This week the bakers tackle pastry week, where they had to fry, fold and fill their bakes during the three challenges. As we enter week six of GBBO, who will perfect pastries and who will bake their last…

Last week: The bakers battled German delicacies. With Jurgen taking a solid lead, it was Giuseppe that claimed the German Crown, and unfortunately, with her soggy showstopper, it was vegan baker Freya who was the latest contestant to leave the tent.

‘Choux- Nut worry be happy’ – Signature:

Photo by Dilyara Garifullina on Unsplash

For week six’s signature challenge, the remaining bakers were tasked with making two batches of Chouxnuts. They needed to be perfectly fried with six filled and six glazed.

“The challenge is to make a choux pastry. This means that bakers will need to make their pastry into doughnut shape and deep-fry,” said Paul Hollywood

“We want one batch to be filled and one batch to be glazed,” said Leith.

Tricky Turkish Technical:

Photo by Syed F Hashemi on Unsplash 

Hollywood set this week’s signature, and he wanted the bakers to make a large baklava made with filo pastry. 

The filo pastry had to be made using the traditional technique of lamentation to get the correct number of layers, the bakers had to also make a pistachio and walnut filling. The bakers had two hours and 40 minutes for this technical challenge, which seemed the be the biggest challenge as filo pastry which is notoriously a hard pastry to perfect.

Hollywood’s Top Tip: This type of recipe will push you to your limits. Don’t waste any time.

“This must be the hardest technically I have ever seen,” said Leith.

Packed full of Flavour – Showstopper Challenge:

After the signature and the technical, came the pastry showstopper. It is at this point within the bake-off that the judges start to see who is powering their way towards the star baker for pastry week.

“So far it has to be Chigs, Jurgen, Giuseppe and Crystelle that are in the top four. Amanda has had trouble over the last two challenges and so has Lizzie. For George, he is sitting in the middle and this showstopper could push him either way,” said Hollywood.

For Pastry week’s showstopper challenge the judges wanted bakers to make an intricate pastry pie.

The Judges were expecting the baker’s pies to have delicate designs when cracked into. The bakers had to make it in the style of a terrene Pie, however, left the fillings and flavours all down to personal choice.

The baker’s week six experience:

Lizzie:

For Lizzie’s signature challenge, she used raspberry liquor and hibiscus flavouring for one batch of Chouxnuts. She complimented this with her other Chouxnut having a caramel glaze. With this signature bake, Lizzie has mentioned she is more confident about her flavours than the aspect of frying.

“I feel like the fryer is going to hit me, and I’m going to burn. The pressure is unbelievable, and even my elbows are sweating,” said Lizzie.

“I’ve never heard of sweaty elbows,” said Hollywood.

Trying to calm Lizzie’s nerves, Leith told Lizzie she would be fine and to relax.

Lizzie’s calm nerves shone through when it came to judgment time, Lizzie was amazed by Leith’s feedback: “I would buy these in a shop if I could.”

Lizzie’s technical feedback: Unable to see the diamond exterior within Lizzie’s technical Bake, the judges felt her Bake was a mess. Although the judges saw that there was lamination, the filo was on the doughy side and could have benefitted longer oven time. Sadly, Lizzie came in seventh as her Bake. Her biggest criticism was that her bake needed to have more finesse.

After her criticisms during the technical challenge, Lizzie was solely focused on producing a pie with lots of finest. For this she went for a pie that represented the Neptune theme, using salmon, ricotta and spinach. To achieve a flamboyant twist, Lizzie added a novel potato fish running through the centre. 

“It was like where’s Wally but where’s the fish.”

George:

For George, the thought of frying pastry infused through his signature bake.

“I can’t wait to make this… yummy.”

George plans to make a simple toffee for his chouxnut to ensure his signature bake was entirely focused on the pastry.

Simplicity is vital in George’s Bake as he plans to make toffee and nut choux and another filled with jam and cream.

This week he wanted to impress Hollywood and Leith with his pastry.

He will focus on a light and airy pastry, which is key for the perfect choux mixture.

George’s technical feedback: For this week’s technical challenge, George had to be confident in his DNA to help him get through the process of making the filo pastry. When it came to judgment time, his technical Bake was not excecated to the judge’s standards where they both felt his layers were too thick, putting him in the sixth spot.

George’s showstopper was filled and flavoured to resemble a Christmas dinner within a pie. For his flavouring he used duck and turkey stuffing complimented it with bacon and carrot wrapped sausages all within a pie decorated in a creative print.

For George, pressure started to build when he realised he had left his sausage in the freezer for too long.

“Oh no, I don’t want to give Paul and Prue food poising.”

Chigs:

Chigs had a slower start into the signature challenge, as he was the last baker to make his dough. As well as this, he was the only baker to brave making two types of flavoured pastry’s, approaching a chocolate flavoured choux pastry with lime glaze and a plain pastry with hazelnut praline to give it a French feel.

Chigs started on his second pastry, while the rest of the tent began to bag up their only pastry and push on with their fillings and topping.

Chig’s technical feedback: In the technical challenge, the judges praised Chigs’s colour and cut off his filo pastry with its excellent crisp bottom. This put him into third space.

For this showstopper challenge, Chigs bought Leicester to the GBBO tent, with his pork fest inspired pie.

With the main ingredient being pork, Chig’s also added chicken, gherkins and apricots for an additional kick of flavour.

“Leicestershire is known for its pork pies, so I hope I do them proud.”

Crystelle:

Crystelle was one baker that was stirring away from the safe zone during her signature bake as she wanted something different to present to the judges.

For her Chouxnuts, she used a mango cream and passion fruit glaze for her first batch. Her second batch used white chocolate and a miso caramel glaze. 

“I feel like miso caramel is that one step up from salted Carmel, and with the miso, you get the salty undertone.”

With these flavours, Crystelle approached the sweet and salty feel of his pastry.

Crystelle’s technical feedback: When it came to judgement time of Crystelle’s technical filo pastry, the colour of the Bake was perfect for both Hollywood and Leith.

Her lamination and flavouring were perfect, to which Leith commented: “If I were to see this in a pastry shop, I would buy it.”

Putting her in second place, Crystelle celebrated and commented: “I needed that today. I’ve never got that high in a technical challenge before.”

Being a lover of both baking and cooking, Crystelle became excited about the pie showstopper as it gave her a reason to actually cook something. For this bake, Crystelle became inspired by her family with the ingredients. She flavoured her pie with cumin curry and a chicken pickle curry.

“For me, this is my most sentimental bake.”

With curry having a high liquid content, the fear for Crystelle within this showstopper was having a soggy pie… And the judges defiantly do not like a soggy bottom.

Amanda:

Amanda was another baker going for the sweet and savoury trend with this week’s signature, making her Chouxnuts inspired by the American style maple syrup and bacon flavouring.

Her batches were maple and bacon flavoured, and the other was glazed with rose essence with pistachio crème.

Amanda’s Technical feedback: Overdoing it on the pistachio toppings, Amanda’s technical was baked clumsy and needed more time in the oven to get a darker finish. The judges praised the Bake for having an amazing flavour. Amanda came fifth in the technical challenge.

For her showstopper pie, Amanda aimed to create her love for gourmet food into her pie, using fennel sausage meat and chicken pate. To impress the judges further Amanda designed her pie with flowers to give it a fancy feel.

“I do like to make my food with love,” said Amanda.

Jurgen:

For Jurgen’s signature, he approached the weird and wonderful flavouring to push the boat out even further to impress Hollywood and Leith.

Using unique flavouring, the taste of exotic flavours of Yuzu and sake and orange Ganache and glazed with colours to match a 70s theme all inspired by pastry’s he ate as a child.

“We will look forward to your 70s cicadellid delight,” said Hollywood.

Jurgen’s Technical Challenge: For Jurgen, his technical Bake had good lamination and a good crisp which impressed the judges.

“This is beautiful,” said Leith. 

For this technical challenge, Jurgen was awarded first place, with Hollywood mentioning how he had perfected a beautiful finish all the way through. 

“The Jurgenator seems to be back!” said Jurgen.

Jurgens showstopper challenge aimed to transport the judges to his home town back in France and their traditional dish, using the flavours of beef and horseradish.

Calling his showstopper ‘Lunch in Freiburg’, Jurgen hopes to cook his beef into a pie with hints of colour in the design.

“I must say it sounds absolutely delicious,” said Leith.

Giuseppe:

Being the only Italian baker in the tent, Giuseppe infused the taste of Italy into his Chouxnuts with the taste of lemon Cheol.

He wanted to play it safe during this signature challenge and wanted to stick with something he knew.

When it came to judgement time, Hollywood and Leith could resist not having another bite of Giuseppe Choux.

Giuseppe’s Technical Feedback: Although Giuseppe produced a neat and well-finished filo pastry, the judges felt that the Bake needed longer in the oven, and it suffered from being under baked putting him in fourth.

Approaching an animal theme with this week’s showstopper, Giuseppe wanted to use the design of an owl, being a symbolic message to his wife.

With an owl-like exterior, the inside of the pie was filled with cauliflower and Dutch cheese and beef and ham balls around.

“Do you think this will impress the wife?” said Giuseppe.

The end of week six:

With all of us viewers on the edge of our chairs with the downfall of both George and Amanda’s pies and if they would even still be standing by the time Hollywood and Leith got to try, it was the last judgement time for week six.

For George is was defiantly questionable if his sausage meat was even cooked. Still, it was another story for Crystelle as her Curry inspired pie awarded her a Hollywood handshake while at the judging table. 

“It’s brave to make a curry pie!” said Leith.

“Handshake on a showstopper is very rare,” said Lucas.

The star baker of pastry week went to Crystelle with her home inspired curry pie.

Sadly, the baker that became sunken within a soggy bottom was Amanda. 

“I didn’t think I would get this far, but I’ve had such a good time. It’s fun stress, and perhaps if I didn’t chat so much, I would have got a bit further,” Said Amanda.

Did you miss out on week 5? Read the round-up here.