Whiskey in bread pudding. A cronut as big as your head.
A deep-dish version of a Thanksgiving favorite. If you're already salivating, then keep watching
for the most delectable desserts ever seen on Diners, Drive-Ins, And Dives.
What happens when a waitress and a line cook fall in love,
then buy the restaurant where they met? That's how the 3 Sisters Cafe in Indianapolis was born.
Inside this unlikely diner, Chef Alex Munroe shows Guy Fieri how they make
their iconic blueberry goat cheese pie. Yes, you heard us correctly: goat cheese in a pie.
A melange of sweet and savory, this pie begins with a classic butter crust.
Then Chef Munroe throws together a quick base of heavy cream, brown sugar, tangy goat cheese,
an egg, and chopped basil. And of course, a ton of blueberries. Top it all off with a
crunchy topping of sliced almonds and sugar, and you've got yourself a truly unique pie.
"Dude. Whoa!" "It's different." "Mmm. That pie rocks." "Thank you." "Seriously. Rocks."
Pies 'n' Thighs is an iconic fried chicken and pie shop in an unlikely place:
Brooklyn, New York. This homage to all things Southern is famous for its fried
chicken and biscuit sandwich, but we're here to focus on their pecan butter crunch donut.
The process starts with making toffee from scratch.
Melted butter and sugar caramelize together and then harden into a crisp, smokey sweet toffee.
The toffee is then chopped up in a food processor and mixed with finely chopped pecans.
The donuts are made with a yeasted dough and deep fried to fluffy perfection.
Finally, the donuts are dipped in glaze and coated with the homemade toffee-pecan mix.
Only in New York can you find Southern-inspired desserts this delicious!
Sweet potato pie is a Thanksgiving classic,
but what if you could have it year-round? Turns out you can if you're lucky enough to live near
Mahony's Po'-Boy Shop in New Orleans, thanks to the culinary stylings of Chef Benjamin Wicks.
Instead of sweet potato puree, Wicks uses big chunks of roasted sweet potatoes mixed with
brown sugar and pie spices. The thick crumble on top of the pie gives it the "crunch" in its name,
and it consists of mostly whole pecans and brown sugar, which is kind of like the topping on a
coffee cake. But what really kicks this pie up a notch in the flavor department is that
it's topped off with mini marshmallows that have been blow-torched to toasted perfection.
Because, after all, what's a sweet potato pie without marshmallows?!
"Creative, quality, scratch-made. We'll be back."
Despite its reputation for physical perfection, Los Angeles is home to an abundance of donut
shops. In fact, according to National Geographic, it's the donut capital of the United States! So
it's no surprise that when Guy Fieri stopped by the iconic Nickel Diner in Downtown L.A.,
he was served the famously sweet maple donut with a savory bacon crunch on top.
The pastry chef at Nickel Diner starts off with a yeast-based donut dough
that has to rise for a full 24 hours. Then she beats it with a rolling pin,
cuts out donuts and donut holes, and fries them to golden brown perfection.
Next comes the maple glaze, which is a simple mix of confectioner's sugar and maple syrup.
Each donut is hand-dipped in the glaze and then rolled in some crushed-up and crunchy
cooked bacon. It's a complete breakfast all wrapped up in one delicious donut!
The Duluth Grill in Duluth, Minnesota is a classic diner in a blue-collar neighborhood
that serves up all the local favorites, like pancakes and meat pasties. But
their bestseller is an old-fashioned diner staple: the banana cream pie.
This Midwestern spot puts its own spin on a classic dish by starting it all off with
a shortening-based crust that chef and owner Tom Hanson mixes by hand. He then rolls the dough out
into seven-inch rounds. That's right: when you order a banana cream pie at the Duluth Grill,
you get your very own personal pie. Each individual crust is blind-baked,
then filled with freshly sliced bananas and homemade vanilla custard. Topped with whipped
cream and a drizzle of caramel sauce, it's all enthusiastically summed up by our intrepid host:
"That's pretty dynamite."
Darby's Cafe in Olympia, Washington was a funky, health-conscious spot that serves up some unique
food. While no longer open, their hot blueberry crunch roller was as original as the cafe.
It all starts with a homemade maple bourbon granola. Once that's baked and ready to go,
the chef heats up a tortilla on the grill, then adds a smear of cream
cheese frosting and tops it with the maple bacon granola and some fresh blueberries.
Roll it up like a burrito, and you've got yourself a delicious dessert.
But that's not all! The whole thing gets plopped into a deep fryer and
then topped off with a big scoop of ice cream and a sprinkle of powdered sugar.
"I thought this was a healthy joint at Darby's Cafe." "It's, um, got calcium."
"Got a point there."
When Fieri stopped by Meal Ticket in Berkeley, California, he met Chef Jimmy Carter,
no relation to the former president. In a city known for marching to the beat of its own drum,
Chef Carter isn't afraid to put his own spin on a dish as classic as apple pie.
His secret ingredient? Grapes.
Chef Carter makes the all-butter, cinnamon-flavored pie dough by hand.
Rather than tossing fresh fruit in the unbaked dough,
he sautees some apples and grapes in butter along with sugar, cinnamon, and vanilla. That filling
is added to a blind-baked crust, then topped with a simple sugar-flour-cinnamon concoction.
The result is a perfect pie that celebrates both the sweet-tartness of the apple and the bright
fruitiness of the grapes. It's unfortunate that Meal Ticket closed their doors in 2018.
Grammy's Goodies in Wheat Ridge, Colorado was founded by a family that started in the
fair business and then opened a restaurant. So it should come as no surprise that their
specialty is a one-pound cream puff. Time to bust out the stretchy pants!
The chef makes homemade cream puff dough, then pipes it into delicate yet massive piles
and pops it in the oven to bake. Next comes the family's whipped cream recipe,
developed by Grammy herself. When the cream puffs are done baking, they're sliced in half
and filled with a massive mound of whipped cream. Topped with the other half of the cream puff, more
whipped cream, and of course a cherry, this is a dessert so decadent that even Guy Fieri himself
proclaimed that he didn't know what to do with it. Luckily, though, he somehow found a way to eat it.
"Vic, that's all you need to sell."
At the Depot Diner in Chicago, Illinois,
Fieri was served a truly decadent dessert ironically developed by a doctor-turned-chef.
Sadly, the diner is no longer open, but its mocha donuts live on in the Triple D hall of fame.
The dough sits for at least thirty minutes after it's mixed so that the gluten can relax
and create a fluffy, delicious donut. The dough is scooped into little donut balls
and dropped directly into a deep fryer. Then the perfectly browned, fried donut balls are dropped
into a cinnamon-sugar mixture while they're still hot. Afterwards, they're topped with
powdered sugar for good measure. As if that's not delicious enough, they're served with a
side of homemade mocha dipping sauce, which is a mix of heavy cream, chocolate, and coffee.
Serving Southern-style comfort food, Aunt Mary's Cafe in Oakland, California is also dishing up
a classic New Orleans-style pain perdu, which is essentially a fancier French toast. "Pain
perdu" translates to "lost bread," and it's often made with bread that's a few days old.
But there's nothing old about this updated take on a classic treat.
In fact, at Aunt Mary's, they even make their own "Pain Juice" sauce.
So what's in the Pain Juice? The base is made with red wine and white wine and some mulling spices.
And because one boozy sauce isn't enough, there's also a whiskey cream to soak the slightly stale
baguettes in overnight. The next morning, the chef sears the soaked bread on the stovetop
and then sticks them in the oven to finish. Top it with the "Pain Juice," plus some fresh
strawberries and powdered sugar, and you've got yourself one truly decadent breakfast.
Jimmy's Down The Street has been slinging comfort food in Idaho for over 50 years.
This 1950s-style diner dishes up its fair share of biscuits and grits,
but the main thing that keeps people coming back are the monster caramel pecan rolls.
It all starts with a yeasted dough that the baker mixes by eye. Once the dough has risen, she rolls
it out into a massive sheet and covers it in melted butter and a brown sugar-cinnamon mixture.
Next, the dough gets rolled up into a giant tube and cut into roll portions. The secret to that
gooey caramel pecan topping is that it's actually cooked on the bottom. The pan gets lined with a
homemade brown sugar caramel sauce and a ton of fresh pecans before placing the sliced rolls on
top. After all that, they go in the oven for 20 minutes, and then while they're still piping hot,
they're inverted out of the pan so that the melted caramel and pecans drip all over the rolls.
"The pecans are rocking. It's not just a
little sprinkle-dinkle. That's a fistful of pecans. Awesome."
Donuts are eternally popular. Croissants are eternally popular. So it's no wonder
that cronuts have taken off. And at the Art-Is-In Bakery in Ottawa,
you can get yourself a giant cronut known as the O-Towner. It starts with a traditional
yeasted donut dough that's then laminated, wherein the butter is folded into a dough
over and over again to achieve the classic flakey layers of a croissant.
When popped into a deep fryer, the O-towners immediately puff up, revealing all the flaky
layers. The chef rolls the heaping cronuts in cinnamon sugar, and you'd think he'd be done
at this point, but no. Next, he pipes in some homemade pistachio-based pastry cream and then
tops the donut with raspberry cream and raspberry pearls. This towering confection looks as good as
it tastes, although with a donut this big, there's no way to eat it without making a huge mess.
"This is a destination donut. One of the best I've ever had."
While hanging out with Chef Brian at South of Beale in Memphis, Tennessee,
Guy Fieri was in for quite a treat. Inspired by the classic Jack and Coke cocktail, this place has
managed to put a gluttonous spin on a classic drink with a whiskey and cola bread pudding.
The first step in this over-the-top dish is to make the custard to soak the bread in.
But this is no ordinary custard. It contains cola syrup made by cooking down and reducing Coca-Cola
into a thick glaze, which is then mixed into the custard base. Chef Brian also uses a mixture of
breads, including hoagie rolls and Hawaiian sweet rolls, which he dumps into the cola custard before
popping it all into the oven. While that cooks, it's time to bust out the ice cream maker to whip
up a quick homemade whiskey flavor. Top a scoop of bread pudding with the ice cream, add
a drizzle of cola syrup, and you've got yourself a treat that would make a bartender shed a tear.
Back Street Bistro in Santa Fe, New Mexico offers a classic Thanksgiving pumpkin pie
every fall. And it's not just any pumpkin pie, but a signature deep-dish version. It
starts with a classic all-butter pie crust that's blind-baked to avoid sogginess.
Any pumpkin pie lover knows that it's all about those pumpkin spices, and Back Street Bistro
doesn't skimp in that department. Ginger, clove, nutmeg, cinnamon, and brown sugar
all shine through. The chef blends those spices with some freshly roasted and pureed pumpkin,
adds some eggs for texture, and then drizzles in some molasses and evaporated milk to really make
this pie something special. Top it with homemade whipped cream, and this is a pumpkin pie so good
that even Fieri, a self-proclaimed pumpkin pie skeptic, declares it a truly delicious dessert!
"That's great pumpkin pie, man."
While we would have loved to go get a slice of this pie. In 2017,
Back Street Bistro closed up shop.
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