Pastry Chef Attempts to Make Gourmet Pocky

We didn't have this as a kid growing up in St. Louis.

There were no Pocky anywhere.

You really play up this St. Louis thing, Claire.

No, I don't, no, I don't.

Yeah, you're like well, back in St. Louis,

we don't have candy like this.

No, we did not.

Just all Juju Bees and Mary Jane's.

Yeah, yeah.

You're like a vampire.

You just don't age.

Are you kidding?

I definitely age.

The amount of white hair that I've gotten on this show

from the first episode 'til now.

Six years here. You don't see how gray it is?

I know.

It was not gray when I started here.

It's like Obama.

Yeah, seriously,

I went Obama gray working at Bon Appetit.

What were we talking about?

[jazz percussion]

Ah.

Ow, ow.

Hey everyone, I'm Claire.

I'm in the BA Test Kitchen

and today, I am making gourmet Pocky.

[jazz percussion]

I have to say I don't know that I've ever had Pocky.

Tommy just looked at me with a look of horror.

What?

You know that thing that happens when like people,

all your friends are talking about something

and you've just never heard of it?

And you're like somehow I just missed

that piece of cultural knowledge that everybody has.

I have that with Pocky and with other things too.

Ooh, nice packaging.

Oh my god, look at these.

Ooh, they're so like elegant in proportion.

Oh my god, these are incredible.

Do people know how good these are?

These are so good.

Oh my god.

Why haven't I been eating these?

There's something in this chocolate

that is making this so good.

My god, are all the flavors this good?

I don't think it's tempered chocolate on the biscuit

because I don't think it's pure chocolate.

I don't know.

There's definitely something else going on with the coating,

but the biscuit itself is also kinda,

it's like for how dry it is,

it's like weirdly tasty.

For some reason, there was chocolate

and then there is this one which is just chocolate flavor,

and I don't know what the diff is.

My goodness, these are delicious.

[Gaby] Shut up!

[Claire] Gaby, I just tried my first Pocky.

First ever in your life?

Ever.

They are so good.

Where have you been?

I don't know, under a rock.

I love Pocky.

I haven't tried like weird flavors.

I love strawberry.

I love the dark chocolate.

[gasps]

Yeah, so is this dark chocolate

and then that's chocolate? Can I hug you?

Yeah, Gaby.

All right, enjoy.

Thank you. Bye, thank you.

Thank you. My god, they're so good.

Here's the two.

So one looks dark chocolate

and one looks like it's I don't know what.

Ooh, this one is so much worse.

Whatever chocolate is,

it's way better than chocolate flavor.

It does seem like there's two strains of Pocky.

One is like premium and then one is like a little bootleg

'cause this is strawberry and this is strawberry flavor.

So I'm gonna try these side by side.

So this is strawberry and this is strawberry flavor.

They look, they're identical.

I think they taste the same.

I think I like it, but it's also kinda,

it's like very artificial tasting.

I'm gonna try matcha.

It's good, but nothing is as good as that chocolate one.

It was pointed out to me

that there's actually a third strawberry.

There's some little bits on it

like possibly freeze dried strawberries,

which I'm excited about.

Ooh, I'm really into this.

Get a look at that.

You know what?

Amazingly, I think Pocky stands out already

as the most truth in advertising

in terms of like what's on the packaging, you know?

Like this looks exactly like that.

This is the first one I've opened

where the biscuit is I'm guessing chocolate.

Mm, it's good.

Because there's actual freeze dried strawberry on it,

it tastes a lot better.

This is cookies and cream.

Not bad.

None of these are as good as the chocolate.

I think you need to do two of the clean iced flavors

and two of the chunky boys.

So that means the cookies and cream, a matcha,

strawberry with strawberry bits,

and an original chocolate.

[Amiel] Yeah, I think you can do that.

Visually, I like that the best

and I think it's a good representation of all the flavors.

Mm-hmm.

I love a classic Pocky.

Yeah, there seems to be near universal acclaim for Pocky.

This is the one that we bought.

This is like the original in my mind, right?

Do you have a favorite?

Yeah, chocolate.

Okay.

But taste that chocolate

and compare it to the one you just tried.

That one is so much better than this one.

I feel like you just don't want too much coating.

I think like the defining textural quality of a Pocky

is the--

The snap. The snap.

I know.

And you don't want the coating to be so thick

that it interferes with that--

Oh, I see what you're saying.

Separate experience.

Does that make sense?

Yes, yes, I think that's very important.

You know where I think I might start?

I might start with the recipe

that I used in Twix for the shortbread.

Ooh.

All right, I think that's looking like I'm in a good place

with the size of the cookie.

I think that's the right amount of dry.

Which had a little rice flour in it

which is very good for like snap.

Mm-hmm.

Do I have to get these like little marks?

It's like little grill marks on it. Do I have to do that?

[Rhoda] No.

[Claire] I don't think so, right?

It just shows you kind of how they made it.

I don't think that's important for flavor.

Okay, I'm gonna ignore that part. I think this'll be fun.

This is like a good level of challenge for you.

Yeah, I agree.

There you go. Whoa.

It's time for my favorite part, reading the ingredients.

So I'm just reading the chocolate.

Wheat flour, sugar, chocolate liquor,

blend of vegetable oil,

parentheses sunflower oil, palm oil, close parentheses.

Whole milk powder, palm oil shortening,

contains 1% or less of cocoa butter,

salt, artificial flavors, yeast, lecithin, polyglycerol,

polyricinoleate, leavening, sodium bicarbonate,

monoglycerides, sodium hydroxide, papain.

There's not that much sugar.

I'm gonna take some measurements

and do a little bit of deconstructing.

12 and a half centimeters.

Chocolate coating is obviously,

it's liquid and then it's dipped,

but it's liquid because of the fat that's in it

rather than any other like moisture source

that's water based

'cause anything water based

would hydrate the cookie and make it soft.

So here's the cookie part.

It's just so perfectly uniform.

I'm initially thinking that it might be effective

to extrude the cookie mixture rather than roll it by hand.

The Pocky have these,

they're almost like little grill marks.

I don't know.

They're baked on like a hot surface.

The overall construction's pretty simple.

It's like I make the cookie, I dip it.

So I think at this point,

the most useful next step will be research

so we'll go over to Gaby's computer.

Let's see what Wikipedia says.

So it says the first Pocky was sold in 1966

invented by Yoshiaki Koma.

Oh my god, they have a men's Pocky.

It says Pocky is a very popular treat in Japan,

especially among teenagers.

Interesting.

The name Pocky was inspired by the Japanese onomatopoeia

for the snapping sound made while eating Pocky sticks.

Ooh, Pocky factory tour.

Let's watch this video.

Oh, wow.

Ooh, that's so, oh my god.

That's so satisfying to look at.

Given the way that their dough looked,

I think a pasta extruder is a good possibility

for super uniform even like ropes.

My plan of attack is to work on the biscuit first.

My starting point is going to be the recipe

that I used in the Twix video for that biscuit

because I think there's a lot of similarities

in texture overall.

And then once the biscuit is done and dialed in,

I'll then work on the flavor coatings.

[jazz percussion]

I'm gonna mix up the batter.

So we're a little short on the rice flour.

I'm just gonna compensate by adding corn starch.

I'm dialing down the sugar

because I don't want this to be particularly sweet at all.

I'm not gonna be able to extrude this.

Like that dough in the video was so extensible and elastic

and this shortbread is not, but I think I have an idea.

I want to add some vodka.

[laughs]

It's basically a way of adding moisture

without adding like hydration.

And then I can extrude it,

and then dry it, and then bake it.

[metal clattering]

Jeez.

I have no idea if that's gonna work.

I feel like it's kind of working.

Are you freaking out right now, Dan?

It's working.

I'm freaking out.

I don't want to jinx it.

Just give me a sec.

So then this piece, it's a cutter.

Okay, I mean.

That.

It made it.

It did it.

That seriously worked better than I would have bet.

Like the dimensions look really good.

Let's just see what happens when I bake it.

I'm gonna set the timer for 10 minutes

and we'll see what happens.

[jazz percussion] [timer beeping]

Okay.

Oh, okay.

All right, they have a little bit of color.

They're a little pale, but...

[laughs]

They do have a bottom,

like a flattened base from the way they baked

which I kinda thought was gonna happen.

It's not great.

The more I look at this and kind of like feel it,

the more I think it is yeasted.

I need more of a snap.

Like this texture, it's so hard

and it's not like this which is, there's no snap.

It just breaks apart.

And I think I have to take the dough

in a different direction completely

which I kinda didn't see coming.

So maybe I want to try doing a couple batches

basically making pretzel dough or something like it.

So I did some research

and just jotted down a quick grissini formula

which is like a very simple kind of stiff yeasted dough.

Can I ask one of you strong guys?

I swear for the last two years,

Brad opens these every time.

It's so hard to open.

[Dan grunts]

No, Dan, okay, go.

[grunts] Thank you.

Thank you.

Got it. Thank you.

Have you been eating man Pocky, whatever they're called?

So I'm going to get it in the proofing oven

until one and a half times expanded in size

and then I'm gonna move into extruding and baking

and just kinda see what happens.

[laughs] It's just making dough blobs.

Certainly doesn't really look like a Pocky.

The dough is just not so super smooth,

so I might try coating it in a little bit of flour

to smooth it out.

[jazz percussion]

All right.

Things didn't really happen the way I was hoping.

I did make a breadstick.

Texture is much firmer,

but it's also still not right.

There's definitely too much flavor of yeast.

It's not Pocky texture.

You can tell that it got like all kind of bumpy and weird.

So I feel like the solution

is either to go with a stiffer dough.

It'll take me a few more tries for the biscuit,

but I think it'll be fine.

I feel pretty good about it.

Day one, I feel great.

It's all downhill.

[jazz percussion]

Today, I'm still working on the biscuit part.

It's just so important to get something

that is so firm and crunchy and dry.

I might want to instead of using yeast

only use baking powder.

I don't want there to be like a yeast flavor.

And maybe start forming them by hand.

I'm basically making a simple dough.

A little barley malt syrup.

You see it often in pretzel recipes.

I want a very, very stiff dough.

I'm gonna start rolling pour piece by piece.

Now, I'm gonna try cutting it, forming it, and baking it.

Ooh, all right.

Ah!

They look pretty good.

I'm happy with the smooth surface texture.

I'll try breaking it.

Had a nice snap.

Is this the one?

My delusional hope is gonna come true

and I'm not gonna be delusional.

[Male Speaker] I don't know.

[laughs] Nope.

It tastes bad.

Somehow it's like more tasteless than the Pocky biscuit.

At least I'm somewhere on texture.

Like that sort of hard snap is good,

but I definitely need to make some adjustments.

I don't really like the barley malt syrup.

The Pocky is noticeably sweeter,

so I might try another round of dough.

I'm going to increase the sweetness,

increase the baking powder slightly,

introduce a little bit of just vanilla extract

to kind of highlight the sweetness.

But I'm gonna keep everything else the same.

[jazz percussion]

Ooh, all right.

Ooh, they smell kinda good.

All right, so they got a little bit golden,

but I think an appropriate amount of golden.

The color looks pretty close.

There's something still like weirdly yellow about the Pocky.

They also shrunk quite a bit,

so I'll have to keep that in mind for next time.

All right, that was a good snap.

[timer beeping]

[Male Speaker] Cookies are ready.

It's kinda good.

Do you want to try the biscuit?

Do you want to compare it to--

The snap is right.

I'm wondering if it's--

The Pocky is like more delicate.

A little bit more tender.

Do you know they make men's Pocky?

I don't like the sound of that.

In Japan, I know.

What does that mean,

like it's a,

please don't say it's a bigger size?

No, it's more like intensely flavored.

The Pocky seems to have gotten

like the touch of crispness on the outside

and not not crispy on the inside,

but like very like open, very similar.

I think overall,

it's partly that the Pocky is just way thinner.

Yeah, which is definitely gonna be hard.

Honestly, the biscuit, who gives a crap?

Just make it a touch smaller and I think you're done.

Yes.

[jazz percussion]

So I think those are,

size wise, I think they're really close.

That moisture loss happens

and then I think there's some contracting,

so they definitely sort of bend a little bit.

I'll have to devise a method for baking them

that really keeps them in tight straight lines.

Gaby found these paper straws for me.

So I want to basically make like a little trough mold

for the Pocky out of the straws.

See if that'll work.

I might need to get the hot glue gun out

to hot glue it to some parchment to keep it straight.

[Male Speaker] Hot glue in the oven?

I think it'll be fine.

[Male Speaker] I'm not eating any of these.

It'll be fine.

You know what I'm gonna do?

I'm not gonna use hot glue.

Let me just try a little bit of foil,

make a little foil basket for it.

I really skipped to the arts and crafts stage,

the best part.

I wanna just get one in there and start baking it.

Okay.

[jazz percussion]

So my little straw trough,

I think it worked pretty well.

So I might want to make a bunch more of those,

but before I move into that phase

and I just start cranking out baked biscuits,

I want to try a version with rice flour

and hopefully that will be sort of like

the final formula for the biscuit.

I'm hoping the rice flour

just brings a little bit of tenderness

because this biscuit,

I just wish it were a tad bit more tender.

[jazz percussion]

[yawns] Okay.

I don't know why, but this light makes me yawn.

My 11th grade biology teacher

tried to tell us that the reason why yawns are contagious

is because it's like an evolutionary thing

where an animal bears its teeth at you,

I mean, at another animal.

It's as like a sign of aggression,

like it bears its teeth back.

And it's like well then how come when I go like this,

you don't yawn?

Like that doesn't,

like you're not,

it doesn't make any sense.

I don't think that was right.

Anyway, this dough feels much better.

I can tell that there's rice flour in there,

but overall, like its improved elasticity

and I think I'll be able to roll it much nicer

and it'll maintain a much smoother texture.

Overall, it just feels smoother, softer,

more relaxed, more elastic,

so definitely an improvement from the last batch.

All right, this looks good.

This is working out nicely.

Okay, so I'm putting this in here

and then I'm gonna just put these on here

and let these bake through because why not?

And if all goes well, maybe we have time to dip one.

Let's see.

Okay.

They look great.

Nice smooth texture on the outside.

Take this one out of here.

I like my little mold for baking them.

I think that's a fun idea to carry into day three.

Good snap.

Mm, they're pretty light.

I feel like they're lighter than before.

I feel like that's super close.

I think the biscuit part is pretty much done.

I kinda want to give one of these a quick dip

in a little bit of chocolate just to see what happens.

Mostly, I want to do a test

about what kind of coating I get using chocolate

without adding anything else to it.

I'm just trying to think if there's a dipping method

that can employ this straw.

[laughs] what if I try to--

Yeah. And then.

I don't think it would be a good idea

to like put my mouth on the straw.

Yeah, exactly.

[Male Speaker] I think we should try it.

I don't think that it would be very sanitary.

This is a bad idea.

All right, I'm gonna try it.

No, this is.

People are not gonna like this.

[Male Speaker] 6:30!

People are gonna think it's really gross.

All right, I'm the only one who's gonna eat this

so let me just try.

Okay, now.

Hold on.

[Gaby] What are you doing, Claire?

I have no idea.

Actually Gaby, can you come help me?

Sure.

I don't have an apron on.

All right, just hold the straw in place,

but like pressing down.

And here, move your left hand down.

Yeah, ready?

Thank you.

This is not how I thought this was gonna go.

[Male Speaker] Describe what's happening right now.

Tommy, I can't talk about it.

[Gaby] May I ask you what you'd like to do?

May I ask you what you're doing 'cause I have no idea.

[Male Speaker] It looks like it's working.

I'm trying to get it-- Ah, it works!

To coat in a very thin, even layer,

but that's not really even.

Like I'd have a better time just painting it on there.

Ah!

There you go.

[laughs]

Is there a smaller one?

I mean, this one's smaller,

but I think it's too small.

Maybe not, ready?

[Gaby gasps]

I mean, no one thought that was gonna work including me.

That worked.

Wait, that worked so well.

That was incredible.

It's like not a bad way

to make sure I get something really even.

It tastes wonderful.

Day three will be really focused on the coatings,

getting all the flavors right, and that's it.

[jazz percussion]

So it's been almost a week.

I'm gonna work first on like fabricating

and baking off all the biscuits

and then while those are kind of baking and drying,

I'll think about putting together the coatings.

I know people are gonna freak out,

but I'm thinking I'm not gonna temper the chocolate.

Tempered chocolate is when you heat and cool chocolate

to very particular temperatures

so you get chocolate that's like shiny and snappy.

I do think that Pocky has a lot of other flavors

added to the chocolate coating

and I don't know

that I am able to temper chocolate if I add stuff to it.

So I'm thinking of fortifying the chocolate

with some other flavors and more cocoa butter

which is very solid at room temp

to get something that is like very solid.

For now, I'm gonna work on the wafer

and just try to get a lot of those baked off.

[jazz percussion]

Two, four, six, eight, 10, 12, 14.

Okay.

I think I'm gonna work on a new method for baking them

in like nice, very straight parallel lines.

So this was what I had from last week.

It's kind of impractical,

one, to sit here and make all of them,

and two, because this paper straw,

once I cut it kind of bows a little bit.

So one thing I want to try instead

is actually like taking a bunch of skewer

and staggering them in between the Pocky

to have guides on all sides to keep them straight.

So most of these look pretty good.

I think that the size they became is really nice.

It seems pretty close to the with the Pocky.

[Male Speaker] What about like those grilled circles?

I'm not doing the grill marks.

That's not happening I just decided.

But overall, like dimensions and everything, I'm happy.

But pretty good snap.

I do think they need to be a little drier.

Taste is good.

They did shrink quite a bit,

so most of them are very, very close

to the dimensions that I want.

And I'm just going to instead of breaking

just maybe do a little shaving off of the ends.

I want to try something.

I just hope I don't like ruin it all.

So my idea is to,

I want them all to be the same length

and I'm not getting them extremely even

by just doing them all by hand one at a time.

So I'm gonna try to shave the opposite side altogether.

[Male Speaker] Are you nervous about this?

A little nervous that I'm gonna break them all

and like they have to be really tight.

Oh, I broke it.

God.

[laughs] [somber piano music]

So far, I have 40% casualty.

Aw, why did I try to do that?

[mumbles] oh my god.

So annoying.

I broke them all is what happened.

You know, here's what I should really do.

I should just use each one to make the next.

Somehow, these are like not even.

I don't understand how they're not even

with the way that I'm doing this.

I seriously, I don't understand why they're so uneven.

What?

All right.

Hi.

You making Pocky?

Yeah.

You're coming at a very bad time.

So I think I had to have a little trial and error,

but now I kinda have a system.

I'm gonna try to bake the rest,

but then I also kind of forgot about the chocolate Pocky

so I'm gonna go back and add some cocoa

to the second half of the dough that I have.

They look good.

So I'm gonna set these aside

and do the same process with the chocolate.

I'm going to make that one

by just kneading a little bit of cocoa powder

into the dough that I have.

Okay, here are all my Pocky biscuits ready to go.

So for the flavors that I'm doing,

the two chocolate biscuit are cookies and cream

and strawberry with strawberry.

And then the two plain flavors are chocolate and matcha.

The matcha, strawberry, and cookies and cream,

these are gonna be a white chocolate base.

For each one, I'm adding whatever its appropriate flavor is.

These are like healthy version of Oreos.

I'm gonna use that for the cookies on the cookies and cream.

Freeze dried strawberries for strawberry.

Both the flavored chocolate and the bits on the outside.

Matcha is already powdered.

So I'm gonna start by mixing up a bigger batch

of this like fortified white chocolate mixture

and then I'm gonna use that to make all the flavors.

You know what I have to think about?

How am I gonna stand them up to?

I need, oh my god.

Do we have clothespins?

Yeah you know,

like create either some kind of way to suspend them

or to like stick them up.

And Rhoda went to look for foam.

Bring in the foam.

First of all, where did you find this?

In the studio. Was it in the studio? Nice.

Chelsea said we could have it.

Ooh, okay.

We might be able to use this.

So if we poke it into...

So cute.

That's perfect, okay.

All right, so I'm gonna sit here

and bore holes into this foam.

It's clean enough, right?

So I'm trying to do a quick test

just with the plain white chocolate

just to see how it hardens.

Wait, I'm just gonna go stand with it in the walk in.

I would love it if you could take care of it.

Ah, oh my god, that scared me.

It's scaring me.

Looks great.

Sorry about that.

Quite all right.

So here's,

so in the walk in, it hardened pretty quickly.

Ooh, it looks very good.

Like that's a nice cross section.

Mm.

Tastes pretty good.

I'm going to go one flavor at a time.

[jazz percussion]

The quantity seems like it's working out really nicely.

I like your dipping technique.

Thanks.

I hate to break it to you.

I did not temper this chocolate.

That's fine, who cares? Because you can't.

Thank you.

You're getting so much snap with the thing.

Like does it matter?

I added cocoa butter, which I think is helping.

So here's the technique.

Oh.

And then, wait for it. Claire.

Look what Rhoda made me. Stop!

Rhoda, friggin' amazing!

Look at that.

Brad, are you in on this? What?

Look at this. It looks incredible.

Ooh, nice little dipping jar.

Yeah, and then watch. Watch, watch, watch.

Ready? This is the real magic.

Oh [beep]. Oh yeah, great.

Bleep that out.

I have to clean out the pastry tip every single time

which is annoying.

Good thinking though.

Thank you.

Look how well it worked.

Yeah, it looks great.

A little smoother outer.

And because of all the cocoa butter, it sets up real quick

because I was trying so hard not to temper it.

Yeah, good job.

Looks great. Thank you.

Whatever it takes. Exactly.

Nice and matte too.

Is anybody talking about the lack of grill marks?

Nope. Cool.

No one's said anything. Not gonna be me.

Oh, right on the sticks, on the conveyor belt.

Brad brought it up.

So here's the basic order of operations.

Dip and twist,

and over into my little scraping area

where it gets a once over with the pastry tip,

then onto my rack to dry.

And so far, it's working amazing.

This is the most annoying part.

I have to clean off the pastry tip every time I use it.

How can I help you?

I think if you want to stand on my right, I'll move over

and you can wipe off the pastry tip every time.

[jazz percussion]

I aspire for every single [mumbles]

to feel like a seventh grade art project.

Yay, look how good they look.

So now, I'm gonna move on to the strawberry.

[blender whirring] [jazz percussion]

It's perfect.

Cookies and cream.

[jazz percussion]

Yay.

Chocolate is left.

[jazz percussion]

I'm done!

I think it's 5:45.

This is what happens.

I finish and then there's no one here.

But you're here. I'm here.

Will you come look?

You did great on this one. Thanks.

That's super fun. Right?

That's cookies and cream, strawberry,

matcha, and then classic.

Beautiful.

Thank you.

Great, you did it!

And then this board.

This is like case closed.

Right?

Homemade Pocky, not that hard.

I was denied my moment of satisfaction,

but Chris validated me so that felt good.

Super pleased.

I love the way they look.

We'll let these set overnight, wrap it up in the morning.

Don't even talk to me about day four curse or whatever.

Nothing's gonna happen to these I hope.

We're gonna put a big sign.

But yeah, today was fun.

No big curve balls.

No big pot holes.

It was pretty fun.

[jazz percussion]

Good morning.

Here I am.

I slept down here.

But I'm gonna try chocolate

'cause I have the most number of those

and that's the classic.

Okay, ready?

Mm.

It's still very crunchy, so that's good.

Good snap.

It's pretty intensely chocolatey,

even just having used the milk chocolate.

Mm, that one's good. [Brad whistling]

I think better than the matcha Pocky.

That one's really good.

That one tastes like real strawberry

'cause I used real strawberry.

It may be my favorite visually,

maybe the weakest overall flavor wise,

but the cookies and cream Pocky was kind of not my favorite,

but it looks great and the other ones taste really good,

so I still consider it a success.

Do you guys want to come taste?

No.

Brad, don't you want to--

I would love to try. Yeah.

Taste the rainbow. Chris?

That's not, that's a different one.

They look great!

Thanks.

They look so good.

It's like a Pocky buffet.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I can't even tell you the last time I had an original Pocky.

Do you want to compare it to the original?

Not really.

I didn't eat anything yet.

I can't be starting the day with--

I know. This is the first thing I ate too.

Is it called Pocky? Pocky.

With Pocky.

Ooh, acid in that. Nice?

That one's good, right? Wow.

It reminds me of like a Pop Tart.

You made a good Pocky.

Thanks.

I think so too.

Your flavors are incredible. Always better, yeah.

They're so clear-- Yeah,

that biscuit texture was a little bit hard.

I'm impressed, Claire, with the uniformity of the glaze.

Thank you, you know hand rolled Pocky biscuits.

You did a great job.

Thank you.

It's pretty good.

It's like subtle.

Salty.

Love it.

Oh my god, this is like a candy store.

Okay, I'm gonna try matcha.

Mm!

Right?

I do like it.

The crunchiness is [mumbles].

Bye.

Thanks, Gaby.

So first, a cup of sour cream and--

[Claire laughs]

Hey, Claire.

I'm super excited about the matcha.

The texture of it is like so perf.

Spot on? Yeah.

I like your like crunchies on it though.

Thank you.

I like your matcha way better.

Thank you.

I think it's just like better balanced,

just like not so intense.

This was a great challenge. Yeah, I really enjoyed it

and there weren't any things

that like made me want to like--

Kill yourself. Murder Dan or something.

Amazing.

Love you, Dan.

We love that challenge.

[elevator dings]

Are you going to a meeting? Just kind of hanging out.

Oh, all right.

Can I offer you a Pocky?

Oh, the Pockys, yes.

From the Pocky buffet.

Yes, the Pocky buffet.

The strawberry's my favorite actually.

Mm, these are delicious.

Thank you.

I kind of recommend strawberry.

I mean, that one looks really good.

It's so fun, right?

Do I have to eat it like this or can I remove it?

No one has done that, but you can.

Mm!

Mm, I'm like a goat eating off a fence.

God, this is so good! They're really good.

Thanks. This is so much better

than the strawberry shortcake one that they make.

The strawberry Pocky was like an easy one to improve.

Claire, you've done it again.

Thanks.

This one was so fun.

Wait, but I want to leave some for Christina.

This is for Christina.

Considering that I was not very familiar

with Pocky before this project,

I thoroughly enjoyed the challenge.

Like this looks like something fancy in like a restaurant

that you would get next to your cappuccino

at the end of the meal or something.

I love how they turned out.

So this one was really fun.

I'm looking forward to the next one.

Thank you for watching.

[jazz percussion]

Here's how you make gourmet Pocky.

To make the biscuits,

combine two tablespoons rice flour,

a half cup plus two tablespoons all purple flour,

two teaspoons granulated sugar,

two teaspoons brown sugar,

a quarter plus one eighth teaspoon baking powder,

and one quarter teaspoon salt.

Whisk to combine

and add one tablespoon melted cooled unsalted butter,

one teaspoon of vanilla extract,

and two tablespoons whole milk.

Knead to combine, then divide in half.

Work three quarter teaspoon unsweetened cocoa powder

into half of dough.

Then working with one piece of dough at a time,

use a pasta roller to continually sheet dough into slabs,

folding and re-rolling until you have a smooth strong dough.

Cut with a ruler and pizza cutter into long thin strips

that are as thick as they are wide.

Moisten each strip with a bit of water

to create friction with the surface

and roll into smooth thin ropes

at least one centimeter longer than a Pocky.

Repeat with all strips of dough

and then repeat entire process with second half of dough.

Bake ropes separated by skewers

on a flat parchment lined baking sheet

in a 300 degree Fahrenheit oven until golden brown all over.

Let cool and then shave each biscuit on both sides

with a fine rasp grater to the length of a Pocky.

To make the coatings,

combine 300 grams white chocolate,

75 grams cocoa butter,

two teaspoons vanilla extract,

and a half teaspoon kosher salt

and melt on a double boiler until smooth.

Transfer one third of mixture to a pint container

and use a hand blender to mix with matcha powder

until you have a smooth mixture

with the desired color and flavor.

Transfer matcha and chocolate mixture

to a tall narrow vessel

and submerge plain biscuits 80% inside.

Then use a round pastry tip to squeegee off coating.

Place uncoated part in holes bored into foam board to set.

Repeat process with very finely ground

freeze dried strawberries instead of matcha,

cocoa biscuit, and sifted bits of chocolate wafer cookies.

Let set. [jazz percussion]

That was so quality. What?

What just happened?

[Andy] I was about to sneeze

and I know he's like zooming up on me.

Oh, Ben.

That'll go in the blooper reel.

[Male Speaker] Or the episode.

Or the episode,

which the episodes are basically blooper reels.