This week’s episode marks the halfway point of the show and opens with a talking cinnamon roll — the week brings pastries.
“I think some nerves is good, I was getting a bit too relaxed,” Sumayah said as the group walked to the tent, referring to her less-than-ideal performance last week.
“Pastry on a short time scale is very tricky,” Andy said. “So, I’ll have to cut a few corners. Hopefully it just comes out banging.”
Responding to Noel Fielding, co-host, there are five main types of pastry, according to Alison Hammond: “Yummy, scrummy, gorgeous, lovely, and delicious,” she said, counting them off on her fingers.
The Challenges
The Signature Challenge: 12 Frangipane Tarts
A frangipane tart is a traditional French pastry, filled with fruit and frangipane filling (creamy, almond-based filling), held by a tart shell. The tarts could either use traditional Bakewell flavors — almond and raspberry — or the bakers could come up with their own flavors. The judges looked for buttery shortcrust pastry, beautiful baked frangipane, and at least one added filling.
“When you think of that classic frangipane tart, you think of those classic Bakewell flavors, which are shortcrust, raspberry, almond,” Paul Hollywood, one of the judges, said.
“The important thing about shortcrust pastry is that it should be short, so that it’s crumbly and it will break easily. That it won’t be tough,” Prue Leith, the other judge, added. “I want the flavor, the crispness, the frangipane coming through, but I also want them to look great. And thin pastry please.”
A “perfect” frangipane is a mixture of nuts, butter, eggs, and sugar into a “spreadable” paste — “it’s almost like a sponge with nuts in it,” Gill said. “It looks weird and then it gets weirder and then it gets better.” The tartes also needed to be thin to be the correct ratio to frangipane filling.
Andy based his tarts on his nan’s sweets and the lime chocolates he always had when at her house. His creation featured lime curd with a ganache piping and an almond and pistachio frangipane. Unfortunately, he overbaked his tarts. “I thought that sort of might give my personality across … a bit wonky,” Andy said, when responding to criticisms that the piping on top was not precise enough. The judges noticed the overbaked pastries but also did love the flavors.
Gill created her tarts with pistachios — it’s the only nut her husband likes and it’s how she persuaded him to try the tarts. The pistachio frangipane pastries are topped with a blueberry compôte and créme diplomat (a way to make cream that will hold a structure better). Both Hollywood and Leith thought they tasted great. They had nothing but positive things to say.
Georgie, taking a traditional approach, created almond frangipane tarts, topped by mascarpone and Chantilly cream and raspberry gel. “They look like you want to eat them,” Hollywood said to her with a smile, before tasting the tarts. Both judges appreciated the classic flavors she chose and the crispness of her shell.
Nelly, using blood orange for the tart, used a hazelnut and almond frangipane and topped with Italian meringue. She blowtorched her meringues. To Hollywood’s comment that her tarts looked a bit “all over the place,” she said, “It’s a … Willy Wonka Chocolate Factory,” in her trademark humor. Leith loved the blood orange but Hollywood though the pastry was too thick.
Dylan, instead of using fruit filling, was the only baker to choose to use coffee and chocolate. His “fruity” chocolate ganache — meaning the chocolate will taste like berries — paired with coffee gel on a blackberry frangipane. Unfortunately, his pastries began to puff up like cake, not at all something you want with a shortcrust, and he had to restart his dough. His tarts turned out quite nice looking and luckily, despite his worries, the shortcrust turned out short enough. But Hollywood wanted to “celebrate” a frangipane and that didn’t happen for Dylan’s tarts.
Illiyin made a toasted coconut frangipane, intending it to look and taste like sunshine. On the tart will be a passionfruit mousse dome and mango gel. She decorated it with Chantilly cream. While in the oven, the wall of one of her tarts began to fall in, causing a bit of a freakout. She had to start her dough from scratch as well. Hollywood wanted her to choose either mango or passionfruit and both Hollywood and Leith noticed that the pastry was underbaked and therefore soggy.
Sumayah topped her pastries with coconut crème pâtissière (a creamy and thick vanilla custard), meringue, and raspberry gel — her frangipane was made from coconut. She also used a blowtorch to toast the meringue. Despite good textures, it was a bit overbaked.
Christiaan created a cashew and black sesame frangipane with apricot jam and apricot royal icing. His tarts turned out quite even, though the frangipane was on top and Leith thought it looked a bit like “sardine pâté.” Still, his pastry turned out well.
The Technical Challenge: Spanakopita
Hollywood set this week’s challenge and said, “don’t underestimate the resting time.” The challenge? Hollywood’s take on the classic Greek pie, the spanakopita. This includes homemade filo pastry shaped into a spiraled pie, packed with a “fragrant” filling of feta and spinach.
“It’s basically spinach feta in a filo parcel,” Hollywood told Leith. Filo is all about thinness and layers. Resting time comes in because, “the longer they rest it, the easier it is to work with.”
Because the dough is filled, the moisture inside the pastry has to be right; Hollywood recommends patting dry the spinach to take out some of the excess moisture. Without that, the bottom is soggy. The “critical” bake needs to be right, in order to get a nice and browned crust.
The bakers used a pasta machine to thin the dough and they all loved it. The process is careful here because they can’t have too thin or too thick pastry. But waiting too long on the thinning process means running out of baking time. Both Gill and Andy were a bit late on getting their pastries into the oven. Many of the other bakers also, worried about timing, cranked their temperatures up to get the golden color.
As always, the technical challenge is judged blind. Here are the results:
- Dylan
- Christiaan (his third time coming second in the technical challenge!)
- Nelly
- Sumayah
- Illiyin
- Georgie
- Andy
- Gill
The Showstopper Challenge: A Paris-Brest Centerpiece on an Edible Stand
The judges were looking for a Paris-Brest centerpiece, complete with an edible stand, including a highly decorated gateau, consisting of a large choux pastry ring and at least one custard-based filling.
The Paris-Brest is a choux pastry ring (instead of using yeast to rise, it uses moisture and air pockets), filled with praline crème mousseline. The pastry was created in 1910, celebrating a bicycle race between Paris and Brest.
“The choux itself is all about that crispiness on the outside,” Hollywood explained. “And you want that slight fluffiness on the inside, but not too soft, because you’re going to fill that with a mousseline, a praline, a cream.”
“It must be a very light creamy filling inside,” Leith continued. “Because what you don’t want is a stodgy crème pâtissière.”
The edible stands needed to be strong to celebrate the Paris-Breste and hold it up. It could be made from chocolate or biscuits, or really anything strong enough.
The first step for choux pastry is combining milk, water, butter, and flour, coming together like a smooth paste. Then eggs are added in. But the moisture has to be correct: Dryness will lead to cracking in the oven, wetness will lead to flat pastries. The bakers couldn’t take their pastries out of the oven too quickly or that would risk collapse. Unfortunately, leaving it for too long could lead to burning.
It was quite stressful to watch the bakers assemble the precarious towers.
Gill, remembering her father’s “fantastic” lemon meringue pie (and one of the first things she baked with him), planned to fill her Paris-Brest with lemon crème mousseline and lemon and thyme curd. She topped it with Italian meringue. She also used an orange biscuit stand to display it. Her stand was very simple, allowing the Paris-Brest to be celebrated because, as Hollywood put it, “what is on the top is one of the best-looking Paris-Brests in here.” As soon as he finished putting the pastry in his mouth, Hollywood began to clap, bringing Gill a round of applause.
Sumayah created a stand made out of krokan, an almond biscuit, inspired by the tree of life and Art Nouveau. She filled her Paris-Brest with passionfruit mousseline, topped with dark chocolate ganache. She had incredible details on her stand and she had “absolutely perfect” filling, though the choux was also overbaked.
Dylan, trying to impress the judges with his flavors, included matcha in his pastry (despite Hollywood’s dislike for the tea). He created a matcha crème diplomat with roasted green tea mousseline and pecan praline. His stand was made out of black sesame nougatine. The base of his Paris-Brest deflated quite a bit when it came out of the oven. The judges loved the stand but noticed the small size of the Paris-Brest right away. The flavor was good but there wasn’t enough pastry.
Christiaan created a pecan and orange Paris-Brest, on an almond nougatine stand. His pastries included orange crème mousseline and pecan-praline mousseline. His stand was quite elegant, according to Leith. They loved the flavors but the choux and the orange mousseline were not right.
Illiyin created a nutty Paris-Brest with hazelnut crème diplomat, a dark chocolate ganache, and hazelnut praline. The stand she chose to create was made from chocolate covered in gold. Her inspiration? The mad queen from Game of Thrones, her favorite show. The timing of a reality show meant that after all of the waiting that happens, her stand began to crack under pressure. Leith said it looked very “country baking shop” and sophisticated at the same time. Beyond her stand, the judges had nothing but good things to say about the taste, texture, and bake of her pastries.
Nelly was inspired by a tree outside of the tent with pink flowers. Her Paris-Brest will be filled with pistachio praline cream and raspberry jam, resting on a stand of profiteroles packed with coconut cream. Though the outside of the choux is perfectly baked, the inside has a layer of unbaked dough. Despite the “not-so-great” choux, the flavors were.
Georgie, drawing inspiration from a trip to Italy and her own Italian heritage, created a pitasahio and raspberry Paris-Brest, filled with crème diplomat and raspberry gel. Her Paris-Brest stand is stacked sponge cakes wrapped with “a chocolate collar.” Her stand turned out beautifully but she was a victim of the reality TV show waiting problem and her filling began to leak out a bit. The flavors were good but her pastry was overbaked and therefore dry. The cake inside the stand, though, was delicious, according to Leith.
Andy created a pecan and date mousseline Paris-Brest, which included Pecan mousseline and date caramel with rum. The stand was made from toffee. He drew inspiration from a chocolate bar he shared with his partner when they first started going out. His toffee cracked under pressure. At the end, he decided to take the Paris-Brest off of the toffee stand. The bake on the choux was good but there wasn’t enough flavor.
Unfortunately, at the end of pastry week, Andy was sent home. Amazingly, Gill was named star baker this week! On the phone at the end of the episode her husband called her a “legend.”
As we settle in to fall fashions and colder weather, next week’s episode brings us autumn desserts!
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