Crafting Mini Pizzas, Nachos, and Treats in a Kid's Easy Bake Oven
Table of Contents
- Introduction
- Making Personal Mini Pizzas
- Cooking Up Nachos
- Baking Sweet Crispy Rice Treats
- The Taste Test and Results
- Conclusion and Takeaways
Introduction to Cooking with a Kids' Toy
Chef Alexis loves taking on culinary challenges, which is why she often turns to the internet to source ideas for her next cooking escapade. In this video, Alexis uses a suggestion from her fans to cook an entire three-course meal in an Easy Bake Oven - the iconic toy oven made for kids. While apprehensive at first about the toy appliance's size and capabilities, Alexis rises to the test and shows just how creative one can get with an Easy Bake Oven in the kitchen.
Alexis first preps by laying out her plan to make personal mini pizzas, nachos, and crispy rice treats. She decides these will allow her to test the Easy Bake across a variety of cooking methods. As she begins prepping, Alexis realizes she'll need an extra set of hands if she wants to churn out all three courses in a timely manner. Luckily her best friend Ryan arrives as sous chef just in time to take on frying up the nacho chips and cooking the taco meat.
The Chef's Challenge
When Alexis first opens up her Easy Bake Oven package, she can't believe how tiny the appliance is. At just a few inches tall and wide, it looks like a toy compared to her regular sized oven. Still, Alexis is determined to make the most of her cooking challenge. She comes up with a plan to prepare three classic after school snacks in the Easy Bake: personal mini pizzas, loaded nachos, and crispy rice cereal treats. It won't be easy, but Alexis believes that with some creativity she can cook full dishes in the pint-sized oven.
The Easy Bake Oven
The Easy Bake Oven first debuted in 1963 and quickly became one of the most popular toys for kids interested in cooking. The working mini oven uses an ordinary light bulb to generate enough heat to bake cakes, cookies, and other goodies. Today's Easy Bake Ovens can reach temperatures up to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. While not hot enough to rival a conventional oven, Alexis learns the Easy Bake can still churn out impressive results with the right hacks, ingredients, and techniques.
Making Personal Mini Pizzas from Scratch
Ever ambitious, Alexis decides to kick things off by making mini personal pizzas from scratch in the Easy Bake Oven. That means starting with her own dough recipe instead of using store-bought pizza dough.
To start, Alexis blooms some yeast in warm water with a bit of sugar. Once frothy, she mixes in olive oil, salt, and flour to form a simple pizza dough. Alexis lets the dough rise in an oiled bowl while she preheats the Easy Bake Oven.
Preparing the Pizza Dough
Rather than try making one large pizza, Alexis opts to make personal sized pizzas using her homemade dough. This allows her to stretch the dough thinner so it cooks faster in the Easy Bake. Alexis first proves her yeasted dough before punching it down and rolling it out with a pin. She then uses a small cookie cutter to cut uniform circles that will form the pizza crusts.
Assembling and Baking the Pizzas
With her dough rounds cut, Alexis tops them simply with tomato sauce, shredded mozzarella cheese, and some classic pizza toppings like sausage, onions, and bell peppers. Two personal pizzas fit snugly onto the Easy Bake's tiny tray. In just 15 minutes or so they bake up crispy, cheesy, and full of flavor. Alexis is thrilled with her mini pizza success!
Frying Up Nacho Chips and Tacos
Next up is an after school snacking classic: nachos! Alexis runs into a size issue early on trying to bake whole tortilla chips from scratch. So she enlists sous chef Ryan to help cut and fry corn tortilla wedges in batches while she preps taco meat and toppings.
Together, they manage to bake up a sizable pile of crispy tortilla chips. Alexis builds each nacho bite with the chips, browned ground beef, black beans, tomato, avocado, and of course melty shredded cheese.
Frying Tortilla Chips
Wanting to make her nachos totally from scratch, Alexis begins by trying to crisp whole tortilla rounds in the small Easy Bake Oven. But she quickly realizes that approach will take ages to yield enough chips. Luckily, Ryan joins in to help cut partially cooked tortillas into wedges, brush them with oil, and fry them off in small batches. The combined effort produces a mountain of crunchy tortilla chips.
Browning the Taco Meat
With Ryan manning chip duties, Alexis takes on cooking ground beef for the nacho taco meat. Adding spices like chili powder, cumin, and garlic, she's able to achieve nicely browned beef crumbles in the little oven. Shocked that raw meat actually cooks through, Alexis drains any excess fat before adding the taco meat to her cheesy nacho assembly.
Layering Loaded Nachos
Once all her components are prepared, Alexis layers up the Easy Bake nachos. She starts by piling crisp tortilla chips onto two plates. The chips get topped generously with cheese, spiced ground beef, black beans, diced tomato, and fresh avocado. Though the chips did get a bit too crispy in spots from frying, the end result is a platter of mouthwatering, multilayered nachos made completely from scratch.
Baking Crunchy Sweet Rice Cereal Bars
For her third and final child-friendly snack cooked in the Easy Bake Oven, Alexis decides to get creative with a crispy rice cereal treat. She starts by melting marshmallows with butter in a mixing bowl heated over the oven.
Once smooth, Alexis pours the sticky marshmallow mixture over crispy rice cereal. After mixing thoroughly, she packs the treats into a cute shape using a cookie cutter before baking until set.
Melting Marshmallows in the Oven
Alexis starts her crispy rice cereal bars by adding butter and marshmallows to a heat safe bowl. She periodically mixes and folds the mixture as it melts evenly to a smooth consistency in the warmth of the little oven.
Adding the Crispy Rice Cereal
With fully melted marshmallows, Alexis pours in the crispy rice cereal and folds thoroughly until evenly coated. At this stage, she opts to add a handful of chocolate chips for extra flavor and sweetness.
Shaping the Crispy Bars
Rather than make one big pan of crispy rice treats, Alexis packs the mixture into silicone molds to achieve cute individual snack-sized bars. She smooths and presses the tops flat before baking for just 5 minutes more, yielding perfect rectangles with melted chocolate festooned throughout.
Jonas' Easy Bake Mystery Appliance Taste Test
With all three tasty after school snacks prepped and plated, Alexis now welcomes her guest taste tester Jonas. The 9 year old chef puts on a blindfold before sampling each dish and attempting to guess what appliance Alexis used to cook them.
Jonas enjoys bites of the mini pizza, nachos, and crispy cereal bars one by one. He provides candid feedback and numeric ratings on each. Finally, Alexis reveals her mystery cooking contraption was in fact a children's Easy Bake Oven.
Nacho Platter Rating
Jonas dives right in to sample Alexis' homemade tortilla nacho chips with all the fixings. He seems to enjoy the textures and flavors, rating the loaded snack plate an 8 out of 10. His only complaint is that some chips got overly crispy during frying.
Mini Pizza Feedback
Moving on to the personal sized sausage pepperoni pizza, Jonas again seems pleased with Alexis' Easy Bake creation. He does comment that the crust doesn't have the crispness he would expect from a regular pizza. Jonas scores the mini pizza a 6 out of 10.
Crispy Cereal Treat Reviews
For his third and final snack, Jonas gets to sample Alexis' custom cut crispy rice treats made with melted marshmallows. His face lights up at the first bite, rating this one a perfect 10 out of 10. It's clear these sweet snacks are a hit with chef Jonas!
Guessing the Mystery Appliance
With all tasting complete, Alexis asks Jonas to guess what she used to cook and bake everything he sampled. Jonas logically starts by suggesting a pan or rolling pin for prep work. When pressed what she actually cooked with, Jonas incorrectly guesses a stove and then a conventional oven. Jonas' jaw drops when Alexis reveals that thanks to some clever hacking, she managed to make all three dishes from start to finish using just a children's Easy Bake Oven toy!
Conclusion and Takeaways from Cooking in an Easy Bake Oven
While not without some challenges and flops along the way, Alexis is incredibly proud of the spread she managed to churn out using nothing but a toy oven. It took some out of the box thinking, batch cooking, and enlisting help, but in the end she achieved nachos, personalized pizzas, and cute crispy bars all made completely from scratch.
Alexis says that while Easy Bake Ovens may have initially seemed like a nightmare cooking challenge, she actually fulfilled a childhood dream of using one to make real recipes. She encourages viewers and fans to try out their old toy ovens again, get creative with adaptations, and share their experience cooking in miniature.
FAQ
Q: What was the chef's challenge in the video?
A: The chef had to cook three snacks - mini pizzas, nachos and crispy rice treats - using only a kids' Easy Bake Oven.
Q: What temperature does the Easy Bake Oven reach?
A: The Easy Bake Oven only reaches 350 degrees Fahrenheit, much lower than a standard full-sized oven.
Q: How did the chef adapt her pizza dough recipe for the Easy Bake Oven?
A: She had to roll out the dough very thin so it would cook through at the lower temperature in the small oven.
Q: How were the tortilla chips made?
A: The chef cut corn tortillas into triangles, brushed them with oil, and baked them into chips in the Easy Bake Oven.
Q: What was the surprise twist at the end?
A: A child taste tester had to try the dishes and guess what appliance was used to cook them. He did not guess it was an Easy Bake Oven.
Q: What went wrong with one of the dishes?
A: The tortilla chips came out too hard and crunchy to eat properly.
Q: What were the taste tester's ratings?
A: The nachos got an 8/10 rating. The mini pizzas received a 6/10. The crispy rice treats got a perfect 10/10 score.
Q: Would the chef use an Easy Bake Oven again?
A: Yes, despite early frustrations, the chef said it fulfilled a childhood fantasy and she was proud of the dishes she created.
Q: What advice did the chef give viewers?
A: She suggested viewers try cooking their own snacks and treats in an Easy Bake Oven and share recipes and results.
Q: What were the key takeaways from this cooking challenge?
A: With creativity and perseverance, skilled chefs can adapt recipes and techniques to work even in a toy oven. The experience evoked childhood nostalgia.