Your mom's doing it. Your cousin's doing it. Your best friend's doing it. That person you've definitely never met in real life but you friended anyway is doing it. What are they doing? Sharing videos from Buzzfeed's "Tasty."
Tasty creates one-three minute videos that show creative recipes for breakfast, lunch, dinner and dessert. Upbeat music plays in the background as the hands on screen prepare each recipe effortlessly. The final product always looks delicious and simple to make. So effortless and simple that seemingly everyone you know shares the video with a comment about how they're definitely going to try it the next chance they get, and approximately five heart eyes Emoji's.
Despite all the shares, I'd never seen anyone actually make the recipes so I decided to test some out myself. I chose four recipes, braved the grocery store to buy all of the ingredients and went to work in the kitchen.
Recipe One: Caramel Apple Tarts
Watch the Tasty video here: Caramel Apple Tarts
My Tarts:
Tasty's Tarts:
You know that part in the video where they melt sugar down and make caramel like it's no big deal? Yeah, that didn't really work for me. As evidenced by these Snapchats the tart-making process was an emotional journey:
It took one hour to complete this recipe. I ended up covered in sticky caramel and with slightly burned hands, but the final product turned out alright. My tarts definitely weren't as pretty as the ones from Buzzfeed, but they tasted good. I would recommend this recipe to any apple lover with a lot of time on their hands.
Recipe Two: Vegan Shepherd's Pie
Watch the Tasty video here: Vegan Shepherd's Pie
My Shepherd's Pie:
Tasty's Shepherd's Pie:
This recipe called for chopped celery, potatoes, carrots, onion, mushrooms, garlic- you get the idea. When you have a lot of ingredients to prepare, you need a lot of time. Luckily my youngest brother was happy to help chop, or else I'd probably still be making this pie today.
Despite leaving the mixture on the stove for what felt like hours, the sauce never really thickened enough. When I put it in the pie pan it spilled over the edges and the mashed potatoes were difficult to spread over the top. In the end, this recipe ended up tasting kind of bland. I probably won't make it again.
Recipe Three: Pull-Apart Garlic Rolls
Watch the Tasty Video Here: Pull-Apart Garlic Rolls
My Garlic Rolls:
Tasty's Garlic Rolls:
I decided to make this recipe kind of last-minute so I encountered a couple of problems. We didn't have mozzarella cheese at home, so I grated some parmesan cheese instead.(That was mistake number one). I also ran out of parsley, so being the brilliant improviser that I like to think I am, I used random Italian seasonings instead. (Mistake number two). If you ever decide to make this recipe, don't do what I did--follow the steps in the recipe. My rolls tasted good, but they were a little dry which could have been prevented had I used the right ingredients. Overall, this recipe was very simple to make, and I would recommend it to anyone who's looking to add a twist to their dinner rolls.
Recipe Four: Chocolate Almond Braid
Watch the video here: Chocolate Almond Braid
My Braid:
So the next time you watch the "Tasty" videos on Facebook, don't be fooled by how easily the person in the video creates each dish. The first two recipes took me over an hour, and the last two took around 30-45 minutes. However, each item was delicious and I can't wait until I have some more free time to try other recipes from Tasty.
