S11.E04: Chocolate Week

[Athena]

5 hours ago, truther said:

This got me wondering about the Covid bubble they're all in.  These bakers are spending vastly more time together than the bakers normally do on this show.  Everybody used to go home during the week and they'd come back to the tent each weekends.  I wonder whether all that time together is going to start having an effect on how they decide what and how to bake each week. 

Since they give all the recipes to the producers before the show so that tools and ingredients can be procured, they can't change their ideas drastically. Especially not this summer in their baking bubble as the show were strict with sanitizing and quarantining things that came into the property. The bakers are definitely talking to each other more. The producers said that in every series the contestants would talk to each other between tapings including giving each other tips.

2 hours ago, MisterGlass said:

In retrospect I think Peter had the best idea - just put white chocolate chunks in.

I've grown to appreciate white chocolate over the years especially if it's from a chocolatier so I don't hate it. I think Peter's idea was good if the chunks were small but from the sounds of the one Prue got, the chunks may have been a tad too big. As she said, big chunks can get really sticky and gluey in your mouth.

[janie jones]

On 10/13/2020 at 10:47 PM, ElectricBoogaloo said:

I’m guessing that all the bakers who didn’t know what chocolate babka was have never watched Seinfeld!

Trader Joe's had chocolate babkas when I was there a few years ago, and Seinfeld was the only reason I got one.

On 10/14/2020 at 3:24 PM, ElectricBoogaloo said:

I forgot to mention one of my complaints from the showstopper challenge: I have hated the naked cake trend since it reared its ugly head. To me, that's a crumb coat.

I feel the same way, but I thought the one Mark (?) did was the only good one I've ever seen.

On 10/14/2020 at 6:07 PM, Lois Sandborne said:

Everyone extrai-ing up their brownies made me think of one of my favorite Frasier quotes, when someone's trying to get him to keep it simple: "Yes, but if less is more, just think how much more more will be!"

I'm pretty sure someone literally said something like "Less is not more." I've always thought that I wouldn't do well on this show because although I'm a technically proficient baker, I'm not always very creative. I would have aced the signature because I would have just done normal brownies.

One of my favorite moments in this episode was when Matt was pretending to do a news report and then said they would go to the weather. Then they cut to Dave talking about the temperature in the tent.

Are Lottie and Mark a thing?

[AZChristian]

Saw the chocolate babkas on GBBO.

Called a local REAL bakery.

Hi, I have two questions:

• Do you have chocolate babkas every day?  Answer:  Yes.
• Do you bake them there as opposed to shipping them in from a wholesaler?  Answer:  Yes.

Awesome . . . I'll see you one day next week!  

[cherrypj]

17 minutes ago, janie jones said:

Are Lottie and Mark a thing?

They have a fun relationship but Mark is married. 

[libgirl2]

6 hours ago, Rickster said:

The trouble with the brownie challenge is that brownies are best when they’re pretty simple, and they’re pretty easy to bake. Any contestant is going to think that they need to distinguish themselves by bringing the creativity, and in this case it was pretty much a disaster. But what contestant would want to risk putting out a plain brownie?

And that is what I think was the trick to this. Don't overdo it but don't make it be too plain. It seemed they were looking more for the actually taste of a good brownie. 

On 10/13/2020 at 12:18 AM, TomGirl said:

Lottie is so beautiful!  At the risk of dating myself, I think she looks like a young Charlotte Rampling circa “Georgey Girl.”  Sura is also a beauty.

That is who she looks like! Thanks for bringing that up. And yes Sura is also quite lovely. 

[sandrajane]

3 hours ago, Aulty said:

In the first few series the signature was introduced as a tried and tested recipe the bakers would make for their families - the soda bread they bake every week, their go to recipe for brownies, their recipe for easter buns, their favourite madeira cake etc. So what we got was the odd candied peel, glazes (often including a tipple), decorative incissions in pastry, maybe some fancy piping.

It became the decoration olympics a few years ago. Dunno whether thats down to how the challenges are worded, or just the way the bakers approach it.

A couple of seasons ago, someone did a pineapple upside down cake for their signature.  I remember the baker worrying it was too simple.  But the judges loved it. 

[dgpolo]

On 10/13/2020 at 3:23 PM, Aulty said:

Dear production crew: get fecking CHEST FREEZERS!

No, Blast Freezers, those would be a great help.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

 

7 hours ago, Pepper Mostly said:

I never make brownies from scratch! I spend $2 on Ghirardelli brownie mix and they come out great with much less effort. Its the only thing I prefer to make from a mix. To jazz them up I'll add dried cherries, or espresso powder and use coffee instead of water, or sprinkle mini marshmallows on top while they're still hot so they get all melty, or drizzle with a little caramel, or add peanut butter chips or swirl some peanut butter in the mix.

Brownie mix is just cocoa powder, sugar, flour, baking soda, and salt. Sometimes I buy the box mixes and sometimes I just use what's in the pantry. I can't explain why I sometimes choose one method over the other. It takes me about five minutes to measure the ingredients myself using what's in my kitchen but there is something satisfying about just opening the box and dumping the entire bag into a bowl.

[Quilt Fairy]

16 minutes ago, ElectricBoogaloo said:

I spend $2 on Ghirardelli brownie mix and they come out great with much less effort.

I'm strictly a box mix girl and I agree about the Ghirardelli brownie mixes.  They are very good.  My favorite is the caramel one, which unfortunately my store can't seem to get right now.  

[kittykat]

I'm either/or on box vs scratch.  Because on some nights, measuring chocolate, sugar and butter is too much work and the Ghirardelli mixes are heavenly.

Personally I think it's better to keep things simple on a signature challenge.  Showstoppers are for experimentation and whimsy but with a signature challenge nail your basics and make it taste good.

[Quilt Fairy]

There's something I don't understand about the judging of Sura's showstopper.  The bottom layer may have been raw, and she certainly should be dinged for that, but the cake had 6 layers.  Why couldn't they at least taste one of the top layers? 

And I'm assuming the raw dough thing is because eggs may have salmonella, is that right? 

Edited October 17, 2020 by Quilt Fairy

[Gwendolyn]

9 hours ago, Pepper Mostly said:

I never make brownies from scratch! I spend $2 on Ghirardelli brownie mix and they come out great with much less effort. Its the only thing I prefer to make from a mix. To jazz them up I'll add dried cherries, or espresso powder and use coffee instead of water, or sprinkle mini marshmallows on top while they're still hot so they get all melty, or drizzle with a little caramel, or add peanut butter chips or swirl some peanut butter in the mix. 

I've never jazzed up my brownies, but I do rely on the Ghirardelli brownie mix, only I use the old weight loss trick of pureeing some black beans and adding them to the mix. I feed them to tons of people who love them and are surprised about the black beans.

But for this challenge their best bet would have been a perfect, simple brownie, add a chocolate chip or a peanut butter chip, or swirl in some caramel sauce or cream cheese at the top. But no frosting, meringues, etc. The fashion advice look in the mirror and remove one thing before you leave, applied here, look at your recipe and remove on extra source of sugar/sweetness.

As much as I'll miss Sura was doomed the minute it was revealed her cake was raw and they couldn't even taste it. Also how did she not notice her bake was completely raw? I didn't notice if she went for the listening method or sticking a knife/toothpick in to see if comes out clean.  While everyone had a so-so week, there's no coming back from raw cake dough.

[theatremouse]

3 hours ago, dgpolo said:

No, Blast Freezers, those would be a great help.

But the point is they're home bakers, who do not normally have those. It's intentional they're not provided with special freezers that would help. They're supposed to have similar equipment to what home bakers have.

[kirklandia]

"That's how you know your meringue is done...You've got a Trump on your whisk."

Mark L for the win!

[killer.noona]

I thought that Chetna had made a babka, and that Paul had even made one for Masterclass, maybe a holiday epsiode.

I googled it and Benjamina and maybe Ravi made one on their season, and Chetna's signature bake was close to a babka and turned out to be similar to the technical challenge.

Everyone kept saying they'd never heard of a babka. Do they not watch previous seasons or are they not supposed to reference them too specifically?

 

Edited October 18, 2020 by killer.noona

[Irlandesa]

2 hours ago, theatremouse said:

But the point is they're home bakers, who do not normally have those. It's intentional they're not provided with special freezers that would help. They're supposed to have similar equipment to what home bakers have.

But home bakers also don't have to cook and frost their cakes in three hours.  If the cake is still warm because it's hot outside, the cake gets to sit a bit longer until it's cool. 

[NYCFree]

I grew up and lived for 48 years in the neighborhood where Seinfeld was based. The bagel/babka combo makes me wonder if they have a new producer that is bringing different ideas?

I think everyone was simply afraid to make their best brownie, for fear that it would be deemed “too simple” and not GBBO rated.

[sharifa70]

I made *my* signature brownies this afternoon and ended up ruining them. I usually replace the nuts with white chocolate chips, but I didn’t have any so I thought I’d try them with the nuts (pecans) for the first time. Every time I think “this time maybe I won’t mind the nuts,” I am oh, so very wrong. So very wrong, and so very sad, since they did have the gooey middle and cracked top. I am a sad home baker with an unfulfilled brownie craving.

[MisterGlass]

4 hours ago, Quilt Fairy said:

And I'm assuming the raw dough thing is because eggs may have salmonella, is that right? 

I assume.  Also, raw flour can contain E.coli.

[bybrandy]

I'm going to defend naked cakes here.   I agree sometimes they can look sloppy but too much icing is sickeningly sweet and naked cakes=less icing.  Team naked cakes!    

I've never made brownies from a mix but I'll give it a go.     This is my go to recipe.  cocoa brownies with browned butter and walnuts.   Although, I often omit or change the nuts and I have totally done a few different swirls when I've made them.  I really like adding a little spicy.   

 

[Bad Example]

On 10/14/2020 at 4:56 PM, ElectricBoogaloo said:

If I was feeling fancy, I would have put a light drizzle of salted caramel on the top just to add a tiny bit of saltiness to contrast with the fudgey flavor.

I would absolutely pick the brownies you described as my first choice!

On 10/16/2020 at 6:25 PM, dleighg said:

Honestly while I do make bread and bake a bit, I use a box for brownies. But so much "too much" on those brownies!

Same.  Box brownies are great, so I go with it.

But don't mind me.  My go-to brownie decoration is putting M&M minis on in them for a little texture, so I am clearly very fancy.  Yum.  

[Lois Sandborne]

Perhaps my most useless superpower is that I can tell the difference between scratch and mix brownies. Mixes are fine though; even the cheap generic ones still make brownies, and it's just really hard to screw up a brownie. And yet ...

On 10/17/2020 at 7:32 AM, Rickster said:

The trouble with the brownie challenge is that brownies are best when they’re pretty simple, and they’re pretty easy to bake. Any contestant is going to think that they need to distinguish themselves by bringing the creativity, and in this case it was pretty much a disaster. But what contestant would want to risk putting out a plain brownie?

This, but that's the contestants' fault, not the challenge. I make an excellent brownie with fresh cranberries, caramel, and pecans. Nothing on top, but I wouldn't call them plain. Lots of people make those Mississippi mud ones, or swirl in cheesecake filling, or fruit syrup.  They're one of the easiest things to level up. But piling anything on top of a brownie (or a cupcake, but that's another rant), or trying to incorporate a whole other dessert like an actual cheesecake or a cookie is just poor judgment.

Lovely Ian from series 6 was the guest on the podcast this week, and he pointed out that they only gave the bakers 2 hours (or 2.5?) to make their babkas, which technically require an enriched dough, when last week they jumped down Hermine's throat for trying to approximate brioche in 3 hours. I don't think they were making true babkas in the tent, y'all.

Re: white chocolate, I think it has its place in desserts and baking. I hate raspberries, but when they're paired with white chocolate they taste much better to me even than when paired with real chocolate, so there must be something to it. It was an interesting challenge to think about featuring something so sweet throughout a whole cake. Props to Hermine for her butter swap out too. That was so smart; I'm excited to see what she's going to do with pastry.

For a show that regularly features enviable industrial-size proving drawers, I don't think it would be beyond the pale to get them a blast chiller.

[khyber]

20 hours ago, khyber said:

I had never heard of that So. African liqueur Amarula Cream. I looked it up, it sounded interesting so I bought a bottle at the store today. I will see how it is tonight!

Its very smooth and easy to drink. A bit like Bailey's in style but the flavor is not the same.

[Clanstarling]

On 10/13/2020 at 1:22 PM, Danny Franks said:

I've never had babka, but I feel like I need to. It looked really nice.

Me neither. I tried to convince my daughter to repurpose her amazing cinnamon bread recipe and use chocolate.

On 10/14/2020 at 1:56 PM, ElectricBoogaloo said:

I would like to add that I've had brownies with a chocolate chip cookie base, and I've also had brownies with cheesecake batter on top so some of the ideas weren't totally from left field, but most of the bakers added too many elements that weren't doable in the time frame. You know you have only 90 minutes so don't make a brownie that requires TWO bakes in the oven. That just guarantees you won't have enough time to let them cool so that you can cut them cleanly, let alone decorate with everything melting.

I love brownies, and I love chocolate chip cookies - especially from one bakery in town. But their chocolate chip cookie/brownie is less than delicious. Instead of elevating the flavors, it seemed to me it diminished them.

On 10/14/2020 at 3:24 PM, ElectricBoogaloo said:

I forgot to mention one of my complaints from the showstopper challenge: I have hated the naked cake trend since it reared its ugly head. To me, that's a crumb coat.

You and me both. Aesthetically, I find them ugly (though the naked with the strawberries did look nicer than expected). And as a dyed in the wool frosting lover, I want my frosting, dang it.

18 hours ago, dgpolo said:

No, Blast Freezers, those would be a great help.

I've often thought they should have a fridge/freezer for each contestant. Would have solved a lot of problems over the seasons.

I was astonished that the brownie bake went so wrong. They're an easy bake, and as everyone has mentioned, there are many easy ways to spice them up, as it were.

When I was making brownies, I used to use a recipe I got from a mystery novel of all things. They were the most amazing brownies I ever tasted. But I don't bake too often, as we don't need the extra calories too often (Friday's for Bake Off are an exception).

So this week's theme "baking" was more a nod to chocolate, rather than a bake. I made two kinds of chocolate bark - cashew/dried cranberry, and salted caramel (which in our house is not an abomination, but beloved). Bark is so easy. The only thing I always forget it that I really need less chocolate than I think. We ate a ton of extra calories while we were watching!

Coincidentally, the only white chocolate I've ever liked is the candy cane/white chocolate bark I used to make for Christmas gifts.

Edited October 18, 2020 by Clanstarling

[Yajmele]

One of my biggest gripes from the later seasons of this show is the long, protracted opening skits. This episode, a little quip, and we’re afoot. I appreciate that. 

I’m surprised everyone managed to tank such a basic signature. I wonder if this was a kind of trick to see how many people would go over the top and screw up the basic characteristics.

I was practically drooling over the chocolate babka.  I’ve never had a babka before, but I’m about to go off to Google to look for recipes.

Did anyone else catch the voiceover screw-up in the transition to the showstopper?  “Just one challenge remains before the first star baker is crowned, and one baker will be asked to leave the tent.”  I’m gonna guess the editors grabbed the wrong audio clip here.

I don’t have much affection for white chocolate, so this challenge didn’t excite me so much.  I thought Lottie’s geode cake was done well enough physically.  I’ve seen my share of those where they end up looking too much like a...lady part.  I felt so bad for Sura.  I’ve never seen such a dense, raw sponge.  It looked like someone mashed several layers down with a hydraulic press.  Maybe I’m easy to please, but I thought Laura’s white chocolate work on the top of hers looked pretty cool.  I figured that if Prue said she would buy Mark L’s cake, it would be a strong contender for star baker.

All in all, this was a very “Eh” episode. Hoping for a better one next week.

 

 

Edited October 18, 2020 by Yajmele

[AZChristian]

21 minutes ago, Yajmele said:

I was practically drooling over the chocolate babka.  I’ve never had a babka before, but I’m about to go off to Google to look for recipes.

I don't bake much.  I just Googled "chocolate babkas near me."  Picking mine up tomorrow while I'm out running errands.

[Rickster]

18 minutes ago, Yajmele said:

Did anyone else catch the voiceover screw-up in the transition to the showstopper?  “Just one challenge remains before the first star baker is crowned, and one baker will be asked to leave the tent.”  I’m gonna guess the editors grabbed the wrong audio clip here.

 

 

I noticed it and was confused for a minute.

The point made above about the time to make the babka is a good one. I looked at a chocolate babka recipe I have in a baking book (of course not all recipes are the same), and it calls for resting the dough for 30 minutes after mixing, chilling it for at least an hour, then letting the filled and formed loaf rise for 2-3 hours before baking.

[dleighg]

13 minutes ago, Rickster said:

The point made above about the time to make the babka is a good one. I looked at a chocolate babka recipe I have in a baking book (of course not all recipes are the same), and it calls for resting the dough for 30 minutes after mixing, chilling it for at least an hour, then letting the filled and formed loaf rise for 2-3 hours before baking.

I wonder if I could find something like that... before the one posted above disappeared off of the show site, I printed Paul's out, and it had very short times, just like on the show.

ETA: I found this one, from two of my favorite cookbook authors (Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi), so I'll give this a try: https://prettysimplesweet.com/chocolate-babka/

Edited October 18, 2020 by dleighg

[truther]

15 hours ago, Irlandesa said:

But home bakers also don't have to cook and frost their cakes in three hours.  If the cake is still warm because it's hot outside, the cake gets to sit a bit longer until it's cool. 

Yep.  For a couple years now I've wished they'd throw in an all-weekend challenge, where on Saturday morning they tell the bakers "take all the time you need, just have it ready by tomorrow evening."  As things stand it can get quite gimmicky when they bake something then throw it in the freezer so they can get the frosting or whatever on in time without it melting.  

[macaddict]

On 10/17/2020 at 7:33 AM, ElectricBoogaloo said:

For anyone who wants to try chocolate babka but doesn’t want to make their own, Trader Joe’s sells them!

ELECTRICBOOGALOO could not be more wrong about this. You do not want to "try" TJ's chocolate babka. You want to shove it into your mouth by the hands full. I can't even go into that section of the store any more.

Also, in my experience, the key to baking brownies is to let them cool almost completely before you try to cut them. Otherwise, they look like you dropped them on the floor and picked them up with your feet. And I used to have a standby brownie recipe until I discovered Ina Garten's Outrageous Brownies. Dear, sweet lord. 

[chaifan]

I know this is a "baking" show, and not a "decorating" show, but when they ask for showstoppers to be elaborately decorated and part of the judging is on how things look, they should allow more camera time to show how the end look is achieved.  I would have loved to see more on how Lottie's decorations were done, and some of the other special effects as well.  I love the drip look, and would have liked to see more than the 3 seconds they showed on that technique. 

I felt bad for Sura.  I can't imagine using water was really the downfall, because presumably she did practice bakes and those turned out ok.  Or did she alter her technique at the last minute with that?  (I may have missed that.)  But if it's Sura vs. Lottie, I'll take Lottie!  I love her dry sarcasm.

Like others, I was really surprised that so many (5 of the 9 bakers) really flubbed the brownie bake.  No one got high marks on the challenge.  I'd like Pru or Paul to publish their tried & true brownie recipe for comparison.  I also like a simple baked brownie.  No nuts, no big embellishments.  Maybe a bit of cream cheese, a swirl of caramel or peanut butter, but if anything just one simple addition.  The honeycomb ones looked most appealing to me in that way. 

[marinite]

20 hours ago, Quilt Fairy said:

I'm strictly a box mix girl and I agree about the Ghirardelli brownie mixes.  They are very good.  My favorite is the caramel one, which unfortunately my store can't seem to get right now.  

I wonder if you could buy or make some caramel and swirl it onto the batter, and then bake it off? That might be really good!

This week was a bummer. Hopefully they’ll all do better next week.

Edited October 18, 2020 by marinite
Dratted typo.

[Spunkygal]

5 minutes ago, marinite said:

I wonder if you could buy or make some caramel and swirl it onto the batter, and then bake it off? That might be really good!

This week was a bummer. Hopefully they’ll all do better next week.

TJ’s has a very good salted caramel sauce that you might want to try for this! 

[kirklandia]

Team naked cake here. I'm somewhat of a minimalist, and I think they look quite elegant. Also, I think a little frosting goes a long way.  A reasonable amount on top - fine.  

One of my pet peeves comes from the recent fancy cupcake craze (is it over yet?) - mostly plain cakes with enormous piles of flavored frosting on top.

5 minutes ago, kirklandia said:

5 minutes ago, kirklandia said:

Edited October 18, 2020 by kirklandia

[Mabinogia]

4 hours ago, Clanstarling said:

You and me both. Aesthetically, I find them ugly (though the naked with the strawberries did look nicer than expected). And as a dyed in the wool frosting lover, I want my frosting, dang it.

I will eat the frosting and leave the cake personally, so naked cakes aren't something that appeal to me at all. But I think a truly naked one, like the one with the cool strawberry edging looks nice whereas the ones that look like they had frosting on it, but then it mostly got scrapped off so that it has some kind of "shabby chic" look are just plain ugly to me. 

I finally got to see the ep and it was as bad as this thread made it sound. I don't want to see the bakers rushing around for drama. I want to see the bakers given the time and tools they need to make their best work. I feel like that is the way the show was in the beginning and part of why I fell in love with it. Now it feels more like they are trying to manufacture drama by not giving them enough time to make mistakes and I don't enjoy the results. 

I do enjoy that Noel and Matt interact a lot with the bakers. Is it just me though, or did their interactions this episode seem...more aggressive? IDK if that's quite the right word, but it felt like a slightly meaner vibe this week, what with the "you want to push that cake in Paul's face" and other kind of suggestions of the bakers' letting their meaner or more competitive sides out. I didn't care for that. I prefer the more fun interactions like Pru telling Lottie she only had to not be the worst. Lottie has the best reactions. She is my favorite right now, along with Mark and Marc. 

[Quilt Fairy]

1 hour ago, marinite said:

I wonder if you could buy or make some caramel and swirl it onto the batter, and then bake it off? That might be really good!

That's exactly what I'm going to try.  I have a caramel sauce that I normally put over ice cream so I'm going to try swirling on the top of the brownies before they go into the oven.  Today is real cold and rainy here, so a good day for baking; I may make them tonight.

[meep.meep]

Sorry to lose Sura - I had liked her bakes up until this episode, and I loved her relationship with Noel.

I assume that the brownie failures were the first evidence of the lack of practice time they are now getting.  Since they are not going home between filming episodes, they have much reduced time to practice.  I assume they spent most of their time practicing the show stopper, and very little time practicing the brownie recipe.

As far as I'm concerned there are two distinct types of brownie:  one is fudgy and low, and the other is cakey and high.  Both are correct and delicious.  Good thing I'm not a contestant.  Why in the world were they all using small square pans?

[sharifa70]

2 hours ago, macaddict said:

ELECTRICBOOGALOO could not be more wrong about this. You do not want to "try" TJ's chocolate babka. You want to shove it into your mouth by the hands full. I can't even go into that section of the store any more.

Also, in my experience, the key to baking brownies is to let them cool almost completely before you try to cut them. Otherwise, they look like you dropped them on the floor and picked them up with your feet. And I used to have a standby brownie recipe until I discovered Ina Garten's Outrageous Brownies. Dear, sweet lord. 

I think I gained 10 pounds just reading the recipe. Dear, sweet lord indeed.

I’m going to try this next time I bake.

[festivus]

Whew. I'm glad Lottie's still there. I ❤️her. "They look like a literal car crash". 

Laura is right about white chocolate, it's too sweet. I can't stand it. If I had to use it I would do lime curd and some ginger to cut it down. Way down.

I would eat any of those babkas, even Lottie's. Yum. Give it to me right now. Nom nom.

[Nidratime]

I like the Pru-gasm one-liner and the Prual and Poo.

One thing that gets me about these chocolate episodes or any episode involving ingredients that melt in hot weather -- especially when it comes to show stoppers. Why can't they allow all those waiting to be judged to keep their creations in the fridge until they are judged instead of sitting on a table waiting. The last person waiting is at a disadvantage. Maybe they do and we don't see it.

 

[Irlandesa]

3 hours ago, truther said:

Yep.  For a couple years now I've wished they'd throw in an all-weekend challenge, where on Saturday morning they tell the bakers "take all the time you need, just have it ready by tomorrow evening."  As things stand it can get quite gimmicky when they bake something then throw it in the freezer so they can get the frosting or whatever on in time without it melting.  

I agree.  I started watching the Great  Pottery Throw Down on HBO Max and that's what they do for the final project.  Granted, a lot of that is due to the fact that you can't cut corners and have a visually appealing final project but they make their project, dry it/cook it, decorate it and cook it some more.  In between those steps is when they do their other challenges where decoration isn't the judged criteria.

7 hours ago, Lois Sandborne said:

Perhaps my most useless superpower is that I can tell the difference between scratch and mix brownies. Mixes are fine though; even the cheap generic ones still make brownies, and it's just really hard to screw up a brownie. And yet ...

That's me with undoctored cake mix (i.e. completing exactly as the descriptions says.  I know a lot of professional bakers will use mixes but change them a bit). 

But I prefer brownies from a mix.  Maybe that's the way I grew up.  My go to brownie recipe comes from a cake mix. 

[AZChristian]

1 hour ago, Nidratime said:

I like the Pru-gasm one-liner and the Prual and Poo.

One thing that gets me about these chocolate episodes or any episode involving ingredients that melt in hot weather -- especially when it comes to show stoppers. Why can't they allow all those waiting to be judged to keep their creations in the fridge until they are judged instead of sitting on a table waiting. The last person waiting is at a disadvantage. Maybe they do and we don't see it.

 

I paid attention this time to the concerns about chocolate and hot weather.  Most of the bakers were wearing jackets when they walked into the tent for this episode.  I know some of that can be "producer shenanigans," but I also think that having 9 ovens going in ANY space is going to heat things up considerably.

I don't have an answer, but I'll never tire of watching chocolate things being baked.  

[Quilt Fairy]

2 hours ago, meep.meep said:

Why in the world were they all using small square pans?

I think the challenge said to make 18 brownies.  Square pans are the easiest to cut into 9.  

[AZChristian]

3 minutes ago, Quilt Fairy said:

I think the challenge said to make 18 brownies.  Square pans are the easiest to cut into 9.  

And bake faster than larger pans of batter.  

[phalange]

I probably have no room to talk since I make brownies from a box, but I'm surprised at how badly the signature went and that there was no real standout at all. Some of them I would still try, like the cheesecake brownies and the s'more ones (but not the one with figs. Why would you do that to a brownie?).

Sura and Lottie are two of my favorites so I would've been sad regardless of who went, but I knew it was Sura as soon as they showed the raw cake. I felt really bad for her, because her cake, despite leaning, was well decorated. 

[Mittengirl]

The only babka I have ever had is the one from Trader Joe’s and I don’t get the raving over them. The ones I have had have been rather dry and not that chocolate-y.  I have had better things from TJs that I would rather spend my dessert dollars on - their inside-out carrot cake cookies, for one.  

[Clanstarling]

14 hours ago, AZChristian said:

I paid attention this time to the concerns about chocolate and hot weather.  Most of the bakers were wearing jackets when they walked into the tent for this episode.  I know some of that can be "producer shenanigans," but I also think that having 9 ovens going in ANY space is going to heat things up considerably.

I don't have an answer, but I'll never tire of watching chocolate things being baked.  

If they are still doing the signature and technical on a different day, it could well be that the temperature changed quite a lot from day to day. But yes, having 9 ovens going will heat things up considerably.

I haven't read much about the time they spent in the bubble - were they able to use these kitchens to practice their bakes? Seems like they should be able to, unless instead of an actual week between the episodes, they shot them closer together to be able to shorten the time spent in the bubble.

[akr]

5 hours ago, Mittengirl said:

The only babka I have ever had is the one from Trader Joe’s and I don’t get the raving over them. The ones I have had have been rather dry and not that chocolate-y.  I have had better things from TJs that I would rather spend my dessert dollars on - their inside-out carrot cake cookies, for one.  

If Trader Joe's babka was the only babka I'd ever eaten, I wouldn't bother again, either. Too dry, I agree; I don't remember what I thought about the filling. (I like lots of things at TJ'S, & this isn't terrible, just, as you say, not worth it compared to other options).

Edited October 19, 2020 by akr

[Eliza422]

19 hours ago, sharifa70 said:

I think I gained 10 pounds just reading the recipe. Dear, sweet lord indeed.

I’m going to try this next time I bake.

I just read the recipe and my first thought was, that only produces 20 brownies??? But dang do they look good.

[AZChristian]

On 10/18/2020 at 8:37 AM, AZChristian said:

I don't bake much.  I just Googled "chocolate babkas near me."  Picking mine up tomorrow while I'm out running errands.

Chocolate babkas from the local bakery:  They are real, and they're spectacular.