GBBO starts tomorrow!

[Forgetfulmog]

Very excited!

Paul Hollywood does piss me off tbh, but I love seeing all the cakes & stuff. Will probably have to make something to eat whilst watching it though...

Poor little snail Howard

I really liked him- I thought his peachy buns looked great

That's crap. Howard's peachy buns looked brilliant though...and since when was a bun supposed to have the "crunch"? . I'll miss Howard.

I honestly thought Glenn was for the chop. I'm very surprised indeed.

Am sad to see Howard go but am pleased Glenn is still in although i do sense he is skating close to the edge unfortunately... next week looks pretty tough and not sure any of the others are as likely to crack. Having said that, you only need one bad week.

i thought it was interesting that sue picked up that Kimberly is worried about Christine. I think she should also worry about ruby - she's won both the bread weeks which is normally a good indication of who's going to win. Having said that, i hope ruby takes on board mary's comment about not putting herself down all the time. Not just because its not true but it does annoy me somewhat - as someone earlier mentioned, has echoes of Catherine last year although R is a massively more talented baker!

Did want to munch Christine's vanilla jam Norwegian bun things though... will the recipe be online somewhere or will i have to buy the book?

Thought Mary knew perfectly well what hemp was, thank you very much Sue...

Shame about Howard - the peaches were beautiful. Was pleased the judges told Ruby to stop being drippy. She's clearly an amazing baker so it's unnecessary and distracting.

recipe appears to be on here pumpup www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/search?programmes[]=b013pqnm :)

stupid link didn't work.

the norwegian buns are here though www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/norwegian_custard_buns_92546

Ahhh, Ruby is doing my swede in!!

She needs to go next although I have a feeling she might win

Thanks Roses - will see just how complicated they look and give them a whirl - i think the fact you have to prove the dough forever will maybe put me off!

oh - i thought Beca's iced.buns looked just lovely, as in the way they pulled apart. Not sure about cardoman (sp) in there but reminded me of.school - yum yum!

I also think Ruby is going to.win which makes me both and

They actually look doable... a bit of a faff but eminently doable. Yay

My mum used to make Schnecken - but hers were made with pastry, rather than sweet dough, iirc. It was a flaky pastry, but somehow wasn't buttery, and was filled with a raisin filling, then topped with water icing.

I am going to have to ask her for the recipe.

She used to make a biscuit cake too - three layers of a shortbread-y biscuit, sandwiched together with raspberry jam and topped with water icing. I didn't rate it particularly highly as a child - I wanted more in the way of butter icing, I suspect - but now I would really like this cake. I'll add that to the list of recipes to ask for, too.

Hold the presses - I have just checked a file of recipes that mum put together for ds3, when he was in his cooking phase, and Schnecken is in there.

Her recipe is a cross between a sweet dough and a flaky pastry. You make an enriched dough, and brick of butter and flour mixed together (equal amounts) - the brick is chilled, and when the dough has proved, you roll it out, put the chilled flour/butter brick on it, and do a rolling and folding thing three or four times - but mum says to batter it out rather than rolling, iyswim. And the filling is mixed nuts, chocolate and dried fruit.

I was spot on about the water icing, though!!

SDT,
This is a Danish pastry your mum
Used to make.

I think Ruby's going to win now.

Aw, Ruby. She's so sweet and so very pretty and extraordinarily competent and talented. I think she is great (tho her writing style is a mite overblown, perhaps). What a shame if she is getting hassled by jealous types on the net.

Not my winner tho - rooting for Kimberly here. And I love Glenn (wish he worked in my school). Will miss Howard The Alan Bennett character tho.

The blokes are nothing like as good this year - just one left I think? Clinging on by his fingernails ? Whereas it was an all-male final last year.

My mum makes that too SDT It's called Plunderteig in German and she usually makes them with a hazelnut filling and shapes them into a sort of elongated Moebius band.
I used to buy cardamommabollar (sp?) when I was in Sweden every day (you had to get a ticket with a number to be served even when there was no queue and you were the only customer in the bakery, weird). I'd go all the way back to Uppsala just to have those bollar again.
This would have been my week if I were a GBBO contestant. All things I like to eat and am good at making.
Sad Howard's gone but probably fair.

You are not in New Zealand by chance LizzaBadger, are you? I Have a friend there with your nickname although I doubt she'd use it for a forum.

Poor Howard. I had grown very fond of him.

Kimberley for the win. Whoever said upthread that she's unpleasant is barking mad.

Kimberley seems to have slipped out of favour in the last couple of weeks. I really hope she can up her game and overtake Ruby in time for the final. Ruby's fake modesty and constant need of approval is getting tedious!

The edit is very clever - I suspect that Kimberley and Ruby are the front runners and the producers are deliberately playing on their opposite qualities to create competition. So you get waif-like self-deprecating Ruby versus confident, pleased with herself Kimberley - whereas I bet these are just stereotypes of their RL personalities. It's no accident that we had brief clips this week of Kimberley saying 'perfect!' and 'perfection!' when finishing her bakes, in the same way as they focus on Ruby screwing up her face. They're playing with us!

Erm am I right in thinking one of Ruby's relatives is on this thread? If you look upthread someone has wrote something about being very proud of her. Might even be her Mum lol!

Ok, I will be the one who mentions the elephant in the room, but has anyone else mysteriously put on a couple of pounds ounces as a result of GBBO?
I am going to blame you lot for posting all these exotic recipes.

I felt sorry for all the contestants this week as the time constraint was too short for a good rise on their breads. They should have been given much longer for the first one.
Ruby seems to have confidence when she is baking bread and the crown loaf looked incredible and better than Paul's crown. I agree that the editing could have cut Ruby's doubts out and I felt sorry for her when she thought her buns looked overfired.

I really like Christine, she is the spit of my aunt and so must win

To whoever mentioned "the crunch" Paul referred to in Ruby's buns: authentic Kanellbullar contain pearl sugar which remains crunchy after baking. So in that respect, Ruby's were spot on.

Ruby has the classic English self deprecation. It is a charming trait that is being exploited by a production team looking to paint characters in the broadest of brush strokes.

I love Finnish sweet dough w/ Cardamom. Such an unexpected spice to come across in that part of the World. And of course the Scandi stuff was very fashionable when this series was being developed (even though the fashion is moving on a bit now). Next series there'll be more Latin American baking going on!

Has anybody ever made Cornish Splits or that gorgeous Majorcan bread that is sold in little rolls? I also love the American Parker House rolls.