Brad and Claire Make Doughnuts Part 3: Redemption

Oh Claire.

[Claire] What?

I wanted to pick your brain too about the south of France.

Oh yeah, we're you-- You been?

Yes, like we've talked about it like eight times.

Oh.

[laughing]

[upbeat music]

So we left off, it was about two and a half weeks ago

and that was a weird day.

Yeah, just yeah, much better vibes today.

I mean thank god we work in a test kitchen, you know.

Exactly.

'Cause it did not work.

Things go wrong, this is what happens.

Even though it worked three times before that.

I'm not quite sure, other than maybe

lack of time proofing in the first.

Can I tell you what I think was the problem.

Yeah.

I think that was part of it.

The first proof. Underfermented.

Then I think also in our attempt to eliminate

single use plastic, which is admirable,

Towel. We covered it with towels

and I think what happened was--

Skinned.

It dried out on the outside and then

it overproofed in the interior.

The whole thing I think was just

thrown off by that. Was screwed up, yeah.

Different variable.

So I made some new doughs.

I got them already cut, got them ready to go,

got our toppings laid out that we were ready to--

And you just did the exact same thing.

Exact same thing.

Mhm.

Except for the plastic over it.

Right, tight.

But it just felt, it felt better, the whole process

felt better. Yeah.

That said, we're in a good spot,

I've got the oil on. Okay.

Let's say we fry a couple of these huh?

So this is how you can tell a proofed dough

and that means that the gluten has had a chance

to relax and so you poke it and it springs back

most of the way but leaves a small indentation

so this is looking-- This one looks better even.

It's looking real good.

I like to do it on a parchment paper

and you go straight into the oil

on the parchment. I've been going like that

and then flipping. Right and then you just

peel the parchment right off.

[Brad] And sometimes you gotta give it a little bounce.

It should float like that.

[Claire] Yeah, so immediately all that gas is gonna

make it float to the surface, so I like to put it in

just like that, very nice.

Then I use these like little skewer, chopsticky

kinda, chopsticks work great.

Yeah.

You don't have to just flip it once,

you can kinda move them around a little bit.

Oh I love watching them fry.

They, they look so good.

Look at that, check the flip.

Boom, they look like bagels.

Oo but like look how much they puff up.

Yeah, it worked.

That, I think it's gonna get that nice ring.

Remember last time they were sinking to the bottom

and they were just,

and burning, and burning. And staying there.

Yeah, let's talk about the failure for a minute,

last time, which is a natural part,

especially in fermentation, everything can be pretty fickle.

Right. And things happen.

Well and there's so many variables

and you can't perfectly control for all of them.

Oo they look so good.

I still don't think I'm as excited as Chris Morocco

to eat a doughnut though.

[Brad] Oh he, I can't wait, I have never

been happier to feed Chris Morocco.

[upbeat music]

Yeah, oh you got doughnuts for days bud.

[upbeat music]

Look at how buoyant, so okay, see how this one is so

airy that it's more out of the oil than in?

That's the sign of a well proofed.

See there's a little ring round the middle

and that is what you're looking for,

so that means it's well proofed so.

Oh this makes me feel good Claire, I gotta tell ya,

I would have been so bummed out about this,

I had to bring the starter home, feed him over the weekend,

I went to a wedding, I was worrying.

These guys are looking done Brad.

Great, oh, now when it's hot is when we should put

certain topping on them too right?

[Claire] Yeah, so can I take them outta the oil?

Yeah.

So we're taking then out when they

have a really nice golden color.

[Brad] That's [beeping] hot.

[laughing]

Brad I just, that's 350 degrees.

I'm excited, okay, so here we have, just cinnamon sugar.

Nice. Oh they look so good.

This one is my favorite I'm so excited.

Little cocktail I made, sugar, cocoa powder, cocoa rouge,

a little bit of espresso powder and a little bit of cinnamon

woo!

[Claire] Can I, Hunzi, when you're done with that

can I show you this real quick?

This one has a real nice ring around the equator,

that's exactly what you're looking for,

you see it in like classic doughnut shops.

[Brad] Yeah.

They have that pale ring around the edge.

So this is looking ideal.

Oh my god, those look so good.

[Brad] Boo!

I am so excited.

[Claire] Me too.

[Brad] Keep, we gotta keep a couple plain too.

[Claire] Yeah.

Oh look at that, Claire. Oh I dropped it.

[bell ringing]

[Brad] Son of a bitch this is working out.

[laughing]

It was going to crush me if it didn't work today.

[Claire] Yeah.

So this one, little wild card, I'm pretty excited about,

it's honey, thinned out with a little apple cider vinegar,

a little zing zang, little honey glaze,

little honey vinegar glaze, come on.

Are you kidding me?

If you make this at home, be careful when you

put them in on the parchment that you don't

also dip your fingertips in the hot oil

which I have done before.

[Brad] No it feels good.

[laughing]

Oh they're delicate and delightful.

Look at that, that's like frickin'

that's like a movie doughnut.

You know what we did not do?

What?

Make the glaze again, the vanilla bean

powdered sugar glaze.

Well you know what, we're not gonna.

That's fine.

What do you want on these two?

[sighing]

[Claire] The chocolate maybe.

[Brad] Let's do one more honey glaze.

Okay why don't you just decide.

[laughing]

That's very Brad, as long as it's what you want,

then it's great. Maybe next time.

They remind me of like a chocolate eclair.

Alright turn the heat up a little bit.

Oo a chocolate e-Claire.

This one's for you chocolate e-Claire.

[beeping] terrible pun.

I don't even get it.

[laughing]

Chris got it, he's a dad.

All right, I'm gonna drop a couple more.

[Brad] Yeah, yeah.

Keep 'em, keep 'em coming, you know.

Oh doughnut shop's open.

[bell dinging]

You want in on the chocolate dip bud?

[Claire] Wait Brad, what about the sprinkles.

[Brad] Oh look, that comes out so good.

[Claire] Yeah, it looks amazing, like they're not too big.

[Brad] Those two look stupid perfect.

[Claire] Yeah.

[Brad] Morocco, these look so [beeping] good.

Just get ready, like go get a pour over going.

Little natural process, pour over, get Morocco all excited.

Single origin.

I love the ring, look at the ring.

It's got the ring, oo that looks so good.

Perfect. Perfect.

What, help with what?

Oh oh, there you go bud.

Do you wanna, Brad do you wanna

switch jobs for a little bit?

Yeah!

Have you done any maple or no?

[Brad] No maple yet.

Alright, let's do, let's do some of those.

[Brad] See if you can get another pretty chocolate.

[Claire] Okay.

[Brad] That's the maple, oo.

[Claire] Yeah.

[Brad] Oo yeah, nice dippage, that last one,

I should just [beeping] throw away.

[Claire] Here, can I try scrape it off.

Should we just eat it? Mm just throw it.

Should we just eat it?

[Brad] Yeah, take a bite.

I have not eaten anything today except for homemade.

[drum roll]

[Brad] And sour doughnuts.

Such good texture, like look at the inside of that

right there, mm, it's really good, I actually think

I'm gonna prefer a non chocolate glaze because--

[Brad] It's a lot.

[Claire] It's kinda overpowering, like the flavor's

kinda delicate but it's so good.

Mm, I see what you mean, it's like--

It's a little overpowering.

I mean it's very good.

I'm kinda, I'm really excited to try the maple.

Ow, it's so hot, ow! So hot.

They're so light. They're so light, right?

I love they're like little, like little bobbing apples.

Look at the text Brad sent me.

It's working.

Am I gonna get one, can I just have a plain one?

[Claire] Are you gonna get one, Chris,

what are we gonna do with all these?

But I don't mean like, am I gonna get one

at four o'clock after everyone else

has had their fun with them.

No, come on. No you're up first!

And then Jesse, Jesse don't go anywhere,

I've got a doughnut for you.

He can wait 'til we're ready.

How you wanna do this.

No. No he can't.

No please. Brad, are you kidding?

No no no no no no no no no. He's been waiting

two and a half weeks. No no, he can wait,

he can wait five more minutes.

He's right here.

Chris that one, no one cares about the rules.

Honestly you guys will be [squeaking] talking

about it in another two weeks and I still

wouldn't have eaten a doughnut.

[Brad] Just wanted to make you a real nice one.

[Claire] Those will be plain.

[heavenly music]

Leave those ones plain.

It burns, but it burns in a good way.

[Claire] Burned?

No, my mouth.

Your mouth? Yeah, that's what you get!

See I didn't want you to eat it

because it was too hot Chris.

It's amazing how hot they stay for so long.

We just care.

Another way that we know that they're well proofed

and not overproofed, I mean by the end there may be--

To the bench.

I was literally in the middle of saying--

[beeping]

Yeah, Delany.

Delany!

[dramatic music]

[Claire] Can I arrange differently for the beauties then.

Yes. Yeah, go for it.

'Cause I wanna do, now here, now I think it looks great.

And then a little-- Oh yeah you nailed it,

you totally tied this room together.

Thank you.

[laughing]

Brad, believe me, that did something.

No absolutely.

I can't reveal too much about my process

and don't question my methods.

Anyway. Anyway, I think

this was a great success, we have some sour doughnuts

that work, no added commercial yeast, this is all

just some starter that was fed and then

turned into dough, it was actually quite steppy

as we all found out.

[laughing]

This is perfect, I'm gonna cut this one.

No that, I like this one.

'Cause of the ring.

Okay, you know you pick your battles.

[laughing]

Yeah nice, way different than the ones that didn't work,

remember? Yeah.

I think it's a nice--

How small are these bites?

A bite size.

This is what I like about yeast doughnuts,

when you do this. Oh hey Jesse,

I promised you a doughnut

if you wanna try one. If you pull them apart.

I would love to hear your thoughts.

All right Jesse, you can have a whole one to yourself.

Wow. Because you earned it.

And I promised you one last time and we failed you.

So pick one that you like,

let me explain. I recommend a cinnamon sugar

Cinnamon sugar?

You can make your own choice.

Cinnamon sugar. For what it's worth.

Cinnamon sugar, cocoa powder and espresso powder,

honey and apple cider vinegar,

and some of them are maple syrup but we kinda lost track.

So I'm gonna go with my friend Claire's choice.

Alright fine, that's great.

Here I'ma get you a, let me get you a plate.

Oh my, what are you making?

Here, paper towel.

It's so light.

Light.

So pillowy.

Yeah, you can almost even go with like a savory topping.

Mhm.

Like if there was no cinnamon sugar on that

and I cut it in half and put like ham and cheese on it,

wouldn't be upset. Ooh.

I wouldn't be mad at that.

Right?

No that'd be cute, yeah.

That's be cute did you say, it would be cute as hell.

It would be cute, it'd be cute as hell.

Great, well I think that went, oh Rhoda Boone.

Can I cut you a piece of doughnut?

Yes, I would love some.

Rhoda Boone hardest working woman in showbiz.

I don't, you're good right?

Hunzi, I don't need to, can I, you're good, right?

Alright bye Claire, thanks, I had fun too.

No no no, I don't mean I'm done,

I'm just saying I'm busy at the moment.

Love it, great job!

Thanks Rhoda!

Ah this is great, well I'm really glad that worked

because I don't know if I coulda taken the failure

on that one, you know we've had our, but that,

that's cooking, especially fermentation, you know.

Things go wrong, things happen and then you learn from them,

adjust and then you get home runs right here.

Dirty baby.

And if we didn't serve doughnuts to this test kitchen,

there was gonna be a mutiny.

Or if we didn't deliver a video

I probably would have gotten fired.

Or that. Yeah.

We would have had to go and buy doughnuts.

Can I try a little piece of maple?

If you can find it.

I like the extra sweetness on the outside.

We want it to be a.

Mm this is the best one.

It's very good, could even have gone another coat.

It's so good, look at that great texture, interior,

can I show you another sign that these were well proofed?

So this is a plain one, you can see that it has

a nice dry exterior, and if it's overproofed,

it tends to absorb a lot of oil

and get really greasy but this is not greasy,

like if I squeeze it, oil doesn't come out.

So I did not get to try Chris Morocco's famous Youghnut.

Uh huh.

Which is a yogurt cake doughnut, which looked amazing

but what I generally prefer about yeasted doughnuts

versus cake is that I think a well made yeast doughnut

is lighter than a cake doughnut, which I really like,

but what's great about sourdough doughnuts,

is that the sourdough's sort of like a natural preservative,

like it keeps the doughnuts like moist--

[Brad] Fresh and oily.

Like yeah, they'll last a long time after frying

which is not something you really get with doughnuts.

Those cake doughnuts, they go, they go to hell quick.

Yeah.

And these just feel a little more special,

it's like you're almost like eating like more of a treat.

Like it's more of a pasty than it is just like--

Yes.

Fried bread, or like cake. Right totally, right.

Yeah, call it brioche, then it's like fancy.

Alright Chris.

I think try the maple, try the maple.

Chris you can have whatever you want.

Remember that.

I want what Claire wants me to have.

Oh Christ.

Exactly.

But you do, here,

I'll cut you a little bite. Why do you cut so small?

Just eat the whole piece. All he wants is a nibble.

I personally find a [beeping] cake cake doughnut

to be vastly superior to a [beeping] yeast doughnut.

But what about a good yeast doughnut?

But a good yeast doughnut like this,

it's pretty hard to argue with.

Wait I was only out for like 30 minutes--

Oh Jesus. Oh Gaby, come on over.

Come on over. Hey Gaby, want a doughnut?

I really should say no.

Wait Gaby, you come over here being like.

It's the most Gaby thing I've ever heard.

Implying you want a doughnut

and then we're like Gaby, would you like one

and you're like, well I really shouldn't.

I'm feeling faint. Oh look quick protein snack.

With a side of steak.

May I? Oh, this is exactly

what we needed, hold on, out of the way chocolate.

You got a nice little savory.

Mm Chris.

Boom boom boom.

Oh my god, that is so good.

So good.

Oh!

Straight steak is the best steak there is.

If you don't do that, you are a fool!

How good is that? so good.

It's hot brioche.

Claire.

Brad, if I eat, if I, the next thing--

Claire it doesn't even taste savory at all.

The next thing I eat has to be--

It's a plain doughnut.

Something green.

[dinging]

hold on but do you do this.

Yeah, dip it in there, alright, see you're in.

I like where she's going.

Oh my god, that looks so good.

I mean what's not to like.

How frickin' awesome is that?

It's pretty good.

[banging]

This whole day was off the rails.

No this was great, this was a home run Claire.

I just ate a piece of doughnut with steak on it.

Yeah, things are working out for you.

It was good.

Great well Claire, that was a lot of fun,

we made some sourdough doughnuts, successfully,

super easy to make once you get it all dialed in.

[upbeat music]

Thank you for your dedication to this project.

[laughing]

And basically doing all the work and I just showed up.

You were a guest.

I was a--

You don't invite someone over--

Spiritual guide.

I feel like I was pulling you out of the,

like dark hole more than you--

What?

Yeah, that last shoot, the one where our doughnuts--

I don't remember, I don't remember it that way.

You were having a hard,

you were having a rough time. Go to the footage.

[laughing]

With like life that day.

Probably.

It's fine, we all have that

and that's why we make doughnuts.

Yeah, thank god for doughnuts.

Hunzi you get out of here because

the reason why this didn't work last time

is because you had to go catch an airplane.

Don't blame Hunzi.

It was really poor planning on his end.

[laughing]

Where you going?

[upbeat music]

All right.

Yeah, sucks being him, huh?

Should have been producers or what are you,

you're like a producer. Take a doughnut

with you on the plane.

What are you, camera operator, director?

Take a doughnut in like a little half pint

so it doesn't get smushed.

Oh yeah, put that, bring that on your airplane.

No one's gonna be mad if you bring a fresh made doughnut.

Wait you pulling a fresh doughnut out of one of these.

Yeah, you're doing alright.

Which one you want bud? Which one you want?

Maple, maple, maple, maple, maple.

Good luck finding it, you're gonna get,

it's either gonna be maple or honey.

That was maple.

[laughing]

You don't care right?

My nose touched it.

Oh my god.

That looks so cute. It's so perfect and cute.

Oh my god, actually, this is Alright, we'll send him

off to school. such a pretty doughnut also.

Just for you bud.

Ciao for now.

I'm really excited for you for later.

Thank you, I'm really lad this worked out.

And sourdough doughnuts with Half Sour herself.

[laughing]

Bon Appetit.

That name really stuck huh?

Sure did.

Half sour, they put that [beeping] on a shirt.

Yep.

Bruce. Bruce, man in Big Bruce.

Oh my god, do I love Bruce Springsteen.

Yeah, he's the best man.

Just, just so much.

Still going hard, new album out too.

I know.

Wish I knew the name of it, I would,

I would do a Bruce plug then maybe

he would send me a ticket.

To his show.

I'll fight you for the ticket.

Let's get, really, let's get him on.

Yeah, I don't think Bruce is gonna--

No Bruce cares, he's a man of the people Claire.

I know.

And I'm from New Jersey too.

Asbury, come on baby.

Uh really.

That's how we'll get some numbers.

There's nobody better than Bruce.

I have a question. Yep.

If I wanted to replace my kitchen counters

with stainless steel, but I don't wanna pay a lot of money,

and I don't--

Ugh, you're one of those.

And I don't wanna--

I want nice things but I want the cost Ikea prices.

Yeah, can you put sheet metal over the counters?

[laughing]

Yeah, it's got, it's kind of a, it sounds like a pain

in the ass, you need someone to fabricate you.

Dammit.

There's different grades of stainless steel

and there's--

Wait nevermind, you know what, nevermind,

it wasn't an easy answer.

Well no, I was about to be and--

[upbeat music]