After last weeks savoury we are are back to the sweet things this week, Dessert. Full of sugar, fat and all the things that are bad for you. Thankfully it’s a bank holiday weekend, so lots of people to see who can eat this weeks showstopper, 3 tiered cheesecakes!
Signature Bake – 12 Crème Brûlée
They do like to bring back the retro in bake off and this week is no exception, in fact it’s deceptively delicate according to Paul. The bakers had to keep to the more traditional methods of using a grill instead of a fancy blow torch to create the crunchy caramel topping, which proved tricky to get an even colour across all 12 dishes.
Key Points:
- Adding hot milk to cold eggs needs to be done slowly, otherwise you’ll end up cooking the eggs.
- Baking it a water bath will guarantee an even bake thoughout each pot.
- When you baking it your looking for a little wobble meaning it just set, over set it will split and under baked it will pour out like soup
Flora was certainly out to impress with some added accompaniments to her rhubarb and custard versions. Ugne was the only one this week that produced a perfect consistency on her custard, although the caramel on the top wasn’t crunchy enough. the rest of the bakers seemed to suffer from either over baking or underbaking. Paul’s ended up looking like scrambled eggs, while Sandy’s looked like custard.
Technical Bake – Spanische Windtorte
There are times when a recipe like this comes up, I wish I was still doing the technicals. I like that they are always something new, often retro bakes that have otherwise been forgotten. Plus I love meringue, but I have a feeling my dentist wouldn’t be too pleased with this sugary concoction!
Key Points:
- French meringue the sugar needs to added to stiff egg whites until smooth, glossy and pipe-able. It is then cooked in the oven making sure it is not overbaked which would cause it to loose it’s bright whitness. The end result should be a crisp, dry meringue
- Swiss meringue is when the egg whites and sugar are cooked over a ban-marie leaving you with a marshmellowy texture that is cooked in the oven to set.
Most of the bakers this week seemed to get away relatively unscathed in this challenge, and where they did fall down it was usually on the same thing, the meringues. The French meringue was chewy rather than crisp and dry and the swiss was too sticky. Alvin seemed to suffer the worst, his meringue had lost it whiteness, and there was no distinction between the meringues. Tamal was marked down for only using one style of piping and Flora’s was too chewy. I was good to see that Paul managed to get first prize with his attempt, even when he was unconfident most of the way through
Showstopper: 3 tiered baked cheesecake
I know I can’t taste it and I don’t have smell-o-vision but flavour wise Ian managed to pull it off once again. As I have said before I love how he combines herbs and spices into his sweet bakes. HIs apple and tarragon would definitely be interesting to try, I’m not so sure about Paul’s suggestion of basil and banana though. Tamal was another one with some interesting combinations, honey and rosemary would be a winner in my house and I loved the colour of the mango one. He’s definitely working his way to star baker, if Ian ever lets it go! I loved the idea of Nadiya’s and Matt’s inspiration of using sweet favourites, whether it was from a soda or chocolate bar. The presentation of Ugne’s bake let her down a bit but the rest of the bake saved her. Flora’s presentation saved her slightly but I think she be careful next week, sticking with only one flavour was certainly surprising for her, especially compared to the crème brûlée! It was sad to see Sandy go, she was a strong character in the tent, but sadly everything this week everything went against her.
3 tiers, 3 sizes, 3 baking times and potentially 3 different flavours too, this weekend we certainly full on, and not just on the hips! I have an idea to focus the flavours on retro ice cream flavours, similar to neapolitan but with a bit of a twist, this is bake off after all!