How are we already on week 5 of The Great British Bake Off? With the news announced today that Mary Berry will not be continuing with the show, we have to make the most of the rest of this series! Last night the bakers faced pastry week where witnessed lots of butter bashing, raw pastry and soggy bottoms.
The first challenge was to make 24 breakfast pastries, of two different flavours. The contestants had to make enriched pastry which involves lots of butter or sugar so can easily go wrong. There were lots of yummy flavour combinations like Candice’s mushroom and pancetta and Andrew’s pear and chocolate. Val taught us a new top tip of using dental floss to cut neat pastry spirals, lets hope it didn’t make them minty! The judges either seemed to think that the pastries were too dry or raw, with only a few bakers getting all round good comments.
The technical challenge this week was set by Mary and she asked the contestants to make a Bakewell tart. This consists of a thin crispy pastry case, a layer of jam then a layer of frangipani all topped with a feathered icing. Val looked like she knew what she was doing announcing she makes one every week. Unfortunately, she only discovered the first sheet of instructions half way into the challenge. Time was not on the bakers side meaning most peoples tarts were too warm to put the icing on. Of course the bakers had to try and finish which resulted in Rav only serving 3/4’s of his and Andrew’s just having a small puddle of icing on the top. The first soggy bottom of the series unfortunately belonged to poor Val and she landed 7th spot just in front of Rav who came 8th. Candice scooped 2nd place and Jane looked over the moon being awarded the top spot.
Rav, Val and Tom needed to pull something special out the bag in the showstopper challenge to make sure they bagged themselves a place next week. The final task was to bake 48 filo pastry amuse bouche. Filo pastry is renowned as being very tricky as you must stretch the pastry so thin that you can see through it. Candice used a pasta maker to roll her pastry out which earned her some great comments during judging. Val however tried to use a broom handle to roll hers out but unfortunately all the layers got stuck together. Rav’s pastries looked really good and the judges were very impressed saying they tasted beautiful. Tom was told his looked a little ‘informal’ but they still tasted nice. This left Val who had unfortunately made hers too big meaning they were underdone.
Candice was rightfully crowned star baker and I have to admit I did shed a little tear when Val was told her journey in the tent had come to an end. She was very gracious and spoke about how everything she bakes is made with love and that she knew she could go no further in the competition.
As always after each episode, we decide to bake something off the show. This week we’ve decided to make some simple jam pinwheel pastries that you can easily re-create at home. Now its up to you whether you want to make or buy your pastry (we don’t judge). If you’re short of time buy a pack of puff and have these baked in 15 minutes! To make your own follow the link to this recipe.
Ingredients (makes x10)
x1 pack of puff pastry (about 375g) or your homemade pastry
x10 tsp jam
x1 egg, beaten
Method
Preheat the oven to 200C/180C fan.
Roll your pastry out and cut into 10 squares using a share knife.
Cut lines from the corners of the square towards the centre of the square, stopping about 2cm from the middle.
Place this onto your baking tray and add 1 tsp of jam to the middle of each square. Fold down one point of each triangle so the tip meets the middle of the jam. Repeat this with all your pastry squares.
Brush with beaten egg and then bake for 10 minutes or until golden brown and crispy.
You can easily turn these into savoury treats by changing the filling. Why not try adding sun-dried tomatoes and pesto? Let us see how you got on re-creating your Bake Off treats by sharing your photos with us on Instagram using @bakesbox or #bakesbox.
