S01.E06: Red, White and Clue

[The Crazed Spruce]

Quote

The bakers head back into the kitchen to take on a new challenge; the best dessert detectives continue on in the competition and the duo that falls short will head home; guest judge Aarón Sánchez.

 

[CrazyInAlabama]

First round.  

Shania and Hope (NYC)-Blackberry crumble pie.       

Lorie and Jason (she has the pink and blue hair, he has the beard)-Mixed Berry Pie, with a lattice topping.     

Leslie and Emma (mother and daughter)-Blueberry pie, lattice crust.   

Dante and Cory (one is the cheesecake specialist)-Apple Pie Pie is soupy, fruit should have been pre-cooked.  

Aaron Sanchez is guest judge, for a favorite 4th of July dessert.    The mystery dessert is:  Blueberry lattice topped pie.  Leslie and Emma were right.  

Showpiece round:

Shania and Hope-2 layers, 3 each layer red, white and blue of white cake,  and with the Liberty Bell.   Six layers in each tier, the only team that did this. 

Lorie and Jason-2 tier red white & blue velvet, with the Statue of Liberty torch topper (that's from France, not England) topper.  Cake looks nice inside.   

Leslie and Emma-2 tiers with red velvet cake, and velvet layers, the blue velvet layer is very dark, and not blue at all,  with the Liberty Bell on top.

Dante and Cory-Red White and Blue 2 tier, 3 layer, sponge cake, with a Liberty Bell topper.  Their fondant isn't going very well.  The inside looks great with the three colors of layers.  

My guess is: Two layer cake red, white, and blue velvet layers  with the Liberty Bell topper. (the hint was England, so that's Liberty Bell). 

Showpiece dessert is:  Liberty Bell topped Red, White, and Blue Velvet in two tiers, with three layers each.     No one's guess was exactly right, so no winner again.

The team going home are :  Hope and Shania.   

 

[Maverick]

"The Statue of Liberty is from France." "Really?!" 

 Yes pink hair, really. Even if you managed to miss that tidbit in school, did you not see the second National Treasure movie?

[DanaK]

I feel like Dante and Cory should have gone home over Hope and Shania. The ladies seemed to have better tasting desserts and the guys seemed to screw up more

Joel is clearly there because he’s good at making jokes and snarking. I don’t think he has a clue about baking

Edited July 1, 2021 by DanaK

[mertensia]

I gotta say that first challenge all those fruits looked used.

How do you not know the Statue of Liberty is French?

I think Dante and Cory should have gone.

[Whimsy]

10 hours ago, DanaK said:

I feel like Dante and Cory should have gone home over Hope and Shania. The ladies seemed to have better tasting desserts and the guys seemed to screw up more

Joel is clearly there because he’s good at making jokes and snarking. I don’t think he has a clue about baking

I agree, but I love Joel's snark.  He's the main reason I tuned in.

8 hours ago, mertensia said:

I gotta say that first challenge all those fruits looked used.

How do you not know the Statue of Liberty is French?

I think Dante and Cory should have gone.

I agree with everything you posted, but particularly about the fruit.  Granted, we couldn't really see everything they were seeing, but how was it determined which fruit was used?  

The showpiece clues SCREAMED velvet cake.  For those who didn't do velvet, they should feel ashamed. It was so obvious.

[Angeleyes]

I follow Joel on Instagram and he’s actually a bit of a foodie and home chef. He’s also friends with several chefs. I’m not sure if he’s into baking, but I know he’s into grilling and cooking in general. 

[blackwing]

For the first round, I feel like the judges did not explain well enough how to know exactly which fruit was used.  Those bags of fruits, it looked like some were missing from each bag.  The picture of the pies and the post it note that read "which one to make?" would have led me to believe that the baker couldn't decide, so combined the aspects of two of the pies since they couldn't decide.  Hence, I don't blame beard and unicorn hair for their mixed berry lattice pie.  I would have thought that picture and the post it was trying to trick me.  Like it was almost too easy.

But I also would have appreciated an explanation as to how they should have known it was not a crumble.  There was an open box of oats and a container of brown sugar.  How were they to know it wasn't a crumb topping?  

Aaron Sanchez.... yeech.  Has it really been that long since I've seen him?  Obviously he has aged a lot, but I found him unrecognisable. I remember him from Next Iron Chef and Chopped.  He looked very bloated to me.

Yolanda Gampp says people call her the "Beyonce of cakes"... obviously because she is black.  Does she not find that the least bit offensive?  It'd be like going up to an Asian-American lawyer and telling him "you are good at what you do, I think you're the Bruce Lee of lawyers".

Did Elf Girl and her mom get a clue in the showcase showdown for winning the dessert round?  What was it?  I must have missed it.

At the end, nobody was named Star Baker, which I think is meaningless.  I find it odd that if you win the first round, you get an extra clue for the second round.  But if you win the second round, you get diddly.  No advantage for next time, no money, no signed Curtis Stone aprons, no Joel McHale DVDs, no extra consideration at all.

I think it sucked that Shania and Hope went home.  They were Star Baker last week.  They at least made a good attempt in round one (I still want to know why the oats and the brown sugar were a red herring).  Their showstopper looked worse than Cory and Dante's.  But they won the previous week, and their pie was good, and their cake tasted delicious.  Cory and Dante made apple soup... that was disastrous and should have sent them home.

10 hours ago, DanaK said:

I feel like Dante and Cory should have gone home over Hope and Shania. The ladies seemed to have better tasting desserts and the guys seemed to screw up more

Joel is clearly there because he’s good at making jokes and snarking. I don’t think he has a clue about baking

I think Joel is hilarious and I would watch him in anything.  I like the fact that he isn't an expert... he is self-deprecating and it works for him.  Unlike, say, Ken Jeong, who doesn't know diddly about singing or dancing and yet happens to be a judge or host on three Fox shows involving singing or dancing, and is completely not funny.

[Angeleyes]

9 minutes ago, Whimsy said:

I agree, but I love Joel's snark.  He's the main reason I tuned in.

I agree with everything you posted, but particularly about the fruit.  Granted, we couldn't really see everything they were seeing, but how was it determined which fruit was used?  

The showpiece clues SCREAMED velvet cake.  For those who didn't do velvet, they should feel ashamed. It was so obvious.

The chart on the table and the dough cutting tool was the determining factors for which pie to bake. On the chart the only pie tin pies were apple or blueberry. The apple had a crumble top and the blueberry had a lattice top. Since the cutting tool was used that narrowed it down to the blueberry pie. 

[AZChristian]

12 minutes ago, blackwing said:

Aaron Sanchez.... yeech.  Has it really been that long since I've seen him?  Obviously he has aged a lot, but I found him unrecognisable. I remember him from Next Iron Chef and Chopped.  He looked very bloated to me.

Did Elf Girl and her mom get a clue in the showcase showdown for winning the dessert round?  What was it?  I must have missed it.

Regarding Aarrrrrrrron (he loves to roll that "r"), up until last night, Crime Scene Kitchen was the ONLY cooking show I don't think I've seen him on lately.  He's a regular on MasterChef and showed up on Hell's Kitchen a week or so ago.

The clue for the showcase showdown was a note to use either the Liberty Bell OR the Statue of Liberty for the topper.  They said that they originally planned to use both of them AND the Washington Monument as toppers, so it really helped them a lot to know what to put on top of the cake.  

I agree . . . the guys should have gone.  Apple soup is unforgiveable, no matter how pretty the crust was.

[blackwing]

10 minutes ago, Angeleyes said:

The chart on the table and the dough cutting tool was the determining factors for which pie to bake. On the chart the only pie tin pies were apple or blueberry. The apple had a crumble top and the blueberry had a lattice top. Since the cutting tool was used that narrowed it down to the blueberry pie. 

Yes, but that doesn't explain how the bakers should have known not to combine fruits.  Also, that cutting tool looked really clean to me... if it had been definitely used they could have left a little bit of dough on it.

As it is, there was 1) the cutting tool vs. 2) the open box of brown sugar and the oats.  No explanation given as to why one prevailed over the other.  Perhaps the oats or sugar was expired, but if so, they didn't tell us that.

[Whimsy]

18 minutes ago, Angeleyes said:

The chart on the table and the dough cutting tool was the determining factors for which pie to bake. On the chart the only pie tin pies were apple or blueberry. The apple had a crumble top and the blueberry had a lattice top. Since the cutting tool was used that narrowed it down to the blueberry pie. 

Well, yeah.  I saw that.  There was only one lattice so I guess that was the ultimate clue.  I was just curious how the girls from NY were so certain it was a blueberry crumble when there was an apple crumble also on that chart.  I was just wondering if there was more of an obvious clue with the fruit itself- if the lattice cutter was overlooked (as it was by 2 teams). 

6 minutes ago, blackwing said:

Yes, but that doesn't explain how the bakers should have known not to combine fruits.  Also, that cutting tool looked really clean to me... if it had been definitely used they could have left a little bit of dough on it.

As it is, there was 1) the cutting tool vs. 2) the open box of brown sugar and the oats.  No explanation given as to why one prevailed over the other.  Perhaps the oats or sugar was expired, but if so, they didn't tell us that.

Or, this lol

[Angeleyes]

8 minutes ago, blackwing said:

Yes, but that doesn't explain how the bakers should have known not to combine fruits.  Also, that cutting tool looked really clean to me... if it had been definitely used they could have left a little bit of dough on it.

As it is, there was 1) the cutting tool vs. 2) the open box of brown sugar and the oats.  No explanation given as to why one prevailed over the other.  Perhaps the oats or sugar was expired, but if so, they didn't tell us that.

There was no combined fruit pie on the chart. They needed to pick one of the options from there (per the “which one to pick” sticky note on the chart). The cutting tool was in the drying drain. The oats were on the counter but not open or any spills of it on the counter or in the garbage. There are typically some red herrings in the clues and the oats were one of them. 
 

There seemed to be several teams that did not notice the chart and they fell for the red herrings. 

[AZChristian]

I concur with those who picked up on the cutting tool because it was in the drying rack - inferring it had been used and washed.

I'm not a baker, but I did google "blueberry pie with brown sugar," and brown sugar is something that is sometimes added to the filling of a blueberry pie.  So having the brown sugar box open and the oatmeal container closed were both hints.  Use the sugar, not the oatmeal.

[DanaK]

Remind me, was there another group before this one? They keep talking about the semifinals and merging with another group, but I can't remember if and how long the other group was around

[AZChristian]

5 minutes ago, DanaK said:

Remind me, was there another group before this one? They keep talking about the semifinals and merging with another group, but I can't remember if and how long the other group was around

Yes.  The other group included the obnoxious Thomas and his mother, among others.

[Zanzibar]

15 minutes ago, DanaK said:

Remind me, was there another group before this one? They keep talking about the semifinals and merging with another group, but I can't remember if and how long the other group was around

Yes, the show started with two groups of six baking teams.  Up until now, the groups have been on alternating weeks.  Half of the 12 teams have been eliminated now, so the remaining teams will be combined into one group with the next show.

[DanaK]

5 minutes ago, Zanzibar said:

Yes, the show started with two groups of six baking teams.  Up until now, the groups have been on alternating weeks.  Half of the 12 teams have been eliminated now, so the remaining teams will be combined into one group with the next show.

They were alternating weeks? I totally didn't notice that. Now I feel dumb

Edited July 1, 2021 by DanaK

[CrazyInAlabama]

They did say two groups, later combined into one, but exactly how they were going to do that wasn't explained very well, unless it was in the firsts episode (I missed that one).    I'm just surprised that the teams really don't come close to the actual desserts, and we've had a couple of episodes where no one was considered a winner.  

[tennisgurl]

"Red Velvet? Who makes that, you need to get off of Pinterest" 

How do you not know that the Statue of Liberty built in France? Is that not American history 101? I was expecting Dante and Cory to go home after that awful Apple Pie, but I guess they were more consistent. I feel like the judges could explain more about the clues in the crime scene kitchen, I still have no idea about the fruit combination thing. 

Everyone is always going for the obvious red herrings, do cooks not also read mystery novels? But I guess its easy to armchair cook when you aren't in the pressure zone. 

[Maya]

I always feel like everyone is looking around too leisurely when they’re in the crime scene. You only have three minutes people!!

[blackwing]

7 hours ago, Angeleyes said:

There was no combined fruit pie on the chart. They needed to pick one of the options from there (per the “which one to pick” sticky note on the chart). The cutting tool was in the drying drain. The oats were on the counter but not open or any spills of it on the counter or in the garbage. There are typically some red herrings in the clues and the oats were one of them. 
 

There seemed to be several teams that did not notice the chart and they fell for the red herrings. 

I get that, but if that's the case, the answer just seemed too easy.  As I mentioned, I was thrown off by "which one to make?" because I interpreted that as indecision which led to a combination of the pies on the chart.

As it was, the answer just seemed way too easy.  There were only two clues needed.  Cutting tool which indicated lattice pie.  Chart which showed only one lattice pie.  Elf Girl and her mom won because that's all they did.  They stopped and said "Blueberry lattice" because that was the only lattice pie on the chart. 

I don't know if Unicorn Hair and Beard looked at the chart, but they saw cutting tool and thought lattice pie and then saw all the used fruits in the fridge and made a mixed berry pie.  In an earlier episode, we saw a box of strawberries or raspberries with the rubber band still on them.  That indicated that the fruit was not used.  But here, all of the bags of fruit (with the exception of maybe the sliced apples) seemed used.

Shania and Hope did see the chart, but they couldn't decide between the blueberry lattice pie (because of the cutting tool) and the blackberry crumb pie (because of the brown sugar and oatmeal).  I think an open box of something (now I can't remember which box was open, but I think it was the brown sugar) should indicate it was used.  And to place it right next to the container of oatmeal seemed a tad unfair to me... it seems to scream that these two items are used together.

I don't recall if Cory and Dante saw the chart or the cutting tool at all.  They just saw pie and said 4th of July equals apple pie.

I do think the judging seems to be a bit subjective... so if this show is called "Crime Scene Kitchen" then I feel like teams should have to get tested on their skills.  The baked goods should be scored using some kind of 1-10 method on taste, presentation, and accuracy to the mystery item.  Then there should be some kind of bonus points based on their detecting skills.  Maybe some kind of quiz like "The Mole" after each round.

Shania and Hope were definitely better detectives than Cory and Dante... they had it narrowed down to the blueberry lattice or the blackberry crumb and ended up choosing the wrong one.  But they saw all the clues, they were just thrown off by the brown sugar and oatmeal.  Cory and Dante didn't see any of those clues at all.

[blackwing]

1 hour ago, tennisgurl said:

"Red Velvet? Who makes that, you need to get off of Pinterest" 

How do you not know that the Statue of Liberty built in France? Is that not American history 101?

I thought that comment was about a blue velvet cake, because yeah, nobody ever makes a blue velvet cake except on something like Pinterest.

I liked how Shania commented about her AP US History class helping her to remember that the Statue of Liberty was a gift from France.  

Didn't Unicorn Hair and Beard even say something like "we are making the Statue of Liberty, it has 'liberty' in it, what could be more American than that".  Ummm the Liberty Bell also has the word 'liberty' in it.  I guess they probably don't even know what "AP US History" is.

[7-Zark-7]

The ladies were robbed. They consistently made great tasting cakes. The guys Apple Soup was so bad, they should have been sent home before the final challenge. I couldn't look at it.

And Shania... or Hope (I can't remember who's who) was right:  Blue Velvet? Get off Pinterest.

[Chyromaniac]

Man, I really want to make a mean-spirited joke about history classes at Bible Colleges...

I didn’t think that any of the fruit bags were actually opened- they just looked that way because they were all thawed.  The thing that threw me was the used cinnamon from the spices.  I’m not a pie baker myself- is that just such a common ingredient in fruit pies that it wasn’t worth mentioning?

[DanaK]

18 hours ago, DanaK said:

They were alternating weeks? I totally didn't notice that. Now I feel dumb

Just to follow up, I went through my deleted episodes on my DVR and there were definitely 2 different teams alternating. It was obvious once I went back through the episodes. Joel even said in the early episodes there were two teams and said at the end of episode 2 that the other team would be back the next week, all of which I apparently missed

[Ms Lark]

15 hours ago, blackwing said:

I thought that comment was about a blue velvet cake, because yeah, nobody ever makes a blue velvet cake except on something like Pinterest.

I saw a Duncan Hines blue velvet cake mix in the grocery store a number of years ago. So it's mainstream enough for a cake mix! If my dear friend whose favorite movie was "Blue Velvet" was still alive I would have made him that cake. 😢 Why not? It's just a ton of food coloring.

9 hours ago, Chyromaniac said:

The thing that threw me was the used cinnamon from the spices.  I’m not a pie baker myself- is that just such a common ingredient in fruit pies that it wasn’t worth mentioning?

My New England Grandmother whose specialty was blueberry pie (with hand-picked blueberries) did use a lattice top, but no cinnamon. I make mine the same way, lattice top, no cinnimon. That one threw me, too. Still a puzzlement.

I like Joel's hosting. His snark makes the show! At least he hasn't said "Sooo Meaty." (Eww.)

 

 

Edited July 2, 2021 by Ms Lark

[AZChristian]

10 hours ago, Chyromaniac said:

The thing that threw me was the used cinnamon from the spices.  I’m not a pie baker myself- is that just such a common ingredient in fruit pies that it wasn’t worth mentioning?

Most of the blueberry pie recipes I saw online included cinnamon.

[cmahorror]

How on Earth does apple soup beat two great tasting (by the judge's own comments) desserts? Yes, the second dessert wasn't right but the previous round should have saved their butts. The guys apple pie was not even close to right and nearly inedible due to the amount of water in the pie pan. In addition, the reason they had so much water in the pie pan was because they basically blew off the comment Sanchez made to them about cooking the filling and that was a huge basic baking error. I have only made one pie in my life but even I know that you cook the filling for most fruit pies.

Girls, you were robbed!

[VeryCleverGirl]

23 hours ago, AZChristian said:

Yes.  The other group included the obnoxious Thomas and his mother, among others.

There were originally two groups. Due to the need to access kitchens to bake...having all contestants at the same time would have required more studio space. So the production focuses on Group 1 for one week, then Group 2 for the next week, then back to Group 1. 

When they are down to a small enough group of bakers to have everyone combined (enough kitchen space) they will only have the one group = the Quarter Finals.

[Chyromaniac]

4 hours ago, Ms Lark said:

Why not? It's just a ton of food coloring.

Word of warning- I’ve made blue velvet cupcakes, and there is one specific side effect of blue food coloring that is noticeable for the next few days...

Joel was always a solid judge on ICA- I wish he had more to say during the tasting than variations on, “well if it’s dessert x, then you should be safe.”

[Angeleyes]

For those that missed seeing the pie chart, I thought it might be helpful to post it. 

[Lisapooh]

I thought the chart and lattice tool made it pretty obvious to make a blueberry pie. I am an over thinker so I would have been tempted to talk myself into an apple pie since it is the 4th of July episode. 

if buttermilk and vinegar weren’t enough to get you to a velvet cake, I don’t know what would have. 

Pies are so not my thing, and I have made many a soup-y/runny pie...but that apple pie was a travesty. It wasn’t soup-y; it was water-y. I don’t cook my apples first and-yeah they give off juice-but holy cow, not like that! 

I think the men should have gone home over the women. I was super disappointed about that. Glad the two sets of teams will combine next week. It’s hard to get fond of or irritated by these teams when they aren’t on each episode.  

[CrazyInAlabama]

I agree that the two men should have been given the boot, after the watery apple pie.   It looked disgusting.  

[MagicEyes]

I don’t even understand how they could make an apple pie that watery! Is that what happens if you use Red Delicious apples in a pie? I’ve had many apple pies that didn’t have the filling cooked first, and they were fine. I was shocked at this decision, too. This is the kind of thing that can ruin a show for me.

[Driad]

What kind(s) of apples did they use in that pie?  Our family recipe uses several varieties of apples, does not cook the filling first, and has never turned out watery like that.

[AZChristian]

I seem to recall that the top crust of the apple pie looked like a golden brown dome.  Maybe they didn't cut any vent holes in it, so the steam from the apples couldn't vent out.  As a result, the inside was VERY wet.

?????

[mertensia]

I gotta say, a blueberry pie is a very boring dessert.

[tinkerbell]

16 hours ago, Driad said:

What kind(s) of apples did they use in that pie?  Our family recipe uses several varieties of apples, does not cook the filling first, and has never turned out watery like that.

Yeah, I don't get that you're supposed to cook the filling first. I'm not an expert baker, but I've made apple pies, and I've  never used a recipe where you pre-cook the apples.  My guesses are, they made the pie too deep, didn't cut vents in the top crust, and didn't put flour in the filling.  One reason for using a lattice or crumb top crust is to let the steam escape so the filling isn't so watery. Also some apples are more watery than others.

[AZChristian]

Just remembered.  The apple pie guys made TWO pies, and said they were going to serve the one that LOOKED best.  Oops.  Beauty is only skin (pie crust) deep.

[The Crazed Spruce]

On 7/2/2021 at 4:29 PM, Lisapooh said:

I thought the chart and lattice tool made it pretty obvious to make a blueberry pie. I am an over thinker so I would have been tempted to talk myself into an apple pie since it is the 4th of July episode. 

I'll be honest, the brown sugar, oats, and cinnamon (not to mention the timing) had me thinking apple crumble, myself.

[blackwing]

On 7/2/2021 at 9:24 PM, mertensia said:

I gotta say, a blueberry pie is a very boring dessert.

Blueberry pie is my favourite pie... but at this stage in the competition, for a place in the quarterfinals (I think that's what they called it), it did seem a bit simplistic.  This should have been the mystery dessert for the very first round.  Crankypants Mom (the one who owned a pie shop but hates fruit) would have been in heaven.

[proserpina65]

On 7/1/2021 at 9:23 AM, Whimsy said:

The showpiece clues SCREAMED velvet cake.  For those who didn't do velvet, they should feel ashamed. It was so obvious.

I'll confess to having not idea what goes into velvet cake.  But then, I'm not a baker, and these people are.  So yeah, given the contents of the fridge and the stuff on the counter, they all should've known.

On 7/1/2021 at 9:37 AM, Angeleyes said:

The chart on the table and the dough cutting tool was the determining factors for which pie to bake. On the chart the only pie tin pies were apple or blueberry. The apple had a crumble top and the blueberry had a lattice top. Since the cutting tool was used that narrowed it down to the blueberry pie. 

Those could just as easily have been red herrings.  Obviously they weren't, but I'm not sure I'd have necessarily have figured it out.

On 7/2/2021 at 1:37 PM, cmahorror said:

How on Earth does apple soup beat two great tasting (by the judge's own comments) desserts? Yes, the second dessert wasn't right but the previous round should have saved their butts. The guys apple pie was not even close to right and nearly inedible due to the amount of water in the pie pan. In addition, the reason they had so much water in the pie pan was because they basically blew off the comment Sanchez made to them about cooking the filling and that was a huge basic baking error. I have only made one pie in my life but even I know that you cook the filling for most fruit pies.

Girls, you were robbed!

What's even worse is that the guys made two apple pies, one of them with the fruit cooked before baking as it should be, and chose to use the soupy one because it allegedly looked better.

On 7/2/2021 at 3:29 PM, Lisapooh said:

if buttermilk and vinegar weren’t enough to get you to a velvet cake, I don’t know what would have. 

In my case, nothing, because I had no idea those were ingredients in velvet cake.  I've never made it, and am not really that fond of eating it.

On 7/2/2021 at 6:24 PM, MagicEyes said:

I don’t even understand how they could make an apple pie that watery! Is that what happens if you use Red Delicious apples in a pie? I’ve had many apple pies that didn’t have the filling cooked first, and they were fine. I was shocked at this decision, too. This is the kind of thing that can ruin a show for me.

They really piled the raw apples high in that one, I guess that made the difference?

On 7/3/2021 at 11:34 AM, tinkerbell said:

Yeah, I don't get that you're supposed to cook the filling first. I'm not an expert baker, but I've made apple pies, and I've  never used a recipe where you pre-cook the apples.  My guesses are, they made the pie too deep, didn't cut vents in the top crust, and didn't put flour in the filling.  One reason for using a lattice or crumb top crust is to let the steam escape so the filling isn't so watery. Also some apples are more watery than others.

My mother makes apple pies.  The problem with not cooking the apples first is that they don't always cook all the way through otherwise.  Plus, apples cooked in a frying pan with butter, cinnamon and brown sugar just taste better.  But I think the water problem in this case was caused by the amount of uncooked apples plus the lack of any vents.

[Nancybeth]

I think, simplistically speaking, red velvet cake has come to be shorthand for "cake that is red." But traditionally, it was made with buttermilk and vinegar and cocoa and that was what gave it a red hue, and set it apart from devil's food cake. I think a lot of views could miss that if you're not familiar with the traditional recipe. But I was surprised that not all of the bakers caught on. 

I have to say, I don't like the "wordplay" or logic puzzle type clues in the Crime Scene Kitchen. Like matching the type of crust to the menu, or the one in a previous episode where you could match the name on the cup to what she had signed up to bring. I guess it makes it more fun for the viewers, but I think the bakers are too focused on actual ingredients and culinary clues that they miss that stuff. 

[The Crazed Spruce]

56 minutes ago, Nancybeth said:

I have to say, I don't like the "wordplay" or logic puzzle type clues in the Crime Scene Kitchen. Like matching the type of crust to the menu, or the one in a previous episode where you could match the name on the cup to what she had signed up to bring. I guess it makes it more fun for the viewers, but I think the bakers are too focused on actual ingredients and culinary clues that they miss that stuff. 

I think that's kind of the point. They're throwing in a few outside-the-box clues in later rounds to make the game more difficult as the show progresses.

[calvinshobbes]

23 hours ago, The Crazed Spruce said:

I think that's kind of the point. They're throwing in a few outside-the-box clues in later rounds to make the game more difficult as the show progresses.

yes, if each teams gets the correct dessert every time than it is just like every other baking show. The twist for the  audience is whether a team with a terrible but correct dessert gets through over a good/great but wrong dessert. 

Edited July 14, 2021 by calvinshobbes

[Quilt Fairy]

On 7/13/2021 at 5:49 PM, Nancybeth said:

I have to say, I don't like the "wordplay" or logic puzzle type clues in the Crime Scene Kitchen. Like matching the type of crust to the menu, or the one in a previous episode where you could match the name on the cup to what she had signed up to bring. I guess it makes it more fun for the viewers, but I think the bakers are too focused on actual ingredients and culinary clues that they miss that stuff. 

Except, as we have learned over the first few episodes, the printed or written note type clues are never red herrings. There's always something in them that will direct you to the correct dessert.

I didn't know that the teams were split into 2 groups because of studio space, but I think it's a great idea.  6 teams (to start) alternating in each episode are few enough to get some familiarity with each team, and everyone gets some screen time.  

I'm sure having Joel McHale as a host is just following the Great British Bakeoff model.  I wasn't very familiar with him, and with a new show things are always going to be awkward to start, but I think he's found a groove and I quite enjoy him now.

[butterbody]

I was certain they were making a slab pie. There was a baking sheet in the dishwasher and I was never clear on if it should be a lattice top or a crumble. I would have made some combo of 4 fruits/toppings on the sheet pan.