The semi-finals are upon us and with only 4 bakers left who will step it up to win the title for this season of bake-off? This week sees the remaining Great British Bale Off stars test their French skills in Patisserie week!
The first challenge this week is a puff pastry challenge to send the most experienced baker’s legs to jelly, palmiers are small puff pastry treats which can be sweet or savoury and delicately baked.
The bakers need to focus on getting a tasty filling in their palmier but also avoiding making their bake too wet from the filling itself. The remaining contestants have to bake 12 of 2 different flavours and shaped of palmier tasting great and looking uniform, who managed to step up to the challenge?
Unfortunately Jane’s palmiers were underbaked and her fillings were a bit too oily meaning her bakes were a little bit too soft! Candice’s bakes had exceptional flavour and were well baked but her caramelised onion flavoured palmier had too much filling and lost the traditional look which it should have had. Selasi left it too late getting his bakes into the oven and unfortunately this meant his pastries were underbaked and soft. Andrew, even though his first pastry didn’t work and needed to be redone, finished the bake on time and produced a great set of palmier with great flavour, salvaging a great bake from a very shaky start.
The technical challenge for the semifinal is a Savarin, a type of yeasted cake with orange liquor used to keep the texture moist. This challenge is about getting great flavour, texture and an exquisite presentation to really earn their place in the final 3. Candice’s cake was overbaked but her presentation was good, placing her 3rd. Andrew’s cake was underprooved but still looked great placing him second. Selasi had a poor presentation on his cake and overbaked it leaving him 4th and Jane’s looked great and was well baked meaning she took first this week.
The final bake to secure a position in the final of GBBO series 7 are fondant fancies. The bakers need to make 18 of two different flavours. The semi-finalists need to concentrate on a glossy bakes with very perfectly straight sides on them and a delicate Genoese sponge, no easy feat. Candice’s filled fancies look okay but, tasted great and her surprise filling really worked. Selasi worked incredibly hard to finish his showstopper on time after deciding to redo his sponge, his fancies were a bit too small though and the flavour was a bit too sweet for the judges liking. Jane didn’t do a crumb coat on her Genoese and this meant her presentation didn’t look as good as it should do but the flavour was good. Andrew’s fondant fancies looked fantastic and had great flavours to carry on his good form from the last couple of weeks!
At the end of patisserie week, we have to say goodbye to a very unfortunate baker who doesn’t make it into the final of next week and give one baker the morale boost going into the final as they will be the star baker!
The star baker this week, after a fantastic few weeks is Andrew with some great bakes. Unfortunately though, the cool, calm and collected Selasi was the baker who missed out making it into the series final.
Next week will be the toughest challenge yet or the final three of Jane, Andrew and Candice, who will take this year’s crown?
