- Hot Pockets are a form
of the crisping sleeve
while the actual cuisine is
a stuffed bread type of food.
So there's two Hot Pockets.
Both the sleeve and the actual Hot Pocket.
Do you get it?
- [Male Speaker] The sleeve
is called a Hot Pocket?
- That's what I just said.
Hot Pockets are a form
of the crisping sleeve
while the actual cuisine.
This sentence makes no sense,
but it is technically a Hot
Pocket for the Hot Pocket.
Get it?
Okay.
[upbeat jazz]
[machine whirring]
Ow.
Ow, ow my god, ow, ow.
Hey everyone, I'm Claire.
We are in the BA Test Kitchen
and today I am making gourmet Hot Pockets.
[upbeat jazz]
I've never had a Hot Pocket before,
but I do remember the commercials
and how delicious they looked.
It's basically, it's
inside out pizza, right?
It's reverse pizza.
In my mind, pepperoni pizza is
the kind of like original
or classic, but I don't.
Is that right?
Who ate these as a kid?
Is pepperoni like the classic?
Okay.
They call them sandwiches,
Hot Pockets brand sandwiches,
which seems dubious.
But it's like melted cheese,
and pepperoni, and a crust.
Like pretty simple actually.
So I've been told that
the flavors of Hot Pockets
like go into the dozens,
so this is what was available
at a nearby grocery store.
There's like ham and cheddar,
meatballs and mozzarella,
four cheese pizza.
Lean Pocket seems kinda sad.
Feels very easy to gourmet.
Just use really nice cheese,
use really nice pepperoni,
make a dough, put it together,
and like there's no way
that it won't be good.
Do I have to freeze them?
Okay, so these come frozen
so I'm just thinking I don't
have to have them frozen,
but they should be fully baked
and then reheated, right?
All right, so it comes
in these like sleeves.
There's two in a package.
I'm not terribly impressed
by the look of the pastry on the outside.
Oh wow, after you cook it,
you pop this thing down
and it's like a little
carrying case for it.
Cooking time on high, two minutes.
Ooh, I'm excited.
[upbeat jazz]
It smells good.
It smells like canned tomato
or like tomato paste and dried oregano.
Have you ever had one?
Do you want to try it with me?
I've never had one either.
- One, two, three.
- Ooh, it's hot.
- I know.
All right.
- I'm kind of intrigued by the pastry
because it's kind of bready
and flaky at the same time.
Oh yeah, there you go.
- It's seams.
- That to me says that there's
two big sheets of pastry
and that they're being,
there's like filling goes in
and then the two sides are
getting pressed together.
The pepperoni is very soft
which to me is a little bit off putting,
but in general,
there is nothing wrong
with this food at all.
This is perfect, I mean, in theory,
but it's like, it's good.
Sohla, do you have a minute?
I was told by Dan that
you have an interesting,
some interesting thoughts
about Hot Pockets.
- Well, they are gonna be
microwaved from frozen, right?
- That was the question I had.
I was like do I have to
freeze these and then reheat?
- Yeah.
- We might have to get dry ice
'cause the freezing's
gonna take a long time
and I'm trying to wrap
this up in like two days.
- Well, I was telling them
that you can actually buy the paper
to make the sleeves to
get the crispy thing.
- Really?
- Yeah.
- So you can buy this basically.
- This material and make your own.
- [Claire] To create it, oh my god.
- And then you can have
a little crafting too.
- Yes.
Where do you buy it?
Like online?
- Online, yeah.
- What an interesting development.
Can we order some of this?
Rick, you're not busy
making like eight different
cookies right now, right?
Rick has been working on
holiday cookies like a mad man.
- What are my choices?
- Meatballs and mozzarella,
ham and cheddar, five cheese pizza.
- Let's do the meatballs.
- Oh, okay.
Wait, there's a, wait.
There's a five cheese pizza
and a four cheese pizza
which I didn't notice.
[laughing]
Ooh, look at the pastry on that one.
It looks like it has
some like spices on it.
So this is advertising that
it's a garlic buttery crust.
If I do the pepperoni,
I still want to do a seasoned
garlic buttery crust.
So there's a little bit of
filling that's leaking out
so where it kinda busted through.
That's good to know
so that if my version
does that a little bit,
I mean, that can be forgiven
if the original does it too.
- That was very hot.
- Cute little meatballs.
- Yeah, very cute.
- I'm really excited about
the garlic buttery crust
which even frozen smells so good,
but it doesn't look as
flaky as the crispy crust.
So I could absolutely see a version
where I take this kind of coating
and put it onto a flaky pastry.
Okay, so these are five inches long.
Width is about two and a 1/4.
So there are these holes in the top
that I think are there to
allow the steam to escape.
The kind of punctures have closed up
and so the steam tries to
escape through the weak points
which is really the seam,
so that's why that kinda busted through.
I'm gonna cut this in half.
You can really see here how flaky
the texture of the pastry is.
Get a load of that.
There are air pockets.
It's not like completely filled
like the photo has you believe.
The flaky, the flaky.
I was gonna say the flakiest pastry.
The pastry is flaky which
I'm kinda surprised at,
but it still has a softness to it.
Like it doesn't have that shattering
crisp texture like a croissant does.
I feel like I know what I'm gonna do.
All right, time for my favorite part,
reading the ingredients.
And this one's gonna be, it's a doozy.
Enriched flour, parentheses wheat flour,
malted barley flour, niacin,
iron, thiamine mononitrate,
riboflavin, folic acid, close parentheses,
water, reduced fat mozzarella cheese,
parentheses pasteurized part skim milk,
nonfat milk, modified food starch,
and there's an asterisk
which leads to nowhere.
cultures, salt, vitamin
A palmitate, enzymes,
asterisk, ingredients not in regular.
Oh, I need to start over.
There's the asterisk.
The asterisk indicates ingredients
not in regular mozzarella cheese.
Pepperoni, parentheses pork, beef, salt,
contains 2% or less of
water, dextrose, spices,
lactic acid starter culture,
oleoresin of paprika,
garlic powder, sodium nitrite, BHA, BHT,
citric acid, brackets to protect flavor,
closed brackets, closed parentheses,
tomato paste, palm oil, margarine,
parentheses palm oil,
water, soybean oil, sugar,
mono and diglycerides, soybean lecithin,
potassium sorbate and citric acid,
bracket preservatives, close bracket,
annatto and turmeric color,
vitamin A palmitate
added, close parentheses,
2% or less of whey, soybean oil,
fractionated palm oil.
I've never in my life heard
the word fractionated.
Modified food starch, yeast,
dough conditioner blend.
That's bad stuff.
Parentheses calcium sulfate,
salt, L-cysteine hydrochloride,
garlic powder, tricalcium phosphate,
enzymes, close parentheses,
salt, dried garlic, sugar,
spices, dried onions,
sodium stearoyl lactylate, maltodextrin,
potassium chloride, citric
acid, soy flour, egg whites.
The screen's not big enough.
I don't really have to do research.
- [Male Speaker] We've
gotta do some research.
- I already know how to make it.
I can make it right now.
We could be done today.
- [Male Speaker] Can we just
go watch the Jim Gaffigan bit?
- Yeah, yeah, let's go do that.
- They have a warning
printed on the inside.
It's like warning, you
just bought Hot Pockets!
I hope you're drunk or
heading home to a trailer.
You hillbilly, enjoy
the next NASCAR event.
- I don't think this is very nice.
- Hot Pockets!
- I have a plan.
I'm gonna start by making a dough
and then the dough has to rise,
and then while it's rising,
I'm going to put together
the kind of tomato base
and prep my filling ingredients.
My hope is that by end of day,
I'll have like one prototype,
just at least one version
baked for us to sample.
[upbeat jazz]
The dough is both flaky
but also has kind of that bready texture
where there's like an open kind of crumb.
So to get that effect,
I'm doing a dough that's both
laminated to produce flakiness
and yeasted to get that
kind of rise out of it.
All right, this is the dough
and I'm gonna let it rise.
The next thing I'm going to
do is prepare a tomato sauce.
So I'm gonna do a mixture of tomato paste
and whole peeled tomatoes
that I'm gonna cook.
We should put a little fresh basil in it.
That would be good.
And so I'm gonna put it
together on the stove
and then transfer it to
the oven and let it cook.
And then I'm gonna make some tomato powder
because we have time.
I'm just gonna take a
little piece of Rick's,
what is this one?
Mole cookie.
Mm.
Oh, spicy.
It hits you later.
Back when I made Doritos,
we had some tomato powder that
we ordered from the internet
and we don't know what happened to it,
so now I'm gonna make
my own or I'm gonna try
and I'm basically gonna take tomato paste.
I'm going to spread the tomato
paste in a very thin layer,
let it dehydrate,
and then when we come back tomorrow,
pulverize it into a powder.
Now, I'm going to prep my
other filling ingredients
and I can make the butter
block which I have a plan for
and I'm very excited to
show you what that is.
Let's do the butter block next, I guess.
Jeez, I didn't know you
were gonna throw it.
Ah, okay.
Dan, okay.
I was not expecting any of that.
Okay, so I have salted butter here.
We're making something savory.
And I'm going to season the butter block
which is the thing I
was excited to show you.
What is that crust called?
The butter something?
The crispy, buttery crust.
I'm just kinda guessing
but I'm gonna do a 1/4
teaspoon onion powder,
an 1/8 of a teaspoon garlic powder.
This is sweet paprika and
several cranks of black pepper.
So this butter, I'm going
to form into a block,
something kind of square or rectangular.
You've all seen this before.
When I keep saying lamination,
what I mean is that I'm going
to take a block of butter
and literally fold it into the dough
so that the butter is inside
sort of an envelope of dough
and then roll it out and fold it.
Okay, this is gonna go into the fridge
while the dough finishes its rise
and then I'm gonna prep the
remaining filling ingredients.
It's jut the cheese and pepperoni.
And I think I will do a
mix of the soppressata,
the sweet and spicy,
and then unsliced pepperoni,
and then I'll move on to the cheese.
Low moisture is important
so I'm not using fresh
which has a much higher water content
and it's the enemy right now
because I'm trying to make the filling
as low moisture as possible.
- Claire, how's it going?
You're making pepperoni pizza?
- Mm-hmm.
- Yeah?
- [Claire] Mm-hmm.
- To me, ham and cheese
feels like the one.
- Really?
- Yeah.
- [Claire] No one's said that.
- I just did like
literally 12 seconds ago.
- Wait, what did you say?
- You missed your window.
- Ham and cheese feels
like the Hot Pocket.
- Are you kidding?
Are you crazy?
It's pepperoni pizza.
- I'll make you a deal.
If you bring me ham and cheddar,
I'll make you--
- We can do?
- I'll make you a Hot Pocket.
- The Delany special?
- Yeah.
Like I'll put it on the sleeve.
I'll write like Delany.
Okay, so I'm going to,
let me pause with the filling stuff
'cause I'm going to go to back
to my dough which has risen.
I'm gonna take it out.
So I'm gonna punch it down
'cause I want to expel that gas
'cause any air in there will
make it harder to laminate.
So I unwrap the block and now,
oh my god, I just got a whiff of it.
It smells.
Actually, it smells so much like Doritos.
Nailed it.
Okay, that's not what I'm making.
Okay, so I've put this on an angle,
like at a diagonal on the dough.
Bring all these points to the center
and now I roll it out.
You make these layers
and sheets of butter
alternating with dough.
So that basically creates sheets of dough
separated by sheets of butter.
In the oven, the butter melts.
The water that's in there turns to steam.
There's a little bit of a puffing action
and you get these like
flaky, buttery layers.
And then now, into the fridge
and let's see what's
happening to our paste.
How hot is it in here?
My god, it's like done.
I made like tomato leather.
So this could use more
time in the dehydrator,
but it is drying out pretty
easily so that's good.
I'll probably check this
in like a half an hour
'cause I think it's probably,
it's very close to being done.
Okay, so here's that tomato sauce.
I'm going to discard to basil
because that's done its job.
Putting it into a food processor
to basically get it really smooth
and break up all the solid.
This sauce is delicious.
- [Brad] I got a new dehydrator
I gotta bring down too.
- Oh really?
I kinda like it.
- It's been through a lot with this one.
- It's just like a tin box.
- Yeah, this was state of
the art back in the day.
- I'm making,
I'm dehydrating tomato paste
in it to make tomato powder.
- For?
- Hot Pockets.
- Oh really?
- Yeah.
- Now, how do they achieve the poof?
Like it's like a hollow gap inside, right?
- Oh, that's I think just
from the cheese melting
and creating--
- Oh, and then falling?
- Yeah.
But I'm gonna try not to get too much--
- [Brad] Too much gappage?
- Of that gap, yeah.
You just gave me an idea
which is maybe I will preform--
- You're welcome.
- The filling.
That's a good idea.
- Yeah.
- Like compress it
so that I don't get that
big air pocket in it.
- Yeah, there you go.
Stick with me.
- Good thinkin'!
So Brad just gave me the idea
to try to like preform the
filling into rectangles
and to mix all of it together
and then maybe like chill it.
So I went to grab all
my filling ingredients
and I'm gonna basically
mix them all together
tomato sauce included
until I get a mix that I
like and I can season that,
and then I'm gonna form it
into basically like rectangular bricks.
With pieces this large it might not work.
So this could be like a total disaster.
- [Male Speaker] Oh god, oh no.
- So this is not working at all.
These are too large.
I need like ice cube
trays but that are large
and the shape of bars.
We have those molds that
we used for the stickers.
Is this gonna fall on my head?
Oh my god. [laughs]
It almost like cracked
me right in the forehead.
For the first time in like two years,
that dumb Twinkie thing came in handy.
This could work.
I think we're gonna go with this.
So now, I'm gonna weigh the
filling into single portions
and then put a pan on
top and weigh 'em down
just to get them like really compact.
Now into the fridge.
All right, now I think I
can roll out the pastry.
I'm gonna cut it in half
'cause I'm gonna make basically
a bottom layer and a top layer.
While the pastry is chilling once again,
I'm gonna try to make that kind of like
I want to call it like zesty spice mix.
I don't really know what it is.
So I'm gonna start by pulverizing
the dehydrated tomato into a powder.
[upbeat jazz]
[blender whirring]
All right, success.
So we got some plain
dry bread crumbs here,
get tomato powder and onion powder,
paprika, dried oregano.
I think I'll do a 1/2 teaspoon of salt.
So we have this Parmesan
powder from Doritos.
We got this for Doritos
and we've used what,
like four teaspoons?
And we have this entire thing left.
Mm, we should market this.
This should be a thing.
It's delicious.
And now I'm gonna bring
out both sheets of pastry,
the filling, and an egg
to start assembling.
So now, [giggles] I kinda love it.
My little filling Twinkies.
So the yolk is the glue
to keep the sides of the pastry together.
Folding the pastry over
and kinda draping it.
And they look good, I think.
I do think that they're gonna
burst apart in the oven.
Do a little bit of egg white
and make sure I'm really venting
to prevent the egg from sealing.
This stuff goes on.
There's a lot of moving
parts to this recipe.
It's only day one.
We've never done this
much cooking on day one.
- [Male Speaker] It's impressive.
- I feel good about that.
[upbeat jazz]
They don't look anything like Hot Pockets,
but they look incredible.
- [Male Speaker] Amazing.
- Did I do too good a job again?
Mm, they smell so good.
They look so good.
How good do these look?
They look so good, right?
Like that amount of
seepage looks so perfect.
Ugh, look at the layers.
Do we think there's a
scenario in Gourmet Makes
where we don't care about the original
'cause the homemade is so good?
- [Male Speaker] You're not done.
- The shape looks really nice,
but one thing that happened is
the layers all rose together
so the height kinda uniformly.
The layers like uniformly separated.
Typically, with a flaky pastry,
that's actually a good thing.
In the case of Hot Pockets, it's not ideal
because it doesn't have that burrito shape
where it's all the way around.
So I will probably change
the method for forming them
where I might roll a
single piece of pastry
all the way around.
The size I think looks good.
They smell incredible.
They look better than I
thought they were going to.
They look amazing.
I'm very proud of myself.
I think it's too flaky.
It looks so good.
Rick, I need.
Look it, just be impressed.
- Are these?
Wow, look at that puff!
Holy [beep].
- Does it look so good?
- [Rick] Wow.
- [Claire] Just get a load of that.
- Wow.
- Ow, it's so hot.
- It's really hot.
The crust is amazing.
- I just burned my lip.
This is worth it.
- I'm in awe.
- I think it's too flaky.
- [Rick] Maybe a little too flaky, but.
I mean, I'm not mad at it.
- It's day one, Rick.
I've never done this well on day one.
- Look at that.
That's sick.
Look at that.
- Yeah, it's pretty good.
I don't think I've
gourmeted something so hard.
[upbeat jazz]
So my plan is the following.
I'm going to make
another dough first thing
so I can get it rising.
I just need one, I just needed one.
And then while this is
rising, we're going to.
I'm gonna make the new butter block,
this time with less butter.
Into the fridge.
We also want to try microwaving
the two frozen pastries
that I made yesterday
and see how those hold up.
The homemade ones are
obviously not uniform in size,
but the overall dimensions
are fairly similar.
I'm gonna use this sleeve
and we're just gonna
do them one at a time.
Ooh, this one's a little bit,
it's a little bit of a tight fit.
It's like trying on pants
that are one size too small.
[upbeat jazz]
[gasps] It's perfect.
It looks so good.
Chris, look.
This is homemade.
- That was what I was smelling!
- Yup.
- It smells so good.
- I know.
I'm making some changes.
It might be very hot.
- I feel like it could
a little more moisture,
a little more like tomato
and maybe a touch more like gooey cheese.
- Yes, it needs more cheese for sure.
- But wow, the flavor, wow, the texture.
It's just a wow.
- It's a wow.
- It's a wow.
- Cheese?
- Cheese.
- It's slippery, god!
[laughing]
Stop it.
All right.
I am increasing the ratio
of cheese in the filling
and adding more filling.
- [Male Speaker] How many
cheeses are in there?
- There's still just one kinda cheese,
just more of it.
Should I add parm?
All right, I am gonna
grate some parm in there.
Why not?
Yesterday, there was a
huge wheel of Grana Padano
that Gaby and Brad cut.
Grana Padano is like a milder,
less salty, less expensive parm,
but we just have a ton
of it in the kitchen
and parm is very expensive
so we're using this.
Okay, I feel good about this filling.
I'm gonna set this aside
and now I'm gonna go back to my dough
and work in the butter block.
Thank you.
[upbeat jazz]
But I do want to swap
this out with a pastry
that's been in there since yesterday
so I can try some different ideas
about forming the Hot Pockets.
Did we get those for the Oreo shoot?
- No, we didn't,
but you know what I did get.
- Let me see, let me see.
Wait, not from Whole Foods.
There's no way Whole
Foods sells Hot Pockets.
- Made a couple stops.
No, and we're not doing
the Hot Pockets here.
- Oh my god.
- We're doing sliced ham, ham steak.
- Okay.
- And then a couple of cheddar options.
- Okay, here's what I
need you to do Delany,
I need you to cut all this up,
grate the cheese, and we're in business.
It'll take you 10 minutes.
- It'll take me five minutes.
- Okay great, great, even better.
If you do it in five minutes,
then we can do a little test run with it.
- Yeah?
- Okay, so here's my plan.
Rather than create a bottom
pastry and a top pastry
and fuse them together with egg wash,
I'm going to wrap the
pastry around the filling.
All right, so this is the pastry
and this is the filling.
I'm going to wrap it like this
and so the pastry is folded
over itself on the bottom
and then the weight of the
filling keeps it together.
I want the top to be thicker
than the sides of the pastry
so that when they wrap underneath,
they can overlap and then
form a single thickness.
So I'm gonna take this piece of pastry
and roll the ends much thinner
to have them meet underneath the pastry.
Oh no, so far it's not working.
Hold on.
You know what I need is
I need a thinner dowel.
I need a thinner rolling pin.
[blender whirring]
God, this is the cutest little oh my god.
This is, I love this thing.
This is like my dream.
- Hey, Claire.
- [gasp] You did good job.
Look at you.
- Thanks, how surprising.
- Yes, great.
That was so fast.
Okay, all right, let's
try it, let's try it.
- But this is also the
moment of truth for you.
You're the architect here
so is it ribbons or is it?
- Are these a little long, do you think?
- I don't know, what do you think?
- I don't know, I'm not gonna eat this.
[laughing]
Okay.
This is strictly a Delany specialty.
- [Alex] Your inclination
is to go for chunk.
- I'm gonna do a mix.
- Oh!
- Yeah.
- [Alex] The Claire ham couvait.
- And I'm gonna do cheese on the top
and cheese on the bottom.
This is like some deep engineering.
So this is gonna be
the bottom, by the way.
And now, ready?
- I'm pretty stoked about this
just in case you couldn't tell.
- Me too.
I think it's gonna work.
All right, into the oven.
That worked pretty well
and that was very free form.
I wasn't even measuring
and I didn't really focus on
preforming the filling or anything,
so that's what I'm gonna do now.
I also want to try and experiment
where I let the dough proof
again after I form them.
I think that will produce
something a little bit lighter
with more of a crumb
rather than just thin sheets of dough.
What is he eating?
- [Male Speaker] A disgusting sandwich.
- Alex Delany, what are you eating?
- What?
- [Claire] Is that a ham sandwich?
- Yeah, it's a ham sandwich.
- I can't believe you are like pregaming
the Hot Pocket with a sandwich.
- I'm so hungry.
- Okay, fine.
So I have a new idea for the filling
rather than those weird Twinkie molds,
but something similar.
I'm gonna use plastic to
form like little sausages
of the weight of filling
that I'm gonna use.
This is weirder.
Brad, I'm gonna open the
oven right next to you.
- I'll get the door for you.
Ready?
- What you making?
- Top secret.
Oh, what are you making, Hot Pockets?
- [Claire] Oh wow, okay
yeah, okay, we sprung a leak.
- [Brad] That happens though.
- Oh, it looks good though.
Delany?
- Delany.
- So I did not egg wash the
side so it sprung a leak.
- Oh.
- You know like where I
pinched off the sides.
- [Alex] But you know,
what happens though.
- In a Hot Pocket.
- In a Hot Pocket.
- I think that the
folding plan worked great
and you don't even see a seam, right?
- No.
Oh, nice, crispy, crunchy.
- [Claire] Oh, that looks
like a big air pocket, huh?
- [Alex] Yeah.
- [Claire] It looks good though.
- [Alex] That actually looks pretty great.
- [Claire] The pastry looks good.
- [Alex] The pastry looks great.
- [Claire] Nice and flaky.
- It's only 2:30.
- I know, I'm overachieving on this task.
- She's good.
- What in the world are those?
- We're taking over those
Claire's show by the way.
- Oh my god, they look like little ndujas.
- Isn't that the most disturbing though?
- [Claire] Don't touch the packets!
- Oh sorry, we love the packets.
- All right, so we're at
Claire's station right now.
I brought a couple friends along
to test out this Hot Pocket
to see if it lives up to the standard.
- Are you guys that
familiar with Hot Pockets?
- I could not tell you what
a Hot Pocket tastes like.
- All right.
Claire's so pissed off.
- [Claire] What's going on?
- Hot Pockets!
- Did you try the
pepperoni one from Claire?
- [Alex] No.
- This one's like a little bit softer,
a little more muted, a little like--
- It's for someone though.
- Oh yeah.
- That is good.
- Every pot has its lid.
- You know what?
You could have left it all in.
- There are chunks.
- I'm sorry, what?
- [Alex] We could have
left all the filling in.
- All the filling?
We could have, huh?
Okay.
- I feel like I'm gonna get
hurt if I stay here any longer.
- Someone's definitely gonna get hurt.
- It's delicious.
- I want to try the pepperoni one.
- The pepperoni one was--
- That I don't cross her
so that I can come back
and try the pepperoni.
- Yeah.
- Oh, she loves it.
- I like that forming method.
I think it worked well.
Wait, hold on.
Delany, you gotta take this with you.
- Oh no, that's for you.
Oh, I insist.
- You're good.
Okay, great.
So I'm going to take the
pastry that I made today,
roll it out,
and start forming them with my
filling packets and the sauce
and hopefully get some
kind of finished product
before the end of the day.
So I am concerned that this is not sealed
on this side in particular.
So I'm gonna do a few
more and in the meanwhile,
in the meantime, I should say,
I'm gonna cover this
and just let it sit
out at room temperature
until I notice that
it's puffed a little bit
and then I'm gonna bake it.
[upbeat jazz]
They look like they've puffed a little bit
which is the indicator I was looking for.
So I'm gonna put 'em in the oven,
check 'em after maybe 15 or 20
and we'll see how they go.
I'm gonna finish forming
the remaining three
which I'm just gonna chill before baking
and we'll do a side by side.
[upbeat jazz]
It's been 19 minutes.
Oh no, they're leaking everywhere.
Sauce.
[beep]
[upbeat jazz]
Oh god, it's a whole mess.
The fillings leaked out.
We'll come back to these once
they cool off a little bit.
It's very light because
there's nothing in it.
So it busted a seam right there.
Rough.
It's less crispy than before.
There's still distinctive layers,
but it's less flaky and a little
bit more like bready crumb
which I think actually
looks really, really good.
Do you want to try a Hot Pocket?
We had a structural issue.
- Oh.
Oh my god.
- It's so good.
- I like how flaky it is.
- Flaky, but also bready.
- But not too flaky.
- Not like a croissant which
is like what it was before.
- The first version I
tried was way too flaky,
like too fancy.
This feels like--
- Like shatter.
- Well, when I had the
regular Hot Pocket yesterday.
- You ate a regular one?
- Well, they were over there.
I'm like well, I gotta try one.
I thought they were yours,
but they were so dense and chewy.
- [Claire] I can't believe you ate one.
- And I was like this is much better.
And I think this is the
first time I've said
that something that you made
is much better than the original.
[laughing]
- Jeez!
- That was way more of an
insult than a compliment.
The recap is I wasted the good one on Adam
and I should have saved it for Sohla
who actually appreciates
what we've been doing here.
- Really good lamination.
- Yeah, the pastry looks good.
The pastry has that sort of like.
There's a crumb to it.
- This is very good.
- Thank you.
How do you feel about the
seasoning and like salt level?
- Close to what a Hot Pocket is.
- There you go, perfect.
- I guess that's what you're doing here.
- Yeah, that's the name of the game.
I do feel good about these.
I wish that they hadn't leaked so much
so that's why we got our
second batch over there
and I'm hoping that those
are gonna do a little better.
[upbeat jazz]
Something bad happened.
There was an explosion of molten cheese.
It actually, wow.
- [Male Speaker] It's remarkably
similar to the last one.
- It's the exact same
pattern as last time.
There was the same problem
with the weak sides
where they just burst.
I'm just gonna do all this
again exactly the same way
except for one tiny change
and make them again.
[upbeat jazz]
Today is day three.
There was no curse,
but I do have to start over from scratch
because it's been like five or six days
and I got nothing.
[upbeat jazz]
I'm holding back a little bit of the water
because I overshot it last time.
[upbeat jazz]
I'm making the same sauce
as I did during round one,
all the same ingredients.
So now I'm doing the butter block
and the second version I did
worked better than first,
so it's six ounces of salted
European style butter.
I have my sweet and hot soppressata.
The pepperoni, low moisture
mozzarella, Grana Padano.
Should we try and make it a five cheese?
I'm just speculating should
we make it a five cheese.
Let me ask Sohla.
Sohla, should I add three
and make it a five cheese
'cause they have five cheese?
All right, I'll have to
go raid the cheese area.
So here's a piece of parm.
This is all Grana.
Maybe there's some pecorino the reach in.
There's a lot going on in these fridges.
Do you know if there's
any pecorino anywhere?
No, that's okay.
All right, well the dough isn't
gonna be ready for a while.
We can probably get our
hands on some pecorino
and some provolone or like
fontina feels like fancier?
- [Male Speaker] Wouldn't
a truly improved version
have six cheeses?
- All right, we'll go six.
I've just been peer pressured
into adding a sixth cheese.
Oh yeah, this is done.
[upbeat jazz]
Okay, this is gonna go into the freezer.
Where do we think that cheese is?
Jeez, provolone.
Dan.
Fontina.
No, stop.
That's for eating.
Pecorino.
You missed one.
This one, I,
this one, I already tried.
And caciocavallo.
So it's actually four different cheeses
and there was three there,
so we could do seven cheese.
[upbeat jazz]
If these explode, it's
your fault, I think,
'cause of all the extra cheese.
[upbeat jazz]
I want to change up my method for this
from the last time
where I was making the little
like sausages out of plastic wrap.
So I might want to kind of
do a mix of what I was doing
in round one and round two
which is like putting in
some kind of mold maybe
and I guess put it in the fridge
and then cut it into four
quadrants, four bars,
and each one will be the
inside of one Hot Pocket?
- Are these the same weird meat
and cheese tubes that I saw last week?
- Yes, but not tubes.
This is seven cheese and pepperoni.
- Oh.
- So I didn't have enough pastry
to really overlap around the filling
without stretch pulling it tight,
so I left more room for myself this time.
[upbeat jazz]
I do feel that I'm not
stressing the pastry as much.
It's just much more of
a comfortable motion
to wrap the pastry around the filling.
[upbeat jazz]
Oh, it's hot in there.
Okay.
Oh!
All right, well some of them--
- [Brad] Epic fail?
- Not as big as before, but it's not good.
It's not good, Brad.
- [Brad] Leaking out or?
- Yeah, it's leaking out.
I'm really--
- [Brad] It's gonna be a tough one.
- I'm really irritated.
Brad doesn't care.
[upbeat jazz]
I was really hoping that
there was like one or two
that didn't do this, but
that is not the case.
No.
- [Brad] Those don't look too bad, Claire!
- No, but the dough looks good, right?
- The dough looks good.
I want to take a bite out of that.
- Yeah, right?
- Oh you're just gonna shove it back in?
- Yeah.
[laughing]
I'm restuffing it.
- [Brad] Yeah, put a
little stitch in there.
- No, not even, just smush it.
You know, we never found
a video of the factory.
How do we know that's not how they do it?
- Yeah, that's what I was thinking too.
[laughing]
- My one conclusion is
that it's too much filling
and I have to put less filling in.
I'll just cut off a piece,
a lengthwise piece of the filling blocks
that I've already created.
But I'm concerned it's 4:30 already.
We gotta kinda hurry.
[upbeat jazz]
All right.
I feel really good.
I think it worked.
Oh.
I think four of them are salvageable,
but I'm gonna let 'em keep going
'cause they're not quite done yet.
All right, two have hemorrhaged terribly.
One has hemorrhaged a medium amount.
So that means three have had
I would say minimal to moderate loss,
which I think we can work with.
I'm not making these again.
While this is finishing,
let's get that paper and
just like check it out.
We're moving on.
It's six o'clock.
No one has time for this.
Microwavable crisping paper
that was discontinued circa 1995.
It's demonstrating
different ways to wrap food
and one of them is called
the quote diaper wrap.
Do you see?
It says it right there.
The diaper wrap.
So this says general instructions.
Always use Microcrisp elevation rack.
Uh oh.
[laughing]
- [Male Speaker] Did we get that?
Uh oh.
- I don't know what that is.
[laughing]
It says do not use ordinary
microwave cookware.
All right, let's.
I'm gonna pull them.
I think it's time.
It's 6:09.
They've been in for about 35 minutes.
I think we're good.
Oh yeah.
I'm gonna go ahead and say that these two
with the moderate amount
of leaking are fine.
That one's fine, that one's fine,
that one didn't leak,
that one barely leaked.
I think it's fine.
I have one that didn't leak at all.
The top looks a little weird.
I don't quite know what happened there,
but it didn't,
like there's no burst seams or anything.
I'm gonna let these cool
and then before I go home tonight,
I'm gonna throw them in the freezer.
Tomorrow when I come in,
wrap them in the paper.
What do you think is gonna happen?
It's not gonna like start
a fire or something, right?
We don't have the rack or the cookbook.
It'll be fine.
And we're gonna microwave 'em
and we're gonna wrap this up literally.
Who wants this?
[upbeat jazz]
Day four.
That's never a good sign.
Today, we're going to microwave and taste
and hopefully it all works out.
I'm nervous about the microwaving.
I think the microwaving
could be a problem.
I'm worried that there's
gonna be a cheese meltdown
in the Hot Pocket in the microwave.
Oh, there's the rack.
- Brown and serve sausage
in one of those biscuits
to make little pigs in a blanket.
Now at the same time, I
went ahead and did the--
- [Claire] Wait, hold on, how is she?
- Now I'll just go ahead
and do the last one here.
Just wrap the biscuit around the sausage
and then roll it in your Microcrisp.
Now, this whole thing--
- How did she get it to stay?
Oh, a piece of tape.
Tape?
She used tape which I think is interesting
'cause I was like how
do you secure the paper?
She just put a piece of scotch tape on it.
Let's see the after.
Those look so bad.
Hold on, but what are those?
- [Male Speaker] Oh, look at them.
Look at those pork chops.
- We have to stop.
I draw the line at pork chops.
I guess I should practice
on an actual Hot Pocket.
Perfect.
[upbeat jazz]
The lady in the video did it
but I feel a little weird
putting this tape in the microwave.
See how it goes.
I think we can microwave it on here?
Okay, it's only for like two minutes.
What could go wrong?
[upbeat jazz]
All right.
The tape, it did melt.
The tape did melt,
but it only melted onto the paper
and not onto the food.
But the paper certainly absorbed
some of the grease which is normal.
I mean, it worked.
It didn't not work.
But I'm not gonna go through
this whole tracing thing.
I'm just gonna make
sleeves and then fold them.
I don't want to put tape on it.
[upbeat jazz]
I don't want to say anything about it
because I'm nervous.
I'm gonna use the instructions.
I'm gonna put it in for two minutes,
but I am gonna keep an
eye on it after one minute
because I am very worried
that all of the cheese
is going to leak out.
It smells really good,
but I'm worried that it's
heating up very quickly.
Oh, oh, hold on.
I'm seeing some oils.
Nothing's coming out of the vents.
Okay, three, two, one.
[microwave beeping]
Oh, it's pretty good.
Very hot.
That worked out pretty well, I think.
It smells so good.
Sohla, I think I did it.
- Yeah, this is much
better than the original.
- I was really nervous
for the microwaving part.
It worked out better than I expected
and I actually think the
crisping paper made a difference.
I'm really happy with
the amount of filling.
It didn't leak out.
There isn't a big gap between
the pastry and the filling.
You guys, this is so good.
It is so delicious.
I did it.
- Did you microwave this?
- Yep, frozen and microwaved.
- This is really good.
- [Claire] I gotta put one
in the microwave though.
- This is so good.
- [Claire] I know, Adam, but thank you.
- So good.
- I know.
- Claire, you finally did it!
- After how many episodes,
she finally did it.
- You're gonna go places.
This show is gonna work out.
- Oh my god, oh my god.
I don't know what to say.
- Don't take this the wrong way,
but it smells like a Hot Pocket.
- I take that only as a compliment
- All right, cool.
- which I'm sure that it is.
Two minutes on high
with the crisping paper
is the perfect amount of time for these.
- That's a good food, Claire.
- [Claire] I know, isn't it delicious?
- Why is it so good?
- There's seven different cheeses in it.
I'm very proud of that fact.
- Are you [beep] me?
I don't know, what else is there to say?
- I know.
I think the only thing left to say is
no episode will ever be
as successful as this one.
This is maybe,
I know it seems kind of low key,
this is maybe one of
the most successful ones
I've ever done.
This is like a true gourmet thing.
It's laminated pastry, for god's sake.
I mean.
I think there was enough struggle
and then compared to the success,
it's made for a great
episode, I think so far.
[upbeat jazz]
Here's how you make a gourmet Hot Pocket.
Dissolve one teaspoon of active dry yeast
in a 1/4 cup of warm water in a large bowl
and let sit until foamy.
Whisk in one and 1/4 cups
room temperature water,
two tablespoons olive oil,
one and a 1/2 teaspoons sugar,
and one teaspoon kosher salt.
Add 500 grams of all purpose flour
and stir to bring together into a dough.
Knead, adding more flour as
needed to prevent sticking
until you have a very smooth and soft
but not sticky dough, about 10 minutes.
Form into a ball, flour lightly,
and place in a large clean bowl.
Cover and let rise in a warm place
until nearly doubled in size.
Meanwhile, make the tomato sauce.
Lightly crush and drain a 28 ounce can
of whole peeled tomatoes
and let it sit in a colander
over a bowl to drain further.
Cook four smashed and peeled garlic cloves
and three tablespoons of olive oil
in a large saucepan over medium
heat until lightly browned.
Then stir in a quarter
teaspoon red paper flakes
and three tablespoons tomato paste
and cook stirring constantly
until the paste is caramelized.
Add the drained tomatoes
and a splash of their juices
to dissolve any brown bits
on the bottom of the pot,
then season with salt and
a pinch of dried oregano.
Throw in two big sprigs of basil
and transfer to a 300 degree oven.
Let the sauce roast,
stirring once until very
thick and concentrated,
about 40 minutes.
Let cool completely.
Then pluck out the basil
and pulse the mixture in a food
processor to smooth it out.
To make the tomato powder,
lightly oil a small
parchment lined baking sheet
and spread a very thin layer
of tomato paste overtop.
Place in a dehydrator set to medium high
and let sit until dry and brittle.
Break up into bits
and pulverize in a spice
grinder to a fine powder.
Set aside.
When the dough is nearly
proofed, make the butter block.
Toss six ounces
of salted European style
butter cut into pieces,
two teaspoons Parmesan powder,
1/2 a teaspoon garlic powder,
1/2 a teaspoon onion powder,
a 1/4 teaspoon paprika,
a 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
blitzed in the spice grinder
and several cranks of black pepper
on a sheet of parchment
paper to coat the butter.
Cover with parchment paper
and beat with a rolling pin
until the butter is pliable.
Folding the parchment
paper to make an envelope,
roll the butter into a thin
even square with sharp edges.
Chill until ready to use.
When the dough is proofed,
turn out onto a work surface
and knock out the gas.
Pat it into a square
and freeze for 10 minutes to cool it down.
Then unwrap the butter
and place over top of the
dough at a 45 degree angle.
Fold the dough up
and over the butter so
it's completely enclosed,
then pinch all the seams to seal.
Dust over and under with more flour
and roll out into a long rectangle.
Fold the dough in thirds like a letter.
Rotate the dough 90 degrees
and repeat the rolling
and folding process.
Wrap the dough in plastic
and refrigerate until firm and relaxed,
about two hours.
To make the filling,
combine 100 grams of diced pepperoni,
35 grams of chopped,
sliced, sweet soppressata,
35 grams of chopped,
sliced, hot soppressata,
400 grams of finely diced,
low moisture, whole milk mozzarella,
125 grams of the tomato sauce,
a 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano,
a 1/4 teaspoon ground red pepper flakes,
and the following finely grated cheese:
30 grams Parmesan,
25 grams Grana Padano,
30 grams fontina,
25 grams pecorino,
25 grams aged provolone,
and 25 grams caciocavallo.
Press and cut into compact rectangles
weighing about 60 grams each
and measuring about four
inches long and one inch wide.
To make the seasoning mix,
combine two tablespoons
fine plain bread crumbs,
a 1/2 teaspoon tomato powder,
a 1/2 teaspoon onion powder,
a 1/4 teaspoon ground red pepper flakes,
a 1/4 teaspoon paprika,
a 1/2 teaspoon dried crushed oregano,
a 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt,
and a 1/2 teaspoon Parmesan powder.
To form the Hot Pockets,
roll out the chilled dough
dusting with flour as needed
to a 1/4 inch thickness.
Cut into rectangles five
and a 1/2 inches wide
and about six inches long.
Use the dowel to thin and
widen the two longer sides.
Pipe some of the extra tomato
sauce into the thicker center,
place a packet of filling overtop,
then brush a beaten egg
white around the border.
Pipe more tomato overtop
and fold the thinner sides
up and over the filling.
Turn it over so the seam side is down.
Firmly pinch the two
shorter sides together.
Trim off the excess and tuck underneath.
Place the Hot Pocket on a
parchment lined baking sheet.
Brush the surface with more egg white
and sprinkle some of the
seasoning mix overtop.
Cut four deep, wide slashes
and cover while you're forming
the remaining Hot Pockets.
Let all the Hot Pockets sit
at room temperature until puffed,
about 30 minutes.
Bake at 300 degrees Fahrenheit
until light golden brown and bubbling,
about 30 minutes.
Let cool completely, freeze,
and microwave for two
minutes in crisping paper.
That was a long one.
[upbeat jazz]
["La Donna E Mobile"]
♪ La donna e mobile ♪
♪ Qual piuma al vento ♪
♪ Muta d'accento ♪
♪ E di pensiero ♪
♪ Sempre un amabile ♪
♪ Leggiadro viso ♪
♪ In pianto o in riso ♪
♪ E mensognero ♪
♪ La donna e mobile ♪
♪ Qual piuma al vento ♪
♪ Muta d'accento ♪
♪ E di pensier ♪
