Pastry Chef Attempts to Make Gourmet Peeps

[Claire] I know, Chris, I know.

Every like, Dumbledore needs their Voldemort, you know.

If I weren't for you,

I'd take every shortcut in the book.

[Chris laughs]

Chris is not the problem, everyone.

Chris is the solution.

Ahh.

Hey everyone, I'm Claire.

We are in the BA test kitchen and today,

we are making gourmet, Peeps.

My one and only thought about Peeps

is that they're my mom's absolute favorite candy.

Which I know I said that that was,

that Twizzlers was her favorite,

but I truly think it's Peeps.

She's the only person I know in the entire world

who loves, these like weird, like marshmallow blobs.

The original is chick shaped.

Chick shaped?

That's a weird thing to say.

This was originally like an Easter thing, the little chicks,

but I know they make all different shapes and colors.

Alright, I am a little bit congested

so I have very little sense of taste right now.

Not that I think it matters.

Probably better, better off.

I can't taste anything but I can like feel

my teeth tingling from the sugar.

There is a lot of different flavors in addition to

a lot of different shapes and colors.

Root beer float.

I get nothin'.

Peeps Delights, coconut.

Can't taste at all.

This is pink.

There's a fruit punch.

Party cake.

I'm not gonna even try blue raspberry,

they all kind of taste the same to me,

and I think that the flavoring

is just in the sugar on the outside.

We usually take the classic route

so we're just going to go for the original Peeps,

in the chick shape, which is not flavored.

So they come out of the sleeve all stuck together.

But you can see that in between,

there is white marshmallow,

so I think that they're all piped in a row, touching,

and then coated in the sugar.

So they can, they're like a pull apart, you know.

Sort of like an accordion thing.

They do have like a very pleasing, pillowy texture,

I'll say that.

They're supposed to look like little chicks,

and the only thing that's chick like

is the beak, right here.

Two little tiny dots made of, god knows what.

It's obviously a sugar coating.

It strikes me as a very very fine sugar.

Finer than your standard granulated sugar.

The color is perfectly uniform.

That I think is actually gonna be a little bit challenging.

Like it's in every tiny nook and cranny,

there's no white on the outside at all.

They're piped starting here and then it's all one motion.

The last motion is the little flick to make the beak.

Wait, Chris, do you wanna come on over and try?

It's so sweet and there's nothing happening.

[Claire] Yeah.

So it's weird to me that they haven't put like vanilla,

or like anything that could just be an obvious like,

oh this is a food, you probably want to eat it.

Right.

Maybe it's like freeze dried fruit,

kind of situation.

Ooh, that's a good idea.

The thing that makes me nervous

as like a non-piping expert,

that.

It's always extended, it's never touching,

and like perfect point. True.

A perfect V-point.

I like them. You like it?

Oh my god.

I wish they tasted more,

less fake.

If you just food processed granulated sugar

does it make sanding sugar?

Yes, I think that I have to,

I think, I feel like this is finer than standard granulated.

I'll probably blitz it.

It looks like that fine sanding sugar.

To get like a super fine, yeah.

That would be fun with some like, citrus flavors.

Yeah, could dehydrate some stuff,

use from freeze dried fruit.

Come back at the end of the day,

I might have some actual marshmallows.

Peep on peepin' on.

[Claire laughs]

Do they like spring, is it like a marshmallowy?

Oh yeah, it's marshmallow.

Okay, it's just regular.

Do you want to take a package up to your desk?

No.

But I think that if you are someone that likes Peeps,

it's like you know that they're gross

and you like them anyway.

Right, I don't want to Peep shame anyone.

Right.

Now, I've been putting it off long enough.

Time for the best part, reading the ingredients.

Sugar, corn syrup, gelatin.

Contains less than .5% of the following ingredients.

Potassium sorbate, a preservative,

natural flavors, yellow number five,

blue number one, carnauba wax.

That's it.

So there's three primary ingredients.

Sugar, corn syrup, gelatin.

It's what we thought all along,

no difference in flavor between the colors at all.

I think we have a lot of freedom

to like play around and innovate.

There's two primary ways of making marshmallow.

One is the Peeps way, which is corn syrup based.

Or there is the traditional way,

which is using an egg white.

Obviously I'm gonna go the traditional route.

You get better flavor overall.

So I wanna do more research about the marshmallow,

which is a plant, a mallow that grows in a marsh.

It's like a, it's often like in teas.

Yeah look, it's a perennial species indigenous to Europe,

Western Asia and North Africa.

A confection made from the root,

see the root of the marshmallow.

Since ancient Egyptian times,

evolved into today's marshmallow treat.

We're gonna use marshmallow root extract.

Wait what?

To flavor them.

You know like the marshmallow plant.

Whoa!

Marshmallow is a plant? Yeah.

Marsh-mallow. Yeah, exactly.

It's a mallow that grows in a marsh.

Let's do some YouTubing.

[Claire and cameraman laugh]

Yes.

[Narrator] Within moments of being patched,

they're coated with sugar.

When they're deposited they're already covered in sugar.

[Claire] They're piped onto the sugar,

which is in like a thick layer.

[Narrator] But then they go through like a sugar shower,

so the rest of their bodies get covered

in the colorful sugar that's running that day.

[Blonde Woman] They start with the five main ingredients,

which are sugar, corn syrup, gelatin, air and love.

[Claire] My game plan is to whip up a batch of marshmallow

so that I can practice the piping, because that's,

I think, the most challenging part of this,

is trying to really perfect that shape and that motion.

Right now I just want to focus on

the marshmallow mixture and the shape of the Peeps.

You know, I think I got this.

Here's what I'll do.

Dissolve one envelope powdered gelatin in cold water.

Gelatin has to soften before it can be dissolved.

I like to put the whole mixture

in the fridge to keep it cold.

Usually takes about 10 minutes or so to soften.

Right now I'm gonna set up my egg whites.

I'm gonna start whipping my eggs.

I them them at very very soft peaks

before I add the syrup.

On the stove, bring together sugar, water, corn syrup,

up to a boil, then stream it into the bowl,

the stand mixer until it cools down a bit.

I dissolve the gelatin over the stove.

You have to really make sure

that there's no granules in there.

Otherwise, not only will you marshmallows

be gritty but then they won't set.

I also don't want to boil it though

because if you boil gelatin

it will basically kill the setting power.

And beat that in with the whole thing.

Add in now, my vanilla tracer to my piping bag.

I have to work with a decent speed

because the longer this mixture sits the more it will set,

and then I don't get that nice peak

at the end of that piping bag.

Time to attempt the Peep.

It's not the worst first attempt.

Okay I need a stiffer meringue.

You know, but I feel like the shape is maybe not,

not terrible.

What I have to do is, I think draw myself some guides.

Sort of make a grid of lines to stay in.

They're just kind of like amorphous blobs.

When I do this the peak should hold it's shape

rather than flop over like that.

It needs,

different kind of mixing, better mixing.

I think I will try dissolving the gelatin

directly into the sugar mixture,

and trying to get a much stiffer marshmallow mixture

in the end, that's the goal for batch two.

So using that guy as my guide.

Like I think the texture of this marshmallow mixture

is actually really nice.

So I'm actually sort of happy about it.

Alright a little better I think.

Right, they look cute.

Anyone, anyone?

I feel like these look pretty good.

Those look beautiful,

those are great. They're cute, right?

Chris did you even see this?

I saw.

It looks good, you really go like,

got some point points you know.

Yeah, it peaked.

[Chris] Literally peaked.

Yeah, it peaked.

That's enough.

Great first test.

These have to set.

We gotta pick this back up another day,

but I feel really encouraged by these initial tests.

Good texture, really nice volume.

Not that hard to make a Peep I guess.

So, hopefully, day two, we're gonna wrap this up.

Alright it's day two of Peeps.

The first thing I want to do

before I tackle the sugar component,

'cause I think that's kinda next steps,

I just want to check on the batch that I made last week.

Overall, I went home feeling pretty pleased

with the progress from day one.

There's one thing that I see that is not ideal

which is there's some pretty big

air bubbles that have popped.

That tells me that the egg whites were whipped

a little bit too much before I started adding the syrup.

Next time I need like a denser foam.

My ear, my right ear is super clogged.

And when I angle my head back, and over it unclogs.

I'm on the mend, I'm not contagious,

but I'm just still pretty congested

'cause I was sick last week.

The next step will be preparing the sugars

and those flavorings,

but first I'm going to use

some store bought sanding sugar

just to coat the Peeps so I can evaluate

the texture when I eat them.

I'm gonna grind the sugar a bit finer.

Maybe a spice grinder would work better.

Maybe a little too fine,

I basically just made powdered sugar.

Good to know.

So now I'm gonna just sift this over the Peeps.

I can understand why the Peeps get the sugar sprayed on

because you know it has to kind of

hit it in all three dimensions,

and I'm really just getting it from one angle, the very top.

Mmm. I have a little sense of taste.

Pretty good.

I'm pretty happy with it.

It already tastes better than the original.

See the big air bubbles.

So I need to-- Did those develop after?

I think they popped after as they set.

Yeah, really like mild.

Pretty neutral but there is

just like a touch of that vanilla in there.

It almost like fizzes in your mouth.

Yeah, right, a bit denser.

You could do like a Peep, Pop Rock collaboration.

No don't say Pop Rocks. I don't want to do Pop Rocks.

Why, why?

Why can't we do Pop Rocks?

Write in and tell her how much you want to do Pop Rocks.

Please don't.

Here's my basic plan for flavors and colors.

I have some freeze dried raspberries which are bright pink.

For the purple Peeps we have food grade lavender.

Then for green we have macha.

And then for yellow, we have ground tumeric,

which does not have a lot of flavor on it's own,

so I think that I'm gonna use tumeric for added color

and then actually do some lemon zest

that I'll dehydrate and grind.

It's a piece of garlic.

Gaby said, and this is a Brad thing too.

If you stick a little garlic in your ear it'll pop,

but I feel like it already,

I had it for one second and it already kinda did it.

Alright, well I'm just gonna, we're gonna go with it.

I think--

I think so, yeah.

So I'm gonna zest these,

hopefully three lemons is enough.

And then I'll dehydrate it, grind it.

[gasps] [laughs]

It didn't help, I think I'm done with the garlic.

Okay I don't have to anything

to the green tea or the tumeric,

so now I'm gonna just start milling a bunch of sugar

to get it to the right coarseness.

Actually, that looks, it looks good.

Like it's definitely finer than granulated,

but it hasn't become confectioners sugar.

Color and flavor go together

and should come from the same source,

so I'm not too worried about,

like adding other flavors and ingredients.

Purple yam, beet powder, cornflower petals, and hibiscus,

because I think overall it'll be

more of a hint than anything.

I'm gonna start grinding and combining all of these.

I think that looks pretty.

The lavender, purple.

It helps a lot to have that raspberry in there.

I mean the rose is more of like a scent than a flavor.

There's some like, brightness and acidity.

This is pink, a shade of pink.

Kinda like fun dip, remember those.

Mmm.

I'm excited to see how these taste on the marshmallow.

Before I make my full batch of marshmallow

I'm gonna prep my pans and I'm going

to make the lines as guides.

So this is to prevent lots of sticking.

I'm gonna brush away the top of the sugar.

I'll have just maybe a centimeter of space

where I can anchor the Peep.

I have an important question, my ear's really clogged.

Oh, well here' what you do.

I already put garlic in it, it did not work.

You did do that?

Did you heat it?

No. Oh.

You heat it? Yeah.

Today on Brad fixes Claire.

I just-- Ooh oh oh, right in there.

Ooh it is hot. Yeah, yeah. That feels good.

No pain, no gain, Claire.

Cool.

And then do some poppin'.

Like?

No that would probably make it worse.

Nothin'?

I think it's still clogged, it's still clogged.

Wow, that's misery.

Well that was a useless break.

It does burn a little bit.

Okay, let's get back on track.

Hopefully a little beak for the Peep.

I have to work with some speed here

because it will start to set if I wait too long,

and if it starts to set then I won't get the right shape.

Ahh!

Oh god.

Oh, I got it.

Whew, alright.

That felt really stressful, but it did it.

So next I'm going to dust everything

with their respective sugars.

I'm tossing it at it to try to

get it underneath and on top and in between.

You know, they are pretty sticky,

so I shouldn't have any issues with the sugar adhering.

They look good.

I'm gonna get these under some plastic.

We'll come back tomorrow,

hopefully for like wrap up, finishing touches.

And I feel pretty good.

It's day three, but I really feel

like today is gonna be a wrap up day.

I feel really good about what we did yesterday.

So today is gonna be like finishing touches,

put the little eyes on.

So I wanna take a look at how they fared overnight

and see how the Peeps have set.

Oh my, ooh, okay, hmm, wow.

We have some problems.

We've hit a snag.

[sighs] I was sort of thinking to myself,

I'll show you in a second, but I was just thinking to myself

as I was coating them last night,

it was like, oh usually I wait

until after they've set to coat them in sugar.

But I was like, it'll be fine.

[dramatic music] It doesn't seem like it was fine.

You can see the liquid, that's sugar dissolved

in the moisture that was drawn out of the marshmallow.

I'm gonna have to start over.

Which I was not anticipating. [sighs]

Egg whites are mostly water.

Sugar is hydroscopic, and it pulled the water

out of the egg whites.

Okay, like I guess this was a useful [sighs] step.

Um, I learned something, whatever.

Sucks, oh but, I'm gonna taste one first though.

The tumeric is like weirdly the first thing you taste.

Certainly unexpected from a Peep.

Actually think it has good balance

between the raspberry and the rose.

Oh, sorry little chicks.

It's actually like very neutral.

With a little lavender, I kinda like it.

Actually think this would be improved,

I think actually all of them would be improved

with a little bit of citric acid

to add, just acidity, just some balance.

This is macha.

Mmm.

I feel like green tea's also a very normal flavor.

Macha, now it's like a thing.

[Camera Man] We have to get it done today.

Yeah, we'll get it done today.

I'm pretty sure, I don't know.

Here's my plan of attack.

I'm gonna create my new set of guides

on the parchment paper.

Oh, nice!

No, not nice.

Oh. I had some issues overnight.

A little meltage?

A little weeping.

A little weeping. Yeah.

Ah, the weeping Peep. [Claire laughs]

Weeping Peeps.

Sounds inappropriate.

No it doesn't.

I'm going to not start whipping the egg whites

until I add the gelatin and start to dissolve it

so that I don't over whip them again.

The important thing now is to cover these,

minimize their air exposure so that they can set,

then we'll coat the sugar.

Yellow, just had like too pronounced tumeric flavor,

so I have freeze dried mango.

Good, I think I'm gonna add a little citric acid.

Purple, freeze dried blueberries.

Mmm.

But it's fruity with the lavender.

I think good overall.

It's been two hours since I piped the Peeps.

I'm gonna try and coat the ones we just made.

Great, what was I worried about.

They look great.

It looks perfect.

It looks very elaborate.

Yeah.

Oh you actually customized?

Yeah, customization.

Brad, you're fancy.

Fancy as hell.

Oo, nice! Can I try?

No, you won't be able to.

I'd be very impressed if you could pull back 70 pounds.

[Camera Man] Impressive.

Maybe I can, I don't do a lot of upper body strength.

This isn't the bow,

the bow's almost as big as you, Claire.

Oh my god, it's really hard.

It's 70 pounds. 70 pounds?

If I do it this way. [laughs]

Wow, I have a new appreciation for Brad's strength.

Alright, 25% are completed.

I have my two rows of green tea Peeps.

I feel like this is so far the best version.

The coverage is the best,

the sugar looks super even.

No I wanna just do that exact same process,

then finish the rest of the colors.

Oh god. [gasps]

I think they look so cute.

I don't want them to get damaged

but I think if I'm gentle enough

I can turn them on their heads, and they'll be okay.

Even though it makes me a bit nervous.

Their own weight doesn't really help them to peel off.

[Claire gasps]

Really?

[gasps]

[slo-mo gasp]

Everyone go away, I quit.

[Camera Man] What's goin' on here?

I don't want to talk about it.

Lost a little bit of their face, sad.

Do you think, we could do a beak transplant?

I can like snip it off the other ones.

[Man] Yes, absolutely.

And stick it on.

I'm performing a medical procedure.

What's happening?

A beakectomy?

It's a beak transplant.

[Chris laughs]

You, you're trying to get sharper points?

I lost some beaks. Oh.

[Claire] [laughing] It's pretty good.

No one will ever know.

I inverted them, and I think that

there wasn't enough coverage and then they stuck.

Claire, it's like, that's next level though.

Your dedication is admirable.

[Camera Man] Chris is bitter.

[Claire] I don't think

this is the same thing as dedication.

I think it is the same thing as dedication.

I think this is called mania.

[Chris laughs]

I think I'm finally gonna nail it on my last tray.

What I learned is, I'm gonna do that same dusting,

but then rather than turn the whole thing upside down,

I'm gonna try to remove the backing

while they're still sitting upright.

Claire these look great!

Thanks.

It's my last batch.

I love that little, oh these, look,

they're like a duck when they're taking a nap.

You every notice when they go backwards

and they tuck their little head under their wing there.

That's good, right? Sure.

Where are the eyeballs, Claire?

Last, that's the easy part?

Oh no, that's, I've waiting three days to do that,

and then we're finally there.

That's the victory lap.

Yeah, exactly, okay.

Oh, nice!

Yeah, that was probably the best one yet.

And they're all together, that's very important.

Well yeah, they all exist in their--

Little string o' ducks.

Ducks in a row.

So now I'm gonna use chocolate, like milk chocolate,

do tiny little eyeballs.

Milk chocolate? That looks a little bit more like a,

like a little higher percentage.

Like dark chocolate? Mmm.

Alright, we've got dark, nevermind.

I'm gonna use dark chocolate.

You have to temper that shit.

[Brad laughs]

Absolutely not.

The chocolate's melted.

This is the part where I feel most confident

because they're not gonna look

quite deranged and like, clonky.

I can do better than that.

You're so close.

Alright, they look good.

I'll say that.

Overall, I think it turned out really well.

Good stretch.

Mmm.

I don't think I like the rose. [laughs]

the sugar overpowers the marshmallow,

but he marshmallow flavor is so subtle,

that at least there's like any flavor at all,

'cause there wasn't in the original.

[laughs]

Good.

Tastes like mango.

Overall, I think the marshmallow's really good, satisfying.

Fun to eat.

That's why I like marshmallow's,

they're just fun to eat, it's a fun texture.

Blueberry lavender. Whoa.

Raspberry rose, lemon mango, green tea.

Mango.

Oh, go for it.

Right off the bat, they're much softer and fluffier.

Peeps aren't flavored though, right?

Are they?

They are not.

Unless you count, like red number four,

as like a flavor, but it's not.

All the things that I said. Uh-huh?

That's what's happening here.

Yay, okay good.

[Alex laughs]

I'm glad that was your expectation.

[Brad] Got Ray-bans on or somethin'?

You wanna try that one? No.

That's you, when you come in with a hangover.

[claire laughs] To work.

Not very often. I'm Brad,

I never get hungover.

Never. Oh I do.

Miserably.

It's great, you nailed it. Thank you.

It's got, the flavor is nice. I am, you get the macha.

I mean it's cool.

You guys, just made me feel better.

It's got a weird smell.

[Claire and Alex laugh]

You like upgraded the Peeps.

That's the name of the game.

I had a little issue with the beaks,

so I put some sunglasses on him

to make him look a little happier.

Sort of looks more like a penguin.

The eyeballs are made of chocolate.

I thought that was a nice touch.

It's good.

You taste lavender?

Definitely.

I taste a little bit of the blueberry.

More lavender.

Ooh!

Very flavorsome.

Hmm, flavorsome.

The texture's so, it's so much lighter.

So bouncy. Mm-hmm.

You succeeded so, like resoundingly with those one's

and the flavors are such an improvement.

Thank you.

Wow, that was.

Seriously people have never been nicer.

It was really great.

Okay, cut. [laughs]

Here's how you make gourmet Peeps.

Use a Sharpie and straight edge to mark parchment paper

with rows of five rectangles to match Peep dimensions.

Turn paper marker side down

and place on rimmed baking sheets.

Lightly dust with cornstarch and set aside.

Soften two envelopes powdered unflavored gelatin

in 130 grams cold water for about 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, wipe out the bowl of the stand mixer

fitted with the whisk attachment

with white vinegar or a lemon wedge,

and add four large egg whites and a generous pinch of salt.

Combine 200 grams granulated sugar,

100 grams corn syrup,

and 80 grams water in a small sauce pan.

Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring to dissolve.

Put the candy thermometer to the side

of the sauce pan and cook,

swirling often and brushing down sides

with a wet pastry brush.

Right before mixture hits 145 Fahrenheit,

start the mixture on medium high

to beat eggs to very soft peaks.

When the thermometer registers 145,

remove sauce pan from heat and scrap in gelatin mixture.

Swirl to dissolve.

Increase speed to high and slowly

stream sugar mixture into foamy eggs.

Continue to beat until marshmallow mixture

forms stiff glossy peaks.

Beat in two teaspoons vanilla extract

and two teaspoons marshmallow root extract.

Transfer mixture to two piping bags

fitted with identical round pastry tips

and pipe onto prepared baking sheets into Peep shapes,

flicking the pastry bag at the end to form a peaked beak.

Cover with plastic, avoiding contact

between plastic and marshmallow.

Allow to set at least four hours.

Grind granulated sugar in a spice grinder

until finely milled but not powdered.

Transfer to a bowl.

Grind freeze dried fruit and or

flavored ingredient of your choice to a very fine powder

and mix with ground sugar

to create desired color and flavor.

Sieve mixture, discarding larger particles.

Dust Peeps all over with colored sugar

and carefully peel off parchment,

coating bottoms with more sugar and tapping off excess.

Make eyeballs with melted chocolate.

Eat before they start to weep.

So the whole point of peep jousting,

is you want to see which one remains in tact

without like blowing up.

Oh, I never microwaved it long enough to see that part.

Then it loses.

[Claire] Okay, how long do you think?

[Christina] Yours is out.

[both laugh]

Oh no!

Oh yours is.

[Claire] Okay wait, I'm gonna put another minute on.

Or 1:10, whatever.

Okay should we call it?

Yeah. Okay.

I still don't understand who the winner is?

Oh, I don't know, Claire.

Oh, I think you won.

I think it's safe to call this a draw,

although you seemed to have struggled a little bit more.

I know.

It kind of smells like campfire marshmallow.

This looks like a turd.

[both laugh]