America's Culinary Cup
Baker:
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Week:
Challenge Type:
Hell: Baba au Rhum
Hell: Baba au Rhum Cake with Horseradish 'Lava' Syrup Keith's 'evil' dessert built around his forbidden horseradish — a play on a Bavois-style baba spiked with horseradish-infused syrup.
Keith: "I was going to play on like a baba au rhum. You'll bring the heat with the liquor and the horseradish." When his syrup tasted bland, Keith pivoted: "When I cool down my syrup, I taste it, and there's no horseradish… I cooked all the horseradish flavor out. Refine the syrup, the horseradish gone. And so I've shaved the horseradish in there off heat and let it steep like tea. Yes — that was it. Now you've got your horseradish up."
On presentation: "My evil dessert, I did a baba rum cake with a horseradish lava."
Nina Métayer (guest): "It's very difficult to have a baba — not too wet, but wet enough. That's the balance. It's complicated. So congrats for that. But you can improve its balance because I want more cream."
Padma Lakshmi: "Or give us more cream. The lava is a kind of punch in the face a little bit." Keith conceded: "I should have cut a smaller piece — a square more elegant."
Note: this dish landed Keith in the bottom two; he was safe and Diana went home.
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