Holiday Baking Championship - General Discussion

[CrazyInAlabama]

2 hours ago, rlc said:

I rewound it- Kess opened the oven to put her pan in and said ‘I hope I don’t mess up anyone’s bake’. Um, if you think you might mess someone up, don’t use that oven.

Oops!  I missed that.     Thanks for taking the time to rerun, and correct that.     

[Lady J]

6 hours ago, Madding crowd said:

Nancy is playing a part, I seriously don’t believe she is an alcoholic. I wonder why her saying she likes a boozy dessert bothers people but everyone liked it when Mary Berry did the same thing on the British Baking Show. And it’s a holiday baking show so just like The Christmas cookie show or the Halloween baking show, they will expect holiday decorations on everything. 

However, Nancy’s idea of Christmas decoration is very narrow. If it doesn’t look like a Hallmark card, she isn’t happy. I’m sick of her.

[Enigma X]

Yeah, I know Kess opened the oven and said that. I still think a lot of the "drama" on these cooking/baking shows is scripted behind the scenes. And I hate when they replay a full 30 seceonds of the "suspense" right after the commercial break.

Edited November 11, 2020 by Enigma X

[LittleIggy]

Carla, quit trying to make “Duuude” a thing. 🙄

[theatremouse]

10 hours ago, Madding crowd said:

Nancy is playing a part, I seriously don’t believe she is an alcoholic. I wonder why her saying she likes a boozy dessert bothers people but everyone liked it when Mary Berry did the same thing on the British Baking Show. 

For me, the difference is I believe the things Mary Berry says are sincere. Nancy, not so much. Also on GBBO it was usually other people ribbing Mary for liking boozy desserts, whereas on this one Nancy leans into it, hard.

4 hours ago, mojoween said:

For all of my life for my birthday and until he passed away my dad’s birthday my mom would make a cake that started with a layer of cooked butterscotch pudding, a layer of whole graham crackers, a layer of cooked vanilla pudding, another layer of graham crackers and a layer of cooked chocolate pudding with crumbled graham crackers on top that was refrigerated for some amount of time I never learned.

It was the most delicious cake I have ever eaten and she called it an ice box cake.  I thought that was what I was going to see, but both Eva and Meghan made cake cake with some other stuff in there.  What made them an ice box cake?

My understanding of icebox cake is it is cookies layered with cream or custard and then frozen (or refrigerated? I forget.) so that the cookies sort of absorb the cream and it all becomes a cakey kind of thing. I didn't think the contestants assigned icebox cakes made cake-cake. They made cookies and then layered them, but the cookies they made and used were way too thick for this application.

[bilgistic]

On 11/9/2020 at 10:14 PM, CrazyInAlabama said:

That was so nice of the other baker to taste the Megan's cake to see if it had enough booze in it.

I already have an irrational dislike for Megan, partially due to being told by her or others a dozen times already that she's pregnant and partially because she seems like she's fake nice to your face and then she'll stab you in the back. That whole, "I can't taste my cake because it has alcohol in it!" bit was really over the top. A single taste of alcohol in cake batter isn't going to cause fetal alcohol syndrome, Megan; calm down.

And yeah, I get that the internet finger-waggers would rip her apart if she did taste it, but that dramatic production is why I don't like her. It seems like her whole personality. She was only four months or so (I know I should know this by now) when she went on the show, so she didn't have to make it known at all, much less it be her whole damn deal. She doesn't look pregnant.

12 hours ago, Frost said:

We never saw Kess fess up to opening up the oven on the cream puffs.  I hope she apologized off camera.  Don't they have enough ovens for everybody?  That's really shoddy to be opening up someone else's oven.  Even I know that and I am not a professional baker!

I feel like I should buy a lottery ticket.  I posted just before the show that Jesse would say something to someone about their standing on the stupid Naughty or Nice board and sure enough, he did!  Poor baker whose name I can't remember had to admit on camera, "Yup, I'm average" because she's been middle ranked on all the bakes so far.  I dislike the board almost as much as I dislike Nancy the lush.  She gets creepier every year.  I really don't trust the palate of anyone who apparently drinks as much as she does.  When she complains she doesn't taste an ingredient we literally watched a baker use a lot of, I'm less likely to think the baker doesn't know how to balance flavors than I am to believe Nancy's burned off all her taste buds with alcohol 😜

More dumb, manufactured drama. There are double (stacked) ovens between each workstation, so one oven per baker.

Edited November 11, 2020 by bilgistic

[mojoween]

I thought I heard Meghan say she was seven months pregnant?  I did notice in the last episode that when they were standing to get the results you could tell there was a baby belly under that apron.  I hadn’t really noticed before.

[Guest]

7 hours ago, bilgistic said:

I already have an irrational dislike for Megan, partially due to being told by her or others a dozen times already that she's pregnant and partially because she seems like she's fake nice to your face and then she'll stab you in the back. That whole, "I can't taste my cake because it has alcohol in it!" bit was really over the top. A single taste of alcohol in cake batter isn't going to cause fetal alcohol syndrome, Megan; calm down.

And yeah, I get that the internet finger-waggers would rip her apart if she did taste it, but that dramatic production is why I don't like her. It seems like her whole personality. She was only four months or so (I know I should know this by now) when she went on the show, so she didn't have to make it known at all, much less it be her whole damn deal. She doesn't look pregnant.

 

1 hour ago, mojoween said:

I thought I heard Meghan say she was seven months pregnant?  I did notice in the last episode that when they were standing to get the results you could tell there was a baby belly under that apron.  I hadn’t really noticed before.

She did say she is seven months pregnant, and I was surprised too. I didn't realize it until they showed at-home footage of her where it was much more obvious. The apron must be magic!

And I think she's mentioned being pregnant maybe three times? Once during her intro with the afore-mentioned at-home footage, and a couple times this episode in the context of not being able to taste her food. She's not going on and on about it or, in my opinion, being overly-dramatic. She just jokingly said "of course, give the pregnant lady the booze!", said she was a little worried because she couldn't taste her stuff, and asked Jamaal to taste it for her. The end.

And I am not getting "fake nice to your face and stab you in the back" from her at all. Not sure where that's coming from.

[Rammchick]

2 hours ago, tracyscott76 said:

 

And I think she's mentioned being pregnant maybe three times? Once during her intro with the afore-mentioned at-home footage, and a couple times this episode in the context of not being able to taste her food. She's not going on and on about it or, in my opinion, being overly-dramatic. She just jokingly said "of course, give the pregnant lady the booze!", said she was a little worried because she couldn't taste her stuff, and asked Jamaal to taste it for her. The end.

 

Keep in mind, too, that while, yes, she's actually saying it, it's up to the producers and editors to use it in the way they see fit.  It's no different from any other FN show -- personal stories are run and rerun a million times on the competition shows.  It's their brand, for some reason.  I guess they think we like it.

[joanne3482]

20 hours ago, mlp said:

I felt for Jon.  His fruit tart was beautiful and he tried to make it holiday-ish.  I can't even think of fruits that would be considered "holiday" and would go together and would look festive.

Cranberries and apple and maybe pomegranate or orange and grapefruit or pears.  There were a lot of ways to go with a fruit tart. 

[mlp]

3 hours ago, joanne3482 said:

Cranberries and apple and maybe pomegranate or orange and grapefruit or pears.  There were a lot of ways to go with a fruit tart. 

Well, maybe, although I don't think of citrus fruits as holiday at all.  Cranberries look great when they're whole but you can't really serve them that way so I'm still struggling with the decorating.  Maybe he could have used cooked cranberries in the filling and decorated with nuts and pomegranate seeds somehow.

[Rammchick]

15 minutes ago, mlp said:

Well, maybe, although I don't think of citrus fruits as holiday at all.  Cranberries look great when they're whole but you can't really serve them that way so I'm still struggling with the decorating.  Maybe he could have used cooked cranberries in the filling and decorated with nuts and pomegranate seeds somehow.

Sugared cranberries are beautiful and sweet/tart.  That would have worked nicely.

[HyeChaps]

When they were recording this over the summer, Carla and Nancy were sequestered together in a small apartment or suite. They did some cute videos of them cooking with limited equipment and utensils and ingredients. 

[Dena0033]

19 hours ago, bilgistic said:

A single taste of alcohol in cake batter isn't going to cause fetal alcohol syndrome, Megan; calm down.

Tell that to my husband. I'm pregnant, and he's paranoid when I even MENTIONED adding 1/4 cup of cooking wine to a recipe. LOL

[CrazyInAlabama]

Some people don't like the taste of liquor, and in my case, I wouldn't know if there was enough or not, because I don't drink.    It could be Megan doesn't drink for religious or other reasons, and didn't want to say that.   I can only imagine some viewers would get upset about her even tasting some of the booze items.   

[hookedontv]

On 11/10/2020 at 6:56 PM, mojoween said:

For all of my life for my birthday and until he passed away my dad’s birthday my mom would make a cake that started with a layer of cooked butterscotch pudding, a layer of whole graham crackers, a layer of cooked vanilla pudding, another layer of graham crackers and a layer of cooked chocolate pudding with crumbled graham crackers on top that was refrigerated for some amount of time I never learned.

It was the most delicious cake I have ever eaten and she called it an ice box cake.  I thought that was what I was going to see, but both Eva and Meghan made cake cake with some other stuff in there.  What made them an ice box cake?

I just have to say: This birthday cake that you've had for years sounds absolutely DELISH! 

I have never heard of an ice box cake before hearing about it on this show, so I was completely clueless as to what it was. 

[Katherine Kegel]

On 11/9/2020 at 5:38 AM, libgirl2 said:

Many years ago, I worked at a Doctor's clinic. There was a woman in finance who made the most gorgeous cakes, but they were dry and tasteless. At first she was our go to cake maker for birthdays etc.... but after a few cakes, we gave up. 

Yup, that’s what we found when we did wedding cake tastings.  The cakes themselves just were’t very good. We ended up just getting a bunch of small cakes from the local grocery store (2 per table) and put chocolate dipped strawberries on the top because I prioritized taste over fancy.  😊

[BigBingerBro]

The only icebox cake I know uses these cookies.  Whenever I see them in the store, I grab them and make one!

[dleighg]

GAWD with the mispronunciations. Those were macaRONS not macaROONS. And maScarpone please not maRScapone. 

[libgirl2]

I watched the repeat last night as I work Monday nights. How frustrating.... its either not holiday enough or too holiday. Jon's fruit tart looked fine. It looked holiday enough to me. 

Anyone watch that Candyland show before? I didn't see a thread. It was awful, painfully awful. Two hours with the last 40 minutes a "how they built the set" show. 

[theatremouse]

If there is not a topic for that show and you'd like to discuss it, you're welcome to create one. It is off topic here.

[libgirl2]

36 minutes ago, theatremouse said:

If there is not a topic for that show and you'd like to discuss it, you're welcome to create one. It is off topic here.

Thanks. I wasn't sure if I could. 

[springbarb]

On 11/15/2020 at 9:33 AM, dleighg said:

GAWD with the mispronunciations. Those were macaRONS not macaROONS. And maScarpone please not maRScapone. 

I don't really get upset about the latter, but macarons and macaroons are different items. If someone says they're making macaroons, that's what I expect--not macarons.

[Irlandesa]

On 11/10/2020 at 10:14 PM, theatremouse said:

My understanding of icebox cake is it is cookies layered with cream or custard and then frozen (or refrigerated? I forget.) so that the cookies sort of absorb the cream and it all becomes a cakey kind of thing. I didn't think the contestants assigned icebox cakes made cake-cake. They made cookies and then layered them, but the cookies they made and used were way too thick for this application.

I thought an icebox cake was kind of a tough challenge.  Normally, it's a pretty easy dessert to make but since it's a baking show, I'm guessing they had to bake the elements that had to absorb the cream.  And the creamy elements.  There's not a ton of time for all of that to happen.

The only way I can think of making it happen is to give the cookie layers a bit of a soak in something liquidy before putting it into the freezer.

On 11/10/2020 at 10:21 PM, bilgistic said:

And yeah, I get that the internet finger-waggers would rip her apart if she did taste it, but that dramatic production is why I don't like her. It seems like her whole personality. She was only four months or so (I know I should know this by now) when she went on the show, so she didn't have to make it known at all, much less it be her whole damn deal. She doesn't look pregnant.

This is why I suspect it was producer-driven so we can all see that they're being responsible and not making the poor pregnant lady taste alcohol. 

On 11/10/2020 at 10:13 AM, Frost said:

I really don't trust the palate of anyone who apparently drinks as much as she does.  When she complains she doesn't taste an ingredient we literally watched a baker use a lot of, I'm less likely to think the baker doesn't know how to balance flavors than I am to believe Nancy's burned off all her taste buds with alcohol 

I don't know how much Nancy drinks but I can say that I don't normally drink but I love a boozy dessert.  And if someone says that this is a whiskey/kahlua/amaretto dessert, then I want that alcoholic kick to it whereas others might be okay with just the subtle background flavor. 

Baking and cooking is weird in that you can put a lot of an ingredient in a dish/baking good and it can get lost in its final form if it's not enhanced in some way.  My family has a kahlua cake recipe that doesn't really sing of kahlua until you put the frosting on it. 

[Rammchick]

1 hour ago, Irlandesa said:

I don't know how much Nancy drinks but I can say that I don't normally drink but I love a boozy dessert.  And if someone says that this is a whiskey/kahlua/amaretto dessert, then I want that alcoholic kick to it whereas others might be okay with just the subtle background flavor. 

Personally, I think they're just sending up Nancy being a lush for entertainment purposes.  Only it's not very entertaining.

Edited November 16, 2020 by Rammchick

[HyeChaps]

Carla doesn't drink coffee or alcohol, but she will eat them.

[Guest]

Yay Julianna! She's so darn cute. I'm glad she won this one; that fireplace decoration was awesome. Also enjoyed Jon's look of delight when he was announced safe about halfway down the list.

There's a very easy breezy vibe to this season overall, contestants and judges both, that I'm liking.

[Grizzly]

Duff was funny about not wanting to gush about Lorenzo's cherry pie to not give him a big head. Interesting how people who did well in the preheat fell in the main heat and vice versa.

[CheshireCat]

Do they pre-determine who's winning each week or do they have a list of who's supposed to win when? There is no way that I believe that a burnt crust tastes good or that it off-sets some sweetness or whatever. (Not to mention that it's not good for your health either). That was simply ridiculous and sounded like they were trying to spin the burnt crust into something positive because the baker had to win.

Why was Jamal so low on the list after the judges were so over the moon over his pie?

Maybe it's just my TV (it's a really old one) but I have yet to see cake/pie decorations that blow me away. Or maybe it's the tasks that they have which don't allow for better decorations but the majority of them come across as slightly messy looking.

I guess Megan complaining about the alcohol twist last week was added for drama? Because she cooked her pie fruit in white wine in this episode.

[LexieLily]

Why is the next new episode (eight bakers) on Sunday 11/29 at 10:00?

[Irlandesa]

12 hours ago, Grizzly said:

Duff was funny about not wanting to gush about Lorenzo's cherry pie to not give him a big head. Interesting how people who did well in the preheat fell in the main heat and vice versa.

Have they ever shaded a competitor like that before?  Not wanting to give him m a big head and then accusing him of coasting in the next round?  Strange.

11 hours ago, CheshireCat said:

There is no way that I believe that a burnt crust tastes good or that it off-sets some sweetness or whatever. 

I love burnt areas on a crust, especially if it's caused by some overflow.  Yum.  I need no convincing. I defend it.

What I can't defend is the pie flavors given in the beginning of the ep.  Way too many cream pies.

Edited November 17, 2020 by Irlandesa

[CheshireCat]

58 minutes ago, Irlandesa said:

I love burnt areas on a crust, especially if it's caused by some overflow.  Yum.  I need no convincing. I defend it.

I understood it to mean that the crust itself burnt because it was too long in the oven.

[Guest]

7 hours ago, CheshireCat said:

Do they pre-determine who's winning each week or do they have a list of who's supposed to win when? There is no way that I believe that a burnt crust tastes good or that it off-sets some sweetness or whatever. (Not to mention that it's not good for your health either). That was simply ridiculous and sounded like they were trying to spin the burnt crust into something positive because the baker had to win.

Whatever we might think of these judges, I doubt they'd risk their reputations on shenanigans like that if it meant gushing over a dessert that tasted terrible. It's not like the crust was pitch black, it was just very dark. And maybe with those particular flavors, that worked. Any shenanigans are in the editing. I'm guessing they highlighted the "oh no it's getting kinda burnt" bit to create a moment of unexpected triumph when Julianna won the challenge.

[Madding crowd]

I was wondering if the chai caused the crust to be darker, I have never baked with it. I didn’t think the winning pie looked as good as some of the others so it must have tasted great.

I have always found Duff to be sarcastic and I think he hides it under a jolly demeanor. I enjoyed seeing the different types of pies.

[Maverick]

 Duff definitely has a not-so-jolly side.  He could get pretty snide in Buddy vs. Duff. 

[Frost]

Kess is annoying me more each week.  Combining lemon and peppermint, which she had never done before, and apparently not even tasting it herself to see if it was any good?  She seemed to take it for granted that if she did it, it would be wonderful and was surprised when the judges didn't like the flavors.  I was glad to see the Atlanta guy go home, although I'm sorry it had to be on something as horrifying as a chess pie.  Seriously, that sounds gross.   The "Santa from Atlanta" schtick  - which I know was producer driven - was wearing on my last nerve. 

[Maverick]

 I'm not a pie person but chess pie is pretty good. It's basically just a baked custard.   You can make it with buttermilk for buttermilk pie, a southern speciality. 

[Popples]

I like Kess, however peppermint and lemon sound revolting together.

[libgirl2]

9 minutes ago, Popples said:

I like Kess, however peppermint and lemon sound revolting together.

No, those do not go together. yuck. 

1 hour ago, Frost said:

Kess is annoying me more each week.  Combining lemon and peppermint, which she had never done before, and apparently not even tasting it herself to see if it was any good?  She seemed to take it for granted that if she did it, it would be wonderful and was surprised when the judges didn't like the flavors.  I was glad to see the Atlanta guy go home, although I'm sorry it had to be on something as horrifying as a chess pie.  Seriously, that sounds gross.   The "Santa from Atlanta" schtick  - which I know was producer driven - was wearing on my last nerve. 

I liked him. 

[MerBearHou]

40 minutes ago, libgirl2 said:

1 hour ago, Frost said:

I was glad to see the Atlanta guy go home, although I'm sorry it had to be on something as horrifying as a chess pie.  Seriously, that sounds gross.   The "Santa from Atlanta" schtick  - which I know was producer driven - was wearing on my last nerve. 

I liked him. 

I liked him too.  Seemed like a dear person.  His pie was a mess, for sure.  

[Cheyanne11]

1 hour ago, Popples said:

I like Kess, however peppermint and lemon sound revolting together.

I dislike peppermint in anything other than toothpaste or tic tacs, but that combo sounds particularly gross.

But is peppermint pie an actual thing?  I've never heard of it and it sounds wholly unappetizing.

Both Lashonda's bakes looked so good to me. 

[Madding crowd]

Every year I get a candy cane pie from Bakers Square and it is peppermint and chocolate-delicious!

[mlp]

The combination of peppermint and lemon sounds so ghastly that I had a hard time believing that anyone who professes to be a baker would even consider putting them together.  The judges expressions upon tasting were comical.  I would have been inclined to eliminate Kess for lack of judgment.  Of the actual bottom two, I thought they'd send home the woman who underbaked her pie.  The Atlanta guy's pie didn't look good but it sounded like it tasted better than the other one.  Guess not.

So far, my favorites are Eva and Lashonda but I don't dislike any of them.

Edited November 17, 2020 by mlp
correct something

[Maverick]

 The woman who was saved from elimination was described as a "rockstar" by the judges so I knew she wasn't going anywhere.  Dude was toast the minute he was pulled into the bottom with her. 

[Guest]

1 hour ago, mlp said:

Of the actual bottom two, I thought they'd send home the woman who underbaked her pie.  The Atlanta guy's pie didn't looked good but it sounded like it tasted better than the other one.  Guess not.

 

14 minutes ago, Maverick said:

 The woman who was saved from elimination was described as a "rockstar" by the judges so I knew she wasn't going anywhere.  Dude was toast the minute he was pulled into the bottom with her.

Megan, the woman in question, has been consistently good in the previous episodes, where Jeffrey had been more inconsistent. So the judges may have thought she had more potential going forward. Likewise, if Lorenzo or Kess had been in the bottom two against Jeffrey, the outcome would likely have been the same.

But this begs the question of this "Naughty and Nice" list they've got going on, where they keep showing their placement over the previous episodes. Is that officially factoring into the judges' decision? Like, if their bakes this round were equally bad but Megan's average score over the season was higher, is that the de jure tie-breaker? Or is it just a cutesy holiday way to reveal the results, and a reminder to the bakers (and the audience) of who's been doing well? I'm guessing it's the latter, but it would be nice to know one way or the other.

[Popples]

1 hour ago, Madding crowd said:

Every year I get a candy cane pie from Bakers Square and it is peppermint and chocolate-delicious!

I just Googled Bakers Square and now I'm upset there aren't any close to me because that's sounds incredible!

[CheshireCat]

10 hours ago, tracyscott76 said:

Whatever we might think of these judges, I doubt they'd risk their reputations on shenanigans like that if it meant gushing over a dessert that tasted terrible. It's not like the crust was pitch black, it was just very dark. And maybe with those particular flavors, that worked. Any shenanigans are in the editing. I'm guessing they highlighted the "oh no it's getting kinda burnt" bit to create a moment of unexpected triumph when Julianna won the challenge.

I know someone who participated in a dancing with the stars type show (in a European country) and one of the things she told us was that the eventual winner always happened to get dancing styles which suited him and he liked doing. So, I'm not sure how much competition is really left in those competitive shows 🤷‍♀️

As far as the crust is concerned, I didn't see any burnt patches but since Duff said it was bitter, I assumed it was blackened since I don't think it would have tasted bitter otherwise.

Even if it was just browned/overbaked, bakers have ended up in the bottom two for overbaking their cakes and I think that's mostly why I felt like they were saying it because she had to win. I would have found it credible if the crust was overbaked intentionally but she overbaked it because her pie wouldn't set. It was weird.

[springbarb]

4 hours ago, mlp said:

The combination of peppermint and lemon sounds so ghastly that I had a hard time believing that anyone who professes to be a baker would even consider putting them together.  The judges expressions upon tasting were comical.  I would have been inclined to eliminate Kess for lack of judgment.  Of the actual bottom two, I thought they'd send home the woman who underbaked her pie.  The Atlanta guy's pie didn't look good but it sounded like it tasted better than the other one.  Guess not.

It's frustrating how inconsistent these shows are; they're theoretically not cumulative, but Jeffrey was always going to go home before Megan, despite his pie apparently tasting better.

Similarly, I get annoyed at bakers getting dinged for their desserts not looking "holiday" enough, but there were multiple pies in this episode that were more fall themed (with leaves, etc.) and not a single comment. There was at least one dessert previously that had a very fall theme that got called out for not being more "holiday."

[Irlandesa]

11 hours ago, Frost said:

Kess is annoying me more each week.  Combining lemon and peppermint, which she had never done before, and apparently not even tasting it herself to see if it was any good? 

In defense of Kess, this is apparently a very niche thing. And maybe she got confused between lemon and peppermint and lemon and mint (which is more common and does work as a flavor combination. )

But yeah, just the idea of it made me shudder.

5 hours ago, CheshireCat said:

I know someone who participated in a dancing with the stars type show (in a European country) and one of the things she told us was that the eventual winner always happened to get dancing styles which suited him and he liked doing. So, I'm not sure how much competition is really left in those competitive shows 🤷‍♀️

As far as the crust is concerned, I didn't see any burnt patches but since Duff said it was bitter, I assumed it was blackened since I don't think it would have tasted bitter otherwise.

Even if it was just browned/overbaked, bakers have ended up in the bottom two for overbaking their cakes and I think that's mostly why I felt like they were saying it because she had to win. I would have found it credible if the crust was overbaked intentionally but she overbaked it because her pie wouldn't set. It was weird.

Sure, there can be some manipulation but even in your DWTS type scenario, the winner had to execute even if there was allegedly some manipulation about the styles he got. And if it was a DWTS-type show, I can see why they'd want to keep certain high profile celebs around.

I just don't see the benefit of lying about the taste of a dessert on the third week of a baking competition full of people few of us have even heard about.  There aren't any weekly prizes or anything. 

People have gotten sent home for overbaking their cakes but overbaking a cake and overbaking a pie yield different results.  Overbaking a cake leads to a dry cake.  That's something bakers can mitigate by adding a syrup but sometimes there's just no saving it.  What overbaking the crust did was create a bitter note that apparently played well with the sweetness of the dessert. It's why I will overbake cookies.  Some of the best food items are the result of happy accidents so I don't think it reduces her credibility. My dad, to this day, claims he invented chocolate chip cookie bars because he didn't realize that you can't put all of the chocolate chips cookies on the same pan the first time he tried to make them for my mom.  (He didn't.  Allegedly, they were good.)

Edited November 18, 2020 by Irlandesa

[Guest]

2 hours ago, CheshireCat said:

As far as the crust is concerned, I didn't see any burnt patches but since Duff said it was bitter, I assumed it was blackened since I don't think it would have tasted bitter otherwise.

Even if it was just browned/overbaked, bakers have ended up in the bottom two for overbaking their cakes and I think that's mostly why I felt like they were saying it because she had to win. I would have found it credible if the crust was overbaked intentionally but she overbaked it because her pie wouldn't set. It was weird.

I just chalk this up to a happy accident. She didn't do it on purpose, but it worked. There's surely weirdness going on behind the scenes of these shows, but I just choose to believe that what we are seeing (at least in terms of outcomes) is essentially the truth.

22 minutes ago, springbarb said:

Similarly, I get annoyed at bakers getting dinged for their desserts not looking "holiday" enough, but there were multiple pies in this episode that were more fall themed (with leaves, etc.) and not a single comment. There was at least one dessert previously that had a very fall theme that got called out for not being more "holiday."

I agree with the irritation at the "Christmas over all else" mentality (Nancy), but in this episode they were specifically given "fall" ingredients in one of the challenges. So the judges were presumably briefed and expecting a fall vibe for this week. Hence, no "NOT HOLIDAY ENOUGH" comments (Nancy).