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This Halloween, Adam Gertler is taking a twisted tour through the scrumptious world of haunted candy and confections. In the land of chocolate, Hershey, PA, a peanut butter and chocolate classic morphs into a pumpkin, and in Roswell, New Mexico he discovers a candy so sour it is nearly illegal! More tricked out treats include decadent candy-filled cemeteries and chocolate haunted houses... but will Adam be able to stomach a life-size gummi brain?
Adam Gertler is checking out some of the weirdest, wackiest desserts in the country. Meet a New York City baker who serves her treats, including a sugary twist on nachos made with brownies, cookies and chocolate sauce, from a truck. At a taffy factory in Salt Lake City, Adam finds crazy taffy flavors based on classic cocktails, and a visit to a shop in New Orleans uncovers a place that churning ice cream with bizarre ingredients like beets and corn.
Adam Gertler is on the hunt for the coolest twists on cake. A trip to a cupcake shop in Somerville, Massachusetts, leads to a decadent deep fried cupcake sundae. Discover a German bakery in Chicago that makes three foot tall cakes - roasted on a spit! Check out a cargo trailer in Austin, Texas, serving the latest trend in cake - cake balls on a stick. And get a behind-the-scenes look into the Hostess® factory in Biddeford, Maine, to see how one of America's classic snack cakes- the Hostess® Sno Ball - is made.
Adam Gertler is tracking down the coolest frozen confections in the country. Find out how the people of New Orleans beat the heat with Snowballs - colorful shaved ice in wild flavors like Bananas Foster and strawberry cheesecake. Discover a gelato shop in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, with a full bar that shakes and stirs gelato martinis. In Nashville, Tennessee, two sisters make Mexican ice pops in flavors you won't find in the frozen food aisle. And visit the Dippin' Dots factory in Paducah, Kentucky, where they make billions of their famous ice cream beads with the help of liquid nitrogen.
Adam Gertler is on the hunt for classic desserts that have gotten modern day makeovers. Discover a shop in Chicago that uses modern-science to create any flavor combination of ice cream or pudding you can imagine -- right before your eyes! Visit a retro candy store in Austin, Texas that is re-thinking the concept of the classic soda fountain. Check out an ice cream shop in Angiers, North Carolina, serving up a frozen concoction so spicy, you have to sign a waiver just to eat it. And tour the M&M's® factory in Cleveland, Tennessee, where they are creating their latest flavor: a mouthwatering combination of sweet and salty.
Adam Gertler is searching for artistically inspired desserts that are as visually stunning as they are delicious. Visit the Peeps & Company store in Oxon Hill, Maryland, where a local artist is creating tasty, candy art using the classic marshmallow confections. Go apple picking in La Verne, California, at a shop that specializes in hand-painting colorful caramel apples, transforming them into beautiful works of art. And discover a bakery in Chicago where the radically colorful cakes look like they were decorated in a tattoo parlor.
Adam Gertler tastes the most deliciously decadent desserts being made today. Discover a sweets bar in Houston that will dip just about anything in chocolate - including corn chips! Visit a restaurant in Washington D.C. serving a three-course gourmet dessert menu made with your favorite childhood candies. Take a ride on an eclectic dessert truck in Los Angeles that is serving up architecturally inspired ice cream sandwiches made with fresh baked cookies and exotic ice creams. And check out a bake stand in Philly's Reading Terminal Market that packs everything in their brownies except the kitchen sink.
Adam Gertler is unmasking some of the trickiest treats being made from sugar, chocolate and pure imagination. Find out how deceiving looks can be in New York, where Papabubble's artisans handcraft hard candy into creations like toothbrushes, hats and ice cream cones. Order the startlingly sweet pizza and eggrolls at Max Brenner in Las Vegas, the restaurant where chocolate is served at every course; and visit Yummy Cupcakes in Burbank, CA, the bakery that serves up a picnic basket of corn on the cob, watermelon, and hamburgers - all made from cupcakes.
Adam Gertler is sinking his teeth into confections that take crunch to the extreme. In Oakdale, CA, Sconza Candy is premiering their newest crunchy snack: Lemoncello Almonds, inspired by the Italian liqueur and unwraps the secret to its 12-layer jawbreaker called the Bruiser - a baseball sized candy so big it needs a handle. Then there is the sound of the surprising snap of Watson's Chocolates' Sponge Candy, a Buffalo, NY delicacy that rises like dough in copper kettles. Rounding out the crunchy experience is munchable popcorn that tastes exactly like strawberry cheesecake (and over 50 other tantalizing flavors) at Popcorn Girl in Las Vegas.
Adam Gertler is hot on the trail of some of the most unusual cakes ever to be baked, fried or frosted. Line up at New York City's popular Doughnut Plant, where the traditionally round pastry turns square, made with fresh cranberries and coconut. Or get fired up with the house specialty, the Creme Brulee Doughnut. Take a trip to the Danish village of Solvang, CA to scale the Kransekage, an Old World 16-layer tower of cake that is making a comeback. Then in Monroe, WI, find out how the bakers at The Swiss Colony are remaking traditional red velvet by rolling a 60-foot pastry into a Red Velvet Swirl Cake.
Adam Gertler rises to the top of the dessert menu with ultra-rich, creamy creations. In Waterbury, VT, get the scoop on how Ben & Jerry's is mixing its most outrageous ice cream yet. Taste the new flavor of New Orleans' French Quarter, where Aunt Sally's Pralines puts a dash of Tabasco sauce in its famous Creamy Pralines. Then in Chicago, discover the latest luscious recipe at The Eli's Cheesecake Company: citrus paired with wine in the luxurious Blood Orange Champagne Cheesecake.
Adam Gertler is taking a tasty trip down memory lane to see how the candies of his youth are growing up. At the NECCO factory in Revere, MA, Sweethearts break with a century of tradition, rolling out in bold new fruit flavors with brand new phrases. Visit Airheads in Erlanger, KY where the new Xtremes Sweetly Sour Belts stretch for miles. Go behind the scenes at Plush Puffs in Burbank, CA, to learn the gooey secret to making two-pound artisan marshmallows. Then stop at Eclipse Chocolate in San Diego, where Orange Honey Plush Puffs meet chocolate to become decadent Rococo Bars.
Adam Gertler samples classic confections getting a modern update from unexpected ingredients. An exclusive tour of Tootsie Roll Industries in Chicago reveals the juicy new Pomegranate Tootsie Pop. Visit Gooey Louie in St. Louis, where traditional gooey butter cake is teaming up with fruit, chocolate, caramel and dozens of other fresh ideas. And at Xooro in Glendale, CA, Spanish churros go gourmet. Loaded with rich fillings and rolled in luscious chocolate, Xooro turns out exotic deep fried desserts like tubular Tiramisu and Maple Bacon.
Adam Gertler is on a whirlwind tour through the whimsical world of chocolate. At the Jelly Belly Candy Company, fruit flavored jelly beans take a dip in dark chocolate for the first time, emerging as the new Jelly Belly Chocolate Dips. Go hunting for truffles in Menlo Park, CA, where Sterling Confections mixes candied ginger, pineapple and other exotic ingredients with ganache to create huge triangular truffle bars covered in psychedelic designs. Then in Kansas City, MO, check out Chip's Chocolate Factory, where fudge making takes an acrobatic twist. To perfect his spectacularly creamy confections, the owner uses a paddle to flip his fudge up to 20 feet into the air!
For Easter, Adam Gertler is filling his basket with the season's most inventive and indulgent confections. At Vosges Haut-Chocolat in Chicago, untraditional Easter eggs are served with bacon, and the colorful Enchanted Mushroom blends soft dark chocolate and hazelnut with organic Reishi mushroom before it is decorated by hand. In Alpine, UT, see how the skilled decorators at Kencraft Candy create Panoramic Eggs from pure sugar that last for years. And at Madame Chocolat in Beverly Hills, discover the ultimate Easter bunny -- standing more than three feet tall!
Adam Gertler uncovers the unconventional candy-making techniques transforming sugar into unexpected, unique confections. At the Charms factory in Covington, TN, a carnival classic is spiked with pucker power to make Tear Jerkers Sour Cotton Candy. In Weymouth, MA, outrageous lollipops made by the sucker specialists at Melville Candy Company taste like buttered popcorn and carrot cake, and look even more bizarre! The shocking sugar shapes even include a mega-pop modeled on Adam's face! At Chicago's Alliance Bakery, see how chocolate is sculpted into realistic driftwood, and molten sugar is blown like glass to build towering works of candy architecture.
Adam Gertler takes a tropical tour of the fruit flavors at the heart of classic candy bars and exotic new sours. In Lufkin, TX, see how the Atkinson Candy Company turns a tropical storm of coconut into millions of their famous Rainbow Coconut Bars. Then rediscover Bonomo Turkish Taffy bars. Out of production for decades, the best-selling Bonomo bars are back, in all of the original flavors, including strawberry and banana. And in South San Francisco, pucker up for a new generation of sour chews at Gimbal's Fine Candies, featuring a medley of twelve tartly sophisticated flavors.
Adam Gertler skewers the myth of the ordinary sucker, finding fresh new ways to get a handle on portable confections. At Hammond's Candies in Denver, CO, gargantuan spiral lollipops grow to five pounds, and come in funky flavors like pear, pumpkin and birthday cake. Gourmet candy apples fall very far from the tree in Hollister, CA, where the DeBrito Chocolate Factory covers bushels of Granny Smiths in more than 40 different creative candy coats, from espresso-infused toffee to chili-lime salt. And at the Tootie Pie Co. in San Antonio, TX, cutting-edge slices of frozen Key Lime Margarita pie are dipped in chocolate and served stuck on a stick!
Adam Gertler double-dips in the candy dish, finding new confections that deliver twice the bang for the buck. A classic movie-house concession becomes a double feature when Mike and Ike candies meet chewy bubble gum. Original Twizzlers get a flavor injection of tangy candy to become Twizzlers Sweet & Sour Filled Twists. Then visit Harry & David, where caramel corn is pairing with the flavors of root beer and ice cream to make the newest variety of Moose Munch.
Adam Gertler is biting off more than he can handle with candy and confections that are ooey, gooey and chewy. In Tennessee, the sky is the limit for the Chattanooga Bakery, where they are updating the traditional recipe for MoonPies. To make the new MoonPie Crunch varieties, fillings like fluffy peanut butter and mint crème are sandwiched between chocolate cookies. See how a traditional, chewy candy goes from mild to wild in La Porte, Indiana, where the American Licorice Company is releasing new Sour Punch Bits that deliver twin bursts of tart in every juicy bite. Then discover the sensationally decadent candy bars at Zingerman's Candy Manufactory in Ann Arbor, MI, where gooey handmade nougat is layered with original specialties like muscovado caramel and raspberry chocolate ganache.
