I'm Bobby Flay. The holidays are here and it's time for cheer.
[cheering]
[Bobby] Well, not for me.
Happy holidays!
[Bobby] All of my closest Food Network friends
are teaming up to take me down.
-Are you ready to get your jingle bell rung hard? -Fire it up.
[dinging]
This battle's gonna shake down in three rounds.
Round 1 and 2, they must go through each other.
I have waited for this moment.
You're in my head!
[Bobby] Round 3, the winner gets me.
-[audience cheering] -Let's go, Flay!
[Bobby] In the spirit of the holidays,
we're teaming up for a culinary throw down.
-Go, go! -I'm going!
It's like three rounds of sibling rivalry.
Get out of here.
The competition is tougher...
Do you guys smell it?
-[Bobby] ...the rounds are bigger... -[cork pops]
[screaming] Yeah!
[Bobby] ...and the surprises...
Ho, ho, ho!
[Bobby] ...just keep on coming. Bottom line?
Oh!
[Bobby] Everyone's out to ruin my holiday.
-Come on in, ladies! -Oh, wow!
[laughing]
[bell dings]
["Jingle Bells" tune]
Happy holidays, everyone!
[audience cheering]
Getting a little frosty outside,
time to turn up the heat.
Please welcome one of my favorite people.
Food Network's Sunny Anderson!
[audience cheering]
What up, Bobby? Feeling icy?
How are you?
-You look fabulous. -What? Say it louder, Bobby.
-Fabulous. -Thank you.
You know the Ice Queen thing,
it's hard for me to kind of get into it with you.
What are you talking about?
Because you're so warm usually.
Bobby, just because my name is Sunny doesn't mean... [yelling] This is my house!
-[Bobby laughing] -[audience laughs]
So I'm able to come here and bring to you
your worst fears during the holidays.
-Okay, which is what? -[Sunny] Can you even guess?
It's all about things that are frosted.
-I'm talking about pastries... -Yeah.
...sugary, coated items.
All just, mmm, sweet.
-[Bobby] I love it. -Not salty like you.
-Are you ready to get frosted tonight, Bobby? -I'm ready.
[Sunny] Bobby better duck and cover
because our first contender is ready to bury you
with an avalanche of frosty flavors.
-Chef Stephanie Izard! -Yeah!
[audience cheering]
Oh!
-Whoo! -I love it!
How'd you like those snowballs, Bobby?
I like 'em.
[audience laughs]
This next contender helped you win last year
with a Buche de Noel frosted to perfection.
You know who it is. Chef Damaris Phillips!
[audience cheering]
Yes! yes!
Cover it up! [laughing]
Whoo!
[Stephanie] I've never competed against Damaris
who is just full of surprises all the time.
Last year, Bobby, it was help Bobby Flay.
This year, beat Bobby Flay.
What?
[audience cheering]
What?
Damaris, if you wanna beat Bobby Flay,
you're gonna be on my team at the end. That's how it's gonna work.
-[audience exclaims] -Ooh!
Beat Stephanie Izard!
-[Sunny laughing] -[audience laughs]
Stephanie, Damaris, how are you guys tonight?
-[Stephanie and Damaris] Hi. -So good.
So, Damaris, last year, you were a superstar in this kitchen.
She's pretty good. I'll tell you that.
Bobby, how dare you say she's pretty good? She actually has beat you.
[Bobby] It was tuna noodle casserole!
Tuna noodle casserole
is in my New York Times' best-selling cookbook Sunny's Kitchen.
-You better get with it. -[audience cheering]
Okay? Ice queen checking in.
[audience laughs]
[Bobby] Anyway, here's the way it's gonna work.
I'm gonna give you an ingredient
and you must make that the star of your dish.
-Oh, no. -What is that?
Well, what does it look like?
-[Damaris] Cookies and milk. -Cookies.
That's not what it is.
How about some Mexican hot chocolate?
[audience exclaims]
Oh!
[audience cheering]
It's chocolate, it's got chilies,
it's got some cinnamon, some sugar, all the good things.
-And go! -[all laughing]
[Bobby] So Sunny's gonna taste your dishes
and she'll decide who goes on to the second round.
Twenty minutes on the clock, don't play it cool.
Make sure the Mexican hot chocolate is the star.
-[bell dings] -[audience cheers]
Oh, no. What am I making?
Damaris is great at just about anything but sweets in particular,
I think she's pretty awesome at frosted desserts.
The great thing about this is anything that you can do chocolate,
you can make it Mexican chocolate
and it just has so much more personality to it.
Sometimes, people think that Mexican chocolate would be spicy
because of the chili powder, it's really not.
I mean, my thing is because we are frosting tonight
is maybe I would make a quick cookie,
-it only takes 12 minutes, and then I'm gonna frost it. -[Bobby] Yeah.
Stephanie, what are you making?
I'm making chocolate-filled pupusa.
Pupusas?
Oh, I love a pupusa!
[Bobby] So you're using some masa?
-[Stephanie] Yeah, I'm making some masa right now. -Beautiful.
[Stephanie] To me, the idea is taking the flavors of the Mexican hot chocolate
and incorporating those in multiple ways in the dish.
I'm making a Mexican hot chocolate filled pupusa
with caramel and crema.
-So pupusas usually have cheese in it. -In the center.
Are you putting cheese in this pupusa or not?
-I'm gonna put some cheese on the outside of the pupusa. -The outside. Okay.
[Stephanie] Instead of doing a traditional frosting,
I'm gonna basically frost my pupusa with some cotija cheese.
-[Bobby] It's really cool. -Cheese and chocolate works.
I'm Stephanie Izard, I'm a chef and a restaurateur.
I'm also known for being an Iron Chef, being a Top Chef,
and just doing all sorts of fun things on the Food Network.
I have gone against Bobby before
and taken down him and the other Iron Chefs on Iron Chef Gauntlet.
But the last time I competed in Bobby's kitchen, I was knocked out in round 1.
Beating Bobby Flay just is the saddest feeling
because he's such a fierce competitor.
I beat Bobby once, but that was quite a long time ago.
It's definitely time to do it again.
Damaris, what are you making?
I'm making Mexican hot chocolate cheese cake.
-[audience exclaiming] -Okay. Yes.
My strategy is to take all of the elements that are in Mexican hot chocolate
and then bump it up even more.
So I'm making a Mexican hot chocolate cheesecake trifle
with a passion fruit whipped cream.
Who doesn't love whipped cream as a frosting, right?
So I'm breaking down the chocolate wafers,
adding butter and salt so I can make a crust.
Somebody set a timer for me.
You may know me from winning the ninth season of Food Network Star
and I've competed on Guy's Grocery Games,
Superchef Grudge Match,
and I have actually beat Bobby Flay with tuna noodle casserole.
I'm so happy!
Last holiday season, Bobby and I teamed up in a Buche de Noel challenge.
I was in charge of the Yule log
and I think that's what the judges liked best.
Last year I might have gotten you that win, Bobby,
but you're gonna get lost in the frosting when you go against me.
[Bobby] 16 minutes to go.
[Stephanie] Next, I get started on a caramel.
So I've got brown sugar melting along with some butter.
And then instead of adding cream,
I'm gonna add in the Mexican hot chocolate
which is nice and creamy and delicious already.
Girl, what is bubbling over here?
It's gonna be like a Mexican hot chocolate caramel.
Okay.
-Oh, my God. [exclaims] -[audience laughs]
This is delicious. Y'all, give it up for my girl Stephanie!
-Whoo! -[audience cheering and applauding]
Now it's time to make my cheesecake filling.
I start by mixing cold cream cheese and sugar
and add the hot chocolate with more cinnamon and chile de arbol
so that I'm bumping up those flavors.
-[Sunny] Damaris, how are you doing? -That's done.
Let's let that cool.
[Sunny] I see you're making cheesecake.
A little bit of passion fruit.
And I'm feeling like deja vu.
Is this the Buche de Noel that you did last time?
Yes! It's exactly what I'm doing!
Just a little nod to Bobby as I leave him in my dust.
[audience exclaims]
I mean, is there more to say?
Coming up on 11 minutes!
[audience cheering]
-These are two very creative dishes. -Mm-hmm.
What's going on with Damaris should be really familiar to you
because she's got, like, a passion fruit, cheesecake,
and some chocolate cookies, crumbled them up to make bottom crust.
Stephanie has a butter caramel going on with the Mexican hot chocolate
which is divine.
-You looking forward to losing tonight? -I can't wait.
Not hot enough yet.
So to make the pupusas, I'm gonna make two discs
that are a little bit on the thick side
'cause you want it to be nice and chewy and delicious.
On the inside is some semi-sweet chocolate chips,
a little chile de arbol, and cinnamon
to celebrate the flavors of the Mexican hot chocolate.
No oohs and ahhs, you guys?
Look, when they're flipped, they're not burnt. It's exciting.
[audience exclaiming]
I mean I just hope that Stephanie's masa's cooked nicely.
You know, you wanna make sure--
-Oh, that's the only thing. -Yes, exactly.
Okay. So, Damaris, what's your next step?
-Are you asking yourself? -[Damaris] Yeah.
I'm grabbing passion fruit puree,
I'm gonna add that to my whipped cream.
I just wanna show Bobby that the win last year was really me
and I don't need him to win.
Six-and-a-half minutes.
[audience cheering and applauding]
Those look great. They're nice and crusty on the outside too.
-[Stephanie] Yeah. -So you took chocolate, chilies and cinnamon
and put it inside so it's melting.
-[Stephanie] I put it inside. Yeah. -Yeah.
Now I'm gonna make a little crema to go with the pupusa.
Into the sour cream, I add a little of the Mexican hot chocolate,
chile de arbol, and cinnamon.
You want me to help you?
Yeah, could you?
Uh... Oh, no!
I overwhipped my whipped cream
which is a little embarrassing.
What happened?
I've overwhipped it. You know what happened.
Put a little salt and you got some butter.
Get out of here!
-Bobby. -[Damaris] You're in my head!
I need to do the whipped cream again,
because without the whipped cream, this is not a frosted dessert.
Three-and-a-half minutes, chefs.
[audience cheering and applauding]
[Stephanie] I'm gonna put one pupusa
next to each little bit of crema.
Some of the caramel sauce all over the top,
and then some chopped up chocolate wafers.
Oh, just pour it all over, girl!
You feeling like the goat over there, Stephanie?
I do, I just put a little bit of frosting over the top with some cheese.
And then I wanna add some cilantro
that's been tossed in sugar over the top.
[Bobby] One minute.
This is crazy.
So I start building my dessert
starting with the cookie crumble crust.
Then the cheesecake filling,
raspberries, more crumble topping, then more cheesecake filling.
Did she have time to rewhip it? Is it soft? Is it luscious?
And it is so tart, and so delicious, and so delightful.
[Sunny] Feeling good, Damaris?
I'm feeling great, Sunny!
[Bobby and the audience] Ten, nine, eight, seven,
six, five, four, three, two, one.
[dings]
[audience cheering and applauding]
Wow.
[Damaris] It tastes delicious, it's nice and balanced.
I might be making this this holiday.
[Bobby] Gorgeous.
[Stephanie] Looking down at my plate, I'm kind of excited.
It's a little bit different and unexpected,
but I think it'll work really well.
You look beautiful!
[upbeat music playing]
Well, to see who moves on to round 2,
it's all gonna come down to what you did
with the Mexican hot chocolate.
Chef Stephanie, what'd you make?
I made a Mexican hot chocolate filled pupusa
with a Mexican hot chocolate caramel, crema,
and some snow of cotija cheese.
[Sunny] I never would have thought of pupusa.
The inside filling, the Mexican chocolate flavor is there
but I would have loved less of the pupusa, more of the filling.
Maybe a deep-fry would have made it more crunchy.
But this right here?
Honey.
You already know I love the sauce
because you saw me react to it
when I went into the kitchen with you, girlfriend.
Thanks, Sunny.
Chef Damaris, what'd you make for us?
I made a Mexican hot chocolate cheesecake trifle
with a little bit of passion fruit frosting.
Harkening back to days of old?
-Uh-huh. -Like Old Man Bobby.
[audience titters]
[Sunny] Your cookie crumble,
it's perfection and very smart.
I'm team texture, and I love the passion fruit whipped cream
that you made twice.
Your cheesecake mousse, if you will,
the Mexican hot chocolate is there, but it's subtle.
[groans] Oh!
All right, I'm gonna need a minute here to decide who keeps on cooking.
[sighs]
This is gonna be a tough one, y'all. I just don't wanna lose.
Good luck.
[Stephanie] I feel good. I feel like she had her chance to beat Bobby before.
But this year, it's my turn.
And the Chef moving on to round 2 is...
[bell dings]
[upbeat music playing]
So, one of you will keep cooking,
and the other will join me here at the table.
And the chef moving on to round 2 is...
Chef Damaris.
-[audience cheering] -[Sunny laughing]
-Good job. -Thank you.
You all, I did not think I was gonna win that.
I don't need you, Bobby.
I can win on my own.
-It was so good. -Oh, thanks.
Creative.
Damaris, this was just very well-balanced.
You powered through and remade that whipped cream
which was, I think, needed, and did it right.
-[audience cheering] -[Sunny] Yes! Give 'em twirl, baby. Give 'em a twirl!
Bobby, our next contender bakes a whole lot better than you do.
That could be anybody.
Please welcome the cake master himself.
Duff Goldman!
-Yeah! -[all cheering]
[Damaris] Okay, Duff!
Is he inside of that cake?
To the right!
[all laughing]
-Happy holidays! -[Damaris] Yeah!
Hi!
-He's got his Beat Bobby Flay shirt on. -Yeah!
Are you guys ready?
It's Duff!
I feel like beating Duff today is possibly harder than beating Bobby.
Let's just say it. Duff is the best pastry chef on the network.
Arguably, he is.
All that jolly joy you bring,
we still gotta take this man down.
I was wearing this shirt on the plane the other day
and somebody walked up and they pointed at the shirt and they were like, "Did you?"
And I was like, "I'm about to."
-[all exclaiming] -That's right!
[Bobby] You know, I do like you very much,
but I don't like seeing you here.
-Okay. -[all laughing]
-You love to bake. Come on! -[scoffs]
You know, the last thing Bobby baked was a potato.
[all laughing]
[Bobby] So let me tell you how it works.
I'm gonna give you an ingredient of my choice
and you have to make that the star of your dish.
These two are gonna taste your dishes
and they'll decide which one of you goes up against me in the third round.
Not only that, you get to pick the signature dish
-and you get to pick a teammate. -Huh.
But what is the secret ingredient, Bobby? Just tell us.
[all laughing]
Gingerbread.
[audience exclaiming]
Gingerbread? Wait a minute.
I'm gonna give you some gingerbread,
some gingerbread cookies, and a gingerbread house.
-What are we gonna do with that? -I have no idea.
This is actually more difficult than you think
because you're trying to take a already-finished product
and turn it into the star, but it's already the star 'cause it's already done.
Like, what?
Twenty minutes to cook as fast as you can.
-If you wanna catch me, I'm the gingerbread man. -[dings]
-[audience cheering] -[Sunny laughing]
[Stephanie] Gingerbread.
So, you know, it's one of these things
that's not really an ingredient,
it's something that's already been made, which can be difficult.
-But you get so much flavor out of it. -Yes.
Tastes like ginger, it's got molasses.
So the thing that's challenging about gingerbread
is that it's already cooked.
The flour's cooked, eggs are cooked, everything's cooked.
So you can't just grind it up and use it as the flour to create more gingerbread.
This is very sticky.
I would make gingerbread French toast here.
Just use what's already there
-and just keep something simple. -[Bobby] Definitely.
[Stephanie] When you only have 20 minutes, making something from scratch
isn't necessarily the way to go.
Faster! Come out of the bottle faster!
[audience laughing]
What do you do with already-made gingerbread?
Duff and I do Summer Baking Championship together
and he's, like, very classic, by the book.
I'm a little more pastry chef meets savory chef.
So Duff and I are definitely gonna make two very different things.
This is very heavy.
I'm gonna play it safe
and I'm going to highlight the beautiful gingerbread cake that's already been made.
-Damaris, are you making eggs in a hole? -I'm not.
I'm making gingerbread stuffed with fruitcake.
I'm gonna make little gingerbread rings
so I can fill it with fruitcake compote.
Where's the cinnamon?
-I've got it right here. -Thank you. Come here, give me a hug.
[audience exclaiming]
Damaris is very disarming, right?
She's very sweet.
But, man, she really knows her stuff when it comes to baking a pastry.
So she's gonna be tough.
-Ay, yo, ace of cakes! -[Duff] Yes, ma'am.
What are you making over there?
I'm making a ginger snap.
-[audience exclaims] -[gasps]
[Duff] I'm a baker, I like baking stuff.
It's all the same ingredients of gingerbread,
so when the judges are tasting, it'll be like,
"Oh, yeah, I definitely taste gingerbread."
It's a ginger snap, everything's in there.
I'm gonna actually use the gingerbread cookie
to make a streusel on top of my gingersnap.
Things are going good.
I am putting sugar, oil, salt, molasses, ginger, cinnamon,
baking powder, eggs, and flour in the mixer.
How soon do you need to get that cookie in the oven?
Uh, I need to do it right away!
In the next, like, 10 seconds.
[Duff] But they don't bake that long.
Hey, what's up?
I'm Duff and I am the owner of Charm City Cakes in Baltimore, Maryland.
I'm a judge on a lot of different shows
and I've competed on Food Network Challenge, Buddy vs. Duff, and Chopped.
I've co-hosted on Beat Bobby Flay, one of my favorite shows.
But this is my first time competing.
It's so much fun to beat Bobby.
I think other people would probably say that I'm very competitive
but I just love to cook and bake really amazing desserts.
All I want for the holidays is for Bobby Flay to lose to me.
[Sunny] 15 minutes!
[Damaris] Now, I'm gonna start working on my fruitcake compote.
I'm grabbing a lot of dry fruits.
Currants, raisin, cherries, cranberry.
And then I put them in a mixture of brown sugar, gingerbread spices,
sorghum, which is similar to molasses, orange zest, and rum.
You've got your rounds here. Telegraph where you're going 'cause I don't know.
-So I'm gonna toast those up. -[Sunny] Okay.
And then all the flavors that you think of in gingerbread,
I'm also putting in with my fruitcake compote.
What face did you make behind me?
I did not make a face to fruitcake.
It's on sale, so somebody's buying it.
[audience laughing]
Sunny hates fruitcake.
Which is not ideal because she's the one tasting and judging this dish.
If I have to start again, I don't know that I'll finish.
Y'all give it up to my girl.
[audience cheering]
-Duff! You gotta get those cookies in, dude. -I do!
[Sunny] Hurry up!
[Sunny and audience chanting] Hurry up!
-Hurry up. -Hurry up.
Maybe smaller cookies 'cause you have a less amount of time.
I know! But the thing is is they're so good when they're big!
-Smaller cookies, Duff! Trust me! -[Duff laughing]
-I got it! I got it, we're good, I'm good. -Twelve minutes!
They're gonna bake, they're gonna bake!
They're in the oven right now!
-[audience cheering] -Woo-hoo! Yeah!
Where do I begin?
It smells delicious in that pot
which is exciting to me because you can change my mind about things.
You know what I really love about what Duff is doing is he is remaking those flavors
of gingerbread and imagining them in a cookie.
-[Stephanie] Right. -[Sunny] But they were huge.
Which is like, "Wow, not enough time."
Is that sugar?
It's cinnamon, sugar, ginger.
I dust my cakes and I putting 'em onto a hot griddle
'cause this is a tender little cake and I want some texture.
You gotta be careful with that that you don't burn it.
[audience laughs]
[Duff] What? These are insane!
What are you making?
I'm gonna use those gingerbread cookies
to kind of make a buttery gingerbread streusel
that's gonna sort of enrobe the cookie.
It's just gonna give you a really nice crunch.
All right, you guys, we've got eight minutes left on the clock.
[audience cheering]
[Duff] So now I have to melt white chocolate.
It's creamy and cooling,
so it will sort of help temper some of that ginger in my cookie.
What's going on over here? Did you just make...
-Okay, so... Yeah. -...super-sized cookies?
-Do you want a peek? Just, like, real fast? -[Stephanie] Yes, yes.
[Duff] Okay, ready? Oh, my God.
[exclaims] Oh, my gosh, they're so...
They're looking very close to done.
-[audience laughing] -They are definitely not.
I got them in the oven with 12 minutes to go.
They're gonna need 10 minutes to bake.
So I have two minutes to get them out of the oven,
decorate them and get them on a plate.
Which is not ideal.
-Good luck with that, I'm gonna check out Damaris. -Thank you.
I'm flipping my cakes, and they're kind of falling apart.
I have to be so careful with these,
they've gotten only more delicate as they've gotten hot.
-How is it going over here? -[Damaris] All right.
[Stephanie] Oh, that sauce smells incredible.
-Thanks. It needs to cook. -It does need to cook, yeah.
How do you feel about trying to take down the ace of cakes?
Oh, my God, it's so rough, it's terrible.
-[Stephanie chuckling] -[Damaris] It's so hard.
I keep looking for somebody easy to beat.
Like my niece, who's six. That'd have been nice.
-Good luck. -Thank you, thank you.
-[Stephanie] Just under six minutes left, you guys. -[audience cheering]
I just saw some very raw cookies in the oven.
-He doesn't seem very concerned. -[Stephanie laughs] No.
They're both having some challenges.
On Damaris' side, that fruit sauce smells delicious.
It's got a ways to go to become a sauce.
Oh! Man, so close, so close. Let's go.
How are you feeling, Duff?
Oh, Damaris, I'm on fire.
-[Damaris] Yeah, you are. -[laughing]
-Something's burning! -Burning, burning, yes, yes.
-[Sunny] Something's burning! -[Duff] No, no, no, no.
So, you know, I look at my streusel
and smoke is pouring out of it.
Okay. Don't panic, don't panic. That's terrible.
I have to. Have to make more streusel.
This is the star ingredient.
That really set me back.
-Duff, you got this, man! Come on, Duff! -[audience cheering]
Thanks, guys.
Goldman, get your head in the game!
[Damaris] I made six gingerbread rounds.
Four of them are looking okay
and now it's just time to plate.
I know I needed frosting so I'm gonna do a little sauce
which is sour cream, brown sugar, and a little vanilla.
I'm adding my gorgeous toasted gingerbread ring
and then my fruitcake compote in the center.
Ninety seconds.
-What? What? -[audience cheering]
Go! Get your cookies out of the oven!
[laughing] No way. He's making the garnish.
Duff, Duff, Duff, Duff!
[Duff] I need the chocolate on there,
'cause that's what's gonna make the streusel stick to the cookie.
[Bobby] 55 seconds.
[Duff] Coming out. Coming out right now.
Ooh!
Those are some beautiful cookies!
-Come on, Duff! -[Stephanie] Those are good looking!
[Sunny] Those are some beautiful cookies, Duff!
-Go get a plate. -Get a plate! Get a plate!
[Sunny] Get a plate! Hurry!
Oh, my God!
Come on, Duff! Get a plate!
[bell dings]
[Bobby] Thirty seconds.
[Duff] Time is winding down, the cookies are on the sheet pan.
I cannot take them off, they're piping hot, they'll just fall apart.
[Sunny] Get a plate! Hurry!
Oh, my God!
-Here, plate. -[Sunny] Yes, Damaris!
-Thank you. -What do you want?
Twenty.
I'm trying to help Duff because the last thing I want is to win on a technicality.
[all] Ten, nine, eight, seven...
[audience] Six, five, four, three, two,
-one! -[bell dings]
[audience cheering]
Ugh.
-Does this mean we don't get to eat those cookies? -Yes!
I needed a couple minutes so they would cool just enough
that I could get a spatula underneath 'em and get them on the plate.
I know they're gonna be good, but they're not on a plate, so it didn't count.
[sighs]
[Damaris] It's so delicious, y'all,
it just really is missing that crunch
to make this dish feel complete.
-It's beautiful. -It's fine, they don't have crunch.
So, Duff, you didn't quite make the plate.
I feel like I let you down. I'm sorry.
Well, listen, Duff, you know we love you so much,
and in the spirit of the holidays,
we're still gonna taste your cookie.
Oh, thank you.
This is a white chocolate ginger snap.
They're fresh and they're warm and they're nice.
The molasses is talking. The sugar crystals are crunching.
I do like an underbaked cookie,
I think maybe just one more minute,
but I don't know if Santa's gonna be mad at that.
[Stephanie] I do love that you put the texture on it.
And I think a really smart play here was the white chocolate on top
because you've got all this spice from having it
be an actual fresh gingerbread cookie
that the white chocolate really helps celebrate that.
Awesome. Good, good. Thank you.
It's disappointing, I didn't get the cookies on the plate.
But I'm happy everybody got to taste 'em
'cause I'm really proud of my cookies.
So, Damaris, what'd you make?
I made a toasted gingerbread cake
with a little bit of fruit cake compote.
-Wow. -Yay!
The sour cream, brown sugar.
Knowing that you had a very sweet center with your compote,
you made it less sugary so that was perfect.
Because when you get to this lord of the rings... You know what I mean?
It's sweet, you added sugar to it.
I think the one thing I would change about this is I am missing texture.
I know, I'm missing the crunch too.
I saw you put the sugar on the outside of the cake, which is really smart.
And when you hit the edge of it with your spoon, there's a crisp,
but I would have loved for there to be a little bit more sugar in there
just to get that syrup to come with your fruits.
Yeah.
Any other night, we'd have a lot to talk about
if this would have gotten on the plate.
But we do have to follow the rules here at Beat Bobby Flay.
-The chef moving forward to round 3... -Chef Damaris.
-Yay! -[audience cheering]
-Good effort. -[Duff] Thank you.
Come here.
-It's not a real win. -[Duff] No, it is.
It's a technicality win.
No, no, no, this is not a technicality.
So, Damaris, you know,
we need you to do what you've already done before.
We gotta beat Bobby.
[Sunny] It's a must.
All right, Damaris, good job. Two for two.
And then three for three.
-[audience exclaiming and cheering] -[Sunny laughing] Yeah!
You're not there yet. What are we baking tonight?
My frosted holiday dish is...
Chocolate orange Christmas Bundt.
-[gasps] -What?
[Sunny laughing]
Do you even own a Bundt cake form?
Yeah, I use it to blanch vegetables.
So, Damaris, the fun part is you get to pick your teammate.
Duff or Stephanie? Two very talented chefs.
So who's it gonna be?
It's gonna be Duff.
-Oh, man! Okay, okay. -[audience cheering]
[Damaris] You have to pick Duff.
Why would I put Duff on Bobby's team when we're making cake?
[laughing]
Poor Stephanie. Come here.
Well, now the thing is I don't want you to beat Bobby Flay anymore.
-[Bobby] Yes, exactly. -[audience titters]
I will say that I feel like the fact that we're two chefs known for savory,
I might do a little more pastries than Bobby does in real life
-and I might not dislike it as much. -For sure.
No, you win that battle.
So you're each gonna have 45 minutes
to make a chocolate orange holiday Bundt cake and two sweet treats.
Let's get frosting!
-[audience cheering] -[Sunny laughing]
Damaris and Duff together is an interesting duo to watch
because they're both very creative.
Hey, Damaris, I'm using this oven or the big oven?
You can use either one you want, I'm fine.
I didn't realize I was gonna get here and now I'm very nervous.
'Cause what if Bobby beats me?
[Duff] If he beats you, he's beat us.
-Bless his heart. -I mean...
[Stephanie] Bobby, are you in charge of the Bundt?
-[Bobby] Yes, I'm in charge of the Bundt. -[Stephanie] Bobby's Bundt.
[Bobby] I'm teamed up with Stephanie which I'm very excited about.
Mostly because I know Stephanie's just gonna be able to do her thing
'cause I'm gonna be concentrating very, very heavily
on making sure that this Bundt cake
comes out of the oven in some way, shape, or form.
-In the shape of a Bundt, perhaps. -Yeah, exactly.
So a Bundt cake is basically a dense cake cooked in a specific pan
and they're gonna flavor it with chocolate and orange.
That flume up the center makes that cake cook thoroughly.
So very smart choice for our girl Damaris here with just 45 minutes.
[Damaris] We're making chocolate orange Bundt...
Walnut Russian tea cakes.
[Damaris] With a bourbon orange eggnog.
I can't make cookie dough until I have toasted walnuts,
so I have to get my walnuts into the oven.
All right, nuts are in the oven.
You're doing great.
Listen, man, cookies are my thing.
There is no way that I'm gonna lose twice with cookies.
What are we doing? We're blending.
[audience cheering]
[Damaris] This is a blender cake,
so I'm throwing all of my wet ingredients into the blender.
That's a whole orange, sugar, egg, sour cream,
cocoa powder, a little bit of salt.
Everything blends up and you pour it in the self-rising flour.
Have you ever made Bundt cake before?
I have made a Bundt cake before.
So I'm gonna do an orange-infused
vanilla cake.
Oh, so the cake's not chocolate.
No, the cake's not chocolate,
which I don't know if it's a good idea, but that's what I'm doing.
And I'm gonna make a bittersweet ganache on the outside.
And what are you making?
[Stephanie] What about a cocktail? Does that sound good?
-[Bobby] Yeah. -Oh.
Some, like, hot buttered rum situation.
Yes, definitely.
And I'm gonna make some candy cane ice cream.
Ooh, yeah. I like that.
[Stephanie] What's great is there's so few ingredients.
So it's heavy cream, sweetened condensed milk,
I'm putting some peppermint extract, and then salt,
that's what's gonna bring out the peppermint flavor.
You guys, we're going for some nitrogen.
[audience cheering]
Ooh!
-[audience cheering] -[Stephanie exclaiming]
Okay, liquid nitrogen.
[Stephanie] Just making a little ice cream over here.
I'm going to finish with its candy canes.
Duff and Damaris are definitely seasoned pros.
Just as far as the flavors go, I think their team plays a little more safe.
It's just sweet, whereas ours will be a little more fun.
I'm gonna throw it in the freezer, but it's ice cream.
Mmm!
That's delicious.
-Man, I love that crunch in there. -[Stephanie] Yeah.
[Sunny] 36 minutes!
My walnuts are toasted, so now I'm making the cookie dough.
Butter, cinnamon, powdered sugar, flour.
-Duff, your wife is here! -[Duff] Yeah! There she is!
-[Sunny] Johnna! -[audience applauding]
Hi, Josephine.
[Duff] Are you strong?
Yeah!
[Sunny] Okay, so what's the plan over here?
So we're doing a chocolate Bundt, eggnog,
and Duff is making a gorgeous little walnut cookie.
[Sunny] What led you to the drink?
[Damaris] It just seems like a Bobby move
and we're really trying to go apples to apples here.
It never feels good to beat him with something that he is not good at.
Well let's just be honest. Your tuna noodle casserole was better than his.
[Damaris] But is there any way that Bobby's ever gonna make
a good tuna noodle casserole? No.
Yeah, I'm with you on that.
I'm filling my Bundt pans up and this batter is ready to go in the oven.
[Bobby] I have some dry ingredients for the cake batter.
Flour, baking powder, baking soda, a little bit of salt,
and then in another bowl I add some sugar,
and a whole bunch of orange zest.
Look how orangey it smells over here.
-It smells delicious. -It does smell really orangey over here.
Is that the cake starter?
-[Bobby] Yeah. -And then what about the two sweet treats?
We're making peppermint ice cream
and we're making a hot buttered rum cocktail.
[Stephanie] Do you wanna taste some ice cream?
-[Sunny] Well, I won't give any flavor notes. -[Bobby] Why not?
'Cause I want you to lose, Bobby.
-Hello? -But I'm working with Bobby.
You're just a casualty of war, I'm sorry, this is just friendly fire.
Sunny kind of went from being my fan
to like wanting me to go down just because I'm on Bobby's team.
Yeah, that's what happens. Association.
All right, all right, I'mma leave you guys to it.
-You got 31 minutes, and 30 seconds, chefs. -[audience cheering]
So I'll tell you, the menu that sounds better to me is actually Bobby Flay's menu,
but the peppermint ice cream, I'm gonna say it's not sweet enough.
That was just giving me peppermint and cream.
It's gonna be interesting.
[Bobby] I gotta get to the Bundt cake.
I add cream, unsalted butter, with the orange and sugar mix
until it gets really light and fluffy.
Then I add vanilla extract, some orange juice, eggs, and the dry mixture.
The Greek yogurt, the cultures in the yogurt
creates a really nice texture in the cake.
So I have my batter ready, I pipe it into the Bundt pans and I get 'em into the oven.
[Stephanie] That was an impressive thing to see. That was such a pastry skill,
-just piping it into the Bundt pans. -[Bobby] There you go.
I say kudos to Bobby 'cause we all know he doesn't bake very well.
For him to say, "I'm taking on the cake" is a big endeavor.
[Bobby] Hope they come out, like, all in one piece.
It's literally 50-50 in my head until it happens. Always.
[Stephanie] It could ruin everything.
[laughing] All right, yes.
[Duff laughing]
They're in.
[bell dings]
[upbeat music playing]
-Twenty-seven minutes, Duff. -[Duff] Awesome.
[audience cheering]
So what's happening over with Damaris
is she's working on the cake and the eggnog
and she's leaving the cookies to Duff.
Bobby is great at a lot of different stuff.
But Damaris is amazing,
she's a really incredible baker.
Oh, God, that's smells great.
Are you talking about my chocolate orange Bundt?
Yeah, that smells great.
[Damaris] Now that my Bundts are in the oven,
I'm gonna start on this eggnog.
I'm whisking egg yolks and sugar until it's nice and fluffy
and then I'm gonna temper it with hot cream and milk.
I need to bring it up to 160 degrees.
That's gonna make it nice and thick.
Bobby, last year, I helped you win.
Not happening again! This is Beat Bobby Flay, this is not Help Bobby Flay.
-What's up? -[Bobby] I hate that you're so good at baking.
-[Damaris] Why? -[Bobby] I mean, I like it when you're on my team.
Oh. Bless his heart.
You know, I think it's time to mess around with my guy Bobby.
I brought him a Christmas present.
Let's see if he accepts.
-Twenty-four minutes on the clock. -[audience cheering]
I brought you something, Bobby.
From Christmas past, three rings.
You know what these were from, right? Your three marriages.
[audience exclaiming]
So, for Christmas present, I'm aware that you're dating a lovely lady,
-so maybe you'd want to have this ring for her. -Oh, thank you.
And then for Christmas future, maybe it doesn't work out with that girl.
Bobby, would you like to put it on me?
-[Bobby] Oh, on you? -[audience laughing]
[audience cheering]
Thank you, Bobby.
-I feel uncomfortable. -[audience titters]
[Stephanie] The base for the hot buttered rum is butter, brown sugar,
heavy cream, cloves, cinnamon, and some cumin.
So you got sort of these savory notes
and baking spices at the same time and then lots of rum.
[Damaris] Okay what's up, eggnog?
I'm gonna put it in the blast chiller.
All right. Uh, whipped cream.
I start whipping the cream that will go on top of the eggnog.
I add some cream cheese to it to stabilize it
and then I put some vanilla.
Okay, Bundts are coming out.
What? They are absolutely gorgeous.
♪ Hi, pretty girl Hi, hi, pretty girl ♪
[Sunny] Okay, do we do a little test?
[Damaris] I just touched it. He done.
[Sunny] She don't need the test, y'all. She don't need the test.
-Y'all give it up. 17 minutes! -[audience cheering]
I have to tell you, I'm not worried about Damaris.
I think her cake is tried and true,
she wouldn't challenge Bobby with it if it weren't.
Merry Christmas, Bobby.
[Damaris] So I'm making a chocolate orange ganache,
and it breaks 'cause my cream was too hot.
I gotta start that again. That's broken.
If I wasn't starting over at least one thing, I wouldn't be myself.
Duff, how are those cookies looking, buddy?
They look pretty good.
A little redemption, Duff, from the last round?
They're out of the oven, which is, you know,
we're already ahead of the game. [chuckles]
They have to cool down for exactly four minutes.
They're still warm, so the sugar sticks to 'em,
but they're not so warm that the sugar gets completely absorbed by 'em.
You gotta do it just right.
[Stephanie] I decide to make a little garnish
for our hot buttered rum out of a meringue.
This pan is heavy.
So I carefully drizzle in sugar and a little bit of water
as the eggs are whipping with a little cream of tartar.
So the ganache, I just heated up some cream, I put the chocolate in there,
a little orange extract 'cause we're making an orange chocolate cake.
-[Sunny] 10 minutes left. -[audience cheering]
[Damaris] Now I just have to make my orange glaze
which is just orange zest, orange juice, and powdered sugar.
-Damaris. [gasps] -Yes?
[Sunny] Look at the little Bundts, the little baby Bundts!
-Duff, look at the baby cakes! -[Duff] I know, they're adorable.
My God, I can't. I just wanna... [eating noises]
[audience laughs]
-[Sunny] Duff, can I try your cookie? -[Duff] Please.
Oh, wow.
-It's flaky, it's buttery, it's light. -[Duff] Thank you.
-Is it enough salt? -Oh! Can you see my goosebumps?
[Duff laughing]
[alarm ringing]
-Bobby, your cakes. -[Bobby] Yeah.
Cakes come out of the oven, I mean, you know, this is the moment of truth.
[Stephanie] This is all that matters.
[Stephanie] Yay! Look at that.
I get them out and they look good.
That feeling when a cake comes out of a pan...
Honestly especially if someone who doesn't do cakes everyday,
-you're like, "Oh, yes. Yes, yes, yes." -It's a great feeling.
[Sunny] Bobby, what's next? What's this candy about?
[Bobby] Orange and ginger and some chile de arbol.
Nobody asked for chili. Let me taste this.
It's trash.
[audience laughing]
[Sunny] About four minutes to go, chefs!
-Four minutes! -[audience cheering]
[Sunny] So I just tasted the melange of candied ginger and orange
along with some chili. I like it.
Kudos to you, Bobby.
[Damaris] On the bottom of the plate,
I'm putting chocolate orange ganache
and then my Bundt with the orange glaze.
I'm garnishing with a dehydrated orange wedge,
some candied orange zest, and little bit of cocoa nibs.
[Duff] How are you doing, Damaris?
[Damaris] Good, I haven't started plating the drinks yet.
The eggnog's nice and cold, so we're adding bourbon
and then it's just time to pour it into the cups.
We're gonna pipe out some whipped cream
and then Damaris took the candied orange peel and sprinkled those on top.
-It's a beautiful-looking custard. Really looks good. -Beautiful.
Stephanie made a chocolate shell to go over her ice cream,
it hardens up right on impact of something really cold.
I have the cakes, I just ladle the ganache on top.
Then we sprayed it with some silver and gold dust.
It looked really pretty.
-Bring on the sparkle. -[jewels tinkling]
[Bobby] And then studded the chocolate
with the ginger and the orange chili situation.
-It's called winning. -[both laugh]
Thirty seconds!
[Stephanie] I've got my meringue,
I'm gonna pipe it into some little glasses
and the guest can just pour the hot buttered rum
right over the top, just stir it in.
[audience and Sunny] Ten, nine, eight, seven,
six, five, four, three, two, one.
[audience cheering and applauding]
I feel great. I feel great! I think we're gonna win.
[Duff] I mean, yeah, totally.
-[Damaris] Like, all... Like, ours looks so beautiful. -Yeah.
We're gonna win.
-It's looks good. -[Bobby] Yeah.
-[Stephanie] They look good! -[Bobby] We're done.
Yes!
[Bobby] We're done and it looks good.
It's all gonna ride on how good the cake is or not.
-Let's see who wins. -[audience cheering and applauding]
[bell dings]
So, tonight, we're celebrating everything frosted.
I'd like to introduce you to our judges.
First up, the founder of Speaking Broadly, Dana Cowin.
Pastry princess, Paulette Goto.
Cookbook author,
and founder of Smitten Kitchen, Deb Perelman.
[audience cheering and applauding]
So tonight's challenge was chocolate orange holiday Bundt cake.
Please start with the dishes in front of you.
This is very indulgent. It speaks to everything I ever wanted in the holidays.
It's rich, it's decadent, and I love that it's frosted.
I do have a really incessant sweet tooth that can never be satisfied.
This did it. It was a little too sweet, but really delicious.
And Russian tea cakes are one of my favorite cookies. Absolutely delicious.
I lit up when I saw it. I really liked it a lot.
And as we all know, Mommy's a thirsty girl.
This was perfect. Speaks to my soul.
I took a sip of this drink, I'm like, "It's so pretty and festive.
Got some alcohol here, the party's starting."
I dig into the Bundt cake, to me, the crumb is a little wet
but I keep going 'cause it's tasty.
The frosting, for my palate, it's a tiny bit sweet.
But I feel like, "Hey, that's pretty balanced."
'Cause I got this chocolate at the bottom.
I love this cake. It's so chocolatey. It's incredibly moist.
I do find the glaze a little sweet in one note,
but the whole thing came together so decadently.
Love the boozy drink.
I've really never met a bourbon drink that I didn't like,
so this was perfect.
These tea cakes are toasty and buttery
and I love the way the flavors come through
and I think it's a really nice balance with these other flavors.
Okay, judges, please try the second chocolate orange Bundt cake
and your sweet treats.
When I saw this Bundt with the sparkles on it
and then the orange and the ginger, I'm like, "This is really pretty."
I dug in, it's just perfect.
And then the ice cream with the chocolate hard shell.
That is my childhood.
Love the shell, love the creaminess of the ice cream
and the pop of the peppermint.
Well, this spoke right to me because there's sparkles on it!
This is one of the most beautiful sponges.
Really delicious, and again,
it's like they knew Paulette was coming, another liquor drink.
I had no problems with it.
And this ice cream is creamy, it's delicious,
it's made to perfection. I absolutely am so impressed.
The Bundt is gorgeous. I love the decorations.
And the candy ginger has such a grown-up pop on it.
The ice cream is so creamy,
and I loved tapping my way through it like a creme brulee.
I did get a bit of salt in the ice cream.
I mean, sometimes it can work, but it was...
I noticed it a couple times.
I loved the texture though, and the mint,
but I could use a tiny bit less saltiness in it.
Well, judges, it sounds like you have a really tough decision
on this frosty battle.
This is not as easy as I thought it was gonna be!
[Duff] Hey, hey, we made delicious food.
-We made delicious food. -Beautiful, delicious food.
I think we're gonna win.
Good job, guys.
[Stephanie] At the end of the day, do you want a scoop of ice cream, Bobby,
-or do you want a cookie? -Hello. Cookies.
-A scoop of ice cream. -Absolutely.
Tonight's decision is not unanimous.
And the winning team is...
[upbeat music playing]
Team Bobby!
[Stephanie] We won!
-[audience cheering and applauding] -Good job.
[Duff] Come here, come here.
[indistinct conversations]
Are you sure? Are you sure?
You can call me Bobby Bundt from now on.
[Bobby laughing]
I am out of here!
This won our hearts because it wasn't too sweet
and the harmony of the flavors just made it a winner.
And I just lost to Bobby Flay.
[audience cheering]
[Damaris] You know, you don't win 'em all.
But being friends with Bobby and being friends with you
and being friends with Stephanie
and everybody we meet because of our jobs, that is the real gift.
Merry Christmas, y'all.
Happy holidays.
We don't mean to be Bundt,
but Team Savory won pastry again. Yeah!
Whoo!