- Hello, my name is Lindsay
and I am on a journey to be better in the kitchen.
And this week it starts with baking, holiday edition.
(cheerful Christmas music)
Three Tasty producers are challenging me to bake
three different holiday recipes
at varying levels of difficulty.
So last time I did this,
things actually went surprisingly well,
but this time I'll be passing off my bakes
to my best friend Joyce
and she'll tell me if I'm a good chef.
If I'm not a good chef.
And hopefully I don't poison her before the holidays.
I've always been down on myself
that I haven't been the best in the kitchen,
but after last time, I'm feeling more confident.
That being said, I don't know what these Tasty producers
are gonna have me do.
So, let's dive in.
- Hey Lindsay, it's Alvin.
Today, I'm gonna challenge you to make cinnamon rolls.
I think cinnamon rolls are great for the holidays,
even though it's not the easiest thing to make.
Can't wait to see the end result.
So, have fun.
- Cinnamon rolls!
I love cinnamon rolls.
I have never made homemade cinnamon rolls before.
Okay, these cinnamon rolls are very popular from Tasty.
They have millions of views on YouTube.
If they're not good when I make them, then it's my fault
and not the recipe's fault.
We're gonna make the dough.
In a large bowl whisk together the warm milk.
How do I warm a milk?
Do I put it in the stove or do I put it in the microwave?
My boyfriend's laughing at me.
I don't put the milk in the?
I don't put the milk in the microwave?
I don't, really?
What's the difference?
You're not telling me? - This is your challenge.
- Ah geez (beep).
I'm putting it in the microwave.
Sue me.
Oh, wait, first thing's first.
Oh my God!
I'm a little helper.
All right, I am heating the milk.
That's not warm enough.
I think this is it.
I think this is the temperature the milk should be.
(upbeat music)
Whisk it, whisk it, whisk it.
Yeast, how much yeast?
Two and 1/4 tablespoons.
(grunting)
I thought it said tablespoons.
It said teaspoons.
How am I messing up so early on?
I think it looks fine.
Until yeast has bloomed.
What does bloomed look like?
Oh my God.
I think that's what bloomed means.
It looks like dough.
I'm hopeful here.
So now this is supposed to rise for an hour
and it should double in size.
In the meantime, I'm going to be making the filling.
I think this butter isn't soft enough.
I got tired.
Looks good though.
Mm, butter, sugar, cinnamon baby.
Oh my God!
The dough is huge.
My little dough babe. (baby crying)
(upbeat orchestral music)
Time to roll.
It's a giant burrito.
Wow!
She thick in different areas of the roll.
They're all very different sizes.
So I'm gonna put one big one in the middle.
Oh wow!
Look at them.
In the oven they go.
Let's check on them.
(gasping) Oh my God, they're huge!
They're like, escaping the pan.
Wow!
A big sigh of cinnamon relief.
These smell incredible.
They're cinnamony and they're beautiful
and they are squishy.
I did not want to make the outsides too crispy
because I wanted it to be really gushy on the inside.
All right, let's try it.
(drum roll rattling)
These are the best cinnamon rolls I've ever had.
I'm not exaggerating.
These are so good.
Wow!
They're so gooey, but also crispy on the outside.
This might be my favorite thing I've baked.
I can't stop eating them.
- There's a little packet here.
Let's see what it is.
Homemade cinnamon rolls.
Mm.
Lindsay, I can't believe you've baked this,
but I also know you're an amazing cook.
A five out of five for you.
- Welcome to day two!
Not gonna lie, I'm not really feeling in tip-top shape
because I ate one too many cinnamon rolls last night.
But let's see what we got.
- Hi Lindsay, it's Hannah
and I am challenging you once again
to bake one of my favorite dishes.
This one is a leftover turkey pot pie.
It's about medium difficulty,
but you're going to have to get that pie crust really flaky,
which takes usually a couple tries to do just right.
Best of luck.
- Ooh, so we got a savory bake today.
Something I have never done.
I don't like cooking and this involves cooking.
I like baking more than cooking and now I have to do both.
So I'm gonna start with the pie crust.
I am nervous because Hannah was very specific
on this pie crust recipe.
And she was like, keep it cold.
And I've looked it over and there's lots of freezer
back and forth transferring.
We're going to mix the flour and salt together
in a large bowl.
Large bowl, checkity check.
One teaspoon.
Pop your dry ingredients in the freezer for a bit
before mixing with the butter and churning.
Wow!
Interesting.
I don't have any room for this.
Maybe that'll fit.
Go!
Oh my God, it's gonna fall out.
Okay, so everything's very cold.
I got the butter and the shortening in there.
She said to get a pastry cutter.
I didn't even know what that was,
but I looked it up in the store
and it's like this Wolverine-like thing.
I'm just gonna.
Oh, this is nice!
(upbeat orchestral music)
A little bit of water, about a tablespoon.
Okay, so it is starting to form the big clumps like it said.
Okay, we're on the right path.
Please work.
You've got to start folding it.
Oh jeez, fold it how?
I don't understand.
It's just falling apart.
Am I supposed to be kneading it?
What am I supposed to be doing?
I'm going to cut it.
Okay, I think I did something right.
We're gonna make the filling.
Since this is a turkey pot pie for the holidays,
I have made some turkeys.
I didn't make the turkeys.
We just seasoned the turkeys
and we're putting them in the oven.
Do you hear that sizzle?
For the filling, gonna do our melted butter.
Just kidding, I'm gonna use this sauce pan
because I thought it said frying pan, but it says sauce pan.
I just got a bunch of butter in my hair just now.
Then we're adding some veggies.
(cheerful orchestral music)
That actually looked good.
The filling smells so good.
So now I need to roll out my dough.
It's just crumbling a little bit
and that's what I'm worried about.
This should be big enough.
I'm gonna do that thing where I roll it on to here.
Okay, that is literally the ugliest crust
I've ever seen in my entire life.
It's like Frankensteined together.
Now we pour in the filling.
Wow!
I've never made a meat pie before.
My pie is looking cute.
Now it needs the top.
The part that's supposed to look pretty.
Hopefully I can do it.
Please look like a perfect circle.
I really want this pie to be pretty.
(upbeat orchestral music)
Wait, ah!
It's pretty.
Oh my God, okay.
Wow, I am so proud of how this looks so far.
Fingers crossed all goes well in there.
Bake well, little pie.
I can't believe I made this.
It looks like a professional baker, minus the edges.
The edges could be a little bit better.
It smells amazing.
It's crispy.
It's flaky.
Let's try it.
Wow!
That's so good.
It's really hot.
I mean, it tastes like a homemade pot pie.
It's definitely a level up.
Makes you just want to cozy up by a fire.
- So we got the homemade turkey pot pie.
I heated it up.
Put it on a cute little plate.
Let's see how it tastes.
Very hot!
Mm, it's real good.
Very seasoned.
I was ready to put some adobo on this as soon as it's hot,
but overal baby mama, this is delicious.
Super proud of you.
- Day three, which means today is the most difficult
to bake out of all of them.
We have the dessert snob herself Rie today,
which means things are gonna get serious.
- Hi Lindsay, it's Rie.
Today I'm gonna challenge you to make buche de Noel.
It's a traditional French Christmas dessert.
It's a little bit difficult because you have to make
a lot of different components.
Good luck!
- So last time I made a Swiss roll
and I'm pretty sure that a yule log
is just a really, really fancy Swiss roll.
And Swiss rolls are very difficult to get right
on the first try.
And for some reason I got it perfect.
Which makes me believe that this time is gonna go awful.
We got to make the chocolate spongecake.
This is the most difficult part of the entire thing.
If the baking goes wrong and it has any cracks
and I don't roll it well, then game over baby.
Now I gotta do the egg yolkies.
Oh, what do I do if I break the yolk?
Oh jeez Louise, I'm just going for it.
(dramatic music)
That looks so good.
Things are looking beautiful.
Oh my God, this is the most satisfying thing ever.
And it smells so good.
Now we are pouring.
This is so fluffy!
I feel like this needs to be so even because if it's not,
it's not gonna roll.
The moment of truth.
We're putting it in the oven.
This is where I watch it like a hawk.
My 10-minute timer went off.
I don't know if it's done or not.
Holy (beep) it's huge!
I think it'll deflate.
We're just going for it.
It doesn't say to do this,
but I'm gonna put some powdered sugar on top
so it doesn't stick to the towel when I flip it.
Flip mode, flip mode, flip mode.
Please!
Oh, okay.
Now from here it says to cool for 10 minutes,
then start rolling.
Ah, part of me is like,
I just feel like if I don't do it now,
it's like now or never.
It feels very, very, very flimsy.
Oh my God, I can't breathe.
I feel good, I think.
Okay, so while that is cooling,
I'm going to be making the hazelnut chocolate buttercream.
Ooh!
(upbeat orchestral music)
Mm, that is so good.
Okay, so I've made the ganache.
I've made the filling.
Now I'm going to make the meringue mushrooms.
I've never done anything like this before.
I've never made a meringue.
I've never made it into shapes.
I just hope it looks cute and like little mushrooms
and not like little poops.
Oh, that's cute!
Now I'm supposed to do this.
That didn't do anything.
I'm supposed to make the tops flat.
This is what I was worried about.
They're not even.
I don't know if that's gonna hold a mushroom.
Are you kidding me?
Oh why!
Oh, this is not my day.
This is not my day at all.
While my wonky mushrooms are baking,
I'm going to make the sugared
cranberries/rosemary decorations.
Here's the dealio.
I didn't buy cranberries.
I completely forgot.
And do I want to go out and buy some more?
No, I don't.
Oh, Lindsay, what are you gonna do for the cranberries?
You may ask.
Well, I have this fake foliage, and what are these?
Cranberry-like substances.
Not gonna eat them.
They're straight cardboard, but it will make it look nice.
I do have rosemary.
This is Rose.
So I just got to give her a little haircut.
Let's see how it did.
Oh, so far.
Uh oh.
Oh jeez.
No cracks.
Wow!
There's no cracks.
How am I so bad at everything
except for the hardest cake to roll?
Now, the filling.
It looks stunning as it is,
but now I have to roll it back up.
I think it's good.
If I had done it any tighter, it might've broken.
Now I got to put it in the fridge for a bit.
So the meringue is doneso.
Looks like little styrofoams
You take some of the ganache
and then you kind of use it as like paste.
I don't know how it's supposed to stick,
but we're rolling with it.
Time to decorate.
A little smushy,
but I think that's what the picture looks like.
(cheerful Christmas music)
This was a journey.
I have made a buche de Noel.
Didn't think it would actually turn out this good.
I'm gonna try this little mushroom.
Adorable.
Mm, tastes like a little macaron.
This tastes like heaven.
What is it about rolled up cakes that I love so much?
It's so good!
Cake, moist.
Inside, creamy.
Ganache, just stunning.
(cheerful Christmas music)
Hot log, she did it again.
- This is my cake.
Kind of look like a log and she puts a mushroom.
That's the fancy.
Little messy, but fancy.
Let's take a little bite.
Ooh, the whole thing gonna fall.
Very chocolatey.
Mm, sugar.
Honestly I think overall Lindsay has done
a wonderful job with all these dishes.
I love it.
- All in all this video has been a journey.
I cried like four or five times off camera,
but I'm proud of myself.
I think I'm actually a good baker.
I just don't have any confidence.
Let me know in the comments what you think Tasty producers
should challenge me to do next.
(cheerful Christmas music)