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00:36Today on America's Test Kitchen, Alex makes Julia biscuit breakfast sandwiches.
00:42Lon shares techniques to make perfectly brown pancakes.
00:46And Aaron makes Bridget spiced pear, buckwheat, and almond pancakes.
00:51It's all coming up right here on America's Test Kitchen.
01:05Breakfast sandwiches are a choice option for people on the go.
01:08And they can be very easy to make at home if you have a good recipe, which is why Alex
01:13is here.
01:14I love a good breakfast sandwich, but sometimes it can be clunky and messy.
01:18We're going to use a biscuit recipe for our buns that is specifically designed for these sandwiches.
01:23Oh, so they don't fall apart as you eat.
01:25Exactly. It really focuses on the structure without compromising on any texture or flavor.
01:29Oh, great.
01:30So here in the bowl, I have one and two-thirds cup of all-purpose flour.
01:34And to that, I'm going to add one and a half teaspoons of sugar, one and a quarter teaspoon of
01:39baking powder,
01:41a quarter teaspoon of baking soda, and one teaspoon of table salt.
01:47We're going to whisk these all together just to make sure all those ingredients are evenly distributed.
01:52Now let's move on to our wet ingredients.
01:54So I have one cup of buttermilk that's chilled right out of the fridge, and I have five tablespoons of
02:00melted butter that's been cooled slightly, unsalted.
02:04We're going to add our melted butter into our cold buttermilk here.
02:08Mm-hmm.
02:09I'm going to stir this around.
02:10You can see these small clumps start to form in here.
02:13Now, normally when we make biscuits, we work our cold butter into our dry flour and get those pea-sized
02:20pieces.
02:20I'm sure you've done this.
02:21That can be time-consuming and really, really messy.
02:24Yeah, and it makes really flaky biscuits, which tastes good on the side of a bowl of soup, but not
02:28great for a sandwich because it just crumbles apart.
02:30Exactly. So by adding our butter into our cold buttermilk, we get these small pea-sized pieces that emulate when
02:37we work that cold butter into that flour without all the mess.
02:40And this is going to provide a little bit better structure as well.
02:43Now we're going to go ahead and incorporate our wet ingredients into our dry ingredients here.
02:47So I'm going to work this all together.
02:50It's going to turn out to be a pretty wet dough, which is by design.
02:53By working it a little bit extra than we might work standard biscuits, we're going to get a little extra
02:58structure out of these.
03:00We're going to go ahead and add our biscuit dough to an 8x8-inch cake pan that's already been greased.
03:06Now, this is a little bit different here.
03:07Sure is.
03:08We're baking these all together in this pan, and that's going to give it nice crusty edges, which will further
03:13contribute to that structure.
03:14Okay. Square biscuits.
03:16Exactly, which makes for really even sandwiches in the end.
03:19We're going to add it into here.
03:21I'm going to go ahead and press these down.
03:24Mm-hmm.
03:26I want to grease my hands just to make sure they don't stick.
03:28Try to get these into one thin, even layer here.
03:32Get into all those corners.
03:34Now, we don't want one giant biscuit, so I'm going to use our bench scraper to divvy these up.
03:40I want to make sure this is greased as well so it doesn't stick.
03:44So I want to make one cut right down the center here.
03:47Okay.
03:48As even as I can.
03:50I'm going to turn this 90 degrees.
03:53And as even as possible, I'm going to make two equidistant cuts, cutting it into thirds this way so we
04:00end up with six even biscuits.
04:02We're going to pop these in the oven at 450 degrees on the middle rack for 20 minutes until they're
04:07nice and golden brown on the top.
04:09Okay.
04:11Oh, Alex, those smell good.
04:13Oh, they look even better.
04:15Wow.
04:16Mm, delicious.
04:17We're going to let these cool on this rack for five minutes until they're cool enough to handle somewhat.
04:21Now let's focus on our sausages here.
04:24So we're going to use breakfast links for our sandwiches.
04:27So we're going to actually cut these and form them into rectangles.
04:32We're going to start by butterflying these open with a paring knife.
04:36So I'm cutting through the side, but not cutting all the way through.
04:40I want to leave it hinged at the edge there.
04:42Now we're going to take these and invert them into a 12-inch nonstick skillet.
04:47So we're going to take our breakfast sausages and kind of press them down into here.
04:52Aha!
04:53So we're looking for about a 4 1⁄2 by 2 1⁄2 inch rectangle here, which is about the size of
04:59our biscuits.
05:00From here, I'm going to go ahead and peel off the casing.
05:03This is totally optional.
05:05It's just my personal preference.
05:06We're just going to keep going until we have all six of our sausages in our pan.
05:09We're going to get our sausages cooking over a medium-high heat on that first side for 1 to 2
05:15minutes.
05:18Our biscuits should be cool enough to flip now.
05:21So I'm going to invert these onto another wire rack.
05:25Really important to have a rack so they don't steam.
05:28I can kind of smell that caramelization going on, so that's a good indicator.
05:32This is just so cool.
05:35It is.
05:35I've never seen this done.
05:37And it's nice to have a nice thin layer to put on a sandwich.
05:40Absolutely.
05:40It makes it so much more convenient to eat.
05:43I'm going to flip these over.
05:44We want to see some good browning here.
05:48All right.
05:48We're going to let these cook for another 1 to 2 minutes or until they're firm to the touch.
05:52We're going to transfer these over to a plate lined with some paper towel.
05:56I'm going to wipe out our skillet, and then we can start cooking our eggs.
05:59Okay.
05:59We have six eggs that we're going to cook in two batches, so three at a time.
06:04Okay.
06:05And we're opting for more of an omelet here.
06:07It gets really nice, even pieces, and it doesn't crumble apart like scrambled eggs might.
06:13To our three eggs, I'm going to add 1 eighth teaspoon of table salt, and we're going to whisk
06:19these together.
06:22All right.
06:23Perfect.
06:24I'm going to go ahead and add one teaspoon of butter into our skillet here.
06:29I'm going to get our butter melting over a medium-high heat to start.
06:35All right.
06:36Perfect.
06:37We're going to go ahead and add in our eggs.
06:40I'm going to give it a swirl, make it nice and even.
06:43We're going to go ahead and drop our heat to low.
06:46We're going to pop our lid on.
06:48We're going to let this cook for 45 seconds.
06:51Now it's just kind of gently steaming, so it stays nice and tender.
06:55We don't end up with rubbery eggs.
06:57It's been 45 seconds.
06:59I'm going to remove our lid here.
07:01You can see they're just starting to set around the outside.
07:04Exactly.
07:04So we just need to give it one final little swirl.
07:10All right.
07:11I like to scrape down the side a little bit, too, just so we don't end up with that kind
07:16of papery egg consistency.
07:19We're going to put the lid back on, still on low heat, and continue cooking for 45 to 60
07:24seconds until they're just set.
07:26Okay.
07:27It's been about 60 seconds.
07:28We're going to take the lid off here, but it's just set.
07:31It's not hard-cooked or anything.
07:33So here's where things get pretty fun.
07:35There's going to be a little bit of geometry involved here.
07:38Well, you got rectangular sandwiches, and you got a big, round piece of egg.
07:42Exactly.
07:42So I just ran my rubber spatula around just to make sure everything is loosened.
07:47I'm going to take the edges of our egg here and just fold them inward slightly.
07:54Give those a press down.
07:58And we should have about an eight-inch square here.
08:01We're going to fold this square over into a rectangle.
08:05So this should be around eight by four inches.
08:09And you can already see the vision here.
08:11Yep.
08:11So now we're going to take our rectangle and divide this into three even pieces.
08:16It was three eggs, three pieces, so it's about one egg per piece.
08:20We're going to slide this out onto the other side of the plate that our sausages are on.
08:26All right.
08:26Now we're just going to do the same thing with these other three eggs.
08:29Okay.
08:30All right.
08:31We're going to go ahead and transfer all this back into this pan just to keep it warm while we
08:36cut our biscuits.
08:37Lid on?
08:38Perfect.
08:39Okay.
08:40We have six slices of pepper jack cheese.
08:43It's our cheese of choice for these sandwiches.
08:45Works great because it has a little kick of heat and also an awesome melting ability, which is going to
08:50glue everything together.
08:51Mm-hmm.
08:51This recipe is really easy to vary based on your favorite flavors.
08:55You could use a different cheese.
08:56You could throw some herbs into the biscuits.
08:59It's really easy to make it your own.
09:02Exactly.
09:02And breakfast sandwiches are, I mean, it's a very personal thing.
09:04So it's a very great part of this recipe.
09:07We're going to go ahead and cut our biscuits here.
09:10We're going to cut these in half.
09:12We're going to stand them up and saw through the side here.
09:15The nice back and forth motion.
09:18Boy, that biscuit's holding together.
09:20It is, but it's still so tender.
09:22All right.
09:23To each of our biscuits, we're going to add a half slice of our pepper jack.
09:30All right.
09:31We're going to top that off with an egg patty on each.
09:38On top of that, each one gets a sausage.
09:44Our other half of our pepper jack on top of that.
09:48Oh.
09:49This is where that gluing factor comes into place.
09:52Then just to add our lids.
09:54So the other part of our biscuit.
09:56We're going to put these back in the oven, which should still be pretty warm.
09:59When we cook the biscuits in, which was at 450 degrees.
10:02Mm-hmm.
10:02For five minutes or up to 20 minutes, just to melt the cheese.
10:07Oh, that cheese looks good and melted.
10:10Amazing.
10:13Now that is a very good-looking platter of breakfast sandwiches.
10:18Look at how tidy those are.
10:19I almost don't want to eat them because they're almost too perfect, but I can't help it.
10:23I'm diving in.
10:24It looks so good.
10:24Me too.
10:29Mm.
10:32That is a perfect sandwich.
10:33It really is.
10:34The biscuit has really good flavor, it's holding together, but you're right.
10:38It's not chewy or bready.
10:39Mm-hmm.
10:39It still tastes like a biscuit.
10:41The egg is cooked perfectly, not dried out.
10:43The little bit of sausage and the cheese, it's just the right amount.
10:47Not one element overpowers another.
10:49Mm-hmm.
10:50That's what I love about this.
10:51And even with each bite, you can just see the clean bite you get out of it.
10:54Mm-hmm.
10:55Oh, and a good cup of coffee.
10:57You just can't beat this for breakfast.
10:59Oh, man, this is a breakfast of champions.
11:03Alex, thank you for showing me how to make this.
11:05It's my pleasure, Julia.
11:06If you want to make the perfect breakfast sandwich, start by making a wet biscuit dough
11:11and bake it in a square pan.
11:13Cook breakfast sausage and eggs into tidy rectangles, then assemble the sandwiches and warm them in
11:19the oven before serving.
11:20From America's Test Kitchen, the perfect biscuit breakfast sandwich.
11:32Did you know that the difference between textured pancakes and perfectly browned pancakes is the fat?
11:38If you heat the pan with a little oil, I've got one teaspoon here.
11:42You'll see that even as you push it around, that fat, it tends to beat up.
11:48Let's get some batter in there and see what happens.
11:52These spots right here, they were where the oil was.
11:55And this happens because oil conducts heat more slowly than the metal surface of the pan.
11:59If you were to just eat that portion right there, you'd find that it's softer and less flavorful.
12:05But honestly, this issue is mostly cosmetic.
12:07Still, if you want picture-perfect pancakes, here's what you need to do.
12:11You want to wipe out the pan really well so that you can't see the oil anymore.
12:16There's still enough left behind to help with release, but the film is really thin and even, so you won't
12:21get the spotting.
12:27Look at how uniform that is.
12:29It's like something you'd see on a box of pancake mix or a cooking show.
12:37Now, on the other hand, if you're looking for pancakes with texture, you're going to want to use a generous
12:43amount of butter, about half a tablespoon for a 12-inch skillet.
12:49I want to let this melt and spread it out.
12:53And while it's bubbling and sizzling, I want to add the batter.
13:00This pancake, it's gently frying in that butter, and what we get is gorgeous browning, this beautiful nutty flavor from
13:07the butter, and its edges, they're going to be a little crispy, too.
13:11Next time you make pancakes, remember, for something tender and delicate, use as little oil as possible.
13:16And if you're after something well-brown and a little crispy, butter that pan generously.
13:21The choice is yours.
13:29There are a million different ways that you can make pancakes, making them the perfect blank canvas for breakfast.
13:35But lucky for me and you, we get to make buckwheat pancakes with Erin, and you developed this recipe.
13:41I sure did.
13:42And I'm going to teach you how to make these Spice Bear Buckwheat and Almond Pancakes that are naturally gluten
13:47-free and fluffy, but I'm also going to teach you how to make your own buckwheat flour.
13:51That's exciting.
13:52And the reason why we're going to make our own buckwheat flour is because most of the buckwheat flours that
13:58you find in the supermarket tend to be a little bit darker.
14:01It has extra hole in it, which makes it a little bit earthy and, in my opinion, a little bitter.
14:08Okay.
14:08So we're going to take our buckwheat groats and grind them in a blender, and I'm going to show you
14:12the difference.
14:13Great.
14:14That is one cup of buckwheat groats, and these are raw buckwheat groats.
14:18It's not toasted kasha.
14:20We're going to start on low and slowly increase speed until we go full force.
14:24Okay.
14:30Okay.
14:30Our buckwheat flour is ready.
14:32Okay.
14:33I want to compare.
14:34Here's buckwheat flour that we bought in the store compared to the buckwheat flour that we just ground.
14:40It's a subtle difference, but this is definitely lighter.
14:43Yes.
14:44And you will also be able to tell it in flavor.
14:46Okay.
14:47Also, another thing I failed to mention earlier is that, despite its name, it's gluten-free.
14:52Right.
14:52There's no wheat in it.
14:53Right.
14:53It's actually not even a grain.
14:55It's a seed.
14:56It's a pseudo-grain, they call it, but it's a seed.
14:58And it's actually related to rhubarb, even though it doesn't taste anything like it.
15:02Right.
15:02But it's the same family as rhubarb.
15:04Amazing.
15:04Yes.
15:05So now we have one cup of almond flour, super rich, a little bit of texture.
15:11Sure.
15:11And it's also gluten-free.
15:13And then we have one tablespoon of baking powder, what's going to make it really fluffy.
15:18Okay.
15:18And then we have one and a half teaspoons of salt, regular table salt.
15:23And then my favorite part, one teaspoon of ground cinnamon.
15:28And then ginger.
15:30This is three quarter teaspoon of ground ginger.
15:34And then the best part for the pears is cardamom, in my opinion.
15:38So this is half a teaspoon.
15:39Oh, it smells amazing.
15:41Half a teaspoon of ground cardamom.
15:43It's got that beautiful floral scent to it.
15:46Yes.
15:47And so we're just going to give this a quick whisk.
15:49And sometimes almond flour can be a little clumpy.
15:52So I'm actually going to go in with my fingers and break up any lumps that we have.
15:57We're going to move on to our pears.
15:59These pancakes not only have pear topping, but there's pear inside.
16:03We have already peeled this pear, and now I'm just going to grate it in this box grater.
16:08Pear is grated.
16:10Juicy pear.
16:11It's very juicy.
16:11And you see there's quite a bit of juice pooling at the bottom.
16:14I am going to remove some of that, because I don't want the pancakes to be too watery.
16:20Yeah, this was a very juicy pear.
16:22Very juicy pear.
16:22This is three quarters of a cup of grated pear.
16:26Okay.
16:26Next, we're going to separate our eggs.
16:28The easiest way for me is always to just use the shell itself to separate them.
16:33Some people like to use their hands, but I find this easiest.
16:36And we're going to add our yolks directly into our grated pear.
16:41Okay.
16:42And we have our pear, our egg yolks.
16:45We're going to add two-thirds of a cup of milk.
16:48This is whole milk.
16:49We can use dairy-free milk, almond milk, oat milk, if you have a dairy allergy in your family.
16:55Quarter cup of maple syrup.
16:57This is going to make it really crispy on the outside.
17:01And this is two teaspoons of vanilla extract.
17:04I'm going to give it a quick whisk.
17:06Okay.
17:07And we're going to move on to folding the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients.
17:13All right.
17:13So let's move on to our egg whites.
17:16Okay.
17:17We're just whisking these until they're frothy.
17:20And it's just one minute.
17:22I think we're there.
17:24You see how there's some little very soft peaks?
17:28And now we're going to fold these in.
17:30And as the baking powder activates the batter, it gets a little bit more set.
17:36It's a little bit drier than before.
17:38Yeah.
17:38And that's just the baking powder doing its thing.
17:40All right.
17:41And then now adding the whites is going to make it a little bit more spreadable and also fluffier.
17:46Yes.
17:47You can see actually even the color is turning lighter.
17:49Yes.
17:49And you see how it has mousse-like texture.
17:51And we just fold until we don't see any more streaks of egg white.
17:58Before we cook our pancakes, let's just do a test batch.
18:02Okay.
18:02We have nonstick skillet with half a tablespoon of butter melting over medium high heat.
18:08And the thing with pancakes sometimes is like you really have to control the temperature.
18:12Yes.
18:12So they don't burn or they take too long and dry out.
18:15So that's why we're testing one tablespoon just to see where our pan temperature needs to be.
18:21And we're just going to let it cook for about a minute.
18:24Okay, great.
18:25Okay, let's check the bottom.
18:28You see, that's perfect.
18:29It's golden brown.
18:30It had a tiny bit of bubbles.
18:32Yes.
18:32So that's when we know it's ready.
18:34Okay.
18:34So we have our test.
18:36And as you see, the butter has burnt a little bit.
18:38It's a little brown.
18:39So I'm going to wipe the pan.
18:41Our pan is wiped down and we're going to cook the actual pancakes.
18:44Okay.
18:44We're going to add another half a tablespoon of unsalted butter melting over medium heat.
18:50And then we're going to use a quarter cup measuring cup to add three dollops of batter into the pan.
18:59Okay.
19:00And this batter is actually spreading really nicely.
19:03So we're going to cook them for about one to two minutes until we have some bubbles on the surface.
19:09This one's already getting some bubbles here.
19:13And then until it's golden brown like that one.
19:15Okay.
19:16I think they're ready.
19:18We have to lower the heat a little bit.
19:20I'm going to flip them.
19:22There we go.
19:23Oh, beautiful.
19:23Perfect color.
19:26Our pancakes are ready, I think.
19:28Let's check the bottom to make sure that they're also golden brown and delicious.
19:32Oh, yeah.
19:32They are.
19:33We're going to transfer them to this baking sheet with a wire rack.
19:40I see the butter is browning a little bit, so I'm going to wipe the pan lightly.
19:44Okay.
19:45And we're going to add another half tablespoon of butter to the pan.
19:50And then we're going to continue cooking the batter.
19:53Once done, we're going to put this tray in a 200-degree oven just to keep them warm while we
19:58cook our topping.
19:58Great.
20:00Pancakes are in the oven, and we're just going to cook the pear topping.
20:03Okay.
20:03And for that, we have one pear that's already prepped, and we're going to peel the second one.
20:10Okay, we're going to cut it in quarters.
20:16And then core it.
20:20And then we're going to cut each quarter in half again.
20:22So we have eight pieces.
20:24Okay, we have two pears that are peeled, cored, and cut into eight pieces.
20:30Okay.
20:31And we're actually going to caramelize these pears.
20:33Mmm.
20:34And to do that, we're going to melt two tablespoons of butter over medium-high heat.
20:40And then we're going to add two tablespoons of maple syrup.
20:47And then this is just an eighth of a teaspoon of salt.
20:51And we're going to wait for all this to come to, like, a light boil.
20:58We're almost making, like, a little maple syrup butter caramel here.
21:02It smells delicious.
21:03That smells amazing.
21:05So we're going to add our pears.
21:06Okay.
21:07And we're going to cook the pears for about three to four minutes, turning them halfway point until they're light
21:13golden brown.
21:14Okay.
21:15Let's look at these pears.
21:17I'm going to put them, they're lightly caramelized.
21:20Oh, yeah.
21:21There we go.
21:21Perfect.
21:23We're going to keep cooking these for a couple more minutes, and then we're going to bring out the pancakes.
21:26Okay.
21:28Our pears are ready.
21:30They are beautiful.
21:31They smell amazing.
21:33We're going to pour them into a bowl.
21:36And then we're going to pour that bowl directly into my mouth.
21:39Too hot.
21:40A little too hot, yes.
21:42And we have our pancakes.
21:44So you think three pancakes are?
21:46I'm doing whatever you're doing.
21:47Yes.
21:50They're gorgeous.
21:53Top with the caramelized pears.
21:57And then a little bit of toasted almonds, just because you need a little bit of crunch.
22:05And then to finish, we need extra maple syrup.
22:09Yes, we need it.
22:10Don't we?
22:10She said we need it.
22:11We need it.
22:12Oh, yeah, we need it.
22:15You ready to taste?
22:16I just need a moment here.
22:17This is the best-looking breakfast good I think I've ever seen in my life.
22:22I would eat these for breakfast, lunch, and dinner if they look like that.
22:24And they're healthy-ish.
22:26Yeah.
22:26I'd say they're healthy.
22:27I'd say they're healthy.
22:29All right.
22:37The spices?
22:38I didn't even get any of the pear.
22:40The pancake itself, you can eat that alone.
22:44But let's get a little bit of that pear.
22:45Oh, that is so beautiful, that pancake.
22:52The pears, they're just wobbling just a little bit.
22:56They're giving up the ghost completely.
22:59Gorgeous little browning on the outside, buttery on the inside.
23:03And then you pair it with the spiced pancake, those warm spices, the vanilla and the maple syrup in the
23:09pancake.
23:09And there's that texture from the almond flour, the buckwheat flour that we ground, and the almonds also kind of
23:16give it that crunch.
23:18It does not get any better than this.
23:20You are a breakfast genius.
23:21I'm so pleased you like them.
23:22Oh.
23:23If you'd like to make these beautiful pancakes at home, it starts with making your own flour using buckwheat groats.
23:30Add warm spices and grated pear to the batter.
23:33Then after cooking the pancakes, top with a warm caramelized pear and maple topping.
23:37So from America's Test Kitchen, spiced pear, buckwheat, and almond pancakes.
23:42You can get this tremendous recipe and all the recipes from this season, along with product reviews and select episodes.
23:49And you'll find them on our website, americastestkitchen.com slash TV.
23:55All right.
23:55Going in for big thing of pear here.
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