- [Babish] Today's episode is sponsored by Cheez-It Snap'd.
Cheez-It Snap'd are thin, crispy cheesy delicacies
to take your lunch to the next level
that will make you question
all your previous chip purchases.
Jess and I have found
that Cheez-It Snap'd Cheddar Sour Cream and Onion
are the perfect pairing with our favorite sandwich.
If you wanna see how we level up our lunch on set,
find out on the Cheez-It YouTube channel.
The link is in the video description.
(upbeat music)
All right, so here in New York City,
the love for chopped cheese runs deep.
So naturally, the first move is to go out
and get one for science of course,
not because I wanna absolutely demolish it later
off camera with no pants on.
As you can see, it's served on a classic New York City hero.
It contains lettuce, tomato, ketchup, mayo, fried onions
and two whole burger patties chopped up and fried
with a whole lot of melted American cheese.
This one's got green peppers in it,
not strictly traditional but a nice addition
and altogether, it's a perfect food item.
It's not something we could dare try to improve upon
or put our own foodie hipster spin on.
It is only something we can desperately try to imitate
just as soon as I've recovered from eating this one
in its entirety.
Now, the first thing we have to take a look at is the bread.
New York City style heroes
are pretty much your standard grocery store sub roll.
They're light, dry, a little chewy, a little shiny.
The bottoms are dusted with semolina flour.
The whole thing kinda reminds me
of a long skinny Kaiser roll.
It clocks in just shy of about 10 inches long.
Not that that matters.
I'm just being over-thorough
and it has a light, fluffy, airy, slightly dry semi-regular
but still pretty tight crumb.
Perfect for soaking up all those delicious beefy juices.
So like I said, your standard supermarket sub roll
is gonna do you just fine
but if you wanna try and nail the real thing
as closely as possible, we gotta try to make ourselves
a New York City style hero.
To try to get the right color, consistency and flavor,
I started by making three different batches of bread,
one enriched with just milk,
one with milk and oil and one with milk and egg
and the results were all sort of lacking
in their own special ways.
Just milk was too dry, milk and oil had the right texture
but not the right flavor or color
and the egg had the wrong texture.
So the answer was obvious.
First, I had to leave the cameras rolling
so I could catch Jess dancing without her knowledge
and then make a loaf using milk, oil and egg
which would hopefully give me the best of all worlds
and as you can see from the crumb and crust,
we got pretty damn close.
Is it necessary to make your own bread for this sandwich?
No, absolutely not.
Go to the store and buy some for a dollar a dozen
but if you find yourself at the same intersection
of bored and crazy that I so often do,
here's how you can make your very own
New York City style hero.
In the bowl of a stand mixer,
we are combining 540 grams of bread flour,
12 grams of kosher salt, seven grams of instant dry yeast
and this is totally optional
but if you happen to have diastatic malt powder
kicking around the house,
you can add eight grams for improved texture and flavor.
Tiny whisk until homogenous
and then we're adding 120 grams of whole milk
and 145 grams of water
both heated to about 110 degrees Fahrenheit
plus whole beaten egg, about 60 grams
and 50 grams of vegetable or canola oil.
A fixed dough hook, drop it down and let it knead on,
plug it in first then let it knead on medium low speed
for anywhere from eight to 12 minutes.
We want really robust gluten development
so that our bread has a nice chew to it.
We don't want it to be too soft or caky.
Make sure that it passes the windowpane test
with flying colors and you should end up with a soft,
bouncy, not very sticky dough
which we're gonna stretch into a smooth taut ball
and drop into a lightly greased bowl.
I genuinely forgot the word bowl for a second there.
Cover tightly with plastic wrap
and let rest at room temperature for at least one hour,
up to two.
We want it to double in size.
Go ahead and give the bottom of your bowl a nice tickle,
punch it down until you've knocked out the air
and then so we end up with four consistent heroes,
we're gonna weigh the whole batch of dough
and divide it into four using math.
Most phones or home PCs
come with a built-in calculator nowadays
so this becomes super easy.
Cut it into four vaguely rectangular pieces
that we're going to press and stretch
into less vaguely rectangular pieces.
Nine or 10 inches wide and about six inches long
then like most enriched breads,
we're going to roll and pinch it into a nice tight log
which we're gonna thoroughly pinch shut
to make sure that there is no seam
that can split open in the oven
or during the rising process.
Normally, you'd wanna taper the ends of a sub roll
but a hero has characteristically flat front and back
then as I mentioned, you can see finely ground cornmeal
or semolina flour on the bottom of the rolls.
So we're gonna dust some parchment paper
set in a rim baking sheet with semolina flour,
plop our loaves on top,
cover them loosely with greased plastic wrap
to make sure that they have room to rise
and give 'em about 45 minutes to an hour
until they are doubled in size.
Preheat your oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit
with the rack in the lower third of the oven
but before these guys head into the sauna,
we're brushing them down with a mixture
of equal parts beaten egg white and whole milk.
This is gonna give 'em that nice glossy bubbly top
without too much yellow color.
Last but not least, hero rolls are usually either unscored
or have a single slice along the top.
I do recommend scoring them
because this helps with oven spring.
Bake for 10 to 14 minutes rotating halfway through
until they are puffed, browned
and their thickest point registers 190 degrees Fahrenheit.
Give them a little spin because it's fun for them probably
and allow them to cool completely at least two hours
before we turn them into vessels for our chopped cheese,
the toppings for which are simple and non-negotiable.
Finely shredded iceberg lettuce,
relatively short shreds too.
You don't want anything too long or stringy in there.
A few slices of beefsteak tomato and half a small onion
that we're gonna chop and saute with the beef.
Speaking of which,
it's finally time to head over to the stove top.
Chopped cheeses are usually made on a flat top
next to bacon and eggs
and everything else that's cooking in bodega.
So our closest approximation
is a wide flat cast iron skillet.
I got a little bit of vegetable oil here
that I'm heating over medium high
until just starting to smoke.
As soon as it does, down go to preformed hamburger patties
and use third pounders.
Don't be shy.
Then, right around these patties,
we're gonna scatter our chopped onions
then we're gonna let everything sit for about three minutes.
The only secret ingredient that I could find
that bodegas use is a generous pinch of adobo seasoning,
an all-purpose seasoning made of salt,
garlic, oregano and turmeric.
So like I said,
don't touch anything for like two to three minutes.
Let that beef form a nice crust,
let those onions get some nice color
then it's time for this sandwich
to start living up to its name.
Chop up the beef with a heavy spatula,
mix it in with the onions and continue sautéing
until everything is nicely browned
and the beef is cooked through.
Shouldn't take more than like two more minutes
then we're gonna organize the beef and onions
into a long pile in the center of the skillet
because now it's time for this sandwich
to live up to the other part of its name, the cheese.
Three slices of yellow American Singles, no exceptions.
Don't let me catch you putting Gruyere
in your chopped cheese
or prepare never to show your face in Harlem again.
Let that melt completely.
Let the beef get a little crusty on the bottom
and with that, we're ready to serve.
Highly recommend lightly toasting your hero first.
This is not a forgiving sandwich
and you're gonna need the extra structural integrity
then grab your very longest spatula
because ideally you wanna try to get all the beef and cheese
in one fell swoop.
Didn't nail it on my first try but that's okay.
There should be just enough beef and cheese
that the sandwich can't really contain all of it.
Once you have as much as you can on there,
top it up with the tomato, the lettuce
and then standard condiments
are a healthy squirt of ketchup and mayo
and folks, that's about it.
The hardest part about this sandwich is topping it up
and trying to keep it all in one piece
and fitting it in your mouth
but the rewards for doing so are staggering.
There's a good reason that this sandwich
has gained notoriety outside of New York City
in the past few years.
It is a masterpiece.
Like I said, it's gonna be pretty hard
to fit it all in there but do your best,
get a close up for the camera
and then shove it into your face
and get ready to experience the love child
of a cheeseburger, a cheesesteak and like a sloppy joe.
This one barely lasted five minutes.
I made another one for Jess when she got home
and I've made two more since filming this episode.
So it was nice knowing you guys.
Thank you again to Cheez-It Snap'd
for sponsoring today's episode.
With multiple Cheez-It Snap'd flavors like Barbecue,
Cheddar Sour Cream and Onion,
Jalapeno Jack and Double Cheese,
the pairing possibilities are endless.
If you wanna see how these thin, crispy, cheesy crisps
take Jess and my lunch to the next level,
head over to the Cheez-It YouTube channel
and watch our episode of What's For Lunch.
The link is in the video description.
(calm music)