Pastry Chef Attempts to Make Gourmet Starburst

[Kevin] Molly, is that, is that hot?

It's extremely hot.

[laughing]

I'm burning my fingers with every stretch.

But you don't see me complainin'.

Ow!

[laughing]

[upbeat music]

Ah!

[laughing]

[sighing]

There's so many versions, I'm so confused.

Hey everyone, I'm Claire, we are in the BA test kitchen

and today I'm making gourmet

Starburst.

[upbeat music]

Starburst are one of those candies,

it falls under the category that most candy

falls into for me, which is I'll eat it

if it's in front of me but I'm not gonna

seek it out or buy it really,

I prefer in particular the pink and red ones.

I do think everyone thinks that pink is the best.

Let's look at one.

So in the original it's cherry, orange, strawberry and lemon

So pink is strawberry, red is cherry

and then the other ones are the other ones.

There's Summer Splash favors, oh Starburst gummies.

All right, I'm gonna try a pink one.

I don't think pink is as good as I thought.

Claire, when was the last time you had a yellow?

[laughing]

[Claire] Can I've a bite?

Yeah if you want.

Mm!

Oh my god the complexity.

[laughing]

You're gonna have to get some citric acid.

I already hate this one, it's gonna be so hard.

Well it's garbage right?

And it's gonna be pointless.

Claire-- The only thing

I'm looking forward to is making the wrappers.

The arts and crafts?

Yeah.

[laughing]

I think you need to keep the texture.

Like not sticky.

Not sticky, you don't want it to like

pull your fillings out like a Now and Later

and you don't want it to like

just kinda dissolve like a gummy.

Right, right, right.

Are these the only colors that there are?

So it's, it was--

In the original.

Yeah, yeah, only four.

I mean obviously pink, you're making pink.

I think I have to make all of them.

I think that's how it works.

Citric acid. Why are these so juicy?

Well exactly, it's

[laughing]

Or is that, am I just salivating?

That's your own spit.

Is it? Yeah, for sure.

So you have to make it so frickin delicious.

Yeah. That your mouth salivates.

Yes.

I can't even talk because it's like.

[laughing]

Pouring out of my mouth.

Wow well that's gonna be obviously your biggest challenge.

Oo maybe I can just rely on it being a Pavlovian response.

'Cause wasn't that the dog salivating?

I don't know what that is. At the sound of the bell.

To be honest. Pavlov's dog.

Never met him.

[laughing]

If I can make something that's close enough

to a Starburst, maybe if people

just react like it's a Starburst.

Oh they'll think it's a Starburst.

Yeah and then that'll happen.

[Kevin] Just have Rhoda make steak behind you.

[laughing]

Yeah.

I do appreciate how each one is so carefully,

individually wrapped, it's like wrapping presents,

like hospital corners, I really do like that.

I'm an excellent gift wrapper.

Two centimeters by two centimeters.

That was really easy.

It's very very firm.

You know you can kinda stretch and flatten it,

it doesn't pull like the way that caramel does

where you get like a big long thread,

it kinda starts to tear apart.

I would be shocked if the first two ingredients

are not sugar and corn syrup.

There might be gelatin in it but this is

a cooked sugar thing where it's cooked

to one of the candy stages, pulled, so you get something

that's chewy and then flavorings are added to it,

so the only thing that I can really think of

as a reference point is like a taffy.

I'm fairly certain that that's the direction I need to take

and then it's really gonna be about figuring out

how much to cook the sugar so that I get this

proper texture where it's firm but still malleable

and then figuring out flavorings.

It's my favorite time, reading the ingredients.

In a shock to nobody, the first ingredient is corn syrup.

And then sugar, nailed it.

Corn syrup, sugar, hydrogenated palm kernel oil,

fruit juice from concentrate,

parenthesis apple, lemon, strawberry, orange, cherry,

less than 2% citric acid, dextrin, gelatin,

food starch modified, natural and artificial flavors,

ascorbic acid, parenthesis vitamin C,

coloring, parenthesis Red 40, Yellow 5, Yellow 6, Blue 1.

Reading the ingredient list kinda confirms

the direction I was thinking which is that

it's sort of a taffy like preparation.

So I'm gonna go over to the computer

and see if I can find any YouTube videos

of Starburst factory or anything Starburst like.

And just do a little bit of reading.

Okay here's the Wikipedia.

Oo originally known as Opal Fruits

is the brand of a box-shaped, fruit-flavored

soft taffy candy, there you go.

[Woman] How to make taffy.

Making taffy is 10% culinary, 90% party.

Oh my god.

[laughing]

[Woman] But if you have the child labor available,

especially if they need to be--

[Kevin] Oh my god!

[laughing]

That told me very little, basically nothing,

I couldn't find anything about, like inside the factory,

making it, even, even taffy.

I've to go home and basically maybe do

a little more research in some of my books at home.

And I have to think about flavorings.

I have a good sense of where to start.

I think it's gonna be a lot about fine tuning and flavor.

[upbeat music]

So today is day two of Starburst, I didn't get too far

yesterday, research wasn't terribly helpful

but I think based on ingredients and the very small

amount of information that I found,

we're gonna go to like a taffy place for this

and kind of a pulled sugar mixture.

It's like weirdly hard to find taffy recipes

and I did forget to look at my confectionary books

last night, I pretty much just went to sleep so.

[laughing]

I've made no progress.

I think today I'll kinda focus on just the taffy mixture

and the sugar and temperature and pulling it

and then once I feel good about that,

then worry about flavor.

I'm just gonna go over to Gaby's computer

'cause I have to look up a recipe.

There was, I did find something on ChefSteps

which is kind of a cool website.

So I might go to that and print it out

and then use that as a jumping off point.

[Kevin] This seems like cheating.

[Claire] It does seem like cheating, but Dan's not here.

[Kevin] Dan, this is cheating, right?

Two, hold on, 262 Fahrenheit.

It is just like Skittles, it'll be the exact same thing.

That was definitely cheating, I feel like that was cheating

I can't just do what they do, but then if that's the answer

isn't it stupid just to not do that?

So I kind of guessed, I just wrote down some proportions

of ingredients that seemed right.

I'm just gonna kinda gather those ingredients

and start basically messing around.

[upbeat music]

So the basic plan is I'm gonna cook together in a saucepan

cornstarch, sugar, water, coconut oil, corn syrup

and a pinch of salt.

Oh wow.

Jeez.

[Kevin] Coming up next on Gourmet Makes.

[laughing]

Fish-flavored taffy.

Mix in the gelatin that I have softened and then dissolved

maybe too much liquid in the gelatin.

Oh wait a minute, I just realized something.

I just remembered something, which is that

when you're using gelatin sheets,

you drain them before you melt them.

And I just added all that water.

Oops.

I think I just ruined it, I think that,

because I poured in all that water

and now it's just gonna be, it will never.

Dammit, this sucks.

That was stupid, I blame Brad.

'Cause he distracted me.

Well start over, I also, the smell of the fish,

I mean can Andy put that in the walk-in or something?

Is anyone else distracted by the smell of fish?

In the whole kitchen?

[Brad] Claire it does smell like fish in here.

So I have to.

Did you get a haircut or something?

Do the exact same thing I did before,

still soften the gelatin but then drain it

before I melt it, so I'm--

Okay, alright, I get it, I see it.

Very loud, I'm gonna put that in a separate bowl.

[upbeat music]

All right, it's starting to set up.

All right, so I think I'm at the pulling phase,

where I can start to taffy pull.

My goodness.

[Brad] Oh.

What?

Is he talking to me?

[Brad] I gave everyone some gifts but you weren't here.

[Claire] Oo!

[Brad] And everyone else got something different

but I don't know if this is your style.

[gasping]

I love it. I did not make it.

Thank you, Brad!

Alright, don't say I never gave you nothing.

Oh my god.

Maybe it can help you in your--

What a good gift.

Yeah, it's from Early Wood You know me.

Wood guy in Montana.

I love it, thank you, oh my god, I can't wait

to cherish it and use it.

This pulling process, it incorporates air

and so it softens the texture and makes it sort of fluffy

this is like a good chest exercise.

You gotta get one of those taffy structures.

It's a little bit of a, I know those arms,

those mechanical arms.

Do you think we can make one on the mixer.

I think it's done, I don't really know why I think that,

I think it's just kinda firmed up enough that

I don't really want to keep stretching it.

Oh god, what a, ugh, sticky.

So this has no flavor, I didn't add any of the extract

or citric acid, this is just to test for texture.

So let me get it into some type of mold,

with obviously lots of Pam.

I don't know I think it like feels

weirdly on the right track.

To get it covered and I'm just gonna let it set

for a bit at room temp so I have an idea of

how firm that sugar's gonna get.

[upbeat music]

This hasn't set up a whole lot,

it's still pretty soft.

The Starburst is much firmer.

See how this has a nice pull.

The Starburst doesn't really do that stretch,

it just kinda breaks.

That's such a weird texture, it's very kinda,

almost marshmallow-y.

So now I'm gonna make that same taffy mixture one more time

adding just an extra tablespoon of corn starch

and then cooking it hotter overall.

So I'm gonna take it to 275 Fahrenheit

and then hopefully that'll give me

the firmer texture that I want.

[upbeat music]

Who's who wants to be my hook.

Oo, wait a minute, wait a minute, Dan.

[Dan] Yeah?

Do me a favor, can you grab

an actual dough hook from there?

Plugging it in to that.

But because I cooked it hotter, I think

it's gonna set harder faster.

So I won't, I don't think it's gonna be

quite as much of this stretching so

I should actually probably work quickly.

Brad, do me a really quick favor,

can you spritz this dough hook with a little Pam?

Spritz you say?

Yeah.

Oo, oo.

Alright so.

There you go!

Way to use your noodle!

Thanks.

This is so much easier.

I just had an out of body experience

where I was like, I'm at work right now

and this is happening.

All right, I'm gonna pull it off the hook.

Oh my god this part.

I think that this is noticeably much firmer

than that first round,

which is good.

Right this is feeling very very promising I think.

I have high hopes for this test,

so I wanna put this off to the side

and then I'm gonna pivot to the fruit juice concentrates.

Let's see what we have in here.

Oh this is, oh look, wait a minute.

I forgot that Rhoda ordered this, like high quality

strawberry extract when we did Twizzlers.

Kinda solves that problem.

Cherry flavor.

Pure lemon extract.

Orange extract.

Alright, what a great surprise.

So that's actually all of our flavors.

I wanna think about now color

because I weirdly kind of have the flavors figured out,

that was a good stroke of luck with these guys.

Hold on.

What did that.

Does that not say really fruit juice?

It does right?

I guess I'm wondering should we be adding fruit juice.

We have oranges, we might have some frozen cherries

which I could thaw and juice, make like a juice concentrate.

And then so the concentrates will at least

give a little bit of color.

I think we won't find any

fresh cherries What do you need?

this time of year, some frozen.

Jesus Christ Brad!

It's been a while since I've had Brad behind me

during one of these episodes, he's very distracting.

Let's see if we have oranges, maybe oranges and lemons.

I think the thing to do is to make the juice concentrate

and mixing with the extracts, be all one mixture

so that I'm adding color and flavor at the same time.

[upbeat music]

I've frozen berries, I'm gonna cook down the berries

[upbeat music]

and then just juice the citrus and use the juice as is.

Amp up the yellow tone of the lemon juice

an I'm gonna try to add in a pinch of saffron.

[upbeat music]

The idea is that these fruit juices will replace

the half cup of water that I've been using

in the taffy mixture.

To fortify the flavors of the juice

I'm going to add the extracts.

In the orange, a half teaspoon of extract,

a half teaspoon citric acid.

Same thing in the lemon, I don't think I'm gonna add

citric acid to this because lemon is already so tart.

Oo, okay, does not need citric acid.

To the strawberry then, hmm good.

Cherry.

Oo cherry-ie, good.

Now I think the next step and probably final step for today

is doing another test batch of taffy

with one of these juices

and just kind of seeing what happens, what the result is

and then I want to take a look at the last batch of taffy

to see how it started to kinda set up.

So this is that second batch of taffy

that I cooked hotter.

It's still like weirdly soft,

I wanna compare it to the first batch.

[laughing]

The first batch has firmed up quite a bit.

And is now firmer than the second batch.

Alright lesson learned this needs to set up for a long time.

This night be like a come back the next morning

and check so, it needs a good long rest.

Okay so I'm gonna keep the temperature the same 275,

otherwise I'm afraid it will be getting too hard

and I'm gonna make everything again,

the exact same way except I'm starting out

by testing the cherry flavor.

[upbeat music]

Brad are you watchin'?

Are you entertained?

Pretend I'm not here Claire.

[laughing]

[Claire] Okay.

I'm behind the scenes creative.

[Claire] I love it, ow!

Brought to you by Yeti.

[upbeat music]

Just a little more energy Claire.

Brad, it's 4:47 on a Friday, I got no energy.

Just-- You always have energy.

Smile with your eyes. Oh my god.

And just carry us through this.

Brad. We're in the fourth quarter.

[phone ringing] Oh phone call.

[laughing]

I'll leave.

[upbeat music]

So I'm gonna start to pull the taffy

and I'm wondering if I can even, greasing the hook,

I'm wondering if I can let the hook do even more of the work

by having it spin a little.

[Kevin] You think this is gonna work?

I don't know, we're gonna see.

Oh god, it's like.

[laughing]

No wait, I don't, how do I do it?

[laughing]

Oh god.

[Kevin] Do you think it's helping?

I don't know, I don't think it's not helping.

Ah!

[laughing]

Oh no.

[laughing]

Oh no, I maybe clogged this, oh god

I'm just gonna keep going.

Color is looking like a super unappealing shade of mauve.

That's nobody's favorite color.

You know what that looks like?

Like chicken liver?

Oh my god, no. It does.

It looks like a buyers, fire retardant stuff

they make go around pipes and stuff, it looks just like it.

We don't have the same frames of reference.

Claire we know this.

[laughing]

Oh god.

Yeah this aint it man.

It, Brad, just give me that.

I thought that the color could

come from the cherry juice. Know what you shoulda used--

Hold on I'm tryna take it off.

Was tart cherry juice extract or not extract, concentrate.

Can you buy that?

Yeah, Wholefoods has it.

Oh alright.

It is red as, as, as [beeping] is what I was gonna say

Claire, but it was trying not to.

Flavor's not bad.

Really?

All right, that's good.

You're close. Really?

Flavor-wise you're close.

Really?

You're texture's like sidewalk gum.

[laughing]

Gross.

Hey gotta run, keep up the great work, alright.

Thanks, alright.

Enjoy your concert, I'll be here.

Yeah, Orville Peck, the masked cowboy.

Have fun. Thanks Claire.

You're dismissed.

Bye Gaby. Bye, have fun!

Texture is terrible, he's right.

The flavor, not bad, truly.

It definitely tastes like cherry, has good tartness,

I think it's a good starting place,

I think maybe more, just more citric acid,

more of the flavoring, I have basically three different

temperatures that I can compare side by side

when we come back for day three.

And then all I've to do is work on flavor.

Cutting the Starburst, wrapping them

in some wax paper and that's it.

[upbeat music]

It's day three but it's been like nine days since day two

and I've forgotten everything that we've done.

I think the biggest question was like

what is the final texture gonna be in terms of the set.

I don't know that I'll get a clear answer

because they've been sitting for so long.

Somehow the one at 270 feels softer

than the one that I cooked at 260.

It's gonna, yeah, I don't really want that stretch,

I want it to tear a little bit more.

It just tastes like a much worse version of Starburst.

This one is almost like chalky.

All right I'm confused about why this one

is so soft if I cooked it hotter.

So far nothing makes sense or is working.

I want to go back to that original taffy formula

and maybe have to make some adjustments.

Okay.

So in the recipe they say to add less than one gram total

of like liquid to taffy once it's cooked.

So I might not be able to really incorporate

hardly any fresh fruit juice.

Yeah I might have to rely almost entirely on the oils

for the flavors, plus some artificial food coloring.

Maybe I wanna pull the taffy less to get something firmer.

And then I'm gonna try to get all my ingredients together

and then go cook another batch.

[upbeat music]

[laughing]

It's pretty firm.

Alright the color is pretty great.

If I were making strawberry, which I'm not.

Alright, that felt good.

It's definitely the closest it's been.

It has a good chew.

Okay, so it's doing a lot of this.

[laughing]

Oh god, that's not what we want.

So I'm gonna, I think I'm gonna cut back on gelatin,

maybe by half and see what happens.

I kinda wanna try citrus next.

[upbeat music]

Okay.

Tastes lemony, hmm, it's good.

Let me compare it to the actual lemon.

What do they do to these, how do the make them so good?

The yellow Starburst really tastes a lot better.

I think for the lemon I'm gonna go up on the extract.

[sighing]

Up on the citric acid a little bit,

'cause I want it a little bit more tart.

Also I am now just really experiencing

how different the textures are.

What if it's cooked way hotter and pulled more.

[upbeat music]

So

it's pretty hard.

Hmm.

Maybe a little too sour.

It has the texture of, remember Now and Laters?

Will pull fillings out of your teeth.

So-- That hurts my teeth

watching you do that.

So I don't know, I'm getting firm but sticky.

You know what I mean?

Don't bite it, Andy don't bite it.

[laughing]

Careful with your teeth.

[Brad] Oh yeah.

[laughing]

Don't blame me if you have to get dental work.

Okay, look, Flavors nice!

The texture's not there but the flavor.

Like, Sour right?

Flavor's great. It is.

Lemon is the best one. It is so delicious.

Lemon's the easiest flavor.

This to me is Now and Later.

Now and Later, Now and Later would just like,

it just would not break down.

Yeah.

I don't know, how do I get it, maybe add more corn starch,

more fat, but the fat's gonna make it soft.

Yeah man, I don't know.

I don't even know what else to do.

Well then call it a day and get some rest.

You know you needed some inspiration, go for a run.

I think that's, yes, that was what I'm gonna do.

Shut it down guys.

Brad said we can stop.

So cut.

But it's so hard, I don't understand.

[sighing]

I really don't wanna do this anymore.

Should I try orange this time?

Let's try orange. All right.

That wasn't really a question.

I wanna try one more round, still making some changes

no gelatin, more corn starch, more fat

and that's to try to get that texture that

tears apart rather than stretches.

[upbeat music]

Oh my god, ow, it's hot.

This stupid show, it's not worth it.

I think I basically made candy canes.

Oh my god.

[laughing]

[sighing]

[crunching]

So what happened was,

I made orange flavored hard candy.

So obviously the gelatin is somewhat important.

I think the answer is corn starch, I think more corn starch

and more, maybe the same amount of fat,

maybe the fat is fine, I don't know that's as much as I got.

But flavor-wise, like at least

I'm getting a little bit of the flavor figure out.

[crunching]

Orange is pretty good.

So tomorrow I hope to do a test in the morning

and get the texture right and then just make four batches,

each one a flavor, get them into loaf pans,

let them set, cut them out and then, hopefully that'll be it

[Kevin] So you're not feeling defeated?

No, it's only day three.

[Kevin] How many days have you got in you?

As many as it takes.

[upbeat music]

Today I wanna do hopefully one final test batch

of taffy, doing it strawberry flavored.

And this is a version with even less gelatin,

more coconut oil, more corn starch.

[upbeat music]

[sighing]

Wanna look at the texture which I fear is not quite right.

[laughing]

Too hard, ow I literally might break a tooth.

I reminded myself yesterday when I reread the ingredients

that the like, what is it hydrogenated palm kernel oil,

is that the fat, is the third ingredient,

so there must be some amount of fat in the Starburst.

So I think in gonna increase the corn starch

and the coconut oil, each another tablespoon,

add in more gelatin and after that I'm done,

I'm not doing, I'm not doing any more changes,

it's just gonna be, it is what it is.

[sighing]

Okay, I really think I'm not gonna like

tweak it after this so--

[Kevin] What if it's terrible?

It'll be fine, we're gonna fake it.

Fake it until it gets to be day four

and then I'm not doing it anymore.

[upbeat music]

Whatever you did, do more of.

But this is it.

Oh well then you nailed it.

[laughing]

Thank you.

Cherry's down, three more to go,

I think I'm gonna go on to strawberry.

I'm listening to Brad talk about me, on It's Alive.

What did you do?

I did the turn.

We're simultaneously shooting, It's Alive

and I'm, I'm a,

[laughing]

I'm a guest, Brad, what are you doing?

[laughing]

I don't know.

That is not the technique, just leave it, you're done.

It's done?

Just yeah, just leave it.

I don't ruin it.

It's fine.

[Brad] Are you doing this just to bust my chops?

No!

I'm just kidding.

I think this should be the new model.

Because you can shoot twice the video.

[Brad] Sometimes it's just the way she goes.

Yeah.

[upbeat music]

It's not really soft, we'll see,

maybe this one has to get remade.

I'm gonna move on to lemon and orange.

[upbeat music]

They're really getting a lot harder than I was expecting.

What am I doing wrong, am I doing

something different than before?

All right, I'm just gonna keep going and finish orange.

Might as well fail with all of them.

[upbeat music]

Oh no, they're seeming pretty firm.

Can't believe I just made all these and

now they're all wrong.

You know I could, I could, oh Jesus Christ.

[laughing]

I'm not having a lot of success with rolling,

is I'm trying to stretch it by hand

to flatten it out and get it into a thinner layer.

Does anyone else feel like this episode is going on forever?

[laughing]

It's been so many days.

You guys it's not that bad.

I made one.

I'm really proud of it.

Can you even tell?

Maybe I'll just serve them warm

and then they'll be like a little softer.

And then they're gourmet, 'cause they're warm.

[Kevin] Warm, warn-et.

[laughing]

[whistling]

Very hard.

Brad you wanna try one?

Oo.

[laughing]

Alright take two.

Oh these are yours?

[Claire] They warm up, give it, give it like 30 seconds.

[laughing]

30 seconds?

[laughing]

Keep it on your tongue for 30 seconds, it gets better.

It does warm up.

Oo I almost choked.

Flavor's awesome.

Sorry, you know what you nailed, Now and Laters.

I know, I know.

[laughing]

I mean nailed them.

Can we get some of those?

Get a bowl full of Now and Laters, they can,

it sounds like a fix it in post.

Yeah yeah yeah.

And just, you know, they got technology,

every time you say Starburst, they can just go Now and Later

[laughing]

I know what I would do differently though.

Mm, tell me.

Just more coconut oil, more fat.

It softens up much more.

It breaks-- Yeah yeah yeah.

It breaks them.

[laughing]

It breaks the, like the stretch chain.

Yeah.

Well,

I think I'm close, I don't think this nails it

but I'm also not gonna make this anymore, I refuse.

I don't know, should I make it one more time tomorrow?

Yeah, can I only make one flavor though?

[Kevin] If you want.

Wait I've a really good idea, I've such a good idea.

Why didn't I do this?

Because I'm a prisoner of my own brain

I decided to try one more time tomorrow.

So tomorrow I'm gonna try maybe one final batch,

where I double the volume that I've been working with,

divide it between four mixing bowls,

each with it's own flavor and color,

I try to get some friends to come

help me with the pulling part,

so I don't have to do the like, four all in a row

which is very time consuming.

[sighing]

It's really annoying.

[sighing]

I need to ask everyone for a favor.

[Gaby] Yeah, what?

I need everyone together.

[Gaby] Guys, Claire needs help.

[laughing]

I need to phone a friend, I need three of you.

You need a phone, but we're gonna be right here.

That's what I'm asking. Where else would I be?

So no phone.

[laughing]

Get all the stand mixers in a row,

but I need everyone to simultaneously pull the taffy.

Oh Jesus.

I don't know if I can do it with my hands.

I don't know if I can do that either.

We're shooting a video together tomorrow morning.

I have arthritis.

No you don't!

No he doesn't, he has, what do you have here?

Oh nerve damage, I have nerve damage.

Nerve damage.

We try with this hand. Claire, I will be here.

Okay, yes, Chris. I'm so here for you.

How long does it take?

Technic, like five minutes.

Oh I'll help you. Yeah, I'm so excited.

Okay. I feel like I wasn't

part of this at all.

Well you're about to be. Who's fault is that?

[sighing]

Just gonna sit here while the camera's off.

And just cut little squares of paper and wrap everything.

Just 'cause it feels good.

[sentimental music]

I actually love wrapping presents, this is kinda fun.

[sentimental music]

Tomorrow, I still think I should do another test batch.

Which sucks, I think I need to do another test batch,

at least just to weigh out,

like how much sugar and everything.

So tomorrow I'll come in, make a quick test batch,

then hopefully, I don't even wanna say it, nevermind.

[upbeat music]

We have a new game plan, the first thing

I wanna do is that quick test batch.

[sighing]

Ready, okay.

[upbeat music]

Turns out the key to getting your mouth to water

when you eat something is citric acid,

because they really have that effect.

[upbeat music]

Okay.

No, that's.

[laughing]

Well the color looks great, I'll say that.

So I changed two things, one I changed temperature,

two I changed the proportion of coconut oil.

So it seems like the amount of coconut oil was enough

to like significantly soften the texture.

And then you add in the lower sugar temperature

and the whole thing seems too soft.

I'm gonna start getting together all my ingredients

and my set up for all four.

By the time I'm ready to start,

I can come back and see if this has set any more

and I can make the determination then

about what temperature I'm gonna take the sugar to.

My confidence is super low.

I just need it to be good enough, I just need it to be fine.

[upbeat music]

Okay just everyone stay close and do what I say.

Except for you Chris, you can do whatever you want.

You're my favorite, Chris is my favorite.

This feels appropriate for what's happening today.

And right there.

Okay here's the game plan, everyone pick a station,

one batch of sugar is getting divided into

four batches of taffy, each a different color and flavor.

[squeaking]

Does anyone have any questions?

What happens if we fail?

There's just gonna be one fewer flavor of Starburst.

All right everyone.

[laughing]

Melt your gelatin.

Oh my god, low, low, low, everyone low.

Everyone back to your stations.

All right a little clearance.

Oh my god, I don't, wait, wait, okay hold on.

Oh wait, I over shot it.

It's okay, here.

Oh my god. Whoa.

Morocc! It's okay, I, you know.

[laughing]

I've never felt so supported.

Sought after.

Yeah, Chris, you don't have to stir that.

Just go straight to the mixer, okay.

Chris what's happening with yours?

What is happening with mine?

Wait, what is happening with all of yours?

Oh Jesus. Look at my beaters!

[laughing]

No Molly, you gotta stop, you gotta stop yours.

What do you mean?

Look at it, it's not integrating at all.

[Chris] Can I just refill it?

You're going rogue and you're going

over to the stove without asking Claire.

No, I said it was fine.

Hey can you grab me the yellow food coloring?

Molly.

[laughing]

What?

[laughing]

Please stop, yeah.

I'm obeying orders.

Chris, what's happening over there?

Nothing good!

[laughing]

Alright, you guys now we need eight people

because we need four people as counterweights.

[laughing]

[Molly] Eight people per color?

[laughing]

[Kevin] We got you.

Thanks Kevin, alright Veronica,

was yours able to incorporate?

No.

Chris, what's happening?

I've got unincorporated liquid Claire.

Oh my god it's so hot and liquid.

Very hot, I know, isn't it?

Chris, it's so hot.

It's so hot, but yeah.

Molly, what's happening?

You know, I'm just trying to incorporate Claire.

[laughing]

Doing everything I can.

Okay, I think you're ready to press it into the--

You sure?

Into the pan, no.

But do it, but do it anyway.

I feel like I've let down Claire

and that's like really hard for me.

Why, Chris you came in and saved the day!

Yeah, I think Chris with the ladle

I'll never forget that as long as I live.

[sad music]

How'd everyone feel about their batch?

I feel like I failed.

That was the most stressful This feels great!

Thing I've ever done here.

I was incredibly nervous. I'm actually sweating a lot.

It felt like it went wrong from the beginning.

I feel like that all the time with Gourmet Makes,

I just want you guys to know.

Considering how hectic that got and I kinda blacked out,

the colors look decent even though

I wasn't really paying attention.

Here we go, well I'm gonna let these set,

I'm gonna go get a cold drink of water

and sit down and like have a moment.

[upbeat music]

[sighing]

These really firmed up.

Red feels good.

Alright.

This feels good, it's definitely

more flexible than yesterday.

I've high hopes actually.

This was Chris.

I'm gonna try to pull it apart, see what happens.

Oo okay, felt good.

I probably would lie, if it weren't true,

but I do think it's the best one yet.

It's soft enough to immediately chew,

like a Starburst and it doesn't do that

like super long stretch thing

and there's definitely like a mouth watering effect.

This is definitely the best it's been so far.

Pink looks a little crazy.

All right but at least, oo.

[laughing]

Pink is hard candy, that's a bummer.

Oo yellow's a little soft.

Ugh so sticky, this sucks.

Poor orange.

[laughing]

Little hard, little hard crack.

[laughing]

Never quite right this one.

Well, let's say I only make red.

Is that okay?

[Matthew] Well that's a Starburst.

Right?

Are those the gourmet ones or the?

Actually they're less gourmet than the originals

because ours don't have fresh fruit juice and theirs do.

Oh really?

Yeah.

So this is the first time Pastry Chef attempts to make--

Worse version of.

Worse version of Starburst, no that's great.

And attempts and I didn't even really do it.

We're calling it, I'm done.

Mm, it's good.

Is there a wrapping situation that's gonna happen?

Yeah, we're gonna do that,

at least I can sit there in silence.

I'm moving into the craft portion of this show.

[Brad] Oh you piece of shit.

[laughing]

Epic fail.

[Claire] Now what's happening Brad?

[Brad] [beeping] hate all of you.

[laughing]

Imagine your feeling of failure

right now and then double it.

[laughing]

Because that's what I'm going through.

Closing the holes on there still.

Like what the [beeping]?

[laughing]

[Claire] Oh no.

What the, what the.

I don't even know, I don't even know,

like the center's acting like it's over-proved.

You donut even know?

I don't know, I don't even know.

You didn't even get my pun.

[laughing]

But that was a, that was such a good pun

and Brad doesn't even care.

You donut even know!

Oh I didn't hear you Claire.

No.

[laughing]

Donut even know, I get it,

I didn't hear you the first time.

Gaby loves it.

What's the matter Claire, I got it, be cool man.

[laughing]

I'm so funny and no one cares.

[laughing]

She's cracking up.

You guys [beeping] ruined Claire.

I'm broken, thank you Gaby.

Gaby got it.

Well done, nothing else is going to change.

Fantastic.

Really?

Mhm.

You're, you're bullshitting me.

Mm-mm, as it warms up a little in your mouth

[Claire] Yeah.

The texture starts to come through.

[Claire] Yeah.

It starts to get a little chewier.

[Claire] Yeah.

Flavor's awesome.

This one was hard.

This one was hard.

I hate Starburst.

I had a hard time, you had a hard time.

I'd rather temper chocolate than do this again.

I don't blame ya.

At this point I can temper chocolate like all day long.

It does feel a little treacherous for my teeth.

Just let it warm up a little bit.

Oh okay.

I don't love the way it tastes.

Really?

Molly, you-- You will cut that.

You've been cut out of the video.

Did you hear? What's up?

That yours is the only one that worked.

No!

Yeah. Cherry's the only one

that turned out. Stop!

[Claire] I think it was 'cause of your positive attitude.

Look at that! Right?

That's awesome! Thank you.

Come on! They're beautiful.

You do that with Starburst. Did you bite a piece off?

Yeah. Yeah.

Chris take the smallest nibbles I've ever seen.

That's not how you eat a Starburst.

From a human being.

Have you ever had a Starburst?

Once, a very long time ago. You put it in your mouth.

[laughing]

Very interesting like snap followed by chew to it.

Uh huh.

At the end of the say, you made a Starburst, okay.

Thank you. Like that's what

we need to focus on here, you know.

Chris your positive attitude is incredible, thank you.

[Chris] Yeah, it's fine.

[Kevin] Feel better Claire?

I don't feel anything right now.

[Kevin] And big smiles.

No, I'm not, I'm not smiling.

[Kevin] Big smile.

Nope.

[sad music]

[Kevin] Look up here.

Damn.

[laughing]

[Kevin] Alright.

Okay.

[laughing]

[upbeat music]

All right, here's how you make, it's not gourmet.

[Kevin] Say it.

[laughing]

I'm sorry Kevin.

Okay, okay fine, alright,

here's how you make gourmet Starburst.

Grease and line four standard loaf pans

with refined coconut oil and parchment paper.

Combine 100 grams sugar, 100 grams light corn syrup

and 35 grams water in a small saucepan.

In a separate bowl, combine quarter cup refined coconut oil

one tablespoon corn starch, a pinch of kosher salt

and one teaspoon citric acid.

In another small bowl, soften half a sheet of 140 bloom

bronze gelatin in cold water for about 10 minutes.

Drain and wring out the gelatin,

then melt in a small saucepan, set aside.

Cook the sugar mixture to 300 Fahrenheit, swirling,

then immediately pour into a medium bowl.

Scrape in the coconut oil mixture and melted gelatin,

then add either three eighths teaspoon cherry

or strawberry flavor oil or three quarter teaspoon

citrus extract plus food coloring of the corresponding color

mix with a hand-mixer on low to combine,

then increase speed and beat on high

until you get a slowly dissolving ribbon.

Transfer mixture to a sheet of greased parchment

and let sit until cool enough to handle.

Begin to stretch the mixture with gloved, greased hands

using a hook to help you, until it's lightened in color,

firm and nearly room temperature.

Press into a prepared loaf pan and repeat process

with the other flavors, let the taffy set

for several hours before cutting into squares

and wrapping individually.

[upbeat music]

[Brad] Oh shit!

[laughing]

What?

What?

Nothing, just sometimes it just feels good.

Oh really, I thought something horrible happened.

No.

That's like sometimes I just like to make the noise,

[groaning]

Never noticed.

Are you kidding?

Yes. Oh.

[laughing]