- I wanna show you my
favorite way to zhoosh up
a box brownie mix.
There've been extensive conversations
about how to spell zhoosh,
I think zhoosh is spelled with an umlaut.
That doesn't look right [laughs].
Is it Z-H-U-Z-H?
I don't know.
Point is its word.
I like to say.
[upbeat music]
- Today, we were put upon a challenge.
- And I have been sent
a box of brownie mix.
- My task is to
- zhoosh.
- Zhoosh.
- Zhooshen up a little bit.
Did I say it right?
- But we're using what
we have in our homes.
- I'm home but I'm not at home.
What's happening?
- Love brownies, like
Popeye's favorite dessert.
- I was a girl scout.
I was a brownie.
- I want to be a brownie person.
- I think it's a really
good product to begin with,
and I think we're gonna
make it even better.
- Please come with me on the journey.
- Yay.
- Down.
Down, just go eat your breakfast
that I made for you,
lovingly.
- You don't make me
- [Ollie] breakfast.
- All right, cool.
[upbeat music]
So 9:23.
Hey buddy,
good morning,
we're filming.
You wanna say Hi?
- Today I'm gonna take
this box brownie mix,
make it as is and just
add a tahini swirl to it.
Nothing fancy, I'm not
trying to fry something,
not trying to like
rewrite the rules, okay?
It's Friday morning,
got a cranky child right over there,
and that's just where we're at.
So tahini swirl on the brownie,
get it in the oven, done.
Place water, oil and egg in a medium bowl.
Olive oil and chocolate
really work together.
Like I've done an olive oil
on chocolate cake in the past
and oil based cakes, obviously
come out exceedingly moist.
Boom, one handed how you like me now, huh?
Sorry, there's actually a
tiny bit of shell in there.
Alright, so we're gonna mix this.
Ollie,
don't be that guy.
Brownie mix is going in.
- [Ollie] The whole thing?
- The whole thing.
- [Ollie] Why?
It's wasteful.
- It's wasteful?
You're not gonna be singing
that tune when these are done.
Ollie,
- It's wasteful.
you kicked over the camera dude.
- [Ollie] Wasteful, wasteful.
[bleep]
- Brownies have usually
so much fat in them
that you don't really have to worry about
anything kind of sticking per se,
but it just means that
you can pop the whole
tray of brownies out of the pan.
So the key is you really
want the parchment
to actually stick to the glass
so it's not sliding around.
Yeah, I thought about
getting a little fancy
and complicated with this
but I just don't quite
have it in me today.
Now for the tahini swirl.
So I'm taking,
let's call that like a generous,
two tablespoons of
tahini, maybe even three,
I don't know.
About an equal part, maple syrup,
a good pinch of salt.
I just wanna make sure
I work this together
and get it nice and smooth.
There was a few lumps in that tahini.
Plop,
boom.
See what I'm saying.
That's kind of the consistency.
About the consistency
of loose peanut butter.
So flying in with our
tahini swirls situation.
Alright, so we've got our five dollops.
And now it's all in the swirl.
Just moving the mixture around,
kind of repeatedly
is what's gonna get you great swirl.
So I'm gonna hit this with
additional salt, 'cause why not?
I'm just gonna throw it into the oven.
I think it's like 40 minutes or so.
Parchment,
boom.
Just pop it right out.
No more digging out that first piece
and watching it get ruined.
Then eating it like a savage yourself
before you tell your family
that the rest of them are ready, right?
Check that out.
What's there not to like about that?
You could do it like peanut
butter swirl with maple syrup.
You could do like anything.
Hey guys,
you wanna try a Brownie?
[upbeat music]
- The first thing we need to do
to improve on a box of brownie
is of course get out some ice cream.
The funnest part of my job
when I was the general
manager at Shake Shack
was coming out with new
frozen custard flavors
'cause we had a flavor
of the day everyday.
And the first thing I thought
of with brownie butter
was I wanna make up a ice cream
flavor with brownie ripple.
It calls for one egg and
I kept that the same,
and it calls for a quarter cup of water,
a third of a cup of liquid coconut oil.
Okay, I'm gonna put all of the mix in
except for I'm gonna hold back a tiny bit
to use as a little secret surprise.
So that's the batter.
Everybody in the house is
very excited about this
because I had to do a practice
but I wouldn't let
anybody get the practice.
So a lot of anticipation.
Coffee ice cream,
you could use vanilla.
I just didn't wanna use something that had
already chunks or pieces in it.
This is a little hard.
Oh,
[laughs] I really do
think I broke the spatula.
If you go too far it'll be too liquid.
So the consistency I would
say that you're going for
is creamy but not liquefied.
So that's kind of that
cake batter consistency.
It's perfect for folding.
Hi.
What are you doing?
- Getting an instrument.
- Getting an instrument.
Can you show the instrument. [laughs]
Cosmo has music class
and they all had to make an instrument,
and I'm sure some kids
actually made an instrument.
That kid walked in the kitchen [laughs],
grabbed a jar of popcorn
and was like [laughs]
this is fine.
So blobs of brownie batter
into the bowl.
Alright, so the other thing I
had warming up on the griddle
is the peanut butter
and that's just to get it
so it is a little less bloby
and a little more pourable.
This is another
trick leftover from my Shake Shack days,
a blob here and a blob there.
Hmm, now I'm folding.
And you can see that ice
cream is much more melted.
So now I don't wanna
mess with it too much.
I have a big jar.
Ooh, this really liquefied.
It's gonna be fun,
it's gonna refreeze.
Alright, this mixture is
going into the freezer.
So I'm actually gonna cook off
the rest of the brownie batter.
Instead of using the eight
by eight that it calls for,
it's not as much,
so I have a loaf pam.
Woulda gal that Pam.
I already preheated my
toaster oven to 325.
Oh, did it turn off?
You bastard.
You guys wanna see what
the brownies look like?
So it made this like
[paper rattling]
little plank of brownie.
This is kind of the perfect piece.
I mean, it's got good core interaction
but also almost to the center.
I'm freaking out.
I'm gonna get the ice cream
that I made yesterday out,
[laughs]
This is a CO2 charger thing, I'm a jobber.
So by putting whipped cream into it,
or whipping cream and charging it,
it's gonna turn it into
like what you would get
out of a ready whip can.
And remember that little
bit of brownie mix
that I held back.
So I sifted that through
a fine mesh strainer
just to get any lumps out.
I actually don't know
if this is gonna work.
It's very exciting though.
Alright, so you put the top on,
the little bopper topper on.
Cool.
[laughs]
See.
Get some carpal tunnel.
Can you see all those brownie
chunks and peanut butter chunks in there?
[laughs]
Oh, no.
No.
[liquid slurping]
I actually really love
maraschino cherries.
[laughs] Oh, yeah.
Hmm,
the coffee ice cream was
a really good choice.
Very delicious.
I would say that I really got
my money's worth out of that
box of brownies.
After a mile, always worth it.
Yum.
[upbeat music]
- Today I'm going to transform brownies
into churros.
The great thing I feel like
with all box of brownies
is that you can't mess it up
even if you kind of
eyeball the ingredients,
mix it incorrectly
and bake it at the wrong temperature,
it'll still be good.
So initially
I wanted to try and turn
the brownies into licorice
and I did try that,
but it had like a weird
gummy, gross texture.
So I decided to go with churros.
So I'm only gonna make a half box worth.
So nine ounces of this
brownie mix is going in,
three ounces of bread flour,
boom, nailed it.
A teaspoon of baking powder.
Get it nice and fluffy.
Brownie isn't something
that's meant to be fluffy
so it doesn't have a
ton of leavening in it.
A big pinch of salt.
I'm doing a shallow fry just 'cause
I'm at home and I'm not
making that many donuts
so it's not a big deal.
So with the [mumbles] it's hard to
get the temperature with a thermometer,
so you just kind of put in a tester.
Immediately when it heats the oil
you wanna get lots of bubbles.
So one large egg
and three tablespoons of water,
and I'm just gonna mix it up.
I didn't even like pre-beat my egg
'cause I don't know what
they do to this stuff
but you can just throw things in there
and mix it up and it comes out fine,
Somehow, like magic.
When I was between the
ages of three and five,
I was really obsessed with birthdays.
I made a Betty Crocker cake mix everyday,
decorated it and sang
Happy Birthday to myself
for a period of time.
I did that like everyday.
So there's a lot of pictures
of me blowing out candles.
I don't know why my parents allowed it.
Now I'm gonna make a little spiced sugar
that I'm gonna roll the churros in.
These are vanilla beans in here.
It gives it so much vanilla aroma.
This is really good cinnamon
from Burlap & Barrel.
I'm also gonna add a little bit of cocoa.
This is chili powder I made myself.
This is gonna give me my
Mexican hot chocolate floor.
So my oil is hot.
I'm gonna mix this up.
I'm out of piping bags,
and this is also the
only Ziploc bag we have.
So I'm gonna use a nice big star tip,
and hope this doesn't leak.
It might, it probably will.
Gonna stand it up in a glass
and then I can just pile
my brownie batter in there.
Oh no,
the tip.
Okay man,
we just got to get through
a few brownies together.
You know what?
Hold on.
Oh oh,
oh oh.
Come on.
Come on little churro.
Nope.
[laughs]
It's not piping.
Okay, if this happens to you, that's cool.
It's still gonna be super tasty.
We're just not gonna get
that nice long shape,
but I'm just, I got two spoons
and I'm just plopping in there.
Yes, little poops.
[laughs]
Okay, I'm gonna continue with my donut.
Little donuts now.
This mix has chocolate chips too,
so what's great is you get
these little molten pockets
of melted chocolate in there too.
Little donut hole.
I'm gonna go right into this spice sugar,
toss it around,
nicely coat it.
It smells very cinnamony
and chocolatey in here.
Huh,
I have more I'll make another tower,
we'll have two towers of donuts.
His and her donut towers.
So romantic.
We've never made poop
looks so romantic before.
Delightful.
We got the fluffy inside
melty chocolate chips
and it tastes like a brownie
and that sugary outside coating,
so tasty, huh?
[upbeat music]
- There are two things that,
there are three things.
No, four.
The first one is that
guaranteed no matter what
box mix you're using,
there will not be enough salt.
So we're going to add a little bit of salt
to the dry mix brown butter
which I've already made.
I'm gonna make a wet caramel,
let it harden and then
break it up into shards.
Instead of going with a normal
rectangular or square pan,
I'm going to go with a fluted tart pan.
Yes, it's a circle.
Circles don't have corners,
but it does have all these tiny
little ridges around the pan
that I'm going to hope will
actually like mini corners
so that everyone gets to eat
like five or six corners.
This is what we call wet caramel.
Instead of just caramelizing sugar,
there's a little bit of water added to it.
So I'm just gonna add
my sugar 3/4 of a cup,
two tablespoons of water.
We're not going to stir it.
This is crucially important
because agitating the caramel as it cooks
is going to cause it to kind
of seize up and become grainy
instead of smooth and glassy.
So this recipe actually comes
from these incredible blondies
that are made by Claire Ptak,
who made Harry and Megan's wedding cake.
Guys I'm kind of worried [bleep] this up.
Pour out your caramel,
drag the caramel out into a thin layer
on the parchment sheet.
As it cools up,
it's going to turn into this
really hard glass like material
and now that my caramel is cooling,
I'm going to go back and make
the actual brownie batter.
Besides the brown butter
that I had mentioned,
I'm not actually doing anything
differently from what the box
instructions tell me to do.
I'm gonna do an egg,
a 1/4 of a cup of water,
and instead of the vegetable
oil that it calls for
I'm going to add an equivalent
amount of brown butter,
which is a 1/3 of a cup.
Okay, so I'm going to
add all of my brownie mix
and stir until well blended.
[floor whisking]
It's very thick, which is great.
I had one reservation
about using this tart pan.
This pan has this removable bottom.
I'm a little bit concerned
that the batter might
leak out of the bottom.
So I'm gonna smooth the butter all over.
This is hardening to a thin,
brittle layer on the parchment.
And so what I'm gonna do is take a knife,
gently, something like this
on the larger end of
what you're looking for,
I have measured out about a
quarter cup of caramel shards.
They'll melt again,
obviously because they're sugar
and also add a layer of flaky salt.
Look how pretty that looks.
And put this in a 325 degree oven.
My brownie tart is out of the oven.
The shards have done exactly
what I hoped they would do
which is melt and sink into the batter.
The rest of the top has a
really beautiful, glossy sheen
and like a crackly shell.
It had a tiniest leak
turned into almost like brittle pieces.
These are definitely like the cooks treat
of this method of brownie making.
Because it's a tart
and I would normally
serve a tart in wedges,
why not serve a brownie in wedges?
This is very good.
If I needed a last minute desert idea
and I had caramel shards
and hypothetically just had
brown butter lying around,
this is exactly what I would make.
[upbeat music]
- So my approach today is to
just like intensify the flavor
and balance out the sweetness
rather than change it completely
and add a bunch of stuff.
I think where box brownie mixes
really excel is in achieving
a really chewy texture.
These are fancy brownies.
I have a block of
bittersweet chocolate here.
And that bittersweet chocolate
I think should help balance
out a lot of sweetness.
This is an eight by eight pan.
Just to prevent any sticking,
I'm brushing it with a
little melted butter.
So I'm gonna chop this chocolate.
I like the texture of chopped chocolate.
A lot of the chocolate is just
gonna melt into the brownie
and then some of it, those larger pieces
will stay like little gooey pockets.
Maybe that's enough.
Maybe I won't do the whole thing.
So the mix calls for a third
of a cup of vegetable oil.
Instead of vegetable oil,
I am using brown butter as the fat.
It really contributes like
a butterscotch flavor,
caramel flavor,
Which goes so well a chocolates.
Into the bowl,
I can add a splash of vanilla extract.
And then it calls for
a quarter cup of water.
Now rather than using water,
I'm using brewed coffee,
this has cooled,
1/4 cup of coffee,
my one egg,
and now the mix goes in,
sorry,
into the bowl,
just all in one shot.
I just fold to incorporate.
So here's my brownie batter.
With brownie batter
you're on looking for a
really glossy, thick mixture.
If you don't have coffee
for whatever reason,
you could try like instant coffee
and just stir a teaspoon
of coffee granules
into some hot water.
It doesn't taste that good you guys.
This is an eight by eight pan,
a metal pan,
which I prefer for brownies.
They tend to bake more evenly that way.
The last component of my zhoosh,
just regular old kosher salt.
I think probably every single
person is doing salt on top.
I mean, at this point
it's like a little bit of a baking cliche,
but cliches exist for a reason.
It's ready to go in.
[oven door shutting]
I baked the brownies,
I pulled them out after 34 minutes.
So I under bake them
even according to the packet instructions.
They cooled
and then I stuck them
in the fridge because,
actually it's much easier to
cut brownies when they're cold.
Here they are.
You can lift the whole
thing right out of the pan.
And don't tell my mom,
but this doesn't even need to be washed.
I put it in the clean dish pile.
And you know the bottom is set and firm
and the top is crackly,
but then you have that real
bit of fudginess in there.
The coffee is adding bitterness
to offset some of that sugar.
So it's just putting
everything in better balance
and enhancing the chocolate flavor.
I get a little bit of that
toasty brown butter flavor.
It's not really prominent,
it's just kind of mixing
with everything really well.
I don't even get a noticeable
salt in this on top.
But again, all these things
are just correcting that flavor
and not interfering with the chewiness,
because that's the best
part of these brownies.
[upbeat music]
- You should know that
I don't like brownies,
'cause I don't like chocolate.
Which means I don't like brownie mix
except for Betty Crocker,
and this is not sponsored
this is just me for whatever reason
having a deep love for
Betty Crocker box brownies
and no other brownies
and no other chocolate
things in the world.
I don't understand it either.
Today instead of baking
them into brownies,
I'm gonna turn them into a
brownie Bischoff milkshake.
Because the other thing that I have
a deep nostalgic love for
is Bischoff cookie butter.
Basically like peanut butter,
but it's just blitzed up cookies
and it's the most delicious
thing on the planet.
I honestly don't even
know what is in here.
Last time we made a box of brownies
was definitely as a child.
I don't think I've made a
box of brownies as an adult.
Two big scoops of Haagen
Dazs finest vanilla ice cream
and then the I'm gonna powder,
do some of this powder brownie mix.
It smells like Hershey's
hot chocolate packets,
is exactly what it smells like.
I also do like those.
I guess I do kind of like chocolate.
I don't know, it's confusing.
A little bit of milk to get things going,
and big scoop of cookie butter.
I'm gonna do a big pinch of salt because
I wanna balance it and make
it kind of like a salty
brownie Bischoff milkshake.
[blender whirring]
That sounds like a milkshake.
It's sort of like giving
me like Yoo-hoo vibes.
Over here.
I tried to lure him into
[laughs]
[mumbles]
and he hates that.
Tell me that's not the single
most delicious beverage
you ever consumed outside
of an alcoholic one.
- Wow.
- It's delicious?
- That's messed up.
- Yeah, that's a good one.
- Wow, that's delicious.
Bye.
- Bye, love you
And that is how you doctor
up a box of brownie mix
in quarantine.
It doesn't look like much
but it tastes like much.
[upbeat music]
- I'm gonna show you right now
how to make my brownie truffles
that I created.
So basically you need a box of brownies
that you already baked.
I guess mine still here.
You wanna wait until it cools off,
cut around and take the edges,
and if you know me you know
the edges of everything
is my favorite part.
So hear I got one piece.
Right?
And then here is the magic trick.
So you wanna cut it in
pieces just to take some out.
The edges are the harder part
and then you're wanna
put them into a bowl.
You can eat these.
Just try to get as much as possible.
You have that is moist enough
that you can like massage
it and turn it into a ball
or a truffle.
Let's be a little more delicate,
don't say balls, say truffles.
So I'm gonna turn these truffles
into some fun boozy dessert.
I'm gonna go with good old bourbon here.
So I'm gonna put two tablespoons.
The hard pieces I'm not
getting rid of them.
I'm gonna just put them together
because those are gonna require
more booze or more liquid
so you can actually make them softer.
You are going for this size or smaller.
I don't know, this is
about inch and a quarter.
And then because they're kind of a sticky,
you wanna place them on a
sheet tray line with paper.
Just roll your balls in wherever you want.
I know we said when we're
saying balls, right?
Roll your truffles in whatever you want.
So I wanna put some cocoa powder here,
I don't want to waste it.
I'm rolling rolling rolling.
Make sure that you shake the excess of it,
make them perfect.
I have these noodle strainer here,
and I shake them inside the strainer,
and then the tip, chocolate truffle.
So I turn a box of mix brownies
into boozy chocolate truffles.
I like it because I'm all dark
and this is dark.
[upbeat music]
- When we got these, the box brownies,
we weren't told that we were
gonna be doing this video.
So [laughs]
I was about to throw them away.
The box of brownie calls for,
let's see, a 1/4 cup water,
1/3 cup vegetable oil, one egg.
I'm gonna forego that,
and I'm just gonna go with
five tablespoons unsalted softened butter.
There's already sugar on there,
but I'm still gonna add about,
take 1/3 cup pack dark brown sugar.
I have a 1/3 cup Greek yogurt.
[mixture whisking]
It actually calls for one egg,
but I'm gonna add two.
That's gonna add more fat,
it's also gonna give
them more caky texture.
I'm gonna add a little
bit of salt, let's say.
Baking soda and baking powder.
I would almost prefer to
use baking powder for this
but I have not found baking powder in,
God, the last seven weeks.
So it's been a struggle.
And I'm also, I'll admit,
I'm being a little bit lazy,
I should have combined the baking soda
and the cake mix or
they're even distributed.
I've been doing too many dishes.
This is three very very ripe bananas.
This must be like Molly's nightmare
'cause she hates chocolate,
Chris's nightmare
because he hates bananas.
Okay.
I have a baking sheet.
For the brownies it says 325
for about 39 to 43 minutes.
Weird range I have to say.
This is unsweetened coconut flakes.
We'll check up to the 30 minute mark
and then see where it's up.
But we're looking for
it to be firm on top.
All right,
the brownie is done.
Almost
too sweet.
It wouldn't be offensive to most people
but I think I prefer things
to be just sweet enough
and this is definitely
on the sweet sweet side.
It's a chocolate banana coconut brownie,
that's what it is.
Iced espresso right now,
because it's hot.
[drums playing]
Oh, also I learned that
Zhoosh is spelled Z-H-O-O-S-H.
But that sounds like a zhoosh.
So I disagree with that spelling.
