S07.E04: Batter Week

[Athena]

Quote

It's week four of The Great British Bake Off, just nine bakers remains, and - for the very first time - it is Batter Week. Mary and Paul have set three challenges to test the bakers on some store cupboard classics. To start things off there is a British favourite. It may sound simple, but the judges are looking for perfection - a uniform bake across the batch and a tasty savoury filling. The bakers really have to rise to the occasion in this signature challenge.

The technical challenge requires a steady hand to master its intricacies, and there's no room for error.

And finally there is a showstopper where the ovens are off and the fryers are out, as the bakers are challenged to do their version of a Spanish classic.

Three challenges, three chances to win star baker, three chances to avoid leaving the tent.

[halopub]

An official promo clip from the BBC, geo-free. Cracklins!

[Occasional Hope]

A worthy star baker this week.  Andrew is looking strong too.

Green food (at least green baking) rarely looks appetising somehow.

[jenrising]

I'm so happy for Benjamina. Everything she made looked declicious.

And I don't care about anything else he makes, Selasi's gorgeous Yorkshire puddings with pork crackling makes him winner of my heart forever. 

[Athena]

Gosh, I'll miss Sue and Mel. I saw Mel feed a crackling to Paul as if he was a small child.

Benjamina did have a great weekend. I really wanted to try some of those churros. Andrew is looking stronger by the week. I think his super affability almost masks how consistent he's been lately. Jane is climbing up there again and she showed such lovely personality this week too. Selasi has everyone's heart. I like Tom too; he has a lot of knowledge about food. He said exactly what Paul told Mary in tent, but he seems super inconsistent. Rav as well. Candice is going back up as well. I think Val has been saved the last three weeks by people doing much worse than her.

[Amarsir]

Un churro.

Muchos churros.

Nice idea for a round, but man did that bother me.

[OnceSane]

Yay for Benjamina!  Mary was right: sheer joy.  I do want to try Salesi & Rav's Yorkshire puddings.  Yum!

 

I did not know that dough can be impregnated.

[tenativelyyours]

Good thing I watched this before I opened my newsfeed.  Not spoilers as to who had to leave but huge focus on Selasi mentioning his girlfriend to woes heard around the isle apparently.  Which would have had me going in all worried he was the one to go.  He still had me worried with his churros.  And yes, when talking about one it has no 's' Paul.  It reminds me of how they kept calling a pita bread a pitah bread.  Differences in culture etc, but there is also such an Empire determination to call it what you want and no how the people who invented do.  Here in the US we are just as guilty so it is just with personal peeve I note this not as something that is "Wrong or right" (though in this case I think Mary was just aping Paul and Paul was flat wrong to add the s when taking in the singular -- I think he conflates the idea that since it is churros batter/dough.  But that is because you don't just make one.  Or if you do you must have one big ass fryer).

Oh Selasi.  Girlfriend aside, cracklins and flipping your pancake.  You really need to focus because I really need you to make it to the finals just, well, because.

Benjamina.  I was so happy for her win.  I thought her churros looked wonderful.

But I loved the yorkshire pudding challenge.  Jane, Selasi, Benjamina, Andrew and Candice all had ones I could have fallen face into and fought off anyone who tried to help back up. 

I was glad to see Candice come back this week.  I really warmed a bit further with both Jane and Kate.  Which made Kate leaving sadder than I thought it was going to be.  I hate that it either was due to the edit so we got a larger helping of Kate or whether it was just in a slide towards defeat it brought out her self-deprecation and a bit more of a goofier and fun side.  She was low on my list of tea and cake, but now I would love to spend an afternoon on the farm and sample some of her bakes.  It is so odd how I really don't relate to most people on television in a "fan" way but this show delivers up at least half a cast as most wished for "known" person to be seat mates on my next flight to Sydney with.

Loved the little look Andrew gave to the side when Paul made the obvious double entendre about the nuts.  It was almost like "yeah Paul not your area". 

Didn't care for the pancake technical.  It seemed more like it was meant to just frustrate in some ways and I found it lacked that compelling watch element that even last week's had. 

I do wonder if Tom's overall strengths from the prior week helped him edge out Kate to stay.  I'm also not sure why Rav didn't go in some ways this time.  I have no problem if it came down to them comparing weeks prior if it was that close.  Still it was funny since it seemed, probably just me, there was a determination this time not to reuse the word catastrophe in regards to Tom's bakes.  Because it was so obvious.  Tom had a clear catastrophe in the signature.  He was okay but hardly great in the technical and his show stopper was not good either.  I would not have quibbled had he or Rav gone home this week over Kate.  That's just me though.  I thought his signature looked disgusting and I know judging works differently in the tent than it does from my chair, but I do tend to look at what is not just a failure but a complete disaster.

Val seems to be gaining more confidence but her work seems a bit too home kitchen and not competition.  Stuff I would love to eat but not stuff that makes it to the ribbon stage I fear.  Jane seems to go back and forth in that regard as well. 

There really is not a single baker still at this stage that I think -- yeah that one is in the finals.   I think last two seasons I knew at least one displayed the skills focus and purpose to make it that far (and oddly I think in each case it was one of my lesser if not least favorite contestants) and was proven right.  I honestly think this season every one of them is maybe a bad bake from going.  I know that is the form of the show, but this time they all seem to have no stride or growing ease.  Next week might see a couple jump out as real contenders since Benjamina being in the middle mostly might make her like Tamal who was a bit like a child walking for the first time.  That first real success he had and gained confidence and then kept going.  Maybe Nadiya's mess ups her first couple of bakes means Selasi can mirror her run to the final. 

The positive note in all this is that I like this cast so much more evenly than any other I think.  I have liked almost everyone on this show but some I leaned towards winning it or making to the finals.  And outside my viewing crush on Selasi, I don't care who makes to the end I think or even who wins.  Okay Selasi winning means he is in the press more and I have longer exposure to him so there is that.  But Tamal still gets attention so again.  Just make it to the finals will ya?

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Andrew's smirk after Paul said, "I like the way you've toasted your nuts," was hilarious.

I'm American so I had heard of Yorkshire puddings in various books, but I've never eaten one so the signature bake was really interesting!

Andrew's tapas inspired Yorkshire puddings looked really good. They looked consistent, they had good color, they had good height, and the chicken topping sounded yummy.

I was surprised that Kate's were so irregular. I thought that using a ladle to make sure they all had the same amount of batter would give her a huge advantage over the bakers who were just slopping random amounts of batter into their tins. The finished product looked small and flat, but the cranberries added a bright spot of color. I don't know how this exactly constitutes a Christmas compromise. Either you have Yorkshire puddings on Christmas day or you don't. That's like saying one spouse didn't want kids, the other spouse wanted three, and they compromised by having one. Just no.

Jane's meat and veg Yorkshire puddings turned out much better than I thought they would (based on Jane saying that she can't make them and then seeing how she was kneeling on the ground and spooning random amounts of batter into the tin). But her toppings really helped her. Paul loved the flavors and her actual puddings weren't the worst ones. The pea puree looked so pretty too.

Candice's Yorkshire wellingtons were so flat and some were too dark. But I'll never say no to beautifully cooked beef!  I definitely wanted to eat Benjamina's bacon, brie, and red onion chutney topping! The color of the puddings looked like they just needed another minute or two in the oven though.

Selasi's Sunday roast looked delicious. Mmmmm, pork crackling! Rav's Thai tofu panang Yorkshires sounded tasty, but I like coconut milk and tofu. But oh, Tom and those hockey pucks. They were so flat and they looked really dense. Val's chili puddings looked so good, despite the inconsistent sizes.

I was really intrigued by the lace pancakes, but I was even more intrigued by Mary squeezing a lemon onto her lace pancake before eating it. Of all the toppings I've ever put on my pancakes, lemon has never made the list.

I loooooooove churros, but I was surprised that they were chosen as a showstopper challenge because they're not the kind of food that has a visual wow factor (which is usually a large component of the showstopper). And hey, Paul? Churros is plural. Churro is singular. He kept saying things like "the churros itself" which was driving me crazy.

Val's orange churros with chocolate filling looked really uniform in size and shape, as well as being evenly coated with sugar. Tom gets bonus points for really taking a risk with his flavors. His fennel snake churros were unusual, but it's too bad that they were dry. Selasi's churro cups were a good idea in theory to make them different from the traditional churro shape, but they ened up not looking that interesting. They were way too dark on the outside and uncooked on the inside. I think between how thick the shapes were and then putting them in the freezer, they didn't stand a chance to cook properly.

Jane's pistachio and white chocolate churros weren't particularly appealing to me because I don't love pistachios, but they looked great. It was cute to see how delighted Val was when Paul complimented Jane's churros. Rav's matcha pistachio churros were interesting in theory. I wish someone had commented on the chocolate wasabi sauce!

Andrew's window box churros were a great example of changing the shape to make them different from the traditional shape, and I liked that he was ambitious enough to make two different flavored churro batters. The little window box he put them in also won presentation points for me. Everyone else seemed content to just chuck theirs on a plate and be done with it.

Kate's hot cross bunny churros were another creative way to change the shape. I thought she was smart about changing the shape to make them different without getting overly complicated, but Paul obviously wasn't a fan.

Candice's peanut butter churros were another great idea in my book. The figure 8 shape was simple but effective and dipping them in peanut butter on one end was a nice way to fancy them up a bit (I would have called them PB&J churros!). Her churros looked uniform in size and shape, but they were too small and I couldn't see any ridges. Benjamina's tropical churros had a nice loop shape and the color looked great. They seemed a little too thin, but I guess that helped her fry them thoroughly without drying them out.

As per usual, I'm disappointed no matter who is eliminated. I can't believe it's only week four and we have several more weeks of sad eliminations to go!

I think he conflates the idea that since it is churros batter/dough.  But that is because you don't just make one.  Or if you do you must have one big ass fryer).

Hee, I appreciate your effort to make sense of Paul's nonsensical insistence on making churros permanently plural, but even the churros batter explanation doesn't work for me (mostly because I would say doughnut batter, not doughnuts batter). Maybe in England, churros are like Pringles - you can't eat just one!

there is also such an Empire determination to call it what you want and no how the people who invented do.

I mentioned this in the "baking across the Atlantic" thread last year, but it drives me crazy as well. Mr. EB and I have a somewhat joking theory that the British love to intentionally fuck up the pronunciation of words from other countries just to be extra dickish in a "there will always be a British Empire" kind of way. Hearing the British version of words like taco and pasta are like nails on a chalkboard to my ears.

[DHDancer]

Interesting episode.  Stuffing yorkshire puddings?  Really?  To me yorkshire puddings (USA folks, think popovers) are there for the express purpose of sopping up incredible gravy.  Originally, the purpose was to eat before the main meat course to fill you up and not notice there wasn't very much meat.  I've been known to make yorkshire puddings and gravy only -- who needs meat at all :)

So when did choux pastry qualify as "batter"?  To me, a stretch but fun anyway.  I was pretty surprised they were given so much time to be honest as it's hardly a complex exercise, certainly compared to other showstoppers.

I was convinced Tom was going to be aufed and sad.  Still sad for Kate but glad Tom was safe! 

[shandy]

Heavens to Betsy, you guys are a tough crowd. Paul has lousy pronunciation of everything -even in English. I sort of enjoy it. He reminds me of Ringo from the Beatles, those Irish flat Dublin/Liverpool vowels. Would you suggest a suitably spanish punishment, like a cheesewire garrote?

I was really happy that Benjamina was star baker and we saw her little dance - and Andrew being a sore loser/frenemy was funny - like he had stepped out of Mean Girls. Selasi reaching across for her knee was adorable.

The Yorkies/Popovers were great to watch as my Irish side of the family make them sometimes - I kept thinking smoking hot oven  - I felt it was a little unfair to have to make so many in small ovens as only so many could go in the hottest part. I could get behind most of the fillings - although I felt Candice deserved praise for cooking beef so well - Brie and Bacon is a great combo but so much easier to do. I was gearing up for Val's chili to be condemned so was pleased that it wasn't. My biggest problem with her is that she cooks what her family enjoys and fits the brief around that, which leads to disasters.

To be honest and I might be too mean but I've seen better churros at fairgrounds. I think Rav needs to get better at technique before he goes for all those hipster flavors.  None of them appealed to me. It was a pity for Kate, but she was so far out of the farmhouse kitchen comfort zone it demonstrated her lack of versatility.

I do prefer thinner Western European pancakes to the lumpen Mitteleuropa type so I'm a great fan of Breton crepes, butter, lemon and superfine sugar yes please. Although having survived numerous Church Pancake Day/Mardi Gras in my youth, little Irish Nuns liked those plastic ReaLemon containers, raisins and coarse sugar, which made me glad for the syrup alternatives. I liked that the lacework tested creativity although what a tedious technical in some ways.

[DHDancer]

1 hour ago, shandy said:

I felt it was a little unfair to have to make so many in small ovens as only so many could go in the hottest part.

Their ovens are convection so technically the temp should be the same throughout but yeah, they are still somewhat small for baking the size batches being requested.

And yep, I'm with you on the thinner "crepes" vs American fluffy type of pancake (I can eat more of the former!)  Lemon and sugar as a simple topping is just delicious.

[Pallida]

I like bread/dough/tortilla/etc. with my savory food, so I wanted to eat basically all of the yorkshire puddings.  (My family teases me for putting mashed potatoes on rolls...)  I was hoping Paul or Mary would have figured out why Jane can't make them.

While the technical was a bit different, I enjoyed it.  I appreciated the history lesson and never would have guessed that lacy pancakes dated back so far.  I know I wouldn't be able to draw lace to save my life, so those who drew patterns and were fairly consistent impressed me.  

I want some churros now.  (And I'll jump on the irritated-by-churros-as-singular bandwagon.)  If I were making them, I'd probably leave the dough pretty plain and have a spiced up sugar coating.  

[Christina]

Very cute tweet from the official British Bake Off account, @BritishBakeOff

[Christina]

Candice (@CJ_Brownie https://twitter.com/CJ_Brownie) has been responding to several tweets about her appearance. Someone tweeted that he/she "would love to see Mary slap that smug look off Candice's face" and she responds, "If you watch next week, she actually does!"

It looks like most of the tweets are just tagged with the GBBO hashtag as opposed to actually tweeting directly to her, so I don't know why she doesn't just ignore them, but she seems to be relatively good-natured about it. 

[tenativelyyours]

2 hours ago, Christina said:

Candice (@CJ_Brownie https://twitter.com/CJ_Brownie) has been responding to several tweets about her appearance. Someone tweeted that he/she "would love to see Mary slap that smug look off Candice's face" and she responds, "If you watch next week, she actually does!"

It looks like most of the tweets are just tagged with the GBBO hashtag as opposed to actually tweeting directly to her, so I don't know why she doesn't just ignore them, but she seems to be relatively good-natured about it. 

 

Perspective is odd. I actually enjoy Candice's pursed lips with a bit of twist.  Because to me it doesn't say smug.  It has a self-deprecating tone to it.  It seems to appear more often when she thinks she dodges a bullet and last night I think it was a bit amused self-awareness that she comes in second in the technical kind of flying blind and yet crashed at times she is more confident. 

 

8 hours ago, shandy said:

Heavens to Betsy, you guys are a tough crowd. Paul has lousy pronunciation of everything -even in English. I sort of enjoy it. He reminds me of Ringo from the Beatles, those Irish flat Dublin/Liverpool vowels. Would you suggest a suitably spanish punishment, like a cheesewire garrote?

I was really happy that Benjamina was star baker and we saw her little dance - and Andrew being a sore loser/frenemy was funny - like he had stepped out of Mean Girls. Selasi reaching across for her knee was adorable.

The Yorkies/Popovers were great to watch as my Irish side of the family make them sometimes - I kept thinking smoking hot oven  - I felt it was a little unfair to have to make so many in small ovens as only so many could go in the hottest part. I could get behind most of the fillings - although I felt Candice deserved praise for cooking beef so well - Brie and Bacon is a great combo but so much easier to do. I was gearing up for Val's chili to be condemned so was pleased that it wasn't. My biggest problem with her is that she cooks what her family enjoys and fits the brief around that, which leads to disasters.

To be honest and I might be too mean but I've seen better churros at fairgrounds. I think Rav needs to get better at technique before he goes for all those hipster flavors.  None of them appealed to me. It was a pity for Kate, but she was so far out of the farmhouse kitchen comfort zone it demonstrated her lack of versatility.

I do prefer thinner Western European pancakes to the lumpen Mitteleuropa type so I'm a great fan of Breton crepes, butter, lemon and superfine sugar yes please. Although having survived numerous Church Pancake Day/Mardi Gras in my youth, little Irish Nuns liked those plastic ReaLemon containers, raisins and coarse sugar, which made me glad for the syrup alternatives. I liked that the lacework tested creativity although what a tedious technical in some ways.

 

I think removal of all hair products, no time in the hair chair for that careful silver glossing, no time in the tanning both and he has to tuck his shirt in for the next three episodes.  I think that would be punishment enough.  Heck any of the two alone might kill him.

We make typical "slight raise" American pancakes (mix of yeast and baking powder and a fridge set of at least over night) and I don't think I've ever had a family made pancake that didn't have lemon zest and at least a wedge's worth of a squeeze in the batter right before you let it chill.  So Mary made sense.  Love a touch of lemon juice in the pan making thin no rise sour cream pancakes as to sugar down just a tiny bit.  But overall, I just like pancakes to be light no matter how thick. 

I wish they had made the churros the technical and had come up with something else for the show stopper because for me Benjamina's was the only thing that came close and in terms of being a show stopper it was extremely modest.  Its too bad they already did a Schichttorte as a technical since it would have fit the bill and made for an interesting "batter" adjacent (which churros are as well at best really) cake to let the contestants try to make their own versus seeing it in the technical.   There also is a french dessert I once saw made at a table that was next to mine while dinning out in Bayeux and it was sort of like a tarte tatin only made with peaches, a really light and airy crepe batter that puffed up and was finished with flaming calvados.  Smelled heavenly but we had already been served a calvados cake with a fresh apple cider sorbert.  Which was also pretty darn good. 

I guess I just found the pancake challenge really really boring.  Oh.  Will this barely lacy pancake look anything like the three before it and the rest after... not real compelling for me.

[Quilt Fairy]

Don't they have at least 2 burners at each station? I don't know why they weren't allowed to make more than one pancake at a time.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

6 hours ago, Pallida said:

I like bread/dough/tortilla/etc. with my savory food, so I wanted to eat basically all of the yorkshire puddings.  (My family teases me for putting mashed potatoes on rolls...)  

You will get no such teasing in my family. One of the things my sisters and I love to do the morning after Thanksgiving/Christmas is slather leftover mashed potatoes (and meat) on rolls. 

[Occasional Hope]

The incorrect food plural which annoys me is panini.  It should be one panino, two panini; but everywhere in the UK you see one panini, two paninis, which is WRONG. 

[Kromm]

Breaks my heart that Selasi, who was so great in Week 1, seems to be doing worse each week now.

[trow125]

On 9/14/2016 at 2:13 PM, Occasional Hope said:

Green food (at least green baking) rarely looks appetising somehow.

I'm surprised anybody tries anything with matcha tea powder given that Paul & Mary seem to dislike it so. If I was going to be a contestant, I think I'd go back through old eps and try to figure out their food preferences: no matcha, nothing too spicy, no yuzu, yes to booze but not too boozy... At least Paul seems to have changed his mind about tofu!

Perhaps Tom shouldn't have gotten so experimental with the flour for his Yorkshire puddings. I've tried to make them in the past, and it can be hard to get them to rise properly even with the regular recipe.

[rubyred]

Lacy Pancakes? FFS. IMO this is another example of the producers creating unnecessary drama. How many non-pros spend their time trying to perfect Victorian snacks? This is the Great British Bake Off, not the Great British Draw Off.  Worried about this trend in the show.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Recipes from this episode:

Paul's lace pancakes
Benjamina's tropical churros
Jane's pistachio and white chocolate churros
Rav's Thai tofu Panang Yorkshires
Andrew's tapas Yorkshire puddings
 

[awaken]

Wow!  Mel and sue can really sing!

[Rinaldo]

It's that cathedral-children's-choir culture that everyone is raised in there. :)

[awaken]

Prominent lipstick women must have chronic headaches from the constant facial gyrations!  My face hurts seeing how she pushes out and twists her lips all the time!  

Poor sad bunny rabbits!

I love the mix of ages in this show!  It's neat to see both young and older people excell at something they love. 

Edited July 1, 2017 by awaken

[Primetimer]

The bakers are taken way out of their comfort zone...perhaps because they're not technically baking.

View the full article

[Kohola3]

Again with the no baking baking contests!

[awaken]

On 9/14/2016 at 10:56 PM, Amarsir said:

Un churro.

Muchos churros.

Nice idea for a round, but man did that bother me.

I was wondering about that!  They kept referring to one churro as a churros!  

Love how Mary said "impregnated" not once, but twice!

laughed at Andrew turning red squeezing his pastry bag with all his might!  

[adam807]

49 minutes ago, awaken said:

laughed at Andrew turning red squeezing his pastry bag with all his might!  

Phrasing

[Sew Sumi]

?

[LittleIggy]

I'll stick to American pancakes doused in maple syrup!

What are Yorkshire puddings anyway? Are they a side item like a dinner roll (in purpose not type) or a biscuit (Southern US kind)?

[J-Man]

I always thought Yorkshire pudding was baked in a large baking pan and that you sectioned them off after baking. To me, when they're done in individual muffin tins like that, they're popovers. But then, I'm American, so what do I know?

[GaT]

The show stoppers this season, aren't. Because of that, I really feel like the contestants aren't as good as in previous seasons. 

[Sew Sumi]

Yeah, I was hoping for churro Jenga or something. 

[PrincessPurrsALot]

Both popovers  and Yorkshire puddings are made with a thin batter in a hot pan.  However, YPs grow up the sides as e saw.  Popovers should have a solid top and be airy inside.  Both are delicious when done well.  I was surprised about the difficulties with the Yorkshire Puddings because I have a friend who is a terrible cook but makes great Yorkshire Pudding. She does only do one big pan of it that you then cut into pieces. She makes it in the drippings from the roast.  And now I'm hungry.

I spaced out during the churro portion.  I don't like churros or other fried dough [** ducks  to dodge lobbed doughnuts **].  I've never understood the appeal. 

[AZChristian]

Embarrassed to admit this, but I'm just a dumb American, I guess.  A few years ago, we were having a Sunday lunch in London. I pointed at something that looked like a weird biscuit on my plate and asked, "What is THAT?"

"Madam, it's a Yorkshire pudding."

Didn't look like pudding to me . . . and it does seem to qualify as a bread.  It was yummy.

[Rinaldo]

8 hours ago, PrincessPurrsALot said:

Both popovers  and Yorkshire puddings are made with a thin batter in a hot pan.  However, YPs grow up the sides as e saw.  Popovers should have a solid top and be airy inside.  Both are delicious when done well.  I was surprised about the difficulties with the Yorkshire Puddings because I have a friend who is a terrible cook but makes great Yorkshire Pudding. She does only do one big pan of it that you then cut into pieces. She makes it in the drippings from the roast. 

Most of what I know about Yorkshire pudding comes from an exchange of letters in Helene Hanff's 84 Charing Cross Road, but it agrees with the explanation just quoted. Originally it seems to have been a way to stretch the Sunday-afternoon roast to yield the "sides" as well, by using the pan drippings with a batter to produce a giant waffle/popover thing that could be portioned. It would bake along with the roast as long as its pan was preheated specially (it needs to be very hot to make the right start, as we saw). Over the years it seems to have been refined and fussed with, and now we have these small portions that can hold a filling.

1 hour ago, AZChristian said:

Didn't look like pudding to me . . .

Ah, two countries separated by a common language. Just when you've gotten used to understanding "In the UK a pudding is any molded dessert, and by extension the dessert course in general," they go and throw Yorkshire pudding at us. (I joke. We do have Indian pudding and bread pudding in the US.)

[Eliz]

It's too bad Kate went home for it, because Hot Cross Bunny Churros is a very very clever and funny name.

She had a good record on creativeness of her showstoppers -- I thought her prior girl guide gingerbread and especially the braided/plaited cornmaiden were both smart and unusual (and very well executed). If she isn't already running a baking business specializing in children's themes, she should be.

[Kohola3]

I hope some fancy restaurant doesn't latch on to those lacy pancakes and start serving them up at $12 a serving.  You'd go away hungry and leave a pool of unused syrup on the plate.  And where to the blueberries go?  I love my blueberry pancakes!

[OoogleEyes]

11 hours ago, LittleIggy said:

 

What are Yorkshire puddings anyway? Are they a side item like a dinner roll (in purpose not type) or a biscuit (Southern US kind)?

They are just a vessel for the gravy! Pretty tasteless on their own, but with the gravy, oh myyyyyyyyyy.

[Kohola3]

7 minutes ago, OoogleEyes said:

Pretty tasteless on their own...

I agree.  I don't like popovers either.  It's just baked flour paste to me.

[swimmyfish]

I was disappointed to see Kate go home. I agree that Rav, Tom, and she were the bottom, but we've seen some exceptional work from both her and Tom in the past, while Rav (who I do really like!) has consistently been among the worst every week. On the flip side, as a vegetarian, I really was excited about his his first dish with the tofu - that sounded really good to me.

I also thought Benjamina being Star Baker was well-deserved. It seems like her actual cooking process isn't terribly dramatic, so we don't see a lot of her until the tasting/judging, but her dishes always sound interesting and I'm glad her steadiness is paying off.

It also seems pretty clear that Paul and Mary do not like Val. I've been pleasantly surprised by her since the premiere (when I was shocked that she didn't go home), but it seems like they're pretty short with her. Of course, I can't taste her food, and maybe she's just a nightmare in the tent. But they typically find a way to be generous and forgiving of everyone's errors, so it does sort of stand out to me that they're not with her.

As for the question in the podcast about chilling dough - I am also unfamiliar with the physics of it, but I found this article, which states that it helps control the spread because it chills the fat, which then makes it melt slower during baking. 

[Mabinogia]

I was really disappointed that Kate was sent packing. I quite liked her. I quite like them all. But, watching the show, she was the clear choice. I am glad it was not Tom because I like having a risk taker in the bunch, just to see what he comes up with. I would have been fine with Rav going though I like him too.

Benjamina is one of my favorites so I was very happy for her, and well deserved. Her tropical churros are the first recipe I have looked up. They sound delicious, and I don't care for churros.

I had no idea lacy pancakes were a thing. Seems like a lot of work for such a small amount of actual pancake. But I liked the challenge. I know it's a hard challenge, but I don't mind because they are all faced with the same challenge and they are basically graded on a curve. There is always a best and a worst, it's not like everyone who doesn't do it well enough is booted. I particularly liked this one because it was interesting to see all the different approaches to the lace. Some went all out some did pretty easy patterns, they weren't all the same.

Jane bumped herself into my favorites circle with her "these are not the churros you are looking for".

[Clanstarling]

On 9/15/2016 at 11:01 AM, shandy said:

I do prefer thinner Western European pancakes to the lumpen Mitteleuropa type so I'm a great fan of Breton crepes, butter, lemon and superfine sugar yes please. Although having survived numerous Church Pancake Day/Mardi Gras in my youth, little Irish Nuns liked those plastic ReaLemon containers, raisins and coarse sugar, which made me glad for the syrup alternatives. I liked that the lacework tested creativity although what a tedious technical in some ways.

Your Irish Nun story made me gag. I grew up on thin pancakes which were either butter, lemon and sugar, or butter and whatever jam we had in the house. I was going to make some for a boyfriend, so I asked my mother to give me her recipe, which amounted to whenever I asked "how much" (flour, etc.), she'd say "just enough." My recipes, on the other hand, are written down for my girls to use. Not that they're interested.

But ReaLemon - that was used for different food items (mostly iced tea or lemonade), and I can still taste it when I think about it. Blech.

I forget who said she'd never tasted churros before. It seemed to me that if you know it's your showstopper, you might try to find somewhere to eat one - as a benchmark for taste if nothing else. How else are you going to know if you're in the neighborhood taste wise? I personally don't like them, but my kids do. 

Over the years, I've taken out the cookbook and looked at Yorkshire Pudding recipe, thought about making it, then gently slid it back onto the shelf. I've never tasted one, and it seemed fairly tricky to do without some knowledge of what your'e going for. 

Edited July 1, 2017 by Clanstarling

[LittleIggy]

The lace pancake concept seems as if it would be good for decorative purposes only. Not much there to eat.

[Quilt Fairy]

30 minutes ago, LittleIggy said:

The lace pancake concept seems as if it would be good for decorative purposes only. Not much there to eat.

Well, they said it was for rich people to show off, so there were probably 23 other courses served at the meal.  (We didn't get the historical sidenote here in the US.)

Between the sweet batter for the lacy pancakes and the technique used for the Yorkshire puddings, it made me think of the one thing I bake that doesn't come out of a box, a Dutch Baby or German pancake.  A very thin eggy batter that you bake in a pre-heated, buttered cast iron skillet.  The rise is so spectacular that I sometimes set the timer for 5 minutes before they are done so I can sit and watch the batter rise above the edges.  Served with - surprise! - sliced lemons and lots of powdered sugar.  

[MortysCleaningLady]

I was a bit surprised that we didn't hear more about the hot meat dripping oil as part of the Yorkshire puddings.   Did the pantry have lard in it as an alternative?   

For choosing to deviate from wheat flour for chickpea flour (I am not a fan of chickpeas or hummus at all!) and overdosing your judges with fennel (which I do enjoy), I think Tom should have gone home.  Kate's Puddings looked better and her churros were adorable.

[hendersonrocks]

This is the first week I've been surprised by the baker sent home - I really thought Rav had the worst week. (Well, I actually thought Tom did but it seemed quite clear they weren't ready to send him off.) Kate seemed delightfully sweet and realistic about the whole thing, which I quote enjoyed. 

If Andrew, Benjamina, and Selasi are the final three my heart will be so happy. 

[poeticlicensed]

I was seriously underwhelmed by the showstopper theme  on this episode. Churros? Why not corndogs?  Geez.