrant.

Sprinkle the hot peanuts generously with kosher salt

and set aside to cool.

Full half the mold with 50, 50 milk and dark chocolate

and press a whole roasted, salty peanut

about halfway into the chocolate.

Fill the other half of the mold with the chocolate

and join the halves, making sure they are aligned

and pressing firmly.

Put a weight on top of the mold

and chill until the chocolate is set.

Pop the chocolate covered peanuts out of the molds,

break away any excess chocolate and smooth the seams

by rolling the pieces between your palms

with a bit more melted chocolate.

Set pieces aside.

Drill six or seven holes in the top of the salad spinner.

Make a super saturated sugar solution

and let it cool completely.

Place chocolate covered peanuts inside a bowl

that fits inside the salad spinner

and coat with cold sugar syrup.

Stir and agitate the pieces together constantly

inside the bowl in front of a fan

until the pieces no longer stick together.

Then place the bowl inside the spinner.

Set the spinner on it's side at a 90 degree angle

and pull the handle to rotate the bowl slowly,

so the pieces tumble on to each other continuously.

Spin until the pieces are dry to the touch

and there is a whitish coating all over.

Repeat the coating, drying and spinning process

four more times.

Dip each of the dry coated pieces into thin royal icing

and allow all excess to fully drip away.

Suspend the dipped pieces on a rack made

of fine fishing twine and let dry completely,

using fans to speed the process.

Roll the dried pieces between your palms

to coat in a light layer of powdered sugar.

Then use an airbrush machine to coat the dipped pieces

in an even layer of white food coloring

and let dry completely.

Again with the fans.

Airbrush the M&M's all over

with red, orange, yellow, green, blue

and brown food coloring to make equal numbers

of each color M&M.

Let dry completely, using a stencil,

paint a tiny M logo on some

or all of the M&M's with royal icing and let dry.

I keep having this feeling

that I think there was an easier way this whole time.

What are your thoughts on that?

No one said anything.