Alejandra: Tonight on "The Great American Recipe"... We're hosting the first-ever "Great American Recipe" bake sale.

Hiya, Ted, if I open up my pastry shop, I'll employ you.

I'll be your sous chef.

Sure.

Chocolate on chocolate on chocolate on chocolate!

Ha ha ha ha!

Khela: Warm chocolate smells so good.

You're working so clean right now.

I'm really making a conscious--I know.

It's so unlike me.

It's like winter snow!

Please be nice, baking gods.

[Theme music playing] Alejandra: This is "The Great American Recipe," a celebration of foods from across the country to around the globe...

I am making bison short rib.

Bison is a traditional Native American food.

Alejandra: steeped in years of tradition... Abbe: Chicken soup is truly Jewish penicillin.

Will cure anything.

[Singers vocalizing] Alejandra: This season, our home cooks from regions all across the country get their chance to share their most treasured recipes.

Ohh!

It tastes like Mom's.

Graham: This shows us what we are all about, "Great American Recipe" highlighting all the diversity.

Who taught you those secrets?

My mom.

I love that.

Our food memories is how we keep it going.

How we're talking about the people we love is so important.

Maria: Thanks, guys.

Alejandra: After 8 weeks of challenges celebrating the heart of American home cooking... Whoo!

Whoo!

one home cook will be named... Wow!

the winner.

Welcome back to "The Great American Recipe."

♪ [Theme music playing] [Indistinct chatter] Leanna: Last week, I got a little bit of a confidence boost.

Tiffany: There can only be one winner.

Leanna.

Well, that's a complete 180.

[Laughter] Leanna, voice-over: But I know I have what it takes to win.

Relle: This week, I'm feeling not so great.

Last round was tough.

Relle, your misoyaki salmon with edamame was very ambitious with the amount of time you had.

But I want to take what they said as constructive criticism and use it to better myself as a home cook.

Hello!

Hi!

Welcome back, cooks, to another week of "The Great American Recipe."

Let's say hello again to our judges.

Leah Cohen... Hey, everyone.

Graham Elliot... Aloha, everyone.

and Tiffany Derry.

Hey, y'all.

Good to see you.

We're so happy to have you back to share more of your treasured recipes with us.

Last week, you shared some of the most comforting and heartwarming home-cooked meals we've ever had.

So, who's ready to find out what you'll be cooking this week?

Let's do it.

Woman: Yeah.

[Laughter] Alejandra: So, this week's theme is all about those portable portions you cook to keep us going during the rush of life.

In this round, you'll have 60 minutes to plate a flavorful dish that can be enjoyed on the go.

As always, your dishes will be judged on taste, execution, presentation, and how well your dish delivers on the theme.

Every dish you prepare is another opportunity to get one step closer to the finale.

The 3 home cooks with the overall most successful recipes will go on to compete for the grand prize-- having one of your recipes featured on the cover of the "Great American Recipe" cookbook.

You guys ready to cook?

Cooks: Yeah.

Alejandra: Great, because your 60 minutes starts now.

♪ I'm ready to be the comeback kid this week.

I know without a doubt I'm making canned ham musubi.

A musubi is a rice seaweed wrap.

The most common one in Hawaii is made with canned ham.

This is something that anybody in Hawaii, you ask them about, they know what it is.

I pack it for my kids for lunch and especially something we pack to go to the beach.

Musubi is ubiquitous with Hawaii.

It's kind of plain and simple.

I'm making it a little bit more fancy.

I'm katsu styling it, so, flour, egg, panko to dredge it.

That'll give it a little bit of a "zhuzh up" that hopefully the judges will appreciate.

[Sizzling] Hoping for the best.

All right, Le.

You got this.

When I think "grab-and-go," my mind immediately goes to, like, sandwiches and chips, things that are just really portable.

For this round, I'm making a fried fish sandwich with Bajan peppa sauce and tostones.

We're gonna get in some smoked packed reaper.

I'm very busy.

I work full time.

My husband works full time.

My son plays 3 sports.

I'm often in a time crunch to get dinner on the table, so, this is something that I turn to when I've just gotta do something fast that's filling and delicious.

So, today, I am working with catfish.

It's kind of an ode to my time in the South.

So, it's a little mashup of my Caribbean heritage with my Southern living.

I'm not looking to do a deep fry.

I just want a little bit of a crisp to add a little bit of texture to the sandwich.

Now we're gonna start on tostones.

Tostones, it's kind of like a play on chips, but not exactly.

I'm a mom, right?

I want something that's maybe a little bit more healthy than a chip.

So, these are actually plantains, part of the banana family.

When they're in this form, they don't have as much of the sugars inside, so, it's not going to be sweet at all.

♪ Mm-hmm ♪ Tiffany, what are you hoping to see from these cooks?

At the end of the day, when I'm on the run, I just need to make sure that it tastes really good to me and I feel satisfied when I eat it.

Leah: For me, it's all about, like, ease of eating and for it to be really portable, you know?

I think that's really important.

♪ Salmah: Ha ha.

The fan is blowing my spices.

I am making fry bake and pink salmon.

That is a go-to meal for my kids at home.

Bake is something that is quintessential grab-and-go.

Whenever you go to Queens, especially like in Richmond Hill, there are roti shops lined up and down the avenue.

So, bake is a fried puff dough.

It's hollow in the middle.

It has a crispy exterior.

And then you can slice it open and pretty much stuff it with anything.

While my dough's resting, I am stewing my salmon.

To go with the fry bake, I make pink salmon, and I'm using canned pink salmon with tomato, culantro, and Wiri Wiri pepper.

I'm just pretending like I'm cooking as if I'm at home.

That's all--that's been my mindset.

Ted: Is it gonna be like hot-hot, like how you eat it in your house, where it's, like, scalding hot in your hand?

That's really good.

Thank you.

I am definitely taking into account all of the judging and the comments, especially on the seasoning and tasting.

For this round, I'm making a gyro pita.

In Greece, this is truly grab-and-go.

We're gonna mix up all these dry spices.

For my spice blend, for my meat mixture, I go to a very traditional Greek spice mix.

Greek oregano, garlic powder, brown cumin, salt, and pepper.

Clean hands.

We are going to mix this up.

I'm using ground lamb.

I've got that meat seasoned and it's gonna be different 'cause I'm gonna form that meat onto some metal skewers.

I've never made them kebab-style like this before, so, I like trying new things and what better place to give it a try than here with all my fellow home cooks?

45 minutes left.

These babies are big.

I'm like a soccer mom extraordinaire, and we are always on the go.

So, for this round, I know what to do.

I'm making a wrap with citrus maple glaze pork steak with kohlrabi and fennel.

I always have big proteins left in the fridge, and then I love salads of all kinds, so, I have tons of salad greens, and I try to sneak those in any time I can, so, I'm combining the two, putting them in a wrap, and anytime my hubs or the youngest go to coach or get back from coaching, it's a easy pick-and-go for wherever they need to go.

There's these big, beautiful pork steaks and I'm like, "Holy cow!"

Actually, "Holy pig."

Ha ha ha!

[Sizzling] These are gonna take forever to cook, so, I'm worried about time a-gain.

[Laughs] Giving it up to the kitchen gods.

[Laughs] ♪ Brad: If you go to, like, a outdoor market in Israel, this is kind of a street food, something you'll, like, kind of take on the go.

For this round, I'm making a schnitzel sandwich with fried eggplant with hummus and matbucha in a brioche.

Matbucha is basically, like, a spicy condiment with garlic, pepper, and tomato sauce.

It's usually, like, on a sandwich or things like that.

My hummus is made with chickpeas, tahini, parsley just for some color, lemon, and some oil.

[Blender whirring] Growing up, like, if we were ever traveling or taking a road trip, this would be, like, what we would eat, like, on the car ride or on the plane, and it's something that's, like, pretty traditional to eat, and on Fridays before Shabbat, it's kind of a customary thing.

[Sizzling] There is a lot of components to this dish.

So, I mean, everything does take time.

But I think it's important to, like, not only share the traditional food, but also kind of like share the way it's traditionally served and enjoyed.

30 minutes, everybody!

30?

Do it, Brad.

Do it!

I am making breakfast burrito and I am making Mexican pickled vegetables.

Living in Colorado, you can go anywhere and buy a breakfast burrito.

Breakfast burritos are just a staple.

They're good, solid food.

So, I make my breakfast burrito with cheese, eggs, and potatoes.

Oh, my kids love breakfast burritos.

Ever since my kids were wee ones and were heading up to the ski slopes, I've been making breakfast burritos.

Leah: Abbe, I'm coming for ya.

Breakfast burritos.

OK. Yeah.

It was a staple in my house with my twins Alex and Zoe.

They're 32 now but they're still my kids-- Yes, always.

and they come home, and we still have breakfast burritos waiting for 'em.

And are using flour tortillas, right?

Flour tortilla.

OK, and are these pickled jalapenos?

I put a few pickled jalapenos in the Mexican pickled vegetables.

Great.

Since it's a quick pickle, more vinegar, more salt, more of everything.

Make it very acidic because you want to balance out all the cheese and all of that so it's a cohesive dish, right?

Well, thank you, Abbe.

Good luck.

♪ Got the garlic, onions, basil, rosemary, lemon zest.

That looks good.

It's been interesting trying to tell the story of myself through this food.

I think I've been focusing on the story of Native people but really focusing on who I am as Maria.

So, today, I'm making bison meatball salad.

I definitely try to do salads all the time, and this is one of those meals that you can make on a Sunday night and then eat throughout the week.

So, I've been making this recipe for at least the last couple of years.

In grad school, you're away from the house for 12, 13 hours a day, and so, I would make this, throw it in my backpack in a little container, and then whenever I would get a break, I'd eat it.

Of course, instead of doing beef, I'm gonna do bison.

I like using bison because it's a traditional Native food but it does have its own challenges, especially with getting dried out.

[Food processor whirring] So, right now, I'm making my own breadcrumbs to go into the meatballs.

I found that that's what can elevate this dish, and I know that's what the judges are looking for, is, like, elevating it, taking it to that next flavor level, and that adds a lot of dimension.

Ooh.

OK. Meatballs are in the oven.

[Sizzling] You gotta start on pepper sauce.

OK. OK. Leanna!

Yes, ma'am.

What kind of peppers or chiles are you using over there?

I'm using Scotch bonnet peppers.

I am making Bajan peppa sauce.

It's mustard-based.

It's very spicy.

It's got vinegar and parsley and onion and white pepper and black pepper.

Just all kinds of things to make it delicious and extra spicy!

Both of my parents, being from Barbados, we always had Bajan peppa sauce, so, that is definitely something that's a part of my childhood.

[Whirring] I think it's important to highlight some of those amazing dishes that I learned from my mom and my grandma, so, I am not worried about spice this time.

Tiffany: I know quite a bit about jerk as well, and I'm not getting that flavor throughout the dish.

I would love to have that come and be on the forefront.

Like, oh, bring that flavor.

I'm gonna make the sauce the way that I make it at home.

Hoo!

Ha ha!

That's peppa sauce, all right.

Whoo!

[Sizzling] That one's puffed up nicely.

Really hoping that it's good.

I'm frying my bake, and, you know, I have a few off to the side that I've already fried.

Then I'm going to add the salmon inside.

When you do buy bake from the roti shops, it's always wrapped in parchment paper.

So, if I'm thinking of grab-and-go, I am going to wrap this sandwich in parchment paper.

♪ Ted: Now they are all on.

Ted, did you try one of those yet?

Make sure you cook a little bit so you can check your seasoning.

I'm making a couple extra with it to try it first.

I tasted the seasoning blend beforehand, though.

Beautiful.

Oh, yeah.

That's-- that's the right flavor and the right char.

That's perfect.

[Sizzling] All right, musubis.

Rice is super sticky.

This is a mold that we use to shape it, so, that goes down first.

When I'm making the musubis, I feel good.

This feels like home.

This feels like my own kitchen.

It's no rush, it's no stress.

Lift it up and--voila!

Best grab-and-go ever.

Ooh-ooh.

10 minutes, you guys.

You have 10 minutes left.

Sheet pan balancing on top of the pot!

Hey, Brad, take a second.

Organize your station a little bit.

No cooking on the floor, please.

OK. Brad, voice-over: I think I'm a pretty messy cook.

I'm not good at, like, cleaning up as I go.

It's just, like, not necessarily in my nature to be neat and tidy.

Now I'm worried--am I gonna get disqualified for, like, serving food from the floor?

Take a second.

You'll be so much better for it.

OK. Whew.

Almost forgot these guys.

I just--my brain is spinning out of control, and I'm thinking, "Oh, my goodness.

I don't have enough salad greens."

And this is supposed to be a very veggie dish.

But I know my flavors are good and I know the judges will like it.

I'm gonna be down to the wire again.

I can't believe it.

Hoo-hoo-hoo.

30 seconds, everyone!

♪ Alejandra: 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.

Hands up!

Good job!

[Cheering and applause] That looks amazing.

[Birds chirping] Alejandra: We gave you 60 minutes to create a dish that's yummy and full of flavor, yet can be easily enjoyed on the go.

Let's see what each one of you came up with.

Abbe, come and join us.

Abbe: I made a breakfast burrito with some pickled Mexican vegetables.

During ski season, my family never missed a day, so, we needed a real grab-and-go.

Alejandra: Ha ha ha!

Graham: This is beautiful.

You can see it's just chock-full.

The filling-to-tortilla ratio is awesome.

That's something that I'm always nervous about.

You also have these beautiful, colorful pickles that actually enhance the flavor and really go nicely with the breakfast burrito.

Tiffany: Can we talk about grab-and-go?

This right here is so good, and this fits the theme.

Thank you.

Come on up, Maria.

Maria: I made a bison meatball salad with kale, romaine, and basil.

Based on the theme of grab-and-go, a salad makes a lot of sense.

To be able to have that in there, whether it's already tossed and dressed or the dressing's on the side, it's very convenient to grab.

Everybody's taking one to work.

Popped open the lid and gone at it.

I've never really seen meatballs in salad, but I'm totally open to anything.

For me, the meatball's just a little bit dry.

The flavor's great.

It's there.

I would've cooked it a little bit less.

Got it.

Salmah, come and join us.

Salmah: I made fry bake and pink salmon.

Fry bake is the quintessential grab-and-go for Guyanese, something that you could eat for breakfast, lunch, or dinner.

Tiffany: Salmah, this is a dish that I know you've made so many times because, obviously, we can tell.

When it comes to presentation, I think that it is a little brown.

You know, we have the brown paper, we have the brown fry bread.

Then you have sort of this brownish color filling on the inside.

But I'll just be honest.

I'm not really that concerned about what it looks like once you bite into it, because the flavor is delicious.

The seasoning is spot on.

You get a little bit of the sweetness from the bread, but it's crispy on the outside.

Very, very luscious on the inside.

It's a very well-executed dish that I would be happy to have any day.

Thank you.

As we said, sandwiches, great grab-and-go idea.

I think what makes yours really successful is the bread itself, right?

The texture of the bread, it kind of holds everything in there, and even though the salmon is wet, it kind of absorbs it but it doesn't get soggy.

Thank you.

Relle, please join us.

Relle: I made canned ham katsu-style musubi.

Musubis are ubiquitous to Hawaii.

It's everywhere.

Mom-and-pop shops.

Gas stations.

You make 'em at home, so, it's totally grab-and-go.

OK, taste-wise, this is great.

You know, the symmetry.

Even the breading on the outside.

It's really beautiful.

Canned ham is elevated.

It's showcased.

This is absolutely Hawaii on a plate, and it's a super-smart idea.

Leah: You have the perfect amount of rice to canned ham and it's not falling apart.

It is very easy to eat.

No mess.

No fuss.

I love that.

Mahalo.

Ted, please join us.

Ted: I made a gyro pita.

This is my grab-and-go dish because when I think of grab-and-go, I think of what can you either eat in the car as a passenger or eat in the car as a driver?

I love how vibrant this dish is, and I think everything is seasoned very well.

I mean, you spiced, you seasoned.

I don't think we're gonna ever have to tell you that again.

[Laughs] Thank you.

Leanna, what did you make for this grab-and-go round?

So, today, I made for you a fried catfish sandwich with Bajan peppa sauce and tostones.

Friday nights are fish nights in our house, and so, I took it back to my childhood grab-and-go.

Graham: Leanna, the sauce is amazing.

The tostones are beautiful in the color and the texture.

They've been cooked perfectly.

When I look at the sandwich and the build on it, it eats really nicely because of the softness of the bread and the fillings in there, but I think that you could've found a way to get a little more texture by either toasting the bun or getting a little more crispness on the catfish itself.

Leanna, this is a full meal on the go.

The best part of this whole dish to me is this sauce that should be bottled.

It is spicy.

It is delicious.

The flavors are there.

Thank you, Chef.

Khela, please come up.

Khela: I made citrus maple glazed pork steak with kohlrabi and fennel.

My husband and my youngest coach soccer at night, and I always have leftover proteins, because they're big eaters, and I always have salad 'cause I work from home a lot.

So, throw that together, maybe put a little spread, put it in something, and send 'em out the door.

Khela, the theme.

Grab-and-go.

Like the young folks say, you understood the assignment.

[Laughter] You know, I think that this is a really nice grab-and-go idea and the pork was cooked well.

I just feel like it skimped on the salad, right?

Ha.

I want it stuffed with lettuce and I want it to be plump and juicy and I want every bite to be layered, right?

The dressing that's inside is the right amount, but there's no salad to go with it.

Thank you.

Brad, come join us.

Brad: I made a schnitzel sandwich with fried eggplant, hummus, and matbucha.

This is a grab-and-go in Israel and it kind of registered to, like, how I grew up.

Like, you know, because of kosher, we'd always, like, kind of pack our own food, and it was always a schnitzel sandwich.

I think when we think of grab-and-go, you know, a sandwich is definitely a dish that comes to the top of the mind, and I think this is a beautiful sandwich.

The flavor is there.

You brought it when it comes to flavor and with the theme.

Thank you.

Brad, this is definitely a showstopper.

But I can't get past what was happening over there in the station, from running out of space because you had so many things out to cooking on the floor.

I wouldn't want to walk into anybody's house, I don't care who it is, and see them doing that.

It's funny--before, my mom was like, "Keep your stuff clean."

She knows I'm just so chaotic.

I'm a little bit embarrassed by, like, the situation with cooking on the floor.

I just gotta be more conscious, like, in future cooks to be a little bit more tidy.

Alejandra: Thank you so much, Brad.

Thank you guys.

Alejandra: In this last round, we gave you just 60 minutes to prepare an on-the-go dish that can be enjoyed no matter where you are.

Judges, whose recipes packed the most punch this round?

Our first favorite dish of the round is... Abbe and your egg burrito.

[Cheering and applause] Leah: It was so comforting, it was so warm and cozy, and it was really such a great representation of what the theme of this challenge was.

And the way you rolled the burrito and every bite had a little bit of everything, it was really great.

I feel great.

Everyone loves to win.

Our second favorite dish is... Salmah.

[Cheering and applause] Good job.

Your fry bread with that tinned salmon-- delicious representation of you.

Totally stayed true to the theme.

Grab-and-go.

Easy to eat.

It was spot on.

Great job.

Thank you.

I can't even put into words the joy, like, being on top with bake and pink salmon.

That's authentic Guyanese cuisine.

So, round two, let's go.

Good job, cooks.

I'm excited to see you apply what you've learned in the next round.

♪ In the last round, we asked you to share a quickly- prepared recipe that can be enjoyed on the go.

For your second round, we're hosting the first-ever "Great American Recipe" bake sale.

OK. [Laughter] I love it!

That's my language.

Alejandra: So, today, you'll have 90 minutes to create a signature treat for the judges.

Tiffany: One of the reasons I love the bake sale is because there's so many variations of what you can do, whether it's zucchini bread to my specific favorite, which is pecan candy.

Some people call it pralines and my grandmother taught us all how to make it, and it was fun as a child because I could eat as much of it as I wanted, when I helped in the kitchen.

Alejandra: Bakers, are you ready?

Cooks: Yeah.

Leanna: Let's go.

Alejandra: Your 90 minutes starts now.

The cooks have 90 minutes to bake us a tasty treat for a bake sale.

Do you think any of them have a particular advantage?

Some of them have already done a little bit of baking.

Graham: Yeah.

Baking is recipe-focused.

It's like chemistry.

So, it'll be interesting to see, you know, somebody like Brad or Relle that have baked already, and if they're gonna have that advantage.

I actually really love baking, so, this is--this is nice.

[Whirring] I am much more confident baking than I am cooking.

Get off.

And I'm excited to be able to share some of my sweet treats from Hawaii.

So, I'm making manju.

Manju is actually a Japanese pastry.

Normally, it's steamed, but Hawaii style, we do, like, a flaky pie crust that is actually baked.

I'm gonna serve it two ways-- traditional Japanese style adzuki, or anko, which is a sweet red bean paste, and then a more tropical flavor with some sweet coconut filling.

Looks good.

We're just gonna cook down this coconut until it thickens.

I love to bake.

I grew up baking with my mom, so, this is something that I get to pay homage to her.

She raised me as a single mom, that's no easy feat, and she just never complained about anything.

She was always so thankful and so happy and I want to be just like her, you know, and I want to make sure I make my mom proud.

Hello, hello.

How's it going?

OK.

So, who do you think of when you make this dish?

My mom.

Growing up, I played sports all the time.

We did bake sales all the time and she was the resident team mom baker.

So, it was always... Are you the team mom baker now?

I am.

My kids play sports and I'm team mom, and, yes, fundraising is a part of life in Hawaii.

It's that special touch just to let them know that you love them.

Good luck.

Mahalo.

[Whirring] So cool.

That's awesome.

For the bake sale, I'll be making red corn cookies, two ways with a lemon lavender glaze... Mmm!

That tastes good.

and a hazelnut brittle.

I want to cream the butter with the sugar, get that going in the stand mixer.

I'm using Native ingredients like parched heirloom red cornmeal and corn polenta.

These are gonna be kind of like a salty and earthy cookie.

If I'm gonna win in this, the way I wanna win is by doing Indigenous food really, really well.

So, that's my strategy.

Tiffany: Hello, Maria.

Maria: Hi there.

Oh, we got some things out.

Yeah.

Yeah.

"Parched pima polenta."

It's pretty coarse.

And this is the one that's been roasted already.

Yes.

OK.

Adds a tiny bit of crunch.

We are always excited when you're cooking something, because we feel like you're gonna educate us about sort of how you grew up, Native ingredients and things that we aren't familiar with, so, I'm excited to give this a try.

Yeah.

Thank you!

All right.

Bring it.

All right!

All about the measuring cups today.

Salmah, voice-over: I am making pine tart and cheese roll, which is a pastry stuffed with two different fillings.

One is a cheese filling and the other is a pineapple filling that we call pine jam.

Pine tart and cheese roll is amongst some of the legendary pastries of Guyana.

And while Guyana's cuisine is not always known for its sweets, I mean, we have just delectable pastries, and pine tart and cheese roll rank among the highest.

I've got my pine jam going.

That's gonna take some time to stew and cook down.

Working on my pastry because I need to get this into the fridge just so it can start to firm and chill.

So, I've got one pastry dough for the cheese roll, one for the pine tart.

So, my mom is quite the, you know, baker.

She is a pastry queen.

Growing up, our school would have these yearly tea parties, and pine tart and cheese rolls were always requested.

Even when we graduated from the school, she was still doing it.

My dough is good.

We can put you off to chill.

Let's get your little pieces in there.

Come on, come on.

This is something that I hope I could actually do.

I'm definitely not a baker.

Abbe, this is such a disaster.

Yours a disaster, too?

Not as bad as my disaster.

Brad, voice-over: This challenge is giving me uncertainty.

That being said, of all the desserts I could choose, I think this one's, like relatively foolproof.

I'm making knafeh, which is a Middle Eastern cheese pastry.

I've made this a couple times before.

It's always come out very good.

It's shredded phyllo dough with cheese in the center and then topped with a syrup.

Usually, it's actually served, like, in a more of a cake-like form, but I'm making them to be more bake sale-y in a--little muffins.

First order of business for this dish is I want to get the shredded phyllo into each muffin tin.

And then the next thing, is, like, make the ricotta-mozzarella mixture.

So, knafeh is the name of the stringy phyllo dough itself.

Something that we ate growing up.

So, it was kind of like our once-a-year treat.

The idea that this Middle Eastern food could be on the cover of the "Great American Recipe" cookbook is wild and, like, such a cool, exciting opportunity, and hopefully it will make my parents proud and my family proud.

Let's get these sandwich cookies in here.

Ted, voice-over: I love to bake.

This is a recipe that reminds me of my mom.

[Whirring] My mom was a chocolate lover and this was one of those things.

Triple chocolate.

You can't go wrong.

I am making a triple chocolate cheesecake with a chocolate sandwich cookie base and a chocolate ganache topping.

I start with the cream cheese filling and pour the chocolate in.

Take the handheld immersion blender and I start hitting this mixture because it's gonna be nice, airy, and a mousse-type texture.

All right.

That is nice and creamy.

I am very familiar with bake sales.

In the Greek community growing up, you always had bake sales going on at church.

So, my mom was always making something for a bake sale.

These are one of my favorite go-tos.

Little bit different than normal, so, super pumped for 'em.

Good cooking.

Good food.

Everything, you have to take it in stride.

Ha ha!

Abbe, voice-over: I love this challenge.

I love to bake, so, I don't need an excuse to bake.

I am making coconut macaroons.

I make it every year at Passover.

I make a whole variety of macaroons.

Macarons are not macaroons.

Macarons are a French cookie with a filling inside, not a macaroon.

A macaroon is really flourless coconut cookies, and there's a lot of ways to make them.

I'm doing a more traditional Jewish macaroon that will be filled with apricot jam, and then I'll give it a little dark coating of dark chocolate.

And my other variety will be a piña colada variety with pineapple, rum, and white chocolate, and a few macadamia nuts.

The trickiest thing about making macaroons is pressing the mixture into your hands and forming them into balls.

This counter is so tall for me.

Ha ha!

Many moons ago, there were always bake sales at our kids' school, and if school's starting back, even though my kids are grown, I feel the urge to bake.

I think these are done.

So, it's always kind of fun.

I love to bake.

45 minutes left.

Wait till I get a little bit of mixed essence in there.

Boy!

I'm more of the buyer-supporter for the bake sale.

The times that I do bake are usually for, like, holidays and events.

So, today, I am going to be making a rum and raisin bread pudding.

I'm using challah bread to make the bread pudding.

So, I think the thing that's gonna stand out about mine is, number one, the fact that I'm using challah and the richness that this type of bread adds, and then I'm putting in some, you know, mixed essence, the fresh vanilla bean, and then the big one is going to be the rum cream sauce.

Since it's adults, we can add a little bit of alcohol to the mix.

Wouldn't serve this to the kiddies, necessarily.

My granddad, he was actually the baker.

He was a sailor, so, on the ship with the other sailors, he was often the one baking, making bread or sweet things, like coconut bread or coconut turnovers.

Those kinds of things.

And so, that's where my mom actually learned to make a lot of those things, was from my granddad.

That's definitely something I got from my granddad through my mom.

I'm getting going.

Trying to do the best I can.

Chocolate makes me happy.

Khela, voice-over: This round two strikes fear in my heart.

I'm a terrible baker.

I'm making chocolate fudgy brownies with ganache.

First step is to get your chocolate ready for the brownies.

Best freakin' smell.

[Inhales deeply] Warm chocolate smells so good.

So, I don't bake, but I can eat.

[Laughs] And who doesn't love brownies?

Do you want to taste it, baby girl?

Sure.

I'm just gonna get to all, like, most of the brown bits or dry bits or-- Yeah.

That's gonna be good.

Chocolate on chocolate on chocolate on chocolate!

Ha ha!

I am not a baker, but the competitive part of me is like, "Can you just be on top, doggone it?"

I don't do a lot of things for myself, so, I want to win it for me.

2, 4, 6, 8, 9.

One more to...

Sorry.

I'm not good at math, you all.

Please be nice, baking gods, or whoever.

Now I'm ready to assemble the manju.

Put some chocolate.

I figured that would go well with coconut.

I'm looking good.

Just really worried that this needs to be done in time.

Here we go.

All right, Brad.

Hello.

Tell me about this knafeh.

You're--you're working so clean right now.

I want to call you Bradley.

I know.

It's so unlike me.

So, shredded phyllo on top and bottom.

Yup.

This is, like, an orange syrup.

Mm-hmm.

And then what's in the middle?

It's cheese.

So, kind of has, like, the sweet-savory, the kind of thing going on.

OK. And then I see toasted pistachio.

So, I'm gonna finish it with toasted pistachio, some rose petals, and some fennel pollen.

Oh, wow.

Fennel pollen.

That's--that's interesting.

We don't see that a lot.

You know, I don't bake a lot, but when I do, it's like, always use it.

All right.

Cool.

We'll see.

Thank you very much.

I appreciate it.

Thank you.

Whoo.

These are slippery little guys.

Is this... Pineapple.

Mm.

Oh.

That with the lime zest is gonna be really good.

Like, just the right amount.

I like that a lot.

Abbe, voice-over: I love the piña colada macaroons.

You know, just put me on the beach and I'd be happy.

And I think it's one flavor you don't often find in a macaroon variety.

I know the judges will like it.

Guys, 20 minutes.

20 minutes.

Ooh, that alcohol needs a cook-out.

[Coughs] Rum is such an important part of this bread pudding.

I want the rum sauce to taste like rum, but I don't want the judges to be drunk.

Just try a little bit.

Oh, the al--ooh.

[Laughs] That was a shot.

Get the party started.

Once it cooks down, it'll be fine.

But yeah, I definitely gotta cook out some of that alcohol.

[Laughs] Let's check these.

There's no jiggle, which is good.

Oh, just a few more minutes.

If you need help with anything, 'cause I've got 5 minutes.

I do, actually.

We're baking.

We're not cooking.

And I have some downtime while my cheesecakes are in the oven.

Can you just keep an eye on that so that it won't burn?

Ted, voice-over: It's actually fun to kind of help Salmah out.

I'm, like, trying to get at least my cheese rolls in the oven.

If I open up my pastry shop, I'll employ you.

I'll be your sous chef.

Sure.

Ted: 15 minutes, everybody.

Leanna: Mm-hmm.

It's like winter snow!

These ended up frickin' huge.

Maria, voice-over: I used an ice cream scoop to shape out the cookies.

I'm realizing my mistake of the big ice cream scoop.

Oh, my God.

The cookies in the oven are expanding and they're getting huge and there's no way to serve the judges cookies that are as big as my face.

Is a cookie still a cookie if it's cut?

I have forms!

I can help!

I can help!

I can help!

I got forms!

What?

Oh, my God!

Ha ha ha!

The cookie disaster has been averted.

You saved my bacon!

Oh, my God.

Now it's just about dressing up the cookies.

I'm going to top half with my lemon lavender icing and the rest with the hazelnut brittle.

OK. Two minutes left, everyone!

Two minutes.

Salmah: I'm not feeling too good about my cheese rolls.

The cheese roll is oozing out a little bit.

A lot of the filling came out in the oven, so, I'm just gonna take it off from there and let it firm up more but without it being, like, soggy from the paste that fell out.

I'm hoping that it won't hurt me.

I'm just very, very nervous this round.

Woman: I smell that chocolate, Khela.

I know.

Isn't it divine?

I love ganache.

Alejandra: 10!

9!

8!

7!

6!

5!

4!

3!

2!

1!

Time's up!

[Cheering and applause] Yay!

Whoo!

For this second round, we asked you to serve up your best bake sale goodies.

Let's see what each one of you came up with.

Leanna, please come join us.

Leanna: I made a rum and raisin bread pudding.

Since we're all adults here, I decided to make an adult version of my childhood bake sale favorite.

Leanna, this is a beautiful bread pudding.

Flavorwise, we definitely get very little, light, light touch of rum.

Not too much.

I would love a little bit more.

Really?

I think maybe some of it cooked off.

Mm-hmm.

I'm not getting the hit that I'd like in the flavor.

What I'm hearing is more rum.

[Laughter] Leanna, beautiful dish.

I love the fact that you used that challah bread and the rum, and the cream in it, it makes sense.

It has a great flavor.

Awesome idea for the bake sale.

Thank you.

Leanna: Thank you, Chef.

Alejandra: Relle, please come join us.

Relle: Today, I baked for you manju.

I did two different styles--anko, which is a sweet bean paste that's inside, and a coconut version.

Growing up, my mom was team mom and she liked to bake, so, often, we would do bake sales to do fundraisers.

When I was pregnant with my son, my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer.

She's OK now, but she went through a whole treatment.

So, baking is something that we did together.

And I wanted to share with you the type of stuff that we like to bake.

Relle, just wanted to say thank you so much for opening up and sharing that story of your mom.

Food brings us together and really lets us know who you are and why you cook the way you do.

Now, when we talk about the manju, the flavor, the presentation, it's all very beautiful.

Clearly, you have worked with this dough a lot and you have mastered the dough.

For the filling, I wish there was more of the red bean filling inside because it's so good.

It just has so much sweet flavor but it's also mild and it's creamy and it balances everything out.

But aside from that, I mean, you delivered.

Mahalo.

Alejandra: Ted!

Ted: I made triple chocolate cheesecake cups.

This is something I make all the time at home, so, I know that this is perfect for a bake sale.

Leah: It's so cute.

It's something that I would gravitate towards when I go to a bake sale.

I love the fact that you put the salt on top.

I think that really balances out the sweet and the savory.

Tiffany: Yeah, I agree with you, Leah.

The mousse itself is delicious.

It's creamy, it's chocolatey.

The ganache on top is really nice and creamy.

The salt adds the flavor.

You had so many things going great, but unfortunately, the bottom part burned.

And it's a shame, because what sits on top of that is fantastic.

Thank you.

Salmah, tell us what you baked for us.

Salmah: I baked pine tart and cheese roll for our bake sale today.

Pine tart and cheese roll rank amongst, like, the most favorite and most popular for Guyanese pastries.

This is a very ambitious bake sale good that you've put together.

Tastewise, the fillings are killer.

I love 'em, especially the pineapple.

But the bake on the actual pastry itself, it's under.

Salmah: I know.

Leah: I agree with Graham.

You put the love and the energy into making the dough.

If you had just cooked it a little bit longer, it would've been so amazing.

Thank you.

Khela!

I made fudgy brownies with a ganache.

Graham: Khela, I know you've been to a bake sale if you're in the Midwest.

Khela: Yes.

Graham: Yes.

I can tell.

Because you're putting up food here that, like, all the other moms are gonna be jealous of.

The extra fudginess, that texture, that richness, and then cutting it with the toasted pecans and finishing it with some of that sea salt.

This is a very well-executed dish.

Khela: Thank you.

Leah: The first thing that I notice is the gloss that these brownies have.

There's a really nice sheen to it from the chocolate that you've put on top.

I mean, it's exactly how you described it.

It is fudgy and it is delicious.

I really don't know what else to say.

It was good.

It was a really good brownie.

[Laughs] Thank you.

Maria, come and join our bake sale.

Maria: I made red corn cookies, two ways.

The cookies are made with a red corn flour from a Native producer in Arizona.

Tiffany: With the cookie itself, because you have a very coarse cornmeal and then the red cornmeal, be careful with the moisture that you leave in here, because it can feel a little dry after you have a few of those bites.

Maria: Thank you.

Graham: Maria, you captured the spirit of this entire challenge, and it's a beautiful cookie, and it does have a color that just pops.

It shows a lot of artistry.

Thank you.

Abbe, tell us what you baked for us.

Abbe: I made two versions of Jewish macaroons.

The traditional version with apricot jam and dark chocolate and then a piña colada version with pineapple, rum.

So, I've had a lot of macaroons during Passover over the years, but I don't ever want to eat one of those again, because I really enjoy the piña colada macaroon.

Like, why has no one ever thought of that before?

Because those flavors go so well together.

Abbe: Thank you.

Graham: Abbe, look at you, making us sweet, little balls of love.

[Laughter] Graham: These are so good!

I would say the only thing is you can make them almost half as big.

They're pretty heavy.

They're really dense.

But if I was at this bake sale, there is no way that I would pass these over.

Abbe: Thank you.

Alejandra: Brad, what did you make for us?

Brad: Tonight, I baked some knafeh, which is a Middle Eastern pastry.

Tiffany: Brad, this is a beautiful dessert.

Flavorwise, it is delicious.

Not getting as much fennel pollen.

I had to search really hard to get it.

I would've really enjoyed a little bit more with it.

I think this is a really smart dish.

It's cute and it's elegant at the same time, which is hard to do.

I also love the fact that this is a dish that you would find at the shuk, right, which is, essentially, for people who don't know, it's an outdoor market, and that's kind of what a bake sale is, right?

You're going around, you're eyeing different things, picking what you want, and so, I thought that you really played well with the theme with this dish.

It was very familiar to me and it was in such a cute form.

I feel like I want to put one in my pocket, except it'll get really, really sticky.

[Laughter] The fact that Leah kind of understood this is something you can get at the market, I think she really got it.

I would love to prove to the judges I could bake.

Like, I want to show that I could do more than just one thing.

[Owl hooting] Let's talk about the different dishes from our "Great American Recipe" bake sale.

Which ones would've been bestsellers?

Relle's manju would've been gone first.

The texture of the dough was incredible and it was flaky and buttery.

Leah: I really did love Relle's manju.

The one thing, I thought that there was a little too much dough to filling ratio, and sometimes, I would get a bite and I wouldn't even get any of that red bean, and I wanted it because it was so good.

Another dish that I really love is Abbe's macaroon.

I thought it was so fun and interesting that she did a piña colada version.

Those flavors make sense.

It's a fun take.

She's showing that she's got a whimsical side.

She's creative.

She's staying rooted in the classic.

But I still think they're a little large and I would've loved a little more of that toasted coconut.

For me, Khela's fudgy brownies were really good.

I mean they were just a little overpowering.

And so, while it is so delicious and the texture is great, I could only eat, like, two bites of it because I just needed some milk or some water after it.

Graham: I think it was prepared really well.

The flavors are there.

I think that this is something that would definitely sell off the table.

Tiffany: Yeah.

Alejandra: Which dishes were the least successful?

I'm so disappointed in Ted's dish, because I don't think he knew that the bottom was burnt until we dove into it and ate it.

And, I mean, just to have such a technically perfect mousse on top, ganache, did all the right things with the sea salt, and I almost just didn't want to tell him.

I agree 100%.

Leah: But the top was so good and it was creamy and it was rich and it was really well-balanced with that flaky salt on top.

Well, what about Leanna's rum bread pudding?

It just didn't deliver.

When you set expectation for a rum bread pudding, I expect to have that flavor.

Graham: Yeah, I agree.

Even if she had left space on the top to really fill some of that sauce, the sauce wasn't where it needed to be.

Definitely not Leanna's best work.

What about Salmah's pine tart and cheese roll?

Graham: She went out on a limb making her own dough and doing two different fillings, and it bit her.

Like, this is clearly not what it should be.

Fillings are good, tasty, but the dough itself, which is holding everything together, it's not even halfway cooked through.

Yeah.

It's really unfortunate, because the flavor is there, like you said, and the dough itself is really a nice, flaky dough, but because she didn't cook it enough, we don't really get to experience that.

Thank you, judges.

It sounds like you've made your decision.

Let's bring the cooks back in.

Alejandra: We asked you to present a delicious dish that can win top honors at any bake sale.

Judges, please tell us which two dishes were least successful this round.

Graham: Ted, your cheesecake was so clever and showed a lot of technique.

But as we said, this needed control of the heat of that oven, because chocolate is one of those ingredients like garlic, where if you burn it, you just have to start again.

Ted, voice-over: The oven got a little bit away from me and unfortunately, it made my crust not the way that I wanted it to be.

When you have something like that, you're gonna be in the bottom two, but it won't bring me down.

And the other least successful dish is...Leanna.

We just wanted a less-dense consistency on your bread pudding, and it was because you pressed it into the mold, which created a very dense texture, but also the rum didn't come through quite as much as we'd hoped it would.

Leanna, voice-over: There was a lot of room for improvement on the bread pudding.

I can take criticism with grace, internalize it, come back, try and use it, do better the next time.

Now, the moment we've all been waiting for.

Judges, which treats came out on top?

The first dish that impressed us was... Khela and your fudgy brownies!

Khela, we really enjoyed it.

The brownie itself was fudgy and it just had incredible consistency.

Everything just ate really, really well, and it felt like this is a dish you've made a thousand times.

Our next favorite dish was... Relle and your manju.

[Cheering and laughter] It was flaky, it was buttery, it was soft, it was tender, and it was also crispy.

Then you had this beautiful filling of the adzuki beans.

It was really well executed and I love the story behind the dish as well.

Mahalo.

The winner of our first "Great American Recipe" bake sale is... Relle and your manju.

[Cheering and applause] Did I hear that right?

Did he say Relle?

Oh, my God.

Graham: You've got this dough that was beautiful, flaky.

It was just a really beautiful dish.

Beautiful story.

And something that if we saw at the bake sale, we'd be fighting over.

Relle, voice-over: Baking is my thing and I showed up despite everything that happened.

Winning this round gives me a little bit more drive to keep pushing through and know that I can do this and I need a few more wins to ensure that I'm in the finale.

This week, you brought us beautiful recipes to be enjoyed outside of your home kitchens.

We can't wait to see what you bring next week on "The Great American Recipe."

See you then.

Alejandra: Next time on "The Great American Recipe"... Graham: I see everyone's eyes lighting up at the mention of holidays.

The big dates around the year that we love to celebrate.

This was our Christmas dinner.

My grandma, I refer to her as the hostess with the mostest.

Ha ha!

I love Thanksgiving because I'm feeding everybody I love.

Every grandma has made latkes.

My grandma didn't make latkes.

[Laughter] But one home cook is the winner of this round.