- The cookie--
[clattering]
The cookie itself--
[clattering]
[Claire laughing]
- [Producer] Hold for sound.
- The cookie--
- Wait, there's more.
[all laughing]
- [Claire] Do you need a hand?
- I don't know who put these out,
unless it's him.
- You want me to hand it to you?
- Yeah, I think--
- Here, do you want?
You got it?
I'm not really helping.
- Okay, it's going in.
It's done.
That's it.
[Claire laughing]
- Good job.
- Bye!
- Bye.
[upbeat jazzy music]
[Claire yelps]
[chuckles]
Hey everyone, I'm Claire.
We're in the BA Test Kitchen,
and today I'm making gourmet
Girl Scout Cookies.
This box looks like it's been opened.
- [Dan] I'm sorry.
[laughing]
- Guilty.
Girl Scout Cookies are sold
only through actual Girl Scouts,
children, and it's only
certain times of the year
in different parts of
the country, so we had to
basically put in like a special order.
I don't know, I haven't
had Girl Scout Cookies
in a very long time.
I don't see any Girl Scouts around
to order cookies from.
- [Dan] Do children like you?
[laughing]
- Yeah.
I'm actually really,
I'm actually really good with kids.
I just don't talk to them that much.
I was a Brownie for one season.
[laughing]
And my friends and I all did it together,
and we sold Girl Scout Cookies,
and I think I sold like 40 boxes,
and I was like, this is hard.
We went up and down the
blocks of our neighborhood.
Not that many people bought it.
But the person who won sold like 342,
and I was never gonna do that,
and then I was like, I don't
think I'm so into this.
All right.
So this is Thin Mint.
Such a good cookie.
I love Thin Mints.
They're such a good size.
Ah, just such a good little cookie.
So crisp, so simple.
These are so good.
As soon as you bite in,
you get some of the aroma
of the mint.
It's just so good.
It's just so perfectly balanced.
Caramel deLites, AKA Samoas.
Samoas are my favorite
because I like coconut.
Like, as a recipe developer,
I wish that I'd come up with
this shape and decoration
for a cookie.
It's so fun and playful.
It looks like very much kind
of a shortbread type cookie.
And then there's caramel,
toasted coconut flakes,
and some kind of chocolate thing.
The cookie itself is really tender
but all the texture really
comes from the coconut,
which is very, very chewy.
It's really sweet.
What next?
The Tagalong?
Crispy cookies layered with peanut butter
and covered with a chocolatey coating.
[laughing]
- [Dan] I don't know anything about that.
- How'd that happen?
God, I love peanut butter.
Peanut butter and chocolate.
Looks like it's a
lighter chocolate coating
than a Thin Mint.
This is a darker chocolate,
and this is lighter.
In this cookie, there's a round
kind of shortbread-y cookie,
then a smaller disc of
peanut butter filling
in the center, and then
covered in chocolate.
What's good about these is the saltiness
of the peanut butter.
Those are top three.
Ooh, these are new.
We have the scoop on Lemon Ups.
Crispy lemon cookies baked
with inspiring messages
to lift your spirits.
I am creative.
Ooh!
[laughing]
I am creative.
Oh my god.
I am a go-getter.
I am a leader.
I am gutsy.
I am strong. I love these.
Were you a Girl Scout?
- Yes.
- Really?
Did you win?
- Obviously.
- Did you win?
- Win?
- Like sell the most,
[laughing] sorry.
Did you sell--
- It wasn't a competition.
- Yes it was.
Did you sell the most cookies?
- I guess not.
- What's your favorite?
- The Caramel deLites.
- Oh, whoa.
- AKA, Samoas.
- Yeah, AKA Samoas.
In Texas they were called Samoas.
- They're so sweet.
- I know. They're so sweet.
What flavor, or flavors
should I make for this episode?
- I think you should
go with our big three.
- Thin Mint, Samoa, Tagalong.
Okay.
- This is the only Girl
Scout Cookie that matters.
- Wow.
- They weren't always called Samoas.
Like, when I was growing
up it was Caramel deLites.
- This is one of the great
cookies of the world.
- Really?
- Tagalong.
- Which one are you making?
Thin Mint.
- Okay, so we agreed on three.
What are the three?
- Tagalongs, Samoas--
- Samoas, Thin Mints--
- Thin Mint.
- Yeah.
- Agreed?
- Yeah.
- I feel good about those.
That's what I would have
said from the beginning.
This could not be easier, by the way.
Could do this blindfolded.
So I'm gonna clean this off,
and then we'll start to
do a little research.
Let me measure these.
Okay, so a Thin Mint, four and
a half centimeter diameter.
Tagalongs are also four and a half.
These are all four and a half.
The working theory is
that all of these cookies
are made out of the
same cookie, same dough.
I mean, these all look very, very similar.
The Tagalong cookie looks
like it has a depression.
I'm a little bit surprised at the shape,
because it's not actually
just a depression,
there's like a weird little button lip
around the center.
I might have to make two
separate types of cookies,
one that's only Thin Mint,
and one that's a cookie that I can use
in both the Samoa and the Tagalong.
The mint is definitely in the cookie.
It's a little hard to tell
if it's also in the coating.
Time for my favorite part,
reading the ingredients.
I'll start with Thin Mints.
Enriched wheat flour,
parenthesis, flour, niacin,
reduced iron, thiamine mononitrate,
riboflavin, folic acid,
closed parenthesis sugar,
vegetable oil shortening,
parenthesis, palm and palm
kernel oils, closed parenthesis.
Cocoa, parenthesis, processed with alkali,
closed parenthesis, caramel color,
high fructose corn
syrup, salt, baking soda,
soy lecithin, natural
and artificial flavor.
Oh, it says crispy chocolate wafers
dipped in a mint fudge coating,
which leads me to believe
that according to this
the mint is only in the coating.
Now this says crisp chocolatey cookies
made with natural oil of peppermint.
Why are they different sizes?
[laughing]
Is one of these bootlegged?
These have different
descriptions on the boxes,
and different ingredients.
So this one says manufactured
for Little Brownie Bakers,
well this one says
manufactured by ABC Bakers
slash Interbake Foods LLC.
One company is probably making Samoas
and one is marketing the same
cookie as Caramel deLites.
They all have the same
baseline of ingredients,
and then this one has peppermint extract,
this one has peanut butter,
and this one has sweetened
condensed milk and coconut.
I wanna go see what I can find online.
Bestselling Girl Scout Cookies in order.
One, Thin Mints.
Two, Caramel deLites slash Samoas.
Three, Tagalongs.
Okay, so we picked the top three.
[gasping] How Girl Scout Cookies are made.
Here we are.
Did you know that, yes we did know that.
Look at how the Tagalongs are filled.
They're not piping the
filling into the center
of the buttons, they're just
coating the whole thing.
Little Brown Bakers in
Louisville, Kentucky.
Ooh.
North Sioux City, South
Dakota is the other one.
Wow.
So I feel like I've been eating
the Little Brownie Baker's one.
And not ABC Bakers.
Okay, so this is saying
that the mint flavor
is in the coating.
What a great video.
It's so fast.
Wow, they're pressed into a
really dramatic wreath shape.
So the wreath shape has
a similar kind of well
going around the whole
circumference of the wreath,
and that I think is so
that it can be filled
with the caramel.
Here's my plan.
I'm gonna start with
making, I think, one kind
of cookie dough, and I
can flavor some of it
with chocolate to see if
I can get three cookies
out of one dough preparation.
[upbeat drums music]
My approach for the
dough is to do something
shortbread-like, but with
kind of a sable texture.
Okay, so I'm starting with the butter,
and then I'll add the sugar.
I'm gonna add a little bit of vanilla.
I'm measuring out the flour.
Then two tablespoons cornstarch,
kosher salt, baking powder.
All right, so here's my dough.
I'm gonna chill this down,
put it in here, and then
day two will really be
about the actual cookie,
trying to figure out molds,
dialing in taste and texture.
On day one at the end of the
day, I made cookie dough,
and then I was like this has to chill.
- Okay.
- But then I left for two weeks.
[laughing]
So I need to start over.
I'm gonna actually just make that same,
exact same dough recipe again,
so I can bake it and test it out.
All right.
[jazzy drums music]
Who's responsible for this?
So this has been freezing
for a little while.
It's maybe a little thick, but actually
the Girl Scout Cookies are a little thick.
This is just a test
for texture and flavor,
so I'm not concerned about cutting cookies
that are the same size or thickness.
Oh!
I burned them.
Wow, that went so fast.
All right, well.
I think it was the oven's fault.
So the cookies held their
shape, for the most part,
but you can see there is this lacy edge
where it's kind of spread a little bit,
but that also could be because the oven
was just really, really hot.
So I might have to add a little
more flour or cornstarch.
Looks pretty good.
Minus the burned part.
- [Dan] Done.
- Wow.
I think I did too good a job.
It's very airy, very crisp,
and also very tender.
So this is a little
fragment of the interior
of the Tagalong.
They look similar, in terms of structure.
Actually very similar in
terms of airiness and texture.
My version is a little more tender,
a little bit, not more crumbly,
but it just falls apart more easily.
But I love the flavor.
I think it's actually
pretty close on a first try.
This time I'm gonna
add a bit of egg white,
a little bit more flour, and
a little less cornstarch.
My god.
Your sash.
Oh my god, I didn't even see it.
Why didn't anyone say anything?
These are your badges?
- Yeah, they're my badges.
- Oh my god, it's on the front and back!
- Oh yeah.
I was, yeah.
[Claire gasping]
- All right, talk to me about these.
- Here's a square dancing patch.
Thinking day?
Sports, I think.
It looks good.
It's looking right.
[laughing]
Yes.
- It fits.
[classy jazz music]
Thank you.
Oh they look perfect.
The surfaces are pale,
there's a little bit
of golden around the edge.
I think it's a right amount of doneness.
That was almost 10 minutes.
They are basically right at
four and a half centimeters,
which is where I wanted them to be.
Bottoms look good, little bit of golden.
I don't like the cornstarch in it.
I think it's giving it
kind of a grainy texture.
So I might switch to all flour,
but maybe I'll do cake flour
because I want them to be very light.
I actually think it's very, very close
in terms of texture.
I might just make those
quick tweaks of swapping out
cornstarch, swapping in cake flour
for all of the flour.
[jazzy drums music]
Alex.
- What's up?
- Question.
If you were gonna get a badge,
what would your badge be for?
- This is making me realize
that I have accomplished
nothing in my life.
- What would your badge be for?
I think you get--
- Patience.
- [Claire] Ooh, that's a good one.
- That is a good one.
[jazzy music]
It'd be the leisure badge.
Dedicating myself to a
lifestyle of leisure.
- Delaney.
- The "Fast and the Furious" badge.
I've watched all, well, at
the time there were only
eight movies, but I watched
them all in one week.
- Unless you can drive like they drive
in "Fast and the Furious,"
you don't get the "Fast
and Furious" badge.
- I'm out of practice, but I could learn.
- This is black cocoa.
We used this for the Oreo episode.
It's cocoa that's been
treated multiple times
but in alkali.
This is peppermint extract.
I've used it many times.
All right, I'm gonna taste the dough.
It doesn't really taste the
least bit like chocolate,
but it has a chocolate
coating, so maybe that's okay.
- Okay, Claire.
How about--
- Oh my god.
- How about the friendship
and encouragement badge?
- That's a good one.
- You're doing a great job.
- Thanks, Delaney.
- I really do value our
time that we spend together.
- Thank you.
- I'm sure the cookies are gonna be great.
- No, hey Delaney.
Sorry, that one's for Rhoda.
- What?
- Rhoda gets that one.
Into the fridge.
I don't want that.
Don't try to just find
things to throw at me.
Don't do it!
I'll bat it away!
[laughing]
Okay, the dough is looking great.
I'm gonna pop this in the freezer
and try to figure out some kind of a mold
or a stamp for the Tagalong cookies.
All right, here's our old friend.
This is this food-grade putty
where when I mix the two colors,
I don't know what the chemistry is,
but it starts to set, and it
has to cure for 20 minutes,
and then it is a usable
somewhat flexible silicon mold.
I mean, I don't think it's cheating,
but I think that the best thing to do
would be to make an
impression of the cookie
in the mold, and then use
that to punch out the dough
[jazzy drums music]
I wish I had done this on
something I could then move
because now I can't move it.
But in 20 minutes, I'll pop out the cookie
and the mold should be ready.
In the meantime, I'll punch
out some of the cookies.
The center on the Samoa is
one centimeter in diameter,
so I have to find a one centimeter cutter.
I'm looking for like a largish round tip.
Oh right.
I forgot about the part
where there's like a moat
inside the wreath, and the caramel sits
and rests into that.
I'm looking for a circle like this size
but that's not so sharp.
- [Gaby] Do you want to use my bottle?
- The goal is to create
a little channel running
all the way around the cookie.
I think that this is
important for the Samoa
because if there's nowhere
for the caramel to go
it's just gonna run right off the cookie,
so I think it's important
in giving the caramel
an anchor, something to stick to.
[timer beeping]
They look good.
They held that channel relatively well.
Better than I was hoping, actually.
I don't know if it's going
to be enough of a space
for the caramel.
A least thing, it was a
really good first pass.
The chocolate ones puffed up quite a bit,
which I'm surprised by.
But that might be because I
worked that dough a lot more.
- That's for a Samoa?
[beeping] off.
- Look.
- What--
- There is like a channel.
- A channel?
- For the caramel to run through.
- Oh my god.
- [Claire] I know.
- The mint?
I'm sorry.
- [Claire] Yeah?
- It's just awesome.
- [Claire] Okay, good.
I didn't know where you
were going with that.
- I could take a little
more chocolate flavor.
I love the mint.
- Oh really?
Okay.
- And it's gonna get dipped anyway right?
- True.
True.
- So this is delicious.
- Okay, great.
- I think one dough to rule them all.
- Well now it's actually
gonna be two doughs
because I'm gonna--
- Two doughs to rule them all.
- I think I'll keep the black cocoa
but then add maybe some dutch process.
- Just straight dutch.
- And I'll keep the peppermint the same.
- Mm, yeah.
- I think it could also be dryer.
I mean, snappier.
So, like this,
there's a wetness--
- There's a little softness there.
- In the center, yeah.
Okay, so that was a good test.
I want to come back to the mold I made
of the Tagalong, just pop that guy out.
It took a pretty nice impression of it.
The downside is that I have
to form them one at a time
and then chill them and then pop them out
and then form another one.
The last thing I'll do today
is isolate the cookies
from maybe three Tagalongs,
make more molds of just those,
and leave them overnight
[upbeat jazzy music]
Tomorrow will be about forming and baking
all of the cookies, and
then I might be able
to move onto some of those coatings
and caramel filling for the Samoas
and that kind of thing.
[jazzy drums music]
All right, day three.
I feel like a lot of
things happen on day three.
I wanna look at the molds
that I made for Tagalongs.
They look pretty good.
Nice defined button shapes.
What I'm gonna do now is
make a two times recipe
of the plain cookie base,
and then I'm gonna make
a one times recipe of
the chocolate version
separately on its own.
I do need softened butter though
so I'm going to put this
butter in the microwave.
Oh this, I can't use this microwave.
It's too disgusting.
That make, ugh.
That microwave is a disgrace
to this Test Kitchen.
- I don't go over there.
- It is horrifying.
While this is softening, I'm gonna go
clean out that microwave.
So tired of looking at this.
This is embarrassing.
You're gonna have to blur this out.
Ugh.
- [Man] Ugh!
- [Dan] Oh my.
- I'm taking this
straight to the dish pit.
This maybe has never been cleaned.
I'm just in the middle of a
really intense scary process.
A piece of extremely
cooked on tomato sauce.
Oh, got it.
Okay.
This is a really good illustration
of my problem getting work done.
I usually just end up cleaning instead.
Ugh, this is the worst part.
Ugh.
Ugh.
Ooh.
Oh no, Dan.
Stop!
[Dan laughing]
No!
Ah, all is right.
In case that wasn't clear,
that was really more
about anxiety management
then anything else.
And the tweaks I'm doing on this one
is just a little more cocoa.
I'm gonna add some dutch processed cocoa.
So I'm gonna do one
tablespoon of the black cocoa
and one tablespoon of a good
quality dutch processed cocoa.
[whistles]
Thank you.
I'm gonna sift in the dry.
It smells cocoa-y and peppermint-y,
but it smells like it's in balance.
Okay, into the fridge.
And that took so long the
first batch might be ready.
And I was right.
So here's my plan.
I'm gonna cut out the circles
and then I'm gonna freeze
it, and then any scraps
that I have, I'm gonna
use to form into my molds
for Tagalong, so right now
I'm only cutting circles
for the wreath.
We ever gonna find out what's happening
with this vodka?
[jazzy drums music]
And now I'm gonna keep rolling
out the chocolate dough.
Oh, I didn't even see the
gin in the background.
Okay, so I'm gonna do the
rest of this in the walk-in
under refrigeration.
Oh, my god.
Thank you.
So cold.
The tray is very gold.
Gaby, this jacket was so great.
Thank you.
So here's that water
bottle from yesterday.
This is an extremely cold baking sheet.
It's so cold it hurts my hands.
Okay, these are gonna
come over into the oven.
Thank you.
I have all the punched-out Thin Mints,
and then basically everything is formed.
I just have to make more of the Tagalongs.
Didn't I give you,
ah, don't.
Don't, don't, don't.
No, no, no, no, no.
No!
I'm finding this
enjoyable and comfortable,
and I'm feeling great.
Okay.
Back into the freezer.
Maybe five minutes.
These puffed up so much more
than they did yesterday,
which is kind of strange.
I also kind of wish the channel
was a little bit deeper,
but I think it's gonna be fine.
At least it held the indentation.
So I'm gonna let these cool.
In the meantime, I'll put
the Thin Mints in the oven.
All right, these are a
little tricky to figure out
when they're done because
they're already brown
and so I won't be able
to see any browning.
So I have to kind of go by touch.
And I do think that they're done.
Actually, the spread was
pretty much the same.
The same cutter.
So at least all the cookies
will be the same size
so that looks great.
I think the dimensions look really good.
Homemade's a little bit
bigger because of the spread,
but pretty close.
The Thin Mint is much
snappier, so I probably will
end up dehydrating the
cookies for at least
a couple hours.
They are right on the verge
of being not sweet enough,
but I think they have a
really nice cocoa flavor,
and good amount of peppermint.
I'm happy with that balance.
Let me taste a wreath also.
Such a good cookie.
So tasty.
I gotta remember this recipe.
This is a good cookie.
Before I bake the final tray
I am putting all of
these in the dehydrator
for at least a couple of hours.
I wanna get that snap.
Now I'm gonna go into the freezer,
pop out the final three
cookies for Tagalongs
and put them in the oven.
These guys are ready, finally.
These look good.
Ow, ow, ow.
Hot.
I'm gonna put them in the
dehydrator with the other ones.
And now fillings.
This is finely shredded dried coconut.
Just gonna bake this.
While that's toasting, I'll
put together ingredients
for the caramel.
I'm gonna make a caramel very similar
to the one I made for Milky Way,
but this time instead of adding butter
I'm gonna add virgin coconut oil,
which has a pretty strong coconut flavor.
So everything else I'll keep the same,
a little corn syrup, heavy cream,
my vanilla extract, and some salt.
And the idea is that this
is a pretty stiff caramel
that doesn't run all over the place.
All right, look at how beautiful
and evenly toasted this is.
This is done.
All right, so that's all the heavy cream.
Now I'm gonna add the coconut oil.
I'm gonna get this into
a container and save it
for tomorrow, and then I think
the last thing I'll do today
is make filling for the Tagalongs.
I just want to say that
this is very special
homemade peanut butter
that our good friend John
who's sitting right over
there, he brought it in.
The peanut butter filling in the Tagalong
is pretty set.
You can see it's almost dough-like.
I can manipulate it and roll it around.
I think my best bet is to do the filling
that I made for Reese's
Peanut Butter Cups.
So I'm gonna beat this
together with a teaspoon
and a half of vanilla,
which I'm eyeballing.
And a bunch of kosher salt,
which I'm also eyeballing
you can see it's looking
a little bit dough-like.
That's good.
It is a little separated.
I think that that peanut
butter was just really
high in fat, it had a lot of
oil in it, and so the oils
are kind of exuding because it's hot,
so I'm just kind of
kneading it a little bit
to bring the temperature back down.
It tastes great.
It's just kind of chewy.
How much oil did you add
to that peanut butter?
- I kind of eyeballed it.
- It seems a little greasy.
- [John] Oh!
- Like it's dripping off of my hands.
I could squeeze it out of this mixture.
[laughing]
- Oh boy.
- Maybe I'll drain it.
Oh god, it's soaking
through faster than I can
tear the paper towels.
Maybe it's fine.
I'm gonna let it set overnight,
and we'll come back tomorrow.
I'm feeling pretty confident.
I'm feeling confident.
I don't have a great feeling
about this peanut butter.
It's not exactly the creamy filling
that you get in a Tagalong.
It is a delicious crumbly
peanut butter candy.
It's not gonna be right for the Tagalongs.
I'm using my favorite peanut butter,
besides John's homemade peanut butter,
which is Smoker's Natural.
So what I think I'll do is
try that same preparation
again with a lower proportion
of that sugar mixture,
and maybe that's it.
I like this peanut butter
because the only ingredients
are peanuts and salt,
and it is a really salty
peanut butter, which
is also why I like it.
And I also didn't mix it as
much as I mixed it yesterday.
Honestly needs to be sweeter.
I'm gonna stir in powdered
sugar to taste, basically.
I think this is gonna work.
I feel good about that.
I'm gonna let that continue to cool
and set a little bit.
I think in the meantime I
can start filling the Samoas.
So I'm just gonna try to coat this guy.
It's definitely settling
into that channel,
which is good.
Now I'm worried actually
that the caramel is so set
that the coconut won't stick to it.
But let's see.
This is just a test.
Oh, it coated.
Okay, good.
Ooh, look how good it looks.
Now I'm just gonna go one by one
and just keep going until I've done
all the Samoas.
[jazzy drums music]
I wanted to do them all myself,
but I was told I have to have help.
So, thank you for being here.
Um, the strategy is--
- That was the most polite
thank you for being here.
She's like, I hate that you're here.
[jazzy music]
- Are they done?
- Rick!
- No, they're not done!
This is only one of three types of cookies
that I'm doing also.
- You're doing three?
- You're tapping out?
Rhoda!
Hi!
Oh my god.
- I'm alive!
- You're here!
You're very, I think you're good, Sarah.
No, I--
- I don't wanna--
- I think you're good.
- Disappoint you.
- I think you're good.
- She's redoing my work.
- No, I'm just doing a
little finishing touch.
- Now it feels a little thin to me, but.
- I think it looks great.
- [Sarah] Okay.
- [Claire] Let's dip it.
- [Dan] How do you feel about the way
you treated your friends?
- How do you feel about
the way I treated people?
Look, I appreciate everyone's
eagerness to help me, but
I just think it's better
for everyone if I work alone.
This is always how it
was with group projects.
I prefer to work alone.
Look, I'm making a lot of cookies.
I could have made like six
and I would have been fine,
but I chose to make a lot.
The last thing I want
to do before I move on
to the chocolate stage
is fill the Tagalongs.
This process should be
a lot faster, hopefully.
This is just a matter of
scraping and spreading
this filling onto the cookie.
[jazzy drums music]
All right, look at my Girl Scout Cookies.
Now time for my least favorite part.
I don't want to coat it.
Is Sohla around?
[emotional piano music]
Can Sohla help me?
I don't want to do the chocolate part.
It's hard.
And it's gonna be so hard to get these
coated in a thin layer.
Rhoda?
Rhoda, hi.
- [Rhoda] Hi!
- I need your advice.
- So you want me to tell you
you don't have to temper the chocolate?
- Yeah, kind of.
That was kind of what I was looking for.
But I think, here's the idea.
So my idea was if I add some
additional cocoa butter,
which is very solid at room temp,
to melt the chocolate.
It's kind of like a cheat for tempering.
But because the coconut butter
is very liquid at room temp,
it thins out the chocolate,
which will make it
easier to coat in a thin layer.
- And I can help you, too.
- Thanks, Rhoda.
All right.
I'm melting the chocolate.
This is the milk chocolate.
And really a lot of steam.
They get the different,
we already covered this.
The cookies are getting different.
- The Thin Mints are
getting the dark chocolate
with peppermint extract,
and the Caramel deLites and Tagalongs
are getting milk chocolate.
- Thank you, Rhoda.
So the idea is that this
cocoa butter will melt
and when cocoa butter is melted,
it's very liquid, and it
will increase the fluidity
of the chocolate, which will
make it easier to unrobe,
so that's the idea there.
I'm gonna start with the Tagalongs.
So ...
Okay, that worked well.
Wait, should I just be dipping them
the whole way, you guys?
I dropped it in.
It fell.
I think I should just be dipping them.
[jazzy drums music]
Two, four, six, eight,
10, 12, 14.
So these are gonna go into the fridge.
I am moving onto Samoas.
So I just need to be careful
not to drop them in the chocolate.
All right.
This is the last one.
I dropped one.
The one that we did in slow mo
is the one I dropped.
[laughing]
So I'm sure we'll see that replay.
[uplifting classical music]
Everything else is looking great.
Here's what I want to do.
Before I chill these, the chocolate,
I think, is at a good
point thickness-wise,
where I'll get really clean lines
if I pipe it.
So I'm gonna make
I'll make a corne.
[jazzy drums music]
Okay, that was the last one.
I had enough chocolate.
But I feel good.
I'm happy with the way they look.
The last step in this process
is enrobing the Thin Mints,
and I'm also gonna add
my peppermint extract
to this chocolate.
[jazzy drums music]
You guys, can we do Cadbury Eggs?
Look how shiny and beautiful
and mirror finish they look.
They'll go matte once they set.
They look so flat and even,
and I think that the
coating is going to be
just the right thickness.
I think my favorites are the Thin Mints.
But they all look great.
I'm gonna let these set overnight
because I want more of my
friends to be proud of me,
and in the meantime.
[laughing]
God.
All right, this is my sash.
This looks like it's made for a child.
Look at how small this is.
[gasps]
Is this an actual Girl Scouts badge?
[gasping]
Wow, look at this iron,
where did this come from?
I used to iron on patches of stuff
back in my bedazzling days.
Oh, I think it's on there.
Oh yeah.
That's on there.
Yes.
[sighs]
Should we write Troupe Test Kitchen?
[upbeat jazzy music]
I can't believe I just did this.
I just get really focused
on tasks sometimes
and then lose perspective
that I just spent the last
40 minutes working on this.
We all gotta go home.
It's dark out.
That was fun.
That brought me back.
[jazzy drum music]
I love days like today
where I get to start off
having already done the
thing, and all I get to do
is wear my fun sash.
I'm really excited about these.
Oh no, they got a little,
Aw.
There was a little bit of fat bloom.
[beeping]
It won't affect the flavor,
it just makes the finish
not as smooth-looking.
So I'm gonna start with Tagalongs.
I love the cross-section.
It looks very uniform.
I like the amount of peanut butter
relative to the amount of cookie.
That looks really good.
All right, look at this similarity.
I guess that's what happens
when you make the mold
out of the real cookie
and then use that.
All of the elements
feel really harmonious.
It's not like you taste the cookie first
and the peanut butter
and then the chocolate.
It all marries together,
and the balance is great
and I think it's really good.
I love how smooth and thin they are.
Colors are very similar too.
I'm glad I used dark chocolate.
I think that was the right call.
I'm really pleased with how thin and even
the coating is.
Mm.
You get a nice saltiness at the end.
I really like the balance
of peppermint to chocolate.
This feels like a little
more of a grownup Thin Mint
just because it's less sweet.
What I think I nailed with this one
is the proportions, the
thickness of the coating
on the bottom, the stripes on the top,
the amount of coconut, and
I'm happy that my version
has more caramel.
This version has really good chew.
Cookie kind of breaks down,
mixes with the caramel and the coconut,
so you get this chewy texture
and the amount of sweetness
I think is really nice.
Very happy with these.
I'm happy with all of them.
This was really fun.
Purple.
How's it look?
Sohla?
Would you like to taste a cookie?
- The texture's really cool
because the cookie melts right away,
and then you have a lot of chewy caramel.
- In an ideal world,
what Gourmet Makes does
is create something that tastes the way
you remember the original
tasting when you were a kid.
- Mm-hmm.
- You know?
- You made this way more complicated
than I could have ever imagined.
- Really?
Thanks.
[Sohla laughing]
I think that's a compliment.
Thank you.
I don't want to go anywhere
wearing this though.
I don't want to go in the elevator.
Do I have to say that
we're gonna go downstairs?
I'm being forced to go downstairs
and sell these cookies
[laughing]
in the BA office.
So here we go.
Are we, oh my gosh.
You guys.
The puffy paint is not quite dry.
I'm sticking to it!
Mom could have just brought
the order form to her work.
And I could stay home.
Oh my god, you guys.
I'm doing it again.
Ugh, I'm stuck again!
Here we go.
Hi friends.
Do you want to try one?
- I'll have a Tagalong.
- I'm gonna see the Thin Mint.
- Oh, okay.
- That's the one, obviously.
- Wow, people really love the Tagalongs.
- I love the Tagalongs.
- Wow, I'm really glad.
- The cookie is so good.
- [Claire] Oh, thanks.
- Yeah.
- On top of Andrew Yang.
- Yeah.
Andrea Yang, hilarious.
Okay.
Do you like my sash?
- I really like it.
- With the puffy paint?
Would you like to try a cookie?
- What are these again?
- [Claire] Tagalong.
Peanut butter.
No, no. You don't want that.
- Oh no, no, no, no, no.
- [Claire] No, no, no.
- Oh my god.
- [Claire] Maybe try a Thin Mint.
I love when Andy tastes things.
- They are so tender.
- [Claire] I know.
Maybe like--
- And they're so proportioned.
- And this is wonderful.
- This might be my favorite thing
you've ever created.
- Really?
- Yeah.
- That was kind of the crew consensus too.
Oh god, see I keep sticking to it.
Can we go back to the Test Kitchen now?
Been out of my natural
habitat long enough.
This is gonna go in our
Gourmet Makes museum
along with my Mentos drying rack.
And overall, this whole
experience was kind of nostalgic
and brought me back, even
more than the average
Gourmet Makes, which is
already pretty nostalgic.
Thanks to the Girl Scouts
for giving us a preview
of the cookies before they
go on sale in New York,
and buy Girl Scout Cookies
from your local Girl Scouts,
money goes to a good causes,
teaches entrepreneurship,
and teaches leadership, and
I appreciated all the support
from my Test Kitchen
colleagues and friends at BA,
so that was great too,
and John's peanut butter.
Thanks, John.
[jazzy drumming music]
Here's how you make
gourmet Girl Scout Cookies.
To make the plain dough, in a medium bowl
whisk 1 1/2 cups cake flour,
two tablespoons cornstarch,
one teaspoon kosher salt, and
one teaspoon baking powder.
Beat two sticks of room temperature
unsalted butter until smooth.
Add a half a cup powdered sugar
and beat until light.
Add a large room temperature egg white
and two teaspoons of vanilla extract
and beat until fluffy and smooth.
Add the dry ingredients and
mix on low until combined.
Form the dough into a
disc and chill until cold.
To make the chocolate dough,
repeat the same dough recipe
halving all the quantities,
and whisking one tablespoon
black cocoa and one tablespoon
dutch processed cocoa
into the dry ingredients
instead of the cornstarch.
Add 1/4 teaspoon peppermint
extract into the dough
along with the vanilla extract.
Chill until cold.
In the meantime, make the
other cookie components.
Toast one cup of finely
shredded unsweetened
dry coconut flakes in a
350 degree Fahrenheit oven,
tossing once until golden brown all over.
Set aside to cool.
To make the peanut butter
filling for the Tagalongs,
place one cup of natural
smooth peanut butter
in the bowl of a stand mixer,
add a splash of vanilla
and a pinch of salt,
and beat briefly to combined.
Bring 1/2 cup sugar and
three tablespoons water
to a boil, stirring
with a heatproof spatula
to dissolve the sugar.
Boil until the sugar syrup
reaches 348 Fahrenheit.
Turn the mixer on medium
high and slowly stream
all but a couple of
tablespoons of the sugar syrup
into the peanut butter.
Transfer to a bowl and let cool,
then stir in more powdered
sugar to sweeten if desired.
To make the caramel for the Samoas,
combine 3/4 of a cup sugar,
two tablespoons corn syrup,
and two tablespoons of
water in a small saucepan,
and stir over medium heat to dissolve.
Bring to a boil and cook,
swirling the pot and
washing down the sides
with a wet pastry brush until the mixture
turns a deep amber.
Slowly stream in 1/2 cup of heavy cream,
stirring and taking care because
the mixture will sputter,
followed by two tablespoons
of virgin coconut oil.
Stir until the mixture is smooth.
Cook until the mixture is 250 Fahrenheit,
then pour the caramel into a bowl
without scraping the bottom or sides.
Let it cool completely.
To form the cookies roll out
the chilled cookie doughs
between pieces of parchment paper
until you have 1/8th
of an inch thick slabs.
Chill until cold.
For the Samoas, working
with half of the plain dough
cut wreaths the same size as the Samoas
using a round cutter for the larger circle
and the wide end of a pastry tip
for the smaller circle,
and use an appropriately sized bottle top
to imprint a shallow center channel
running around each wreath.
Chill the cookies.
For the Thin Mints, use a circle cutter
to punch out cookies
the size of Thin Mints.
Transfer to a baking sheet,
spacing evenly, and chill.
For the Tagalongs, use
food-grade silicon putty
to make several molds of
isolated Tagalong cookies
that have been scraped and cleaned
of any peanut butter filling
and chocolate coating.
Let the molds cure, pop out the cookies,
then fill the molds with
the remaining plain dough,
freeze the dough until solid,
then pop the cookies out of the molds
onto a parchment-lined baking sheet.
Bake all the cookies on the center rack
in a 350 degree Fahrenheit oven
until very lightly golden on the bottoms.
Remove from the oven
and let cool completely.
To assemble the cookies
use a small offset spatula
to spread a small amount of
the peanut butter filling
into this central
depression of the Tagalongs.
Work a small amount of cold
caramel onto the surface
of the wreaths, filling the channel
and spreading the caramel
across the entire surface
in a thin layer.
Dip the caramel side
in the toasted coconut
and set the cookies aside.
To make a chocolate coating,
combine about 12 ounces
of milk chocolate discs and
1.2 ounces of cocoa butter
cut into bits in a medium heatproof bowl
and stir over a large saucepan
filled with about an inch
of gently simmering
water until it's melted
and completely smooth.
Dip the Tagalong cookies
into the milk mixture
to enrobe completely, then
allow the excess to drip off
and place the cookies on a chilled
sil-pat lined baking
sheet and chill until set.
Dip the bottoms of the Samoas cookies
in the same milk chocolate mixture
and press onto a chilled
sil-pat lined baking sheet.
Pipe thin lines of chocolate all across
the coconut-covered
surfaces of the Samoas.
Chill until set.
For the Thin Mints,
combine about eight ounces
of dark chocolate, .8
ounces of cocoa butter,
and more peppermint extract to taste
in a medium heatproof bowl,
and melt over a double boiler as before.
Dip the Thin Mints in
the chocolate mixture
like you did the Tagalongs,
and chill until set.
I have to show both of you something.
- [Gaby] You cleaned it!
- Ooh!
- [Gaby] Oh my god, it looks amazing.
Thank you.
- I don't know what went
on in this microwave,
but it was horrifying.
