Holiday Baking Championship - General Discussion

[mojoween]

I desperately need Jose to come over and bring me that pie because it, and his ice cream, sounded amazing.  I would give him the utmost gatitude if he did!

Funny how Duff said that Marilyn would have been bounced after the preheat and she ended up coming in second after the main.

Jen was sweet and I liked her (still like everyone!) but it was her time as she didn’t really excel the last two weeks.  Hopefully she doesn’t get discouraged and keeps baking!

[bilgistic]

I was gagging thinking about the how warm the cheesecakes must've been in the preheat. There's no way they had time to chill them completely.

None of the preheat bakes looked especially good to me, but I'm weird about fruit—especially canned fruit.

[Inga]

On 11/13/2021 at 7:42 PM, mojoween said:

There is a season five marathon on right now and I am still so pissed about that damn green apple that got Sherry bounced.

Sherry, if you still post here, I know it doesn’t help, but I remain angry and indignant on your behalf.

I came here to write the exact same thing!! That pissed me off so much! Who can make something taste good using coffee and the most artificial green apple syrup I’ve ever seen?? If that was me, i would’ve straight up complained so much that they wouldn’t have been able to air the episode—so that they would be forced to give me a different flavor! That was ridiculous. I would’ve said i would like to see Duff, Nancy or Lorraine make something delicious with coffee and artificial green apple right now. If anyone should come back for a second chance it should be Sherry!!!

[Rammchick]

12 hours ago, bilgistic said:

I was gagging thinking about the how warm the cheesecakes must've been in the preheat. There's no way they had time to chill them completely.

None of the preheat bakes looked especially good to me, but I'm weird about fruit—especially canned fruit.

We don't know that there wasn't a period in between when the bakers finish and when they serve their bakes to the judges.  All the bakes could have been refrigerated.

[trudysmom]

On 11/16/2021 at 12:43 PM, Dirtybubble said:

our sweet little Asian lady whose name I can't remember

Marilyn.  I think they said she's a baking instructor?  I've never had mincemeat, the name alone turns me off but it must have been good.  

[laredhead]

Trudysmom, mincemeat pie has been a must have in my family for all Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners.  One of the brands (Robertson's) I use contains no meat, but None Such brand lists "beef" as an ingredient way down the list.  It originated as a way to preserve meat hundreds of years ago, but has evolved to a fruit pie filling today.  The filling is loaded with apples, raisins, orange, spices, and I think the aroma just screams holidays.

I like fried green tomatoes, but had trouble imagining them in a mincemeat pie.    

[tennisgurl]

This has really been putting me in the holiday mood, I really like everyone but Jody is my favorite so far, his pie looked amazing. And its not just because of his fetching accent...at least that's not the only reason.

Edited November 19, 2021 by tennisgurl

[trudysmom]

laredhead, thanks for the  info on mincemeat.  I have to say I am intrigued.  In all the years I spent working in bakeries we never baked mincemeat.  

I have to say I'm enjoying this season far more than the last few Baking Championships.  Jody and Adam are my picks so far so of course that is the kiss of death for them.  Sorry guys, my faves never win.

Someone upthread mentioned Sherry's season and the awful green apple coffee liquor.  A friend  tried to do something with the green apple syrup (she has a small breakfast/brunch shop) and the closest she came to using is successfully was as the crackly topping on a cream puff and using very lightly coffee flavored cream for the filling.  It didn't taste bad, but the color was very off putting, like moss. 

[Grizzly]

Yay, Jody won immunity. I thought they would give the win to Jose. Sorry Phillipe went home. But making bread was a good change of pace from desserts. Felt sorry for Marilyn having to churn her own butter. But again, it was a different sort of task than the usual fare.

[Spunkygal]

After Marilyn got screwed by getting the butter churner, I was glad she did well enough in the second round to not get eliminated. She had a better attitude about getting that than I would have had. Nancy is almost as orange as Geoffrey Zakarian.

[Irlandesa]

Have they talked about this "win both challenges in the same episode and then you get immunity" before?  I don't remember Jesse talking about it which is how I knew it'd happen in this episode. 

Although I do remember some contestants referencing it.  I was just confused as to why they were talking about immunity during the second challenge.

27 minutes ago, Grizzly said:

Felt sorry for Marilyn having to churn her own butter.

Ah but I don't think she did.  The rule was that she use the device; it wasn't that she make butter with it unless it was a rule we weren't privy to.

Between heavy whipping cream and butter there's whipped cream.  And that's where I would have stopped. 

 

 

[Guest]

35 minutes ago, Spunkygal said:

After Marilyn got screwed by getting the butter churner, I was glad she did well enough in the second round to not get eliminated. She had a better attitude about getting that than I would have had.

Though when she was presenting to the judges and Jesse asked her what gadget she got, she said "the butter churner!" in a way that felt like there was an implied "you f***ers" at the end of it 😆

I think this might be, collectively, the most inventive set of bakers they've had on one of these shows in quite awhile.

[emmawoodhouse]

7 minutes ago, Irlandesa said:

Have they talked about this "win both challenges in the same episode and then you get immunity" before?  I don't remember Jesse talking about it which is how I knew it'd happen in this episode. 

Although I do remember some contestants referencing it.  I was just confused as to why they were talking about immunity during the second challenge.

Ah but I don't think she did.  The rule was that she use the device; it wasn't that she make butter with it unless it was a rule we weren't privy to.

Between heavy whipping cream and butter there's whipped cream.  And that's where I would have stopped. 

 

 

Jesse brought up the immunity rules in the very first preheat of the very first episode. It's been referenced between them and now, but no one has been able to take advantage until now. And I think it's only good for the first five episodes, so Jody got in under the wire.

[Taeolas]

On 11/17/2021 at 8:24 PM, trudysmom said:

Marilyn.  I think they said she's a baking instructor?  I've never had mincemeat, the name alone turns me off but it must have been good.  

 

Yeah Mincemeat is a European/UK thing I think, though it is in North America. Our holiday season in Atlantic Canada has always had mom making Mincemeat Tarts (with a dab of vanilla or butterscotch frosting), mincemeat squares and a mincemeat cake. 

It's a dried fruit and distilled spirits mix mainly. (yes I peeked at Wiki :) ); the only actual meat product might be the fat component basically. 

We used to get EB Smith Mincemeat at our stores, but the company has stopped making it last year (and also killed the no-name brand knockoffs it seems). Luckily one of our bulk food stores has it available so we were able to get our mincemeat last year. 

And we literally went back last weekend to get our mincemeat for this year too, so mom will be ready to start baking soon. (if she doesn't eat the mincemeat herself first. :) )

[LittleIggy]

I’m glad Jody won immunity. 
Ditto on poor Marilyn getting the butter churn. Don’t they make electric butter churns? 

[CheshireCat]

4 hours ago, Irlandesa said:

Have they talked about this "win both challenges in the same episode and then you get immunity" before?  I don't remember Jesse talking about it which is how I knew it'd happen in this episode. 

I heard about in last? week's episode but somehow, it still felt predictable that it would happen today. I also suspect that Jody will have a not-so-good week next week. We'll see.

 

4 hours ago, Irlandesa said:

Ah but I don't think she did.  The rule was that she use the device; it wasn't that she make butter with it unless it was a rule we weren't privy to.

Between heavy whipping cream and butter there's whipped cream.  And that's where I would have stopped. 

The name would suggest that it's a device to make butter, so I'm not sure if the judges would have accepted it had she used anything other than butter.

I'm not quite sure how the device works; I know she complained about the butter being too soft. I believe the butter needs to be separated from the cream. Did she do that? (I wouldn't blame her if she didn't; how many people really know how to make butter nowadays?)
I don't think the challenge was quite fair as they had devices that are commonly known and used and devices that were rather odd ones/gadgets that one may get thinking they're cool or fun and then never use.

The displays looked really cool.

 

[Ms Lark]

On 11/15/2021 at 11:41 PM, Leeds said:

I would happily take Carla, Lorraine, and Duff.  Anyone really as long as it's not Nancy.

Agree 100%. Nancy strikes me as a pretentious lush. I don't feel she brings much to the judges table and drags the whole competition down.

@Spunkygal said:

"After Marilyn got screwed by getting the butter churner, I was glad she did well enough in the second round to not get eliminated. She had a better attitude about getting that than I would have had."

I had a feeling it was a set-up. Everyone else got reasonably usable appliances while she (the oldest contestant) got a hand crank butter churner. I smell a rat. I'm glad she wasn't eliminated for it. That would have been really stinky.

Edited November 23, 2021 by Ms Lark

[susannah]

1 hour ago, Ms Lark said:

Agree 100%. Nancy strikes me as a pretentious lush. I don't feel she brings much to the judges table and drags the whole competition down.

@Spunkygal said:

"After Marilyn got screwed by getting the butter churner, I was glad she did well enough in the second round to not get eliminated. She had a better attitude about getting that than I would have had."

I had a feeling it was a set-up. Everyone else got reasonably usable appliances while she (the oldest contestant) got a hand crank butter churner. I smell a rat. I'm glad she wasn't eliminated for it. That would have been really stinky.

Marilyn had a time of it, between the butter churner and her plum disaster. I didn't understand the butter churner at all. The rest of the fancy gadgets had a function that worked well for the baker, but who buys a butter churner? I was like WTH? Though, don't they always grab the component they need to use, the churner wasn't assigned to Marilyn, was it? I can't remember. I don't know if making whipped cream would have been enough, but I don't know why not, since the gadget would have been used. I agree about not liking Nancy, but I really like Duff and Carla. Duff has grown up so much since his Ace of Cakes days.

 

[Maya]

6 hours ago, CheshireCat said:

The name would suggest that it's a device to make butter, so I'm not sure if the judges would have accepted it had she used anything other than butter.

 

I think the judges would have loved it if she’d used it for something completely random. They would have praised her “ingenuity” - like Jody using the sous vide machine to temper chocolate. Personally I have never heard of using a sous vide machine for anything other than cooking meat, so I thought he got a really difficult gadget too. 

I agree the displays looked amazing!

[susannah]

28 minutes ago, Maya said:

I think the judges would have loved it if she’d used it for something completely random. They would have praised her “ingenuity” - like Jody using the sous vide machine to temper chocolate. Personally I have never heard of using a sous vide machine for anything other than cooking meat, so I thought he got a really difficult gadget too. 

I agree the displays looked amazing!

I hadn't heard of a couple of the gadgets, but I figured the bakers would know what to do with them! I wonder what one could make with a butter churner besides butter?

[joanne3482]

1 hour ago, susannah said:

I hadn't heard of a couple of the gadgets, but I figured the bakers would know what to do with them! I wonder what one could make with a butter churner besides butter?

Based on the pic I found on Google, it is basically a hand cranked paddle mixer. Seems like she could have mixed almost anything in there too or used it to break up something soft like canned fruits or maybe doing the creaming of the butter/sugar for a recipe. 

[Dirtybubble]

13 hours ago, Grizzly said:

Yay, Jody won immunity. I thought they would give the win to Jose. Sorry Phillipe went home. But making bread was a good change of pace from desserts. Felt sorry for Marilyn having to churn her own butter. But again, it was a different sort of task than the usual fare.

I seem to remember the immunity being mentioned a few times.  Glad Jody won but I'll bet my next paycheck he screws up royally next week!  I've seen to many of these types of twists happen and almost always the contestant just flops horribly on the challenge and someone else, probably more deserving of staying, is eliminated.

Adam is still my favorite though.  

The bread challenge was really interesting.  I knew you could do cakes in all types of different designs but I never had thought about bread being done that way.

[LittleIggy]

5 hours ago, susannah said:

Marilyn had a time of it, between the butter churner and her plum disaster. I didn't understand the butter churner at all. The rest of the fancy gadgets had a function that worked well for the baker, but who buys a butter churner? I was like WTH? Though, don't they always grab the component they need to use, the churner wasn't assigned to Marilyn, was it? I can't remember. I don't know if making whipped cream would have been enough, but I don't know why not, since the gadget would have been used. I agree about not liking Nancy, but I really like Duff and Carla. Duff has grown up so much since his Ace of Cakes days.

 

The items were assigned according to the “gift card” they picked up, so it was a random choice.

[tennisgurl]

I am glad that Jody won, he's still my favorite. Glad that we won immunity but he's been doing so well that he could probably hand the judges a pile of garbage with a Christmas bow on top next week and still be safe. I thought the Black Friday challenge was fun, but I agree with everyone on how Marilyn really got the short end of the stick. Glad that she wasn't eliminated over it. 

The bread challenge was really inventive, making bread is a different kind of baking challenge then the desserts we normally get, and everything looked delicious. I really need to stop watching this show while I'm hungry...

Edited November 23, 2021 by tennisgurl

[susannah]

51 minutes ago, tennisgurl said:

I thought the Black Friday challenge was fun, but I agree with everyone on how Marilyn really got the short end of the stick. Glad that she wasn't eliminated over it. 

How did Marilyn get the short end of the stick? As was just said, apparently there were several ways she could have used that churner other than making butter. Maybe one of the other bakers would have done one of those things. She didn't.

[trudysmom]

12 hours ago, CheshireCat said:

how many people really know how to make butter nowadays?)

My Special Ed kids do!  Cream, baby food jar, a pinch of salt, put the lid on tight and shake.  They love it every year, great tie-in to Pilgrims and all that stuff.

I think the producers are watching GBBS, this is a challenge they have definitely done, though not in teams and not in just 3 hours.  Jody's bake, which I cannot remember the name of except "Briton" on the end, was a technical challenge on this season of the afformentioned show that I will likely get my hand slapped for mentioning in this forum.  I was glad Jody won, would have been happy if Adam had, too.  Sad to see Phillipe go, such a nice guy.

[emmawoodhouse]

Jody made a Breton tart. He even said it was French. And yes, that was part of the technical challenge on last week's episode of GBBO. 🙂

Edited November 23, 2021 by emmawoodhouse

[CheshireCat]

6 hours ago, Maya said:

I think the judges would have loved it if she’d used it for something completely random. They would have praised her “ingenuity” - like Jody using the sous vide machine to temper chocolate.

I think something like this can go either way with the judges.

6 hours ago, Maya said:

Personally I have never heard of using a sous vide machine for anything other than cooking meat,

I'd never heard of it, period ;-)

[proserpina65]

On 11/5/2021 at 6:46 PM, bilgistic said:

I'm picturing a Kraft Single slightly melted atop a slice of apple pie and my stomach turns.

Kraft Singles aren't real cheese (they have to be labeled as processed cheese product) and they taste like the plastic they're wrapped in.  Using a slice of real cheddar makes all the different.

[mojoween]

I think this is my favorite cast ever, even if the eliminations, based on previous bodies of work, aren’t really a surprise.  I mean, Adam, Jody and Sabrina are just stellar, and Richard, Jose and Marilyn aren’t too far behind.  Sorry Noemi.

I am allergic to pineapple, and I never would have thought to watch out for secret pineapple juice in bread.  Even if it was called Hawaiian bread.

[proserpina65]

5 hours ago, Dirtybubble said:

The bread challenge was really interesting.  I knew you could do cakes in all types of different designs but I never had thought about bread being done that way.

The Great British Baking Show always has a bread week, and sometimes the sculptures they create are amazing.  Google "Paul bread lion" for the best one ever on that show.

[dleighg]

Did Jody do all of his bread with that beet spiral, or only the beets? Can anyone remind me what his "base bread" was?

[emmawoodhouse]

1 hour ago, dleighg said:

Did Jody do all of his bread with that beet spiral, or only the beets? Can anyone remind me what his "base bread" was?

Hokkaido soda bread. He said it was sweeter than regular soda bread. 

[Spunkygal]

I believe it was Hokkaido milk bread.

[Taeolas]

2 hours ago, proserpina65 said:

The Great British Baking Show always has a bread week, and sometimes the sculptures they create are amazing.  Google "Paul bread lion" for the best one ever on that show.

The Great Baking Shows in general seem to have Bread Week as a staple. The Canadian version had their bread week a couple of weeks ago; Worth googling or looking on CBC Gem for if you can access it. A beautiful Bread Oven was one of the better (I can't recall if they won or not) products. 

[Irlandesa]

10 hours ago, susannah said:

I hadn't heard of a couple of the gadgets, but I figured the bakers would know what to do with them! I wonder what one could make with a butter churner besides butter?

I mentioned it above but she could have made whipped cream.

Butter is pretty easy to make, especially with a food processor. You make butter by spinning heavy cream.  Half way through the process, the heavy cream that is being spun turns into whipped cream.  You make butter by continuing to spin and then separating the butter from the buttermilk with a cheesecloth.

It's very easy to do with a food processor.

She could have stopped with the whipped cream and then incorporated it into a torte, trifle or tiramisu.

 

[emmawoodhouse]

1 hour ago, Spunkygal said:

I believe it was Hokkaido milk bread.

Ack! I could have sworn it was soda bread! 🤦

Must have been thinking of Jody's Irish roots. 😁

[Leeds]

21 hours ago, Taeolas said:

 

Yeah Mincemeat is a European/UK thing I think, though it is in North America. Our holiday season in Atlantic Canada has always had mom making Mincemeat Tarts (with a dab of vanilla or butterscotch frosting), mincemeat squares and a mincemeat cake. 

It's a dried fruit and distilled spirits mix mainly. (yes I peeked at Wiki :) ); the only actual meat product might be the fat component basically. 

 

Making it was an annual rite in our house - made during the half-term holidays in October and stored in stonewear Mason jars until the holidays.  (No spirits, presumably the long resting period provided enough fermentation.)  I've tried it here, jarred, but it's way too sweet for me.

 

2 hours ago, proserpina65 said:

The Great British Baking Show always has a bread week, and sometimes the sculptures they create are amazing.  Google "Paul bread lion" for the best one ever on that show.

Am I the only one who's never got the adulation for Paul's lion?

[mlp]

I hated to lose Philippe because I liked him but I knew he'd be eliminated before the end because he didn't have the professional experience of several others. 

Those bread displays were really impressive.  I wish we had been able to see more of the techniques the bakers were using to shape and color their "vegetables."  Some of these people have genuine artistic talent.

[dleighg]

9 hours ago, mlp said:

I wish we had been able to see more of the techniques the bakers were using to shape and color their "vegetables." 

They were in raptures over the "delicata squash." I thought it was COMPLETELY the wrong color; the ones I've seen are pale yellow and brown (and are skinnier). That looked like a freakin' watermelon!

[susannah]

1 hour ago, dleighg said:

They were in raptures over the "delicata squash." I thought it was COMPLETELY the wrong color; the ones I've seen are pale yellow and brown (and are skinnier). That looked like a freakin' watermelon!

It did!

 

[RoxiP]

Is there a GBBO page?  I have looked but never seen a current one.

When I was younger (in East Texas) we always had mincemeat pies for Christmas.  

[dleighg]

27 minutes ago, RoxiP said:

Is there a GBBO page?

https://forums.primetimer.com/forum/711-the-great-british-bake-off/

[susannah]

1 hour ago, RoxiP said:

Is there a GBBO page?  I have looked but never seen a current one.

When I was younger (in East Texas) we always had mincemeat pies for Christmas.  

My mother often made one for my stepdad at Christmas, but he was the only one who ever ate it. I am not even sure what the overall taste would be!

[Pallida]

The proportions of color were wrong, but I’m used to delicata squash being yellowy-white and green. Turns out they can be that or yellowy-white and orange (brownish)https://www.rareseeds.com/store/vegetables/winter-squash/delicata-squash

[libgirl2]

20 hours ago, proserpina65 said:

The Great British Baking Show always has a bread week, and sometimes the sculptures they create are amazing.  Google "Paul bread lion" for the best one ever on that show.

that was amazing. 

[kirklandia]

8 hours ago, dleighg said:

They were in raptures over the "delicata squash." I thought it was COMPLETELY the wrong color; the ones I've seen are pale yellow and brown (and are skinnier). That looked like a freakin' watermelon!

Celebrate Delicata diversity!  But my faves are the cuties I harvested from my garden yesterday.

[dleighg]

as I recall- their squash was WAY more green. Like a watermelon

ETA: (sorry for the play button)

 

Edited November 24, 2021 by dleighg

[susannah]

7 minutes ago, dleighg said:

as I recall- their squash was WAY more green. Like a watermelon

It was. With white stripes.

[trudysmom]

On 11/24/2021 at 9:36 AM, RoxiP said:

When I was younger (in East Texas) we always had mincemeat pies for Christmas.  

Where in East Texas, RoxiP?  I grew up near Canton, home of the World Famous First Monday Trade Days!  Still have family in the area.