Pastry Week is one of my favorites on The Great British Bake Off, not least because pastry is probably one of the finest food inventions ever and it all looks so delicious. (My very favorites are enclosed pastries—that is, everything from samosas to empanadas to Cornish pasties. Yum.)
Of course, the other thing about this week is that it’s guaranteed to have tension as everyone tries to create pastry—which thrives in cold temperatures—in what is always a hot tent (made hotter by nervous, sweaty hands). And this season’s Pastry Week has an added frisson of danger: Due to Tasha being ill last week, we’ll be saying goodbye to two contestants at the end of this episode.
On that cheery note, let’s bake!
Signature
Rowan tells us in the opening that he never feels confident about anything in his life (including pastry), which makes me sad from the off. Rowan, if you’re reading, you’re amazing and your shirts are stunning and you should be confident because you’re fab.
Anyway…this week’s first challenge is to make 12 savory picnic pies from hot water crust pastry. This involves pouring boiling water into fat to make the base of the dough. Paul wants punchy flavors and a beautiful bit of crimping on the lid.
There’s a variety of flavors going on in the tent. For the meat lovers, you’ve got Tasha, Nicky, Rowan and Josh making pies that basically amount to sausage with another flavoring or two. I’m salivating over the sound of Dana’s potato dauphinoise pie (carbs on carbs), which she describes as a “bit classy, a bit elegant, a bit like myself.” I love Dana. Paul asks her if what she’s making is basically a pithivier, which is a hint of what’s to come.
Matty’s pie also sounds great; he says it’s a ricotta, feta, and garlic pie. It is, in fact, a spanakopita pie, but Matty is very sweetly not confident over his pronunciation, although he masters it by the end of the task. Saku’s spicy tuna picnic pies, which have a quail’s egg in the middle, sound lovely, although she’s making them less spicy than she would for her family because, well. I don’t like to speculate.
Pastry-making is full of places where the contestants can trip up. In pursuit of making an enriched dough, Nicky scrambles her mixture when she adds her egg to a too-hot water and flour base. Dan’s also forgotten to switch his oven on, while Dana’s is so hot that puffs of air billow out when she opens the doors to put her pies in. A lot of people are having trouble crimping the edges of their pastry lids, and everyone’s having an internal debate over how much filling to put in: too much and the pie will overspill, too little and you’ll get an air pocket and they’ll be dry.
Cristy is the first person to be overcome by pastry; she’s crying as her pies come out of the oven because she thinks there’s been a bit of leakage. Where’s Alison to give her a comforting hug? She gets Noel and a pat on the shoulder instead. And in the end, she has nothing to worry about; during judging Prue says the creamy sauce holds the whole thing together, while Paul thinks they’re beautifully moist inside and crispy on the outside. She gets the second Hollywood handshake of the season!
Rowan’s pies are also not quite as disastrous as he thinks. Sure, he’s got soggy bottoms and one of his pies loses its bottom completely in the tin, but overall the judges think the pastry is a hit taste and texture wise.
Tasha, who I’m glad to see looking well in the tent this week after she was ill in the previous episode, has good color on the pie and they seem really well filled. Prue likes the pastry and thinks the mustard bottom, which she’d never have thought of herself, is a “little mark of genius.”
The dry pie club’s members include Dan and Josh, who both produce good flavors in crumbly-ish pastry. Saku’s pastry hasn’t worked, but her filling is great, while Matt’s spanakopita has strong flavors, according to Prue. Dana’s look really appetizing, says Prue, and while Paul is critical of the pastry, he likes the flavor.
Nicky, who has gone for maximalism with a sausage, ham, and saucisson pie with five different cheeses, has both a slightly undercooked pastry and an undercooked filling. Her assessment of how the task went? “Absolute bag of pants,” says Nicky. She’s got a way with words.
Technical
Paul sets this week’s technical: to make a decadent dauphinoise pithivier. So this has worked out for Dana, who made a version of this for her first challenge.
They have two hours and 45 minutes to create the classic French pie, which they’ll make using rough puff. This quick version of puff pastry is made by putting cold butter between layers of dough, then folding and rolling to create a puff effect. Some of the bakers seem really confident, including Dana (unsurprising). But others, such as Nicky and Josh are putting their grated butter into their flour mixture itself, which is, well, wrong. I can tell you now: They’re not going to have risen pies.
Dan, who knows what he’s doing when it comes to the recipe, manages to rip his knuckles while grating butter. He gets blood in his pastry, which means he has to start again. (He’s fine apart from this.) Meanwhile, Matty is confused over what scalloping the edges means, and if I’m honest I don’t really know how scalloping differs from crimping. The scalloping doesn’t make much difference to Rowan, who pulls his pie out of the oven and declares that he’s seen neater poos than his pithivier, which is quite the comparison. Truly, this group of contestants are poets.
At judgment time, it’s domes versus frisbees, depending on how well the pies have risen or not. Paul describes the pithiviers as an “eclectic mix” when he sees them. The pastry has proved a challenge for many bakers, but what surprises me is how many of them have managed to also serve up raw/undercooked potato.
In last place is Nicky, whose pie is too flat and doesn’t have any crumble. Josh is second last with a too pale and flat pie. Second is Dana, whose pie looks pretty, has a good color, and tastes nice. Dan, despite his injury, comes in first with a lovely pithivier which, according to Paul, “tastes delicious and looks very professional.”
Showstopper
As we go into the final challenge, Pastry Week has been a step up from chocolate week for Paul. Dan, Cristy, and Tasha are on the star baker track, while Nicky, Saku (noooooo), Josh, and Rowan are in the danger zone.
To save themselves, they’ll have to put their best display of decorative sweet pies forward. The judges want at least three ornate pies, each made of a rich, sweet pastry case. Prue asks for at least two different fillings across the three pies, and Paul wants some lattice work or plaiting. Prue thinks it’s legitimate to dye some of the pastries, and Paul wants pies brought out of their foil cases or baking tins, and he wants a beautiful crumble when you bite into it.
There are some really lovely inspirations this week. Josh is celebrating his late grandmother, who always encouraged him to apply for Bake Off. After she died, it took him another year to do so, and here he is with us now. It’s also, on the day of this task, two years since Josh’s nan passed away, which adds an extra poignancy to his bake. He’s making a sunflower with pineapple and apricot flavored pies for the flowers, and apple, blackberry and coconut pies for the leaves. I’ve never wanted any pies to succeed more.
Nicky is also making a pie display inspired by her nan; she’s gone for three different flavors of apple and pear, plum, and frangipane, and rhubarb and custard. Tasha’s pies are inspired by her love of skiing and the sea, and on the signpost pie she’s going to place tiny dough hands spelling out her favorite places in British sign language.
Other inspirations are less touching…such as Rowan’s Absolutely Fabulous pie, in which he’ll place painted dough versions of the characters from his favorite TV show on his pies. You do you, Rowan.
The contestants start with blind baking their pastry. If they bake for too long at this stage, they might get a pastry that dries out too much, whereas if they don’t bake enough, they’ll have a soggy bottom. (A confession: Blind baking pastry has never worked for me. I use baking beans, greaseproof paper, and a high temperature and still get soggy bottoms. If anyone knows what I’m doing wrong, please tell me.)
Chocolate Week holds the crown for messiest week, but pastry week is also a bit of a disaster: Dana’s pies look like they’re bleeding, Dan’s oven is a mess, and Rowan’s oven looks like a crime scene. Worse, Rowan can’t get two of his pies out of their baking tins, even when Alison tries to help; it’s either leave them in and keep them whole, or take them out and have them fall to pieces. He wisely (maybe) goes with the former.
Going into the judging, Josh’s sunflower looks stunning, and Cristy’s display is also pretty good. Prue calls Josh’s a “work of art,” and after tasting Paul says the display is what the judges have been looking for. Cristy’s display is deemed “sensational” by Prue, and Paul is amazed by her raspberry and frangipane pie in particular. All her flavors are great and her pies are baked nicely. After her bad Chocolate Week, it’s great to see Cristy doing so well.
Tasha’s pies could have done with a glaze, according to Paul, to make them look more polished, but two of her three pies taste great; it’s only her blueberry and chestnut pie that is wet inside and has a pastry that’s like cake.
Dan’s been having a good week, but while his showstopper design looks good, there’s something wrong with each of his three pies. The chocolate crust doesn’t work on one, his grapes are too subtle in another, and the fruit textures of his third pie aren’t quite right.
Dana’s baklava pie is delicious but very rich and sweet for Prue, while her mulled wine apple pie is the complete opposite; Paul looks like he’s having a heart attack because it’s so sour. One of Matty’s pies has a raw top and another is collapsing, but one has turned out well. Saku’s display is simple and fresh, says Prue, and while the fruit is quite raw in some, her apple pie does the trick.
And now to Rowan and Nicky, who have had the hardest week. Two of Rowan’s pies are a collapsing mess, while the third is solid. Rowan is gone for sure this episode. Nicky’s apple, pear, and hazelnut pie is dry and the pastry on her rhubarb, custard, and ginger pie is too thick. She does have a good frangipane and plum pie, but I don’t think it’s enough to save her.
In the pre-results discussion, Prue says she thought Rowan’s pies were “so awful,” while Paul thinks Dana lost her edge, and Saku and Nicky are still in trouble. Josh and Cristy are both doing pretty well; Josh’s showstopper was stunning, but I’m not sure it’s enough to net him star baker after his previous two tasks.
And I’m right! Cristy was much more consistent over the three tasks and takes the top spot. Leaving the tent are Nicky and Rowan, which is expected but still very sad. Both have been real personalities in the tent (and Rowan began filming while he was still finishing his degree, so props to him) and so fun and positive in the face of baking disaster.
Next up: Botanical Week. (Yeah, I don’t know either.)
Stray observations
- Alison and Noel reveal they text each other at night, and I don’t need to know any more, thanks.
- Soggy bottom jokes: Given that it’s Pastry Week, and Alison’s first season presenting, there were hardly any soggy bottom jokes. In fact, I’ve probably made more inadvertently in this recap. Yes, I’m embarrassed.
- This episode deserves its A rating. It had interesting challenges, high highs, and low lows, and was the first time I felt like I really knew everyone in the tent.