[upbeat music plays]
-[Antoni] Hey, Kat! -[Kat] Hello, my friend.
[Antoni] So today happens to be all about breakfast.
Okay, so breakfast on the go does not have to be a sad little bar.
-We've all been there. -Mm-hmm.
Let me show you.
-Little mini frittata. -[Antoni] Okay.
-It is the easiest hack. -Great.
All you have to do is mix together
eggs,
Greek yogurt,
and Pace salsa.
We are gonna first incorporate the Greek yogurt into the eggs.
It's gonna come together. Pour in about half a jar of that Pace salsa.
You just wanna make sure to get
some of this tomato and peppery goodness in every single bite.
They're gonna puff up a bit.
-Don't go all the way to the top. -[Antoni] Gotcha.
[Kat] It's just gonna need a few minutes in the oven.
Delicious little perfect egg bites.
Super cute. We're doing this.
-Wait! These are so good! -[Kat] I know! [laughs]
[upbeat music continues]
Good morning!
[all] Good morning.
How are you?
Ah, what a crew. So good.
We have Lindsay,
Stephanie,
and AJ.
-Stephanie, our reigning champion. -Hello.
Allow me to introduce my co-judge,
the one and only,
Kat Kinsman.
-Hey, everyone. -Hello.
[Antoni] Kat is a food editor, author, podcast host,
and culinary connoisseur.
She literally co-wrote an entire book about today's culinary challenge.
-Wow. -Wow.
And I feel so lucky to have her here.
I feel lucky to be here and to see all your beautiful faces and try your food.
Stephanie.
-Are you ready to defend your title? -I'm ready.
I feel confident coming in.
But I also feel like I have a little target on my back.
So I wanna go the extra mile. I wanna do my very best.
I am ready to win again.
So Stephanie is here defending the title of Easy-Bake Champion.
But either one of you could be walking away here with $25,000 today.
That's why we came.
-Sorry, girlfriend, but... -Literally why you're here.
Yeah, I get it, I get it.
I want to go all the way and win the $100,000 more than anyone.
This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and I came here to win it.
So I'm... I'm not gonna mess this up.
[Antoni] AJ, you're one of six kids growing up, right?
Yes, I am.
What was it like growing up in that kind of environment?
Who made food?
-How did it all go? -It was pretty incredible.
My dad traveled a lot for his job. Whenever he would come back,
he'd gather all the kids and say, "We're gonna do the Daddy cooking show."
And we would all watch, but honestly,
the other five eventually made their way off.
I was the one kid that stayed and was enticed by what he was doing.
Eventually, I took his place in the kitchen.
-It became the AJ cooking show. -[Antoni] Nice.
I think a 22-year-old coming in here,
they're gonna underestimate me, and that's what I'm hoping for.
Even though I'm young,
I wanna show people that I really know what I'm doing.
I'm passionate about it. I came here to win.
-No more chitchat. -[Stephanie chuckles]
Because I'm bursting at the seams to tell you about today's first challenge.
-Okay. -Let's hear it.
It's time for the Dish Dash.
[upbeat music plays]
So here's the situation.
You got slap-happy with the snooze button, and you gotta pay the price,
because the morning rush is now.
Get your act together and make the most important meal of the day.
So your Dish Dash challenge is to create
a quick and easy breakfast in up to 30 minutes.
And the focal point of this breakfast dish must be
eggs.
-Wow. -I've made an egg or two before.
-Okay. Good to know. -Good.
[laughter]
Your breakfast dishes need to be easy,
but they also still have to be impressive.
Kat, the queen of breakfast, what do you hope to see in this Dish Dash?
-I want to see opulence. -Oh.
We're looking for rich, decadent, and bougie.
I'm from LA. I can give you bougie. [giggles]
[Antoni] And we're gonna challenge you
to only use the two most versatile appliances in the kitchen.
A waffle iron and a microwave.
-What? -[Antoni] That's it.
-That's it? -[Antoni] No ovens.
-No stove top. No air fryer. -Okay.
You only have 30 minutes max.
Your shot at $25,000 is on the line.
-And for you, Stephanie, that's $50,000. -Yes. Yes.
Your time starts in three,
two,
one.
Make it easy!
[upbeat music plays]
-[Kat] Look at them go. -[Antoni] They are on it.
There's too many eggs.
[Antoni] So they have 30 minutes.
The centerpiece has to be the egg,
and all they can use is a microwave or a waffle iron.
For me, with eggs, it's all about technique.
Eggs are complicated, but...
-They're easy to mess up. -That's the thing.
[Lindsay] Waffle iron.
I'm doing a bagel breakfast sandwich.
I grew up with a mom from New York.
We ate a lot of bagels, lox, and cream cheese growing up.
So I'm kind of doing my elevated spin.
I'm making my two-ingredient bagel dough, cooking it in a waffle iron.
I feel like making scrambled eggs in the microwave will come out gross and rubbery,
so I'm thinking poaching is the way to go for this.
[Stephanie] I don't think it's going to be easy cooking breakfast
with limited time and limited appliances.
But for me, it is important to cook breakfast fast at home.
I have to get the kids to school.
It's the beginning of the day. Everybody's running all over.
One of my favorite meals to make, because my 13-year-old likes it,
waffles rancheros.
It's going to be hash brown waffles with poached egg on top of it.
I'm gonna poach my egg in the microwave, in a ramekin. Quick to go.
[AJ] Let's get this party started.
Today, I'm gonna be making a spinach, sun-dried tomato, basil waffle.
I'm gonna top it with a poached egg and finish with pesto cream sauce.
I have not made this waffle before. This will be my first time making this dish.
I like taking risks though. No risk, no reward.
New whisk.
There we go.
Okay, so my first hack is super easy, two-ingredient bagel dough hack.
I got two cups of self-rising flour and Greek yogurt.
Literally comes together and you have the most incredible dough.
So you can roll your bagel dough in pretty much anything.
Cinnamon, sugar, whatever you like.
I'm gonna roll it in everything bagel seasoning.
What sets me apart from other home cooks
is I think it really shines through when you have a passion for something.
I am so passionate about this.
This competition was made for me, because it's what I do on a daily basis,
cooking for my kids, getting them involved.
I have to make it easy enough for them, but also taste good.
It's what I love to do.
I got dental floss, unflavored. Super cool hack for cutting your dough.
[Antoni] So Kristin Chenoweth, aka Lindsay,
seems to have brought dental floss from home to cut her dough.
What is the value of doing that versus a knife?
Hmm. I guess there's more precision with it.
-Oh my God. -As long as it's not too minty.
[Lindsay] You got your four pieces.
So one of my hacks is getting the moisture out of the hash brown
by squeezing it with a paper towel, so it can cook faster.
Then I'm going to season it,
add my egg to it, cheddar, some cheese in there.
I am going to throw in a little bit of the chives for some color.
I'm a mom of three girls. So I feel like God picked us.
I like to cook. They like to eat. It's a perfect combination.
Should be
all correct.
I've loved to cook since I was maybe five years old.
I did grow up cooking with my dad and I do think I know a lot about cooking,
if I'm being honest, and they're gonna underestimate me.
I wanna show that, even though I'm young, you can find a passion at a young age
and follow through.
If Antoni likes my cooking, that is all the validation I'm gonna need.
So AJ's making a pesto to go with his eggs.
-Okay, love pesto. -That's decadent.
-I love pesto in all its forms. -[Antoni] So good.
Do not want this sticking.
Lindsay has taken her two-ingredient bagel mix,
and she's turning them into a waffle.
So they're gonna be two-ingredient bagel waffles.
-You have that in your cookbook? -I do not.
But what is the portmanteau for that then? Is it... Is it a baffle?
Is it a... A wagle? Is it...
-What is the cronut of bagel waffles? -I think it's a baffle.
I'm baffled by it.
[Antoni] Fourteen minutes left.
[Lindsay] Crack the egg right into the mug.
I just need a cover for this, pop it in the microwave, one minute.
So I've never poached an egg in the microwave before.
I've only done this on the stove top, and we can't use the stove.
It'll cook it nice and delicately, I feel, in the water, in the microwave.
That's my best bet for this round.
Lindsay has done something that is so intimidating.
She live poached an egg.
-[Antoni] Ah, she added lemon juice. -[Kat] That is such a good hack.
[Antoni] She definitely took the note on decadent.
-I love it. -'Cause if it's done right...
Ooh. And we've all had it done when it's not great.
I know. That yolk's gotta ooze out
and the white has to be fully cooked through.
Okay, so Stephanie is also poaching an egg in the microwave,
but she's just using water.
She doesn't have that acid, like lemon juice or vinegar,
which helps bind the white.
It might break a little more easily.
-[Antoni] Yeah. -Okay.
[Stephanie] Oh, sorry.
-[AJ] Uh-oh. -[Stephanie] That's cool.
Yours is the middle one. It's all yours.
-Trying to use two? -[Stephanie] If it's available...
-She said let me get that. -[Stephanie] I'm using it. It's available.
It's a lot of pressure trying to cook $25,000 eggs.
That one tiny little egg
could be the reason I lose this first challenge and go home.
I don't wanna be the guy with the runny egg.
Nobody wants to be that guy. [chuckles]
All three of our contestants are poaching eggs.
This is gonna be a poach-off.
[Kat] I know. I cannot think of anything more intimidating.
-First, I could not do what they're doing. -[Antoni] Oh, same.
-I'm an anxious person... -There's a reason why we're here. Totally.
Another awesome hack,
use a hair pick and you can cut completely perfectly even slices.
That is a hack of all hacks.
-Lindsay is using an Afro pick? -[Kat] Oh my gosh.
To precisely cut her cucumber. It's kind of genius. I'm not gonna lie.
Oh, yeah.
Look at that.
[Stephanie] Beautiful.
Now I'm checking on my waffle. It is perfect.
Nice, golden brown. It's got the crust to it.
I'm really excited about that.
My next step is to get my bacon in the waffle maker.
[laughs]
I cannot believe it.
I have never cooked bacon in a waffle maker.
But for the purpose of this challenge, I'm gonna try it and hope for the best.
This... Literally just smelling the bagel and the lox reminds me of my mom.
Okay, there's less than ten minutes left. AJ's a little behind.
But he's really working into his herbs.
-I love a fresh moment like that. -Yes.
[tense music plays]
Time is running out. I'm panicking a little bit.
I wanna make sure that my egg does not crack and spill all over.
I'm rushing through it. I wanna make sure that I get my paprika
on my poached egg, 'cause I need a bit of color on there.
[tense music plays]
-[bell dings] -Yes!
Stephanie's done first in 28 minutes and 25 seconds.
[AJ] That's a sexy looking waffle.
The pressure is starting to get to me.
I notice the clock is really winding down, and if I don't get the pesto on the plate,
the waffle on the plate and this egg out of the microwave,
I'm not gonna have a dish to present.
One poached egg.
Oh. Now that I know it works.
-[Antoni] One minute left. -[Kat exhales]
[tense music continues]
[Lindsay] Damn it.
Of course, my yolk had to burst with no time left on the clock.
[groans] Of course. Why me?
This one will be colorful.
I'm super sad about my broken yolk, but I think everything else looks amazing.
So maybe they won't really mind. You break it anyway when you bite into it.
It actually looks really pretty broken up.
[tense music plays]
-[bell dings] -Lindsay is done.
Thirty seconds left.
-[Kat] He bare-handed that. -AJ, you got this. AJ, you got this.
-[Kat] Yeah. -Be delicate.
[Antoni] Ten, nine, eight, seven, six.
[bell dings]
And that's it. AJ is done! 29 minutes and 55 seconds.
-[Kat] Dramatic. -[Antoni] Take it easy.
-Hello, Lindsay. -Hi, guys.
Welcome to my kitchen.
Thank you. What happened to my egg?
This is to give it a little pop of color.
So this was intentional?
[Lindsay] That was intentional. Perfectly plated for each of you.
You are charming and very intelligent, and you have a wonderful vocabulary,
but let's be real here.
Your egg broke.
You're gonna break it anyway when you eat it.
[laughter]
So tell us what you made.
I made a two-ingredient bagel dough, fresh, homemade, from-scratch bagels.
I made it on the waffle iron. I have some freshly-shaved cucumber.
I used a vegetable peeler to create those gorgeous ribbons.
Some lox, some red onions.
I did a poached egg,
topped it off with a little dill, some everything bagel seasoning.
[tense music plays]
I was a little, I guess skeptical is the word
about a two-ingredient bagel made in a waffle iron.
But?
-I would pay money for this for brunch... -I love you!
-No. It was really well seasoned. -Thank you.
I really love the flavors.
I see a lot of technique going on in here.
I really appreciate the beautifully thin ribbon of cucumber.
But
my egg was broken.
So that's just something that is a thing that exists that we just have to address.
-Thank you. -It was all balanced so incredibly well.
That everything bagel seasoning balanced against that really luxurious egg.
-Sorry, that yolk was great. -[Antoni] Now you're just bragging.
So sorry about that. You did a phenomenal job.
The detail that you brought to this,
like that's what luxury and opulence are about.
All those little things.
So happy to hear that, thank you.
Thank you so much.
-[Kat] Thank you. -Thank you, guys!
-[Antoni] Hello. -Hi. How are you guys?
Very good, especially now.
Stephanie, please tell us all about what you are serving us.
I decided to make a waffle rancheros.
So I have a hash brown
with some cheddar cheese, a little bit of chive, and eggs.
I whipped it all up and put it in the waffle maker.
I also poached my egg in the microwave.
I also did the bacon in the waffle maker.
[Kat] There is so much going on here.
You took all those extra steps to make texture happen,
and it paid off in a fairly short amount of time.
You have crunchy corners. Cheese comes in and makes it a little bit crispy.
We've got some chives in there too, for that extra element.
I wanna talk about the egg for a second.
The form of it was really beautiful. Little chalky on the inside.
I wonder if it could have gotten there using a bit of acid,
so you didn't have to leave it in as long.
-The flavor is great. -Got it. Thank you.
I'm in a serious committed relationship with this waffle now.
Thank you.
So I feel like I'm in a serious committed relationship with the bacon.
I did not know that bacon could do that in a waffle maker.
-I was delightfully impressed by that. -Thank you.
[Antoni] The waffle, crunchy.
I taste the cheese in there, which is really important.
The egg, just a little slightly overdone.
I think that acid would have helped decrease the temp time in the microwave.
But that said, I like how the elements played together.
The waffle's really pretty. I love the specks of green.
I always get excited when I see chopped chives.
-Thank you, Stephanie. -Thank you so much.
Thanks for stopping by.
-AJ. -Hello.
So tell us about this dish.
[AJ] Today, I made for you a sun-dried tomato and spinach waffle
with Parmesan cheese as well in there.
And I made a handmade pesto cream sauce. Also poached an egg, put it on top.
I wanted to add more color to the plate. Couldn't do that with five seconds left.
[tense music plays]
I have to say the egg, for me,
perfectly cooked.
-You knew that was perfect. -After I saw you cut it open...
[Antoni] You saw it ooze and you were like, "There we go."
This is so different than any waffle that I've ever had.
Really delicate and fluffy, and it cut really easily.
The pesto, adding a bit of lemon juice, just to kind of like brighten it up.
Lemon changes everything! And it did with this.
It added to the color, to the vibrancy of it, to just the flavor.
I love the amount that you used.
If there's anything I would do differently,
maybe a little sprinkling of chive or some flake salt or some pepper over that egg.
[Kat] It's simple, but it's actually incredibly complex in there.
Just a few elements playing together
deployed really precisely on the plate.
There are a few bits of the egg albumin that could've been a little wiped up.
It would have made it look just extra, extra professional.
If you're gonna lock into such simplicity, it has to be perfect.
Of course. You're right.
Don't know what's going through those judges' heads.
-Yes, you don't. -They made it so hard.
I think Lindsay is gonna win this first round based on presentation.
It was really... Her meal was really pretty.
But then with Mr. Flavor over here, with all the stuff that he put, I'm like,
"When did you have time to put all this into a waffle?"
-You know. -[chuckles]
I'm worried about this one.
Your challenge today was to create a rich and fancy breakfast dish
using only a microwave and a waffle iron,
and showcasing eggs in just 30 minutes.
The winning dish brought everything to the table that we asked for.
And the winner is...
[tense music plays]
...AJ.
-Congratulations, AJ. -Thank you, thank you.
I feel incredible.
The validation that gives me, it's a huge confidence boost.
Also knowing I only have to deal with one more competitor now
makes me feel a lot better as well.
Now unfortunately for me, I have to give the bad news.
It has been a blast having you all here, but only one of you can move forward.
[Lindsay exhales]
[tense music plays]
We have to say goodbye
to Stephanie.
Where it didn't hit the mark for me was just on the opulence,
which was an important part of the task.
I'm so sorry.
[Stephanie] I'm taking home with me 25,000.
But not only that, my hope for this is
showing my girls that anything is possible.
What other way to show them
then actually going out there and doing it.
I want them to be able to say, "I can do that. Mom did it. I can do it."
-You ready for your next challenge? -Oh yeah.
-I'm ready. -I'm ready.
It's time for a food face-off in the Easy-Bake.
In the Dish Dash round, you dazzled us with delectable breakfasts.
Now, guess what's for dinner?
[tense music plays]
Breakfast.
-Of course! -Round two.
So Antoni and I are looking for a dish that looks like restaurant quality
and is deceptively simple.
[Antoni] Also, you may have noticed that this round is called the Easy-Bake.
So each of you are required to bake your dishes in this round.
So no cracking eggs in a pan and calling it a day.
In your Easy-Bake challenge, you will have 45 minutes,
and during this 45 minutes,
you will only have 30 minutes to cook with these ovens.
-You both ready? -Ready.
And your time starts in three,
two, one.
Make it easy!
[upbeat music plays]
[Antoni] What would your strategy be right off the bat?
-Make dinner reservations? -Yeah.
Order takeout?
Breakfast for dinner I'm definitely familiar with. I have two little ones.
Sometimes at the end of a long day, and we're running around like crazy,
we have like an hour to get the kids fed, bathed, ready for bed.
A lot of times, we just whip up some omelets,
some eggs for dinner.
So this is something I'm definitely comfortable with.
I am making a breakfast pizza,
because I had to incorporate my eggs this time that I promised him.
So I'm actually making the crust out of hash browns.
It sounds so basic, but you go to the fanciest restaurants in LA
and they have some sort of flatbread or pizza on that menu, guaranteed.
You can create pizza into a work of art and totally elevate it super easily.
[upbeat music plays]
Going into the second challenge, I need to make sure I'm focused on timing,
so I don't have just five seconds left.
Anything else I need?
I plan on doing something that I've never done before.
I want to do a savory Dutch baby.
This is one dish that you can throw in the oven
and it's completely done within 30 minutes.
Traditionally, they're made with lemon juice
and confectioners' sugar as a sweet breakfast.
I'm gonna top it with oven-roasted salmon, tomatoes, and asparagus tips,
and a lemon dill Hollandaise sauce.
-[Antoni] Hey, AJ. -Hey.
-What are we making? -A Dutch baby.
-Okay. -Something I grew up eating all the time.
I'm going to add salmon and you'll have breakfast for dinner.
I love watching a Dutch baby puff up.
-That is a presentation dish. -Yes. Yep, totally.
Four-twenty-five.
For this, I'm cranking my oven up.
I'm throwing in some sheet pans to warm up in there as it preheats,
so we already start the cooking process
before anything even gets itself into the oven.
Awesome hack. If you don't want to stand there shredding an entire potato,
grab a bag of frozen hash browns.
I mix this with some eggs, oil, and seasoning to make a hash brown crust
with a little cheese in it.
Super easy in a pinch.
Season it to taste and you're good to go. They cook beautifully in the oven.
I'm just gonna hand-form two separate crusts for each judge.
That way, they get their own pizza.
I definitely wanna incorporate some classic omelet toppings.
I'm thinking maybe some sausage.
I might go sweet to kind of balance out the saltiness,
maybe chop up some peppers, tomatoes.
If I can execute this on the plate, I'm going in the right direction.
So it appears that Lindsay is shaping hash browns in the shape of pizza bases.
-Ooh. -That feels very breakfast for dinner.
[Kat] I'm already feeling that texture, what that's gonna be like.
-That little crunchy, crispy... -Yeah.
Gonna go with the natural break.
Cool hack with asparagus is grab it at both ends and break it.
The asparagus wants to break where it gets soft. Don't want hard ends.
Another cool trick, if you don't wanna waste time dicing garlic,
you can microplane it directly into what you're doing.
It gives you a more intense garlic flavor.
Once it's done,
underneath your microplane, you should be left with garlic paste.
I'm gonna put this directly in here, skin side down.
Wait. Did you see what AJ is doing with the salmon over there?
So far as I can tell, putting it in a cold skillet,
but we know that he can't actually cook that on a burner, right?
Correct. It's got to go in the oven.
-Okay. I'm here for a fish breakfast. -I am too.
-Extremely. -I love fish for breakfast.
Trying to go fast to get everything in the oven when ten minutes is up.
Under one minute until your ovens turn on.
[Lindsay] One minute.
I'm gonna run these under hot water.
Your ovens are now on!
You have 30 minutes left until they turn off.
[AJ] This goes in there. Almost forgot.
[Lindsay] Using my awesome hair pick hack again to slice this baby up.
I see this shallot. I'm thinking I gotta deep-fry these shallots.
They're gonna add the perfect crispy topping to this pizza.
I've never used a deep fryer before, so fingers crossed.
I gotta get one of these for home. This is too much fun.
-How you doing? -[Lindsay] Good. How are you?
I'm doing good. Feeling stressed?
-No, I'm good. I'm excited. How about you? -Ah, no.
-You got that song playing in your head? -I sure do.
-[Lindsay] I hear your music. -[AJ] If only.
-I hear it, baby. -[AJ] All right, good.
[Lindsay] That's the crisp I want to see.
Want to keep the oven warm.
[upbeat music plays]
[AJ] Next thing is to put a few tablespoons of butter into the pan.
The pan should be very hot now.
I'll make sure I don't let them burn for too long.
A Dutch baby is essentially a German pancake.
You pour it into an already heated skillet
and it builds this crust the second it hits the pan.
Eyeballing it. Hoping they're all the same and cook in the same time.
You can see almost immediately,
the egg around the corner starting to cook.
As you put it in the oven, it slowly rises and gets airy and fluffy and puffs up.
When you take it out of the oven at the right time,
it deflates only in the center.
You're left with this canvas to paint your picture.
Not able to touch it until it's done. It's all a timing thing.
Cool, 24 minutes. Let's do it.
All right, so I'm doing a little Parmesan herb blend.
I want that to go over that Dutch baby. I'm gonna do it as soon as this is done.
Ooh, real Parm. I like it.
I love garlic.
[Antoni] Hello.
You're mentioning you're gonna be making Dutch babies to go with your salmon.
That's something you had when you were younger.
I never actually made this before. I think I've eaten it enough times that...
-This is his first time? -[Antoni laughs]
This is your first time making this?
-It is. -Are you crazy?
-AJ! -No, you're actually crazy.
-[AJ] Yeah, yeah. I know. -[Kat laughs]
I call it manifest destiny. Since it's in my mind,
I just have to recreate it with my two hands. I can do it.
-[Antoni] AJ, we're gonna let you focus. -Thank you.
-Hello, Lindsay. -How's it going?
So what magic is happening here?
You can't go wrong with pizza. Everybody loves pizza.
So I'm putting my own spin on it. Slightly elevating it.
There will be yolks intact on top. It's gonna look gorgeous and gourmet.
[Antoni and Kat laugh]
I feel you're gonna have nightmares about yolks for...
I'm gonna be dreaming about them.
-You got this. -[Lindsay] I got this.
-Keep doing your thing. -I believe in you.
Thanks, guys.
You have 15 minutes left.
A little bit of olive oil.
Okay, three minutes to assemble these, get 'em back in.
I'm throwing on some cheese, tomatoes, peppers, the sausage.
I think we're good to crack our eggs on. I just can't break any yolks.
Now, the moment of truth.
I promised Antoni a full, luscious yolk for him to crack into.
So I am focused on not cracking any yolks this time.
[tense music plays]
Oh. They're gonna kill me if I serve another broken yolk.
Hey, Lindsay.
[Lindsay] Yes!
-Did you just break a yolk? -No! What?
[laughter]
-Are you kidding me? -Go crack some eggs, Antoni.
We talked about this.
Nobody saw that.
[laughter]
[Lindsay] Back in the oven these babies go.
So right now, I'm in a bit of a pickle.
So I can't open the oven until 20 minutes after the Dutch baby's put in.
But I believe my salmon will be done in about the next...
Now.
Did you notice he's got his salmon and his Dutch baby in at the same time?
Those, uh, call for very, very different situations and timing.
[Antoni] He can't open the oven, because if you open it,
it's gonna deflate, but you wanna check the salmon.
Should we see how he's feeling about that?
-[Antoni] Hey, AJ? -Hey.
How much money would you pay to have a glass door on that oven right now?
-A lot. -What's going on in there?
I have a Dutch baby rising to perfection
and a salmon that is on the verge of being overcooked.
That's a Sophie's choice if I've ever heard one.
Do you want a flat Dutch baby or overcooked salmon?
-It's a good question. -Which one's worse?
I know. Like a flat Dutch baby is so sad,
because you lose that whole shock and awe thing.
-But overcooked salmon, no one needs that. -No.
This batter was made for one Dutch baby, and I split it into three containers.
I don't need to wait as long as I think.
[tense music plays]
-[Kat and Antoni gasp] -Oh-ho! Let's go!
Yes! Did you see that? Did you see it?
-AJ, how are they? -I don't know. What do you think?
-[Kat] Oh, baby! Whoa! -[Antoni] Oh!
-[AJ] We're good. [chuckles]
I just aged.
Just to keep a little spice in your life. Keep you on your toes.
That looks beautiful.
Perfect. The skin protected my salmon.
Beautiful.
This is just a last-minute idea, since I have time.
Super easy hack. Everybody has ketchup at home.
But if you wanna elevate it and add some gourmet flavor to it,
just some garlic powder, onion powder, a little cayenne pepper for kick
and you've got this gourmet sauce to go along with your dish. So easy.
How's it going, AJ?
-[AJ] Pretty good. How about you? -Awesome.
[AJ] Coming together a bit at a time.
[tense music plays]
One minute left with your ovens.
Awesome. We have a minute.
Last second here. Yolks literally need 30 more seconds and they will be good.
She's leaving them until the last minute. Has to be out before the end of time.
Is your heart racing?
-Yes! I'm stressed for them. -[Kat laughs]
-Oh-ho! -[Antoni] Wow.
[tense music continues]
That's it for your ovens. Your ovens are off.
You have five minutes left total, five minutes remaining.
[Lindsay] I'm nervous
because I didn't get that full ten minutes for the eggs to cook in the oven.
But I know they're gonna continue to cook from the residual heat of the pans.
I have three minutes for them to sit there and continue to cook.
[tense music plays]
Okay.
Okay. Okay.
As long as I don't break these yolks in the process, we're in business.
-This is close! -I know.
[Lindsay] Boom!
-All right. -Five, four, three, two, one.
[Antoni] Time is up!
-Take it easy! -[Kat] Oh my gosh!
All right, so, AJ, we're gonna start with you.
When I hear breakfast for dinner, I think Dutch baby. I grew up eating Dutch babies,
usually with confectioners' sugar and lemon juice.
But I decided to go the savory route with roasted salmon,
which, immediately, dinner is what I think of.
Oven-roasted the tomatoes and asparagus with the salmon,
so you can get those flavors.
Seasoned that with fresh garlic, salt, pepper.
The lemon dill Hollandaise sauce, I think pulls it all together.
[tense music plays]
-This is really freaking good. -Thank you.
The presentation, it's so beautiful.
It's like looking into, like, this cave and I see little flaked salmon
and like those little burst cherry tomatoes and the asparagus.
You did not overcook your salmon, which I was looking for.
-That said, there's a bit of arugula. -[AJ] Yeah.
Wilted arugula, not one of my favorite things. I probably would've avoided that.
Or I would've added it at the end, just a little touch of it.
The word that keeps coming to mind here is balance.
The brightness of that lemon in the Hollandaise balanced with that salt,
balanced with a slight, you know, the sponginess of that Dutch baby.
But you managed to get the sponginess and the crispiness.
I just want to trip and fall into this.
Thank you. I appreciate that.
-So, Lindsay, you're up next. -[Lindsay] Yeah.
Here I have a breakfast pizza.
So I used frozen hash browns, mixed in a little egg,
some cheese for the crust.
You have that nice, crispy, cheesy, eggy crust.
It's making the crispy sound as you're describing it.
-As we're cutting into it. -Right. I hear it.
-You have your yolks. -[Antoni] Mm-hmm.
Luxuriously...
-Fully intact. -[Kat laughs]
I deep-fried some shallots for garnish. So you get that little crispiness.
Because there's no tomato sauce, 'cause it's not a traditional dinner pizza,
to garnish it, I also made my own semi-homemade spicy ketchup.
Just to brighten up the plate for people that want spicy.
My husband wouldn't eat this if there wasn't some ketchup, hot sauce on it.
[tense music plays]
So fun!
Thanks.
Yolks intact. The crispy shallot, for me, just brings like that sweetness and char.
Really lovely.
Crunchy, decadent, but, um, while the yolks are intact
there definitely is a significant amount of the egg white
that's still raw on the outside.
For myself personally, I'm okay with it. That's something I would watch out for
to make sure that the white is fully cooked
and that yolk is still nice and runny.
-Lindsay, bottle and sell this sauce. -[Lindsay laughs]
You added so much dimension.
-I keep visiting it. -It looks like this gourmet sauce.
But it's a bottle of ketchup with some ground seasonings.
That is a brilliant hack. I keep revisiting it with different elements.
-Dip the sausage in there. -[Lindsay] Right.
Dip those hash browns in there too.
It's just bringing out new notes. You gave me sweet.
You gave me salty. You gave me spicy. Crispy with those shallots.
My critique is actually the same as Antoni's.
That raw egg white. I can see how that'd be really off-putting for some people
'cause it was almost to the clear stage, but you nailed those yolks.
I feel I gave them exactly what they're looking for.
Combined everything breakfast in a dinner item.
And then here's AJ.
The judges loved that meal.
Like, they loved it.
So... I don't know.
AJ, Lindsay,
we are so proud of the both of you.
You both belong in the breakfast Hall of Fame.
But there can only be one Easy-Bake Champion today.
So the winning dish is a dish that was familiar,
but somehow fresh.
And the winner is...
[tense music plays]
...AJ.
[sighs]
[AJ] I am feeling absolutely on top of the world.
The money was a huge part of why I came.
But another big part of it was the validation.
I don't think that's done yet. I think I have something to prove being here.
And, uh, honestly, I think 50K sounds a lot better than 25,
so I'm ready for tomorrow.
[upbeat music plays]