-[explosion] -[screaming]
What is happening?
AMY: Yeah!
* Baking It *
* Grannies taste it *
* Baking It *
***
BOTH: Hello, bakers!
ALL: Hi!
-AMY: Hi, everybody. Hi. -MAYA: Wow.
You've made it through two challenges.
You all have so much to be proud of.
But as I'm sure you're probably feeling,
the time is going by fast.
MAYA: When we started this show,
baking was really having a moment.
It was young, fresh, bingeable.
Yeah. But then we looked into it, and we found out
that people have been baking for decades, hundreds of years.
Say what?
Yeah. It's actually been around a really long time.
I know. So here to share some baking history
is our panel of opinionated grannies.
[applause]
So cute.
Passing down family recipes is a way
to keep a family's history going through the generations.
So that is why we have brought you some
of our favorite vintage recipes for you today.
Bakers, your challenge this week is to bake original dishes
inspired by vintage recipe cards.
AMY: We wanna see your modern takes on retro recipes
that people stopped making last century.
MAYA: Yeah. Like, did they stop making them
because they tasted absolutely terrible?
-AMY: Huh? -MAYA: Or did they stop making them because
they were too good, and it's a conspiracy?
Ooh. All the way to the top.
Right? We're about to find out in this next Big Ol' Bake.
***
Let's see those retro recipes from the past.
-SHERRI: Ah! -NORMA: Oh, wow.
SHERRI: Look, look, look, girl. Got my vodka.
-[Anne laughs] -HARRIET: I know there's a recipe card in here.
What do you call these things again?
-I know they're fighting-- -Brass knuckles.
Brass knuckles.
HARRIET: I think Anne got to my purse. Okay?
I got a recipe here, guys. I've got a recipe.
Do you want your teeth?
No, Harriet. I don't.
HARRIET: Okay. There we go.
Bakers, you ready to come on up and get your recipe?
MAYA: Please come up, Reema and Ravi.
Oh, no. We got pickle cream cheesecake.
SHERRI: Yes.
-Oh. -I hate pickle.
This recipe is my great-grandmother's,
Mother Minnie.
One thing we could never call her was grandma.
We had to call her Mother.
She actually started doing this one back in the '40s.
-So, this recipe-- -Okay.
-- it kinda reminded me of a cucumber sandwich.
And so I cannot wait to see your revamped recipe.
The pressure is high. We're gonna make her proud.
Okay.
AMY: Kandyy and Sevn.
So our recipe is chocolate sauerkraut cake.
-Ooh. -Yum.
Sauerkraut?
My grandmother was the worst cook on planet Earth.
But I will tell you something odd,
that was one of the best recipes she made.
So you can only imagine the others.
All right. Agnes and George.
We got a ham banana bake.
Okay. It's not that bad.
Mom and daddy went to Hawaii in 1959.
They went to some luau, I guess, and had this recipe.
GEORGE: I got something for this.
ANNE: Yeah. I think you can handle it.
Yuki and Omonivie. Walking up with their broaches.
Tomato and banana tart.
HARRIET: We always had tomatoes because we grew
tomatoes and we had banana trees, so it just came together.
-Okay. -AMY: Maddie and April.
-Oh. -Oh, no.
[laughter]
Tuna and pear pizza.
Y'all gonna have me gagging over there.
You're not a fish person?
-No. -You're gonna be.
I know it sounds unusual, but this vintage recipe,
it turns out pretty good.
MAYA: Keith and Corey.
This is a wonderful recipe.
We got prawn stuffed apples.
I thought you loved us.
-Yeah. -[laughter]
HARRIET: My father had brought those prawn home
from a fishing trip into the Gulf.
It was my grandmother's way of not letting anything go to waste.
She chopped up those prawns and put 'em
in the brown sugar, and it was a wonderful recipe.
This is a test, so...
A lot of the stories from the grannies were, "All we had
left in the fridge were these two things."
Prawns. So many prawns.
You look inside your refrigerator,
all you see is a prawn, an apple and cranberry sauce.
-Do you give up? -Never.
You say, "It's time for dinner."
Let's prawn this.
[laughs]
Now, as my Granny always said, "Big ol' bake it."
-Oh. -AGNES: Let's go.
-I'm getting too loud. -[chuckles]
-What are we gonna do with this? -Yeah.
This is a chocolate.
GEORGE: I'm so excited.
I got an idea. We're gonna make mofongo.
Mofongo is a traditional dish
from different places in the Caribbean.
In my case, I'm making it Dominican style.
That's something I grew up eating my whole life.
So I'm gonna take the lead today.
I'm so excited to make this dish. I think we got this.
Does it have to be dessert? We just gotta use pickle and--
It doesn't have to be dessert. Should we do--
-Let's do pizza. -Pizza?
-Pizza works. -Pizza's easy.
I could do a banana walnut bread.
What goes on banana bread with banana bread?
French toast.
French-- ooh, I like that.
What exactly we got in here?
We have chocolate sauerkraut.
Chocolate sauerkraut. I think gingerbread marble chocolatey.
KEITH: I've had curry apples before and I've also had--
You have?
I have. It was a vegan dish.
-I've had-- -And I've also had curry shrimp.
So curry should be the-- the dish.
-What did we get? -We're gonna do tuna and pear.
-Let's do a tart. We're good? -Okay.
You'll get the stuff and I'll start the crust.
-Okay. -Sounds good.
COREY: This is a very strange dish.
You know how awesome it'll be when we have our own restaurant?
I can see us doing this all the time.
What did you call your grandma?
-Grandma. -Grandma?
-Yeah. -We have Nana and Pop.
-My dad's name is Pop. -I love Pop.
HARRIET: Pop's in our family, too.
I like hearing mother's names.
-Harriet. -Oh, you were a junior.
Mama was Harriet Amanda. And I'm Harriet Elizabeth.
Do they ever call you junior?
No, little Harriet.
-Aw! Little Harriet. -I was little Harriet.
It's amazing when you cook with knives that are actually sharp.
With good knives. Yeah.
APRIL: I've never used a good knife.
-Ow. -Did you really just cut yourself?
No, I did not.
-Be careful. -You sound like my mom.
-Hello. -Hello.
How are you?
Good. We're good.
Wow. This smells really good.
MAYA: Yes, it does.
Are you for sure? 'Cause it smells like fish to me.
We're trying not to breathe. We're breathing through our mouths.
-What recipe did you get? -Pear and tuna pizza.
Well, what's your spin on it?
What's your recipe that you're going to make?
-Can you tell? -You're the one who made the recipe.
Mom is very sweet. Mom is always like, "You go ahead."
-Yes. -Are you a cook at home?
-Do you like to cook? -I have seven children.
If you don't feed them, you get in trouble by the state.
So yes, I do feed them.
I did cook a lot until Maddie found the love of cooking.
And then I was like, "Oh, you can have it."
-She's like, "You take it." -I'm a giver.
Maddie, I guess you tell us what you're making.
So we're gonna make a pear pancetta tuna tart
filled with vegetables, pear,
egg, spices, and tuna and pancetta on the top.
I think this is gonna look good.
I hear pancetta. It's a very smart move.
That's what I'm hoping,
the pancetta will take over the tuna.
-MAYA: Smart. -AMY: Smart move.
And you can't really smell or taste the tuna.
We both are not seafood people.
Especially tuna and tuna smells.
That's a no-go.
Our thought process is if we cover the tuna
with ingredients that we both actually love,
that maybe it can overcome the tuna smell
for us and we can actually get through this bake.
Look at that. You're braiding.
MADDIE: We're gonna try to make it pretty
to cover up for the taste.
Now, are there any recipes passed down in your fam?
Every dinner known to man, Mom would bring the pear salad.
Take half of a pear, put mayonnaise, cheddar cheese
and a cherry on top.
-What? -And it's a southern thing.
Salads in the south, they call a lot of things salads,
but they don't have any lettuces or vegetable.
That is called pear salad.
I like to do movie theater salad,
which is popcorn and peanut M&M'S.
SEVN: Spices, spices, spices.
I don't wanna go much thinner than this.
That's-- that's fine, honestly.
SEVN: We need some more sauerkraut.
-Just a little bit more. -KANDYY: Okay.
The recipe we have is chocolate sauerkraut cake.
Sauerkraut stinks.
So to make it tastes good,
we've incorporated in a chocolate ganache.
I want to balance those flavors out.
I didn't want one to be more powerful than the other.
* Stir, stir, stir the pot *
* Don't you let it burn *
* When it starts to boil and bubble *
* Don't forget to turn *
* Whoop whoop *
[crosstalk]
-Hi! -MAYA: How is it going here?
I feel like we're a lot calmer.
Is that because you won the last challenge?
It might be because of this--
MAYA: Uh-uh. Congratulations.
Okay. So what are you guys making?
We were blessed with the tomato banana
tart recipe, which I've never heard of.
So we're gonna do like an elevated brunch.
So we have a really yummy banana walnut bread.
We're gonna slice it up, do some French toast
with some assorted toppings, including--
Our tomato jam.
So this is new for me, but my family, we love tomatoes.
It's like a staple in Nigerian cooking.
You're making stews. You use it in a lot of dishes.
So I'm kind of remixing some of my mom's Nigerian recipes
and using the tomato stew base,
but instead making a tomato jam.
-Sounds delicious. -Sounds amazing.
-I hope it turns out great. -It smells really good.
She put all the little secret spices and ingredients.
And who would you say are the people
that taught you to cook?
I definitely learned how to cook from my mom.
'Cause my mom was like, [Nigerian accent]
"All my children, eh, they must cook in the kitchen.
You have no choice."
[laughs]
Why do I feel like that's perfectly accurate?
It is. It is.
You-- you know each other's families?
Oh, my God. We're like blended families.
We just came back from Nigeria visiting her family.
-Really? -OMONIVIE: Yeah.
I was able to travel to Nigeria
for my birthday with Yuki and her husband Anthony.
And this was just so amazing to have my best friend
travel with me to my country, to be with my family.
That just meant the world to me.
-Thank you so much. -I love you.
For me, both my parents were always in the kitchen.
My dad came from the south, so we were having
like the southern fried chicken,
the candied yams, like, the whole collard green spread.
And then my mom came from Japan, so she taught me a lot
of seafood dishes, noodles, stir fries.
So it kinda depended on the day.
Like, who was cooking, like, there was a different menu.
My stepmother is from Kyoto.
-Oh, wow. -It's so beautiful there.
-MAYA: It's beautiful. -Oh my God.
-Oh yeah. Okay. -Okay.
Can we learn a little Nigerian?
OMONIVIE: Okay.
When we serve you these dishes, you can say
[speaking Nigerian language] and that means thank you.
[speaking in Nigerian language]
OMONIVIE: Yes. So that means thank you.
It's beautiful. Yuki and Omonivie are so sweet.
They're like chosen sisters.
I really like watching you guys speak Japanese.
That was exciting.
I've been dying to speak Japanese to somebody.
-This is-- -You can speak it to me anytime.
-Really? -I won't understand it,
but I will definitely appreciate it.
Okay. All right. So give me your pinky.
-Okay. -And we'll say this together.
Okay.
Okay. You promised.
* Baking It *
* Old timey recipes *
* Have tastes changed? We shall see *
* Lost in the bag for a century *
* Old timey recipes *
* Pickles and cream cheese *
* Yeah *
APRIL: You're doing so good.
-Excuse me. Sorry. -RAVI: I don't know.
It just feels better when you do it by hand.
-And I'm working hard. -REEMA: You're sweating.
RAVI: What a day.
The recipe that we are recreating
is GiGi Sherri's pickle cream cheesecake.
We're gonna have to get creative here.
I don't know how we're gonna get this to taste good.
-Hello. -Hi, Reema and Ravi.
-Hi. -Hello. How's it going?
Ooh, it smells really good over here.
It really does. What are you guys making?
We're gonna make a pickle cream cheese pizza.
Wow.
REEMA: The sauce will be a cream cheese,
garlic, ranch sauce.
And then we're gonna do mozzarella and parm,
a ton of pickles.
And then we're gonna top it with bacon.
I think that sounds good.
Sounds delicious. This is like a pregnant woman's pizza dream.
Yes.
I feel like everybody loves pizza.
Yeah. He's actually a really good pizza maker.
He'll do grilled pizzas in the summer.
We're from Chicago, so, obviously-- "Chicahgo."
So we're known for deep dish pizza,
so we definitely want to do an homage to where we're from.
That's the one thing I actually bake.
Everything else, it's all my sister.
Oh, so you really are pizza maker.
-I love pizza. -This is exciting, then.
I hate pickles, though. So I'm kinda scared.
I just hate the smell of 'em, the feel of 'em.
Last time you got a little bit of some critique.
Oh, yeah. We're gonna make sure dough is cooked.
We're doing dough again today.
Main goal, make sure it's fully cooked.
-MAYA: Fully cooked. -Fully cooked dough is the goal.
AMY: Okay.
If we have undercooked dough for two challenges--
-We're going home. -We're going home.
I know how to make dough and to feel like I don't know
what I'm doing, my head will hang so low.
I'm in charge of the dough today, so it'll be all right.
AGNES: What do I add to this now? You're the boss.
Baby, you're the master chef here.
I'm only chef when it's this kind of dish.
-You know what I'm talking about? -AGNES: I love it.
We're in our kitchen. We're moving and grooving.
Hi, Agnes and George.
How are you guys?
-AMY: Hi, Agnes. -What are you gonna make?
So we're making old-fashioned Dominican mofongo.
One of the main ingredient is green plantain,
ham, bacon, and some mozzarella cheese.
We're gonna mix all these things together
and it's gonna become like a mountain of this platano
mixed with, like, bacon, ham.
-Platano. What is that? -They're-- it's--
Green plantains.
We like to call them platanos.
Platano. Si, si, si.
You had me at platanos.
It might be one of my favorite foods.
-So you're gonna enjoy this. -Yes.
So, your original recipe, do you have the card?
-Can we see it? Okay. -AGNES: Yes, we do.
-Ham banana bake. -AMY: Ham banana bake.
GEORGE: I was excited.
-AMY: You were? -Yes.
AGNES: George is very excited to make this dish.
He loves his bananas.
-Wow. -AGNES: I'm not lying.
You do love your bananas.
You eat regular bananas with rice and beans.
-Who-- who doesn't like it? -You-- I don't.
-It's fire. -[laughs]
Crazy.
So what's in here?
So mofongo's like a little dry, wet, in between both.
But we're gonna have a little cup of gravy for you.
You can throw it on and make a nice amount. You can smell it.
Oh, that's mofongo-y.
AGNES: Cilantro.
-AMY: Garlic. -AGNES: Yes.
I guess the challenge for this bake is you gotta know
how-- what you're doing, and you gotta know the taste.
So taking charge today is the biggest responsibility
I've had in my whole life besides having five kids.
Feels so good to take the reins, as they say.
-This smells incredible. -Yeah.
We're gonna have to do a dance for this one, too.
Is it gonna be called the Mofongo?
-The Mofongo Dance. -MAYA: Hey.
* Dance tototo, dance tototo, dance tototo, dance tototo *
* Mofongo tototo, mofongo *
* Mofongo *
-[laughs] -Hello, who dis? Mofongo.
* Dance tototo, dance tototo, dance *
Come on, Come on, come on.
MAYA: Yeah. That's what I wanted to see.
HARRIET: I tell you, my grandmother was a great cook.
We did have eggs a lot because we had chickens.
They were my pets.
And one time I couldn't find one of my pets.
And my uncle Harold said, "I don't know why
you can't find her. She's on the table."
-Oh, God. -Oh, no.
-Yep. She was fried. -Oh.
The challenge today is interesting.
We gave them vintage recipes.
I'm really excited to see if they can have good flavor.
[gagging]
-Ew! -Mm-mmm.
And they have to make it their own.
So I'm really interested to see what they can do.
KEITH: So today we got prawn stuffed apples.
I don't know why grandma was making this,
but recipe for disaster, I feel like.
[chuckles] Literally.
AGNES: Those bananas, I hope it works.
Trust me. Okay? Just trust the process.
Looking at all the recipes we had,
what do you think the biggest challenge is gonna be?
Creativity.
-Creativity? -Yes.
YUKI: This is definitely gonna be a creative challenge.
Especially if bakers don't like a specific ingredient.
-ANNE: Exactly. -APRIL: Hold your breath.
[gagging]
-Stop. -Dump it.
Of course, the taste and the presentation.
I wanna see them in that revamped vintage recipe.
That's what I'm looking for.
I don't mean to yuck their yum, but we're gonna
upgrade it and make it hopefully 10 times better.
The bakers, I bet you they're thinking,
"We wanna make her great-grandmother Minnie proud."
COREY: The biggest stress about this,
this is somebody's actual grandmother's recipe.
-You know I had that coffee with lunch. -Yes.
I could have brushed my teeth and had a chance.
Do you have any butterscotch?
Oh, wait. Wait. I know I have something.
Okay. Let's see what you got.
Now, I don't have butterscotch.
Well, I'll take something. What do you have?
I-- it's a mint.
[gasps] Oh, but I don't know how long it's been in here.
[old country style music]
* Ooh *
And that's a true story.
* Baking It *
Amy, what would you make for this challenge?
I would just make a chocolate cake
and just pretend that whatever weird ingredient
I got was in there.
I'd be like, "Yep, tuna is in there. Yep."
And they'd be like, "I can't taste it."
"I guess the chocolate is so good."
Look, I made you an apple pie.
And then I just micro-ground the prawns.
-Mm-hmm. -There's prawn powder in there.
You can't even detect it, but it just becomes an umami.
-Mm. -"Ooh, Mami."
[laughs]
Did you season the shrimp with the old bay?
-Yep. -YUKI: I like this challenge.
-I'mma just say that. -OMONIVIE: I don't know, I'm still stressed.
I think I just feel better now that the banana bread is in the--
OMONIVIE: And we gonna make sure it's what? Moist.
-Moist. -Okay?
YUKI: Moisture.
The mofongo right now is tasting a little bland.
So we're gonna add some more cheese to it
to give a little more-- more taste, some garlic powder.
And check on the gravy because the gravy's gonna be
very important 'cause, you know, we need that
to have like that extra, mm, into the taste.
-Good? -I think it's fine for me.
-GEORGE: I love it. -AGNES: Yeah. It's fine.
I just need to get this batter in the oven. Everything's mixed.
-Hi, Kandyy. -Hi, Sevn. How you guys doing?
-I'm more relaxed. -MAYA: Are you? -I'm always relaxed.
What are you making?
We got the sauerkraut and chocolate cake.
-Yes. -You know, we love breakfast.
-Yeah. -So we're going to do a stack of pancakes.
It's gonna be gingerbread chocolate marble cake.
MAYA: Whoa!
SEVN: With the sauerkraut chocolate ganache.
BOTH: Sauerkraut chocolate ganache.
-Yeah. -The grannies already know that we can
bake really good and we can decorate.
This time, I wanna show them my creativity
with hyper realistic cake.
We wanna make it more detailed, more things going on
and on a more realistic level.
KANDYY: And we want it to be different
than what all the other bakers are doing.
So we wanna make sure we are thinking outside of the box.
Thinking outside of the sauerkraut jar.
Yes.
I wonder what chocolate and sauerkraut tastes like together.
KANDYY: It stinks, doesn't it?
-Did you just wake up? -I-- I love it.
KANDYY: Oh, so you're gonna love it then.
-Ooh. -[laughter]
I do love sauerkraut, too, but when you close
the jar, it smells like someone farted.
[both laugh]
In your family, who gave you passed down recipes?
My grandmother passed it down.
Some which she taught me direct.
Some she passed on to my mom, and then my mom passed it to me.
One of my favorites, sweet potato pie.
I bet it's so good.
-I bet it's so good. -It is.
Growing up, sweet potato pies was like
one of the biggest things in my family.
I would make it with my grandmother,
I would make it with my mom.
I feel very connected to my family when I bake.
So it's like, in a sense, my family is here with me.
This is a really good idea. You guys are having a lot of fun with this.
-They're gonna like it. -MAYA: I love that.
I'm gonna make you proud, I promise.
-Thank you. -We're already proud.
I mean, the fact that you are here--
Can you adopt me?
I mean, let me talk to my partner. Can we adopt her?
-Yes. The answer is yes. -Okay, yes.
-Yes. -I'm Maya's baby!
[laughter]
Okay. Don't leave me behind.
-You're coming, too. -SEVN: It's a pair.
It's a twofer.
-Yes. -Yeah.
Pour this in?
Yeah. Everything. And then a teaspoon of--
AGNES: Teaspoon?
-Is that pretty? Is that okay? -APRIL: Pretty.
YUKI: Look at Corey just coreying things away.
Making a mess.
Sevn, you're the apple of my eye.
[laughs]
YUKI: Banana bread. Banana bread.
I can feel that there's still a little
doughiness on the inside.
I'm a little nervous.
Nobody likes French toast that's too soggy. Right?
And you also don't want it where it's, like,
overdone and dry.
I did not want a repeat of the first challenge
where I leave it in there too long, and it gets over baked.
Gotta hit that right perfect sweet spot for Grandma Harriet.
I'm going in the oven one more time.
OMONIVIE: Okay.
YUKI: Like, two or three more minutes.
***
Oh, this is having me cry.
The spices open up your-- your nasal cavity?
No, seriously. I'm, like, really crying.
I got it. So dramatic.
-AMY: Hi. -Hi, guys.
We're making shrimp. We can smell it.
The grandmas gave us prawn stuffed apples.
So we were thinking about doing a shrimp apple basil curry.
We're going to hollow out some honey crisp
and granny smith apples.
We're gonna fill that with the curry mixture
of the shrimp and the sliced apples
that have been sautéed down in the pan.
And then we're gonna add some prawns on the outside of it.
BOTH: Ooh.
KEITH: Hopefully, it's gonna, like, remind
them of grandma's recipes.
We don't wanna disrespect grandma.
Who's was this? This was Harriet's?
BOTH: Yes.
How would Harriet have said it?
You gotta get the rising up out the chair.
Yes.
[imitating Harriet] All right, y'all.
Pawn stuffed apples,
a delicious treat for a hot New Orleans summer.
-Yeah. -MAYA: Wow.
Now, how do we feel about cooking shrimp?
-'Cause we don't wanna overcook. -KEITH: Exactly.
And then we still have to put them in the oven.
I'm about to actually take them off.
-Take them off. -Do what you need to do.
-Take them off. -But I smell curry already.
That's curry from scratch.
Who taught you how to cook?
-COREY: Our dad. -KEITH: Our father.
-Really? -KEITH: Yes.
He's the one that really introduced spice into our life.
Our relationship with our father
was very different than normal kids.
COREY: He was incarcerated for majority of our life.
KEITH: And soon after he was released from prison,
he passed away.
In the short amount of time that we really had to spend with him,
you know, he made sure that we knew how to cook.
He was the one that really dug us into the real true
meaning of cooking and spices.
So doing this dish was kind of paying homage to him.
What kind of recipes did your dad teach you?
Chicken and dumplings, roast beef,
yellow cake with chocolate icing.
Ugh. My favorite.
But I don't know if you know this about Maya and I,
but we're not huge frosting fans.
So we tend to like a little bit.
We're the people that take the cupcake
and we scrape off most of the frosting.
-Really? -It's too sweet for me. -Mm-hmm.
We threw Keith and Corey about the icing.
MAYA: Yeah.
That definitely felt like they were afraid
that we were part robot.
And robots be like, "I just don't like the icing.
It makes my gears jam up.
I mean, it makes my stomach hurt."
[robotic voice] Shrimp inside of apple.
Yummy. Yummy.
[robotic voice] This shrimp is so yummy in my apple.
Let me take it back to the creator.
Granny. Granny. Granny.
I have brought you apple.
Granny, please don't unplug me again.
* Baking It *
So what are our bakers doing?
Our bakers are working on retro recipes from the grannies.
Yeah. They're redoing them.
Taking the old, making 'em new.
Out With the old in with the new.
In with the old, into the new.
Kids on the block, those kids are new.
New kids on the block.
Kids who like to rock.
Oh, my God. It smells like my grandma's house.
-I have a good idea. -KEITH: What?
REEMA: Wait, you have fenugreek?
I'm gonna-- I'm gonna sprinkle a little
-bit of fenugreek powder in it. -Okay. Yeah.
-Tastes really good. -Yes!
YUKI: What's that sound? Oh, George is blending.
Okay.
Agnes, it looks like George is taking
the lead in the kitchen this time.
AGNES: Oh, yes. He is.
The fenugreek definitely took it up a notch.
COREY: Thank y'all so much.
-Thank you. -Yes.
Look at that. I mean, it's adorable.
-ANNE: Aw. So sweet. -That's a true friend.
HARRIET: That's a true neighbor.
NORMA: It's so cute because they're rooting for each other.
AMY & MAYA: * The chairs are rocking *
* The grannies are talking *
* About you *
Hey, ladies, what do y'all think makes a good neighbor?
-A good neighbor? -SHERRI: Yeah.
HARRIET: Is someone who is there when you need them.
SHERRI: Yes.
That's how Anne and I work.
ANNE: Yeah. I think so.
SHERRI: If you need a cup of sugar,
a cup of flour 'cause you just ran out,
and you gotta bake something, that's a good neighbor.
I think a good neighbor has to like
-to bake and like to share. -Yeah.
OMONIVIE: I want some of that shrimp apple curry.
We can make that happen, but I absolutely have to taste some of this.
Yes. Can we do a neighbor exchange?
Yeah. Give me a ring. You know where to find me.
Did you guys ever get a really good recipe from a neighbor?
-Yes. -ANNE: Me, too.
HARRIET: Believe it or not, it has sauerkraut.
It's a good old flank steak,
you drain that sauerkraut, put it on top of that meat,
and then put a box of brown sugar.
-RAVI: What are you making? -KANDYY: Sauerkraut chocolate pancakes.
-Oh, pancakes? -KANDYY: Yeah.
That sounds good. Sorry I'm spying on you guys.
SEVN: You're fine.
I really don't like nosy neighbors.
-I don't like nosy people. -HARRIET: Oh, no.
People who know more about your business than you do.
-Absolutely not. -[laughs]
MADDIE: You take the first taste--
APRIL: I'm not tasting it.
MADDIE: I'm not tasting it. Ravi, come taste. It's hot.
I am really nervous about this challenge.
APRIL: We both hate tuna.
MADDIE: So we couldn't really taste our bake.
We are not very confident that all
of these flavors are going to work together.
So we are just hoping
we don't have to go home, of course.
RAVI: I actually think it's great.
Okay.
-Okay. We have-- -Ding dong. Hi again.
A little surprise for you.
I hope you didn't bring us more sauerkraut.
So the grannies made all these dishes for us.
They were so excited to bring back some old recipes.
We didn't bring you more sauerkraut.
We brought you the chocolate sauerkraut cake.
Oh, wow.
This is the original recipe that you're reinventing.
-Really? -Nice. -Do you wanna try it with us?
-SEVN: Yeah. -Okay. Great.
Oh, wait, before we go in.
You wanna do it with me? I'm gonna teach you something.
-Yeah. -Okay.
SEVN: Okay. Never above you.
Never below you. Always beside you.
-[laughs] -That's nice.
We do it every single time we eat. Can we dig in?
-[laughs] -I love you, Amy.
-SEVN: We're lovers. -We already brought something into the family.
-That is so nice. -You guys are really sweet.
-[roaring] -[laughter]
MAYA: Okay. I'm gonna try it.
-It tastes like chocolate cake. -Yeah. It's a chocolate cake.
AMY: So this is the prawn stuffed apples.
KEITH & COREY: Wow.
BOTH: Mmm.
Really? You're liking it?
It's a tomato banana tart.
That's not what I envisioned, Maya, at all.
This feels like a depression recipe
because I feel depressed right now.
It's a pickle cream cheesecake.
Uh-oh.
MAYA: Oh, yeah. Oh, yes.
REEMA: I'm gonna go in. I'm gonna get a big bite.
Can I get water?
MAYA: How you doing, Ravi?
AMY: You doing okay? You don't have to eat any more.
Thank you.
But maybe it made the bakers
feel better to look at an old recipe and say,
-"I can beat that." -Yeah. I think we definitely boosted their confidence.
-AMY: Yeah. -And I really-- oh no.
-MAYA: Is it bad? -Oh, the banana's not bad.
-I bet the banana's not. -It is edible.
OMONIVIE: I don't know. I--
MAYA: Did you put it in your mouth?
It was kind of hard to eat the all of them in a row.
Yeah. Except for George.
AMY: George's going right in.
-Mm. -MAYA: George loved it.
AMY: You like it?
There's mustard in there.
Mustard and banana. That sounds like a mad lib.
You know what? You're right. It's not good.
It's not good. You don't have to eat it. It's okay.
He didn't have to eat that much.
He loved it.
Wait. No more, George.
No more. It's gonna hurt your stomach. Okay?
[laughs] Hey!
MADDIE: We have to eat that?
MAYA: Think it's a gift that we're meant to eat.
So maybe if we make it seem as though we're eating it.
[babbling]
-Oh, my God. That's so good. -AMY: That's so good!
I think that our fake eating definitely should
be submitted for the fake eating Emmys,
which Maya and I host every year.
Ooh. Amy, is it delicious?
CONTESTANT: Feel like I'm eating a vegan hamburger.
Mm. I'm on a low-carb diet. Don't be a baby.
-This is just fun. -Totally.
Did you just eat that?
-I just ate it. -No. See, she just tricked you.
-She's so good at acting. -I'm so impressed.
I love fake walking, or, like, fake walking downstairs.
-Like. -[footsteps thuds]
That's why she's the best.
That's why she hosts them every year.
* Baking It *
Bakers, 15 minutes left.
-No. -Oh, brother, okay.
Oh, my God.
Come on. Let's go, babe.
Has to stay hot so everything mixes really good.
I can see some shrimp going on, y'all.
Mm-hmm.
KEITH: I want the shrimp swimming in the juice.
COREY: All Right. All right.
KEITH: The only thing that I'm nervous about
with this bake is we know that cooking shrimp is very delicate
and it's easy to overcook shrimp.
And then Grandma Harriet is from Louisiana.
She absolutely wants this shrimp to be cooked to perfection.
And she's gonna be extremely critical about this dish
because it's so near and dear to her heart.
And I can't mess that up.
Want it on this side.
Roll it.
SEVN: It's crazy. I've never made a pancake cake.
When I'm not baking, I am a makeup artist.
Being a makeup artist has helped me as a cake artist
with the details that I like to place on my cakes.
So I am feeling great.
At this point I'm just trying to make it look more realistic
to show the grannies exactly what I can do.
We have five minutes left.
GEORGE: You get me so nervous.
AGNES: Yeah, you gotta move it.
REEMA: Oh, sweet.
NORMA: Look at that, she's taking
something out of the oven over there.
RAVI: Yo, that's perfect. It actually smells kinda good.
REEMA: That smells really good.
Genius.
-Now that is using your skill. -That was genius.
GEORGE: Fire. Yeah!
OMONIVIE: Did you try any of them, Yuki?
YUKI: No. It don't matter at this point.
I'm almost done, Kandyy.
KANDYY: Yeah, yeah.
AMY & MAYA: Five, four, three, two, one. Time's up.
[timer rings]
AMY: Time for these purses to go back
to the museum coat check.
Good job.
-We did that. -That looks good.
KEITH: That looks great.
HARRIET: All right.
It never looked that way at home.
-Oh, beautiful. -Wow.
***
Bakers, you picked recipes out of the grannies' purses
to inspire your bakes, but will you be rewarded
with a refreshing mint or an old green nickel with gum on it?
Let's take a trip down memory lane.
Reema and Ravi.
Coming in hot with some pizza.
Whoa.
GRANNIES: Oh, wow!
REEMA: Today, we got GiGi Sherri's
pickle cream cheesecake recipe.
That looks good.
So I know in our previous bakes we always
talk about our Indian heritage, but I want you
guys to know we're proud Chicagoans first.
Ooh!
And this is what inspired this dish.
So we made a deep dish-ish type pizza here.
For our base we used a cream cheese sauce
that we added ranch seasoning to.
And mozzarella cheese. A bunch of pickles.
And then we put on some bacon as well
to add a little saltiness, a little fattiness.
First of all, I wanna say my Mother Minnie,
she's hating on you right now because--
-Sorry. -this right here,
your creativity is over the top.
I wouldn't have never thought of a pizza.
The textures, layer after layer after layer,
you got the crunchy, you got the creamy, you got the tangy.
I mean, this is good. And this crust, look at that.
-Perfectly cooked. -Thank you.
The only thing I would say is I just want a pinch of salt.
Okay.
I wish I could say it-- it's my favorite.
[chuckles] It's okay.
But it just sort of missed it for me.
ANNE: This is like, 'cause you know I don't like pickles.
But when you put that crust on the pickles, I mean,
-I enjoyed that pickle. -Right?
To me, there's just too much
of a difference in height between this and this.
Maybe a little bit shorter on the crust.
-I don't know. -Okay. So your negative is
the delicious crust is too tall.
[laughs]
I really appreciate everything
that you did with my Mother Minnie's recipe.
-Thank you. -Very creative.
I mean, totally out of the box.
Yuki and Omonivie.
Coming up.
HARRIET: You have created.
It didn't take two people to bring Mamaw's dessert up.
Oh, my Lord.
We were lucky to have Nana Harriet's
tomato banana tart.
And we love brunch.
That's our way of hanging out, catching up on the latest tea.
So we decided to elevate this to more of a bougie brunch.
AMY: Remember when-- when you didn't have kids
and you could spend four hours at brunch?
YUKI: We created a classic banana bread
with some spices, nutmeg, cinnamon, vanilla,
and then did a nice French toast with it.
Omonivie was the master behind this savory tomato jam
that we wanted to give kind of a sweet and savory vibe.
Serve us up. Let's enjoy.
This is luscious.
Oh. This-- oh.
Oh, Mamaw, are you missing it tonight?
Oh my gosh. I tell you that--
that tomato relish, that is extraordinary.
Wow. That is delicious.
OMONIVIE: Oh, thank you.
NORMA: The spice level's lovely.
It's spicy. You could put this on anything.
ANNE: It would be good on steak.
That's a new one.
The only thing I would say is the bake,
it's just a little dry.
You beat me to it.
SHERRI: It's a little inconsistent.
Yeah, but it is a smidgen dry.
But everything else is so delicious.
All I have to say, you have done a remarkable job.
So creative.
You've really turned it upside down, tossed it up
in the air, and it's come down looking like this.
Thank you so much for bringing Mamaw's
recipe to life even better.
-NORMA: Oh, my God. -BOTH: Thank you.
-HARRIET: Great job. -Thank you so much.
[applause]
And next, Agnes and George.
-Hey. -ALL: Hi.
AMY: Wow.
They made a mountain?
So today we got Grandma Anne's ham banana bake.
My mama's didn't look like that.
[laughter]
So we have here mofongo. Yeah.
It's-- it's green plantains with bacon bits, ham--
AGNES: And cheese.
And queso de freir
and some mozzarella and some tomato paste.
That's like the Italian twist we put in it for her.
Add a little something a little spicy to that.
We also have a bone broth as well because
mofongo is not supposed to be very moist.
It's actually supposed to be dry.
And that's why we have the broth.
I hope you enjoy it.
It's delicious.
Make sure you put the sauce on top of it.
GEORGE: Yeah. You can put as much sauce as you want.
The texture is right on point, because I love mofongo.
And your broth to add that to it
just brings it up another level.
ANNE: The broth is superb.
It really is superb. And you made this broth?
-GEORGE: We made the broth. -Yeah. From scratch.
ANNE: Wow.
I could have just used a little bit more spice.
ANNE: I really expected more flavor.
I just really don't taste the platanos.
But it's not at all what I expected.
Don't look anything like Mama's, but hell of a lot better.
[laughter]
Maddie and April.
How are you, Grannies?
ANNE: Hello.
[indistinct chatter]
MADDIE: So today we had Grandma Norma's
family recipe of the tuna pear pizza.
HARRIET: Oh, a pizza. Okay.
MADDIE: And to put our modern spin on it,
we made a tuna pear and pancetta tart.
APRIL: So when we were given that recipe, that is
two things that we're not the fondest, to be honest.
Not at all.
We may like it a whole lot more than you guys do.
-That's very true. -We hope so.
All right, well, we'd love to taste it.
-MADDIE: Perfect. -APRIL: Sounds good. Okay.
ANNE: Okay. Thanks.
-It's lovely. -It's delicious. -Thank you.
The tuna, you can't really taste
it that much, which is probably good.
That's what we tried do.
The only thing I would've probably done, added a little
bit more pancetta or a pinch of salt to up that flavor.
I wouldn't have never thought tuna
and pears could taste this good.
We might try it, then.
-You never know. -No, no.
No, we won't. I'm just kidding.
I love all of these ingredients
on their own, but I've never had them all together.
But they made it work.
I mean, they really did make a new version.
NORMA: They made a new everything.
I mean, I've never tasted anything like this.
-But it-- it's tastes wonderful. -BOTH: Thank you.
What a lot of these bakers are not doing,
-they're not gaslighting. -MAYA: Yeah.
Because you could go to the grannies,
you could say, "There's sauerkraut in this."
And they could say, "I don't taste it." You could say,
"It's in there." -"There's a ton in there.
Really? You're not-- you're not getting that?
Maybe you don't taste so good."
Yeah.
"Did you ever think that
you're the one that can't taste things?"
"Everybody here is tasting sauerkraut except for you."
* Baking It *
Okay. Up next is Kandyy and Sevn.
Hi. Here's our beautiful bake.
-SHERRI: Look at that airbrush. -NORMA: Unbelievable.
SHERRI: That is total creativity.
Today, we got Bubba Norma's
family recipe for their chocolate sauerkraut cake.
We wanted to put our own little spin on it.
We love doing brunch, brinner and breakfast.
So we decided to make a stack of pancakes.
SHERRI: Oh, look at those sausage links.
Oh, my goodness. The sausage links are what?
They're-- they're the fondant?
-Yes, they are. -NORMA: No, they're not.
-That's impressive. -That is fondant?
And the butter is fondant as well.
-ALL: Wow. -And the eggs are fondant?
The egg is fondant. Everything's fondant. Of course it's fondant.
This is fondant. This is fondant.
You know what? This is fondant.
[laughter]
And Kandyy did all of the fondant work.
Kandyy, you are an incredible fondant artist.
-Thank you. -We really are learning you know your way around your fondant.
-AMY: Mm-hmm. -Thank you.
It really looks absolutely wonderful.
I'm dying to try it.
Wow!
Oh, my goodness!
-NORMA: Do you believe this? -No, I can't.
Never expected it was gonna look like that in the middle.
It's only two layers.
-ANNE: I know. -SHERRI: I know.
SEVN: We wanted to do a little twist on the inside.
We did a spicy all spice cake with a chocolate
buttercream and a chocolate and sauerkraut ganache,
and a blackberry compote.
Wow.
I honestly thought it was pancakes.
ANNE: I did, too.
The crumb on this cake is lovely.
SHERRI: Good spice. Good spice.
This is a GiGiDiggity. I'm blown.
This is definitely a GiGiDiggity.
-[applause] -Yes!
SHERRI: It is.
-Thank you. -SHERRI: It is.
-I mean, this is-- -GiGi!
Seriously, it really is.
This is awesome.
GiGi, you're gonna make me cry.
AMY: Kandyy and Sevn.
-That is so exciting. -Aw, thank you.
My grandmother, I wish-- I wish she would've lived
to see this 'cause she would've been blown away.
Thank you so much.
Keith and Corey.
Come on, bronze. Come on.
-Hello, Grannies. -GRANNIES: Hello.
NORMA: Hello, gentlemen.
So for our dish, we got Grandma Harriet's
family prawn stuffed apple recipe.
We created a shrimp apple basil curry.
And we hollowed out the apples, and we cooked
down the apple spices in the curry.
There was some curry sauce in there,
just seeping into that apple to kinda give it that spice flavor.
And we can't wait for you all to try.
Mamaw is envious.
[laughter]
-Oh, I can smell it. -ANNE: Yeah. It smells divine.
COREY & KEITH: Thank you.
I'm gonna tackle this shrimp.
COREY & KEITH: Okay.
We normally take the tails off, but--
No, no. No, no. Leave them on.
KEITH: Help soak up that--
-Sometimes I eat the tails. -Oh, good.
-Oh, okay. -Hmm.
I'm loving the mmms.
And your shrimp are done perfectly.
Thank you.
KEITH: Thank you. Thank you.
The flavors are unbelievable, and the--
the-- just the right amount of heat that you don't,
you know-- you have a balance
of spices that complement each other.
You guys really hit it out of the park with this.
I mean, you invented a new recipe that is dynamite.
My family would be delighted to be able
to taste what I'm tasting tonight.
Wow. That means a lot.
Thank you so much for your effort.
Thank you. Thank you.
SHERRI: Bravo. Bravo.
[applause]
-This is gonna really be rough. -This is gonna be tough.
Everyone brought it. And we cannot send anybody home.
-Yes. -ANNE: Say that again.
-Yeah. -Change the rules, please.
[laughs]
Our grannies have tasted and judged
your bakes, and we are happy to announce
that one of our teams has it in the bag.
Grannies.
We gave you our family vintage recipes.
You all blew 'em up into something
totally original for the 22nd or the 21st--
what are we in, the 21st century?
Can't remember.
And I am the lucky one to announce the winner tonight.
The team that took us and blew us away
with the most original setup...
Kandyy and Sevn.
[applause, cheering]
Ladies, ladies, ladies. Oh, my goodness.
The cake, we thought it was a stack of pancakes.
Your creativity, the presentation
had us all fooled, and it was delicious.
-Thank you. -I've got something for you.
-Okay? -[gasps]
-Look how sweet. -Those are beautiful.
-AMY: What are they? -Rolling pins.
-Oh, rolling pins. -Little rolling pins.
I thought they were hot dogs.
-[laughter] -Goes with sauerkraut.
-AMY: Come and get your brooch. -Come and get 'em.
-SEVN: Thank you. -Yes.
[applause, cheering]
* We got a GiGiDiggity and a broach *
* And a broach, and a broach *
* Do the broach dance *
* Eh, ah, do the broach dance *
* Eh, ah, the broach, broach, broach, bro, bro, bro *
[mimicking record scratching] Broach dance.
Now is the part of the show that brings a tear to my eye.
Luckily everyone here carries a little travel pack of tissues.
Grannies, which of our beloved bakers
will be going home this week?
Well, Harriet got the good job, now I've got the horrible job.
Oh, God.
Truly, it's an impossible thing to do,
but we have to do it.
This was really a hard decision to make,
especially because we've-- we've grown to love y'all.
All of y'all.
The team that we're sending home today...
is Agnes and George.
When we compared your bake to everybody else's bake,
it fell short.
The other ones we thought a little
more creative than yours and the platanos,
I would've liked to have been able to taste it more. So sorry.
You can see the love that y'all have for each other,
and it carries over into your food.
You're very talented, so don't let this
discourage you too much.
But you can't go home without a hug. So come on down.
-Please, come on. -[applause]
GEORGE: I should be going home, not my wife.
I feel like I dropped the ball. Like, she--
she has so much more to show the world.
George put so much into this bake this time.
He did his best. And I'm proud of you.
Thank you.
Un besito, besito.
This is just a bump in the road. My God.
Look at it this way. Look how far you've gotten.
This is an experience of a lifetime, man.
I'm-- I'm just happy to be here.
I'm happy to do this with my wife.
Now it's just time to go see our five babies.
I'm-- can't wait to see my kids.
It ain't over.
-[laughs] -It ain't over.
You ain't see the last of George and Aggie.
-Nope. -I'll tell you that much.
You guys are terrific.
Just keep doing what you're doing.
We just love you guys.
-MAYA: Next time. -AMY: It's the semifinals.
Yeah. This episode is about pie and also--
Making people cry.
This is stressful.
Trying not to cry right now.
[tense music playing]
AMY: What kind of pie are you making?
Banana cream pie.
Yuki, what are you making?
A banana cream pudding pie.
We have two banana cream pies.
This is the kind of drama that happens on "Baking It."
Oh, my gosh. Are we having a bake-off?
-This is on. -It's on.
There's an energy in the air.
I'm afraid there's gonna be an actual physical fight.
Oh, no.