S07.E06: Botanical Week

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Quote

It's week six of The Great British Bake Off and just seven bakers remain. This week, for the very first time on Bake Off, it's Botanical Week.

There are three challenges inspired by nature. The bakers can reach for anything that grows to give their bakes maximum botanical taste.

The bakers start with a signature challenge with a twist, that demands sharp citrus flavours and perfect peaks. Hidden under the gingham cloth is a leafy technical challenge set by Mr Hollywood. And finally, the botanical showstopper is the biggest challenge of the series so far - not one, not two, but three tiers of elaborately decorated cake.

Paul and Mary are looking for beautifully flavoured sponges and to be wowed by stunning floral designs. Three challenges, three chances to win star baker, three chances to avoid leaving the tent.

[Occasional Hope]

Selassie's cake looked gorgeous.

[DHDancer]

I'm so glad Tom recouped himself with the fougasse and the showstopper.  I would have liked to try his tea cakes :)  I'm also very glad Jane is safe: I thought her floral white chocolate collars were beautiful (and matched her blouse!) -- it was just a shame she second-guessed herself so much on the cakes.

I guess I struggled a bit with "citrus meringue pies" fitting the botanical label: to me botanical meant herbs, teas, and other flavoring types, not physical flowers, or oranges/lemons/limes/grapefruit/mandarins!  Oh well, it was a fun episode.

[zibnchy]

I'm sorry to see Rav go. He was so nice. I want to be friends with him. But Andrew is my Bake Off "son" so I will be crushed when he goes.

I think Tom could go to the final. Maybe Tom, Candice, and Jane or Benjamina? I'm liking Candice way more than I ever thought I would.

[DHDancer]

Yeah I was also sorry to see Rav go. What a nice person he seems.  And poor Andrew: I really felt for him -- I don't think his cheeks could have got any redder!  These bakers are so hard on themselves, just like REAL people, eh?

[tenativelyyours]

Maybe it was the counterpoint of Benjamina and Selasi's fun during the meringue citrus tart to Tom's whinging about his pumpkin pie being citrus, but I was left feeling a bit peeved with him winning star baker.  Not at him per se, but just at the fact that I felt this was one of those episodes that flutter the editing just a bit more than usual.  Because to me Tom utterly failed the first challenge.  To the point that I would have probably reluctantly given Candice star baker if I couldn't have said "no one gets it this week".  I know each challenge does not weigh equally or that it seems to even be consistent from one week to the next let alone season to season.  But I think that a complete fail on the brief in one whole challenge puts you out the running.  And not only did he not make a citrus tart but he muffed up the pumpkin bit and the tart shell and the meringue.  I think what put me in the little snit was he started out once again saying how he wasn't going to do what was really asked of him and that he was making the definition his even though he also was admitting he was not doing what he thought the definition was.   It sounded a bit too whiny then when he got the judgement.   Maybe Tom should take a hint.   If you ace the technical and you ace bread which was a specific approach and you actually aced doing your cakes in terms of bakes and textures?   Maybe you should treat every challenge like it is a technical and not try to sell more failures simply because you want to be different. 

Also it was an interesting fun start of a show but then it got a little wonky for me.  Things seemed a bit rushed in the show stopper.  Maybe to highlight all the bad turns so many had.   But the listing of Candice in the women were all in the top and the men in the bottom seemed odd since her tart was not a success and her technical had issues.  I think that is the one slight weakness of the judging.  How does Selasi's poor textured curd go against the horror that was Candice's meringue and display?  Without tasting I don't know and it seems sometimes the judging is deliberately vague in those regards to viewers so it makes it easier for wins like Tom's.   Again I think that Tom was by default and not his fault.  There were issues with everyone at each stage except Tom in two.  And my issue with his first bake clearly is not one that Hollywood or Mary have and its their call.  But Selasi had a lot of things right with his tart that seemed to be noticed but not weighed if that makes sense.  For me the viewer that is. 

Selasi once again did himself wrong by not giving himself the time for his technical.  Had it baked longer despite the wrong cuts, I think he would have ranked higher.  Not sure if it would have truly put him in contention for star baker.  I think whoever did well enough in the show stopper and won Hollywood's prized bread technical was going to get it. 

I also wondered if Selasi is not a curd strainer type baker.  I know some that like the stuff in but if you bake your curd it can do really weird stuff with it.  And if that is what you are used to or prefer it can be problematic.  

I was glad to see Tom can do something really well besides bread though.  Had he muffed the cake challenge I think he might have been next to go if bread was all he can consistently do.   Still it will be interesting to see how he does when bread is not in any of the bakes in the weeks to come.

Overall, I found the technical a bit dull.  I like to see the bakers challenged more on the how to do stuff than where to place the cuts.  I much prefer the complicated that call on them to dig into a couple of different skills and levels of knowledge.  I think if they do make a show with Mary to compete against the moved franchised, they should realize that you can go back and repeat certain bake items and just add some different twists and elements.  Trying to go completely new is muddling the show just a touch for me between batters and botanical and some of the technical, I feel a strong sense of different on its own is not needed.  Speaking of which-

Tom....

[Badger]

Lemon meringue pie is one of my favorites, but I never thought you could use other types of citrus.  I'd love to try a grapefruit meringue pie.

[Corgi-ears]

Aww. I'll mis Rav and his cute, warm smile. 

I love tea-flavored teas, but Tom's sponges looked kinda...brown? Was it just the resolution on my screen?

"The icing between the layers looks like mashed potato." 

Edited September 29, 2016 by Corgi-ears

[Ceindreadh]

Poor Rav!  But at least he managed to not come last in the technical. I was surprised they didn't have his reaction to that afterwards. wasn't surprised that he had to leave. This felt like the first week that he wasn't enjoying himself. 

[ElectricBoogaloo]

I thought it was cute how Selasi, Jane, and Mary busted out their floral shirts for botanical week!

I'm not a huge fan of citrus pies, but I was interested to see how much the bakers veered away from the tradtional lemon meringue. There are only so many citrus fruits so I wasn't surprised to see some of the head to head battles.

Selasi's red grapefruit, orange, and mint meringue was very colorful with the pomegranate seeds. Hee, and his sharp edged kisses looked pretty good too! Loved when he held his meringue upside down over Benjamina's head.

Benjamina's grapefruit and ginger meringue was so pretty with the meringue roses. I loathe ginger so I wouldn't have liked eating hers. Loved Selasi giving a happy fist pump for her when the judges said they liked hers.

Andrew's lime and ginger meringue was a little too flat. I am not a huge fan of crust so I think he needed a lot more filling and a lot less crust to have a good proportion. But it did crack me up that the ginger used ginger in his pie! It looks like his curd saved him though.

Rav's mandarin tequila meringue looked kind of sad because his meringue wasn't fluffy or stiff enough. I thought Mary would be the one telling him he needed more tequila flavor. If Paul is the one saying you need more booze flavor, you definitely need a more generous hand! But I do understand his restraint. Adding too much alcohol can change the consistency of the filling.

Tom's blood orange pumpkin with pecan meringue wasn't appealing to me. His meringue didn't look brown enough either.

Jane's lime and coconut meringue was beautiful. Was she the only one to use a Swiss meringue instead of Italian meringue? It was so fluffy and beautifully toasted. I think she was the only one who toasted her meringue in the oven instead of with a blowtorch.

Candice's lime, coconut, and lemongrass meringue was hideous looking. It looked like a 3 year old's fingerpainting on top. Thank goodness the curd and the meringue both tasted good. Usually Candice has such beautiful presentation, so I'm glad that her flavors saved her this time.

Loved watching everyone spend the last few minutes of the technical challenge fanning their fougasses.

I was really excited about the showstopper! Three tiered floral cakes should be beautiful and delicious!

Andrew's flavors sounded classic but yummy: cherry and almond, elderflower and lemon, and vanilla and strawberry. Elderflower is so light and refreshing so using that in the swiss buttercream sounded like a great idea to add some extra floral flavor. I agree with Mary about his decoration - he iced the cake and put big dots at the bottom of each layer and placed some real flowers on the cake. But to be fair, some of the other cakes showed about the same level of decoration. For example, Candice's cake wasn't decorated elaborately. The only difference is that she used different colors on each layer. I preferred the simple clean look of Andrew's. And to be fair, Benjamina's cake was decorated even more simply than Andrew's - a crumb coat with fresh flowers sprinkled on top. Mary said twice that Andrew only showed them one kind of piping, but Benjamina and Candice showed zero kind of piping.

Rav's orange blossom, almond and vanilla cake was less of a challenge than some of the others since he used the same cake for all three of his layers. I thought his hand piped flowers looked very pretty, so I felt bad when he started looking at everyone else's cakes and doubting himself. I agree with Mary that a bolder color for the flowers might have looked better. I think the bigger issue was the lumpiness of the icing.

Paul made it sound like Tom's tea infused cake was a huge risk, but his three cake layers were infused with elderflower, chamomile, and jasmine. Other bakers used chamomile and elderflower so only the jasmine was different. I didn't hear Paul telling the other bakers that using chamomile (Benjamina) and elderflower (Andrew) were risky. The tiny piping was simple but so effective.

Candice's four seasons cake was a fun idea, but she really gave herself a challenge since she made four different cakes (chocolate orange for spring, lemon raspberry rose for summer, spiced carrot for autumn, and fruit cake for winter). I didn't really like the way she decorated the fall and winter layers because they didn't look very autumnal or wintery. To be honest, they looked kind of messy and slapdash. It was nice that Mary complimented her on how good the gluten free chocolate cake was.

Jane's orange cake was so messy looking. The chocolate painted wrap she did for all three layers didn't look like flowers at all. I like that she used a lot of color, but in the end it was just colorful looking blobs (but they almost matched her shirt). Paul's description of the icing as looking like mashed potatoes was pretty accurate. The flowers she made were very pretty though.

Selasi's ombre cake was GORGEOUS. He has great piping skills. Those roses were so beautiful. I was most looking forward to his strawberry vanilla cake (I don't love carrot cake or lemon poppyseed cake).

Benjamina's chamomile honey poppyseed cake sounded floral without being overly sweet. The orange blossom and almond cake sounded like it would complement the chamomile nicely. I know that she chose to do that kind of icing that looks like a crumb coat and lets the cake show through, but I'm not a huge fan of that look.

Tom really acquitted himself after his less than stellar showing in the signature. He did so well in the technical and the showstopper. If Selasi had done a little better in either of the first two rounds, I think he could have won star baker.

Rav just had a bad week. Andrew did too, but he squeaked by because he did slightly less worse than Rav.

Recipes from this week:
Paul's herb fougasse recipe
Jane's lime and coconut meringue pie
Benjamina's grapefruit and ginger meringue pie
Tom's blood orange pumpkin Halloween pie
Tom's floral tea cake
 

[dwarmed]

It seems like there are some shenanigans going on with Tom, like Paul is bending over backwards to keep him because he favors good bread bakers. I can't remember any other season where someone had such dismal failures (looked bad, tasted bad, ignored the brief) in BOTH the signature and showstopper for two weeks in a row (batter and pastry week) and continued on. Either this year's bakers are much worse than prior years or there is some real BS behind the scenes. I don't buy for a minute that those tea cakes deserved star baker. The technical barely even counts most of the time, except for a tie breaker as to who gets eliminated. I've never disliked a baker on this show before, but Tom's refusal to follow the briefs reeks of arrogance and the show's efforts to prop him up are kind of shady. His bitchface doesn't help either. GBBO, you should be above this kind of reality show manipulation. Very unappetizing. 

[Rinaldo]

2 hours ago, ElectricBoogaloo said:

Rav just had a bad week. Andrew did too, but he squeaked by because he did slightly less worse than Rav.

And, as with other self-aware bakers in the past, he greeted his ousting with a smile, knowing it was coming. I liked him so much for that.

45 minutes ago, dwarmed said:

It seems like there are some shenanigans going on with Tom

I don't see it that way at all. Tom came first in Technical, and placed very high in Showstopper. In a week when everybody had ups and downs and revealed new weaknesses, that seems like enough. It was admittedly by default to some extent; nobody did uniformly great, and some usually strong bakers had bad moments. There were maybe other reasonable contenders for star baker, but I didn't find Tom an unreasonable one.

I didn't understand why Candice had to abandon her already-piped meringue design and smash it all down. She said the coconut was sticking in the piping bag, but how would reshaping the meringue on the pie help that?

[shandy]

I'm not sure about Tom being given a pass (although he is stubborn about his strange flavor combos to the point of ridicule), to my mind Andrew has been protected- at least Rav tried sugarcraft beyond fondant balls.

I can't get angry about star bakers in the later weeks because botanics was a perfect example of who the .....  are we going to choose when no-one had a good week in ALL three areas.

6 hours ago, Rinaldo said:

I didn't understand why Candice had to abandon her already-piped meringue design and smash it all down.

I know. I thought, lady, what are you doing? The piping looked good to me and then went from that to looking hideous. 

I felt so sorry for Jane who I suspect has done beautiful chocolate collars when she has had all day to paint them, but then again she knew she was tight on timing when she started. I did kind of like the psychedelic look from a distance.

Selasi and Benjamina's relationship is fantastic - I love how they don't have any of the faux british politeness  'oh but I didn't really deserve to come first' and just laugh in each others' faces when they win BUT also are the first to be thrilled when the other does well.

I was pleased that Mary and Paul had no problems with deep dish pies compared to the shallower French style fluted type.

[dwarmed]

The Tom shenanigans I was referring to were about the previous two weeks, batter and pastry, where he did so badly. I think he got a pass both those weeks, then did better this week. Unless he gets to bake bread every week, what's he going to do? A person who tends to sneer at sweet flavors is probably not suited for the tent. This show leans heavily toward sweet bakes. 

[BusyOctober]

I never knew there were so many different meringue methods.  Swiss...Italian...French.  I thought there was just one!  Egg whites and sugar (and maybe some cream of tartar) in a cool bowl, whipped into peaks, piped or spooned on top of tart or pie and then baked to achieve crisp outer surface and lovely brown color...that's how my Nana did it for her award winning Lemon Meringue pies.  I'll have to google the different recipes to see what the degree of difficulty is compared to the one I know. 

I love the flirting/teasing between Benjamina & Selassie!  Jane is still my favorite and IMO one of the most skilled bakers there.  The others are definitely talented but Jane has been consistently on point.  Tom is a very good bread baker but some of his flavors are just too out there for me.  Sorry to see Rav (or anyone) go.  Everyone is just too damn nice and friendly.

[Schweedie]

10 hours ago, dwarmed said:

The Tom shenanigans I was referring to were about the previous two weeks, batter and pastry, where he did so badly. I think he got a pass both those weeks, then did better this week. Unless he gets to bake bread every week, what's he going to do? A person who tends to sneer at sweet flavors is probably not suited for the tent. This show leans heavily toward sweet bakes. 

The thing is, I think he's just been saved by the fact that others really did did do worse in those weeks. Val was absolutely the worst one during pastry week, and I do think both Kate and Rav were probably below Tom during batter week, despite his Yorkshire mishap. I agree that he should absolutely start to properly follow the brief and stop being so insistent on "pushing it" with his flavours and ingredients, though, because I'm pretty sure he's now run out of people who will consistently be worse than him and next week will be his week unless he plays it safe.

I was so craving a citrus-marengue pie after this episode. I LOVE them.

A part of me is almost relieved to see Rav go. He's been struggling for the last few weeks, but mostly saved himself by doing well in at least one challenge and seemed to be taking it on the chin quite cheerfully, but like Ceindreadh said he didn't really seem to be enjoying himself this week. He probably knew he'd made it as far as he could. Felt so bad for Andrew, too! Poor guy, you could tell he felt crushed by his failings.

Selasi's showstopper was definitely one of the most beautiful looking cakes I've seen on the show. Just gorgeous piping there.

[OnceSane]

I really hope Selasi & Benjamina make the finale…they are adorable and great bakers to boot.

I think Tom is the next to go, he seems to stuff it up in non-bread challenges. 

[Danny Franks]

I've been watching the season, but haven't got around to commenting so far. I just haven't warmed to this group like I did last year's lot. Having said that, Selasi is an eminently cool dude, and seems like he'd be a great buddy. His friendship with Benjamina is nice, I enjoy seeing them look so happy for one another when the judges offer praise. Again, much better than the bitchy competitiveness and seeping poison of other cooking shows.

I'm surprised that anyone lamented Rav being eliminated. Nice guy, but completely out of his depth and lucky to have survived the last two weeks. He clearly gave up when he saw how great everyone else's cakes looked, knowing the game was up.

When Jane said "I know who my rival is" it sounded awfully presumptuous, and like she meant more than just rival for that challenge. I'm not really a fan of her, I have to say. My final three now would be Selasi, Benjamina and Candice, I'm not too keen on any of the others.

[Ruby Gillis]

2 hours ago, Danny Franks said:

When Jane said "I know who my rival is" it sounded awfully presumptuous, and like she meant more than just rival for that challenge. I'm not really a fan of her, I have to say. 

I think she just meant that Candice was using the same ingredients, lime and coconut.

[Danny Franks]

7 minutes ago, Ruby Gillis said:

I think she just meant that Candice was using the same ingredients, lime and coconut.

 

I'm not sure she did. She's made another comment or two about Candice being good, I think. Either way, it was quite a distance from Selasi and Benjamina's teasing over them using the same ingredients.

[Schweedie]

3 hours ago, Danny Franks said:

I've been watching the season, but haven't got around to commenting so far. I just haven't warmed to this group like I did last year's lot.

...

When Jane said "I know who my rival is" it sounded awfully presumptuous, and like she meant more than just rival for that challenge. I'm not really a fan of her, I have to say. My final three now would be Selasi, Benjamina and Candice, I'm not too keen on any of the others.

It's the same for me - as a group, I haven't quite warmed to this lot. Which is funny, because for the first few episodes I felt like I liked everyone and didn't want anyone to leave (except for Val, man, I could not understand why everyone on the internet seemed to love her), but instead of growing on me it's sort of been the opposite? I don't know, I feel like there's something missing this season that was there last year, but I'm not sure what it is.

On the other hand, Jane is one of the few that did grow on me. I really like her. Like someone said last week, her "These are not the Yorkshires you're looking for" won me over, and she mostly just seems really calm and consistent. I didn't get anything from her 'rival' comment about Candice this week other than the fact that they were using the same ingredients for their pie, and the other time it was when they were both clearly the ones in contention for star baker (and it seemed all good-natured to me then as well, too).

[dwarmed]

I also feel this season is a bit lackluster, but I don't think the bakers are at fault. Either the show stumbled on casting people whose skills weren't quite enough for the competition or they have made the challenges too difficult in the time given. I hate to see so many of the bakers struggling and clearly beyond their depth. It seems cruel. Last season, I felt many bakers left because they just had a bad day. This season, many have said they reached their limit. That must be heartbreaking. I want to see people do well, not suffer. 

[Schweedie]

@dwarmed, I think I agree. Like you say, last season people often left because they had a really bad day. They could do great for a few weeks, fail badly the next one, and be out. But this year... It doesn't seem to go like that. I don't know if the challenges themselves in general are more difficult (I'm thinking back to last seasons flaounas, glutenfree pitas and the whole alternative ingredients week, the moccatines, the tennis court cake, etc...), except for the steamed buns, but I also think the casting people may have stumbled a little. I too want to see people doing well, not fail and feel awful about it.

But take this week, with the meringues - quite a few of them failed on even getting their meringues properly whipped up. That seems like such a basic thing to me. And they didn't seem super stressed, either, so it didn't look like they just gave up because they ran out of time. I mean, Jane had time to make two different meringues (right? or am I imagining that) and brown hers in the oven, so there WAS time. It's odd to me.

I'm very excited for Dessert Week next week, I gotta say. It's one of my favourites. Yum.

[Refresh]

On 9/28/2016 at 6:30 PM, zibnchy said:

I think Tom could go to the final. Maybe Tom, Candice, and Jane or Benjamina? I'm liking Candice way more than I ever thought I would.

It may have been here that I read an almost fact that whoever gets star baker in Bread Week makes it to the finals. Cross-checked and it wasn't true Season 2 (Yasmin) but has been true for every other season. Which is interesting.  Tom did SO bad during batter week, and pastry week, and I really liked Val, so i'm sore that he's still around.  Sometimes I like the idea of his quirky flavors and other times I wish he would just leave things alone, and follow the briefs. When he fails, he fails because of bad conceptualization - examples being granola danishes (I literally need some milk just writing that), yorkshire pudding with chick pea flour, fennel churros, blech. But other baker failures this season tend to  botching execution. Not enough time, over bake etc.  It seems like the judges think not finishing is the worst, followed by under or over baking, then appearance. Flavor tends to be a plus when it's good but not that much of a negative if it's bad. Bit of a loophole if you ask me. 

Basically, I'm just think Tom has really lucked out. And for the record I thought his cake decoration was hideous. The actual piping was consistent, but the effect with the swirls was unappealing to me.

Salasi's cake was gorgeous.

I really like Candice & Benjamina. I appreciate Candice's artistic sensibilities, and her obsessiveness. She  goes big so when she nails it, it's fun to see, though her failures are kind of epic. Benjamina is really steady and good at everything, and her banter with

 

On 9/29/2016 at 1:51 AM, ElectricBoogaloo said:

I thought it was cute how Selasi, Jane, and Mary busted out their floral shirts for botanical week!

Loved it! Candice did a muted/nude lip this week, I guess because botanical is natural? Kind of funny.

[xqueenfrostine]

I was so impressed by Selasi's showstopper cake this week that I was really disappointed that he didn't make Star Baker.  I know they don't (usually!) award Star Baker status based on one round alone, but his cake was head and shoulders ahead of anyone else's in terms of its looks and Paul and Mary both had really nice things to say about its flavor and the quality of the bake!

On 9/30/2016 at 6:48 AM, BusyOctober said:

I never knew there were so many different meringue methods.  Swiss...Italian...French.  I thought there was just one!  Egg whites and sugar (and maybe some cream of tartar) in a cool bowl, whipped into peaks, piped or spooned on top of tart or pie and then baked to achieve crisp outer surface and lovely brown color...that's how my Nana did it for her award winning Lemon Meringue pies.  I'll have to google the different recipes to see what the degree of difficulty is compared to the one I know. 

The main difference in meringues is how heat in introduced to cook the egg whites.  The recipe your Nana used is a french style meringue which is the easiest to do.  Italian meringues cook the egg whites using boiling hot sugar syrup and Swiss Meringues are slowly cooked over a hot water bath.  The different methods produce different textures, and French is definitely the way to go if you like your meringue to be light and crisp!

On 9/30/2016 at 11:23 AM, Danny Franks said:

I'm surprised that anyone lamented Rav being eliminated. Nice guy, but completely out of his depth and lucky to have survived the last two weeks. He clearly gave up when he saw how great everyone else's cakes looked, knowing the game was up.

I agree that it was Rav's time to go, but I was still bummed to see him eliminated.  He had the best personality of the group, and that matters (enjoyment wise, not competition wise obviously) when the overall group seems a little dull compared to last season.

[pamplemousse]

I like Candice, but I don't usually like the look of her bakes. Too frou frou, over the top to the point of looking messy, just too much of everything and overworked and over-complicated even when it's not a Showstopper. I especially don't care for her elaborate decorative presentations that look more like costume drama set pieces than what is meant to showcase her baked goods. I much prefer the more restrained, clean, and elegant offerings of some of the other bakers, like Benjamina. My ideal top three would be, in no particular order, Benjamina, Selasi, and either Jane (who has grown on me immensely with her competence and consistency, although I still find her work a bit boring and safe in the flavor profile department) or Andrew. But I have a feeling Candice and/or Tom will sneak in there.

Sad to see Rav go, he had such an appealing personality. It's not often I see a person so relentlessly cheerful and positive who doesn't come across as annoying and cloying.

[girlplease]

On 10/1/2016 at 2:58 AM, Schweedie said:

But take this week, with the meringues - quite a few of them failed on even getting their meringues properly whipped up. That seems like such a basic thing to me. And they didn't seem super stressed, either, so it didn't look like they just gave up because they ran out of time. I mean, Jane had time to make two different meringues (right? or am I imagining that) and brown hers in the oven, so there WAS time. It's odd to me.

I'm guessing this had to do with the humidity in the tent as it was raining that day - Benjamina mentioned it, and it can indeed affect the height and crispness you can get out of a meringue.

I wondered why all the contestants fanned their fougasse at the end of the baking time - rather than giving them an extra few minutes in the oven (which several of them really could have used!). The recipe doesn't seem to indicate...

[Enigma X]

I have only watched two seasons of this show. This is my third. I have never really disliked a contestant, but Tom rubs me the wrong way. He seems smug and anal to me.

[Athena]

20 minutes ago, girlplease said:

I wondered why all the contestants fanned their fougasse at the end of the baking time - rather than giving them an extra few minutes in the oven (which several of them really could have used!). The recipe doesn't seem to indicate...

The technical recipes usually omit things such as timing and even temperature.

This seems unfair at first, but as a regular bread baker, I have a pretty good idea of when bread is done now. The contestants should have checked the bottom; a couple of them did look underbaked.

[girlplease]

I understand that, but they all seemed to fan their bakes at the end when I can't recall that happening for any other bread challenge. They know how much time is left in the technical even if they aren't given specific timing on the bake.

Especially strange as I believe a few contestants mentioned that they thought their fougasse might be underdone (Selasi comes to mind) but I think he was fanning along with the rest of them...

Edited October 3, 2016 by girlplease

[Schweedie]

12 hours ago, girlplease said:

I wondered why all the contestants fanned their fougasse at the end of the baking time - rather than giving them an extra few minutes in the oven (which several of them really could have used!). The recipe doesn't seem to indicate...

I'm guessing it was because they needed it to be cool enough for Paul and Mary to be able to break it and eat it - I know it takes a little while before I can even touch bread that's fresh out of the oven. I seem to remember similar fanning from last season when they did baguettes for the technical, but further back than that I'm not sure. (And whether fanning really helps with the cooling I'm not sure either, but I suppose it's an instinctive thing to do, heh.)

Missed what they said about the rain - yeah, that might've affected their meringues.

Edited October 4, 2016 by Schweedie

[Athena]

The tent is probably quite warm when they all take the bread out and depending on the day as well. It would be too hot for them to handle it let alone for them to cool it for Paul and Mary. Ideally, bread shouldn't be sliced too early after coming out of the oven.

Baking in the tent is a challenge in itself sometimes. There has been times where it's been crazy hot and they had to frost. Sometimes it may be better for the baking if they were indoors, but it would not feel like Bake off.

[Primetimer]

There's not a hamster in sight as everyone has to step it up with nature-inspired challenges. Almost perfect won't do.

View the full article

[rhys]

Thanks for the meringue info. Fascinating. It's really too bad it was a rainy, humid day.  Also, I thought egg whites ------>meringue used room temp eggs & equipment. One fellow mentioned cool eggs. Have I been misled?

[movingtargetgal]

On 10/3/2016 at 3:40 PM, girlplease said:

I'm guessing this had to do with the humidity in the tent as it was raining that day - Benjamina mentioned it, and it can indeed affect the height and crispness you can get out of a meringue.

I think you are right about the humidity.  My grandmother would bake a lemon meringue pie every year for my grandfather's birthday.  There were a few years that she had to wait a few days until the humidity lifted.  She said that she could never get those damn egg whites to "sit up" when it was too damp.  I think she had the same issue with Divinity Fudge.  

[GaT]

At least we had some real showstoppers this week, but I still feel like this is a toned down season, nowhere as good as previous seasons.

[andromeda331]

So do I. 

[Kohola3]

Selasi's showstopper was the first real head-turner this season, I thought. It was the first one I'd stop and take a second look at in a bakery. I guess Candice was ambitious with her 4 different cakes but I honestly thought it looked like a hot mess.  If I saw that in a bakery I'd think it was a mistake.  And while Jane's didn't turn out as she wanted it to, I thought it looked rather artsy!

[Florinaldo]

MB seemed put off by the fact that Jane was not cooking her meringue in the oven; but that is the whole point of a Swiss meringue! It's already cooked so you can finish it simply with a blow torch; it's also more stable in my experience. Is it just a matter of personal preference or a streak of cooking ideological orthodoxy in her?

Candice's 4-tier cake looked absolutely horrible to me; it was ambitious and probably tasted good but I don't think I would have been tempted to cut into this mess based on looks alone. Jane's looked more artistic, even though she thought she smeared the floral bands. I liked the elegant simplicity of Andrew's cascade of flowers, much more than cakes that were overloaded with whole gardens of flowers, real of fabricated.

Some very interesting flavour combinations, although not all successful according to the judges' palates. I love elderflower (or elderberry as it is called here) and most teas, so I would have been keen on Tom's and Andrew's confections I think.

Andrew seemed really convinced that he was leaving; he looked stunned when Rav's name was said. Unless he is used to pumping up the drama whenever he faces an even slightly stressful situation.

[chaifan]

On 10/4/2016 at 9:38 AM, Athena said:

The tent is probably quite warm when they all take the bread out and depending on the day as well. It would be too hot for them to handle it let alone for them to cool it for Paul and Mary. Ideally, bread shouldn't be sliced too early after coming out of the oven.

Baking in the tent is a challenge in itself sometimes. There has been times where it's been crazy hot and they had to frost. Sometimes it may be better for the baking if they were indoors, but it would not feel like Bake off.

I have mixed feelings on the tent.  I love the external shots and just how the tent stands out in the perfectly manicured yard.  But from a baking show standpoint, it isn't necessary for me.  I know not everyone has a climate controlled kitchen to guard against humidity (I don't have central air in my house), but the tent probably makes those conditions even worse.  It's a baking show, not a garden show, so I'd be quite fine with them putting the bakers in a proper kitchen.

That said, this was a mess of a week.  Tom really lucked out with turning out such a good showstopper.  I loved the concept of Jane's decorating, and I'd love to see how it was supposed to turn out.  (I also thought the not quite right version looked pretty, though.)  I liked Candice's 4 tier cake - I thought the off center piling of layers was whimsical, looked like something you'd see in a bake shop in a scene out of Harry Potter.  As for the bread, I agree with those who thought figuring out the placement of slits wasn't enough of a "challenge" that you usually see in the technical.  And I've never heard of fougasse - is it a cousin of focaccia?

[AZChristian]

All I know is that I really sleep well on Friday night after this show airs.  It relaxes me, and helps me to remember that there are wonderful places with nice people on Earth.  

I don't have a problem with them being in the tent.  I don't want to see an English version of MasterChef in a studio.  I love looking through the windows and seeing the beautiful scenery, and occasionally hearing the rain.  Even if these folks are baking in their home kitchens, I assume the humidity in the UK can be an issue.  It's like living in Denver, where the altitude affects cooking - you learn to deal with it.

[Florinaldo]

26 minutes ago, chaifan said:

And I've never heard of fougasse - is it a cousin of focaccia?

It's in the same family of flatbreads, with variations in seasonings or leavening and proofing, but most crucially with those slits which can vary from town to town. You can get many eyebrows raised at you in Provence if you shape your fougasse incorrectly according to the local preferences.

They are cousins, much like pesto and pistou are (the latter not having the pine nuts).

At one point during the episode, Tom mentioned his "practice run" with his bake. So this confirms they get some info in advance and have a chance to rehearse recipes at home.

Edited July 15, 2017 by Florinaldo

[swimmyfish]

I didn't quite see what was wrong with Candice's initial meringue swirls in the first challenge? I know she said that coconut was clogging the piping tip, but it looked really nice on my tv screen, up until she ran a knife through it. As for her Show Stopper, it was impressive that she made 4 cakes, but unless they're all going to be good - and one of them wasn't - just make 3 cakes. I do like Candice, and I find her willingness to experiment fun (moreso than Tom's, certainly), but her constantly overdoing things is beginning to get on my nerves.

I was very impressed with Selasi's Show Stopper, and honestly found Mary Berry's "Well, we know you can pipe buttercream roses" to be unnecessarily dismissive. Particularly because, in addition to the piping, he also managed to get right the coloring technique Candice botched (well, according to her) in the first round. I'm am a little disappointed Selasi didn't win Star Baker based on that cake. It really was fantastic looking.

Tom's pie was the only one that didn't sound good to me - pumpkin and meringue don't strike me as a complimenting each other, texture-wise. But he did figure out to use steam on the bread, and his Show Stopper did sound very tasty even if it didn't look as good as Selasi's.

I thought Jane's Show Stopper was really impressive-looking. I know she ran low on time because she had to remake one of her cakes so the chocolate collars didn't come out quite how she wanted, but Paul's reaction was a bit overplayed. OTOH, when Mel (or possibly Sue; I'm not sure which one actually said it) floated Jane as possibly going home this week, Mary's rushing to her defense seemed, well. . . . . kind of transparent. I mean, I don't think she deserved to go home this week, certainly not compared to Rav and Andrew, but I do sometimes feel like she's being set up to be the winner. If she's not in the finale, I will be very surprised.

Andrew's stress after the final round was so upsetting. His poor flushed cheeks. I really like Rav and will miss his presence in the tent, but I think they made the right call by sending him home this week.

[Kohola3]

Oh a shallow note, did Candice run out of lipstick this week?

[AZChristian]

Just now, Kohola3 said:

Oh a shallow note, did Candice run out of lipstick this week?

I thought she looked really nice with the pale shade, but (oddly enough), it made her crooked teeth more obvious.  

[Rinaldo]

3 hours ago, Florinaldo said:

MB seemed put off by the fact that Jane was not cooking her meringue in the oven; but that is the whole point of a Swiss meringue! It's already cooked so you can finish it simply with a blow torch; it's also more stable in my experience. Is it just a matter of personal preference or a streak of cooking ideological orthodoxy in her?

Personal preference, I think, based on how she wants it to taste. She said several times that she likes the meringue slightly crisp. And that's more difficult to get with a kitchen blowtorch; it could be done, given sufficient attention, but the broiler in an oven keeps the heat steady on the whole surface at once.

3 hours ago, Florinaldo said:

At one point during the episode, Tom mentioned his "practice run" with his bake. So this confirms they get some info in advance and have a chance to rehearse recipes at home.

Right, but no confirmation is really needed at this point; they've been very definite since Season 1 that the bakers know all the signatures and showstoppers before they start Week 1.

[Quilt Fairy]

3 hours ago, AZChristian said:

I don't want to see an English version of MasterChef in a studio.

Our MasterChef is an American version of the English original!  And the English version is a million times better than ours.

Baking in the tent is part of what makes GBBO the show it is.  It's not just the outside views of the gardens and manor house, it's the inside views looking out that set the scene for me.  A studio set would never be the same.

[meep.meep]

4 hours ago, Kohola3 said:

Selasi's showstopper was the first real head-turner this season, I thought. It was the first one I'd stop and take a second look at in a bakery. I guess Candice was ambitious with her 4 different cakes but I honestly thought it looked like a hot mess.  If I saw that in a bakery I'd think it was a mistake.  And while Jane's didn't turn out as she wanted it to, I thought it looked rather artsy!

I knew Selasi was going to be fine when I recognized from the description of what he was going to make that it was the same cake they've been showing in the introduction and end credits all season.  "That's the beautiful cake they've been showing!"  If he hadn't come last in the technical he'd be star baker this time.  Didn't realize Tom's last name was "Baker" !

Do watch English MasterChef if you get a chance!  It's lovely and Ramsey-free.  Although, I haven't seen it in five years.....

[Broken Ox]

How cute was Selasi laying on his stomach in front of his oven with his legs bent up?

[hendersonrocks]

Selasi, his shirt, his signature, and his showstopper? All gorgeous.

I was really pleased we got to keep Andrew for at least another week, as I think he's shown more potential overall than Rav (as delightful as he is as a human). I feel like everyone left has shown real strength at various times and in various ways.