- Oh, (beep).
Oh god, oh god.
Dense, chewy, flavorless, all of the above.
Hi, I'm Alexis, and I'm always up for a challenge.
That's why I've taken to the internet to decide
what appliance I should use to make a three-course meal.
At the end, a surprise guest will come on,
and they'll have to guess what I used to cook with.
We've gone through the comments from our previous episodes
and you've chosen what I'm gonna use.
Let's check it out.
Not bad.
This feels like the most close thing to actually cooking
that I've used so far.
That said, I haven't used a toaster oven
in like over a decade, so who knows?
Back in the early days of Tasty,
they had a really small kitchen,
and they were just using toaster ovens.
So if they can do it, so can I.
Right?
So my producer has graciously let me do a bit of research.
We know how it went when I didn't get to last time, so.
Oh, (beep).
Let's see what they have to say.
Toaster ovens have a lot of hot spots,
so it's really important to rotate the pan as you're going.
A really good tip.
Probably wouldn't have done it.
Let me check this out.
Huh.
Okay, they have a broil.
That's big.
This feels...
okay.
It feels good.
I've chosen my recipes.
I feel like I have kind of a handle on how this works.
It's gonna be challenging,
but I think I have some good ideas.
I'm pretty excited.
So I'm starting off with dessert.
I'm making strawberry shortcake.
Made it more times than I can count.
I actually made these biscuits for a Tasty 101
about grilled desserts, and they're really easy,
they're really great, so that's not really what worries me.
I know it goes up to 450 degrees, which is amazing,
that's all I need, but I'm just kind of skeptical
that this is gonna get an even bake all the way through.
So first things first.
I'm gonna preheat the toaster oven.
I'm adding two cups of flour,
a quarter-cup of sugar,
a teaspoon of salt.
A little salt actually helps enhance the flavor
and will actually make it sweeter and more delicious.
Two tablespoons of baking powder.
So just whisk it all together.
Look how easy this is.
I've got frozen butter here,
and I'm gonna grate it with a cheese grater.
This is a really easy way to get it evenly combined
with the flour.
And then you just toss it.
Add in the milk.
You could also use buttermilk.
Combine it to make this kind of shaggy dough.
One of the perks is that it doesn't have to rest.
You're just gonna fold it over a few times.
That's gonna create layers.
Five or six times is enough.
More than that is actually gonna
kind of like squash the butter.
Okay, so this is a really fun protip.
Fun for me.
So if you dip your cookie cutter in some flour, press down,
and then take it immediately up, so no twisting,
it'll actually help prevent the layers from getting smooshed
and create a really airy biscuit.
I'm gonna brush them with a little bit of milk.
The milk is just gonna give them a glossy finish on top.
You could use heavy cream.
You could do an egg wash.
And then I'm just gonna sprinkle
a little bit of sugar on top.
It adds some nice texture, adds a little sweetness.
Okay, these look really good.
I'm gonna bake it for six minutes,
and the internet reminded me to flip it halfway,
so I'm gonna do that,
and then see what happens.
While my biscuits bake,
I'm gonna work on macerating my strawberries
so that they get nice and flavorful.
I'm just gonna add sugar to the strawberries,
which is gonna break them down over a few hours
and make them soft and juicy.
I'm gonna add some lemon zest and juice,
just to add a bit of acidity.
I think in order to really elevate this
and kind of wow and surprise my taste testers,
I should add balsamic too.
So a few drops.
I don't want it to be overwhelming sweet,
like saccharine sweet.
I just want it to be,
I want it to taste like my birthday from when I was five.
Is that too much to ask?
Okay, the biscuits look like they're getting pretty brown
on top, but look fairly raw.
Okay, they're fully raw in the middle, so more time.
I think this could be one of the downsides of a toaster oven
is that it's so hot that the top is getting kind of scorched
and the middle isn't fully cooking.
But I don't want to make judgments too soon.
It might be fine.
Because the toaster oven is my only appliance,
I need to whip cream by hand.
Here we go again.
I'm so sorry.
It's gonna be a while.
Hold on.
Hoo.
Feeling pretty weak.
Oh (beep). Hold on.
Oh god, oh god.
The biscuits look like they're getting really dark.
Maybe it's okay.
(gasps)
Honestly, it looks beautiful.
It looks fluffy and light.
It's great.
Great.
It's a little touch-and-go with the temperature
but they are honestly perfect.
So, I've done one thing.
For my second course, I'm going to make a skirt steak
with crispy potatoes and a blue cheese compound butter.
Usually, if I was making roasted potatoes,
I would parboil them in water before.
That's obviously not an option,
so I've got to cook them raw.
Parboiling just helps to make the inside
really light and fluffy and the exterior really crispy.
Hopefully I can achieve that by completely omitting a step.
I'm going to cut my potatoes into smaller parts
so they will take less time.
Rosemary.
Easy, easy, easy.
Salt.
And pepper.
I'm just gonna toss it together.
They look beautiful, beautiful, beautiful.
Well, when this heats up, these will be ready to go.
In the meantime,
I'm gonna make a blue cheese, chive compound butter.
And a compound butter is basically just infusing butter
with other flavors, chilling it.
I love blue cheese.
I love all cheese.
Yes, it is pungent.
You know, I think people get afraid of things
because of certain smells, or it's like, oh, that's weird.
It's mold.
But like, spoiler, all cheese is mold.
And I was just gonna kind of mash this up,
but my butter looks a little stiff.
So maybe I just put it on top of the toaster oven,
it'll melt a little?
This was so smart.
So smart.
It's like the perfect consistency.
I love toaster ovens.
Who knew?
Get it really incorporated so that the flavor is everywhere
and you're not just taking one big bite of blue cheese
and then a bite of butter.
And then I'm gonna roll it into a log.
Okay, see?
It doesn't look great yet.
But if you kind of fold it down.
Beautiful.
I'm gonna give these potatoes a try.
Hah, ho, ho.
Hah, hah.
It's really nice.
It's really good.
They look great.
They look happy.
My potatoes are chirping.
They're making little crispy potato sounds.
Honestly, confidence level is maybe an 8.5.
Maybe a nine.
Maybe it's a nine.
I'm gonna make a really simple marinade for my skirt steak.
Some garlic, oil, salt, pepper.
I thought skirt steak, because it's so thin,
would be pretty easy to cook in a toaster oven.
For the steak, I'm going to try and broil it.
Timer for five minutes.
Hmm.
It's definitely cooking.
It looks a tiny bit gray.
I mean, gray meat isn't super appealing to me.
Why don't I just check the cook on this?
I mean, it looks really good.
Skirt steak is so thin, it's really easy to overcook.
So you want it to be pink in the middle.
Huh.
It's a touch chewy.
The flavor is really good.
It's just that the Maillard reaction creates this crust.
It creates the flavor.
And it's just kind of gray right now.
What, okay, okay, okay, okay.
What if I put a cast-iron pan, preheated it in here,
and then cook the steak in the cast-iron?
I'm gonna test it on another piece of steak,
and we'll see what happens.
Ooh, it's actually starting to smoke,
which might be good for me.
So I'm just gonna put the steak right on.
(sizzling)
Okay, okay, this is boding very well.
Aw, man.
It didn't do anything.
No.
Somehow, it made it chewier.
What am I gonna do?
My confidence level on the steak is like a five.
Good flavor, bad texture.
New idea.
I'm going to take the rack from another toaster oven,
put it on the second slot, put the tray underneath,
and then put the steak directly on the rack.
No matter what happens with this round,
I have to make it work.
I really don't want to serve rubber steak, but if I have to,
I'll cover it with a lot of compound butter.
Okay, I think my steak is done.
Ooh.
This is so weird.
You know, it's not the prettiest thing ever made.
That's for sure.
I think this is as good as it's gonna get though,
and I have to move on.
So I'm just gonna go and let this rest on the side.
I still love the toaster oven,
but I guess it can't do everything.
So for my appetizer, I'm going to do a baked calamari.
Normally, I would deep-fry this and get it really crispy,
delicious, you know, dippable.
And I'm not sure if that's gonna happen in a toaster oven.
But we'll see if I can something close to it.
I've got some mixed calamari, tubes and tentacles.
I know that people can get really freaked out
by the tentacles, but it's part of the animal.
I'm gonna dip it in flour first, then egg, and then panko.
After my steak snafu,
my confidence level is dwindling right now.
Okay, moment of truth.
I have it at 450,
which is the higher that this toaster oven goes.
And I'm gonna give it five to 10 minutes.
I imagine it will be closer to 10,
but I've baked calamari before, so.
Huh.
Looks a little weird.
The calamari looks crispy in some places.
It doesn't exactly look fried, but.
Baked calamari, not a thing for a reason.
I'm gonna move on to my aioli.
So I'm just grating some garlic into some egg yolks.
Add a bit of mustard, which is gonna help emulsify it.
A little salt.
Whisk to combine.
So the trick with making an aioli is to go drop by drop.
If you add too much oil to begin with,
it's never going to form an emulsion,
and it's gonna break and be loose.
You want it to be thick and dippable.
I mean, like literally a drop.
Boop!
And whisk.
I'm gonna add some lemon juice.
It's beautiful.
(beep)
Looks really good.
Let's see.
This is not good.
Dense, chewy, flavorless, all of the above.
So my guests, multiple, are on the way.
So I've got to start plating and hope for the best.
I feel like I started really strong here
and honestly just plummeted.
- Oh, I'm starting?
- [Producer] Just say your name.
- Hi, I'm Claudia.
- And I'm Adam.
- [Claudia] And back in the day, 2015,
when Tasty just started,
Adam and I were two of the original producers.
Before the Tasty Kitchen that you guys know today,
we were cooking in the original Buzzfeed studios,
which did not have an oven or a stove.
So we were relying on hotplates, microwave,
toaster oven.
Alexis has cooked with a lot of crazy stuff in the past,
so I'm really excited to see what's she made for us today.
- [Producer] Alexis, are you ready?
- I am as ready as I'll ever be.
- [Producer] Bring 'em in!
Hi!
- So good to see you. - So good to see you.
- Whoa.
- Good to see you.
- How'd it go?
- You know, I'll let you be the judge of that.
Course number one.
We've got baked calamari and aioli.
- So it's baked?
- Yes, baked.
- That's good to me.
- I dunked it in mayonnaise, so.
- Honestly, that was, honestly, that was my move.
Crank it.
So more exciting than baked calamari,
we've got skirt steak and compound butter
and crispy potatoes.
- This looks amazing.
The taters look suspiciously really good.
Mmm.
This is unfair that whatever you used,
you're able to make this meal.
I kind of forget we're supposed to be guessing
what the appliance is.
I'm just into the meal now.
- This is how it would look
if you had the proper tools to make it.
- On a scale of one to 10, how would you rate this entree?
- A solid eight.
- Yeah.
- [Alexis] Much more exciting, strawberry shortcake
with some macerated berries, some hand-whipped cream.
- And your very own strawberry shortcake
is made with what appliance?
- What appliance do you think?
- Well, everything's so well-browned and cooked.
You did look an iron one time though,
and that looked pretty damn good.
I would not have guessed that in a million years.
- A lawnmower.
- Definitely a lawnmower.
- Like a toaster, like a slotted toaster?
- You're not far off.
- Toaster oven?
- It is a toaster oven.
- Oh, okay.
- That's impressive.
- I love that 'cause we used to make
a lot of early Tasty stuff--
- That's what we said.
- In toaster ovens, and like, I have always,
after doing that, been a proponent of like,
if you have a hotplate and toaster oven--
- You can do anything.
- I mean, it would be concerning if it was just as good
as if you didn't have a $5,000 oven.
- Okay, you're coming with me to get some sponsors.
- We're just gonna--
- Is he gonna leave anything to me?
Okay.
All right.
- Oh, that's great.
- I'll get a to-go box.
That was amazing.
Congratulations.
- So, so kind.
I did it.
Adam and Claudia were so generous with their feedback.
They were so encouraging and supportive.
They seemed to like everything I made.
So my takeaway is that I am my own worst critic,
and I feel excited for the rest of the season,
for whatever else you're gonna throw at me.
If you make anything in a toaster oven, tag me.
I'd love to see what you can do.
And comment below to guess what appliance is gonna be next.