This week it’s sweet vs savoury, layers vs biscuit, and straight vs the collapsed, basically everything that comes with making and baking pastry.
Signature – Frangipane tart
Not something I have made before but certainly something I would like to try. I’m not a big fan of the popular pear, but Flora’s use of apricots is certainly appealing!
Key Points
- Don’t over work the dough, you don’t want to activate the gluten too much as it will make the pastry tough and rubbery
- Work the butter carefully into the dough, again don’t over work it. You want it to stay cold and not melt during the preparation in order to get a light biscuity dough
- Blind bake in order to avoid the dreaded soggy bottom
- To avoid shrinkage, cut the edges after the blind bake, or after the final bake.
Once again Flora was more about the style over the substance. Her timings allow her to manages making extraneous thing that are not required, irrelevant the task in hand. this week was no different as she made amaretti biscuits to cover up her burnt and bitter pastry case. Maybe she should have concentrated more on her flavourings as the rosemary didn’t seem to add anything so her fresh apricot filling. Mattt seems to have an obsession with coconut, as he’s used it for the past few weeks in some form or other. This week though his Pina Colada inspired cake looked a little plan the filling seemed a little bland and lacking in the rum. Ian seems to be slipping on his executions. His flavour was ok, and the design good, but it looked unfinished without its glaze. Alvin overworked his pastry, making it tough to roll out and leaving him with a thick base. The best base colour seemed to be on Tama’ls, and although his design was a little chaotic this frangipane was perfection! Nadiya brave choice to use subtle flavours was a bold decision that paid off, even if she had a soggy bottom. The best tart by far came from Paul’s festive creation. He’s made this before and you could tell he know what he was doing, especially when it came to his design and decoration
Technical – Flaounes x12
First off, what the Flaounes are these? I’ve never heard of the them, let alone seen them and quite frankly anything that is flavoured with tree sap resin is not something I’m going to jump at to eat.
The main problem with everyone’s bake this week on the technical was the shape, but who can blame them when faced with something you’ve never heard of. They needed to have a thin crust with a high dome shaped filling. Alvin seemed to be the furthest away from this with his pizza style base, along with Tamal who’s bake was a bit flat and with the sesame seeds on the inside. Ian managed to make his look like a cornish pasty and Paul had patchy glazed crowns. Overall everyones were baked with a good flavour and Matt managed to win the technical with the closest shape and good shine.
Showstopper – Vol Au Vent x48 (24 of each flavour)
I understand how to get lamination, multiple layers and good colour, but how on earth do you guarantee a straight rise for puff pastry?
Key Points
- Don’t freeze the butter layer, it will cause the layer to crack and you’ll be left with small pieces of butter rather than an even single layer.
- Let the butter chill solidly between each layer to get even layers.
- Keep the edges tidy and as straight as possible.
I really felt sorry for Nadiya on this challenge, she had to make her pastry again due to the butter cracking and didn’t have time to chill it properly. However instead of giving up she served it deconstructed, which meant the paul and Mary could see that she could make a good pastry, and show off the amazing flavour combinations of her fillings. That took confidence. Flora finally got the hint that it is about quality not quantity on this challenge, although I’m not sure if it will stop her from adding non-essential flourishes in the future. Her cocoa puff pastry was a brave however both of the pastries were a little dense. Ian’s fillings were a little simple to be fair and certainly not up to his usual standard. Tamal’s may have looked messy but they were certainly generously filled
Pastry really was Alvin’s nemesis, form the beginning of the show he didn’t sound very confident. His pastry in the Frangipane was too thick and the tart filling underbaked. The Technical was interpreted the wrong way and his puff pastry was raw and doughy. As Mary said he was going to need a miracle to save him from leaving, but his flavours in the final challenge were just not enough to make the leap.
Matt’s vol-au-vents were truly inspired. He managed to bring finesse to the fry up, and really did deserve this week’s star baker.
Oneliner of the week: “I probably should concentrate on the baking…oh well.” Finally the penny drops for Flora