[Hari] It began with 12 snack-loving chefs.
[Lauryn] Let's do this.
[Hari] But only five advanced as finalists.
This is hard.
[Hari] Now they must face off in the most difficult set of challenges yet.
Come on, fluff!
[Hari] To determine who will claim the $50,000 grand prize
and title of Snack Champion.
This is Snack VS. Chef.
The Finals.
[upbeat music playing]
Congrats again to you, the final five.
That's right. The five of you will be competing all at once.
That means, of course, someone is going home today.
Heading into the finals, I think we're all nervous.
It's anybody's game because everyone is super talented, super driven.
Everybody really wants that win.
As a reminder, this is not your typical cooking show.
[Ali] Like before, you'll compete in a Recreation then Snack-Off Round.
Round one is all about execution.
But round two is where you need to bring us your best million-dollar idea.
And as a reminder, you'll still be judged by your performances in both rounds.
[Hari] If you kill it in round one with the recreation,
you need to bring it in round two for Snack-Off.
Let's check in with the vending machine to find out what you'll be whipping up.
[drumroll]
-Ugh. -[contestants chuckle]
You're making Gushers!
Yeah.
[Lauryn] Gushers are challenging.
It's like a cross between a gummy licorice.
There's this outer shell.
It's a very specific hexagonal globe shape.
Then there's this perfect syrupy liquid.
I have to get that in the center and make sure it doesn't seep out.
It's gonna be a battle. It's been a battle and we're going to war.
Ali, Helen, what makes a Gusher particularly difficult to execute?
First, you're gonna need to make a gel,
which is basically tricking a liquid into acting like a solid.
Not all gels are the same. For gels for a Gusher,
they're gonna need to be firm, elastic, and smooth.
Nothing brittle, crumbly, gritty.
Nothing goopy and soft.
You also have to inject the right amount of liquid inside,
so there's a surprising bursting sensation every time you bite it.
How do you get it to gush?
Honey, I've been asking myself that for a long time.
[chuckling]
[laughing]
Snackers, get ready to find your stations.
You have 90 minutes to make your Gushers.
The Recreation Challenge begins...
right now.
[driving music playing]
[Hari] To create the Gusher,
first the chefs will need to create a gel for the Gusher's outer shell
by combining sugar, strawberry fruit flavor,
and a gelling agent like agar-agar
to create the firm but smooth gummy texture of a Gusher.
This is different from a gummy bear. This is a soft, almost taffy chew.
They taste both very strawberry naturally,
but there's that artificial strawberry kind of boost over the top as well.
[Hari] Second, they'll need to create liquid filling
by combining similar components of sugar and a fruit flavor
to create that iconic splash.
It really gushes in your mouth.
But it's definitely not like, a pure liquid,
but it's more syrupy.
[Hari] Finally, the chefs need to inject the liquid filling carefully,
so it doesn't ooze out of the gummy's structure.
Ooh.
[Lauryn] Let's do this.
[Hari] Okay.
Heading into the finals, I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed.
Hari's inclusion changed the competition a lot
because we have Clara who's a phenomenal cook,
and Lauren J who's this crazy food scientist.
Hari's kind of a mix of both, which is terrifying.
[Hari] What is the biggest obstacle they face recreating a Gusher?
With this kind of snack, the texture is so important.
And if it doesn't feel right, it doesn't matter how pretty it looks.
So, I think it's gonna start with the gel.
There are so many ways you can have a gel.
You can have Welch's Fruit Snack gel, gummy bear gel, all different.
The Gusher's gel is very specific in that it is chewy.
It does hold its shape.
But it's also slightly on the starchy side like heading towards licorice.
So, right now, I'm gonna build the gel for the Gusher because
I need to establish the shell before I can make the filling.
There's obviously a ton of sugar and a lot of corn syrup.
It's a strawberry gummy, so something strawberry.
And I need gelling, uh, mechanisms.
I'm gonna use agar-agar because it will gel up harder and faster than gelatin.
I'm here to prove that I still got it and I can do it.
I can still bang it out and cook with people 20 years younger than me.
I'm like old Batman.
I'm smarter, wiser, and more methodical at how I go through things.
I think that is my edge.
I am happy with the texture of this gelling liquid.
I need to manipulate temperature of this. I'll put it in blast chiller to cool.
[Lauren] It feels great to be in the finals.
So I'm just trying to get into the zone
and utilize the skills I have and bring all that together right now.
Please let these be the right measurements.
As a food scientist, it's even harder for me because
I can do analysis and investigate a nutrition label
versus just trying to wing it.
We don't know the formula, so it's kind of a guessing game.
Using pear concentrate as my base. It's very neutral in flavor.
One.
This is my agar-agar. It's one of my first gelling agents.
I'm also gonna add iota carrageenan.
It yields a softer texture in the final product.
I'm hoping that by combining those two gums together,
I will get the perfect consistency.
All right. Now we're cooking with some fire.
Does anyone have dried corn syrup?
Yeah.
-Oh, God. -You got it.
I'm gonna start the "gummy"
that's like a cross between a gummy bear and a licorice.
I have sugar, I have corn syrup, with some strawberry purée
because it's that deep, rich strawberry taste.
You want some of that natural strawberry undertones, but it's a lot of,
"This was made in a factory. This is unnatural things I'm eating."
But you love it.
Gonna get this on the heat because we have no time.
Making it to the end is the ultimate goal and obviously then winning.
But everyone is so good.
So, the fact that I am here and we're doing this is really exciting.
We are rocking and rolling.
Since my last recreation was kind of a disaster...
-Oh! -Oh!
[screaming]
...I feel on top of this one.
I've made gummies in very strange situations,
tasting menus, things like that.
This is a gummy, but the set is so soft, it's not like a traditional gummy.
So, that's why we're using agar-agar
to get that jammy kind of viscosity that you want.
I know going forward, I have to be able to pivot very quickly
if I know it's not going right, and not give up.
I can easily get down on myself and talk myself into a big deep spiral.
I kinda almost want it to look like jam.
Because when it sits, you'll have that jamminess of the texture,
which is kind of what a Gusher is.
I'm here today with intense focus.
I've turned from Clark Kent to Superman. That's why I'm not wearing my glasses.
I feel a lot of pressure. I'm the wild card.
I don't think that makes me any worse. It makes me hungrier.
I don't want to lose my shot.
I know I need to get these Gushers on the plate as fast as possible.
Oh, man. That strawberry smell.
-Hi, guys. -I smelled something.
-I wanted to come smell it. -Yeah.
-[Ali] What's your gel made of? -[Hari] Agar-agar.
Also, the pectin, which is in the pear purée.
Okay.
I've also used some modified tapioca starch.
Are you concerned about the gelling agents prohibiting each other from gelling right?
No, everything should harmonize nicely.
We'll let you get those in the chiller. Time is of the essence.
We'll check back in a bit.
-[Hari] Thank you so much. -[Ali] Thank you.
Forty-five minutes, chefs.
You have 45 minutes remaining.
Oh, boy. This is thick.
I have some lumps.
And I know I should have...
I should've hydrated the cornstarch in water first before dumping it in here.
I'm hoping once it gets up to the temperature,
the starch will break down.
And if not, I'm praying
that I can just strain it and it will be okay.
[Clara yelps]
Oh, no.
My gel, I forgot about it in the blast chiller.
It was in there too long. It's too hard. I can't put it in the mold.
-Clara, how are you feeling? -Not good.
- know. I'm the same... [laughs] -Not good, food scientist.
I have to start all over again, which really sucks.
Sorry, excuse me.
So, Clara's fixing something.
-[Megan] What went wrong? -[Helen] It was too much agar.
So, hers came out as a block shaped like the bowl that she had it in.
Is it the hardest challenge they've done? It feels like the hardest.
This is the completely different plane of existence.
Not all gels can hold a clean shape.
Just because you throw stuff together and add a gelling agent
doesn't mean it's gonna gel, and it doesn't mean it's gonna be firm.
[driving music playing]
We're looking better. It's less lumpy. We start to get a nice, soft rolling boil.
I'm trying to stay composed.
Oh, sh...!
Oh, my God!
Uh... Uh...
I thought it was a dropper on the strawberry oil.
It's not. I poured the whole bottle in.
They want strawberry, they're getting all the strawberries in America.
I'll go grab my mold and spray it.
Key. You don't want them to stick in it.
Oh, yeah. I feel good about that.
Although, I did feel good about myself on the Kit Kat at one point.
And we know how that went, so...
I learned from the Kit Kat challenge I need to use molds.
They give us molds for a reason.
I feel the syringe would've taken forever.
Come on, baby.
I don't know if I wanna do this because it's not working.
Whatever. I'm gonna go for it.
I'm not doing this.
I'm just gonna do this.
Once it comes out, it'll be fine, but...
it won't look as pretty initially, you know what I mean?
Please work.
I'm hoping I can get both of those molds to come together.
And then I'll fill it once it has set.
Just focus on the filling, Lauren.
In they go.
[upbeat music playing]
It's not how hard you fall. It's how quick you get back up.
I don't know I'd say I'm back on track quite yet,
but blessing in disguise that my gelling didn't work out.
Because look at that red color!
Oh my goodness. It looks like human blood.
[laughs]
I'm not gonna put it in the blast chiller
because I'm not gonna make the same mistake twice.
I'm gonna just let it come to room temp.
Anybody's game.
So, right now I... My gels are setting.
And I'm creating my Gusher filling.
Glycerin helps add texture. It also adds sheen.
Since it's so sweet, I have to work hard to balance that acid
to make it feel like a fresh fruit burst.
Hey! All right, all right, all right.
I'm doing good, I'm doing good.
The trick with the liquid is to make it as thick as possible
without it being confused in your mouth as the gel.
And if you taste the gushing fruit,
it is slightly tangier and fruitier than the outside fruit.
The filling is a guessing game.
You wanna melt the sugar, make sure it dissolves.
Like a syrup.
In my Gusher filling, I have fructose.
I have strawberry purée. I have corn syrup.
Oh, yeah.
It can't be too thick because it'll be too hard to pipe into my Gusher
and it won't be as pleasant of a burst.
Too thin and it'll ooze out and it'll just be a liquid center.
It has to be that even balance between the two.
Smells good.
It looks right.
Thirty minutes left!
I'm making the inside.
I have to make the syrupy, viscous liquid that tastes of a fake strawberry.
Shake, shake, shake.
I'm trying to get it to boil.
Boil!
Sorry, Lauren.
Oh, what a nice color.
[chucking] Yeah.
[Lauren] I'm working on the filling.
The Gusher's filling has a maple syrup consistency.
So, I'm trying to mimic that here.
Oh, boy. This is stressful.
Please don't be too viscous.
My filling's actually really good.
All right.
Yeah. They're ready.
Twenty minutes left.
Okay, we got some.
Shape is good.
Let's start balling.
These are all halves. I'm taking out a bit of each
because I'll have to put them back together.
That little pocket is where the filling that I made will go.
I would've liked them to set a bit more,
but it's a race against time, so we're doing what we can.
[Clara] I love how the gel's looking. I love the texture of the gel.
I love the vibrancy of the red.
And I think it's just enough room
for the really sweet artificial strawberry filling.
[Sandy] Now, I will scoop holes for ten minutes.
Scooping the hole.
"What are you doing?" "Scooping a hole."
"What're you doing now?" "Scooping a hole."
-"What about now?" -Scooping a hole.
Now I have to glue, with my fat old hands,
these two halves together.
These aren't really sealing well.
Come on, baby.
[Hari] Oh, this is frustrating.
I didn't cook the gel long enough to let the agar activate strong enough.
My gel's strength isn't there. It's unfortunate.
Ugh. If I don't get it finished,
I will have no option of winning the next round.
I got to just finish.
Oh, my gosh.
I got some that are decent.
The top and the bottom adhered for me just by sitting at room temperature.
I'm gonna see if I can get it filled now.
I don't know what Botox is like,
but I think we're going in the right direction.
I feel like they're not chefs right now. They're more little doctors.
Ooh. There we go.
Honestly, we're looking pretty Gush-tastic here.
Chefs, you have four minutes left.
Ugh.
You want enough gush,
but you don't want it bursting at the seams.
[Hari] I didn't get the gel strength I was looking for.
Not getting gel strength,
I want to make them look as Gushery as possible.
Hopefully my flavor will pull me forward, so...
One minute, chefs!
-Babe, you gotta plate. -Oh, gosh.
[suspenseful music playing]
If this were a Gusher-making class, I'd give these a C-plus.
[Lauryn] You got it.
[Sandy] Come on, Gusher baby.
[Hari] Okay, here goes nothing.
Time is up!
[horn honking]
It's time to vend for yourselves. Let's serve some Gushers.
-Hi, guys. -Hello.
So, I have the classic strawberry Gusher.
[Helen] I like that you got great shape and used the correct mold.
Gushers are very bright red.
Yours is, like, pleasantly natural and gem-like.
They're organic. [laughs]
They sure are.
The exterior is decently firm.
-I'm just gonna eat it. -[Lauryn] Mm-hmm.
Real-deal Gusher is super smooth and elastic.
This has a bit of grit.
Mm-hmm.
They have a lot of flavor, but they're just not Gusher flavor.
-It tastes a lot like pear. -Yes.
-Is there a pear purée? -Yes.
I don't know if it's that the agar wasn't fully dispersed
so you're getting grit from the agar,
or if it's that those starchy granules in the pear are coming through.
It's also that your center liquid is kind of getting lost
because the outside is such a strong jammy flavor.
It's so close, but it's like a cousin and not a relative from the same family.
-Thank you so much. -Thank you.
Hi, welcome.
Lauren J, tell us about your Gusher.
I wanted to focus on getting the outer shell right.
[Ali] The character of the gel is nicely elastic. It feels smooth.
There's no grit left over,
which is something that drives me crazy about most agar-based gels.
In terms of the intensity of the gel, it's 10% as firm as it needs to be.
The most distracting thing for me is that it's really soft.
It's the right shape.
It's got a nice look to it.
But I think the outside needs to be, like, 10-X firmer.
I would say that it is also very soft and it's also wet.
It's almost not set.
I do like that they seal flat on top of each other.
The other big difference I notice is
the inside of a Gusher,
while it feels liquidy, it feels juicy,
it's actually super thick, it's thicker than honey.
Whereas the interior filling texture of yours
is almost like the texture of fruit punch.
I agree. [giggles]
Thanks, Lauren J.
-Hari! -Hey, how are you?
Tell us about your Gusher.
It's not my perfect Gusher,
but I'm still happy to share them with you, so...
-[Ali] It feels like wreckage. -[Hari] Yeah.
[Ali] But I tell you what.
There are some things you were doing really right
until it went wrong.
Starch agar and pectin is a lovely combo.
It feels like you under-hydrated all your gelling agents.
So you didn't get a gel and we didn't get a Gusher.
Yeah.
But what I really like is the interior of a Gusher.
It's pretty aggressively sour in a nice way.
And there is a sharp sour note that comes through in yours.
We love that you have the combination of gel plus pectin,
but we lost a little bit of strawberry.
-It doesn't taste fruity enough. -Okay.
Thank you.
Sandy, please tell us about your Gusher.
So, yeah. I did the outside as agar-agar and the pectin from the pear juice.
Your gel is really nice and firm.
I think the thing that's missing is what kind of firm.
The Gusher has more chewy elasticity.
-Yours is more brittle. -Yeah.
The filling, both of them are pretty close in thickness.
My syrup is very close.
I thought the textures were really great. It's shiny.
-But the flavor is very muted. -Got it.
Both the OG Gusher and your Gusher have, like, a fruity red flavor.
The Gusher flavor is fruity red flavor with a strawberry top note.
-Yes. -Yours is all bass and no melody.
Got it.
It's not far off. It's in the right zip code.
I just think the package is getting delivered to the wrong house.
I appreciate it, guys. Thank you.
-Hello. -Oh, hi.
Tell us about your Gusher.
Sure. This is my attempt at, again,
one of the hardest things I've had to do in my life.
[Ali] I don't think the character of the gel is right.
-Okay. -But the firmness is.
I'll put it this way. If I sat on them, they'd squish at the same time.
-[Clara] High praise. -[laughs]
What would then happen is yours would kind of crumble.
-Okay. -And the Gusher would kind of mush.
But I think the hue of yours is very close to a Gusher.
Thank you.
And you have a pretty close Gusher opacity.
-Nice! -[Helen] Yes.
-Tastes like pear. -[Clara] I'm sorry about that.
I don't think you have too much pear. It's not enough strawberry.
Okay. That's fair.
But I do like the texture of the inside.
The difference in flavors is very correct from what a Gusher is.
The outside is kind of sweet, then the inside is very intense.
You have the gap of those things correct in a relative manner.
Okay, thank you.
Thank you so much, Clara.
-Thank you. -Thank you.
All right, my judgy friends.
What did you think of these Gushers?
[suspenseful music playing]
Congratulations...
-Clara. -Stop it. Oh my God.
[applause]
I don't believe you.
You had a fantastic texture and the visual attributes.
You nailed the color of the Gusher.
I know how good these guys are.
So, I really am totally shocked and surprised and...
Thank you.
Don't be so hard on yourself, girl. You just won.
But you're still gonna need to prove yourself in the next round.
Today in the Snack-Off Challenge, you'll be required
to make your own original snack that, like a Gusher, has a surprise inside.
Center of the snack must also be a different flavor, texture, shape,
or color than the exterior.
We shouldn't know what's gonna hit us until we take a bite.
You'll have two hours to craft your new original snacks.
The timer begins now.
[Helen] I'm super excited. There are so many possibilities.
What's difficult about it is basically you're making two products
that have to come together and make them seem as one thing.
Its concept. Its construction.
Flavor needs to be there. The element of surprise has to be there.
It's uniquely complicated.
I'm excited for this challenge 'cause I love a good surprise.
Surprise party, surprise trips.
To me, a surprise inside means you have no idea what's gonna be inside.
I think of things I really enjoy eating.
I love tahini, I love sesame seed, and I also love pomegranate molasses,
a popular Middle Eastern ingredient.
My snack is called "Open Sesames."
Three different layers inside is gonna be
this wonderful sesame, tahini honey, pomegranate filling.
The cookie and cracker is gonna encase the surprise inside.
I'll dip each one in a different color of melted chocolate.
Coming off the win in the Recreation Challenge,
I really was genuinely surprised, but I think that shows how hard it was.
It wasn't that I did great. It's that it's so hard to make the Gusher.
First thing I'm making is the dough because the dough needs to rise.
While it's rising, I can move on to the filling.
This is the surprise inside.
It's a layer of tahini honey sesame filling.
And there's a thin layer of pomegranate molasses on top.
It's going to be savory with a touch of sweetness
and a little tartness from the pomegranate molasses.
If all goes well, they will pop out.
Then I can pop one of these in the dough, cover it up.
Everything will be perfect.
[giggles]
[driving music playing]
I'm making a cake that resembles the flavor of elote,
which is Mexican street corn.
I'm using my grandmother's antique corn molds.
They're something that's been passed down to me.
I'm calling these cakes "Feliz Cakes," a delicious, corn-shaped cake.
The surprise is gonna be the flavors of elote.
It's gonna have cheese, mayonnaise, lime, cilantro, and chili.
In the last challenge, my gel didn't set, my flavor was good.
This time, I want my cakes to set and be perfect.
I was... Started strong. I gotta keep up the intensity.
I'm making my dry batter to the dough.
So, I'm adding yellow corn flour, instant corn flour.
I'm grinding my freeze-dried corn for that nice corn flavor.
I want the corn to be fine, so it makes a really supple cake.
Oh, man.
-Can you smell this corn? -Yes.
[chuckles]
[Hari] I'm always against the clock.
For these, if they don't cool enough, the filling can melt out of them.
I'm going to the oven!
I'm paying homage this time to Georgia.
Specifically, we'll be focusing on the Georgia peach.
I'm making a Mini Peach Cobbler Hand Pie
with a spiced peach filling.
And my surprise inside is that it's gonna have an edible peach pit.
The plan right now for the edible peach pit
is for it to be a sugar cookie with almond paste filling.
I'm here. I've got the knowledge. I've got the heart.
I'm ready to take this home.
I'm making a Matcha Bomb.
Caffeine is a prevalent part of everyone's day.
So, I'm doing a different kind of substitute for that.
My Matcha Bomb's vision is
getting, like, a pastry and getting your caffeine at the same time.
It's gonna consist of a white chocolate sphere.
It's going to house a surprise inside,
matcha concentrate in a liquid form,
oat cream, and this cool feuilletine ball.
It's like a wafer which will be really crunchy.
First thing I go to is making my matcha filling.
I'm going to whip it 'cause I want it to be custardy.
Matcha is extremely hard to cook with. It can't be heated up too far.
It gets bitter.
I was self-taught.
Everything I do is on the fly for the first time.
It's an experiment in itself.
Whoo!
[Sandy] Sometimes it works out. Sometimes it doesn't.
But I'm willing to take those chances
and throw myself into it and think that I have to make it succeed.
Wow.
I've just been inspired by
America's iconic handheld foods that revolutionized the food industry.
So, I wanna make a candy bar.
The fun part of it is, it is shaped like a chicken drumstick,
but make it another iconic handheld food, the candy bar,
and make them one thing.
For my snack, I'm making a candy bar disguised as a chicken drumstick.
It will have a nougat, a chewy caramel, a honeycomb halvah,
and then it'll be coated in a white chocolate
made from parts of the honeycomb halvah.
There's a number of surprises of texture and flavor.
It will be a party in your mouth.
With halvah, you're cooking up sugar.
You then incorporate it into a whipped tahini.
When you break it, it has air pockets a lot like honeycomb.
So, this is gonna provide a nice little crunch.
That's part of the surprise as well.
And this will just harden as it cools.
Perfect. That's exactly what I want.
You have one hour left, chefs!
You are halfway through your time!
I take the frozen fillings out from the blast chiller.
I don't feel good.
I thought they'd come out really easily.
They're not coming out, which I thought might happen.
I can dig them out.
As I'm flipping them out, I'm not happy with how they look.
There are no distinct striations.
It's more of a meld of pomegranate molasses
and sesame filling.
It's too late to redo it. I have to go with it.
I gotta seal these babies. Hopefully, they don't burst.
There's a lot of hoping right now.
Okay, this will be fun.
Let's work on making my filling.
I have a good handle on the peach cobbler.
So, I hope it works out the way I have in my head
and it actually is a flavorful dish.
Having this surprise inside,
that duality of texture is really hard to achieve
when you are baking something inside of something else.
It's a lot of components put together. I just need to work.
I'm now tempering my chocolate.
This is just the inside I'm doing.
Feuilletine is like crunch.
I love feuilletine. It's the craziest stuff.
These balls will be in the middle suspended between
the matcha and the oat milk.
This is me just being awesome, you know.
I've never done this before. [laughs]
Thirty minutes on the clock!
[Lauryn] So, now I'm starting my nougat.
That fluffy, almost marshmallowy, part of a lot of candy bars.
I'm gonna add some cocoa powder, a little bit of black tea, and orange zest
to really make those flavors pop.
I think I stand a chance.
I think I stand more than a chance. I think I am going to win this.
I want new flavors. I want big flavors.
I want people to be talking about what I'm making.
And I think I can do it.
I think there's a good amount of space for the caramel to lie on after this.
So, I'm just gonna pop it into the freezer.
[Lauren] Phew! Oh, man.
I think my piecrust is too stiff.
As I'm rolling, it's kind of cracking.
Can I add water to this right now?
I'm just hearing my ancestors saying,
"Girl, no. Stop. This is not what you do for piecrust."
But in the moment, I'm just praying and hoping I can get things back on track.
Yeah, it's definitely... It's not cracking.
So, we'll see how it bakes up.
I've never had to do that before.
Now, I'll start filling and cutting. I'm hoping these bake in time.
Keep my eye on the prize and the pie.
Okay, hot coming around.
Oh, thank you.
[Hari] All right. I'm rocking and rolling now.
This is the moment of truth, the unmolding.
That's how easy they should come out.
Look how nice this corn texture is. I'm really happy with these.
Now I can work on the filling.
It is a loose marshmallow filling
with the flavor profile of Mexican street corn.
I have given it a light lime flavor.
A bit of cayenne.
I'm gonna finish it with a bit of cilantro crystals.
It will be an explosion of flavors in your mouth.
Twenty minutes left!
So, I'm concerned they poofed over a lot because
I wanted a flat surface, but I'm committed. I can't start over.
It's not the shape I want,
so I decide I'll make those poofed open bottoms the white chocolate.
Then I'll make the rounded parts all the different colors,
so there is a consistency.
I leaned into the way they came out of the oven.
I think they look like little rays of sunshine.
[Sandy] I need this ball to be perfectly sphere because so many surprises inside.
Aaah!
I need to make sure these two halves will come together
and contain everything,
which is the oat milk and matcha latte.
Then I have a really light, fluffy, crunchy, free ball inside of a free ball.
Yum, yum, yum!
You only have ten minutes left, guys!
[suspenseful music rising]
All right.
It's a good texture.
I'm gonna mix some of this white chocolate.
This to make almost like a crunch bar.
So, I'm combining this milk chocolate, which has a bit of orange in it,
with the crushed-up honeycomb halvah.
It will almost be the bones of the candy bar.
I'm sculpting drumsticks.
All right. I'm gonna let it sit.
My strategy is to make sure they're nice and filled.
I want them to be able to not see the filling from the outside,
but also be surprised by the flavor and textures on the inside.
Kind of like the Gusher.
Hopefully, the cakes will be gushing that way as well.
When you eat this, you'll remember you ate it.
Two minutes, chefs! You have two minutes.
If you haven't started yet,
-just get something off the shelf! -[laughs]
Throw some flour on your face. Just fake it.
[laughter]
[Sandy] I'm gonna cover this guy.
I'm a little miffed because it looks like a mix
between a velociraptor egg and an everlasting gobstopper.
I know someone has to go home.
I really need to make sure that it's not me.
Okay.
It's so much better than I imagined it would be.
This is how you bread fried chicken, right?
It feels right.
Thirty seconds, chefs!
Thirty seconds!
[Sandy] I'm doing Pollock style.
I'm challenged when the whole, "Is it innovative enough?" comes up,
but I'm very happy with how it looks.
Hope you're almost done.
[Hari] These look good. I'm super stoked.
Time is up, chefs!
-[horn honking] -Yeah!
Whoo!
Time is up.
-Hello, Clara. -Hello.
Will you tell us about your snack?
So, this is Open Sesames.
It's a sesame and honey-filled cookie cracker encased in white chocolate.
It's wildly delicious.
-Oh, fantastic. -I will eat all of these.
Okay.
I don't think it has the shock and awe you need to have
to go toe-to-toe with something like Gushers.
This is a lovely balanced flavor,
but there's nothing that's like a cartoon boxing glove
that comes and punches me in the head.
-Okay. -The execution is clunky for me.
They're different on the inside and outside.
The way it looks and tastes actually don't look related.
-It's not quite legible yet. -Okay.
-Clara, thank you so much. -Thank you.
Lauren J, tell us about your snack.
Yeah, so in front of you, you have a Peach Cobbler Hand Pie.
So, on the outside, you have butter and shortening crust.
In the middle, there is a sugar cookie peach pit.
Center of it is almond paste.
I love the concept because normally peach pits are poisonous.
-Yes. -You can use 'em to kill enemies.
It was delicious, but it felt super familiar to me.
Got it.
I definitely appreciate the intention.
I really like the pop of almond inside,
but we strongly stressed the culinary innovation piece.
The item is very naturally delicious. It's a baked item,
but not shocking between what's inside and what's outside.
-I understand. -Thank you for this.
Thank you.
Hari, tell us about these snacks.
I call these Feliz Cakes,
because when I taste them, they make me really happy.
I really like the sourness of snacks from Mexico.
I started with the corn, the lime, and the chili.
The surprise on the inside is Mexican elote street filling.
I think the main issue for me is I can see the inside from the outside.
-Okay. -[Ali] Something like Gushers.
I know the trick. And still every time it's kind of jarring.
It'd be great if the cream differentiated in flavor from the cake.
Certainly.
The texture is light and super enjoyable.
For a corn cake, it takes a lot of things that I like about cornbread.
You put a lot of work into the details.
The lime and cilantro moments inside, I mean, definitely unexpected.
From a concept perspective, you expect elote to be savory.
Oh, okay.
So, think about what the end user is expecting, and work backwards.
Thank you, guys.
Lauryn B, what did you make?
I was really inspired by fried chicken.
So, I wanted to combine that with another iconic handheld food,
the candy bar.
Inside is a nougat.
And there's also some halvah bits in the middle.
That's another big surprise when you get towards that center.
[Megan chuckles]
So, I set it in the blast chiller.
-Go on. -[Lauryn] Uh, I think I had... Yeah.
[Lauryn laughs]
And the caramel seems to not have tempered to room temp yet.
Surprise!
[Ali] I really love the idea of breading a candy bar like fried chicken.
It's brilliant.
Whatever this praline breading is on top, it's delicious.
-Okay. -But I didn't get a surprise.
Okay.
The outside is delicious and the inside is amazing, delicious.
But they're very different. It's confusing as you eat the whole thing.
We're more surprised, like, of how it came out,
than that there was something inside.
-Okay. -Thank you for sharing this with us.
Thank you, guys.
Sandy, what did you make for us?
I made a Matcha Bomb.
It's a white chocolate ball.
I have this thing for matcha.
And I wanted to do it with some white chocolate.
I did a double surprise as well,
the matcha and the oat cream.
You can grab the ball inside. It's a different texture as well.
-I gotta say I was surprised. -[Sandy laughs]
[all] Yeah!
[Helen] It was surprising.
It was a hell of a surprise.
Honestly, I like the pairing. I like the aroma combination.
Oat milk and matcha?
-Awesome flavor pairing. -[Sandy] Yeah.
It was delicious,
but the texture inside and out kind of throws me off.
Bring it on, Hel.
-You waiting for me? -[Sandy] Yeah.
[Helen] I mean, as a plated dessert,
we can kind of understand how this came about.
As always, we appreciate your details and planning.
It's got a surprise, looks good, tastes great.
There is definitely a lot going on, the inside, the outside.
Huge check mark for the surprise.
You got all the shapes, the colors, and the textures.
Can I just leave on that note? [laughs]
But some of the execution is really difficult.
Feuilletine ball is solid rock of feuilletine and white chocolate.
-It's fine. Yeah. -It's super hard.
-Thank you so much, Sandy. -Thank you.
Thanks for sharing your snacks with us.
Ali, Helen, tell us who your favorite was.
As far as our favorite snack today...
the winner is...
-Sandy for your Matcha Bomb. -[laughs]
Sandy, of all of the snack makers,
you were the only one that truly caught us off guard
and delivered on the surprise.
Great job, Sandy.
[Megan] You made it to the next round.
I was so far behind after that first challenge.
I'm proud of myself. This was hard.
I feel safe.
That's also a pleasant surprise.
Okay, everybody.
We have reached a decision on who is going home.
Well, the judges have.
Let's turn to our friend, the vending machine,
and find out who it's gonna be.
[Hari] I'm definitely really nervous.
I don't want to go home.
I have more snacks to show and more things to cook.
[suspenseful music playing]
[Megan sighs]
Lauren J.
Lauren J, there were some texture issues with your Gusher.
We couldn't get the impact we wanted from the surprise in your Snack-Off.
[Helen] You put up a great fight.
We appreciate the intention and hard work you've put in here.
-Thank you so much for being here. -Thank you.
-Good luck! -Thank you.
[Lauren] I'm really proud of myself for getting to this point.
My daughter's gonna be ecstatic to see me.
And I know she would really love the peach pies.
I can't wait to make them for her.
I can't wait to give her a big hug.
Thank you, guys.
Chefs, I must warn you.
If you thought the Gusher was difficult, then holy crap,
get ready for our next snack gauntlet.
[closing theme music playing]