America's Test Kitchen

-Today on "America's Test Kitchen," Elle shows Bridget a tidy take on classic sloppy joes, Adam reviews kitchen sponges, Dan reveals the science of cookie size, and Lan and Julia unlock the secrets to the perfect chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwiches.

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

-Nobody really thinks about sloppy joes.

They come together out of convenience.

You've got some ketchup, ground beef, maybe a little vinegar on hand, and you end up with a sloppy mess.

But we here at "America's Test Kitchen" know that everything could be made better because we think about food.

And speaking of better, Elle is here, and she's gonna tell us why we should improve on sloppy joe.

-That's right.

Some of the sloppy joes of the past have been known to be highly oversweetened and typically fall flat in flavor after that.

-Right.

-Not to mention they rarely stay in the bun, which is why we call them "sloppy joes."

-Right.

-But today we're gonna make it a lot more manageable.

-Okay.

-Okay?

And we're gonna start with one pound of 85% lean ground beef.

In the test kitchen, we try lots of ways to enhance this beef.

We've cooked it in sauce, but that just made it pebbly and dry.

The solution to that, though, is to make a slurry of 1 tablespoon of water and 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda.

-Okay.

-This slurry enhances the pH of the beef, and it keeps the proteins from binding together too fast, too soon.

-Gotcha.

-And we're just gonna pour it over the meat.

-It's not a lot.

-It's not a lot.

We don't really need a lot.

I'm also gonna add to this 1/2 teaspoon of table salt and give it a stir.

-Alright.

So, seasoned, and it's gonna hold on to moisture.

-That's right.

-Gotcha.

-Alright.

That's all set.

I'm just gonna set it aside for a bit, and we can start building the foundation for our sauce.

We noticed a trend in a lot of the sloppy joe recipes.

They had a ton of vegetables -- celery, carrots, bell peppers.

It changes the texture.

It wasn't what we were looking for.

-If I want a salad, I'll order one.

-Exactly.

Exactly.

But what we decided to do was to keep the onions, but we're gonna treat the onions just like we did the beef, with a little bit of baking soda.

-Oh, okay.

-1/8 of a teaspoon, to be exact.

So, I have here 2 teaspoons of oil.

I'm gonna put this over medium heat, and we'll know it's ready when the oil starts to shimmer, and we're gonna add the onions.

-Alright.

-Okay.

So, I have half an onion, finely chopped.

We want these onions to break down.

-Gotcha.

-Practically melt.

And that's what this 1/8 teaspoon of baking soda is going to do, just like it did with the beef.

And this will only take about 3 to 4 minutes.

-Well, nobody wants to find firm onion in their sloppy joe.

Those onions should practically melt into the mixture, and baking soda makes that really easy, and here's how.

Typically, when you cook onions, pectin and hemicellulose molecules from the plant cells link up into a gel that holds water and helps the onion pieces keep their shape.

Hours of cooking will break down the cell walls, and, eventually, the onion's texture will become very soft.

But there is a shortcut.

Baking soda is alkaline, and when you add it to your finely chopped onion, it raises the mixture's pH.

In an alkaline environment, the hemicellulose readily dissolves out of the cell walls, and the pectin molecules are inhibited from grabbing on to each other and forming that gel, so the onions quickly turn soft and tender.

And that's why baking soda is the key to our magically melting onions.

-Alright.

So, it's been about 3 or 4 minutes.

You see how much the onions have broken down.

-That would've never happened without the baking soda.

-And this is exactly where we need to be.

-Alright.

-So, to this, I'm gonna add two minced cloves of garlic for about 30 seconds until they're just fragrant.

-Alright.

-To this, I'm gonna add 2 teaspoons of paprika.

I'm gonna stir this constantly for about 30 seconds until the paprika is fragrant.

1/4 teaspoon of red-pepper flakes, 1/8 teaspoon of salt, and 2 teaspoons of brown sugar.

I'm gonna add more flavor compounds by adding 1/4 cup of tomato paste.

Alright, I'm just gonna let this bloom a little.

3 to 4 minutes is all we really need, and we're looking for it to get rust-colored.

-Okay, gotcha.

-Alright, so it's been about 3 minutes.

Our tomato paste is a nice rusty red color.

-Mmm.

-I'm gonna add the beef.

Now, the magic behind the consistency of the beef is making sure that it's broken down, and I'm gonna do that using a wooden spoon and just cook it until there's no longer any pink in the meat.

And this should take about 5 minutes.

Okay.

So, the meat is no longer pink.

We've gotten exactly where we want to be, but I'm gonna take this a step further by using the potato masher.

This trick is the difference between how much meat stays on your bun versus how much meat is on your plate.

-Right.

Cleaning up after sloppy joe, aren't you?

-This is a tidy joe.

-[ Laughs ] -Alright, that looks great.

Ketchup is a staple item in sloppy joe, so we could not go without it.

Instead, we decreased the average 1 cup of ketchup to 1/3 cup.

-Wow.

And you get more of that tomato flavor from the tomato paste that you added earlier.

-That's right.

I'm also adding a tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce.

-Okay.

-And a tablespoon of red wine vinegar.

-Nice.

-So we are not lacking in flavor in this sloppy joe.

-No.

No.

Well, already, there's a huge difference in this.

It's not so sloppy.

-It's not so sloppy at all.

So, now that the beef is cooked until it's tender and juicy, we're gonna make a slurry, and this slurry is gonna do two jobs.

It's gonna act as a thickener for our sauce, and it's also going to emulsify any fat that may be in the pan from cooking the meat.

So, I have 1/2 teaspoon of cornstarch... -Okay.

-...and a tablespoon of water.

And I'm just gonna give it a mix.

I'm gonna stir in this cornstarch slurry until it coats the beef and thickens -- about one minute.

The heat's gonna activate this cornstarch, and it's gonna give us a silky texture.

-Mm.

I have never seen this before in a sloppy joe.

-Okay, Bridget, these are ready.

-It's the prettiest joe I've ever seen.

-Well, thank you very much.

-[ Chuckles ] -I'm going to just give it a taste.

I think you should try some, too.

Let's give it a taste and see if we need to add any extra flavors.

Oh, yeah.

What do you think?

I think maybe a little more vinegar.

-A little more vinegar.

-Little splash of vinegar.

-Oh.

-Okay?

-Oh, that's so good.

-I'm gonna go a little more sugar, too.

Alright.

-[ Gasps ] Mmm.

-Think that's gonna be perfect.

Let's have some sloppy joe.

-Oh, this is the test, right?

-Yes.

-How sloppy are they once you get them on the bun?

But I love how this is clinging to the bun.

And thank you for not using gourmet brioche buns or something like that.

This has got to be a squishy potato roll or something like that.

-Oh, yeah.

Here's some pickles for your joe.

-This is a first for me.

I've never had pickles on a sloppy joe.

-So, there's a method to this.

You have to give the bun a little smash.

-Now, this is the point where half of it would've dropped out onto the plate.

-Alright.

Mmm.

-That is so tender.

-Very tender.

-Really well-balanced.

It's super tomato-y.

-It's still in the bun.

-It's still in the bun!

-Sweet and spicy.

-You know what's missing?

-What's that?

-The chandelier of orange fat that traditionally starts to drip down your hands as you eat it, and that's 'cause the cornstarch that you added there really holds on and emulsifies, basically, that -- that fat that was in the pan.

-That's right.

-I think Joe walked a few blocks uptown.

This is so much better than I've ever had.

-Now you don't have to fight with Joe.

-Mmm.

If you'd like to make the greatest sloppy joes at home, well, it starts by tossing ground beef with a little baking soda slurry, and then, meanwhile, saut onions and baking soda until those onions practically melt.

Then stir in a little brown sugar, spices, and tomato paste.

Brown the beef.

Then finish the sauce with ketchup, red wine vinegar, and Worcestershire and then thicken it with a little cornstarch.

So, from "America's Test Kitchen," the overhauled but still so classic sloppy joe.

Can we even call it "sloppy joe" anymore?

-No.

-Formerly known as "sloppy joe."

-[ Chuckles ] -The lowly sponge is arguably the most important tool in your kitchen.

And as it turns out, it's also very controversial.

Everybody has a sponge opinion.

But today Adam's gonna actually tell us which one is truly the best.

-You are so right about everyone having strong opinions about sponges.

When I was talking this up, you know, with my friends, telling them that we were testing sponges, everybody's like, "Okay, let me tell you what the best sponge is."

Like, "No, I'm gonna tell you what the best sponge is."

And it turns out there are almost as many sponges out there as there are opinions about sponges.

So we had to do some serious winnowing down of all of the possibilities.

Number one, we eliminated anything that couldn't be used with nonstick cookware.

-Makes sense.

-We did a little bit of pre-testing.

We cooked diced onions in a really sugary barbecue sauce almost to the point of burning and then scrubbed away with a whole bunch of these things.

We also cleaned wineglasses that were fragile, thin glass, and we ended up with this lineup of 10 sponges -- different materials, different shapes, different colors, different prices that ranged from a low of 70 cents per sponge to $6 per sponge.

-Ooh!

-There was a lot of down-and-dirty testing.

-[ Chuckles ] -Testers used the sponges to clean both nonstick and traditional skillets that had had scrambled eggs cooked in them without fat, that same mixture of onions and the sugary barbecue sauce cooked almost to the point of burning.

They also cleaned cast-iron skillets that had been used to sear burgers made out of 85% lean beef, so there was plenty of nice, messy fat to clean out of there.

In terms of getting into smaller spaces and maneuverability, testers used them to clean really sticky 1-tablespoon measuring spoons and also those wineglasses again.

In addition, they took the dimensions.

They took the thickness.

-[ Chuckles ] -They calculated how much each sponge could absorb in terms of liquid.

That's not all.

All the sponges went home with testers for some real-world home testing.

People used them for a couple weeks and then reported back.

And what was interesting is that there were winners and losers amongst all of the different styles and materials.

No one material really stood out.

-Interesting.

-But there were a couple of features that were really important.

Let's talk first about scrubbing.

-Ah.

-And for scrubbing, testers really responded to sponges that had a slightly sort of coarse or gritty texture.

This one here, for instance... -It's sparkly.

-...this sparkly one... -[ Chuckles ] -...that one and another one, this yellow one, had, like, a woven netting that was good because it was rough and it really assisted with scrubbing gunk out of the pan.

Another thing that testers really liked for scrubbing was something like this -- a little bit, you know, waves, ridges... -Oh!

-...I call this "topography," which added power to the scrubbing... -Interesting.

-...two different styles of topography.

Size turned out to be important.

Some of them were a little too small.

This guy, for instance, is about 2 3/4".

So, once he gets compressed down, he's wet.

You're really going in there.

It just felt a little too small to really get a lot of cleaning done in per swipe.

The same was essentially true with this one, the little yellow smiley face.

-I like the way this looks.

-This one is the Scrub Daddy.

It actually got its start on "Shark Tank."

-Ah!

-And it's designed to respond differently to cold and hot water.

With hot water, it gets softer and you can compress it.

And it did an okay job scrubbing, but it just didn't feel, again, really big enough to get wide swaths of scrubbing done, so testers felt like it wasn't quite all-purpose enough.

Now, the opposite of sponges that were too small -- sponges that felt too big.

This guy is about 5" long.

-Mm-hmm.

-Great for bigger jobs.

Not quite as good for those small jobs like the 1-tablespoon measures or the wineglasses.

-Yeah, it's thick.

And is this microfiber?

-That one is almost like terrycloth.

-Ah.

-Yeah.

-This one turned out to be just right.

It was the medium-sized sponges, about 4 1/4" long, 2 1/2" wide, and an inch thick.

This one struck testers as small enough for the small jobs, big enough for the big jobs, sized just right.

There was not only the issue of how the sponges scrubbed pans and cookware, there was the issue of how they cleaned up themselves, 'cause they're getting all kinds of gunky with, you know, biscuit dough and whatnot.

This guy here with the terrycloth, the microfiber -- it never recovered from that sticky biscuit dough.

It was matted.

It was nasty.

-It's destined for the garbage.

-Destined for the garbage can.

Similar situation with this one, the silicone one.

You know, it's supposed to stay clean.

That's what its name is.

But food just got jammed inside of those bristles and never came out.

Again, testers were pretty impressed with this one.

This one did really well in the scrubbing test, and it cleaned up itself beautifully.

It didn't look as trashed as some of the others.

Testers were able to just run it under the water, rinse it off.

-Hmm.

-And this is, in fact, our winning sponge.

-This is the winner!

-We can now tell people what to get.

-Ah!

-That is the O-Cedar Scrunge Multi-use Scrubber Sponge, and it's got all of the features that testers really liked.

It's got topography, it's got a rough texture to the scrubbing part, it's got the sponge.

It's about the right size.

It was one of the most absorbent sponges in the test.

It's about $1.67 per sponge or 10 bucks for a pack of 6.

-Alright.

Thanks, Adam.

So, one of the most important equipment testings we've ever done, sponges, and this is our winner.

It's the O-Cedar Scrunge Multi-use Scrubber Sponge, and it costs about $10 for a pack of 6.

-Check out this spread of cookies in front of me.

They range from 1 tablespoon of dough all the way up to 1 cup of dough.

They contain identical ingredients, and they're all baked in the same oven at the same temperature for the same amount of time.

But just check out how different they are on the inside.

This 1-tablespoon cookie is dry all the way through.

On the other hand, this 1-cup cookie is completely raw at the center.

The sweet spot is 3 tablespoons, where the edges are crisp and the center is chewy.

There are lots of ways to control cookie texture, including changing the amount of sugar, the number of eggs, or even how you incorporate the butter.

But the easiest way is just changing cookie size.

Want something drier and crunchier?

Go smaller.

Want a cookie with crispy edges and a fudgier center?

Go bigger.

And if you really just want raw cookie dough with a crispy rim, grab that 1-cup measure.

-The late '70s were known for many things, including the Chipwich, that chocolate chip cookie and vanilla ice cream sandwich decorated on the outside with mini chips.

Now, I ate my fair share of those as a kid, but you can't find them these days, which is why Lan's gonna show us how to make them.

-I sure am.

And you would think it'd be easy.

You'd take two chocolate chip cookies, squish them together, pop them in the fridge till that ice cream hardens, and you're good, except you're really not.

If you try to take a bite of that, the cookies are rock-hard, ice cream squishes all over the place, and it's a mess.

So I went and I purchased Chipwiches and a couple other brands, took them apart, and kind of poked around at those cookies to figure out what they were doing, and we're gonna do it here.

We're gonna start with 10 tablespoons of unsalted butter, and I've already melted it in this 10" skillet over medium-high heat.

What we're gonna do is brown the butter.

The reason we're browning the butter is these cookies are gonna be frozen and we want to make sure they're as flavorful as possible.

I want to make sure I'm stirring constantly.

That keeps those milk solids from sticking to the pan and ensures they end up in our cookie.

In the meantime, I've got a bowl set aside.

You can't kind of just turn off the heat and leave it in there.

It'll keep browning in that pan.

So when it's ready, it has to come out right away.

To this butter, I'm adding 3/4 of a cup of dark brown sugar.

You really do want to use dark brown sugar here.

It's got a little bit more molasses than light brown and more flavor.

And I've got 3/4 teaspoon of table salt.

It's a little bit more salt than usual, and you're using dark brown sugar because these cookies are gonna be frozen, so they need all the flavor they can get.

-That's right, because cold temperatures are known for dulling flavors, and that's because cold temperatures slow our taste buds' ability to respond to flavors, and it also slows down the aromatic compounds so we can't smell them, as well.

-So, Julia, it's been about 10 minutes, and this has cooled nicely, so we can move on.

-Yep.

-First, I have 1 cup and 2 tablespoons of all-purpose flour here, and I'm just gonna whisk in our leavener, 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda.

That looks great.

And then I let this cool because I didn't want it to cook the egg that I'm about to add.

It's one large egg.

This is 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract.

And then the secret ingredient that makes everything work -- water.

-Water?

-Yep.

2 tablespoons of it.

The water is gonna be the key to keeping this cookie nice and tender.

So I want to whisk this until it's smooth.

It's gonna take maybe 30 seconds.

So, this looks great.

Just dump all of your dry ingredients in.

Now, I know that this looks kind of like cake batter.

-It's very soupy.

-It is, and it should be.

All that water that loosens this up is gonna help these cookies spread when they bake in the oven and give us a nice, thin, flat, even cookie.

Last up, I have our chocolate chips, and you'll notice I'm using mini chips instead of full-sized chips, and it's because chocolate, when it's frozen, is rock-solid, and you'll crack a tooth trying to bite through the really large chips that you see out there, so stick with mini chips.

I've chosen semi-sweet because I like that touch of bitterness.

This is 1/2 cup of mini chips, and that's plenty.

So let's go shape some cookies.

We're gonna make 24 cookies, which will yield 12 sandwiches, and you can use a scoop if you want -- a number 60.

I like to use a measuring spoon.

I think it's just easier.

I'm using a 1-tablespoon measure.

Scrape this down onto the tray.

You want to make sure these are spread out when you place them on the pan.

You really only want to bake 12 per sheet pan because they're gonna spread quite a bit.

You don't have to shape them perfectly, but it does help if they're not kind of lopsided blobs.

-[ Chuckles ] -Okay.

We're gonna bake these one tray at a time.

They're gonna take 9 to 12 minutes, and I'm gonna rotate that pan halfway through baking.

They're going on the middle rack of a 325-degree oven so that they have a little bit more time to spread before they set, and that just ensures a nice, flat, even cookie.

-So, that cookie dough has a little more fat and a little less sugar than a traditional cookie, but it's the water that's the real game-changer.

Actually, this dough has twice as much water compared to our perfect chocolate chip cookie.

Now, that may sound a little counterintuitive, because you'd think more water, more ice crystals in the frozen cookie, but the sugar lowers the water's freezing point, so it keeps that cookie nice and soft in the freezer.

-Don't they smell great?

-Best smell ever.

Those are perfect-looking cookies.

-They spread really nicely.

They're just picking up a hint of color on the edges, and you want to pull them when they're on the soft side.

So, I'm gonna let these guys cool on this pan for about 5 minutes, and then I'll transfer them to the rack and let them cool fully for 45 minutes.

And in the meantime, I'm going to bake these off.

You ready to assemble sandwiches?

-Mm-hmm.

I see ice cream.

I see cookies.

-Yep.

So, I held on to our baking sheets and popped one of them in the freezer.

That will give us a nice, cold landing zone for these.

I want to make just four sandwiches at a time.

If you try to scoop all 12, your ice cream's gonna melt before you can come back and start assembling, and it ends up being a mess.

You can use any ice cream you want.

I stuck with vanilla since we're going for Chipwiches, but I've made these with other flavors, and it's great.

So I want to load these guys up with about 2"-tall, 2"-wide scoops, and the best way to have a nicely formed scoop is to make sure your ice cream is well-tempered.

I find that if I can poke the ice cream and my finger leaves like a 1/4" indent, it's perfect for scooping.

Make sure you poke in the middle.

Don't poke at the edge.

-[ Chuckles ] -It's usually a little softer there.

If your ice cream is too hard and you can't leave that indent, pop it in the fridge for maybe 15 minutes, 25 minutes.

It'll temper much more evenly there than if you were to leave it on the counter.

And it doesn't matter if your scoops aren't perfect.

As long as they're about the right volume, the shape isn't too relevant.

I'm gonna take this and put it on my fingertips and not my palm 'cause you'll apply too much pressure if they're on your palm.

Put the cookie on top, and while you're pressing, you want to give them a quick twist.

-Twisting really does help make sure the ice cream is evenly distributed over the cookies.

There's a method to your madness.

-There is.

Do you mind popping these in the freezer?

-Of course.

-Thanks.

So, don't they look great?

-They look perfect.

-Last step is to add the chocolate chips.

I divided the chips in half.

I've got 1/2 cup for you, 1/2 cup for me.

I had trouble getting these to stick by just pressing the chips in, so I found that it was easier to pick up a handful of chips and press them in.

If you have ice cream oozing out the side of your sandwich, you can kind of smush it back in place.

So, once we finish chipping these, we'll get them back in the freezer for eight hours.

-That's a long time.

-It is.

You know how water was the key to keeping these cookies soft?

They're gonna pick up a little bit more water from the ice cream itself, so we'd really have to give them eight hours.

-So, if you tried to eat them before that 8-hour timer went off, what would happen?

-Rock-hard.

-Really?

Okay.

So, an 8-hour wait.

This is bringing me back to my childhood in a very nice way.

-Oh, good.

I promise they're worth it.

-[ Chuckles ] Mmm.

Mmm!

-Right?

-Mm-hmm.

I don't think I've had a sandwich since made with baked cookies like this that was this soft.

-Yeah.

-The cookies have real flavor.

I can taste the vanilla.

I can taste the browned butter even though it's cold.

-Yeah.

It's got that kind of nutty toffee cookie-dough flavor that everyone loves.

It's actually really great with coffee ice cream, and I've had it with cherry ice cream.

-Mm-hmm?

Really?

-Fantastic.

I love that you can use any ice cream you want.

-Oh, that makes it fun, especially if you have 12 of them and three pints of ice cream.

You could have different pints for a couple different flavors.

-Yep.

-Lan, these are awesome.

Thank you.

-I'm glad you like them.

-So, if you want to make these throwback ice cream sandwiches, start by making homemade chocolate chip cookies, using browned butter, dark brown sugar and a little water.

Carefully portion the dough into cookies and bake for just 10 minutes before letting them cool completely.

Scoop your favorite ice cream flavor between the cookies, then let them firm up briefly in the freezer before garnishing the edge with more chips.

And next comes the hardest part -- letting them freeze for eight hours before eating.

So, from "America's Test Kitchen" to your kitchen, a cool new recipe for chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwiches.

You can get this recipe and all the recipes from this season, along with tastings, testings, and select episodes on our website, americastestkitchen.com.

You nailed it.

-I see what you did there.

-Absolutely.

-"Cool recipe."

-[ Laughs ] -Let us help you with dinner tonight.

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