Great British Bake Off - Back 16th August

[turnitup]

Yay

I loved series 1

Sadly, I missed most of the series but can I get the masterclasses on iPlayer or repeats?

I was surprised to see rings and long fingernails, piercings and home clothes too. Not hygenic.

Australian Masterchef though is my current fave cooking prog. Their masterclasses and challenges are really good.

At 50 mins to be precise :o

Slightly off topic but does anyone know what make of oven they use in the show? I love the fact they've got the door that slides underneath and want one very much.

Yes, I also was covetting their ovens, not to mention the beautiful Kitchen Aids....

My problem with foccacia has always been it's soft pillowy nature. Now I know it is a crunchy oily salt fest, I am dreaming about it.

Sausagesmuggler - it's a Neff (I think)

That Holly screamed "typical mumsnetter" to me.

Every single thing she did annoyed me. Her way of speaking, her mannerisms, her over confidence, her smug superiority. Not to mention her face.

I'm sure her background in PR made her all super-confident and ruthless but unfortunately for her she was all style and no substance. The silly embellishment of that gingerbread house under her profriterole stack was so typical.

Second best highlight of the series for me was when she so clearly felt hugely smug about being able to write "Sacher" so well on her Sachertorte and it was totally overlooked by the judges who only commented on the huge dip in it.

The highlight of the series was obviously the dramatic appearance of the squirrel and his nuts. My DS must have rewound it 100 times and played it in slow-mo - it was hillarious!

Glad Jo won she was just lovely. DH reckons she is me and my friends all morphed into one person (Essex a go go!)

Really didn't warm to Holly, everything just a bit perfect, twee and too rehersed. Be ther kids scream in their high chairs everytime she gets the scales out.

And Mary Ann - how much sweat dripped into her baking - bleugh - really put me off with sweat flying everywhere and her saying she felt sick for the final - was hoping it nerves and not Noro or anything sinister.

Paul I detest and Mary's nails are yucky.

I still think the whole shebang falls down on the ovens. You can follow a recipe as exactly as you like but until you really really know how your oven behaves (which the contenstants can't) you are likely to get overdone/underdone/burned at the back, burned on the bottom etc etc etc

I changed ovens two years ago and haven't made a successful victoria sponge since...

Funny, I was completely glued to the series, have seen each episode about 8 times and haven't noticed a single drop of sweat flying. She got red faced and hot, certainly, but sweat flying everywhere?

Squirrel Nut-King needs his own show.

Yes once again I agree with katisha You can weigh and measure as much as you like Mary Berry up her arse but if yr oven is no good then forget it!

Lol at squirrel Nut-King!!

ppeatfruit* - I agree with you about having good oven but Mary Berry is also right about weighing and measuring too. It is absolutely crucial with cakes. Bread is much more forgiving.

Yeah I didn't see any sweat either!

Squirrel Nut-King

I guess as they went through the weeks they would have got a bit more used to their ovens. Wouldn't be surprised if Holly hadn't run straight out and bought one of those ovens to practice!

No sweat noticed here, she just always looked so hot, I felt for her!

random thoughts, do Mary & Paul do their own washing up (as I was doing ours just now )

and is Hollywood his real name??

I just watched the first masterclass on the iplayer.
have to strongly disagree with salty dog about the yeast.
I always use dried active, because it comes closer in flavour to fresh yeast (which you just can't buy in the supermarket, and bakeries are 'not allowed' to give it away anymore). I don't activate, only dissolve in the liquid before mixing and maybe proove a bit longer.
fast action yeast, pah, can just as well use paking powder...

mouseymouse have you Elizabeth David's English Bread and yeast Cookery book? 'cos it sounds like you'd love it.

I make bread and cakes, though not sponges,!! morebeta I don't weigh out in either case. I don't use wheat flour so I have to play it by ear, they are generally successful!!

no, I haven't pp, maybe I should have a look.

I ordered it from Smiths,you could probably buy it 2nd hand ,or new of course, from Amazon. Its a fantastic book.

I made Jo's petit fours mini banoffee pies and strawberry and cream meringues over the weekend for a family occasion. I would be very interested in hearing from anyone else who may have tried them - what type of tray did you use when baking the pastry for the banoffee pies??? The recipe said a petit four 12 hole tray which I could not find here in my rural town so I used a very shallow bun tray instead - I remember Jos ones were quite deep though and I would have liked to achieve the same effect! Its a lovely recipe and I would recommend it as a special treat.

The strawberry and cream meringues were quite fiddly and I was quite underwhelmed by them. Love to hear if anyone else has tried them out!

Anyone watch tonight? The masterclasses are a bit boring but it is good to see the recipes in the flesh, so to speak. I notice the Sacher torte isn't in the book. Is it in the extra bit you had to email off for anyone know? DP almost came in his pants when he saw that cake in telly tonight!

Not sure I approve of apricot jam however...

I thought his pork pie looked crap when he cut it open. He's such a smug bastard.

Article in the paper about Jo here . I liked them all - bit by some of the comments from Holly haters, tbh.

Interesting to see the bakers from the first series again.

They do seem to be in a different class to the second series bakers though, don't they? I follow Ruth's blog and it's great, some really lovely, professional looking things on there.

Junior Bake Off starting on CBBC Tuesday 1st November at 6.20pm