Just desserts?

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We are in week 4 of The Great British Bake Off already and its dessert week! Its summer time which can only mean one thing- Loads of rain! The bakers were tasked with making 12 identical crème brûlée. I do like a nice crème brûlée and just like Mary, I don’t have a blow torch.

Mat made coconut and lime, which I loved the sound of, but unfortunately they didn’t turn out as planned. Sandy tried liquorice flavour, which ended up tasting good but as a soup!  On the other hand Ugne’s marula liquier custard turned out good.

Alvin’s vanilla and blackberry did not sound special to me and Paul, or as he is now also known as Sir Paul, thought it doesn’t work. Ian baked with pomegranate molasses, which surprisingly Paul has never tried before and he didn’t like the taste of them either.

Nadiya’s cinnamom tea and jam worked well and so did Tamal’s rhubarb and ginger. Baker Paul had a disaster with scrambled eggs and Flora spent too much time making things that don’t count and the thing that counts, the crème brûlée, didn’t really set properly.

Sandy again provided a bit of humour with her wobble dance. She is the only funny character in the tent other than Mel and Sue.

And then came the dreaded technical challenge – Spanish wind torte, and like the bakers in the tent I had never heard or seen one myself. Nadiya informed us that the instructions said- make this and make that and not much else. No surprises there then! Everyone tried their best to guess what the finished bake needs to look like.

Sandy went one step further and broke a very fine looking flat meringue disc to shape it, which worried Sue a lot. The results came in and Alvin was last whereas Paul came first which took him by surprise.

This week’s show stopper was a 3 Tiered Cheesecake. Personally I don’t see much point of making a tiered cheesecake, but then the 3 tiered pie showstopper we did last year was also not something people really make at home.

It all looked good for Ian with the trio of spicy and herby cheesecakes which turn out to be pretty delicious too. Tamal used some lovely flavours too and yes I heard the word Mango in there! I absolutely love mango, my favourite fruit of all time. His bakes looked stunning. I also love a bit of caramel work. Check out the video at the bottom of this blog for some interesting caramel work.

chetna caramel GBBO

Alvin’s bakes looked clumsy and Paul’s ended up over baked and dry. This put both Alvin and Paul in danger.

Nadiya had some great ideas about decorating the cake, using kids party as a theme for the flavours and impressed the judges with the creativity. Ugne made lime, coconut and hazelnut cheesecakes which were baked well but that cream cheese frosting was a bit over the top. Sometimes less is more I think.

Sandy tried very hard and had a good cosmopolitan theme, which Sue called ‘meditation on immigration’. But she was unable to stack the cheesecakes and they were not cooked either, she clearly was in danger there.

Flora was the only one making 3 tiers of the same cheesecake which she still managed to over bake. Mat made honeycomb, coconut and peanut butter cheesecake which all sounded super and he managed to bake and finish them well making a good save this time.

So sadly it was Sandy who said her goodbyes this week and even managed to joke through her tears. She really did make me laugh and I will miss her in the tent.

The star baker went to Ian again! No doubt he did really well but I can’t ignore that there are some other great bakes being made in that tent. As a viewer it seems that it could have easily gone to Tamal, he didn’t even get a special round of applause which Paul managed to get last week.

tamal cheesecake illustration

Well anyways its ‘free from’ week next time and I am looking forward to seeing what the bakers come up with.

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Matcha and lime Swiss roll

I have been writing recipes for Standard Issue for a while. Standard Issue is a smart and witty online magazine for women by women, covering everything that interests women – i.e. everything.

I made Matcha and lime Swiss roll for Standard Issue recently. One of my favourite moments in the Bake Off tent was the very first bake I made in there. It was a cardamom, coffee and pistachio Swiss roll, which got great feedback. So I thought it’d be nice to make another Swiss roll, which is packed with flavours.

This matcha sponge is light and airy (matcha is powdered green tea), filled with lime and fresh cream, to give it a refreshing flavour. Top this with fresh strawberry and chopped pistachio to give it a great finish and crunch. You can find the recipe here.

SI swiss roll collageFood with Chetna

I made this delicious creamy No Bake Cheesecake with the lovely Kate Henry. It has a biscuit base and salted caramel sauce running through. The sesame brittle layering gives it an amazing crunchy texture in the middle and gorgeous flavours.

Hope you like trying these. remember to subscribe to Food with Chetna for more exciting recipes and ideas.

2 thoughts on “Just desserts?”

  1. A German colleague who’s a notorious foodie has never heard of the Spanische Windtorte. There’s nothing about it on the German-language Web, it only appears in English recipe books and databases. All in all, it’s a structured Eton mess 🙂

    Reply
  2. Do you publish any other of your recipes from the Great British Bake Off? My Mrs was looking for something you did in episode 7 of series 5. She followed some links to recipes from this particular programme, but they didn’t seem to go anywhere useful…

    Reply

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