#GreatBritishBakingShow

The Great British Baking Show | Netflix | W7: 1980’s Week

The 1980’s are alive and well in the tent this week, as the bakers get ready to tackle some challenges based on that totally tubular decade.

Signature Challenge

First up: quiche! The bakers must make 8 individual quiches, consisting of 2 different savory flavors, and Noel stresses the fact that they must be served out of their tins. High temperatures are going to be a challenge for this week, apparently, as Paul warns the bakers must be extra careful because of the heat. And as expected, the bakers have issues with the temperature, which Matt says has gone up to 28 C (~88 F).

Flavors and ingredients run the gamut here – Lottie is using baked beans, and she and Dave are both doing “English breakfast” quiches; Laura is creating a “pea and pizza” quiche, and Marc uses smoked haddock for his quiche. Despite the heat, the bakers all manage get their quiches done. Here’s how they turned out!

The judges have mostly nice comments for the bakers, but they absolutely loved Hermine’s quiches. The French baker excelled at the quiche!

Technical challenge

Paul’s advice for his challenge is to ‘watch the color for the end product.’ #Cryptic! The goal for the bakers is to make 6 custard and jam finger donuts. Again, Paul stresses deep frying in the extreme heat will prove difficult. Both Peter and Lottie mention they’re not looking forward to deep frying…

Despite the heat (the bakers don’t even have to use proving drawers for their dough because it’s so hot!), the bakers seem to be mostly successful with their creations. After a lot of sweat, the bakers finish their donuts:

Paul and Prue have nitpicky comments, and some donuts are fried too long or are just messy. Dave comes in last for his over-frying, then Lottie, Laura, Mark, Peter, and Hermine comes in first! Can Hermine take all three challenges this week?

Showstopper Challenge

Re-imagining ice cream cake (in 4.5 hours) is the challenge for the showstopper, and it must contain a baked element. With the heat, ice cream will probably prove to be a difficult ingredient to work with for this challenge… Matt lets us know the bakers will be using ice cream makers, so at least that’s one hurdle seemingly overcome in the battle with the heat? The bakers certainly take some risks: Dave plans to pipe ice cream on top of his cake, while Lottie plans to coat her entire cake all around in chocolate ice cream. Laura’s ice cream doesn’t turn out because she forgets to turn on the ice setting; she’s left with a chocolate mixture – she turns on the ice setting and chucks in the freezer.

The heat melts everyone’s ice cream really quickly – Mark says it’s around 35 C (~102 F) – and the bakers have a lot of trouble assembling their cakes. Maybe they should have rescheduled this week? Most bakers manage to get things to set, but Laura and Lottie have a lot of trouble keeping their cakes in shape; Laura’s cake falls apart in the freezer. Here’s how the showstoppers all turned out; ice cream in various states!

The judges like Mark’s ice cream cake, and also compliment Hermine on hers. Peter’s cake also looks quite nice and the judges love the flavors of his Christmas cake. On the flip side, the judges say Dave’s cake doesn’t look great, but it tastes great. Lottie’s cake doesn’t turn out quite how she wanted, and it doesn’t go over well with the judges. Similarly, Laura’s cake is lopsided and ice cream melted; the judges like the ice cream but the presentation is messy (and Paul doesn’t understand why anyone would do brownie ice cream – obviously he’s never been to Cold Stone Creamery?!).

The judges deliberate and say Lottie and Laura are in trouble, but Dave saved himself. Matt has the job of announcing star baker for the week, and it’s Hermine! She really did crush it with these challenges! Noel then announces the baker who will be eliminated from the competition this week, and it’s Lottie! She did struggle this week, though Laura has been in the bottom more often, Lottie had too many issues for the judges.

Five bakers remain in the competition, and Hermine has become a new front runner. The five bakers left are all very talented, and as Matt pointed out, everyone has now been named star baker once. I’d day Hermine, Peter and Dave are at the top of the pack and Laura and Mark are at the bottom, but as evidenced this week with the talented Lottie, all it takes is one bad week to be eliminated! M

The Great British Baking Show | Netflix | W2: Biscuit Week

It’s cookie time in the tent as biscuit week kicks off (with a snap!).

Signature Challenge

The bakers have 2 hours to create Florentines, which must be dipped, decorated and/or coated in chocolate. Prue explains that Florentines usually have nuts and dried fruit bound together with caramel. #Mouthwatering!

Fun fact: in the UK, raisins made from green grapes are called “sultanas.” I call all raisins “disgusting.” Moving on…

Several bakers use mango in their Florentines; there are square cookies, cookies with edible flowers, lots of raisins, and even some airbrushed decorations.

Prue worried about Mark’s very large nuts (I really don’t think she meant the double entendre, but that’s how it was received, with a laugh from everyone). Here’s how some turned out:

Paul and Prue were happy with most of the Florentines, though some didn’t have enough cookie-snap. Lottie’s cookies impressed Paul – who said he couldn’t find a fault with them – earning Lottie the first Hollywood Handshake^TM of the season!

Technical Challenge

Prue sets the challenge, in which the bakers must make 12 hand-shaped coconut macaroons – six of which must be drizzled and filled with chocolate, and six must be piped with mango curd. They have 1 hour and 45 minutes to do so.

Prue says macaroons are trickier than they sound, because there are a lot of things that could go wrong, and the bakers must be precise to get the right textures all around.

The bakers start making their mango curds with their pared down instructions, and most seem to get it right. They move on to processing the coconut to shape their cookies; they pipe the coconut onto six rounds on rice paper (for the six mango cookies), and flatten some more coconut onto six more rounds, for the chocolate ones.

As the instructions just say to “bake”, the bakers wing it and chuck their cookies into their ovens. Don’t you just love these technical challenges? They’re supposed to be golden brown, but most of the bakers seem to have trouble getting them completely baked.

The judges critique the macaroons and ultimately most were under baked. When they are ranked, Mak came in third, Mark came in second, and Dave came in first. This was a struggle for most, and Rowan came in last place.

Showstopper Challenge

The final challenge is to create a 3D cookie table setting from a memorable meal each baker has had. What does that even mean? As Matt says, they need to use cookie dough in order to make cookies that “deceive the eye into thinking they’re teapots, or cups or knives, etc.” They have 4 hours to complete the challenge, and this sounds near impossible (even though they do get to practice).

Prue says she wants the bakers to use their dough “as a clay” to mold their creations. Even with actual clay, this would be incredibly difficult. Adding in the fact they need to make these sculptures taste good and actually keep their shape? Good luck!

Indeed, each baker has a ton of work to do. Some bakers struggle to get their cookies out of their molds, and even Paul admits this is a tricky challenge. Some bakers come up with some amazing designs, others aren’t so successful. Delightfully British Prue tells Rowan “it’s not [his] best,” and she knows he can do more. On the flip side, she and Paul both love Peter’s Scottish cranachan – a mix of oatmeal, whiskey (!) raspberries, honey and cream. We know Prue loves boozy desserts!

Here’s are some of the finished products:

After some deliberation, Noel announces Dave is the Star Baker for the week! Matt then announces the baker going home for their biscuits is Mak (to Rowan’s relief).

So after week 2, Dave and Peter seem to be leading the pack, while Rowan is having a hard time of things. More importantly, everyone seems to having such a great time on this show – the contestants seem happier and more giggly, and I think that’s because of Matt Lucas’ jokey energy. He certainly makes Noel laugh, and they seem to be getting along quite well and feeding off each other’s goofiness.

Truly, how can you not smile at an adult man wearing a knitted sweater with a giant smiley face? M

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