Best Baker in America Season 4 episode 4 preview: Kuchen and scotcheroo

Contestants enter the kitchen where Host Carla Hall will present the next challenge, as seen on Best Baker in America, Season 4. Photo courtesy Food Network
Contestants enter the kitchen where Host Carla Hall will present the next challenge, as seen on Best Baker in America, Season 4. Photo courtesy Food Network /
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As Best Baker in America Season 4 continues to travel across the country, two more desserts that might not be quite as well known are being highlighted. Have you had a kuchen or a scotcheroo?

According to Food Network, Best Baker in America Season 4 episode 4, “The Northern Plains,” features the following:

"The seven bakers left in the competition are tasked with putting their own spin on kuchen, the official state dessert of South Dakota. The featured flavor is cookies, and they have to serve their kuchen with a side of ice cream. The competitors in the bake-off challenge must do a switcheroo with Minnesota’s scotcheroo bar, making a new dessert using its classic ingredients of chocolate, peanut butter, rice cereal and butterscotch. Host Carla Hall and judges Gesine Prado and Jason Smith decide which baker to send home."

While kuchen is the German word for cake, the famous dessert is more like a dessert mash-up of a cake and a pie. Often enjoyed with a cup of coffee or tea, the flavor is less sweet than a traditional cake. With more butter than sugar, the sweetness comes from other toppings.

Although the fruit combinations in the custard vary, it continues the less sweet flavor story. Many bakers use peaches, but other fruits are common, too. And, the dessert can omit the custard.

With cookies being the featured flavor in the kuchen, it might be the flavor of the crust. Although oatmeal is a traditional crust, cookies could be easily incorporated into a crust.

For the bake-off, the scotcheroo is basically a dessert bar. This challenge seems similar to the key lime pie challenge from earlier this season. It will be interesting to see how creative the bakers can be with this challenge. Although the dessert needs to be executed well, the creativity of “re-imagination” needs to be on point.

Overall, it has been hard to pick top bakers in Best Baker in America Season 4. Each episode seems to have big switches. From top to bottom and back again, there has not been any consistency to the bakers’ impressing the judges.

Will this episode start to see some bakers break out from the group? Here’s how to watch Best Baker in America Season 4 episode 4, “The Northern Plains.”

Date: Monday, May 24, 2021

Start Time: 9 p.m. ET

Episode: “The Northern Plains”

TV Channel: Food Network

Live Stream: Watch live on Fubo TV. Sign up now for a free seven-day trial. You can also watch on Food Network’s website or app.

Best Baker in America Season 4 will air on Food Network on Mondays at 9 p.m. ET/PT.