- Welcome back.
I'm your guest host for the hour, Niecy Nash-Betts,
and I am here (audience cheers)
with Melia Kreiling and Ernie Hudson.
(audience cheers)
And I am excited to try my hand
at a signature daytime talk show cooking segment.
(guests laugh)
Maybe more importantly, eating,
'cause that's my jam. (guests laugh)
Our next guest is a huge success in the baking world.
Nearly 20 years ago, she opened her first bakery.
and today, she has, count 'em, 26 locations!
From Susie Cakes, let's say hi to Susie Sarich.
(audience cheers) - Thank you.
- This is Ernie and Melia.
- Hi. - Nice to meet you!
- Hey, guys.
- So, tell me,
where does your passion
for baking come from?
- It comes from both of my grandmothers,
Mildred and Madeline.
They lived across the alley from each other in Chicago,
and I grew up with them, baking in their kitchen.
- Well, I'm excited, because, you know why?
My cooking, all my cooking is done in the bedroom,
so I need to get... (Susie laughs)
I said it, I said it.
Yeah. All right?
So I'm excited to get in here and figure this out.
Now, it looks like we're making bars.
- We are.
- What makes them-- - Yeah!
- such a standout?
- So, this is a seven-layer bar, which, some people call 'em
Dolly Madisons or Magic Bars,
but almost everybody had a version of this growing up.
- [Niecy] All right, so... - Perfect! All right,
let's get started. - What do we do?
Okay, so first we're gonna do
is we're gonna make the base crust.
So we each have a bag of graham crackers, okay?
And we're gonna crush them up.
Okay? So use your rolling pin.
Everybody, grab your pin. Okay?
And just start this...
- This is comedy, you know, - Yeah!
- how you always see the sitcoms they like,
"Let me tell you something..."
- This is true, but it's true.
- Okay. So you can just, - This is fun!
- if you're angry, you can do more,
less, gentle,
and, and you wanna (audience cheers and laughs)
- This is therapeutic! - You got it, right?
It's very, it's really good.
- This is really therapeutic.
- Yeah. So you wanna do that
until it gets like sand, like the texture of sand.
Okay? - [Niecy] Got it.
- So once you get that all crunched up,
which we don't really have a ton of time for,
you would take melted butter (Niecy hums)
and sugar, and make your crust.
- Okay? So that's already been done for us.
- Got it.
- Because we don't have a, we don't have a lot of time here,
but we're gonna, the next layer
is you take sweetened condensed milk.
- [Niecy] Oh, this is the next layer?
- This is the next layer.
- Oh, I thought this was something.
- That's coming soon. - Oh.
- First thing ... - Okay. Sorry.
- And you wanna just drizzle back and forth about,
you know, like crisscross applesauce, like
- Back, back and forth... - [Susie] Like that.
Okay? So just a little bit like that.
[audience laughs]
- Back, back, forth, forth... - And then then reverse.
- [Niecy] Hey.
- [Susie] So it looks something like that.
(Niecy squeals) Okay, perfect. That's enough.
That's enough. - Oh!
- Okay. So-- (Susie laughs)
- [Niecy] That's enough. (audience cheers)
- [Susie] Okay. Just not the whole thing!
Not the whole thing. - Oh! Oh.
- Okay, I'm sorry I didn't make that clear.
Okay, great.
Okay, so next we're gonna put in the...
Hang on, we're gonna use that later.
Um, our filling.
So, the really cool thing about these bars,
I know in the new year some people wanna be healthier,
and I know it seems funny to talk about health around this,
but I'm gonna give a substitute for everything we use.
So, there are, they're pecans,
so if you don't like pecans,
you can use peanuts, or almonds,
or cashews, or any,
any other nut you like. - [Niecy] Mhm.
- We have butterscotch chips.
If you don't like butterscotch,
you can just double down on the chocolate chips.
- How is it, Ernie?
- [Susie] Ernie's already into it.
- Oh, it's good. (Melia and the audience laugh)
- Then we have coconut.
I use sweetened coconut.
You could use unsweetened.
And then last but not least, we have chocolate chips,
and it's actually National Semi-Sweet Chip Day,
So... - Oh, wow!
- We're gonna be using those today!
(applause) Okay, great.
Awesome. Okay.
So we've already mixed all the ingredients up here.
So what we're gonna do is take our wooden spoon
and just put 'em into your bar pan.
- [Niecy] Guys, we're gonna just--
- [Susie] And kind of lightly - [Niecy] Fold these in.
- [Susie] spread those around.
- [Niecy] We're gonna lightly...What are we doing?
I wanna sound like your voice.
- Lightly spread...
- We're gonna lightly... - [Susie] Lightly spread.
- [Niecy] Spread these around...
(audience laughs)
- [Susie] See?
- [Niecy] Oh, my, look at them.
- There we go.
And this is also an easy recipe
like you can make with your kids
if it's a really cold snow day,
or you know, kids are outta school.
So this is kind of just a fun little thing
that everybody can do,
and you really can't mess it up.
- You are jacking up - Yeah?
- my whole life right now, (Susie laughs)
because I told you, all I do is
cook in the bedroom. - Yup. There we go.
- Now I'm gonna have to make this.
- You can make this!
Yeah, well you can, yeah.
You can. - Jeez!
(applause)
- All right.
And then we wanna take whatever,
whatever condensed milk you have,
repeat your pattern,
or whatever you've got left will be fine.
But kind of getting that crisscross back and forth.
No one has any left,
so we'll just... (Melia laughs)
- I have some left!
- Well look at my-- - Look at me, teacher!
- Look at my pan.
- [Niecy] I have some left.
- Perfect. Awesome.
Okay, perfect.
And then you would just pop this in the oven
for 20 minutes at 350.
Super easy.
- Wow. - Okay?
- Do you eat it warm?
- No, you've gotta let it,
you've gotta let it cool.
So here is what these look like
when they're complete.
- Ah.
- Ooh! - Fabulous.
Very lovely.
- Wow. Yeah.
So you want 'em nice and golden,
and everything kind of all mushes in there together.
And then we're gonna get to try them!
Okay? So...
- Sure. Good.
- [Susie] There you go.
And one over here for you.
- Girl, this is good!
- [Susie] Are they good? - [Melia] They are.
- Right? (applause)
These are yummy.
- So good! - Yeah, so good, right?
I'll have one with you guys.
- Oh!
- Thank you so much, Susie.
You can get this recipe right
on the show's Facebook page.
But if you're not up for baking at the moment,
and you still wanna taste Susie's sweet treats,
you can find some of the frozen cakes available online
for nationwide shipping.