The Great British Bake Off

[kindkit]

Spoilers for 6x08, Pastry.



Oh, poor Paul. He had a dreadful weekend and I feel sorry for him. Though I do wonder who goes into a baking competition not knowing how to make a genoise. He was always a bit of an oddball as a contestant--when he set his mind to it he could make some beautiful-looking things, but his skill at sugarcraft and making swans out of apples seemed to be miles beyond his skill at some of the fundamentals of baking. More of a sculptor than a baker, really.

And now there's nobody left but my favorites, oh dear. No matter who goes I'll be sorry. I think Flora is probably next, unless she focuses, doesn't try to do too much, and has a bit of good luck to boot.

A few weeks ago I wouldn't have expected to see Nadiya in the final, but she's been amazing lately. Bubble gum and mint eclairs aside. (What was she thinking??? Her success with the soda pop cheesecake may have encouraged her to take that line of things too far.)

They're all in quite a tricky place, where they have to be creative to win, but if their ideas fail they're not going to get a second chance.

Ian is still my very favorite, but the reasons for this are only a little to do with his baking. On the level of pure merit I think Ian, Tamal, and Nadiya are closely matched; I'm sure the win will be well-deserved whoever it goes to.


And finally, I am disappointed that there was no reaction shot of Ian after the joke about giving Paul the horn. BBC, you have failed me!

Comments

[lilacsigil]

Yay, I watched it! I was worried about Ian on your behalf, but he recovered beautifully. Poor Paul - my picks for top three are the same as yours, and the skill level of the group just caught up with him, as it is with Flora. Right at the start of the bake-off I didn't think Nadiya was going to make it this far, because while her bakes were great, she kept flopping in the technical, but now she's breezing through!

It was such a tense week, now I have to go make custard to settle my nerves!

[kindkit]

The instant Ian said something about how it wasn't going to be that difficult, I knew he was in trouble. They only leave those lines in if someone's about to fail at whatever they're baking. Luckily he once again saved himself with his showstopper.

Nadiya's been amazing! Those cream horns were gorgeous, especially the chopped pistachio at the edges. She just needs to restrain her fondness for odd artificial flavors.

I want to bake something this weekend but I don't know what. Possibly it will involve fruit curd, because I made lemon curd a couple of weeks ago and it was so delicious and so easy that now I want to try it with every other kind of fruit. *contemplates eclairs filled with blood-orange curd*

[st_aurafina]

Oh, Nadiya, noooo! Not the bubble gum! I am glad she got star baker - I'm not sure who else they could have gone with, really? Tamal maybe, because his éclairs stood up, but he didn't have as stellar a first day. And poor, poor Paul - he just couldn't get the banana flavour right. If banana extract is anything like what we have over here, it's vile. Ugh, ugh, so wrong. (I have a theory that Paul Hollywood, being a bakery kid, only got the really, really ripe bananas, and now anything that isn't basically rotting tastes insipid. I base this on my dad, who was a greengrocer's kid - he's the same way about bananas, they're no good until they're sagging and going black.)

Flora tries too hard! And I think she needs to dial back the flavours - she was really heavy handed with the herbs. I think if you're using thyme on one recipe, you need to leave the herbs out of the second. Basil OR thyme, not both. If she stuck to the actual assignment, she'd have a much better run. She could still be there for the finals, but I think one of Tamal or Ian or Nadiya would have to have a flaming disaster, AND she'd have to do really well.

I think we've got our top three now, though. I'm glad Ian's most likely made it through. I love how dedicated to construction he was. Corrugations for strength!

I want to make choux buns or something this weekend. Inspired by all the éclairs.

[executrix]

Family secret! All to do with herbs!
Comes of being careful with your coriander!