Week five, halfway through, and the tension is mounting.
Time to do some yoga. Oh, what's that move?
It's a Battenberg in repose. Gosh. I always like the downward baguette.
BOTH: Welcome to The Great British Bake Off.
Last time... They're humongous!
..batter. Don't look at these.
These are not the Yorkshires you're looking for.
An epic tale of the rise and fall of puddings.
They're going in the bin. But after over-frying her bunnies...
Oh! I might have mucked them up.
..Kate became the fourth baker to leave the tent.
I feel really guilty. No, it's fine. I had a shocking week.
Tossing the perfect pancake... They are very nice, aren't they? Yes.
..and standout churros... Thank you, Benjamina. You've cracked it.
..gave Benjamina her first Star Baker crown.
This time... ♪ It's getting hot in here. ♪
..it's pastry.
One down, a million processes to go. A Danish classic...
Time is running out... a technical tart... This is a disaster.
..and an amusing... Like a pizza... filo Showstopper.
I was so calm earlier. Oh, my word, the oven wasn't on.
Great to have reached week five.
Having got this far,
I really want to get to the end now.
I'm a friendly kind of competitive.
I would love to get Star Baker before I leave the tent,
which hopefully won't be for a while.
'Having won Star Baker last week, '
I think it does add a little bit of pressure because you don't
want to go from the top and then just crash all the way down.
'Last week was such a disaster that sometimes I just think, '
"Am I worthy of being here?"
'When you see the tent, '
just occasionally you think of turning around and going home.
And then you think, "No! You've got so much to do and share,
"get on in, get it done."
Morning, bakers. It is pastry week.
Paul and Mary would love you, please,
for this Signature Challenge, to make 24 breakfast pastries.
We would like you to make two different types, that's 12 of each, and they must be Danish pastries.
Fill them, glaze them, make them look as dainty and beautiful
as Paul's weekend alter ego.
You've got three and a half hours on this challenge.
On your marks... Get set... BOTH: Bake.
Breakfast pastries, we all love them, but they mustn't forget
the actual dough has a high proportion of butter
and, if it melts out, the breakfast pastry is as dry as old boots.
It's all about time management.
They've got to get that dough ready as quickly as possible.
Then the filling's prepared while the dough's resting
and then, finally, prove the pastry once they've shaped it.
Speed in the early stages of their Signature Bake is crucial.
I've got half of my dough on my foot.
The bakers need their basic Danish pastry dough to begin its
first proving as soon as possible.
It's related to puff pastry but it's much more enriched,
so it's got eggs and sugar and, importantly, yeast.
The pastry is kind of in-between strength and weakness,
it's not one of the best things I do.
For speed, last week's Star Baker, Benjamina, is making one large
batch of dough for both her breakfast pastries.
A peanut butter and banana pinwheel
and a pecan swirl with maple syrup and candied bacon.
I've actually just made up the enriched dough and it's now
in the fridge chilling and proving.
I really need to be good with my time on this one.
While the rest of the bakers race to start their first prove...
It's a little bit wetter than I usually make it,
but it's better to be wetter than it is to be dry.
..one baker has decided to make the start
of this Signature Bake twice as hard.
You're making two separate doughs,
you're making double work for yourself.
Jane's first dough is for her orange and cardamom pain au raisins.
She's also making chocolate and almond Danish pastries
with a dough flavoured with cinnamon.
I did start making one type with just the orange and then thought,
"Well, if I'm going to do it in two different lots,
"I might as well do two different doughs."
With their dough proving,
the bakers need to quickly prepare the breakfast pastries'
other crucial components -
huge quantities of butter.
The butter needs to be flat, so that it can be folded into the dough.
My neck and my shoulders are quite sore this week.
I'm not sure whether it's pastry-induced...
As well as an apple and cinnamon Danish,
Candice's love of French food has meant she's the only baker
attempting a savoury breakfast pastry based on a croque-monsieur,
with mushrooms and pancetta.
You've got a bunch of thyme there, what's that?
The thyme's going with the mushrooms,
white sauce and a Gruyere.
Gruyere's a good choice for cheese in the way it bakes in a pastry.
Now, the butter that you're putting in,
what's the proportion of butter to the dough?
Half the amount of butter to the pastry.
How are you going to stop the butter from bleeding out while it's baking?
I'm trying to keep the butter really cool,
so I'm bashing it out now while my dough rests
and then, when it's thin and bashed out, I'm putting it in the fridge.
Thank you very much, Candice. We'll leave you to bash your butter.
Thank you very much.
Andrew is going a little further than just bashing.
Of course I'm measuring my butter.
I've got to maintain a reputation as a reputable engineer.
Andrew is precisely engineering pastries featuring his mum
and dad's favourite fillings -
pear and chocolate pinwheel for Mum
and spiced date swirls for his dad.
My dad always used to have dates in the glove box of the car when
we were kids - I remember we used to snack away on them.
I like to get nice, neat corners on the butter -
if that means a little bit of hand fudging, that's fine with me.
So, I'm going to get that in the fridge.
Every minute the butter chills and the dough proves...
Five minutes... should be used to prepare the Danish pastries'
signature fillings. OK, now time to chop some fruits.
I grew up in Ghana, we had lots of mangoes, pineapple
and coconuts, so, yeah, let's call it a Ghanaian pastry.
Selasi's transporting himself back to his childhood
with a pineapple and coconut lattice
and a pinwheel filled with mango, ginger and rhubarb.
It's an unusual combination. Yes.
What sort of glazes are you having?
So the ginger and mango will have the orange and ginger glaze,
coconut and pineapple will have a pineapple glaze,
and then they'll have a lemon and lime drizzle.
These sound amazing in flavours. Be careful of the texture of the
coconut though, that it doesn't destroy it.
We'll love you and leave you. That's to go.
Thanks, buddy. That's all right.
The bakers now face the toughest bit of multitasking
that they've experienced so far.
Get a good banana flavour. Whilst making their fillings...
Get it nice and crispy.
..they also have to begin the vital process of pastry lamination...
Oh, you're on your folds already?
Oh, my God... layering their chilled butter between their proved dough.
Maybe I'm rushing. This is my second dough.
If I've measured this right,
this should cover two thirds of my pastry.
It's not how it should be, but, oh, well.
It's important that no butter comes through,
so I'm just going to pinch it together. Seal the edges.
So, I've just done a standard envelope fold,
so like you would fold a letter.
I'm doing a book turn, which is probably different to what
a lot of the other bakers are doing, but I get more layers quicker.
There.
One down, a million processes to go.
I'm going to cook the apple and I'm using oranges and lemons,
and it absolutely lifts the apple.
Val needs to find the time to perfect her pecan and maple syrup
pinwheels, as well as her apple and sultana-topped cinnamon swirls.
You're doing a cinnamon swirl and you're going to top it with apple,
so it's not in it then?
It's on it. So I use a spoon and make a little well in it,
so the apple sits in the middle. Does it not fall off?
No, it doesn't. Well, it's sort of in it as well as on it.
In it and on it. And I have my secret weapon with me. Oh, hello.
Dental floss. What on earth are you going to do with that?
You have your dough, and then you make a loop and you pull it.
You get a nice, clean cut.
You're the first person we've had who's flossed her pastry. Yes.
I want the judges to be able to taste each element.
There's some ground ginger, cinnamon and some nutmeg in there
and I don't want it to kind of overwhelm the Danish,
because that's happened in the past with my bread and Mary didn't
appreciate the amount of chilli that I put in there.
Rav's banking on a classic pecan, walnut and maple plait
and cinnamon swirls with simple lemon icing.
I hope they're not too disappointed that I haven't been too
creative with my flavours.
This is my second turn,
so I'm getting this out to 50 by 20 centimetres.
The butter has broken up a little bit, which is interesting.
We'll go with it.
Oh, we've got butter. Put some flour on there
cos you do not want your butter leaking out or it's going to
ruin your layers.
There should be 27 layers, so I think three turns,
but I get confused.
There is a formula to work out how many layers you'll get.
Layers of lamination equals F,
which I think is the number of folds,
plus one to the power of how many times you turn.
That'll give you the layers.
I've got three at the moment,
so, when I fold it again, I'll have nine. I can do three times three.
Third one will be 27.
I've done another book turn,
which is where I'll get four times that many layers.
Benjamina, that's two. How's your bacon?
Oh, no. I need some more bacon.
Little bit annoyed. I was ahead when I put it in.
Just putting in my pancetta,
can't really beat bacon and mushroom for breakfast.
But the flavours could be good and the pastry could be rubbish.
HE SINGS: Da-da-da. Tom's breakfast choices are a little healthier.
I want this quite crisp
because it's going to get some moisture
from the cooking pastry anyway.
Tom's granola will be rolled into his spirals and he's making
square turnovers filled with creme patissiere,
blended with another almost-healthy option.
Wheat biscuits with creme pat?
Now, that's going to be very different.
The flavour's quite similar to when you get to the end of your
bowl of cereal and you drink the milk, but I've added a bit of
vanilla to this, just to make it a little bit more classic as well.
OK, sounds interesting.
As you say in the breakfast cereal world, Cheerio.
I'm leaving the tent guys, it's been really great.
This is my final turn.
I'm just squashing down to try and get the butter a bit even.
Going to do another book turn now, so I should get even more layers.
One hour remaining to make 24 Danish pastries.
♪ Doo-bee-doo-be-doop-doop. ♪
In order to give the pastry the maximum time to rest...
I've only got two minutes till something happens, so...
You've got two minutes and 24 seconds, actually.
..the bakers should leave shaping and filling
until the last possible minute.
So, these will be my apple roses.
But every minute they aren't shaping and filling...
Now, dough, just make sure that's all right.
..is a minute they won't have for baking.
50 minutes. How many? 5-0. 5-0, OK.
I'm pretty pleased with how the pastry's come out.
I'm making the pinwheels. You get a beautiful, crisp point,
but the middle will be nice and soft.
Success second time round.
I kept an eye on it, I watched it like a hawk.
Somehow, time has escaped me.
It looks like origami. It does look like origami.
You fold it over, so you end up with a little...
Hang on, you've totally lost me there already.
Just take one side over underneath, the other side over the top and
then I'm just going to put the bechamel on top in the gap.
Would you call that a little lattice or a...?
I have no idea what you'd call it, really.
Jane's open pocket. Jane's... Yeah, my kids have discovered that.
MEL LAUGHS Yeah, I bet they have.
Should have an hour of proving.
Bless them, they're going to have ten minutes.
I don't actually know if Paul likes peanut butter,
he didn't say he disliked it.
I just want to make sure I get it edge to edge
cos I don't want any gaps.
Want to make sure I don't coil it too tight
cos I want to give it room to grow.
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12.
Might even get a bonus one out. How's the pastry flossing going?
Immensely clean. Have you found any cavities or...
Um... all clear? All clear.
Oh, it does work, doesn't it?
It's not too badly compressing the layers together,
so hopefully I'll still get that lamination.
Can you have too much chocolate filling? Possibly not.
I'm just going to have to do the other ones really quickly.
Bakers, just 30 minutes left for grievous BUTTERLY harm.
Just 30 minutes. Time is running out.
You're not going to plait all those bits, are you?
This is what I do, I fold it over like this. I know what it is -
it's a plattice.
It's a half plait, half lattice.
It's a little bit like a pastry cigar, isn't it?
That'll do.
Cool, next one.
My frangipane's melting and escaping.
They're looking a bit messy in there.
Candice, I don't in any way want to alarm you... Hmm?
23 minutes to go.
Thank very much. OK? Just to put that into perspective.
One more minute, pushing it.
How long do they need in the oven? 20 minutes.
20 minutes. OK, you're fine.
That gives you three minutes to play with.
Hello, darling. Hello. How many have you got to do?
A lot. I've still got 12 that are raw, I've got 12 in the oven.
12 that are raw?! 12 that aren't cooked yet.
OK, and how long do they need? About 20 minutes.
OK, you've got about 20 minutes. Yeah.
They're going in... I think...
although I have no space.
Upper bunk looking good.
Lower bunk also looking good.
I'm going to put three trays in, just so I get something.
I just spilt cheese everywhere.
They are in.
It's the usual position, sat in front of the oven, praying.
Cook faster, please.
How's it going, Candice? Well, they're in.
Overdone. The others aren't cooked though, that's the problem.
How much longer have we got?
OK, bakers, you've got five minutes for your Danish to make a killing.
Oh, we're going to be tight on this.
They're not going to be cooked. They're not going to be cooked.
I've only got 11 in there, I've just realised. That's left over.
So... fun times ahead.
Coming out.
Have not got time.
Oh, the butter is not even for real right now. Leaking everywhere.
Oh, dear.
OK, bakers, this Danish saga is over. There you go, 12.
I'm shaking. Oh, please, God.
Fire!
I think someone put some butter in the bottom of my oven.
So, Val, have we got 12? Yes, 12 of each.
What we'll do is we'll start with the pinwheel.
The bake underneath looks a bit pale. Let's have a quick look.
You've got a little bit of a flake, it's gone a bit doughy there
where you put the filling, but that's quite normal.
They're a very good buttery flavour,
but they're a little bit underdone underneath.
I actually like them a little bit softer in the middle.
Really? Yes, it's how our family like them,
they like them a bit softer in the middle.
The problem is, when you push a hole in the middle, it falls through.
I was too energetic today, I thought,
"Oh, bother, I pushed right through."
That apple, you've just got the right amount of spice,
but sad that it all falls apart.
They're a lovely inviting colour, but, if you look in here,
it's not quite done.
I don't know that the rhubarb adds to the mango.
I'm not really getting a lot of ginger coming through,
but I'm certainly not getting the almond.
Well done for using fresh pineapple and fresh coconut,
the flavours really come through. Thank you.
This is going to be fascinating.
Dry as a bone. With granola on top of that, wow.
A pastry should be buttery when you taste it
and the butter's gone. Absolutely raw layers all the way through.
Do you know what? I'm not going to. It's fine.
It's such a shame.
I think the overall plaiting looks good.
I think the colour's OK. How many have you got of these?
Um, 12 of the cinnamon swirls. Yeah.
11 of the... 11 plaits. There's 11 plaits.
They're bone dry,
so what you're left with is a bread with some bits in it.
Can't get any flavour from them.
The nut filling in there...
..is delicious. OK.
If my dad had kept
dates in our glove box, there would have been uproar.
In 1970s Leatherhead, there would have been uproar.
Good lamination all the way through,
you can't see any gaps in there at all.
Immensely tempting, beautiful colour.
These look more biscuit-y because they've been cut very thinly.
Hm. You'd want a bit of height in the Danish itself.
Unbearable silence.
For me, the flavour is very good, but it's just all too close.
If it was thicker, you would have had a proper Danish pastry.
You got away with it. Right, it's a lovely colour on the top.
That pear and the creme patissiere, absolutely delicious.
Pear and creme pat are beautiful together, the chocolate's just
overwhelmed it for me. And it is too thin - you need to have it thicker.
Apart from that, perfect.
Thank you. Absolutely perfect. Thanks.
Did you prove these
before they went in the oven?
I actually didn't have time to prove them.
That's why they've ended up like that. It hasn't grown,
you pop them into a hot oven, the yeast will explode and then throw
all the butter out, which is exactly what's happened.
Did you notice that, on the tray, there was butter?
Oh, yeah, there was lots. Sadly, it is raw in the middle.
Didn't give yourself enough time and it was all rushed. Hm.
Ha.
The banana and the peanut is just mad.
Mad - good? I do like it. OK.
I've just never had anything like it before. It's bizarre.
I think it works in a Danish, if it was baked properly.
Maple and the bacon. And the bacon.
Again, quite raw. All the butter's just left.
Lovely colour around the outside, you've got a nice bit of depth.
Great flavour, really is beautiful.
That's a shame. I think both your fillings are beautiful,
but your pastry needs a lot of work.
Yeah. Who was Star Baker last week? Benjamina.
I don't know, was it?
That's the ideal pastry right there. Can you eat that one then, please?
Um... All of these, love the colour and, actually the lamination looks
pretty good as well, but you've overfilled them.
Yes, I did.
That is how I'd expect it to look inside.
Quite irregular, you can see the lamination,
it's baked all the way through.
Gosh, you've got the flavour right, it's delicious.
You've got very good distribution of the fruit -
orange is definitely coming through beautifully.
Let's have a look at this.
Good bake, nice and brown underneath, crispy as well.
I think the flavour is delicious. Oh, thank you, thank you.
You've shown us that you can make a very good pastry. Thank you.
The savoury ones look pretty good - nice shape.
You've lost a little bit of butter out of there
but, actually, it's well-baked all the way through.
I think the flavour of the filling's delicious. Thank you.
However, the pastry itself is very dry...
OK... and that's because you rushed it and the butter's poured out.
Right, let's try these sweet ones.
How pretty these are, a very original formation of the apple.
These are absolutely delicious.
Beautifully crispy, it's so pretty on the top.
I'm dying to have it, but it's a pity it's not quite done.
Yeah, I just needed a little bit longer.
Could you explain to me why you have a pile of six?
I'm just taking them home for my family.
That is absolutely fine. The family...
Do you not get fed at home?
Well, they'll love these. Is that all right? Of course it is.
I've depleted your basket, sorry. Thank you, Candice.
You're very welcome. Thank you. Will you please leave?
They love a savoury puff, I'm sorry.
'I'm really glad I took that gamble with the savoury.'
A little bit weird paid off, maybe.
'Better than I dared to hope for.'
Mary's comments were lovely, Paul's comments were... astounding.
Slightly disappointed, if I'm honest,
especially at something that would have been really easy to change if
I'd have known about the thickness of them.
'Saying that the pastry's raw'
probably is the worst thing they could say,
that it's not even cooked.
But they did eat it, so it wasn't that raw.
I'd like to pretend that I can draw a line under it -
I probably won't. I'll probably go away and brood for a little while.
I'm not looking forward to the technical.
I can't be last in the technical for a third week in a row.
After a morning filled with breakfast pastries,
the bakers now face an afternoon baking an ultimate tea-time classic.
OK, bakers, welcome to your pastry Technical Challenge.
Now, Mary has set this challenge for you today.
Any words of advice, Mary?
I want sheer perfection, so please keep your cool.
Right, off you pop, my darlings. See you back for judging.
The things I could tell you about them.
Right, Paul and Mary would very much like you to make a Bakewell tart.
And the clue is in the title.
You've got to bake WELL,
not bake badly... No... bake well a tart.
You've got two and a half hours on this Bakewell tart challenge.
On your marks. Get set. BOTH: Bake.
I've never made a Bakewell tart.
I kind of know what it should look like.
It was my nan's favourite thing to make, really.
I have made Bakewell tarts before.
I quite like Bakewell tarts.
It is a Great British classic.
Some of them have struggled in technical challenges in the past,
but I think everybody should know what a Bakewell tart
should look like.
They really should and, I mean, they know about baking blind.
Most of them will have made frangipane in some form before,
they'll have done cakes with feather icing before,
it's putting all those skills together in one item.
Well, obviously, yours looks great.
So you've got a beautiful layer of icing, great frangipane...
No soggy bottom. Let's have a look. No soggy bottom there, Mary.
And a really thin layer of pastry.
It's beautiful, the almond flavour,
tartness coming from the jam,
crispiness from the base underneath. Hmm. Oh, so good.
Well done, Bezza. What was that about your diet?
Oh, yeah, there's not very many instructions here.
First step is - "Make a jam."
I'm just softening the raspberries first.
Second instruction - "Make a sweet shortcrust pastry."
I think there are people in the room who know how to make
a Bakewell tart, who have made it before.
I think the winners would be the... aged.
I'm sure someone like Val has made a Bakewell tart before.
Looking over, she seems quite determined.
That's the pastry made.
It's just going into the fridge for half an hour now.
The instructions say, "Make a frangipane."
MUTTERS: How do you make a frangipane?
I've never made a frangipane before.
I'm just doing it in the order that it is in the recipe.
It's a bit creative, I'm going to just kind of go with my gut.
But one baker has been going with their gut since the technical
challenge started.
SHE GASPS
I only thought there was one sheet and I've baked for the
first 15, 20 minutes with that sheet.
Gosh. Everything I've done, I've guessed.
So, rhetorical question - have you ever made a Bakewell tart before?
Yes. I make a different one and I make it every week.
You make a Bakewell tart every week? Yeah.
It feels really old-school, yeah. It's, like, retro kind of baking.
It's just classic and classy... Yeah... not old.
Classic and classy.
Classic and classy. There we go.
You're only allowed one teaspoon of almond. Ta-da!
I'd have put two in. Of course you would, Val.
What's a recipe for if not to just totally ignore? Yeah.
Good pastry, I think.
What do they say? "Line the tin with pastry."
I think Bakewell tarts have a thin pastry.
We're looking for about pound coin sickness.
I made it a bit thicker because I wanted to be able to get it
out of the flan dish.
Don't want a soggy bottom, so I'm just trying to make sure there are
no gaps, there are no holes.
I think, when Mary said she was looking for perfection,
the pastry case is going to be the thing that you see around the side.
She said, "Keep it cool,"
so, I'm going to, literally, get this back in the fridge.
I'm going to chill it down again.
"Make an icing, colour a small amount of icing pink, ice the top,
"decorate with traditional feather design."
I don't think Mary wants the pink icing neon.
Is that pink or red? BENJAMINA LAUGHS
So, next it says - "Bake."
So, I'm going to blind bake it.
I wouldn't normally bake it blind.
I'm just going to bake it a short while blind - five minutes.
90 minutes remaining.
It's not cooked yet, but I want to just take that off now.
This may be a bit on the thick side and a bit on the chewy side.
Coming out.
I'm happy with it, it's got a nice colour to it.
Edges have come away a little bit.
Well, that's not ideal.
I perhaps didn't pierce it quite enough.
"Fill the pastry case."
It doesn't say what with.
I know it's raspberry jam on the bottom and then the frangipane
on top, and then the icing.
Yeah, yeah. Yeah?
Quite nostalgic for me, this.
Have I not shown you my picture? Me and my nanny.
Oh, you've got your nan's glasses on. Yeah.
What about her Bakewell? It was a really, really good Bakewell.
It was weird cos mum texted me this morning saying,
"Your nan would be really proud."
I feel... Ohh. Yeah, so... Ohh.
We'll channel the nan. I am. Channel the spirit of the nan.
Go on, Margaret.
Bakers, I don't want to put you in a frangi-panic,
but you've only got an hour left.
I don't think I've rushed it.
I'm now going to pipe on my frangipane mix.
I'm not going to hit you, honestly.
It doesn't matter. At this stage, it would almost come as a blessing.
I knew there was going to be an issue.
See, what I didn't want was for the jam to mix with the frangipane
and that's exactly what's happened here.
OK, it's time to bake.
I'm going to start off with about 15 minutes.
I'm glad I got it in early - it's taking ages to cook.
RAV SIGHS
It's not looking very baked, but I'm not actually sure what the
top of it's meant to look like when it's baked.
Not enough time.
It's not cooking as...
Oh, my word, the oven wasn't on.
Ohh. What happened? The oven's not on.
CANDICE: What have you done? My oven's off. No.
What?! RAV: Oh, no.
That's unfortunate. I've been sat here for 15 minutes doing nothing.
Just 20 minutes remaining.
It's rising.
I like it gooey. It's just about cooked,
so I'm going to start fanning it.
Is mine the only one out?
I think she knows exactly what she's doing.
I'll be surprised if she doesn't come first.
It's coming out. It needs to cool down.
I don't have time.
There we go. I'm kind of assuming it'll now firm up.
We're going to go with that.
Hm...
A quick waft. It's never going to be cool!
We only need it to be cool enough to get the icing on.
We don't need it to be fully cooled down yet.
Just going to have to go for it, I'm afraid.
Benjamina, my love, time very much of the essence now.
Oh, come on.
Ooh, there she blows.
My hands are shaking.
Jane, cover your ears. Why?
OK, bakers, that's five minutes!
It's not working. Far too hot to be putting it on.
Gosh! It's all falling apart!
Bakewell tart is still hot. It's setting the icing.
Right, it's coming out.
It's definitely melting.
It's going to have to go on hot.
It's kind of collapsing.
Urgh!
What a state!
Stop. Just stop, Tom.
This is a disaster.
This couldn't have gone much more wrong.
OK, bakers. Time's up.
Oh, my God!
I'm missing a whole side!
Time to bring your Bakewells up to the chequered altar, please.
It's awful!
Pop them behind the photo of yourselves.
You know the drill.
'Paul and Mary are looking for a crispy pastry case,
'clearly defined layers of jam, frangipane, and feathered icing.'
Right, shall we start with this one then, Mary? Mm.
Ooh, it cuts well. It's a nice crispy bottom.
There's a layer of jam.
There is a layer of frangipane, which has risen up at the side.
It's a good flavour, too.
Moving on, there is feathering on the top.
Good colour on the pastry. Base is done OK.
And also, the pastry is the same thickness
on the bottom and up the sides.
It's neat enough, but the frangipane isn't quite done
and too much jam for me.
We've got a good colour in the pastry here.
The feathering is very, very close together,
so you don't get quite the effect
when you pull the cocktail stick through.
Pastry's good underneath. Nice and strong, Mary.
Good flavour. Tastes OK.
But the icing was put on while it was still warm.
Right, let's move on to number four.
Oh, dear. It's still on the base as well. Collapsed.
This is just goo.
There's a little bit too much jam, but it's a beautiful jam. Mm.
Moving on, it is baked, it is whole, looks quite thick.
A layer of jam, frangipane. You've got all the elements there.
It's still very warm, isn't it?
And of course, if you put that on warm,
you've had to put quite a lot of icing on there
in order to cover the whole thing.
This one hasn't got finished on the icing.
Probably cos they thought,
"I'm not putting it on cos it's too hot."
If I cut there, you look at that and go,
"Actually, that's not too bad." Nicely baked underneath.
Yeah. Taste is very good,
but we haven't got any icing on the top.
It's not on the top.
Right, moving on to this one. At least the icing's nice and level.
No feathering.
But we have a very good example of lovely, thin pastry,
beautifully baked.
Moving on to the last one -
I reckon you could stand on that, Mary, and it wouldn't break.
It's holding its own, as you would say. It is.
Right. There's your soggy bottom, Mary.
We had to wait a while for it.
The last one, yeah. And that pastry is raw.
Mary and Paul will now rate the Bakewell tarts
from the worst to the best.
In eighth place is this one.
That's me again.
Tasted OK, but looking like that, you just can't present it.
In seventh place, whose is this?
Your frangipane is running off the plate
and the pastry is rather thick.
MEL: In sixth place is Andrew,
fifth, Benjamina,
and fourth place, Tom.
And in third place...
We had a good pastry here. It was holding together.
In second place is this one.
Whose is this?
The pastry's OK. Watch the jam and the layers. Yeah.
But there is distinctive feathering in there and it is fairly level.
And in first place... THEY APPLAUD
Beautiful crust, good feathering,
the right proportion frangipane to raspberry jam
and when we cut it, it held together.
Well done. Thank you.
'I would love to have made a Bakewell tart as good as my nan.
'She's probably having'
a little bit of a laugh, going, "What are you doing, Candice?!"
First place - that extra experience carries you through
with some of these things.
I don't feel very good about it. I took mine out a bit too soon.
Really got to work hard tomorrow
and hope that will compensate for a soggy bottom.
Last for the third week in a row.
It's not a good place to be, really.
A miracle has to happen tomorrow for me to get through!
Tomorrow, I'll be checking my oven.
Pastry week seems to have divided the pack yet again.
It's the girls at the top. Jane has been right up there.
Candice, she's done well.
I think those two have pulled away and are in line for Star Baker.
I think the people in trouble are Benjamina...
Who, of course, was Star Baker last week
and has had a bit of a nightmare.
I think she got flustered and she got behind.
I worry about, I think, Val.
Tom in the Signature, it wasn't good at all.
We know that Rav's capable of delivering really good flavours.
Pastry has not, so far, been his forte.
I think Rav is really in trouble.
I think he's struggled for the last couple of weeks now.
Morning, bakers. Hearty welcome to Showstopper day.
Paul and Mary would very much like you to make
48 filo pastry amuse-bouches.
One savour batch, please. One sweet batch. 24 in each.
But the fillings must be delicious. Of course!
Who'd make an un-delicious filling on a Bake Off?!
Exactly! You've got four hours.
On your marks... Get set... Bake! Bake!
Filo pastry is notoriously difficult to make.
I've made it a couple of times in the past
and it hasn't always turned out right.
First time I made filo pastry was about 35 years ago.
And I thought, "This is no joke!" And I never made it again!
Filo pastry is difficult, but it's not impossible.
It's about stretching that dough.
The trick is to get it wafer, wafer-thin,
so that when you hold it up, you can almost see through it.
Now, that's just the filo.
This isn't a main course - this is amuse-bouche.
We've got to be bite-size and I know I've got a big mouth,
but I'm talking inch and a half max.
It's actually quite a basic dough recipe.
But it's all in the way that you work it
and the amount of time that you allow it to rest.
Rav's planning to find a whole hour
to rest the dough for his Chinese prawn tartlets
and his spiced white chocolate samosas.
I still think I am going home.
It would be nice if I can somehow survive.
Good morning, Val. Good morning, Paul.
Tell us all about your filo amuse-bouches.
I'm going into the Christmas season a bit early.
Val's making goat's cheese and caramelised onion tartlets,
which will be delivered
along with Santa's sacks filled with boozy mincemeat.
How are you going to be doing this? As a cup? As a parcel?
The savoury is going to be as a cup.
It will be two mouthfuls. I'm hoping that will be OK.
When you say two mouthfuls, Val, what size are we talking?
Not Yorkshire gobfuls. OK.
Jane's also aiming for something a little more refined than a gobful.
I'm wrapping filo around these.
They've got to be neat, so they mustn't unravel
and they mustn't look raggedy round the top and the bottom.
Jane's making Roquefort, walnut and fig parcels
and morello cherry and chocolate truffle-filled filo cones.
Her dough will need to be the perfect consistency
to wrap around her moulds.
If it's too sloppy, it shrinks and then it looks horrible.
It's all about getting the texture of this right
to get the finish of these right.
Whilst Jane and most of the other bakers
are hoping to keep their dough firm...
It feels amazing.
..Tom and Andrew prefer things a little... wetter.
My filo is quite a slack mix, I find it easier to stretch.
It comes with its downfalls, but I prefer it.
Andrew's slack dough will encase spicy squash and chorizo
and will also be the foundation of his take on a classic baklava.
When it cools, it does firm up.
It's not quite this liquidy when it comes to stretching it.
Baklava is the very reason that the tricky filo pastry exists...
..and perfecting it is a 700-year-old royal calling.
It's was in the 13th century in the Ottoman sultan's kitchens
that the royal chefs developed filo
and in this bakery in north London,
they're still making it the very same way.
This is amazing.
It's like a sort of hospital, in a good way.
How are you doing, Ahmet?
Very good. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you too. I'm Mel.
Listen, can I get stuck in? Sure.
Following a traditional recipe called yufka,
which in Turkish means "fragile",
multiple sheets of pastry are wrapped onto a long rolling pin
and stretched out before being separated, floured and rolled again.
It's like muslin, isn't it? It is not ready yet. Really?
When it is ready, I can see through. Oh, really? Yeah.
How do I start? Just try.
SHE CHORTLES
You're getting there, don't worry.
Well done.
It's gone wrinkly.
That's OK. No, it's not good.
The process of creating filo was such a skill
that the number of sheets became a sign of wealth,
with grand households demanding a minimum of 100 layers.
Looking for exciting ways to serve the pastry,
baklava was created by the sultan's kitchen,
sandwiching pistachio between the filo
before sprinkling it with butter.
The baklava is sliced and baked.
This process now, you're putting this amazing syrup on the top...
Yeah... to create the baklava disco
and is that just sugar and water in there?
Yes. How much sugar do you actually get through a month? Two tonnes.
That's a lot of sugar, Ahmet.
As the Ottoman Empire grew,
the sultan captured slaves to become part of his army.
Every Ramadan,
the royal kitchen prepared hundreds of trays of baklava
carried on poles with knotted clothes
in what was known as the Baklava Procession.
This sweet delicacy was a gift for their service
and by accepting this tribute, they pledged loyalty to the sultan
and to their taste buds.
The Ottoman Empire crumbled in 1922.
Luckily, the baklava didn't and can still be found
wherever the sultan's influence had spread.
Talking of which, this is quite a spread, guys.
I ordered ten trays?
Lovely, thanks. One, two, three, four.
Yeah, just put the others down there. That's great.
Having chosen to make a wet filo dough...
It's going to rest for at least half an hour.
..Tom is also taking a gamble with his fillings.
My flavours are risky, especially the savoury one,
but I always want to just push it.
In his filo cups, Tom will combine strips of sirloin steak
with a spicy chocolate mousse
and wine-poached pears with ginger.
That's meat? That's meat in cocoa powder
with a little bit of chilli powder.
I thought those were very flat brownies.
When it comes out, what are you going to do with it?
It'll be very thinly sliced,
so you should get the nice char on the outside
and the beautiful pink middle.
Yeah. You've really thought this all through. Yeah.
Just giving it a good squeeze together to make sure I can kind of
see the distribution and see if I need a bit more sausage.
It's good to get your hands in and give your sausages a good squeeze.
Candice is aiming for a taste of Scotland
with her sausage and black pudding apples,
paired with banoffee and whisky cups.
How have you got on with your filo pastries?
I'm actually using a pasta machine to roll it through.
A girl after my own heart, you see. Not too much work.
Have you got enough black pudding?
You know what, I'm not sure, actually. What do you think?
Feel the weight of that, Mary.
You're only making 24, you know.
This is my plantain, so it will be quite sweet
and that will balance out with the chilli and the saltiness.
Benjamina's fried plantain will be blended with spinach
for her filo samosas to go with her pear cups with creme patissiere
flavoured with chai tea.
Where does the influence come from? I'm Nigerian.
We eat this with everything. Do you?
I thought, make it a bit more sophisticated,
an amuse-bouche, so, yeah.
SHE LAUGHS My mum will be happy to see it.
I'm making my coffee creme pat, so it's got egg yolks, sugar,
milk, vanilla...
..coffee.
Selasi's coffee cream cups will be topped with a single praline
and his savoury will have individual spears of asparagus
wrapped in Parma ham and filo.
Simplicity is good.
Simplicity is very good.
But once the fillings have been prepared...
I know this is saying it a bit too early,
but I might actually have some time to spare.
..this Showstopper gets rather complicated.
To deliver the filo's classic crispiness...
..from the middle.
..the bakers will have to stretch their delicate rested dough
as thinly as possible.
That's got some little lumps of flour in it,
which is a bit annoying.
And they can use any technique they like.
My method of stretching is to just put it over my knuckles.
Probably change halfway through.
I'm going to roll it out as thin as I can using the rolling pin
and when I can't roll it out any more with the rolling pin,
I'll start stretching it with my hands.
Like a pizza.
The thing is, it tears quite easily.
This is an idea I got off of the internet.
It's just a piece of broom handle.
Clean, brand-new.
If you pull it and stretch it
and then stretch it onto the rolling pin,
it helps to stretch it, apparently.
I'll try anything to get this stuff thin.
That's not thin enough.
It was hurting my shoulder to roll out so much,
so I thought I'd give it a go
and I was actually really pleased with how it turned out.
It is almost the right thickness.
Let's see if you can read a bottle of alcohol through it.
Yeah, you can almost, can't you? It is time-consuming.
MEL: But once the bakers think their filo is thin enough...
Nice and thin.
..the Showstopper gets even harder to handle.
It's awful.
It's fiddly and foldy.
The bakers need to create
tiny, bite-sized, identical amuse-bouches...
That still seems a bit wide.
..with the most delicate pastry there is...
It is being uncooperative at the moment.
..48 times.
I am putting butter in-between each layer
so that the layers crisp up and stay separate.
I've never heard the tent this quiet.
Everyone's just on it,
cos we know time has not been our friend in this tent.
45 minutes remaining.
I'm very jealous of that pastry. Why's that?
It's a lot better than my pastry. That's beautiful. Thanks.
My savoury - rolling them into sort of ball shapes.
There is a bit of a danger,
filling it with a slightly wet filling,
that it can come through.
As you can see on some of the earlier ones,
they've fallen victim to that, but I'm going to bake them anyway.
A wing and a prayer.
Or not, as the case may be.
For six minutes, they are there, then I will check it.
Sorry!
Oh! Argh!
OK, bakers, you've got half an hour left on this.
They look done.
Got a nice colour to them.
I think they're done. Nice.
That was meant to happen.
I'm looking for it to be medium rare/rare.
Val, how's it going, my lovely? Awful!
No, why? Yes! Because look at that disaster.
Ooh. It's so fine. I didn't put enough cornflour between it.
Have you seen any John Carpenter films?
Damn!
Right, I'm just going to take these out now.
I left my cherry jam in there to cool and I've actually frozen it.
I was so calm earlier.
Bakers, five minutes left on your mighty bouches.
Five minutes left. I'm going to put these in.
These are better baked than not baked. In.
It's gone medium rare.
This is a medium rare, but that'll be fine.
No-one's going to spit that out, put it that way.
They're looking really nice. I'm quite pleased with them.
This is the final push. I've got my final samosas in the oven.
Look, it's just going like that.
This is messy.
Better get these on a board.
There, I'm actually done.
Still got a few minutes to spare.
Do you need a hand, Jane? Could you? Thank you so much, Selasi.
Nope, not ready.
OK, bakers, that's it, time's up.
Candice, stop fiddling. Leave your balls alone.
There you go. It felt crisp.
I left it in there a lot longer than I would have.
Oh, what a mess.
Wow, I'm going home.
Oh, well.
It's judgment time for the filo amuse-bouches.
They're the right size. They look appetising.
Let's try one of these, then.
The plantain, such a nice flavour inside.
It tastes delicious.
That little bit of heat in there as well. Bit of chilli.
It's just enough.
That's good. Lovely combination.
The flavours of the chai come through beautifully with the pear.
Nice and crispy on the shell. I like them. Thank you.
MEL: Are you all right there? Yeah.
Whoo-whoo!
It's got the asparagus and the meat and that's pretty much it, really.
It's quite dry.
All those flavours - a beautiful marriage.
The cases should have a bit more butter,
just to make it that gorgeous golden-brown colour.
Because they're so tiny,
you've got to get some very piquant flavour in there
and you've got it.
Move on to these.
A deconstructed baklava is what you have there. It tastes beautiful.
Oh, thank you.
It just looks a bit, in Mary's words...
ALL: "Informal."
It's gone on a night out, I think.
Yeah.
Secondly, they're too big.
A 50p piece is what you need to be looking at.
The meat is a lovely flavour.
I don't know that I recognise it's chocolate, but it's good.
For me, it doesn't go. It's too bitter.
This is the sweet one.
Even though it's so pale, it's beautifully crisp.
You can feel the pears, the texture,
but the ginger just overwhelms everything.
A little bit disappointed, if I'm honest.
These look fantastic.
You were very brave to do something totally different with filo pastry.
However, that's not an amuse-bouche.
It's too big. Oh, OK.
I do like the look of these. The size is good, they feel crispy.
It's absolutely delicious.
The overwhelming flavour is the Roquefort,
which is not a bad thing.
You do get the cured meat in there as well.
Right, choose your weapon, Mary.
They taste amazing. OK. I don't need to eat that.
All the flavour was in my mouthful, that's it. That is wasted.
I'm getting the chocolate,
I'm getting the cream, getting the cherry.
It's all in that one mouthful.
It's absolutely beautiful, but just too much of it.
Oh, OK, thank you.
Sadly, there are only 12 mincemeat parcels.
The rest were still in the oven.
Time management was probably an issue.
Overall, they're too big.
No.
They're underdone.
The onion has seeped into the pastry and not cooked.
OK, let's have a look at the sweet one.
It's very thick. Straight away, you can feel that.
Wow, OK. I know.
This really does look more like shortcrust pastry
than filo, I'm afraid.
Filling's good. The only decent thing to eat on it.
I think I agree.
Excellent filling, but the pastry's too thick.
First of all, I think they look fantastic.
They're all the same size,
the way it's been displayed, ten out of ten.
Thank you very much. Let's get tasting.
Sausage meat, black pudding and apple.
You've managed to carry through flavours in there
and in the shape that you were trying to create
and get it crispy as well is extremely difficult.
That's spot-on, that. That's really nice.
Thank you very much.
Right, banoffee.
That's scrumptious. It really is lovely.
Again, thank you very much.
That is delicious. Thank you.
(Star Baker!)
(Well done!)
(Brilliant!)
They look beautifully proportioned, good colour.
All they've got to do now is taste good.
I hope they taste good, mate, cos they do look good.
This is the prawn Chinese-style, isn't it? Yes.
Straight in.
That's just the sort of surprise I like before a meal.
They taste beautiful.
For my sweet, I've got spiced white chocolate and hazelnut samosas.
Those, too, beautifully proportioned,
good flavour, lovely.
Thanks. Well done, Rav. Thanks.
We started with Jane and Candice ahead of the pack. Still the case?
Candice, those banoffees, they were to die for
and, of course, Jane's done very well.
Her flavours were so good.
Rav came into the last challenge in a bit of trouble,
but these are beautiful.
Has he done enough? He was way down, wasn't he?
To be honest, I think both Benjamina and Rav have both done enough.
The two people left are Val and Tom.
Val's were far too big.
But the worst thing is we only had half of what we asked for
and they're raw.
Tom, there's no shape to them, but the flavour's just way off base.
Are you thinking along the same lines?
We're agreeing totally. Are you? Mm-hm. That's a first.
And I'm going to race you to one of Benjamina's triangles.
I thought you were taking those home. Not any more.
Bakers, what a weekend.
I get the great job - I get to announce Star Baker.
Star Baker this week took the high road
while others perhaps took the lower road.
Goodness, gracious, great balls of pig -
Candice, you're our Star Baker. MEL: Whoo!
APPLAUSE
Now, my job gets harder every week,
but as you know, we can't take everyone into next week,
so the person not coming with us is...
..Val.
Come on, Val.
I've reached my limit.
I love Val, her character was fantastic in the tent.
She really buoyed everybody up every week.
'A great baker, without a shadow of a doubt,
'but this was not her week.'
Who are you going to have to torment you now?
LAUGHING: You did well, though.
When I chatted to her afterwards, she said,
"I've so enjoyed being here, but that's as far as I can go."
When you bake, you always bake for a reason
and you're giving it to people,
so you make it the best you can and you make it with love.
Whenever I make anything, I stir love into it,
I knead love into it,
so when I present it, it's special.
I'm not unhappy. I've had a great time with some great people.
And - phew! - I didn't expect it.
I didn't expect to ever get here,
never mind be on it.
Val was just a really positive presence in the tent.
She'd come up with little games for us to play in-between bakes.
Today, she was reading a 1977 shopping receipt
and having us guess the prices.
I think if Val had got all 48 out, I think it'd be me going.
Got a little bit of survivor syndrome, I think, this week.
I'm like the comeback kid, it seems.
Whenever something goes wrong,
there's always something that goes right.
I wasn't surprised that Candice won Star Baker.
I'd have put my life savings on it.
I haven't got any.
Ah! Well done!
I thought it was Jane's, I really did.
That's amazing. It means a lot, it really, really does.
Next time... Grr!
..the bakers get green-fingered...
I wish I'd chosen fresh flowers now.
..in the first-ever botanical week.
Tastes like elderflowers. I just can't tell any more.
But will their meringue pies...
Good, makes you go...
..leave a bitter taste?
That's a little bit too soft.
Will anyone bake a technically perfect herby bread?
That is not cooked.
And who will blossom... I've got no chance.
..in the floral cake Showstopper...
It's beautiful. Absolutely cracked it.
..in the closest... It's not cooked, man.
..Bake Off yet?
I've never been so stressed about dough in my life.