Pastry Chef Attempts to Make Gourmet Pringles

I feel like since I'm holding this, this is my show now.

Really? Yeah.

It's like in Lord of the Flies with the conch shell.

Uh-huh. I just, well here.

Yeah, exactly. Now it's your show.

[upbeat music]

Hey everyone, I'm Claire.

Today we are in the B.A. Test Kitchen,

and we are making gourmet Pringles.

[energetic music]

I did used to eat Pringles.

This was more of like an afternoon snack in school.

I love the packaging.

It's kind of like brilliant canisters.

What do they say, Once you pop, you can't stop?

Is that the catchphrase?

I'm gonna get a whole one out and show it to you.

Ooh, sorry.

It exists in like many dimensions.

It has this sort of curved structure.

It's fairly pale and uniform in color.

It's not like a potato chip that has maybe like dark,

darker edges or something,

and it has lots of little tiny bubbles

all across the surface.

That's what's gonna make it seem really, really crunchy

when you bite down on it.

[crunching]

Very delicate, very, very thin.

They don't put up a lot of resistance.

It really does like, kind of dissolve into nothing.

The first thing that I get when I taste it is salt,

and I almost sort of taste like oil,

like a sort of like fried flavor, in a good way.

The flavoring is definitely some kind of a coating.

This was the flavor that I

could probably eat most, sour cream and onion.

Mm, delicious, so good.

You can find powdered sour cream,

you can find powdered buttermilk,

you can find powdered white distilled vinegar.

Once you have the wafer,

riffing on the flavors is actually pretty easy

'cause it's just about getting those powders.

That's like what's brilliant about snack foods,

is just like you make one thing

and then there's sort of like endless variations you can do.

I want to try pizza.

[crunching]

They do like make me very happy.

They're very good.

I got it, I got it.

Beautiful.

Because it's curved in two directions,

I want to flatten it.

That worked, so it is an oval.

It's like 6.8 centimeters and 5.4 centimeters wide.

So I'm sort of making a template.

Alright, so there's my template.

So these two sides come downward,

and then these two come the other way.

I want to try hydrating the chip

to see what the texture is of the paste or the batter,

like whatever it is that these are made out of.

It does have sort of like a tortilla-like consistency.

I'm trying to think of how we can create this shape.

When we make tuiles or those very lacy crisp cookies,

you drape them over the rolling pin.

It's actually a really close,

it really closely fits the contours of this rolling pin,

but then of course these two sides come up,

so maybe there's something

that we can place underneath and raise the opposite ends.

So here are the ingredients,

dried potatoes, vegetable oil,

parentheses, corn, cottonseed,

oleic, soybean or sunflower oil.

Degerminated yellow corn flour, corn starch, rice,

maltodextrin, mono and diglycerides,

salt, wheat starch, and that's it.

Rice flour makes sense,

because rice flour is like if you've ever had tempura,

rice flour is the starch in tempura batter

and it creates this like very, very light

crispy crunch when you fry it.

Within the actual wafer itself though,

we know that it's not that many ingredients.

The main one is dried potatoes, so I think this is gonna be

much more about nailing that shape,

just to get something that looks like it,

because at the end of the day you have crunchy fried potato,

like it's gonna be delicious.

This is gonna be a project that's more about

kind of process and construction than flavor, I think.

Let's just see what happens when I Google Pringles,

Gene Wolfe, a mechanical engineer author

known for science fiction and fantasy novels,

developed the machine that cooks them.

Oh great, they were designed by a chemist.

That doesn't bode well.

Ooh, the consistent saddle shape

is mechanically known as the hyperbolic paraboloid.

[energetic music]

I love How It's Made.

How It's Made is the best thing

that's ever happened to this show.

[Onscreen Narrator] They use a ratio

of one third water to two thirds potato flakes.

A conveyor delivers the mix to an auger, which disburses it.

So it's like sort of like a meal.

It did kind of look like maybe it was more of a dough

than any kind of like a paste or batter

that was pressed into the shape.

So that actually might be easier to form them.

Maybe I can make some kind of a cutter

to punch out that shape, rather than like cut it out.

We might have oval cutters in this kitchen.

Oh look, there's the Gushers molds.

I'm so glad we still have those.

We have rectangles, diamonds, fluted rounds.

Nothing, nothing.

Oh wait, oh my god! [gasps]

Oh my god, this is so close.

I'm just gonna use this.

I want to have my colleagues try the Pringles

and give me their thoughts,

and possibly if they have some clues or something like that.

It's not like they're taking a potato and slicing it.

Right, it's like composite

of like dried potato and all these other starches.

It's not a potato chip,

it's a potato crisp. Crisp, yeah.

They're like a Franken-chip.

Okay, so rather than just like make a crispy potato crisp.

Yeah.

How do we make it a Pringle?

It has to be stackable.

I think what's so compelling about this

is just the fact that it melts in your mouth.

Yeah, it turns into nothing.

They go from crispy to dissolved like that.

[snaps fingers] Right.

There's something about the way the shape

and the shape of your tongue. And it dissolves.

You're just like literally pushing it

against the roof of your mouth and it crumbles.

It's just like-- You can literally

just close your mouth. Yeah, and it'll dissolve.

Ugh.

More like [groans] or whatever the sound is.

That kind of curve.

It's a hyper, what is it?

It's a hyperbolic parabolic, whatever.

I don't remember what it was.

Paraboloid, you know. Yeah.

Claire and I did math.

[laughs]

Yeah.

What I'm thinking of doing

is starting with a mixture of cooked potato,

bound with some additional starches

and then some kind of combination of drying and frying,

once I have them formed into those kind of like ovals.

I'm very curious to see

how close we get just from that basic approach.

[energetic music]

I'm gonna start with one potato,

because I think I'm gonna have to add

a lot of other starch ingredients.

I need the one with the smallest holes,

working it really, really lightly

because I want something that's gonna be more tender,

rather than chewy.

To make a stiff dry dough,

I'm gonna add cornstarch, rice flour, and a little salt.

[upbeat music]

The problem so far is that I can see

that there's sort of like noticeable separation

between the potato bits and the starch,

but I'm just gonna go ahead

and continue to work with this as a test.

Because I know that I need an extremely paper thin dough,

I'm gonna use the pasta extruder to roll it out.

[upbeat music]

it doesn't really want to roll through.

[machine squeaking]

I'm gonna try cutting out a couple ovals.

As soon as I put it in the oil, it didn't hold its shape.

It's already taking on color.

It's getting golden around the edges

and across some of the surface,

so already I know that that's not what I want.

It doesn't have that dissolving texture.

It could be more tender,

and I know that I'll get tenderness

mostly from having all those little air bubbles in it.

Hmm.

[crunching]

I want to see what happens if I add

a little bit of baking powder to make those little bubbles.

Also once I have it into a sheet,

then I want to get it even thinner.

I'm probably better off

using something that's not absorbent.

This is a Silpat.

These are these like silicone baking mats.

I'm gonna do the same thing, just roll between these.

[upbeat music]

So it's not taking on color as fast, which is good,

but it does have those little tiny bubbles.

I'm getting these also sort of like larger bubbles.

That's something I want to avoid,

because that's gonna affect my ability to stack them.

[crunching]

The color is not that different, right?

[Claire] In half, really?

Are we done?

Yeah, done.

Okay.

Hold on, I need Chris to try this.

It's not as tender.

There's not as many air bubbles.

It's pretty close.

Yeah.

Sorry.

Not that you were in the middle of anything.

No, that's cool.

That second test felt like weirdly close

as to like be a fluke,

but I'm gonna just like keep going until otherwise deterred.

I want to try forming them

to see if I can get at least some kind of shape.

Maybe I won't go for the, what do they call it?

A paraboloid.

But at least something curved.

I want to basically try frying it

very, very briefly at a low temp,

letting it set and form over this rolling pin,

and then frying it again.

[sizzling]

It's losing its shape immediately.

At least in terms of like shaping them,

there wasn't much to be gained from forming it

around the rolling pin, or at least at this point.

Hmm, I'm just thinking.

[upbeat music] I thought of something.

I thought of in terms of like a mold for frying,

maybe hold it very gently between these two spoons.

It'll at least keep its flat shape.

[upbeat music]

It's really like not as crispy.

I think having it between those spoons

meant there was some moisture loss.

So I think I'm gonna try it again,

maybe fry it, take it out while it's still pliable,

put it between the spoons, and put it back in the oil.

Obviously this took on color kind of according

to the pattern of the slots in the spoon.

It did crisp up much more though, which is good.

It doesn't quite have that quality

of like you can eat it without chewing.

You can kind of bite down on it.

Yeah, so for tenderness.

[sighs]

Like, more acid?

I don't know.

More lemonade?

I put a little bit of baking powder in it.

Maybe try more?

Yeah. A lot of chew.

Yeah, too much chew.

[upbeat music]

[sighs]

I don't know, I mean...

No, that's like chewy.

It's not right.

Alright, I think we're at a good place to stop today.

Before I continue too far down using a whole potato,

I think I want to start with a test tomorrow

using the potato flour that we have,

and just seeing where that gets me.

And then of course I think the challenge

will be forming them and getting that shape, so we'll see.

[upbeat music]

Yeah, so here we are.

Is it only day two?

They kind of all blur together.

We're here bright and early on day two.

So not too many people in the test kitchen yet,

but we're gonna get started.

I want to try using just potato flour.

It seems like from the research

that this is more of the product

that like Pringles are actually made from in the factory.

So I just want to see what happens

when I mix this with the other starches and add water,

and kind of create a dough that way.

[energetic music]

This is just like, I've never like had dough this texture.

It's just like so gnarly and not smooth.

It is flattening out nicely.

[energetic music]

Ooh, lots of curling.

Really, do you guys see how much it expanded?

It got huge.

It has almost the texture of like you know,

like a shrimp chip or something like that?

Just so, so bubbly.

Definitely much more tender

than the versions we tried yesterday.

It's actually really good.

One thing I want to try is to dock the dough.

So I just want to basically poke little holes

all over the place,

and this will allow big pockets of air

to escape and will prevent those big bubbles, hopefully.

I think it will.

[upbeat music]

I think it worked moderately well.

It's still got some bubbling around the edges,

but I also want to try rolling one out thinner.

Let me put it back between the Silpat and roll it through.

That's definitely thinner.

Let's see what that did.

[energetic music]

Getting, wait.

I just tasted a Pringle.

I was like, wow.

I did a really good job.

So, ooh,

but I did do a good job.

Actually really, really encouraging test.

I kind of guessed at that hydration

and it actually was pretty successful,

so I'm gonna keep going with that

and I also am going to hold it between the two spoons

to see if that can help eliminate

some of those big air pockets.

[energetic music]

The two spoons have definitely compressed it,

but I think that's a good thing because it's almost like

I was getting too much air in the chip,

and actually what I'm getting a little bit

is the texture of the Silpat from rolling it out.

It's kind of amazing.

It like, almost completely dissolves.

I think that's like very Pringley.

It's very, very Pringley.

I actually feel like-- Mm!

Here do you want to try?

The texture is very good, yeah.

Do you want to compare it to the original?

So at least I feel like this is the closest

I've come to the right thickness.

Really close, Claire.

Like, weirdly close.

Weirdly close.

How do you feel about having ridges

instead of tiny little bubbles?

Well, I think I'll be able to get rid of the ridges

because I'll be, the ridges is literally this.

It's like the texture of that. It's so crazy.

So I'm just gonna put parchment

in between to keep, roll it out.

I have to focus on shape now.

I was doing a little reading online.

Apparently the shape is actually important

to the way that the Pringle itself functions.

It's not just visual,

also it helps create like a very strong chip,

so that when you stack it, that bottom chip doesn't break

under the weight of the ones on top of it.

I don't really know the math of it.

A paraboloid.

So, I think I need to make a mold,

and it has to be a mold that I'm able to put into the fryer,

so I have to make it from metal, something that's heat safe.

This is flexible.

Maybe I can create something out of this?

We're just gonna play around for a little bit.

I don't even know how to get into this.

It is taking on that shape a little bit, just as I work it.

Now I want to take, I'm gonna try to use foil

to mold just like the mate to it,

'cause as long as that there is mesh on one side,

and there's room for that liquid to escape,

I think it'll work.

The foil is really not flexible.

Actually new thought, if I can use strips like this

to just like clip the mesh,

'cause as long as that there is mesh on on side,

and there is room for that liquid to escape,

I think it'll work.

[energetic music]

for the first shot, some success.

It does have that shape.

The problem with it

is that it doesn't have a uniform texture.

You can see where the foil strip was holding it

against the mesh and then in the other places next to it,

it kind of like puckered up and bubbled a little bit.

I think you need something full contact.

[energetic music]

Alright, so here we go.

It maybe took on a little bit more color than is ideal.

I think the chip itself looks really good though.

The main thing is not that

it has to look identical to the original,

but it has to look identical

to all the other homemade versions,

so that we can stack them.

But you know what?

It doesn't have any huge air bubbles, you know big pockets.

It actually looks really uniform.

What I want to do is really get a bunch of cutouts

and I can just try them all kind of rapid fire,

and hopefully get like double digits.

So I'm just gonna put my head down and get going on that.

[energetic music]

It's shockingly close to a Pringle.

Oh really? Yeah.

Like, we're there I think.

It's just it's a pain in the ass to make it.

Did you figure out the hyper parabolic?

Oh, I sure did.

I made it out of mesh from a strainer,

and then this goes on top.

What's the budget like for this series

for you destroying the things in the kitchen?

[laughing]

You know in James Bond, Q?

Like Q has all the technology. Yes.

You need a Q.

It's kind of Brad.

But first of all he's not here, and second of all,

it's usually not that helpful.

[energetic music]

Are those yours? Yeah, those are mine.

Wow. I know, right?

[energetic music]

Eight, 10, 12.

Okay, we have 14 finished and you know,

some of them I think look better

than others like this one looks great,

as compared to the original.

Now I want to play around

with making a couple of different flavors.

So we have distilled white vinegar powder,

yellow cheddar cheese powder, and sour cream powder.

[energetic music]

So I have some flavors for you guys to try.

Mm, cheddary. Yeah.

The flavor is so freakin' good.

Wow, this is like--

I can smell the cheddar powder.

Alright, this is the thing.

Marley went for like a half bite, my instinct is like.

Do it. I'm gonna try.

Whoa.

The shape is on point.

The shape is 100% on point.

This is my question though, if we were to construct a tube,

would you replace the little guy with your face?

Definitely, definitely. Right?

A little caricature of--

A little character of Claire, yeah.

Cheers.

Cheers.

Why don't I just out it in my mouth?

[crunching]

Shape there.

Shape there, flavor there.

I think it's a little bit thicker,

but I really couldn't roll it any thinner.

Like I was rolling it in the pasta roller

on the thinnest setting between two sheets of stuff,

like also in the factory

they're rolled under four tons of pressure.

So I wasn't quite able to get them that thin.

We stand these ones. Thank you guys.

Oh my god. Okay.

You are completely crazy.

Yeah, well they make me.

It's like overall just a little series.

Mm, I'll just help myself

to a little bit of this cheese powder.

[crunching]

It's a Pringle.

It's a Pringle.

Overall like, not I think among

the more difficult things to construct.

It wasn't quite, it wasn't so much

like a lengthy process in terms of time.

But it is kind of labor intensive

to just like hand punch and fry individually.

You could go like crazy on the flavors,

or all the different kinds of powders and everything,

but yeah, how do we wrap these up?

What do you want to say?

I don't know, it's like thanks for watching.

What do we say?

[energetic music]

Okay, here's how you make gourmet Pringles.

Combine 50 grams of potato flour and 10 grams cornstarch,

10 grams white rice flour,

and half a teaspoon of kosher salt.

Add 35 grams water and knead into a shaggy dough.

Cover tightly in plastic and let rest 15 minutes.

Knead again to incorporate dry bits, then pass dough

through the widest setting on a pasta roller a dozen times,

folding each time until dough is fully hydrated.

Cut dough in half, then pass each half

through roller two times on each setting

until you've reached the thinnest possible sheet of dough,

cutting each piece in half again

as it gets too long to handle.

Working one pice at a time,

and keeping the other pieces of dough covered,

pass dough through roller again

on the thinnest possible setting

between two cut pieces of Silpat lined with parchment.

Brushing lightly with cornstarch prevents sticking,

so that dough is almost see through.

Punch out ovals using a cutter

and repeat process with remaining pieces of dough.

Fry ovals one at a time,

blanching first in 300 degree vegetable oil

for five seconds to puff,

then placing in a wire mesh and aluminum foil cage

shaped in hyperbolic paraboloid.

Fry again for 60 seconds until crisp and lightly golden,

then remove from cage, pat with paper towels,

and lightly season with more salt.

Repeat with all ovals of dough,

season chips with flavored powders of your choice.

That's a record.

You nailed it. In other words.

You did it. Okay.

You crushed it.

These are amazing Pringles.

Claire. [laughing]

You are really good at making snack foods.

Thank you.

You should get your own show.

[laughing]