[Molly] We're marking the end of our home renovation with a cozy, special spread.
Tremendous.
[Molly] For breakfast, fluffy wild rice pancakes,
drizzled with cherry compote and maple syrup.
Yum.
[Molly] Then, my hearty hot dish of everything
bagel chicken and biscuits comforts all.
Holy buckets. I'm so ready to eat this.
With creamy kimchi potato salad on the side.
That's a dang good potato salad.
And for dessert, decadent chocolate
peanut butter sheet cake with sweet, whipped ganache frosting.
Mmm. Oh, yeah.
Oh, yum. Yay.
Hey, this is me, Molly Yeh.
This is my husband, Nick. This is our growing family.
And this is our home, our farm on the North Dakota-Minnesota border.
The place where I eat, sleep, and breathe food.
When we moved out to the farm, we moved into the 1960s
ranch-style house that Nick's grandparents built.
And it was great until we started to outgrow it
with kids and a film crew around.
So we did some home renovations,
which we are pretty much done with.
We are adding one of the final touches today, a swing in the backyard.
So Nick is building it and to keep him fueled,
I'm whipping up some wild rice pancakes with cherry compote,
which are fluffy and sweet, and they've got chewy bits
of wild rice scattered throughout.
I'll start with my wild rice.
It's been simmering for about 35 minutes.
It's actually not rice, it's the seed of an aquatic grain.
And since there are so many lakes in Minnesota, it grows everywhere.
And it makes the pancakes look kind of cool because the rice is so dark.
And I flavored the cooking water with cinnamon and nutmeg
to enhance the flavors that will be in the pancakes as well.
I'll drain this off and I'll rinse it to cool it down.
So, I don't want to add hot rice to the batter and cook the eggs.
Mmm.
The nuttiness of the rice with the cinnamon smells so cozy right now.
Just set this aside. I'll get going on my batter.
I'll start with one cup of all-purpose flour.
The first time I had wild rice pancakes
was at this adorable little cafe in Bemidji,
which is this cute lakeside town, not too far from here.
And I honestly had no idea what to expect.
I knew I just wanted to order them because they sounded local,
and I was pleasantly surprised that it was simply
really delicious pancakes with chewy, nutty rice mixed in.
Half a cup of almond flour, which is just finely ground, blanched almonds.
Three tablespoons of sugar.
So not overly sweet, but I do like to load
my pancakes up with maple syrup and cherry compote.
Two teaspoons of baking powder.
Usually, it's Nick that makes the pancakes on Sunday mornings,
but he is hard at work building the porch swing.
I figured I would give him a little treat.
Half a teaspoon of kosher salt.
Half a teaspoon of ground cinnamon
and some freshly grated nutmeg,
which we always add to our pancakes.
It's just so tasty.
[grating]
We'll get this combined.
And then for my wet ingredients,
I'll mix them all up in my big measuring cup.
[clinking]
One large egg, a cup of whole milk.
Two tablespoons of melted butter.
And a teaspoon of vanilla extract.
And a quarter teaspoon of almond extract.
This is a really, really flavorful pancake batter.
I'll get these combined and whisk it into the dry.
Careful not to overmix.
I'll just fold in the wild rice
and get it evenly dispersed.
Yum. I'm excited for these.
I've got my griddle heating here over medium.
Get some butter on it.
We've got a butter in between every batch of pancakes.
Makes them better.
I'll do one-third-cup-sized scoops
and let them griddle for a few minutes
on both sides until they're set.
What I love on a pancake is the crispy edge
that gets slightly fried in that butter.
That's a beautiful golden brown color there.
We're going to consider this a health food.
A healthy start to the day.
Ta-da! Okay.
Just a couple more minutes on the other side, so that it's fully set.
If I wasn't eating these immediately,
I would stick these in a warm oven.
But I'm just going to make a couple more up
and then get them out to Nick.
Of course, these will be good just with butter and maple syrup.
But it's a special occasion, so I also made some cherry compote.
I'll spoon this all over.
It's really simple to make.
I simmer tart pitted cherries together with water, sugar,
and lemon juice until they're juicy and soft
and splash in some almond extract
at the end to complement the cherries.
These are so beautiful.
I'm going to add a little drizzle of maple syrup
so you get the maple leaf flavor and the sweetness
from the syrup and the tart fruitiness from the compote.
Yum.
I'm going to taste these just to make sure they're good for Nick.
Mmm. [munching]
Mmm. Mm-hmm. That is an awesome pancake.
I better get these out to Nick before I eat them all.
[Nick] Oh, man.
[Molly] Coming up, sheet cakes never go out of style.
And this one checks all the boxes big time.
Easy, moist and addictively delicious.
Nick is putting some final touches
on our home renovation and sheesh, it's about time.
Just kidding. I'm so excited and I'm making dinner to celebrate.
And of course, every celebration needs a cake.
So, I'm going with chocolate peanut butter sheet cake.
It's so moist and topped with sweet whipped ganache.
It's also wildly easy to make.
For the cake, I don't need a stand mixer, just a whisk.
I'll combine my dry ingredients.
One-and-three-quarters of a cup of sugar
to balance out the salty peanut butter.
Two cups of all-purpose flour.
This cake is pretty dense, super moist, so nutty,
and it really is impossible to screw up.
One-and-a-half teaspoons of baking powder, boop,
and baking soda as well, which will react with the buttermilk
because it's acidic to make this cake extra fluffy.
And a teaspoon of kosher salt.
I'll whisk this up.
For the wet ingredients, I'll start with my eggs
because it'll make it easier to fish out any shell,
when it's just eggs in the bowl.
Half a cup of neutral oil, a cup of buttermilk.
And if you don't have buttermilk, you can use whole milk.
Replace one tablespoon of it with lemon juice or vinegar.
Three quarters of a cup of coffee.
This one is cooled slightly. I don't want it to cook the eggs.
And I just love those dark, bitter notes that it adds.
A tablespoon of vanilla, a teaspoon of almond extract.
It enhances the nuttiness of the peanut butter and one cup of peanut butter.
I'm using the chunky peanut butter for that extra texture.
And peanut butter doesn't just contribute
that delicious peanut butter flavor,
it also adds denseness and moisture.
These wet ingredients are smooth and they're ready
to be combined with the dry ingredients.
Seeing those peanut chunks from the peanut butter.
I'll just whisk this together.
Yum. This is combined.
I got my cake pan.
This is just a 9 by 13.
I'm going to serve it right out of the pan.
So I've greased it, but I don't need to line it
if I'm serving it from the pan.
I'll get this in the oven at 350 degrees until a toothpick
stuck into the center comes out clean.
I'll start checking it at 35 minutes.
My cake is cooling. It smells amazing.
And now I'll whip up some ganache to top it with.
This is just milk, chocolate and hot,
heavy cream stirred until smooth
with a few pinches of salt and vanilla extract
and it's chilled in the fridge.
That allows it to firm up enough,
so that when I beat it up and incorporate air, it holds that air.
So this becomes sort of like a fluffier butter cream,
but it's much richer than whipped cream.
It's heavenly.
I'll get it on to my stand mixer here that's fitted with the whisk.
So, it's already starting to lighten in color.
I'll now incorporate six tablespoons
of softened unsalted butter for added richness.
It's looking so, so good.
And I really like the milk chocolate
with this peanut butter cake because the sweetness
of the milk chocolate is such a nice match for the salty peanut butter.
And so, it's really smooth and luxurious and fluffy.
I'm ready to get this frosting on.
The ganache is a nice way of eating fluffy chocolate,
if that's what you're in the mood for,
which I'm always in the mood for that.
I'll plop this on.
Spread it all the way to the edge and make nice, textured swoops.
This way you can get a lot of frosting on a slice
of cake without feeling like it's weighed down.
The hardest part of doing swoops on a cake is knowing when to stop.
I think the time is now.
I've got some crushed salted peanuts
and dark chocolate peanut butter cups for decorating.
It'll add extra crunch.
I also like anybody to know what they're getting
themselves into when they're eating a cake.
And I've got some peanut butter cups to nestle in,
just the contrast to the milk chocolate.
Oh, I can feel how soft and moist it is when I cut into it.
Hehe...
Oh, yeah.
Look at this. Look at how moist it is.
Mmm. Oh, yeah.
That is one moist peanut butter cake.
It's so nutty. It's perfectly sweet.
Mm, that ganache is awesome.
[Molly] Next, a hot dish inspired by the flavors of New York.
It'll comfort you to the core.
To celebrate our farmhouse renovation finally being dunzo,
I'm putting together some cozy,
comforting dishes that taste like home to us.
Like everything bagel chicken and biscuits.
This is essentially a saucy, stewy chicken pot pie mixture
baked with buttermilk biscuits on top that are encrusted in everything bagel seasoning.
It's so good, it keeps the floss company in business.
To start with my biscuits, I'll combine three
and a third cups of all-purpose flour.
I just love the way the biscuits soak up
the chickeny mixture on bottom and then get crispy on top,
so the best texture is right there.
And one-and-a-half tablespoons of barley malt powder.
Barley malt is one of the things that
gives bagels their faint sweet flavor.
This will infuse that into the biscuits as well.
You can substitute it with a pinch of sugar.
A tablespoon of baking powder and a teaspoon of baking soda
and a teaspoon and a half of kosher salt.
I'll whisk together the dry ingredients and then get my butter,
which is in the fridge.
So I'll incorporate the butter by smashing it
into little sheets between my fingers.
The number one rule of biscuits is to keep the butter cold.
That's what allows you to have a flaky biscuit,
because when the butter maintains its little pieces,
it doesn't fully mix in with the flour.
Those pieces of butter melt in the oven and creates pockets.
And then you get those flakes.
And I'm working toward a consistency,
where the butter is around the size of peas.
Okay. This butter looks good.
This will be good for a biscuit made by a northerner.
Before I bring the dough all together,
I'll toss in some chopped, fresh chives.
It'll be really pretty when the biscuits bake.
One-and-a-half cups of buttermilk will bring the dough together.
You definitely want this cold too.
Once this dough comes together,
I'll stick it in the refrigerator for a little while,
so that it could firm back up.
Smelling that buttermilk.
Make sure all of the dry ingredients are incorporated.
I'll wrap this up and I'll stick this in the fridge
while I get going on my filling.
I'm starting by cooking down all my veggies in some butter.
It smells heavenly right now because I don't only have onions,
but I've also got leeks for a little bit of a springier allium flavor.
And it's a lot of veggies, but they do cook down.
I'll toss in a garlic clove that's finely chopped
and then, I'll build my roux right in with the veggies.
So, I'll sprinkle in a quarter cup of all-purpose flour.
I'll stir this in and allow the flour flavor to cook off.
And now, I'll begin to add my liquid and I'll do it gradually.
So, I've got one-and-a-half cups each
of low-sodium chicken stock.
It's important to do that gradually,
so that the sauce stays smooth.
And half and half for that great creaminess.
I'll finish up the sauce by adding four ounces
of cream cheese because it is a bagel dish after all.
I love the tanginess that this will contribute.
Allow this cream cheese to melt and get gooey.
Season this with another couple of pinches of salt
and some black pepper.
I'll get my chicken.
This is one-and-a-half pounds of boneless, skinless chicken thigh.
And I'm going to plop this in.
I'll actually be cooking the chicken right in this mixture.
I'll get this evenly dispersed.
Let me grab my peas.
I love the little pops of sweetness that peas bring, and they look cute.
I'm using frozen, but you could also use fresh.
Sprinkle in about a cup.
And lastly, I'll sprinkle in some chopped fresh parsley.
I feel like parsley is underrated as a flavor.
It's good fresh, grassy flavor.
Okay, so I'll remove this from the heat and let it cool
slightly while I stamp my biscuits out.
I'll dust my surface with some flour
and I'll roll this out until it's about three fourths of an inch thick.
So this dish is sort of like me and Nick in a dish,
because technically it checks all the boxes of a hot dish,
but it's also New Yorkie because of the bagel element.
And New York is where Nick and I met and started dating.
Okay. So I'm stamping this out with my circle cutter.
Ta, ta-da-da.
A biscuit.
I'll set this aside and keep on punching them out.
They're ready for their everything bagel topping.
I'll go get that. I always have this on hand.
It's just poppy seeds, sesame seeds,
dried garlic and onion with a pinch of caraway and salt all mixed up.
But store bought works too.
As my glue, I'll brush on some half and half.
I'm not holding back with this.
I love the crunch.
I love the flavor, and it'll look striking with all of this seasoning.
So now that these are ready, I can transfer them
right onto the filling, space them out evenly.
They will puff up and spread a little bit in the oven,
looking pretty already.
I'll get this in the oven at 425 degrees
for 45 to 50 minutes until the biscuits
are golden brown and the mixture is bubbly.
I'm so excited to eat this.
I am smelling the garlic from the everything bagel.
Holy buckets. It looks gorgeous.
I'll add a little extra dazzle with flaky salt.
I'm so ready to eat this.
Oh, yeah.
That's fantastic.
That crunch on top is so good.
[Molly] Still to come, my secret to making potato salad pop.
I'm prepping a dinner filled with our favorite
comfort foods and to go with our chicken and biscuits,
I'm making one of my go-to potato salads,
which is loaded up with kimchi, Korean-pickled cabbage.
It's spicy, fermenty, and sometimes a little sweet.
I'll get going on the dressing first.
This dressing is so flavorful.
I'll start with half a cup of Japanese mayo,
which is really creamy and a little bit sweet.
I love how mayo heavy salads in the Midwest are.
And I'll flavor it with two tablespoons of kimchi brine.
Come on. Here we go.
Two tablespoons of white miso will add saltiness
and also some umami dimension.
And I'm using white miso because it's the mildest of the misos.
A tablespoon of unseasoned rice vinegar for brightness.
I'll balance it with a tablespoon of honey.
I'll squeeze in a tablespoon of lemon juice.
I'll grate in a clove of garlic and some fresh ginger.
That's it for my dressing.
I'll whisk it until it's creamy.
Okay.
I'm smelling the mayo and the kimchi.
It smells really good.
I'll toss in my boiled and drained red potatoes.
These potatoes are so creamy, and I love keeping the skin on
when I make a potato salad.
I like the taste, and you get more fiber.
I'm going to get some summer sausage and scallions.
Kimchi pairs really well with meat,
whether it's bacon or putting kimchi on a burger.
So I've got some chopped summer sausage.
It's cured and tangy to complement the cabbage even more.
Some chopped scallions for freshness.
And also, because I like the color, some fresh cilantro.
I love cilantro.
And lastly, the kimchi.
I usually reserve that to chop up
last because inevitably the juices kind of get everywhere.
I'll just give this a rough chop.
Not only is it lending really awesome, fermenty flavor.
It also has a nice crispness.
I mean, I would just have this alone for dinner.
I could dive head first into this potato salad.
I'll finish with a little more cilantro on top just because it's pretty.
Tan-ta-na-na...
[clinking]
I'm going in.
Mm-hmm. It's perfectly salty.
And that kimchi is adding that kiss of heat.
That's a dang good potato salad.
All right, I'm going to go check Nick's progress on the swing.
[Molly] Hey, this looks great.
What is this?
That's so romantical!
I love it. Should we eat?
-Yes. -Okay, you earned it.
I'm still dreaming about those pancakes.
You were working really hard building that swing.
-It looked so good... -[Nick] Yeah, it did.
[Molly] Is it real wood?
Of course.
Authentic, genuine American lumber.
Well, this is authentic, genuine everything bagel
chicken and biscuits.
[Nick] Mmm. Tremendous.
Tremendous.
[Molly] Do you want dessert now?
Please tell me that you did not steal a slice.
I 100%...
[Nick] Don't think you can pull this one.
[Molly] It's chocolate peanut butter.
This cake is so good.
-We need to eat this over there. -Great idea. Let's do it.
Mmm...
[Nick] Can you imagine spending our golden years back here?
No, we'll be in Florida.