GBBO #2 - These bakers are not to be trifled with...

[PolkadotsAndMoonbeams]

Following on from the first thread (we were getting a bit short on space!).

Pastry week next - it's time for the dreaded soggy bottoms!

aaaaah

Fair decision

Soon as she said 'personal' I knew Paul was going. Shame. Flora going next week?

Ahh, gutted really liked paul,thought flora should of gone!

Boo. Would have preferred Flora to go rather than Paul

Nadiya was lucky getting Star baker. I think she has to let go the funny flavours... she's done something else with sweets IIRC

Ooooohhhhh staggered start times? What new nonsense is this? Is it new? Somebody tell me!

Staggered start times? I am intrigued!

Flora's got potential though. She just has to learn to follow the brief better, and to give up some of the fripperies. Most of hers have all been decent, if not spectacular, whereas PP has gone from amazing (the bread lion) to disastrous (quite a few).

Love Nadiya. Flora gets carried away every week and doesn't listen when they tell her not to.

None of those looked like nuns!

Am I missing something, in what way were they supposed to be nun like??

Meanwhile, going back to that query way upthread about whether Martha was doing A Levels at the time she did Bake-Off - yes she was: in fact she'd only just done her AS levels. See www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/profiles/4Gfg5tFM4kZbWj5ttW4FL0h/martha

Dancergirl they're meant to look roughly like this:

www.google.co.uk/search?q=religieuse+a+l%27ancienne&client=tablet-android-pega&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0CDAQ7AlqFQoTCP-Uo7WcjsgCFdEU2wod9toNwg&biw=600&bih=960#imgrc=T5ONy3gILBKXQM%3A

That does look a bit more like a nun!

I think if I had to do a choux centrepiece I'd go for a croquembouche - less chance of collapse. Only Ian and Tamal's were ok, weren't they?

I thought they made Genoese sponge before, when they did the cake with white icing and walnuts?

Whichever poster predicted Nadiya to win, I hope you're right even though I've thought her flavours of sweets sound odd her other flavours have sounded fabulous and according to the judges tasted exceptional too and I just really like her.

What on earth are they making next week that requires staggered start times?

I was sad to see Paul go, he relaxed as the weeks went on and his sense of humour came out but it was a fair decision he had a very bad weekend!

Hmm, they do look more like daleks that nuns, don't they? But I guess Dr Who didn't exist when they were invented!

Shame paul went i preferred him to martha who is too faffy with her bits and bobs and herbs in cake is just wrong. his poor nun he was getting redder and redder I didnt know if he was going to cry or pass out with stress. Staggered times is going to be a disaster its going to be a race and cake will suffer.

Martha, Mrsjayy?

I think you may mean Flora Mrsjayy

Well those 'religeusees' were weird. We live in Fr. off and on and I have NEVER seen one of those. I've seem macaron towers and profiterole towers (all supported btw) but those FGS!!! And why did they make them wait for 2 hours to fall over ?? Cruel, especially of Mary to say NO SUPPORTS, unless they were put in the freezers which would've been okay.

I've seen and eaten SMALL religeuse (sp) ? lovely little round eclairs with a creamy filling topped with a smaller one and iced either in coffee or chocolate.

Thanks for the link baconyum That Fr. programme is soo esoteric it makes GBBO look like kiddievision but it does show the competitors how to make things like tempered chocolate. It goes on for hours and hours though.

InimitableJeeves Wed 23-Sep-15 23:35:46 Oh sorry I was being ironic when I questioned Martha's A levels (they mentioned it all the blooming time iirc )

I was a bit disappointed in last night's show. I usually love patisserie week.

Definitely agree that a croque-em-bouche is more impressive than that nun thingy.

5foot5 -are you able to post a screenshot of the relevant page & we might be able to help with your recipe dilemma.

Dilemma solved. Aha! I googled the orange, rosemary and almond biscotti recipe. It makes perfect sense. However it is a bit annoying that the recipe in the book I bought is less accurate than the recipe you can get free online

The confusion I had was what to do with the orange zest. The first few stages in the recipe (both book and online) have you carefully peeling and cutting strips of orange zest and blanching them no fewer than four times before boiling them in sugar syrup until soft. Fine - with it so far.

The online recipe then tells you to add these strips of peel to the biscotti mix along with all the other ingredients at step 5. However, in the recipe in the book they are never mentioned again. Never! So if you carefully follow that recipe step-by-step you presumably end up with 32 rosemary and almond biscotti and a plate of carefully candied orange zest at which point you exclaim "WTF am I meant to do with you now!"

In the US version they did staggered start times for soufflé.