The Great Canadian Baking Show - General Discussion

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Yay, I'm so excited that this show is back! I feel like a glutton because the new season of GBBO is airing simultaneously. Two bake off shows at once? SO AWESOME!

I wish all the other bake off shows would aprons with the bakers' names on them like they do in Canada. That helps so much in the early weeks!

Ann Marie's rosemary fig upside down cake looked nice with the fresh figs in a little pile on top for extra color. I wasn't sure about the rosemary but both the judges loved her cake so I'll take their word for it.

Wendy's sticky banana upside down cake with blueberry molasses and rum whipped cream looked like a messy pile of pancakes with a ton of white sauce dumped on top. It's a good thing it tasted so good.

Andrei may have taken an easier route with his sour cream and rhubarb parquet upside down cake but I liked that it looked so geometric and that it was very different from everyone else's.

Tim's triple berry lemon upside down cake with blackberries, strawberries, and blueberries looked very summery (maybe I'm just having end of summer regret) but I agree that there wasn't much air in the cake.

Timothy the trombone player's pear and lemon dark chocolate upside down cake sounded good but I have to agree with Rochelle - his knife skills are pretty atrocious. His cake would have looked so much nicer if the pear slices had been more uniform.

Devon's mango gingerbread upside down sandwich cake wasn't the prettiest I've seen but wow, the best cake Rochelle's tasted!

Mengling's apple pecan bourbon upside cake with maple caramel looked very colorful and pretty. I liked how surprised Rochelle sounded when she tasted the bourbon.

Sachin the dentist's pear and chai upside down cake looked very light so I wasn't sure if it was going to be underbaked.

Sadiya's pistachio cardamom cranberry upside cake was very striking with the bright green from the pistachio powder on top against the red from the cranberries.

Megan's mango berry upside down mint cheesecake with raspberries looked very colorful and pretty. I wasn't sure about the mint cheesecake with all the fruity flavors, but the judges loved it!

I've never made an orange chiffon cake but there was definitely a lot of variation in the finished cakes. Yay for Mengling and Sachin doing so well!

I kind of enjoy when they give the bakers these very easy generic challenges during the first week to give the bakers a lot of leeway to do well. Birthday cake translates to just make a cake so I was excited to see what everyone came up with.

Wendy's Anne of Green Gables chocolate and lemon cake with raspberry cordial frosting was pretty. The lace gave it a very delicate look.

Andrei's white and dark chocolate checkboard queen for a day cake with raspberry cream was so elegant! From the white frosting to the roses and the sugar work crown, it really looked like a birthday cake to celebrate with.

Hahaha, I loved that Mengling made a birthday cake for herself. Her blueberry lime naked cake with basil buttercream wasn't my favorite looking, but I really liked the height.

Ann Marie's stout and whiskey happy hour cake with pretzels was a good flavor combination but I hated the scraped icing on the side. I know that's a big trend now, but it just looks like a crumb coat to me.

Sadiya's jungle cake was a good idea (and her animals were cute) but it's too bad that she had to scrap the pinata part of her cake.

Devon's coconut matcha cake was nice but a bit too simple for my taste. The scalloped frosting was nice but I felt like he needed something with a wow factor. Maybe a more interesting color or something besides leaves.

Timothy's raisin spice phoenix cake looked a bit messy. I never would have been able to guess what his concept was. I agree with Bruno about how delicate the sugar feathers were, so kudos to him for that.

Tim's coconut chocolate ocean cake sounded like a great concept but it looked kind of flat/short for a three layer cake. Aww and it was raw inside. Poor guy.

Sachin's s'mores cake sounded good and although it waasn't the fanciest looking birthday cake I've ever seen, I liked that it looked like a s'mores cake. The candles gave it a nice height too.

I thought that Megan's chocolate and vanilla day of the dead cake was going to have a skull on top, not that the entire cake was going to be inside the skull.

Yay for Andrei winning star baker! I was fine with Tim being eliminated. Although during deliberation, they only mentioned his presentation skills being a problem, he had issues with the actual baking too. They said that his upside down cake didn't have enough air and was too dense and then his showstopper was raw on the inside and the filling was oozing out. On the other hand, the judges liked the flavors of Timothy's chocolate pear upside down cake and his phoenix showstopper. So what it sounded like to me was that both Tim and Timothy had some presentation issues but Timothy got praise for his flavors and Tim did not. I know this is a competition but it doesn't matter how good something looks if it doesn't taste good.

[The Crazed Spruce]

See, this is why I don't apply for shows like this. I like to bake, but I probably would've stuck with a simple pineapple upside-down cake. That, and I kinda doubt I could get away with using a mix....

[Bunnyette]

On 2018-09-20 at 4:24 AM, shok said:

Think they should have let Timothy go instead of Tim. I'd guess that Tim just had a particularly bad weekend but has a lot of better bakes in him whereas Timothy is far more inexperienced and is likely to struggle. Can't remember names but it looks like they've got some very good bakers there. The spun sugar crown that the winner made was amazing and beautiful.

Don’t you know they need to keep the “young millennial” around no matter what train wrecks come out of his ovens!  This is CBC after all.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

S2.E2: Biscuits and Bars Week

Quote

For Biscuits and Bars Week, the bakers showed off their creativity by taking the simplest baked goods — cookies and bake sale squares — and turning them into delicious, high concept masterpieces. They also tackled a technical challenge that saw some bakers shine...and other lose their temper. 

Original air date: 9/26/18

Edited November 15, 2019 by ElectricBoogaloo

[Kohola3]

Canadians who don't know what digestive biscuits are?  I find that so strange. I used to drive under the river to Windsor to get them in the grocery stores there!

So serious issues with bars this time.  A couple of real catastrophes.

That piano was pretty darned impressive!

[threebluestars]

I never watched S1 (only started watching GBBO last month) and so this is new to me. So far I'm really enjoying it.

I like to bake, but I have no actual knowledge aside from following a basic recipe, so I love learning about all these techniques and styles. I was all "there's more than one kind of meringue?!" lol.

I do want CBC to explain how they are perfectly capable of showing the technical bake here, but not when they air the British version. They literally told me on Twitter to watch it on their website for the technical bake - and then didn't have it separated out from the full episode.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Quote

The bakers are elbow-deep in dough as they tackle a series of challenges.

Original air date: 10/3/18

[shok]

Quote

That piano was pretty darned impressive!

It was amazing. I wonder how long it took him to make the form that he used for baking it. The apples and the basket were pretty impressive too. I think those two will be fighting it out at the end for the title.

[strippedhalo]

10 hours ago, Kohola3 said:

Canadians who don't know what digestive biscuits are?  I find that so strange.

It made me laugh, because I had just come back from the kitchen with digestive biscuits when they announced the technical.

Mengling is still my favourite, and Sadiya cracks me up. The signature made me feel like I would not like to make bars, as the potential for messy disaster seems high.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

On a shallow note, I don't like Julia's hair color this season. I didn't mind it last week but something about the color combined with the braided style she had this week was really unappealing to me.

Mmm, dessert bars!

Mengling's dog Nimbus is so cute! Her walnut bars with matcha and white chocolate looked great. I liked that the top layer was so thick because the silky texture would provide a great contrast to the crunchy base. She was so sweet to help Wendy at the end too.

Devon is a part time substitute teacher AND he works at his family's gravestone business? Talk about to disparate careers! His hazelnut cookie squares with dates, candied orange, and vanilla mascapone looked nice but Bruno said they weren't crunchy enough.

Wendy's chocolate almond bars with lime curd and pistachio looked a little plain and messy. I give her credit for realizing her mistake (using twice the amount of butter) and trying to correct it but it just snowballed into a constant effort to fix each new problem (adding almond to offset the extra butter, adding gelatin).

Sadiya's coconut brownie bars with cheesecake and coconut sounded good in theory but she failed in the execution. I knew the judges would not be down with raw brownies (I, on the other hand, have been known to eat raw brownie batter out of the bowl). I agree that she should have baked each layer separately.

Yay for someone making Nanaimo bars! Ann Marie's chocolate coffee Nanaimo bars with candied hazelnuts and chocolate ganache were a complete mess. They were just haphazardly shaped lumps of different sizes.

Sachin's pina colada bars with pineapple curd, coconut cream, and shortbread looked good. Loved how excited Dan looked when he tried pineapple curd for the first time!

Timothy's red bean and sticky rice bars with mochi and swiss meringue were very different. They looked nice and he took a big risk using such non-traditional ingredients. I love sticky rice but I never would have thought to use that as a base for this challenge.

Andrei's pear and chocolate frangipane bars were a good idea in theory. I liked how he fanned the pear slices on top. The chocolate looked like it wasn't tempered well because it was very dull.

Megan's movie night bars with peanut butter, caramel corn and red licorice sounded good. Ooh and with a brownie base? That makes it even better! Love that she made the licorice herself. I laughed when she offered Sadiya some popcorn.

I'm not sure what makes digestive biscuits different from regular biscuits or cookies, but if you give me a chocolate coated cookie, I will always eat it. Megan was having a great week. First the judges loved her bars and then she won the technical challenge! I was sure she was in line for star baker this week.

The 36 cookies for the showstopper didn't seem too challenging so I was more interested to see how the biscuit boxes turned out. I wasn't sure if the cookies had to be flat decorated cookies or if they

Devon's toffee chocolate cookie dough classroom library box was such a cute idea. It was still a basic rectangle but he made it look so different from the other regular boxes.  The earl grey and chai tea flavored sandwich biscuit books were a great idea too.

Andrei's grand piano biscuit box made with dark chocolate sugar cookie was so ambitious. When I saw the metal frames he had, I wasn't sure if everything would hold together but then he said that it would back in one piece which was taking a pretty big risk (what if part of it cracked?). The iced orange cardamom shortbread musical note cookies were great too.

Wendy's clamshell box with white chocolate dipped madeleines and sea creature sugar cookies was a fun idea but it was a disaster, partly because she baked the giant shell in the metal shell thing (which, as the judges pointed out, was not meant to be put in the oven). Most of the cookies weren't decorated either.

Sadiya's brownie cookie tray with cinnamon cookies and maple icing was very pretty. The swirls on the box and the colorful cookies were a nice combination. I'm glad her brownie base was baked well after what happened in the signature challenge!

Timothy's gingerbread Go box was simple but an accurate depiction of a Go box. The black sesame and white chocolate macarons were also plain but accurate so although this showstopper didn't have a huge wow factor, it definitely got points from me for being recognizable as what it was supposed to be.

Mengling's black sesame treasure box was simple but well done. The red decorations on the outside made it look fancier than it really was.The gold roasted soybean flour coins were beautiful.

Sachin's gingerbread basket with apple cinnamon sugar cookies was so good! The woven basket texture was so detailed and the cookies wer so bright and perfectly decorated.

Ann Marie's Jellybean Row orange spice sugar cookie box was a cute idea, so it was disappointing that it didn't hold up. At least the judges loved her gingersnaps!

Megan's orange gingerbread galaxy box was so smart. It was just a square box but the swirly galaxy colors on the outside really elevated it, as did the blue and gold balls she added. The orange cinnamon sugar cookies were nicely decorated too.

Sachin definitely deserved star baker this week. His showstopper was so detailed and he was second in the technical challenge.

Wendy had a terrible week so I wasn't surprised that she went home. She was last in the technical, she didn't do well in the signature challenge, and her clamshell showstopper was a mess. But despite all that, she stayed calm and positive and didn't panic so I give her a lot of credit for not freaking out or giving up. I think Ann Marie scraped by this week so I hope she does better next week.

Edited September 27, 2018 by ElectricBoogaloo

[Kohola3]

32 minutes ago, ElectricBoogaloo said:

Yay for someone making Nanaimo bars!

Gosh, yes, my all time favorite since having them in, yes, Nanaimo.  Folks in the States always look at me with askance when I talk about them because of the name. I love them, always stock up when I am in Canada.  Tim Horton's used to carry them but they don't anymore, doggone it.  I am heading for Vancouver in 2 weeks so will stock up!

[The Crazed Spruce]

10 hours ago, threebluestars said:

I do want CBC to explain how they are perfectly capable of showing the technical bake here, but not when they air the British version. They literally told me on Twitter to watch it on their website for the technical bake - and then didn't have it separated out from the full episode.

Cut for time when they air the British one, maybe?

[threebluestars]

Probably ... but it's like ... extend the show airing then? I just don't get why you'd take an iconic show and chop it. So weird. Plus, I love the technical bake lol.

[GoldaVining]

I am starting to like the hosts and judges. Last season I found them all low-key annoying, Dan Levy annoying most of all. This season I am finding Dan Levy adorable. What?

So far, Mengling is my favourite contestant. I loved those coin cookies strung on a ribbon. Gorgeous. And she is funny. "I have weak, noodley arms!" Bwahahaha! I will be saying that for the rest of my life. I also like her dog, Nimbus. I realize he is probably named for a cloud but I wonder if they call the dog NIMBY (not in my backyard) just for comedy purposes. I would. Ha!

That moment when Megan turned (mouth jammed full of popcorn) and said to Sadiya, "You want some popcorn?" was cute. Offering sympathy snacks is always a good move.

I am good with Wendy being sent home. Disaster. Andrei and Sachin are both super impressive in their designs and skills. Was Devon crying at the end? Because Wendy was going? Or just stress?

I am grossed out by some of the bakers touching their faces, rubbing their lips or eyes, pushing hair back, blowing on the food, etc., when baking. Yuck, stop it. Sometimes with fancy fiddly cookies or cupcakes the most obvious thing to me is that this thing I am supposed to eat and enjoy has been touched A LOT.

Edited September 27, 2018 by GoldaVining
space

[ElectricBoogaloo]

3 hours ago, GoldaVining said:

I also like her dog, Nimbus. I realize he is probably named for a cloud 

Ha, I thought he was named after the Nimbus 2000 in Harry Potter!

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Recipes:

Signature challenge - dessert bars
Megan's movie night indulgence bars

Technical challenge
milk chocolate digestive biscuits

Showstopper challenge - biscuit boxes
Sachin's fall harvest basket with apple cookies

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Technical challenge - orange chiffon cake video:

http://www.cbc.ca/player/play/1324165187577/

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Technical challenge video - milk chocolate digestive biscuits

http://www.cbc.ca/player/play/1328666691909/

[ElectricBoogaloo]

In case you want to check out the S2 bakers on instagram:

Andrei
Ann Marie
Devon
Megan
Mengling
Sachin
Sadiya
Timothy
Tim
Wendy

[ElectricBoogaloo]

S1 bakers:

Corey
James
Jude
Julian
Linda
Pierre is a mystery!
Sabrina
Sinclair
Terri
Vandana
 

[Tabbygirl521]

On 9/27/2018 at 12:50 PM, GoldaVining said:

I am starting to like the hosts and judges. Last season I found them all low-key annoying, Dan Levy annoying most of all. This season I am finding Dan Levy adorable. What?

So far, Mengling is my favourite contestant. I loved those coin cookies strung on a ribbon. Gorgeous. And she is funny. "I have weak, noodley arms!" Bwahahaha! I will be saying that for the rest of my life. I also like her dog, Nimbus. I realize he is probably named for a cloud but I wonder if they call the dog NIMBY (not in my backyard) just for comedy purposes. I would. Ha!

That moment when Megan turned (mouth jammed full of popcorn) and said to Sadiya, "You want some popcorn?" was cute. Offering sympathy snacks is always a good move.

I am good with Wendy being sent home. Disaster. Andrei and Sachin are both super impressive in their designs and skills. Was Devon crying at the end? Because Wendy was going? Or just stress?

I am grossed out by some of the bakers touching their faces, rubbing their lips or eyes, pushing hair back, blowing on the food, etc., when baking. Yuck, stop it. Sometimes with fancy fiddly cookies or cupcakes the most obvious thing to me is that this thing I am supposed to eat and enjoy has been touched A LOT.

I also hate that the tea towels draped over the oven door handles keep dragging on the ground when the oven doors are opened. I know the towels are basically just used as hot pads and ideally don’t touch the food, but still. 

[ElectricBoogaloo]

32 minutes ago, Tabbygirl521 said:

I also hate that the tea towels draped over the oven door handles keep dragging on the ground when the oven doors are opened. I know the towels are basically just used as hot pads and ideally don’t touch the food, but still. 

Hahaha, I'm glad that I'm not the only germaphobe who hates that too!

[hula-la]

On 9/27/2018 at 6:11 AM, Kohola3 said:

Gosh, yes, my all time favorite since having them in, yes, Nanaimo.  Folks in the States always look at me with askance when I talk about them because of the name. I love them, always stock up when I am in Canada.  Tim Horton's used to carry them but they don't anymore, doggone it.  I am heading for Vancouver in 2 weeks so will stock up!

Hope that you have a great time in Vancouver (bring your umbrella--it was pouring here this morning). If you ever want to make them for your American friends, I highly suggest this recipe from Canadian Living. It's my go-to recipe, and hasn't failed me yet.

[Kohola3]

Thanks for the link, that's the recipe I found years ago.  Had to do a little tweaking since we don't have custard powder in the US.

Look forward to my visit even in the rain. We are keeping our fingers crossed for one really clear day to head up to the top of Grouse Mountain and a trip to the top of the wind turbine.  I could spend a week at the MOA, I swear, but my friend has never been there before so we have a list of places to visit.  Maybe we'll take the ferry over and get the authentic Nanaimo bars in Nanaimo!

[fountain]

I never have heard of sandwich cakes. Man they all looked gross, I cannot image eating something savoury that looked like a cake.

[Kohola3]

Well, I certainly learned about hot cross buns. I thought the cross was made out of icing.  Who knew?

The sandwich cake thing was, well, bizarre. Supposedly it was popular in the 60's and 70's in the US but I swear I never heard of it.

What was with Julia and her green eyeshadow?  She looked like she'd been punched a week ago and the bruises were fading.  That hair color is not at all flattering, either.

Mengling is adorable.

[fountain]

10 hours ago, Kohola3 said:

What was with Julia and her green eyeshadow?  She looked like she'd been punched a week ago and the bruises were fading.  That hair color is not at all flattering, either.

For an attractive woman she looked just awful! The green made her looking like she had the flu or something. It definitely was a turn off around the food. Why would the makeup people do that to her?

[strippedhalo]

Oh, those sandwich cakes. The idea of them is so terrible to me. Mengling made me laugh so hard with her, "I'm frosting my abomination!" remark.

That eyeshadow on Julia (it looked bright yellow on my TV) was also so bad, and I didn't like what they did to her hair this week, either.

Happy for Sadiya to win Star Baker. She and Mengling are still the only two that I really like, so far.

[GoldaVining]

I loved everything about this episode, including the sandwich cakes. I have never heard of them before but I am here for it! I would choose savoury over sweet every time if I had to pick. I love this idea, especially for a special celebration lunch. All the cakes looked gorgeous. I loved the koi pond by Andrei even with the issues he had with the aspic. (I don't want to eat aspic though it looked lovely.) Most of the bakers did beautiful things with carrots and radishes and it was so inspiring! I'm inspired anyway. I want to make a sandwich cake for my girlfriends.

I hope to make Sadiya's version of naan. That looked so good. I also want to try and make a good rye bread. My husband prefers rye bread for sandwiches. He eats 3 sandwiches a day at work and 2 more slices with his supper and basically consumes a loaf a day. Insane amount of bread but he does a hard physical job. I have noticed that some families serve bread or toast at every meal. I didn't grow up that way but for example if I cook a roast chicken with potatoes, he still wants bread on the side. I always cook a veggie and a starch, but he wants double starch. He puts spaghetti on bread! My husband loves the white bread I make so I tried a few times to make rye bread and every time it tasted like dust from the floor. I tried different recipes and made a total of 9 loaves, all of which ended up going to the chickens. The chickens didn't complain but I don't know if they really liked it either.

[welnoc]

How are sandwich cakes all that different from savoury pies? I'm with Golda, give me one of those savoury cakes and some wine and I'm a happy bunny. And the wow factor is tremendous!

Golda, if you ever get the chance, check out reprints of the Betty Crocker cookbook. Part of a balanced diet was bread (or toast) and butter at every meal. Further back in time, bread and butter was a curative. I think I was born in the wrong part of the 20th century! Also, if you can buy white flour with extra gluten when you're making rye bread, it will help give you lightness and a better crumb. At least in my opinion.

I'm finding the divide between those who are doing poorly in the competition and those doing well seems to be growing every week. I sort of wished they ditched more than one competitor this week.

I love Andrei, Meghan, and Sachin. I'd like to see any one of those three win.

[Bunnyette]

I love the concept of a sandwich cake, great idea for a shower or birthday tea.   I love this year’s group a lot although Andrea is my favourite...

[IOU Payne]

Sandwich cakes were a "thing" in the 50s and 60s, not the 60s and 70s.  My mother used to make them for occasions such as baby showers.  You used to be able to buy sandwich bread that was cut horizontally instead of vertically, and the fillings of choice were tuna salad, egg salad and salmon salad.  The loaf was frosted with cream cheese and decorated with sliced radishes, etc.  Party sandwiches were also big back in the day, and there's still one place in Montreal that is everyone's go-to for this delicacy.

I wonder how my mom's crowd would have felt about all the innovative flavours. I think they'd be more classic in their tastes, but that's just me.

Edited October 9, 2018 by IOU Payne

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Quote

The seven remaining bakers push themselves with challenges that feature flavours, textures and techniques from around the world.

Original air date: 10/10/18

Edited October 10, 2018 by ElectricBoogaloo

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Recipes

Signature challenge - quick bread
Sadiya's sesame and coriander naan with tomato chutney

Technical challenge
hot cross buns

Showstopper challenge - sandwich cake
Sachin's muffaletta sandwich cake

Edited October 10, 2018 by ElectricBoogaloo

[ElectricBoogaloo]

I looooove bread week! I had a brioche to snack on while I watched this episode. On a shallow note, I hated Julia's yellow eye shadow.

Ann Marie's rosemary asiago soda bread with mixed seeds and homemade chili butter looked nice, but not enough cheese? 

Timothy's jalapeno cheddar bread looked pretty good (although a little flat) but I really just wanted that caramelized onion and bacon cream cheese! Man, he just BARELY got his bread out of the oven and onto the platter even with help from someone else.

Megan's honey lager jalapeno cheddar bread with onion bacon butter was small but nice looking. I don't know why she said she wasn't adventurous enough to make her own butter. You have a stand mixer, girl. Just dump in the heavy cream and voila, butter! I remember making butter in second grade. We put heavy cream in baby food jars and shook our little arms like crazy. I'm glad she decided to make some because it doesn't require that much effort.

I loved the color of Devon's walnut, beetroot puree, and maple syrup red velvet bread with goat cheese, arugula, and honey spread. I kind of laughed when he said he was using coconut oil because I just watched this week's episode of GBBO which was vegan week so several people used coconut oil to bake! 

Sadiya's sesame coriander naan with garlic ghee and tomato chutney looked delicious.

Sachin's apricot walnut soda bread looked nice and crusty. I love whenever the hosts chime in with comments (mostly because it's so rare during judging) so I liked hearing that Dan really liked the blue cheese bacon butter with the apricot bread.

Mengling's hazelnut, chocolate chunk, and rum soaked cranberry bread with cranberry honey compote looked a bit flat.

Andrei's Russian blini soda bread with salmon roe and dill cream cheese looked nice. The vodka shots didn't hurt either!

Rochelle's hot cross bun recipe was missing a lot of details. I had to laugh when Timothy read the directions: "continue making buns using remaining ingredients." Timothy became my favorite this week thanks to gems like "My strategy is to pray to all the deities I know and then do what everyone else is doing" and "You know you're in a weird place in life when you put mayo in a piping bag." When Devon realized that he forgot to add sugar to his dough so he just poured a big scoop into the middle of his dough and started kneading it, my reaction was Molly, you in danger, girl! I was afraid that Mengling would bomb this week after admitting that bread was not her thing so it was nice to see her do well in the technical. Andrei's were beautiful. I loved that Mengling said, "My buns were almost as good as Andrei's!"

I've never had a sandwich cake, but hey, what's not to like about a giant sandwich?

Sachin's muffaletta sandwich cake with white bread, salami, prosciutto, mortadella, provolone, and olive tapenade was beautiful. I loved the paper thin slices of cucumber and radish he used to decorate the bottom of the cake.

Andrei's koi pond sandwich cake with pullman bread, tuna tataki, cucumber, strawberries, and savory cream was such a good idea, particularly the aspic pond on top. The finished cake was not as good as it could have been though.

Devon's Greek sandwich cake with kalamata olive quick bread, feta herb multigrain bread, lamb souvlaki, fried saganaki cheese, and tzatziki frosting looked nice but I felt that the Greek salad on the top made it look messy. Without that, it would have looked much better.

Sadiya's Bahrain sandwich cake with pain de mie, chicken shawarma, tabbouleh, and labneh cream cheese frosting was gorgeous.

Timothy's rou jia mo sandwich cake with whole wheat bread, pulled pork, cole slaw, and prosciutto roses. He cracked me up when he said, "This might not look like it's going well, but I think it's going splendidly." The cole slaw on the outer edge looked messy but I will never say no to a pulled pork sandwich.

Ann Marie's seafood sandwich cake with whole wheat bread, crab, lobster, dill, and salmon frosting looked a little too simple, but it did look very clean.

Mengling's sushi sandwich cake with sesame seaweed bread, smoked salmon, avocado, and fake crab (which we call imitation crab in the United States - ha, I think that sounds slightly less judgmental) looked really nice. I loved the contrast of the colors.

Megan's garden themed sandwich cake with Scandinavian rye bread, pollock, cucumber, and dill cream frosting had a lot of details but I felt it would have looked better if she hadn't put quite so much decoration on it. Between the cats, the grass, and the flowers, it was a lot.

I thought Devon would be the one going home this week but his bread saved him in the showstopper. Ann Marie didn't seem to do as badly, but she also didn't excel at any of the challenges this week so I can't argue with her elimination.

[Bunnyette]

Mengling was very lucky that Sadia had a bad week...but to me it seemed as though Sadia lost her spark...

[threebluestars]

I loved Mengling's bees. That whole sculpture was adorable.

I probably would've been right there with Sadiya ... my mind has never been good with anything 3D. I would've been at a loss about what to do.

[strippedhalo]

Oh, Sadiya. I was so sad to see her go, but I couldn't justify them sending anyone else home. That leaves me rooting 100% for Mengling, because I just can't warm up to any of the other bakers for some reason. I might get there eventually with Devon, if he lasts that long.

The mochi technical looked cool, and appropriately difficult (even if there wasn't any actual baking). I'm not a fan of red bean paste, so I don't want to eat them, but they were fun to look at. None of the signature hand pies appealed to (vegetarian) me. I couldn't imagine what S-cookie tastes like, but the showstopper sculptures were fun. Mengling's bees were really cute. Megan deserved Star Baker, hers was really impressive.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

I'm usually pretty neutral on the bits that the hosts do at the beginning of the show (for all Bake Off shows, not just the Canadian version) but for some reason, the black and white Italian movie made me laugh.

How are hand pies international?

Megan's hamburger hand pies with short crust lard pastry, Alberta beef, bacon, and moose meat sounded good. She gets bonus points for including french fries! Rochelle said that Megan's secret sauce was good enough to bottle we got absolutely no description about it at all. Tell me what it tasted like!

Mengling's pan fried pork xian bing with wheat flour dumpling dough, ground beef, mushroom, vegetables, and spicy soy and vinegar dipping sauce sounded delicious. I can't lie. I was judging Rochelle for pronouncing gyoza as guy-OH-za.

Sadiya's beef fatayer with soft yeasted dough, mint, and cilantro tamarind chutney were very international with Bahraini dough, Pakistani filling, and Arab/Pakistani sauce!

Andrei's mini koulibiaka with butter pastry, salmon, dill, bean vermicelli, and cucumber relish looked great. I was impressed that the salmon didn't dry out while baking.

Devon's bibimbap hand pies with butter pastry, bulgogi, crispy rice, quail egg, and spicy Korean ketchup sounded so yummy.

Sachin's pork samosas with wheat flour wrappers, peas, potatoes, and mint chili pepper chutney had the perfect amount of filling. I hate when any kind of pie is half empty. He was smart to use shredded potato as a binder.

Hahaha, I laughed when Timothy said that his bakes are usually ugly. His spring roll hand pies with short crust pastry, ground pork, and sweet and sour sauce sounded really good.

I don't love mochi but if you stuff an enire strawberry inside that I'm all over it! What I liked about this technical challenge is that all the bakers were on pretty even footing since none of the had made daifuku mochi before. If I have learned anything from watching various Bake Off shows, ALWAYS READ THE DIRECTIONS FOR THE TECHNICAL CHALLENGE. Even if you know what it is, your recipe is not necessarily the same as the recipe that the judges have given you! If Mengling hadn't made disastrous mochi, Devon would have been in last place because he didn't bother to read the directions. Sachin, Timothy, and Megan all did a great job though!

A cookie sculpture doesn't seem super international. Or much like a showstopper. But I guess I'm okay with the judges giving the bakers a lot of leeway in this challenge similar to the signature challenge.

Mengling's beehive with orange blossom cookie dough, florentine wings, and pistachio biscotti flowers was a cute idea but I wish the beehive had been taller to make it look more like a showstopper.

Devon's cardamom and orange blossom cactus with savoiardi snake, black sesame amaretti rocks looked pretty good. My least favorite part was the actual cactus. I liked the other elements though.

Timothy's bus with anisette walls, biscotti wheels, and florentine windows was a little plain looking and simple in structure, but the judges liked the look and the flavor so yay for Timothy.

Sadiya's ludo board made of rainbow cookies and s-cookie game pieces wasn't a sculpture. It was a flat square with some tiny cookie game pieces.

Megan's northern lights scene with maple walnut biscotti, lemon s-cookies, chocolate ricotta cookie dough mountain, and sugar wall was not my favorite, but I appreciated that she used so many different elements/flavors/textures/colors.

Sachin's lemon s-cookie sphinx with anise biscotti base was a fine idea but I think he should have made it taller to make it look fancier.

Andrei's fish with a vanilla pizzelle head and tail, ricotta cookie body, orange chocolate amaretti scales, and polenta s-cookie waves was a simple concept but I liked that he used cookies that would work well for each section of the fish.

Congratulations to Megan for being star baker this week! No one totally bombed all of the challenges this week so there wasn't a super obvious candidate to go home. I can understand why Sadiya was eliminated though. She really didn't fulfil the showstopper challenge and that's usually the thing the judges take into consideration the most.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Recipes

Signature challenge - hand pies
Megan's hamburger hand pies

Technical challenge
Daifuku mochi

Showstopper challenge - Italian cookie sculpture
Mengling's orange blossom honey beehive

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Quote

The remaining six bakers revel in Pastry Week and the opportunity to showcase their creativity.

Original air date: 10/17/18

[ElectricBoogaloo]

17 hours ago, ElectricBoogaloo said:

Rochelle said that Megan's secret sauce was good enough to bottle we got absolutely no description about it at all. Tell me what it tasted like!

 

2 minutes ago, ElectricBoogaloo said:

Signature challenge - hand pies
Megan's hamburger hand pies

Megan included the recipe for her secret sauce! It's the homemade version of McDonald's Big Mac special sauce aka Thousand Island dressing.

Quote

1 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup French dressing
3 tbsp diced pickles
2 tbsp finely minced white onion
2 tsp white vinegar
1 tsp granulated sugar
1/4 tsp salt

[welnoc]

On 10/11/2018 at 10:14 AM, ElectricBoogaloo said:

I'm usually pretty neutral on the bits that the hosts do at the beginning of the show (for all Bake Off shows, not just the Canadian version) but for some reason, the black and white Italian movie made me laugh.

How are hand pies international?

A cookie sculpture doesn't seem super international. 

 

I laughed at the B&W Italianate move too. 

I am curious about how you're defining "international".

Pretty much every cuisine has a version of a hand pie (cornish pasty, empanadas, samosas, etc.) and the same goes for cookies so I thought that was what was meant by "international" . 

[rhys]

Clearly I don't get out much (+ I tell asleep during this episode).  Was "S" cookie ever explained?

[rhys]

I was born in 1955 in a big city and I never heard of or saw those savory sandwich cakes. But I'm in the U S. 

i hated Julia's yellow eye shadow, too.

Edited October 14, 2018 by rhys
Cuz it & or don't mean the same

[welnoc]

On 10/14/2018 at 7:39 PM, rhys said:

Clearly I don't get out much (+ I tell asleep during this episode).  Was "S" cookie ever explained?

It's a cookie in the shape of the letter "s", made with olive oil, eggs, flour, sugar, and lemon zest. They're very good.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Quote

The five remaining bakers seize the opportunity to make a statement with delectable chocolate creations.

Original air date: 10/24/18

[ElectricBoogaloo]

I love pastry week!

I didn't know that slab pies must have fruit, but I'm all for that. I always find it interesting to hear why people prefer a specific type of fat in their pie crusts. I liked that Andrei had a specific reason (crispiness) rather than "that's what my grammy made."

Devon's peach and apricot Dungeons & Dragons slab pie with plum butter  was a fun idea but the design ended up being messy, to the point where I wouldn't have known that was a dragon on top. He used waaaaaay too much butter in the crust. Andrei could tell just by looking at it in the oven. It was nice of Andrei to offer to help him since he was so behind.

Sachin's apple frangipane peacock slab pie was a beautiful idea, but I agreed with Bruno that the design got a little bit lost because everything was the same color. I think the frangipane was unnecessary too.

Timothy's blueberry and banana tiny dancer slab pie was a great idea because it was a clear design with the curtains and the spotlight and it wasn't too fussy. Like Dan, I've never had a pie with bananas before. When I think of bananas and blueberries together, I think of a smoothie. It's too bad he didn't blind bake the crust long enough though.

Megan's Saskatoon berry farm slab pie with Amaretto and torched meringue was a sweet idea but I didn't like the way it looked. Similar to Devon's slab pie, the design ended up being messy and indistinct. While I understand Megan saying she wants to stay true to who she is and represent where she's from, she needs to make smarter choices. Don't use butter just because that's what your grandma used. Use it because it tastes better or gives you a better pie crust. Similarly, don't tell me that you're not going to blind bake your pie crust because you're "sticking true to how you were raised" and "represent where you come from." So no one in Saskatoon blind bakes their pie crusts? Everyone in Saskatoon likes soggy bottoms?

Andrei's balsamic strawberry garden slab pie was pretty and I still LOVE balsamic vinegar with strawberries!

Mengling's blueberry and elderflower doggie slab pie was so fun. I loved the three dog heads. I was glad that the judges liked it so much because now that we're getting closer to the finals, I need bakers like Mengling and Andrei to really stand out (as opposed to some of the other bakers who are kind of middle of the pack with okay flavor combinations and okay presentations).

Mengling cracked me up during the palmier technical challenge when she said that the shape of Andrei's was more thin and less Princess Leia. Not surprisingly, Devon was dead last in the technical. Andrei, Sachin, and Mengling all did so well though. Congratulations to Mengling for winning her first technical challenge!

Going into the showstopper, Devon and Megan were the bottom two for me while Andrei and Mengling were the top two. I looooove breakfast pastries so I was excited to see what the bakers made but I was really interested to see how they would make them look like showstoppers. Six danish, six croissants, and six sweet buns is a lot of make in four hours though! Once again Mengling made me laugh when she said, "The worst thing that can happen is my dough is underlaminated and underproved and underbaked."

Andrei's breakfast in Paris pastry basket with cocoa striped croissants, apricot pistachio danishes with crème pâtissière, and swirly sweet buns looked amazing. I'm with Dan - no thanks to raisins. I don't hate them but I don't need them in cookies or buns. The cocoa croissants looked SO GOOD. His lamination was really great too. Bruno clearly loved everything since he suggested that Andrei move to Paris and open a pastry shop!

Megan's hibiscus croissants, caged pear danishes, and coconut lime sweet buns all looked nice which made up for her disastrous first two challenges. The judges liked two of the three so I was pretty sure she would manage to be safe this week even though they said the croissants were heavy and lacking moisture.

I was worried when Mengling said she was only doing two turns with her pastry. Even if time is tight, make the time to do at least three turns! Her cardamom yuzu croissants, strawberry cream cheese danishes, and maple pecan sweet buns all sounded good but I was most looking forward to the strawberry ones!

Sachin's Christmas pastry basket with marzipan croissants, mushroom and smoked cheddar danishes, and orange cinnamon spice sweet buns looked so good. He got amazing lamination in his dough. I could see all the layers in his pastry even before the cameras zoomed in. I totally cracked up when Dan shoved an entire croissant into his mouth.

Devon's chocolate espresso croissants, creamed swiss chard and gruyere danishes, and hazelnut chocolate sweet buns sounded good, but the lack of flakiness in his pastries made me think he should go home because he failed the actual challenge which was making good pastry.

Timothy's almond croissants, caramelized onion, mozzarella, and fried mushroom danishes, and  bear shaped Hong Kong pineapple and orange zest melonpan sweet buns were all great ideas. The bear buns were so cute and the danishes sounded delicious. Being told what he produced was impressive - that's high praise from Rochelle!

I knew that Andrei would be star baker. Well deserved because he had a really great week. In contrast, Devon had a pretty bad week so it was his time to go.

I'm so excited for next week!

[strippedhalo]

23 minutes ago, ElectricBoogaloo said:

Similarly, don't tell me that you're not going to blind bake your pie crust because you're "sticking true to how you were raised" and "represent where you come from." So no one in Saskatoon blind bakes their pie crusts? Everyone in Saskatoon likes soggy bottoms?

Megan's from Alberta, not Saskatchewan, but I otherwise agree with this sentiment. It did make me laugh when Rochelle said something like, "Don't listen to Grammy," and Megan's reply was "She's so cute, though." I have found Rochelle to be kind of harsh this season, but she was much kinder this episode. Seeing that Megan was upset about her slab pie and reassuring her that the filling was good was a nice thing for her to do.

Mengling! Don't cut corners with your showstopper! I'm glad she did so well in the first two challenges. I was pretty sure that Devon would leave, but I don't like to worry.

I don't understand what is happening with Julia's styling this season. Maybe her unusual eye shadow choices look really good in person, and nobody thought to test them on camera?

[ElectricBoogaloo]

47 minutes ago, strippedhalo said:

Megan's from Alberta, not Saskatchewan, but I otherwise agree with this sentiment.

Ha, I just remembered that she said she used Saskatoon berries from her farm so I (stupidly) just assumed that's where she was from. I know that in the first few episodes, they told us where each baker was from but I honestly don't remember where any of them are from (heh, aside from, you know, Canada).

I was with her when she said that her deal with her family is that her husband and kids pick the berries and she bakes with them. That seems more than fair!