Bake Off Episode 3 Series 6

This week ten bakers baking.  Having read back to my blogs on the first two episodes, I realise this is an incredibly boring subject and written because I am not in the mood to write, but I have started so I shall finish

My favourites are Mat the fireman from Kent and Nadiya, a full time mum from Leeds.  My least favourite is Paul the humourless Prison Governor from Wales. 

Challenge 1
Quick bread 
To me quick bread would mean nipping to the Coop for a loaf, but to Paul Hollywood it is bread raised with a raising agent other than yeast

Along with the dough raising agent, there are a few eyebrow raising ingredients.  Flora's rye and fig bread might not work.  Dorret has taken the ingredients from a waldorf salad and is putting them in a bread - walnut, sultanas and blue cheese. Tamal has also gone for figs, his is with goats cheese - on bread yes, just not sure it goes together in bread.  Alvin has a mediterranean theme - manchego cheese and prosciutto.  Pick a country and stick to it Alvin, none of this wandering across borders.  Paul has gone for orange and cranberries.  There seem to be a lot of cranberries in recipes this year.  Has the cranberry marketing board got at Mary?  Ugne's bread has chocolate. I love chocolate, but I don't like the sound of it in a bread.  Sue tells us that soda bread must not be kneaded, as the camera pans to Mat and Nadiya kneading their soda bread.  

The judging proved Sue right, Mat's bread was not crumbly enough and Nadiya's looked too much like yeast bread.  Ugne's chocolate bread worked surprisingly well, as did Flora's blend of flours and the addition of figs.  Dorret's lumps of stilton could have been bigger for more of a flavour.  Paul's bread was so good, Paul Hollywood shook his hand.  Paul was almost overwhelmed.  Ian's pesto and wild garlic was a 'work of magic', but no handshake for him, so clearly not masonic magic.  Worryingly, Mat does seem to be bottom of the pack at this stage. 

Technical Challenge 
4 identical crusty french baguettes

Paul shows us how it is done - steam in the oven, Paul expects them to know that.  Mary thinks Paul is being particularly nasty.  

Mel advises Alvin not to think about ciabatta.  Sandy's french accent is abysmal, let us hope her bread is better.  Alvin seems to be quite knowledgeable about the slashing technique, everyone else seems quite daunted by it.  Ian, Tamal, Sandy all knew to add water to the oven for the steam.  Mat ignores such techniques and seems to think a few French words will be sufficient to assist his bread, although the baguettes come out underproven, but he takes some consolation that they are consistently underproven.  I can't help but worry that Mat may be going home.  Paul and Nadiya are both on all fours, peering into the same oven, bonding over the bread.  

Judging
Picky Paul is looking for 4 equal sized baguettes, crispy.   

There are a lot of 'under proven' and a couple accused of being more like ciabatta - Alvin being one of those who did not heed Mel's advice.  They hadn't all mastered the scoring, Dorret in particular over doing the cutting.   Paul Prison was at the bottom of the baguette heap, closely followed by Nadiya and Mat.  Tamal was a very respectable 3rd, even though his were under baked, with Flora's underproven baguettes second and Ian, last week's star baker Ian, came first.  

Showstopper
The challenge was to make 3D bread sculptures, using at least three types of bread, one of which has to be filled.  

Tamal - bread bicycle
Chelsea buns, fennel dough frame, five spiced buns in the basket.  

Alvin - cornucopia - horn of plenty.  
Alvin has really gone for the plenty in his roll filled horn, he overstretched himself last week and then panicked. Interesting to see that he has gone for the same approach this week.

Paul - King of the Jungle
All very Alpha Male, a sculpture of a lion with different kind of breads.  

Mat - Brighton Pavilion
Curry flavoured loaves representing Brighton pavilion.

Nadiya - snake charmer's basket
Nadiya has also gone for Indian flavours.  Do she and Mat copy each other's homework? 

Sandy  - basket with flowers 

Flora - herb couture 
Herb breads in the shape of a corset and skirt 

Ian - flowering plant 
black olive & parmesan plant, brioche flowers.  

Ugne - soft bread, easter basked, truffle infuse brioche bunnies with maple syrup and crispy bacon.  As Mary says 'wait and see'.  

Dorret - Tracey Emin's unmade bed.  
Dorret's sculpture will replicate Tracey Emin's unmade bed.  For me that didn't work as art, I particularly remember the dirty underwear on the floor - will Dorret try and copy that as well? Dorret admits that she has not practised it though. For me this is reminiscent of Marie admitting her biscotti had broken, highlighting your own errors is a sign of impending doom.  It also deprives Paul Hollywood of deflating egos by pointing it out.  

Judging

Tamal - spectacular, different technique in each.  Paul Hollywood says his Chelsea bun - doesn't get much better.  It could have a sweet filling in it - that would make it a lot better for me.  

Sandy's basket of flowers - clumsy, Paul H asks if she was going for cardboard with her pita bread poppy petals - ouch! She is redeemed somewhat by her pesto grisini. 

Alvin's horn of plenty - achieved a lot, texture is beautiful, craft is perfect, each piece is baked to perfection.  Paul H gets quite concerned that he might have heaped too much praise and draws some back by pointing out that Alvin has not quite followed the brief.

Ugne baking is good, but Paul is not sure about truffle oil with brioche.

Ian's Flour Power plant sculpture, is deemed magnificent, with a lovely flavour, just baked.  

Flora's herb couture is praised for its delicacy.

Nadiya's  snake charmer basket has great colour and tastes, but just needed a bit longer in the oven.  All good together.  

Paul's king of the jungle looks absolutely fantastic to me.  Paul H agrees, stating it is exceptional, and the detail is amazing.   

Mat's curry inspired Brighton Pavilion was deemed very effective, simplified, with nice flavours, however it was underproved and underbaked bread.  

Dorret's unmade bread - Mary suggests that choosing something untidy to start with is not a good impression.  The bedhead not defined enough, flavours work well.  The chelsea bun bed base was baked on the outside but raw in the middle due to apricots.  

This week's star baker - Ian (again!).  

An extra award for Paul because of his lion sculpture, which is the best bread sculpture Paul H has ever seen.  It was amazing.  

Going home - Dorret. 

I feel very sorry for Dorret, as I always feel sorry for the baker going home.  Nadiya and Paul were not far behind her and may also have gone.   Paul was saved by his showstopper.  There were a few comments on Twitter that Paul should have won, but Ian's breads were excellent in every category whilst Paul came bottom in the technical challenge.  Also Paul Hollywood is the master baker, not us, so we will allow him to know what he is talking about.  

It's back - Great British Bake Off Series 6

Just as memories of season 5 fade so far into the past I am thinking of taking up with another heavily edited reality series, Bake Off comes bounding back into my life with Series 6 and twelve new contestants for me to fall in love with or at least love to loathe.

The BBC website has an introduction to the bakers. Sadly one of them will only be appearing on our screens tonight (meet the bakers).   We meet a few of the contestants.  I am instantly taken with Mat - who looks much like a sixth-former.  I have seen a few snippets online about Stu and his hat.  I have decided, based on no information at all, that it is a gimmick.  This is unfair, he didn't write the items about him, but it's Bake Off, you have to support someone and you have to have an anti-hero.

Mary and Paul are back as well.  Mary is perfect in pink, Paul's perma tan is lighting up the tent. Paul is quickly up to his usual tricks, undermining Nadiya with his eyebrows, which could almost have a show of their own.

Mat becomes even more my favourite, with his gin & tonic madeira cake.  Gin and cake - what could possibly go wrong?  Another recipe I like the look of is Tamal's pistachio and rose cake.  Dorret deems Paul strategically important, possibly a euphemism for patronising gimp.  I quite like Alvin's notion of putting figs in his madeira and the way he stands up to Paul.  Sandy is also unphased by comments from a jaffa with eyebrows.  Those two should go far (the contestants, not the eyebrows).   I still can't warm to Stu.  Paul is a sugar-crafting prison governor, an unusual combination.  

During the first judging session, Nadiya looks terrified but Mary is impressed.  Ugne's efforts didn't go down so well, neither did Sandy or Stu's.  Flora did well, Alvin's figs followed Paul's predictions, but the cake was good.  The term 'wallpaper paste' was used with Ian's efforts.  I instantly decided Ian was a city banker and was surprised to find out he is a travel photographer.  Mat's gin failed to win over the judges, but Tamal's creation worked well.  Dorret's candied peel wasn't up to Nadiya's standard neither was her cake.  Marie's candied peel worked well, and her cake was complimented - Paul even going so far as to call it a perfect cake.

The next challenge was walnut cake, thankfully without coffee - which I loathe.  I am firmly convinced that the BBC should send us all samples of a perfect version of each challenge to help us enjoy the series more, therefore it is important to me that all recipes are to my liking.  I am not too keen on the look of Mary's weird frosting, but the inside looks lovely.  I always kid myself I will try and bake these in the week - and never yet have.  Stu is breaking the rules - wearing a hat and rule breaking, he's a rebel and he'll never never be any good.  Alvin and caramel are not an item.  The meringue icing has whisked them all into a frenzy of confusion (it's Bake Off, bad jokes are a necessity).

The technical challenge judging begins.  Nadiya has just noticed her sides are uncovered and everyone else's are, that would make me throw up with fear, but she handles it well.  Mat's isn't as good as it looks.  The term grainy is being thrown around all over the place.  Ugne does well - and even had time for some sugar work.  Nadiya - naked sides and grainy.  Paul - neat but granular.  Nadiya is last, with Stu 11th.  Ugne takes first, closely followed by Alvin and Marie.   Nadiya is my new favourite 'I'm 12th and I'm OK with that .... of course I'm not'.  Marie and Flora are in the lead with the judges with Stu, Paul and Ian all in trouble.

Time for the showstopper, a black forest gateau.  Again I feel a sample is required.  Now the BBC aren't paying Clarkson's fees, there must be money for it.

Several of them are looking for a new spin on a classic. I think it is the first show and they should go for a perfect classic version rather than reinventing the chocolate wheel.  I struggle to bake anything but lemon drizzle cakes, but I eat a lot so I like to think I have considerable expertise when it comes to cake.  Having said that I like the idea of Nadiya's chocolate with chocolate and more chocolate.  I am not keen on Sandy's chocolate shortbread notion though.  The innuendo has begun, Mel starts talking of romping in Ian's forest.  Paul's cake looks fabulous on paper, as does Ugne's.  I love Sue's prison jokes, Paul is a bit less impressed - I can't see someone with no sense of humour lasting long on Bake Off.  I love Mat's honesty over using the thermometer "I don't know what I"m looking for, just seen everyone else do it".   Sandy is a bit free with the alcohol, always a good sign.

Dorret's cake needs the freezer - let's hope there is time for it to set.  They are all getting quite tense over the finishing touches.  Mel clearly likes her 'through your forests" joke and returns to it, it isn't that funny Mel, let it go.  Poor Dorret, her face says it all as she brings her cake out, I want her to be allowed to try again.  Thankfully Sue is on hand to support her.

The final judging session for this week:
Flora - huge cake - perfection, moist, works well, needs more alcohol.
Ugne - theatrical, good chocolate work, disappointing sponge though.
Marie - different presentation, simple but stunning, light sponge, lovely, wonderful taste - as classic as you can get (I told you so).
Alvin - looks modern, good flavours,
Mat -  fantastic looking cake, taste exceedingly good - well done Mat Kipling.
Paul - impressive chocolate work, good distinct layers, fantastic sponge.
Sandy - different idea with shortbread, Paul deems the piping '1970s' ... isn't that the idea?
Tamal - collared cake, great, and even a little bit special.
Stu - interesting, but no skills with chocolate, beetroot flavoured cake has the wrong texture.
Nadiya -contemporary and minimalist, wonderful shine, beautiful flavour,
Dorret - explains what happened, they are so nice to her.  The sponge is rubber though at the top, the bottom layers are ok.
Ian - totally different, shown many skills, good blend of flavours.

I would say it is between Stu and Dorret to go.  Several could be in top place.  Paul clearly already likes saying Flora's name.

The first star baker is Marie.  She won because she made a classic gateau - and who advocated sticking to classics in week 1 - me.  I don't know much, but I do know cake.

The first to go home is Stu - which I think is the right choice, although it was close with Dorret I suspect. I liked Stu more towards the end of the show, he got less cocky and more likeable, but sadly his baking became less likeable.  What a shame he just got one shot though, but I can't help being pleased for Dorret.

Ah Bake Off, how I have missed thee.  Episode One has lived up to all my expectations and I have discovered that blogging removes all desire to eat my way through the show.