If you are a new baker, you might find pastry intimidating. Now, I’m not sure if this episode will have done anything to dissuade you of that notion, but it was one of Bake Off’s most comprehensive demonstrations of pastry skill. The only thing missing was puff pastry or a variation of it, but we got that in last week’s technical, so no harm done. However, Pastry Week is also when “Bake Off” often ramps up, and we definitely saw it this week. The standard was good, but not on the jaw-dropping level it has been for the first four weeks of this season.
As the bakers march into the tent, Gill is feeling confident. A confessional like that is usually a sign that either the baker will win the episode, or go home. Meanwhile, Nelly is wearing an outfit that challenges Noel for its avant-garde-ness—a Barbie pink shirt and matching pink lipstick, big gold earrings and a black beret. Noel puts up a fight though, in a sweater that appears to depict an infrared image of a tapir wearing a nose ring.
The signature challenge is a dozen mini frangipane tarts. Frangipane is a sweet almond paste, traditionally paired with fruit. It’s pretty easy to make and is relatively forgiving. Tart pastry (also known as shortcrust) is also one of the easier pastries to master, so this is an opportunity for the bakers to show their basic knowledge and shine with their flavors.
Andy has taken inspiration from his grandmother’s candy bowl and is making lime and chocolate frangipane tarts. I’m not sold on the lime, chocolate and frangipane combination, but the judges seem enthused. Gill is doing pistachio and blueberry, a more tried-and-true combination, although blueberry can be finicky as a flavor. Dylan is going for chocolate and coffee, and insists his chocolate is “fruity.” The wildest flavor combination is coming from Christiaan, with cashew and black sesame. His tarts will no doubt be rich in calcium.
Then we have various versions of the classic “almonds and fruit” frangipane tarts. Georgie is keeping it simple with raspberries. Sumayah is also doing raspberries, but is adding coconut as well. Illiyin is going for tropical flavors—coconut, mango and passion fruit. “I want it to look like sunshine, and I want it to taste like sunshine as well,” she explains. Nelly’s flavors are my favorite of the challenge, with a blood orange and hazelnut frangipane tart. She also reveals that her son picked her outfit, and the beret she’s wearing belongs to her son. I’m starting to tear up again, but Noel distracts me by revealing that he’s half French. New Noel lore alert!
Then we have some pastry drama. During what Noel’s narration refers to as a “blind bake.” Illiyin’s tarts are collapsing and Dylan’s are puffing up. However, they are not truly blind baking. Blind baking is done by weighing down the pastry with something (baking beads if you’re fancy, rice if you’re not) and baking it in the oven before adding the filling. You can’t see the pastry, hence “blind.” This technique would have supported Illiyin’s pastry and flattened Dylan’s, but neither of them did a true blind bake. We pan to various *not blind baked* tart crusts and I despair for the baking technique of the British Isles. Nelly restores my faith by properly blind baking her tart cases. Thank goodness for Nelly in literally all situations.
The biggest screw up of the signature comes from Andy, who doesn’t hear his timer and burns his tart cases. He doesn’t have time to remake them, and he is not happy. Gill, on the other hand, is disturbingly calm, and even manages to finish early.
During judging, Illiyin’s tarts are woefully underbaked. Dylan loses his “flavor king” title by overpowering the frangipane. Nelly’s pastry is too thick. Sumayah’s tarts are overbaked. Christiaan’s are compared to “sardine pate” in appearance by Prue and are bland. And Andy’s are burnt. It’s not the finest showing for this generally strong group of bakers. Georgie scrapes by with good flavors, and Gill is the only one who really nails the challenge, with finessed, elegant tarts that taste great. She’s thrilled, and it feels like the moment where she can finally break out from the pack.
Onto the technical! Andy had one hope for the technical: that it wouldn’t be phyllo. So of course it is phyllo, or spanakopita, to be more precise. Phyllo is an incredibly thin, technical pastry that most people buy ready made. The bakers are also given two and a half hours, and the ideal bake time for a spanakopita is 45 minutes. So they have one hour 45 minutes to do everything else, which is, generally speaking, NOT ENOUGH TIME. The only saving grace is that the bakers have been given pasta machines.
Surprisingly, most of the bakers take to phyllo pastry relatively well. Christiaan whacks his oven temperature up to try and get his spanakopita baked in time. Nelly is having enough fun to sing the Barbie theme song (have I mentioned how much I love her?). It’s only Gill and Andy who really struggle. Gill can afford a bad technical on the back of her excellent signature, but Andy can’t.
At the end of the technical, Andy hits himself on the head with a pizza plate. Yes, Andy. You and me both.
During judging, the majority of the spanakopitas are deemed to be underbaked (gee I wonder why). They are ranked essentially in order of most underbaked to least underbaked. Gill is in last, and Andy is in seventh. Christiaan is in second (for the third time), and Dylan is in first with the only fully baked spanakopita. In the judge’s pavilion, the outcome of the episode is deemed to be “all down to the showstopper.”
The showstopper is a Paris Brest centerpiece with an edible stand. A Paris Brest is just a big ring of filled choux pastry. I’ve made two of them in my time, and they’re relatively straightforward, but can be a bit annoying to assemble. So clearly the Bake Off challenge setters needed to make everything more annoying by adding an edible stand, the type of construction nonsense I thought we would be done with after biscuit week.
The other thing that throws me for a loop during this challenge is the extremely British pronunciation of “Paris Brest.” Having lived in Paris for over two months now, the lack of the French “r” really gets to me.
Gill is going down the family inspiration route, with a Paris Brest inspired by her dad’s lemon meringue pie. Sumayah is going for an intricate stand inspired by the tree of life and art nouveau (of course she is). Her flavors—passion fruit and dark chocolate—are great though. Dylan is taking a big risk by using matcha, one of Paul’s least favorite flavors. Dylan insists this time will be better because he’s using “ceremonial grade matcha.” Ceremonial grade matcha is an extremely strong form of matcha, so I’m not sure I follow Dylan’s logic. Christiaan is keeping it nice and classic with pecan and orange. Andy is also using pecans, Illiyin is going for hazelnut, and both Nelly and Georgie are doing pistachio and raspberry.
During the challenge, Dylan and Christiaan have choux problems and Andy has stand problems. Dylan’s choux deflates. He insists he doesn’t know why, but to my eyes this has all the symptoms of an oven door opened too early. He claims that the judges “won’t notice the rise too much.” Um, Dylan, you are making choux. The rise is the whole damn point. Meanwhile, Christiaan decides to remake his choux after his first batch bakes weirdly. He’s a little behind but his second batch is better. Poor Andy is the one who suffers the most. His caramel stand shatters, and he is left having to present his stand and his Paris Brest separately.
The overall standard during the showstopper is higher than the technical, but lower than previous weeks. Illiyin has great flavors, and for some reason Paul doesn’t hate Dylan’s matcha cream, and shockingly, the judges do pick up on his choux’s lack of rise. Georgie’s is slightly overbaked but her sponge cake stand is great. Nelly has good flavors but underbaked choux. Sumayah does quite well. Andy’s tastes okay, but it’s probably not enough to save him, especially with a broken stand. However, he delivers the comedic highlight of the episode by referring to his pecan mousseline as “pecan Mussolini.”
The highlight of the showstopper is Gill, who delivers a bake so good that Paul leads a round of applause for her. It’s enough to give her Star Baker, making her the second Star Baker of the season to come last in the technical challenge of the same week. Is there any point to the technical anymore? Or is it just a sign of how close all these bakers are?
Going home is Andy, who had a bit of a nightmare of a week. He’s clearly expecting it, and takes it with good grace. Meanwhile, Gill calls her husband to tell him she’s won Star Baker, and his response is “absolute legend.”
Next time: Autumn Week! I am in full support of this theme, although the challenge previews are vague: warming, obscure, and stunning respectively. Will we see more black sesame? Can Nelly finally win Star Baker? And was that a showstopper handshake I saw in the preview? Keep reading to find out.
