♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ -Today on "America's Test Kitchen," Keith makes Julia Liège waffles, Jack challenges Bridget and Julia to a head to head tasting of boxed brownie mixes, and Erica makes Bridget crepes with berries and apricot beurre monté.

It's all coming up right here on "America's Test Kitchen."

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♪♪ -The Belgian city of Liège, which lies east of Brussels, is known for several things.

It has medieval landmarks.

It has a beautiful opera house.

And it has the most delicious waffles, which are nothing like the waffles I grew up with at the diner.

And Keith is here to tell us more.

-You're right.

There's nothing like American waffles.

Those are light and crispy.

These waffles are rich.

They have a slight chew to them, and they have a lot of sugar and caramelized sugar on the outside.

They're absolutely delicious.

I hope you really like them.

So we're going to start with making our dough.

And that's one of the biggest differences right now, is that we're going to actually make almost like a bread dough rather than a batter.

-Oh, okay.

-And we want to have a lot of gluten in it because we want that kind of nice chewy texture.

So I have 2 cups of bread flour in our mixer bowl.

And to that I'm going to add 1 1/2 tablespoons of sugar and 1 teaspoon of salt.

I'm also going to add 2 teaspoons of instant or rapid rise yeast.

Now, that yeast is going to provide the lift much like a chemical leavener would in an American waffle.

And it's also going to add a ton of flavor to it.

-Mm-hmm.

-So I'm just going to whisk that to make sure that our dry ingredients are incorporated.

So I'm also going to add 12 tablespoons of unsalted butter.

That is going to provide a lot of richness.

I'm also going to add a half cup of warm milk, 1 egg, and a tablespoon of vanilla extract.

Besides the caramelized sugar that will develop later, vanilla is the primary flavor in this.

-It's actually not a lot of sugar in this dough.

-No, but we'll add more sugar later, which you'll see.

That's the best part.

So I'm just going to lock this on to our machine, and I'm going to use a dough hook.

I'm going to mix this on low speed for a minute until everything comes together.

Okay, most of the wet ingredients are mixed into the flour.

So I'm going to turn it up to medium low.

We're going to let that mix for 12 to 15 minutes until it's nice and smooth and elastic.

And it's going to smooth out, and we're going to develop that gluten.

But that's going to take a while because we have a fair amount of butter in here.

Butter is going to work against us when we develop gluten.

It's been 12 minutes.

You can see that it's come together nicely, and it's climbing up that dough hook.

-Mm-hmm.

-It's nice and smooth, and it's elastic.

And we're actually going to let this dough go overnight.

8 to 48 hours.

And we want to build more gluten.

So we've done a pretty good job right here.

But by letting this rest overnight, you can see.

-Ooh, it's really soft, but it doesn't stick.

That's a fun dough.

-It's a fun dough.

Even richer than like a brioche dough... -Yeah.

-...in terms of the amount of fat to flour.

-Mm-hmm.

-So we're going to let this sit.

And what's going to happen during that period is that gluten is going to continue to develop.

It's also going to develop flavor.

That yeast is going to work on those sugars.

They're going to develop gases.

It's going to be great.

-So the longer you let it sit, the more flavor you get.

-Exactly.

Any dough like that, where the yeast is feeding on carbohydrates, they're going to develop flavor.

So I'm just going to take this, put this in our refrigerator.

Our dough has been in the refrigerator for eight hours, and it's had time to relax.

-It is hard as a rock, again, because of all that butter.

-Yeah, it's really, really firm right now.

But that gluten has built up in there.

The flavors have built up in there.

And now I'm just going to take this dough, and I'm going to press it out.

It is cold and quite firm right now.

It's okay if it cracks around the edges.

I just want to press it out.

So that's about an inch thick.

And now it's time to get to my favorite part of this recipe.

And that's the Belgian pearl sugar.

-Whoa!

-Have you ever seen sugar like that before?

-No, I actually haven't.

-Yeah, it looks like little pebbles.

-Uh-huh.

Oh, it's hard.

-It's hard, but they will melt in the dough.

So this is what makes this recipe so special.

Now I'm going to take our pearl sugar, and I'm going to start to sprinkle it on top.

So I'm just going to press this in to our dough.

We're going to incorporate these pearls of sugar into that dough.

And when it bakes, the pearls that are on the outside are going to caramelize and make a nice shell, but also the pieces that are inside, they won't fully melt, they'll stay in there, they'll be small little crunchy bits.

-Mm!

-So it's going to be great.

You're not going to be able to walk into most supermarkets and find this.

This is a specialty ingredient which will probably have to order online.

And you're going to notice that I'm going to have pieces that are falling off the side.

Not a big deal.

-You're making a mess.

But you're telling me it's okay?

-Exactly.

-Okay.

-It's fun to make a mess in the kitchen, right?

So now I'm going to take this and roll it into a cylinder, and a bench scraper is really, really key to this.

So you can take it like that and fold it.

Roll it up like that.

-This is wild, Keith.

If I were to make this for the first time without watching you do this, I would totally think I screwed something up.

-No, you have to trust the process.

Scrape all these little bits in there.

-It's crunchy.

-Yeah, it's crunchy right now.

-[ Laughs ] -That's because all the sugar is in the center of that piece of dough.

So it's just a tunnel of sugar right now.

But I just need to work that into the dough.

You don't have to worry about developing gluten here because that's actually a good thing.

Okay.

I think that is good.

-All right.

So all that sugar has been evenly distributed.

-Yeah, all that sugar is throughout the dough.

And you can see the pieces that are on the outside.

That's okay.

Now, I'm going to take this, and I'm going to roll it into a log, equal diameter.

What we're going to do now is we're going to divide this dough into eight individual waffles.

So I'm going to take this, cut it in half.

Cut each half in half.

Cut that in half again.

So if you want to, you can weigh this out.

If you have a scale, they're about 3 1/2 ounces each.

-Okay.

-And you can kind of eyeball.

If you have one that's a little small, like this guy right here... -You can borrow from the neighbor.

-I can borrow from the neighbor.

They don't have to be all the same size.

So we're going to take these, and you're going to help.

We're going to take these and roll them into a 4-inch cylinder.

It doesn't take that much.

They're pretty close to 4 inches right now.

-Yeah, I guess it is, isn't it?

-Yeah.

Smooth outside, and then all we have to do is press it down into a 2-inch oval.

-Okay.

I'm using a ruler because I've never done this before.

I don't have an eye for it.

All right.

4 inches, and then like that.

-Yeah, it looks good.

-Do we have to worry about the shape at all?

-No.

-Or is it kind of rustico?

-No.

It's going to be rustic.

-Okay.

It's gonna have these kind of nice ragged edges on the outside.

Now, this will continue to puff up as it sits.

-Right.

-But it's going to kind of grow, and you'll have this nice oval shape.

So we're just going to put four of these like that.

Perfect.

-All right.

-It's still pretty cold.

What we want is that we want that yeast to wake back up before we cook it.

So I'm going to put some plastic wrap on it.

We're going to let it sit for one and a half to two hours, just until it comes up to room temperature and they start to get puffy.

We want that yeast to create some gases and make a nice layered waffle.

-Okay.

-It's been an hour and a half, and you can see that they've risen just a little bit.

They don't get too, too puffy, but they're nice and warm.

-Yeah.

-It's time to bake.

Now, we have a Belgian waffle iron that's preheated and ready to go.

But before I bake these, we have one last step.

Now that Belgian sugar that you can see here, it's going to caramelize on that waffle iron and make a nice shell.

But it will only do it in pockets.

So I wanted a nice shell all the way across.

So to do that, I'm going to take these, and I'm going to dip it in some granulated sugar and pat it all the way around just to create that nice caramelized shell.

So I'll just open this up.

We'll lay it in the center like that.

I'll close the lid, and we don't want to press down.

We just want to let gravity work on that.

We're going to bake that for 2 1/2 minutes.

And that's all it takes.

It's going to come out of there looking deep brown, caramelized, and smell delicious.

2 1/2 minutes.

So let's check.

Oh yeah.

-Oh, it smells like browned butter.

-Yeah, you can smell the yeast, but more importantly, you can smell that caramelized sugar.

So I'm going to use two forks because it's pretty hot right now.

We'll let that rest.

Looks great, doesn't it?

-It does.

-So I'm just going to take another one, and then I'm going to go through, and I'm going to cook all eight of our waffles.

Now, we don't want to eat these right away.

[ Laughs ] -Really, really hot.

-Yes.

-Do not do that.

-Blisters.

-But also you want that sugar to set up so you get that shell.

If you ate it right now, it's going to be soft.

Let that sugar set up.

Wait.

Believe me, you want to wait.

-Okay.

-Last waffle should be ready.

Wonderful.

-Oh, I love how it's bubbling.

And you know that bubbling is sugar.

-That molten sugar.

-Oh!

-Now, these are really meant to be eaten out of hand.

No butter, no syrup.

Unlike that American diner waffle, there's butter and syrup, essentially, sweetness already built in.

So we have everything built in our waffle.

So it's a portable snack.

-Oh, look at those bits of sugar.

-Yeah.

And you break it open.

-Mm!

-Mm.

It's warm.

-That's good.

-It's toasty.

-Yeah.

-Caramelized sugar.

-It's bready, but it also -- it's like a cross between a bread and a cookie because it's sweet and you've got that caramelized bits on the outside.

Mm!

-That vanilla also comes out, too, which pairs perfectly with that caramelized sugar.

It's a match made in heaven.

-Keith, thank you for showing me how to make these.

-You're welcome.

I'm glad you enjoyed them.

-Yeah, this was fun.

If you want to make this classic Belgian treat, start by making a rich yeast dough using bread flour and unsalted butter.

Let the dough rest overnight in the refrigerator and work pearl sugar into the dough.

Then coat with granulated sugar before cooking.

From "America's Test Kitchen," a buttery, caramelized treat, Liège waffles.

This is really good.

I would actually make these for, like, Easter.

-Yeah, that would be perfect.

-Mm-hmm.

-True confession.

I like brownie mix.

How about you, Bridget?

-I actually like brownie mix, too.

Anything that gets a brownie onto the plate and in my mouth faster, I'm a big proponent of.

-Okay, Julia?

-[ Laughs ] Yes.

I'm a big proponent of brownie mixes, largely because my 13-year-old makes them for me.

-Oh, even better.

-Oh, yeah, there we go.

Uh-huh.

-You guys can dig in.

I brought you milk because... -Yay!

-...you know, why not?

A couple of things that we learned when we did the tasting.

Big surprise.

Simpler is better.

If the recipe calls for a stand mixer, it's like, okay, there's no point in that, right?

We don't want to have to melt butter or melt chocolate.

So that's -- and good news, our favorite brands were also the easiest to make.

-That's great news.

Yeah.

-Second thing we learned is dutched cocoa is key.

You guys know, the dutching process sort of tames the natural acidity of the cocoa, and you basically get more chocolate flavor from brands made with dutched cocoa.

Some brands had two kinds of dutched cocoa, black cocoa and regular dutched cocoa.

Black cocoa is extra dutched, basically, so you get more intense flavor.

Second thing is, add ons can be a good thing.

So chips, chocolate syrup.

What we didn't like, brands that just had natural cocoa seemed kind of cakey and dry and kind of bland by comparison.

The crackly top you'll notice on some of these, and it's kind of aesthetic, but also gives you that textural contrast between a really fudgy center and a crackly top.

So I want to hear what you think.

You've been eating a lot of brownies.

-I have been.

Well, right off the bat, I like both A and C. They have nice deep chocolate flavors, and the texture is a little on the soft side.

It's very fudgy, which I like.

This one has -- almost tastes like caramel.

It doesn't have a strong chocolate flavor.

It's kind of caramelly.

I don't hate it.

It's not as chocolaty as the others, but it's fine.

And B, I'm not such a huge fan.

It's a little on the dry side, not super chocolaty, and the chips seem a little stale to me.

So not a big fan of B.

-Okay, great.

Thank you, Julia.

Bridget?

-First impressions, this is the best day ever.

-[ Laughs ] -I'm really enjoying myself, and I actually stopped listening to you about half way through it.

I just forgot where I was and kept eating brownies.

Really deep, deep, rich flavor here.

Had to get a bite in there.

This one just feels a little boring.

If I had to pick out a boring brownie, it would be this one.

I actually don't mind the texture of this one, and as Julia said, it did have a little bit of a different flavor.

-Okay.

-Almost a toasted note to it.

-We like these brownies.

That's what I'm hearing.

But what do you like best?

-I like A.

-You like A?

-Yeah.

-Okay.

-It's a very soft texture, and that's not usually my favorite, but I love the flavor of it.

-All right.

And, Bridget?

-My favorite is actually C. A is right behind it.

Right, right behind it.

But I actually like C because it reminds me of kind of like school lunch brownies.

You know, it's a little bit, a little bit maybe less gourmet.

And I'm kind of leaning into that right now.

-You picked our winner, which is a mail order brand, King Arthur.

It has two cocoas, so it has black cocoa and regular Dutch cocoa, and just has an intense chocolate flavor, which is, I think what you were picking up on.

-Mm-hmm.

-B was towards the bottom of the rankings.

This is Annie's.

Brand was made with natural cocoa, and so it just had less chocolate flavor than pretty much everything else on the table.

You picked our supermarket favorite.

-I am every woman.

-[ Laughs ] -You are more than that.

This is the Ghirardelli.

In terms of what you can get in the supermarket, it is the best choice out there.

This has the Dutch cocoa and a packet of chocolate syrup.

-It sure does.

-Yeah.

-[ Laughter ] -At the end... -I'm interested to hear what this one is.

-Betty Crocker.

-Oh.

-And it just -- it didn't have much chocolate flavor, which I think you both picked up on.

It wasn't a bad brownie, but it was kind of like, where's the chocolate?

-Mm-hmm.

-Exactly.

It's great for a bake sale.

-Yeah.

Well... All right, so we've got two winners here.

The favorite mail order brand is the King Arthur.

Julia's favorite.

And the favorite supermarket brand is Bridget's favorite, Ghirardelli.

-The great Julia Child once said, "With enough butter, anything is good."

I'd definitely buy that.

And Erica's here.

She's going to prove it because we're adding butter to just water to make a sauce called beurre monté.

-Yeah, so beurre monté, it's an elegant emulsion of butter and water.

It's a French preparation, and it's an elegant way to elevate just about any dish.

And it's most commonly used in savory applications.

-Right.

-But today, we're going to sweeten it up a bit and make some crepes.

-Well, that makes sense.

You're very sweet.

-Well, thank you.

Let's start with our batter.

So I have 1 cup of flour in my bowl.

And to that I'm going to add a teaspoon of sugar and a 1/2 teaspoon of kosher salt.

-Okay.

-And I'll just whisk that all together.

Now we can move on to wet ingredients.

-Gotcha.

-I've got 3 large eggs.

And to that I'm going to add 1 1/2 cups of milk.

I'm just going to whisk that together just until smooth.

Now I'm going to add half of my wet ingredients into my dry and whisk that until it's smooth.

So adding half at a time is going to ensure that we get a nice smooth, lump free batter.

Nothing worse than chasing lumps.

And to that I'm going to add 2 tablespoons of cooled melted butter and whisk that in.

And finally, the remainder of the wet ingredients.

-Okay.

-All right.

We've got our smooth, lump free batter.

We're ready to start making our crepes.

-Perfect.

-My 12-inch nonstick skillet has been heating over low heat.

-Sure has.

-For the past 10 minutes.

And it has half a teaspoon of oil.

But before we get started, I'm just going to take a paper towel and wipe out the excess oil because we really only need just a thin film of oil around the edges and the bottom of the pan.

-Gotcha.

And this is something like a vegetable oil?

-Exactly.

Now I'm just going to crank my heat up to medium and give it a minute, and it'll be time to start making our crepes.

-Perfect.

-Before we get started, I'm going to make a mini test crepe just to make sure that the pan is at the right temperature.

I'm going to take a teaspoon of batter and place it right in the center of our pan, and let it cook for about 20 seconds.

If it's lightly golden brown, then we know that our temperature is right, but if it's too light or too dark, I'll just adjust the heat and retest accordingly.

-Perfect.

-All right, let's see.

-Oh.

-Perfectly golden brown.

-Yep.

-That's exactly what I'm looking for.

So we're ready to start making our crepes.

-Great.

And will they be larger than that?

-They most certainly will be.

[ Laughs ] -So, I'm using a half cup ladle because it makes for easier portioning, but because we only need a quarter cup of batter for each crepe, I'm actually just going to fill it up about half way.

-Clever.

-So I'm just going to place it in the right hand corner of my pan and immediately tilt and shake, shake, shake to evenly disperse the batter.

-Oh, yeah.

-And we'll know it's ready because the crepe will start to dry out on top.

It'll start to brown and pull away from the edges of the pan.

-Okay.

-It's been about 25 seconds.

-Yeah, you can see that little bit of browning right around the edges there.

-Exactly, so I'm just going to use my spatula to just pull from the sides of the pan and then just use my fingertips and flip.

-Oh, how beautiful.

-Yes.

We're going to let it cook on this side just until it's spotty brown for about 20 seconds.

-Okay.

-It's been 20 seconds.

So now I'm just going to transfer it out on to my wire rack and return my skillet to the stove.

Let it heat up for about 10 seconds, and we'll keep making crepes.

So again, I'm just going to take my batter, place it in the right hand corner of my pan.

Immediately tilt, and shake, shake shake, shake, shake.

And let it cook.

-Okay.

-And as they continue to cook, I'm just going to place them on the wire rack with the others.

-Oh, lovely.

-So we've got all of our crepes ready, and I'm just going to cover them with a plate and set them aside for later.

-Now we're ready to make our beurre monté.

-Okay.

-Beurre monté is a classic French sauce.

It's an emulsion of water and butter.

And it's a way to manipulate the natural emulsion in butter to keep it in its liquid state and make it rich and silky on anything that it goes on.

-You're speaking all the right words.

-All right, so we're starting with a ratio of 3 to 8.

So I have 3 tablespoons of water.

I'm going to add that to my small saucepan.

And bring it up to a simmer over medium high heat.

Our water has come up to a simmer.

So I'm just going to reduce the heat to maintain a very gentle simmer.

And it's time to add in the butter.

So I'm just going to add in one piece of butter.

And whisking constantly, I'm going to whisk it until it melts.

It's going to take about 20 to 30 seconds.

And it's really important to start with cold butter because we want to make sure that it slowly melts in the water.

We're cooking in a small saucepan because we want to slow the rate of evaporation.

If we were to use a larger pan, all the water would evaporate and the sauce would break.

So that butter is melted.

So I'm going to continue to add in the butter a tablespoon at a time.

-Okay.

-Continuing to whisk until I've added 8 tablespoons of butter.

And the constant whisking is important because as I continue to whisk, the fat droplets from the butter are evenly dispersed throughout the water.

And that's what's going to create the emulsion.

So you end up with a sauce that's rich and silky.

And all it is, is just cold butter whisked into gently simmering water until thickened.

It's been about 3 to 4 minutes, and our beurre monté is the consistency of a thin gravy.

-It's beautiful.

-Isn't it?

You can really see how rich and silky it is.

-Oh, my goodness.

-Yes, that looks great.

So now let's just flavor it up a bit.

-Okay.

-I've got 1 1/2 tablespoons of apricot jam, 1 1/2 teaspoons of peach schnapps.

-Yes, please!

-[ Laughs ] 1 teaspoon of lemon juice.

And 1/8 of a teaspoon of kosher salt.

And now I'm just going to whisk that all together.

-Now beurre monté is something that's so versatile.

You can switch up the jam in there.

-Totally.

-A little bit of schnapps.

Or you can make it savory.

Could you use something like a stock instead of water?

-Absolutely.

It would make such a great savory addition.

-Mm.

-Mm.

All right.

That looks great.

So now I'm just going to cover it, and I will move it to our smallest burner and keep it on the lowest possible heat.

Because we're going to keep it warm while we get ready to reheat our crepes.

-Gotcha.

-We're going to reheat them just until they're warmed through, about 30 to 45 seconds.

-All right, our crepes are warmed through, so we are ready to plate.

-Yep, you can feel that a little bit of steam there.

-Mm-hmm.

That's insulated from the second plate there, keeping them nice and warm.

So to arrange them on our platter, we're not going to do a rolls or folds.

What I like to do is actually take them in the center and create beautiful little ruffles on the plate.

And that's going to create lovely little pockets for the beurre monté and for the berries to fall into.

-You're speaking my language.

-Mm.

Good.

[ Laughs ] I think we speak the same language then.

We've got our crepes arranged on our serving platter.

-Lovely.

-So now it's time for some lovely raspberries that I'm just going to sprinkle right on top of the crepes.

And they're room temperature raspberries, just to be consistent to the hot beurre monté that's going to go on top.

We've got our berries.

So now it's time for our beurre monté.

I'm just going to take it, re-whisk it, just to incorporate any butterfat that might have accumulated on the surface.

-Okay.

-Now I'm just going to take my beurre monté and spoon it right over all of our crepes and berries.

-Now, I was looking at some of our other recipes that uses the beurre monté, and there's a gochujang beurre monté with pork tenderloin that looks fantastic, and then a mustard beurre monté with asparagus.

And you can find all of those recipes on our website.

-And now I'm just going to serve up a plate for you and a plate for me.

-All right.

Mm!

[ Laughs ] -Smells good.

-That looks -- We're way past good.

I'm going to tuck right in.

The sauce is where it's at here.

-Mm-hmm.

-Mm!

Mm.

That's a butter sauce right there.

That is a butter sauce.

And if you just melted butter all over this, it would feel greasy.

-Exactly.

-But this feels absolutely luxurious.

And you know I have made beurre monté, almost always been a savory application, so I'm so excited that you showed this to me.

-Oh, well, good.

-It's a whole new world of sauces for me.

Erica, this was scrumptious.

Thank you so much.

-Thank you, Bridget.

-If you want to try this recipe, it starts by creating a smooth crepe batter by adding the wet ingredients in batches.

Then make a beurre monté by slowly whisking cold butter into gently simmering water, and then spoon the sauce over the crepes and finish with fresh berries.

So, from "America's Test Kitchen," crepes with berries and apricot beurre monté.

You can get this recipe and all the recipes from this season, along with product reviews and select episodes, and those are all on our website, AmericasTestKitchen.com/TV.

Now what's next?

Pineapple?

-Ooh, I like the sound of that.

-Visit our website to sign up for our free e-mail newsletter with more revolutionary recipes and the stories behind 25 years of Test Kitchen discoveries, AmericasTestKitchen.com/TV25.

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