Recreating Hong Kong Style French Toast From Taste

Hi, I'm Hana, and I'm in the BA test kitchen

to have a super, secret conversation about Chris Morocco.

Once again, we're putting Chris's super taster abilities

to the test.

This is Kristina Cho's, Hong Kong-style French toast.

I'm challenging Chris to recreate this dish

with all of the ingredients in just one day.

He'll be able to taste it, touch it, and smell it,

but at no point will he be able to see this dish.

At the end of the day,

we'll come back to see his final creation

and I'll be the judge.

[jaunty cello music]

[dramatic music]

Oh, it's giving me something.

It was there and then it was gone.

Kind of eggy, waffley something.

Oh, got this very clearly-defined square shape

[chair scrapes]

with this, sort of, slight, crisp edge

that is, kind of, giving me a little bit

of, like, a pancake vibe.

It, sort of, feels like two forms of sweetness.

There's, sort of, like, a stickiness

that's, kind of, giving me a little bit of a syrupy vibe.

But then also there's this sensation

of, maybe, a little bit of powdered sugar?

It's maybe a pool of what I'm assuming is butter.

Maple butter, honey butter?

So, I've got these two square pancake ish somethings.

Getting a little bit of peanut.

Mallory, you told them, I [beeps] hate peanut butter,

didn't you?

God, I hate that flavor.

It is like the flavor equivalent of a fart in a car.

I was so excited to see what was inside this.

Now, excitement gone.

Now, in terms of how you construct this

to get the peanut in the middle, seemingly, of the pancake.

That's a very interesting question.

Yeah, it's quite a generous coating

and quite an even coating of peanut butter.

It's pretty smooth and creamy.

I'm not finding pieces of peanut in here.

It's all pretty broken down.

Is there a fruit element here that I'm missing...

or is this just a peanut butter pancake?

I think I'm good here.

[metal utensil clangs]

There we go.

So, ingredients.

Alright, so pancakes, AP flour, baking powder.

I mean, half of this is just figuring out

how to make a pancake.

Baking soda, salt,

granulated sugar.

For liquids, let's assume buttermilk,

eggs, butter, maple syrup,

10x sugar, confectioner;s sugar.

Let's go for Smucker's

creamy, natural,

peanut butter.

I think that's it.

I need a special piece of equipment, here.

I need the mold or the cutter

that is gonna allow me to to create

that very crispy-edged, square pancake.

So, I don't know, like, what words I need to use

for you to give me the thing I need.

Somebody's gonna shop for these ingredients

and then I will have my first shot at the dish.

[jaunty cello music]

[dramatic music]

All right, so this is gonna be my first attempt at the dish

and I have my ingredients here

and, as ever, it doesn't look like nearly enough.

First and foremost, my question is

what's up on that mold, Mallory?

[molds clattering]

That's all you're giving me.

[Mallory] Those are the square molds I have.

[molds clattering]

[Mallory laughs]

You made me do this.

This is your choice.

I don't know how you're making frigging square pancakes

without a square.

There you go. [mold scrapes]

If you don't use something like that to mold those pancakes

what are you doing?

I literally don't know what this means.

Is it really obvious and I'm just being a dingbat?

Ugh!

God, it feels like the peanut butter

is sandwiched in a distinct layer

between two, kind of, halves of batter,

if that makes sense, right?

If you take the mold away

and all you have is a skillet, or a pan of some sort,

you're introducing batter, potentially, in a freeform way.

The logical conclusion

is you're gonna end up with a circle, right?

Is it something that you have to bake

and then cut pieces out of?

How do you do that though?

If I were to put it in a,

like a baking dish, of sorts, right?

I'm not gonna be able to get that pancake out.

Just to have, like, the surface,

the perception of the edge of a pancake.

Parchment paper, or some other way

of creating a, sort of, non-stick surface.

We are barking up the wrong tree

in terms of square mold in a skillet.

You're saying you do not have

any kind of special tools to make this?

[Chris laughs]

Is there a world in which that's some kind of, like,

laminated French toast kind of thing?

But I was just missing the crust of the bread?

But if it's that, I don't have the right ingredients.

I'd probably ask for regular milk or cream.

I would ask for sliced white bread.

Maybe, I would ask for even, like, a little bit of vanilla.

[upbeat orchestral music]

So, got a fresh direction.

So, we're gonna make French toast.

Are the crusts cut off to kind of, like,

square them off still further?

Maybe, I'll leave the crusts on for my first pass

and then we'll take a close look at that

for the next tasting.

All right, so, huh, I meant to put that in the bowl.

It's fine.

We're gonna assemble it in the...

[egg thuds]

the pan.

All right, for two eggs, let's call it half a cup of cream,

then adding some granulated sugar.

I'm also gonna put salt.

I don't think I got cinnamon from the original dish,

but I might put just a tiny touch of vanilla.

Thin that cream out,

thin that custard out, just slightly.

Might do a half cup of milk.

Everybody here likes peanut butter?

[Crew] I love peanut butter.

[Chris laughs]

So, I'm doing this two ways.

One is a package that has the peanut butter in it

from the beginning,

sandwiched between those two pieces of bread.

The other one is just individual pieces of French toast

and I will just assemble the package

as it goes into the skillet.

Could have used a little bit of a bigger boat, here,

but that's fine.

All right, so French toast is in the pan.

Got some butter in there.

Now, I need to put the peanut butter

on the French toast that's in the skillet

which is not super ideal.

It's becoming apparent the bread wants to tear a little bit.

So, it's just something to, probably, reconsider

for next time.

Probably, go all in on assembling

[spoon clatters]

the French toast, completely,

before it goes into the custard, right?

I want color,

but I don't wanna push the color too far, too fast,

'cause, ultimately, this is a pretty sizable,

kind of, nugget of French toast here, right?

So, I wanna cook the custard through before I flip it.

I don't wanna have to flip it multiple times.

Oh yeah, we're a little dark here.

Wow, we're just like falling apart all kinds of ways, today.

Obviously, a little bit more color than I want,

but part of it could just be that I put too much sugar

in the egg mixture, right?

Because sugar wants to take on color, it wants to brown,

but taking it too far, you know,

you get, like, this.

Wow, that is ugly.

So, this French toast is the one

that I laid the peanut butter in, pre-soak.

This one was post soak.

Obviously, seeing a major difference between the two.

The one that I didn't preassemble

just sat for too long in the custard.

That bread is very tender

and it just, kind of, wanted to fall apart on me.

So, we're gonna cheat this, right?

Gasp.

One of the mistakes I've made here

is I should have trimmed the crusts

before I proceeded with the recipe

and just started out with something,

kinda, closer to this.

I just wanna, kind of, get, like,

a little bit of, like, butter meltage.

So, I've got some maple syrup.

I recall, kind of, getting the sensation

of a little bit of powdered sugar on there,

I feel like for, like, a little visual finish.

So, here's my first attempt at peanut butter French toast.

It's not bad.

I still think, like, there might be,

like, a larger story here, in terms of, like,

you know, some other potential ingredients.

But from a technique perspective,

like, I think I feel pretty, pretty good, now,

having worked through it a little bit.

All right, so time to give myself some scores.

First up, ingredients, 80%.

Could the syrup be a fruit syrup

to work off of the peanut butter?

That's, like, I think the main thing

that I'm really stuck on.

Technique, I'll give myself an 85.

Appearance, 70%.

Maybe, my edges look a little bit weird.

Maybe the 10x is incorrect.

Taste wise, maybe I would give myself a 75.

All right, here are my actual scores.

Okay.

So, ingredients, I've got actual 79,

technique 80, appearance 81,

taste 84, for a total of 81.

For the second tasting,

I'm thinking really clearly about size of the French toast.

I'm thinking about toppings.

Some things to think about,

and just a lot riding on that second tasting.

[jaunty cello music]

[dramatic music]

All right, so we're looking at size,

palm length, palm width.

[chefs talking indistinctly]

[chef laughing]

So, I'm not detecting any 10x on the plate.

I've got melted butter and then I've got our syrup.

It's really funny.

You know, it's like it's, maybe, got a maple aspect to it,

but it's got something else going on in there.

The flavor feels very muted to me.

If anything, it just tastes like you took a little jam,

you took a little maple syrup, boom, boom, boom.

Mix 'em together.

Maybe the play here

is we just need to take some sort of jelly,

or what have you,

put it in with the syrup,

kind of melt it down, and see how it tastes.

My custard is, probably, too sweet.

I will say that.

Like, this feels, like, a little bit more

of a neutral custard.

I'm gonna pull back the sugar.

But that's just, kind of, a detail.

So, huh, I think we can, maybe, safely cross out pancakes.

Oh yeah. [jar clunks]

Raspberry jam with the seeds.

[jar clunks]

That's all you've got?

Unopened blueberry...

which is also moldy, you know what I mean?

[jar clunks]

It's like, you know what- It smells good.

Maybe you keep that.

My best guess is that was a little syrup,

a little grape jelly, boom de de boom.

Now, it's not peanut butter, French toast.

Now, it's, like, PB and J French toast.

And how much cuter is that?

And if you're telling me [slaps]

that's not the world we're living in,

I don't know where we are.

So what, we take 10x, the confectioner's sugar, out?

And that's gonna be some game changer?

Custard, gonna make slightly less sweet.

I still wasn't getting any cinnamon from it, I will say.

If it's in the custard,

it feels like a pretty inconsequential amount,

so I'm gonna leave it out.

Vanilla, I feel a little better about,

but yeah, just a little less sweet, I think, mainly.

I've got a plan and let's make it happen.

Here we go, last attempt.

This one's for the judge.

All right, so I got eggs, I've got cream,

I've got half cup of milk, I've got vanilla,

salt, little granulated sugar.

The consistency, kind of, returns

to that of, like, maybe, about heavy cream,

just slightly looser.

Pre trimming the bread, peanut butter before.

I really like the way the peanut butter

fused those two pieces of bread together

and I love the way it then soaked.

It's just a little bit cleaner of a workflow.

Sandwiching them together.

So, now we're soaking.

This type of bread, it's very easy to over soak

'cause it'll just fall apart on you.

I'm going a little lower and slower

with regards to cook time.

Just a little bit easier gauge on doneness.

[butter sizzles]

Still a touch more color than I'd like

but I think it's okay.

I don't know, it just, kind of, wants to get dark, you know.

We're just about there.

[pan clatters]

Yeah?

Back from the stove, color's good, not bad.

[drum beating]

[Chef] Okay.

A little maple syrup going on there

and, I mean, I don't know,

I guess that's just, like, where we're leaving it.

I don't feel overwhelmingly confident

but, I mean, relative to where we started off, today,

just to draw your attention back

to the cookie cutter that I destroyed

in an effort to prove some kind of point

that has now been completely lost.

Yeah, I think we've come a long way,

but I don't know that we're, like, there.

I don't know that we stuck the landing on this one.

Previous actual score for ingredients was 79.

Let's call this 82.

Technique was 80.

It's hard to know what exactly I was being penalized for.

I'm gonna stay at 80.

Appearance, I was at an 81.

Maybe, we're at an 85.

Maybe the 10x was working against me there.

Taste 84, we'll taste this shortly.

I still feel like, yeah, like 85,

something right around in there.

Hana's gonna come in and clarify some things for me.

Hana's a tough critic, but we'll see what she has to say.

Hey Chris, you look a little defeated.

[both laughing]

May I present to you...

Kristina Cho's Hong Kong-style French toast.

[Chris sighs]

[cloche clunks]

The muted syrupy thing.

I don't think think I would've gotten

sweetened condensed milk in a thousand years.

You beat me to the punch.

[Chris] This is why, like, seeing food

is helpful sometimes. [Hana laughs]

So, what bread did you use?

I used sliced white bread.

Standard sliced bread. Standard sliced white bread.

Would you be able to take a guess,

now that you know that this is Hong Kong-style French toast,

what kind of bread this would be?

Milk bread. Yes.

Stale- Okay.

Day or two old milk bread.

What it presented as was a pancake.

[Hana laughs]

Square pancake, obviously.

What's inside?

I have just peanut butter.

Okay, I'll give you peanut butter.

But what kind of peanut butter did you use?

[chefs talking indistinctly]

The kind that tastes like [beeps]

and is made from peanut.

Natural Like every other one.

Stir. Yeah.

No, stop it.

Peanut butter's amazing.

You did two thin slices, pressed together.

Press removed.

This is actually book ended. Oh.

Piece of thick milk bread

and you're slicing it just until the end

without going all the way through.

Okay.

What is the custard?

Egg, milk, heavy cream, sugar, salt, touch of vanilla.

[Hana] This is far simpler.

Egg, milk, touch of salt, dash of cinnamon.

I did not get cinnamon.

I was looking for it.

[Hana] It looks good, though.

Did you use just a standard pan?

Little butter, regular skillet.

Okay, no lid? No lid.

You need a lid?

You need a lid to achieve that custardy middle.

[Chris] Wow, interesting.

[Hana] You're relying on steam to help you.

Yeah. Cross the finish line.

Okay. So, ingredients.

You gave yourself an 82 and I gave you an 81.

There are some key differences in the type of milk bread

and, obviously, the telltale condensed milk drizzle

versus the maple syrup.

Technique, you gave yourself an 80.

I will give you an 85.

You're cooking it in a pan.

You're not using a lid.

I didn't use a lid, yeah, fair.

Yeah, you're using two slices of bread.

It's actually one slice. As opposed to butterfly.

Butterfly, yes.

But you got the peanut butter in,

you soaked the bread in the custard.

Like, these are pretty solid-

Right. Points that you did address,

so I'll be generous, there. Mm-hm.

Appearance, you gave yourself an 85.

I'll give you a 92

because, other than the dark, amber maple syrup

versus the condensed milk, it looks very much alike.

Okay, so for taste, you gave yourself an 85.

So, let's see how- Okay.

I would score you. Original first?

Original first.

Take one of these.

Seriously? Yes.

I have to have a middle piece?

Yes, I will too.

It's so good.

[chef exclaims]

You eat almond butter.

Totally different animal.

Stop.

The only thing I can taste, in all of them, is peanut.

Is the peanut butter?

I can't taste the peanut butter at all.

[Hana laughs]

Can you?

[Chris laughs]

It's, like, just brushed on the top.

Yes.

So it, like, you know, it adheres-

Gossamer effect. Yeah.

Chris, you also took your bread farther,

the caramelization, and I taste it, touch bitter,

which isn't necessarily unpleasant against the maple syrup.

The cook on this is, like, perfect.

Yeah, for taste, you gave yourself an 85.

I would give you an 82.

Fair.

Because maple syrup does have such a strong identity-

Yeah. Flavor wise.

It, kind of, masks everything else that's going on.

It's just taking away from any peanut butter

that is actually in there, if there's any in there. [laughs]

Not bad, it's just not this.

Yeah, totally.

Often the simpler ones are more difficult-

They are.

To really nail because there's nowhere to hide.

Nope.

But you did a great job.

You gave yourself an 83 total

and my score for you is actually an 85.

What? I know, I can't believe it.

Is that the right math?

[Hana laughs]

I was ready to take the loss, honestly, this morning.

Great job, Chris.

You actually managed to come out on top.

Nice. So-

Thank you. Yeah.

I know it takes a certain kind of person

to, like, look back at today and be, like,

I think that actually went pretty well.

[Chris laughs]

These ingredients were simple.

The dish was pretty simple.

The details mattered.

Every component matters that much more

the fewer ingredients there are.

So, the chips were stacked against me on this one.

For anybody out there who really doesn't like peanut butter,

especially in sweet applications,

I hear you, I see you, I feel you.

You're not alone.

I can't stand it when it goes sweet.

And I find most peanut butters,

like, really lean on sweetness.

I don't love peanut in, like, sort of,

that creamy peanut butter form.

I just find it, it's like a very cloying,

very oppressive kind of flavor.

It just gets in there, it coats everything,

and it takes over. [mournful cello music]