So it was ‘Bread week’ in The Great British bake off this week. It started with fresh looking Mel and Sue, as enthusiastic as ever, asking all the bakers to make a Quick Bread. These are breads without yeast made with baking powder or bicarb, which sounds more like a cake to me!
Anyways they all start swiftly. Matt and Nadiya chose similar Mexican flavours, while others used all sorts of cheese and even a bit of pesto. Looks like pesto has become more popular since Norman Calder made it exotic in last year’s Bake Off!
The breads started to take shape but frankly speaking none of them sounded or looked very appetising. The ones I would like to try would be Ian’s wild garlic pesto bread and Paul’s cranberry and orange sweet soda bread. The judges seemed to like those too. Baker Paul got a handshake from Paul, which was a great start for him this week.
Baguettes were this week’s technical challenge. No one had made these before of course other than, I have an Aga at home, Flora.
None of the ten contestants really managed to get a perfect batch. The recipe as usual is not detailed and Matt seemed very worried when he looks around the tent and finds that his dough is not as wet as everyone else’s. He had not used all the water in the recipe, which seems like a big mistake to me. Paul is last in this challenge and Ian comes first.
Turn of the showstopper- Bread Sculpture. It sounded like a great challenge, both for the bakers and the viewers. Tamal was making a Breadcycle, which sounded great and he was able to pull it off too. Ian made the first flower vase of bake off according to Mel. He put in a lot of thought and effort into the design and was able to execute it very well.
But the real star of the show was Paul’s Lion. When he describeed it to the judges I had my doubts of how he will pull it off, but he clearly did! I am sure it was the first lion of the tent. Paul said it was one of the best things he had ever seen in bread, which really says something! It looked like a true showstopper.
Dorret surprisingly had never tried her bread sculpture before and it did not go to plan. So it was her turn to go home this week. She just didn’t have a good time in the tent and was lucky to have survived this long.
It was time for star baker but it was not Paul, who got a handshake for the quick bread and made a showstopper which Paul had never seen before, but Ian who made the flower vase.
Clearly Paul deserved the star baker but instead he got a special commendation and a pointless round of applause. Well we’ll have to wait and see if he manages a star baker another week, till then keep baking!
Watching the GBBO is very nostalgic for me and reminds me of all the fun times we had in the tent and in the year since then. You can find out about my Life since the Great British Bake Off on Kent Life.
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Food with Chetna
Recently the lovely Kate Henry visited me to do some exciting baking for Food with Chetna. You can see what we were upto on the YouTube Channel.
Don’t forget to subscribe to see what else Kate and I baked when we got together!
I’m so happy to have found your website, Chetna. I have always wanted to try your Pine Nut and Onion Soda Bread. Have you published the recipe here? I’m not able to find it if you have. Thanks very much!