- This is not what I expected.
- Oh. It's a bit boozy. (laughs)
- There's even a gold leaf on here.
- I think they may be a genius.
- Yum, yum, yum, yum, yum town.
(upbeat big-band music)
- Let's get merry because today we are here
to try each other's festive desserts.
- Hi, I'm Ismat.
I'm a food creator based in Sydney.
- Hi everyone. I'm Jess, and I'm a chef.
- Hi. My name is Breda. I'm a food creator from Sydney.
Hey, I'm Ryan. I'm a Tasty producer at BuzzFeed Aus.
And my favorite thing about the festive period
is dancing to Mariah Carey, clearly.
- Festive desserts.
Like, that's your time to do like showstopper table piece.
- It's gotta be indulgent. It's gotta be delicious.
And it's gonna blow everyone away.
- The way today is gonna work
is that we have four amazing festive desserts
that we're going to try, rate out of 10,
and then pick a winner.
But, let's be real. we're tasting desserts today,
so we're all winners.
- I'm feeling super excited to share my culture.
- I'm feeling very nervous about my dish today
'cause you always think that your food is good,
and you're just not sure if it really is.
So, I'm gonna find out.
- Let's get some festive dishes into my belly,
and then, you know,
I'll go and have a food coma (chuckles) later.
- My dish is Deep Fried Sesame Balls
with a black sesame filling.
There would be massive family gatherings
at my grandparent's place,
and my grandpa would be frying these sesame balls
in his kitchen every Chinese New Year.
I think the sesame balls are great
because they're crunchy, they're chewy, they're sweet.
I mean, like, what's there not to like?
First, we toast the black sesame seeds.
We're going to sprinkle a little bit
of white sesame in there
so then we can see when they're ready and toasted.
set up a bain-marie, put in the coconut oil,
peanut butter, sugar, and ground black sesame.
Stir everything together,
and then chill it down in the fridge.
In a mixing bowl, put glutinous rice flour,
rice flour, and baking powder.
Dissolve your sugar in the coconut cream and water,
and pour it into the dry ingredients.
Knead everything together to form a dough.
Roll the set filling into small balls.
Grab some dough, roll it between your palms
to form a smooth ball.
Then encase the filling into the dough.
Spray some water on the ball, and coat it in sesame seeds.
And then we'll drop it into the fryer.
Keep moving them around in the hot oil
until they are nice and golden.
Then take them out, give them a rest,
and serve it to your family and friends.
- Oh, my goodness.
It looks like we have a sesame extravaganza.
- They served me some balls.
- At first impressions, incredibly intimidating.
- This is not what I expected to see today.
- It's got a good, nice little crunch to it.
- Let me break it. Let's do that first
to see if there's a, yep, there's a filling.
Yup. I was right. (gasps)
(food crunching)
Mm!
- What on earth? - That's a party. I love it.
- Coconutty, some peanut buttery.
- This is like lava in the middle.
- [Ismat] I've never had anything like this, actually.
- I just wanna keep eating this.
- I think they may be a genius.
- The perfect balance between salty, sweet.
- It's definitely from, like, another culture
that it just wouldn't be served at Christmas.
Fact, when is this supposed to be served?
- [Tom] Lunar New Year.
- Oh, it's Lunar New Year. That makes so much sense.
- Yeah, I could easily put, like, these all the way.
I probably shouldn't, but could easily them away.
- I've actually never had this before.
Super impressed by the flavor, and the structure,
and that crunch.
Solid nine.
- I've gotta give it a nine. Red hot yes from me.
- There is actually nothing I can fault.
I feel like this is an understated showstopper
in its own right.
For that reason, I gonna give this one a 10 outta 10.
- Today I've prepared my Punch-In-The-Face Tiramisu.
I love to make a tiramisu every year for Christmas.
My brother-in-law is Italian,
so he puts on a full spread for lunch.
And I feel like that's the perfect context
for a perfect tiramisu.
I think mine is going to win today
because it's packed full of mind-altering substances
by way of booze.
So, I'm going to start by making my biscuits.
So I'll add half of my sugar to my egg yolks,
and give that a good mix.
Then I'm going to mix up my egg whites,
and fold those two together.
After that, I'll sift over my flour and corn flour,
and then fold that through once again
before transferring it to a piping bag.
I'm gonna pipe these out onto a tray,
and then I'm gonna get them into the oven
for 10 minutes at 180 degrees.
Now for the cream, give the egg yolks a good whisk.
Then you can add your mascarpone cream and your whiskey,
and whip it.
Then I add my whipped cream, and mix it through.
Then I've got 500 mils of strong coffee,
some Mr Black, and some whiskey.
And that is my little tiramisu twist.
Add a layer of cream over the biscuits.
Then I finish it off with some cocoa powder,
some grated chocolate, and a little bit of orange zest.
- Do you have a spoon,
or we're going with fork for the tiramisu?
[Tom] I'm sorry. Yes. (chuckles)
- I want... Come on now, Tom.
- [Tom] It's a cake.
Some people have cakes with forks, right?
- Who does? Do not trust those people.
(screen beeps)
Yes, yes, yes.
I love me some tiramisu. Tiramisu?
Italians in the back, let me know.
- Mm. Chocolate.
- It's got showstopper appeal
because it's a big dish.
You usually make it in, like, a big bowl.
Everyone wants a scoop, and you always go back for seconds.
- I wanna see if it's boozy.
I like a tiramisu that's a little bit boozy.
- Oh, the layers, the lady fingers.
Oh, the lady fingers look like homemade.
'Cause you can tell the difference
between lady fingers that you bought,
and lady fingers that are homemade,
and these are 100% homemade, so I'm into it.
- I see a bit of orange zest on top
which is a very special touch.
I think that's rather festive. Reminds me of Christmas.
- [Tom] Hold on. You could say, "Okay, let's tiramisee!"
- Tiramisee?
- [Tom] Like, "Let's see."
(screen beeps)
- Let's tiramisee if this is any good.
(upbeat music)
- Oh. It's a bit boozy. (laughs)
- It's not boozy enough for me.
- It's like a choc-orange flavor going on.
- What an incredible dish.
And also everyone around the table, it's the festive time.
Like spoon a bit of this, spoon a bit of that, you know?
I don't know why I sounded like Oprah all of a sudden.
I'm gonna tiramisu you, tiramisu you.
Tiramisu for everyone.
- I think maybe, like,
some things that could have been adjusted
is the level of soaking for the sponge fingers.
They might've been more softer
if they had been soaked a bit longer.
- A lot's going on in here.
Like, the cream is wowza,
and you can also tell the quality of the chocolate
is just high quality.
- For me, I really like it.
The lady fingers, I'm missing the moistness
of an excellent tiramisu.
So today I'm going to give it a seven out of 10.
- I think the chef has thought about this one,
knew that they wanted to serve a crowd-pleaser
to some judges.
And that's exactly what they've done.
I'm going to give this one an eight outta 10.
- You did a little bit of everything with this one.
I'm gonna give this an eight outta 10.
- I'm making Brandy-spiked, Custard-Filled Donuts.
It is a twist on the Brandy custard
that my grandma makes at Christmas time.
So mine is going to be the best
because it's got booze in it,
and I've made it look super fancy.
Gonna blow the judges away.
So the first step, I need to make the donut dough.
So I'm going to add some flour, yeast, salt,
all the dry ingredients.
I'm going to put the wet ingredients in.
So we've got some warm milk, eggs, and butter.
Stir that with a fork until it comes together,
and makes a sticky mass.
Add that to a floured surface,
and knead for about 10 minutes.
And time to rest in an oiled bowl.
I have a pot of hot milk and vanilla going,
and I'm just gonna bring that up to a simmer.
I have another bowl here that's got some eggs in it,
and some corn flour with a bit of sugar.
You put the milk into the bowl,
and then the bowl back into the pan.
And that makes creme patissiere.
I'm going to add in some cinnamon and also some Brandy.
Thanks, grandma.
Now it's time to fry the doughnuts.
And it's time to fill them up.
I'm gonna pipe in some jam and that creme patissiere.
I'm going to pipe on a swirl of custard on top,
sprinkle some sugar on, and now to torch it with some fire.
I'm so excited to share this with everyone.
- This is a textural, multi-dimensional playground
that I wanna play in.
- So, my first food job was in a donut business,
and doing things very much like this.
- It looks like it's filled with something.
- I can see the cook on the dough is nice.
- There's a little bit of a little bit
of a crunch situation.
So that's a brulee where someone's used a blowtorch,
taken some time.
So a lot of artistry has gone into this.
- This is like something you'll find at a fancy pastry shop.
- Oh, my god.
The filling of this donut.
- I don't know how to approach this.
All right.
(donut crunches)
- I think it's a cherry, boozy cherry sauce inside
with a vanilla custard.
And there's cinnamon sugar on the outside.
So all these components are really Christmasy.
When you eat it, you just feel like, I don't know,
like "Jingle Bells" starts playing, I don't know. (chuckles)
(Tom laughs) ♪ Jingle bells, jingle bells ♪
- [Ismat] Jam, and the cream,
and the brulee, and it's a donut.
It's like there's a lot going on.
- Is it bad if I, like, lick it with my finger?
- To me, this is a really fun chef. A really creative chef.
It's super festive.
I love that play on Brandy custard and jam
at Christmas time.
- I love it. Like, who doesn't love a good donut?
The only thing for me
is that the center,
I don't know if it's meant to be like that,
but it's a little bit not cooked through.
- Yum, yum, yum, yum, yum town.
I'ma give this another eight.
- I reckon that's a solid eight-and-a-half.
- Donuts are not really a festive dish that comes to mind.
But when you eat it,
the flavors really makes you feel like it's Christmas.
I'm gonna give it a...
(uptempo music)
Eight outta 10.
- I chose to make this Festive Pavlova Wreath today
because it reminds me of my family.
And it's also just one of those stunners
where you put it on the table, and everyone's like, oh!
I think my dish has a special moment today
because it's classic Australian with the pavlova,
but then a nice little remix on top.
To make the merengue you get five egg yolks
and whisk that to stiff peaks
while gradually adding caster sugar.
Then you put in some vinegar and corn flour.
Mix that together until you get some beautiful glossy peaks,
and bake that at 120 degrees for two hours
until the merengue is just set,
and leave it to cool overnight.
After that, it gets topped off
with a beautiful vanilla cream,
some raspberry coulis, light cheese, and some pistachios.
And for a little extra special touch, a little edible gold.
- [Ryan] This screams Christmas to me right now.
I'm hearing "Jingle Bells".
- Raspberries, lychee, pistachio nuts.
- Rudolph the Red Nose has been smudged all over this plate
because we have a raspberry swirl of some sort.
- Confession. I don't like pet pavlova.
So, this could be awkward.
- There's even a gold leaf on here.
- I'm kinda eating this with my eyes already.
And I can tell that these flavors
are very nicely put together and balanced.
- The raspberries definitely have a place in a pav,
but pistachios and lychee?
(scraping music)
- Straight away, I can tell this merengue is pretty perfect.
You've got some crunch.
You've got some little fluffy bits on the inside.
- So perfectly balanced.
The tartness from the fresh raspberry,
you've got the sweetness from the merengue.
The cream isn't overly sweet.
- The lychee. I didn't expect it to work.
- Somebody has chosen fruits that are a little sour
that cuts through really nicely.
I love that, and I love the flavor and texture
of the pistachios.
So cool. All right. You've converted me.
- I don't even usually like pavlovas.
- This is a 10 out of 10.
Like, the colors are Christmasy.
You've got the green from the pistachios,
the red from the raspberry coulis.
Pavlova is an Australian classic.
Or, is it a Kiwi classic?
- [Tom] Let's not get into that.
- Yeah. Let's not getting into that.
- I'm going to give this one...
- [Man's Voice] Wow.
- Because as I said before,
I really don't like pavlova,
but this one was put together in such a way
that I'm pretty happy with it.
It's delicious. I love it.
- The one thing that's letting it down for me
is just the combination of flavors.
Overall, not my top pick.
I wanna give this one a...
- [Man's Voice] Wow.
- Out of 10.
(drum roll)
- I'm glad
everyone enjoyed it. (festive music)
It's a very nostalgic and special recipe for me
because my grandpa used to make it.
Thank you.
Thanks so much for watching guys.
Let us know what you wanna see next.
(jazzy big band music)