[upbeat music plays]
-[Antoni] Jacques! -Antoni, bonjour!
-Comment ça va? -So happy to see you!
It's been a while.
-Are you ready for Easy-Bake Battle? -Oh my God, I'm so excited.
-Let's do it. Yes. -Yes!
-What are we doing? -Good question. Can I get you a drink?
Wine? Already? Antoni, I love you.
I was actually thinking some really nice, clean, organic apple juice.
I can go for that.
So today's challenge is all about the harshest critics in the world.
Kids.
Oh my God.
-Are you ready to meet our home cooks? -Oui, Antoni, ready.
Hello!
[Tara] Hello!
[Antoni] Tara, Eman, and we have Haley, our returning champion.
Welcome to Easy-Bake Battle, everybody.
Thank you.
I'm so excited to introduce you to my good friend,
the revered and award-winning chef,
we all know and love him from Nailed It,
Mr. Chocolat himself, Jacques Torres.
-Merci, Antoni. Hello, everyone. -[Tara] Hi.
The three of you are here because you are enormously talented home cooks.
Gonna try my best.
I am a competitive person for sure.
I don't know if it's the Jersey in me, but I like to win!
I feel like I work well under pressure, because my house is crazy anyway.
Haley, welcome back to your third Easy-Bake Battle.
Thank you.
One win for each baby.
-Yeah. -Yes!
So far, you have banked $50,000.
Antoni has loved my food up to this point,
and I wanna show Antoni I can step a little out of my comfort zone
and continue to get to that 75 or even 100,000
to bring home to my family.
The pressure is really on.
And we have Eman here, representing Kurdish cuisine.
I'm excited to be here. Nervous and excited.
I'm here to show that Kurdish women are amazing cooks in the kitchen.
Kurdish food is amazing, and I'm here to win.
-All of you are mothers? -Yes.
-So tell me, how many children? -Three.
-Three children? -Three. Two boys and a girl.
-What about you? -I have one at home and two on the way.
Two on the way?
[Haley] Yes. [laughs]
You're amazing. You're my hero now.
[laughter]
-I have two boys at home. -[Jacques] Two boys at home. Wow.
-This is the ultimate mom squad! -[Tara] Yes.
-Mom punch. Yes! -Yes!
It's time for your first challenge.
The Dish Dash.
I love saying Dish Dash.
So here's the situation. You've had a long, annoying day.
Like, the mother of all Mondays.
Free time is hard to come by, but your kids have to eat.
And so do you. So for your Dish Dash Challenge,
you have to make fun, fast, kid-friendly snacks.
At your stations, you're gonna find a box
filled with the most disliked ingredients according to kids.
You have to include at least three in your snack.
This is about being fast and being smart.
You have a maximum of 30 minutes. Two of you will move on to the next round.
And one of you will end the day $25,000 richer.
-If it's you, Haley... -Seventy-five, baby.
-[Antoni] 75. -[Haley laughs]
Are you moms ready?
We're ready.
Your time starts in three, two, one.
Make it easy!
[upbeat music plays]
Spinach.
That's beets.
There's the spices. Garlic.
Broccoli, spinach, beets.
When I see the ingredients, I have this great idea to make a broccoli waffle.
The ingredients kids don't like that I'm using in my waffle
are broccoli and mushrooms, then I'm going to mask all the flavors with cheese.
I've never made a savory waffle before, but I think I can make it happen.
Okay.
[Eman] Broccoli. Garlic.
Garlic, garlic? Where's the garlic?
My plan for the first challenge is
to make a crunch wrap.
I make it all the time for my kids.
Also gonna need more mushrooms.
You can hide a lot of vegetables in there and it tastes amazing.
-She has a lot of ingredients... -[Antoni] She has a lot going on.
[Haley] I'm gonna start prepping the vegetables.
So the three veggies that kids don't typically like,
I'm gonna go with broccoli, mushrooms, and tomatoes.
I plan to make a savory waffle today.
My daughter Piper has become a bit more of a picky eater
now that she is entering the toddler stage.
But she actually loves when I make waffles in the morning for breakfast.
I think that the most challenging part of all of this is
how do you hide three undesirable ingredients
to make something that is healthy and delicious?
[Jacques] Maybe you can fool them? Let's say they love burger.
So you can disguise a burger, as an example. That may be the way to go.
I'm so curious to see what they come up with.
Mix something kids hate with something kids love.
-I'm gonna smother these things in cheese. -Hey, Tara.
-Yeah? -What'cha making?
Chaffle.
-Chaffle? -Yeah. Cheddar waffle.
-Where was that when I was a kid? -[Tara laughs]
I'm gonna grate the broccoli really fine,
so hopefully the kids can't taste it that much.
Tara is doing something very interesting. She's grating the broccoli.
-Is parenting basically trickery? -It's a little bit of trickery.
If it comes out the way that I'd like it to,
I'd love to turn the waffle into, like, a cat.
Hacks are everything to me in the kitchen.
I don't have a lot of time, because my son has autism.
And my four-year-old is super rambunctious.
My son's autism diagnosis was very hard on me.
As time went on and I became more familiar with what autism is,
um, I'm much more at ease with it, and it's not as scary to me anymore.
He's such a smart, awesome kid. He's got a great sense of humor.
We're really proud.
-Eman, what are you making? -I'm gonna make some beef crunch wraps.
Oh, nice.
And I'm gonna add tomatoes.
I'm gonna add mushrooms, garlic,
spinach to make it healthier, and a little bit of broccoli.
A mom who's doing the most.
Yes!
First thing my kids do when they come home is,
"Mom, what did you make today?"
Cooking fast, delicious, and simple meals is really important to me,
because my husband's out of town for the whole week for work,
and I'm usually home by myself with the kids.
This money will allow him to stay home a little more
and be with his kids a little more.
I'm gonna brown the meat and add the veggies,
add my spices and then get my crunch wrap together.
-How you doing? -Getting these veggies chopped.
We both have a waffle maker, so I'm worried.
Haley, I'm very curious, what are you doing?
I am making rainbow waffles. So instead of veggie waffles, making it fun.
For the waffle base, I decided to switch it up and use something like almond flour.
I have used it in cupcakes and cakes and things like that.
It's gonna be a savory waffle and have mozzarella cheese.
My daughter loves cheese.
Okay.
Maybe make it like a cute little cat since we have a cat.
Battle of the waffles.
You've got to be kidding me.
Haley's making waffles, but I am not copying her. This is my idea.
She's won $50,000. She wants to leave there with 75.
I really have to step my game up here.
[Haley] I'm feeling a little nervous. So I wanna make sure I can make it look pretty.
[Antoni] The visual part is definitely really important.
Definitely. I remember to do a parrot, I cut fruit.
I do a parrot on the plate, and I put the tail and everything.
-[Antoni] Does it actually help? -It does. You know, kids are not easy.
When they say "yuck," it's over. They don't come back to it.
A little more cheese.
-Have you ever made this for your kids? -No.
-[Antoni] You never have? -[Tara] No.
-There's a first time for everything. -I'm a risk-taker!
I have to take risks if I'm gonna beat her.
[Haley] I've never made a savory waffle before, but I decided to add some corn
to maybe make it kind of feel like a cornbread waffle.
I'm adding corn to my dish
because I'm thinking I need something to help balance the other vegetables.
This could be a risk, 'cause it can mess with the consistency of the batter.
But I'm hoping it'll still turn out a really tasty dish.
Feeling pretty good. As long as I can get 'em cooked, I'm gonna be happy.
[Antoni] 15 minutes left in the cook.
I am very nervous about time.
What are you talking about? 15 minutes?
Like how? The time goes by so fast.
I'm adding chipotle peppers for the taste. Chipotle peppers are delicious.
I use a lot of spices. My kids are used to it.
I learned how to cook Kurdish food from my mom and my grandmother.
In 1996, it was no longer safe for us to stay in Kurdistan.
So my parents basically just left everything behind.
We had no recipes.
So I try to come up with recipes in my kitchen and write everything down.
You eat what your kids eat. You basically eat their leftover.
-You cook for them. -You don't have time for like...
-Already you have so much going on. -How many time are you...
Has your diet changed since having kids?
Completely. I would never do a crunchy taco for myself.
I'm just using my hands for this.
Okay, here goes one. These should cook up quick.
I honestly think this is the fastest I've ever cooked in my life.
-[Haley] Excited to see how it turns out. -[Antoni] Haley's making her waffle.
All right.
[Antoni] Eman has a whole meal packed in there.
[Eman] Okay. I need some crunch.
You think she's going to deep-fry it to make it crunchy?
I don't know. If she's making a crunch wrap,
it's gonna have to get crunchy.
You're not gonna get it crunchy in a microwave.
[sighs] I want these in the air fryer for at least ten minutes to get them crunchy.
Seven and a half minutes left. Gotta get food on the plate as fast as possible.
All right, let's see.
I'm good on time.
Uh-oh. My waffle is overflowing.
That's okay.
Oh my gosh.
Okay.
Let me pivot here.
It is all sticking and disgusting.
Something's wrong with my batter.
I either added too much flour, not the right amount of flour,
not the right kind of flour, or maybe that corn idea was just a bad decision.
I really have to think on my toes
and figure out how I can cook this batter in a different way.
Haley had a plan with a waffle, but I just saw her take out ramekins.
I don't know if she's happy with the consistency.
I grab a couple of ramekins and I spoon the batter into three different ramekins.
I put one in each microwave. I have three microwaves going at the same time.
It's truly overwhelming.
So Tara's definitely in the lead, time wise.
Tara maybe is the one that we have to keep an eye on. Let's see.
It doesn't look the way I want it to,
'cause I wanna try to make it into a little animal.
My plan for the cat face is to use whatever I have in front of me
that makes sense for the waffle.
Trying to do a little tomato nose, 'cause that'll be my third ingredient.
They didn't say how much I needed to use, so I'm gonna do that.
I don't know if this is gonna be cute and clever, or really dumb.
The air fryer is not making my crunch wrap crunchy fast enough.
I see that there is a deep fryer, and it's hot.
[oil sizzles]
Oh!
Is that overflowing? No!
One of them exploded.
I am feeling this pressure of time more than my entire life.
Okay.
[Haley] Fingers crossed.
I'm just disappointed in myself in not executing as well as I should have.
-What's going on? These are really cute! -Thanks.
[Antoni] Those are adorable little cats.
I'm allergic to cats and I think those are deeply adorable, so you're good.
[Haley] I think I am allergic too, but I have one.
You're good. Can I?
-Yeah. -[Antoni] Just a little dab.
[Haley chuckles]
-We'll freeze the time for wiping tears. -Thanks.
-[Antoni] You've got this. Okay? -Okay.
-Focus and don't forget to breathe. -[laughs]
[Antoni] All right?
[Tara] I'm looking over. Haley's crying. Eman's fryer is going nuts.
-[bell dings] -I think I have it in the bag.
Tara's done!
Tara's done.
[Antoni] 26 minutes and five seconds.
Stay calm. Take a breath whenever you can, please.
[tense music plays]
-Okay. -[bell dings]
[Antoni] 28 minutes and two seconds.
Haley is done and she is smiling.
Hey!
You're good. You're good.
-I'm sorry. It's the hormones, not me. -[Antoni] Oh.
Forty-five seconds left, Eman. You got this.
I got this.
Eman is plating.
Keep your focus, Eman. You're doing great.
[tense music plays]
-[bell dings] -[Antoni] Boom! And Eman's done.
In 29 minutes and 34 seconds.
-Good job, moms! -[chuckles]
Good.
[Antoni] Tara, you're up first.
All right. Hope you guys aren't allergic to cats.
[Antoni meows]
-[Antoni] What'd you make for us today? -[Tara] A broccoli chaffle.
-Which is a cheddar waffle. -[Antoni] I'm stealing that word.
[Jacques] Which ingredient you use that kids don't like?
Broccoli, I used. Beets, tomatoes and a bit of mushrooms are in there too.
[Antoni] All right.
The moment of truth.
[tense music plays]
-[Antoni] Start with presentation. -Okay.
-Tara, I love this. -Thank you!
It's so cute. I love the little eyes.
I love the little ears with the Swiss cheese.
I gotta move on to the taste. I really love this.
I feel like you tricked me
into eating a lot more broccoli than I probably would've liked.
I think the cheese definitely helped with that.
But that said, the usage of the tomato, it's just a tiny piece.
A kid who's picky would brush those off.
With the beets and the tomato,
it was more part of the presentation than the actual dish itself.
Having kids, I know they love to look at food before they're going to eat it.
Um, what you did is really great. One thing that I would do different
will be that I will take the tomato, I will dice them a bit,
and I will mix it with the recipe to make the waffle a little bit more moist.
-Okay. -But I like the dish. That's excellent.
-Thank you guys. I appreciate it. -[Jacques] Thank you.
[Haley] Welcome. Meow.
Meow.
Times two!
My final product, I'm gonna call it a "kitty soufflé cake."
I used broccoli, mushrooms for the earthiness,
tomatoes as well, and also paired it with a lemon yogurt sauce.
It's gluten-free. It's almond flour throughout there as well.
-Okay. -[Haley] Yeah.
My plan today was to make this batter into a waffle.
So my guess is
it didn't work in the waffle machine because there is no flour in it.
-[Haley] Yes. -You know, flour has protein.
Protein becomes gluten, and that hold everything together.
Let's dig in.
So sorry, little kitty cat. I'm about to ruin your face.
[tense music plays]
I love the usage of corn here. It just hides the broccoli for me.
I personally love broccoli. But for a kid, I think that was definitely really smart.
Really well-seasoned. The dipping sauce is very clever. It's super tart and tangy.
I love the balance of your flavor. The dish is a little bit on the dry side.
But jumping from one recipe to another one,
you really react very well.
I have to say, that's what chefs do.
So congratulation. I really love what you did in the time that you have.
-Thank you. -Haley, as always, thank you very much.
Thank you.
[Antoni] Oh, you just took a deep breath.
-I know, I did. -[Antoni laughs]
I'm hoping you guys will enjoy this. I made a beef crunch wrap.
I used mushrooms, uh, broccoli, spinach, and tomatoes.
-My face is about to get real messy! -[Eman laughs]
-[Jacques] Okay, how do we do that? -So just bite into it.
Hopefully you guys like the taste.
So, Eman, I have to say that you cook very well.
I like the balance of spices.
It has some spice and it's a little bit surprising for kids, but it's not hot.
-Congratulations for that. -Thank you.
This was exciting.
I love that you weren't afraid to really just go hard on all of the ingredients.
I really like the flavors. Top part of the crunch wrap, super crunchy.
-The bottom was a little on the oily side. -Yeah. Yes.
But that said, Eman, thank you very much.
[Eman] Thank you, guys.
At this moment, the possibility of going home is really getting to me.
And I'm not ready to go home and end on a note like this.
Your kid-friendly snacks really impressed these two full-blown adults.
Each of you gave us some very impressive dishes in under 30 minutes,
but we can choose only one winner.
[tense music plays]
The winner is Eman.
Congratulation.
-Thank you. -You deserve it.
Thank you so much.
I honestly did not think I was gonna win,
especially coming into the competition knowing that I was gonna face a champion.
Now that I've done it, I feel confident.
I think I have it in me to win a couple more.
Eman, you made a well-balanced snack.
It had all the makings of a childhood favorite.
You're moving on to the final round for a chance to walk away with $25,000.
I can't wait.
Unfortunately, we can only choose one more person to move on to the next round.
So I'm so sorry to say the person going home is...
[tense music plays]
...Tara. I'm so sorry.
It's okay. Thank you for the opportunity. This was awesome.
Why did I not put a tomato in the waffle? It would have been so easy for me to do.
But in my heart, I'm leaving having won. I think my family's gonna be proud of me,
showing the world that I am a stay-at-home mom, but I also can cook.
Haley, with this one, you did get lucky.
-I did. I got lucky. -Missing that ingredient.
That was it right there. I truly was not expecting that, to be honest.
But that was a big kick in the butt to bring it, so...
-[Antoni] Okay. -That was good for me.
-Definitely weird that Tara's gone. -Yes.
[laughs] Miss her New Jersey accent.
Yeah. I know. I kept making her say "coffee."
Are you guys ready for your next round?
-Ready. -Absolutely.
It's time for the Easy-Bake.
Oh, I love saying that! But I have some bad news.
A few weeks ago, when you were feeling ambitious,
you volunteered to bring desserts to Harper's birthday party.
-Harper. -Harper. [giggles]
You each have to make a three-tier dessert platter,
and, of course, you have to make three different desserts.
Putting together a dessert tray like this can take an entire weekend.
But you have just 90 minutes.
As always, you'll have to cook all three desserts using only the oven.
For this challenge, you will have 60 minutes to use the oven.
When the light comes on, the time starts. And, of course, when the light go off,
you cannot use the oven anymore.
You could, it just won't work.
[chuckles]
[Antoni] The stakes are high,
because the winner of this challenge will not only get $25,000 today,
they will also get to defend their title against the next batch of home cooks.
Your time starts in three,
two, one!
Make it easy!
And they're off.
[upbeat music plays]
Cardamom, cardamom, cardamom.
Okay, so they have 90 minutes total, 60 minutes of oven time,
and we're asking them to make a three-tiered dessert tray.
That's not that much time.
-We're asking them to do quite a bit. -Oh yeah.
We have exactly 60 minutes to use the oven.
So making a game plan and being strategic here is so important.
How would you approach this?
The first 15 minutes, they don't have the oven, so I will start with my cake mix.
And I will make all my base. I will make everything ready.
And right away when I have my oven, I will put my cake in the oven.
I mean, talk about making it easy.
-Simplifying your life. 100%. -[Jacques] Yes.
[Haley] My idea is to start off with crème brûlée.
Crème brûlée is going to take the longest today.
That will take anywhere from 30 to 35 minutes.
I'm also using my mom's double chocolate chip cake recipe
and making it into a cupcake.
That'll take anywhere from 20 to 25 minutes.
And then my last dish,
I am going to use my crushed Oreo and white chocolate chip cookie recipe.
The cookies should only take about eight minutes. That'll be really quick.
I already have my milk mixture going for the crème brûlées,
so I can get that in the oven as soon as the timer starts.
The last round with the waffle disaster, the pressure really got the best of me.
I am thankful to be moving into this next challenge,
where I will have the opportunity to bake.
That's my comfort zone, that's my joy.
[Eman] I feel amazing winning the first round,
but Jacques is known for his desserts,
so I'm really nervous.
So this is cardamom.
For my first dessert, I'm doing some baklavas.
I usually use filo dough and right now it's frozen.
And I'm gonna use these instead, so it'll make my job really easy.
I'm making these mini pineapple upside-down cakes.
So I'm using cooking spray so nothing sticks.
I want to make it look presentable and pretty.
I'm adding brown sugar and butter together
and then adding the pineapple slices on top,
so it can melt in the oven, and it's gonna be delicious.
For the bottom layer, I'm making my brownie cheesecake bite.
My kids absolutely love those.
I'm gonna make the cream cheese filling from scratch.
But the brownie part is boxed.
It makes me so happy that they are making completely different desserts.
Oh my God, yes.
[Antoni] All three of their desserts for each of them are fundamentally different.
I'm gonna start the batter for my second thing.
It's gonna be a semi-homemade double chocolate chip cupcake.
So a good hack for cupcakes or cakes, you can do them semi-homemade
by starting with a box mix.
I'm gonna add some things like sour cream to really jazz it up a little bit,
and I'm also gonna add the premade pudding mix.
Those mix, actually, I think are pretty good.
Usually, I replace the oil with butter,
because I like the flavor of the butter.
Oil doesn't contain water.
Butter contain water. So you add another 20% of butter.
You always want to rebalance whatever recipe you do.
Got it. One minute until your ovens turn on.
[upbeat music plays]
Another... Oops.
Another hack I love to use when I'm scooping cupcake batter into the tin
is using a cookie scoop. It makes it a lot easier instead of using a spoon.
All right. So the ovens are now officially on for the next hour.
[Eman] I put the pineapple with the butter and brown sugar in there,
so the butter can melt.
And then I will add the cake mix on top.
I'm going to stick my crème brûlée mixture in there.
I'm just gonna get it warm so I can temper my eggs.
I will be doing the cookie dough last today, because cookies cook a lot faster
than something like cupcakes or the crème brûlée.
-I like what she does. -[Antoni] Yeah.
-I'm going to try to get invited there. -I know.
[Jacques laughs]
[Antoni] If you don't have time to bake a three-tier dessert tray,
I have a frozen treat hack that is gonna blow your mind.
I want to see it.
Let me show you.
So all you need is some yogurt cups,
a couple of small teaspoons, and a paring knife.
What I'm doing here is making a little incision in the center
and then gently place your spoon,
and lastly, the freezer.
And then before you know it, you have
some adorable little ice cream pops.
-I get it! -Cheers.
Cheers.
This is good.
A delicious little healthy-ish snack.
I'm making a sauce for the pineapple upside-down cakes.
It's just pineapple juice, sweetened condensed milk, and cornstarch.
Baking is definitely not my thing. I love to cook, but not to bake.
So I try to make it as easy as I can
and get out of the kitchen as fast as I can.
I feel like they're kind of at similar places in the race.
Eman had all of her bases already ready for the most part,
so she might be a little bit ahead.
[Eman] Everything is out of the oven.
She's gonna flip them now.
I hope they come out. I hope they come out. Please.
Let's hope they come out good and clean.
I'm terrified, 'cause it's $25,000 on the line.
[tense music plays]
Perfect.
Ta-da!
Yes!
[Antoni] Oh, thank goodness.
Does that stress you out, Haley?
I don't think so, Antoni.
[Antoni laughs]
She is... Her confidence is really blossoming.
[laughs]
[upbeat music plays]
[Haley] For the Oreo cookies, at home, I usually cook regular size cookies.
They take anywhere from ten to 12 minutes.
But since I'm doing a smaller version,
I'm thinking they might take eight minutes or so.
I'm crossing my fingers, really hoping that this turns
into that gooey Oreo cookie that I usually make.
[Eman] Yes, pistachios for the top.
For the syrup that we usually do for baklavas,
it's usually sugar water infused with orange blossom water or rose water.
But there was no way. I won't have time.
So I look in the pantry and they have ready corn syrup.
So I used that and then I crushed some pistachios, put it on top,
and added an accent pistachio on top, so they can have that little crunch.
[Haley] My butter is probably not soft enough.
-Wait, Jacques has a hack. -Jacques, what is your hack?
Where is the camera? I will put the butter in the oven.
Take it out before it's completely melted and then I hope it work. That's my hack.
[Haley] I did that with my first pack of butter.
[Eman] I'm using a Ziploc bag to drizzle the finishing sauce
on top of the pineapple upside-down cakes.
I'm waiting for those to cool down.
I'm going to make the buttercream.
The base of a good buttercream is powdered sugar and butter and vanilla.
You gotta get that perfect consistency.
And sometimes I even like to do almond extract as well.
[Jacques] Buttercream, we run at least for ten minutes.
If you don't do that,
your buttercream is going to be very yellow and very heavy.
-Too much buttery flavor. -Hmm.
[tense music plays]
I am done with the cookies.
Let those cool off.
Your Easy-Bake Ovens are officially off.
Fifteen minutes left.
I'm gonna add a little bit more caramel so it can show.
Now I just need to finish off the buttercream
and I actually need to get these crème brûlées in the fridge ASAP.
[Eman] Everything is done and ready to go.
-[bell dings] -That's it for Eman.
-Yes! -[Antoni] Done.
I have so much time left over and I didn't know what to do.
So the thing that came to my mind was go grab a snack.
Did she just grab an avocado?
I'm making myself a snack. Who wants some?
[both laugh]
You're kidding.
[Eman] Hot Cheetos.
Avocado and lime juice.
Okay, I... This is...
-This is unprecedented. -[Eman laughs]
I am getting ready to pipe my icing.
I am crunched for time.
This is just getting really stressful.
I'm trying to top these cakes and my hands are shaking.
Oh my goodness.
I'm thinking now what'll save me a little bit of time
is just doing a little swirl on top of the cookie.
[Eman] How is that?
Amazing, huh?
[Antoni] This is brilliant.
Eman is just chilling, eating Cheetos.
I'm feeling the pressure, because I know her dishes were fast.
They're super simple, and the judges are going to love that.
So if she finished so early, does that give her an advantage?
Yes and no.
If you're done super early, hopefully there are some hacks that help justify
why it took less time.
But if there's an element missing,
if they could've been decorated, then it's used against you.
So there is a risk that comes with it.
[tense music plays]
[Haley] I got this, I got this.
Five minutes left, cooks.
So good.
I am melting and caramelizing the sugar, so I get a nice crunchy shell on the top.
I'm gonna put little fruits on top as soon as I get it plated.
Get all the elements on there. Come on.
-You got this. -All right.
These are $75,000 berries right here.
Five, four, three, two, one!
-Done! -[Antoni] Yay!
Done!
[Antoni] Time is up!
So, Eman, you're up first.
-[Eman] Okay. -Talk us through your three desserts.
[Eman] The first tier is baklava bites.
It has a ricotta cardamom filling and some crushed pistachios on top.
I usually pronounce "baklaVAH," you say, "bakLAHva?"
-Baklava, yes. -[Antoni] Baklava.
-I wanna say it right, make you happy. -Baklava.
So your baklava bite, I like that it's actually not too overwhelmingly sweet.
Yes.
It was creamy and decadent.
So I really like it.
Your baklava has a lightness to it.
So when you bite it, it's just like, you know, air.
It's very good. It's a nice bite and it goes so well.
So moving on. Tier two.
Tier two is a pineapple upside-down cake bite
with a drizzle of pineapple sauce on top.
I don't know if it counts as getting actual fruit into your kid,
but it's nice there's fruit in some way, shape or form.
The pineapple is really nice. I love how it moistened the upside-down cupcake.
I like the icing on top. It's not overkill.
I still very much taste the pineapple.
I really enjoyed it.
Eman, I think this is a very good use of a cake mix.
You put the pineapple, cherries upside down.
Suddenly, we are not thinking about the cake mix anymore.
This is your cake. It's very moist. It's actually very pleasant.
-It's not over sweet. It works well. -Yeah.
And I don't know if from scratch I can do a better one.
Okay. And tier three?
Tier three is my brownie cheesecake, which I make for my kids all the time.
I like the flavor of this third dessert.
-But the crust has a hardness to it. -[Eman] Okay.
Something that I like to do when something like that comes out of the oven,
I take cellophane wrap and I put it on top and I let them cool down this way.
So that means the moisture that wants to come out
is going to stay and moist all the crust,
so it's all soft and a little bit gooey.
So good flavor.
-Texture, I'm not crazy for it. -Okay.
I like that you drizzled a little caramel on the harder chocolate crust.
But I would've liked to see a little more of the actual cheesecake to brownie ratio.
-Okay -That said, it was really enjoyable.
Overall, it's a very nice assortment.
-Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. -Thank you.
All right, Haley.
All right.
-[Haley giggles] -[Antoni] Let's start top to bottom.
Okay. So the first tier,
they are mini Oreo cookies and cream
with a buttercream on top.
A perfect little bite.
-Chewing and talking is very difficult. -[Eman] It is.
[Antoni] I love cookies and cream.
There is something very nostalgic and very childlike and very fun about it.
I like the buttercream. I like that there wasn't too much of it,
'cause there already is a lot of nice sweetness. The size is perfect.
It's a great way to start off our journey as we make our way down.
Only critique that I have,
I would've taken them out maybe like a minute sooner.
Just a little crunchy along the edges.
-So, Haley, I agree. -Okay.
This type of cookies need a lot of moisture, a lot of gooeyness.
That's what makes them so good.
And the buttercream didn't run enough in the mixer.
The sugar is not even completely mixed.
You need to let that buttercream really become softer.
Okay. Tier two.
It is a double chocolate chip cupcake with buttercream on top.
I used box cake for the base of it, but I added in a few things,
like sour cream and a boxed chocolate Jell-O mix.
I'm sorry. I heard half of what you said,
because it is so moist.
The sour cream. Yeah.
-Oh my gosh. -[laughs]
There's something deceptively simple-looking about it.
But as soon as you bite into it, it's really complex,
and there's a lot of fascinating things going on.
I love the cake.
-I love moist cake. I love gooey cake. -Who doesn't?
-I love cakes with a lot of flavor. -[Haley] Yes.
That's what I get here. That's excellent.
I love it.
And moving on, tier three.
So tier three is just a classic crème brûlée.
Haley. I think your crème brûlée is well done. It's not separating,
which if it go in an oven a little bit too long or too hot,
it will separate.
That's a great crème brûlée.
-Thank you. -[Antoni] I thought it was really lovely.
A great way to finish off this sugar-carb journey that I just went on.
-Thank you. -Thank you.
Thank you.
At first, in the beginning, I was really intimidated, but getting to know you,
I felt like we have so much in common.
We both have a love for our families and taking care of them and being moms.
I know we're gonna stay in touch.
Yes. Yes.
-Absolutely. [chuckles] -Yes, definitely.
Haley, Eman, thank you for an incredibly delicious day.
Needless to say,
this came down to splitting hairs.
It was an incredibly difficult decision for Jacques and I.
[Jacques] Yes.
Only one of you can be the winner of Easy-Bake Battle today.
You both were amazing,
but the home cook putting $25,000 in their pockets today
is...
[tense music plays]
Congratulations, Eman.
[gasps]
Oh my God.
You deserved it.
Oh my God.
Thank you so much.
It means a lot for me, for my family, 'cause they pushed me to do this.
They really pushed me to do this, 'cause I was not confident in myself.
And they pushed me, and they're gonna be so happy for me.
I won $25,000! Oh my God!
I doubted myself before coming here. I never thought I would win.
Um, but I want my Kurdish women to put themselves out there and try new things.
If I can do it, anybody can do it.
I'm actually shaking right now.
You both did amazing. It was extremely close.
Next time, the buttercream will be better.
[laughter]
Haley, it came down to that
and the simplicity of Eman's cooking.
I really wasn't expecting to get emotional with this, but...
Oh, don't do that. I was fine until you did that. [laughs]
Thank you so much for sharing your stories and your dishes
and all of your wonderful hacks
that I know a lot of people are gonna benefit from.
You're a champion through and through.
Leaving here, I feel really just thankful and happy,
and I've been so blessed
to have this opportunity to be here to share my talents.
But I'm also going home with $50,000 to bring to my family,
so I'm just smiling ear to ear.
I feel so accomplished for everything that I've done.
[Antoni] I am so proud of you both.
But now there's only one thing left for us to do.
-Champagne? -Well, champagne comes next.
I was thinking maybe one of your world-famous chocolate chip cookies.
-How about that? -[Jacques] Okay!
I love that.
I just won the challenge and I won $25,000.
-[Eman's husband] Oh my God! -I know! It's so exciting.
Are you proud of me?
[Eman's husband] Oh God, yes. I was worried about you all day.
[squeals]
[upbeat music plays]