First Quarter-Final Junior Bake Off

We have the perfect ingredients

for the first of our Junior Bake Off quarterfinals.

Starting with five... EGG-CELLENT bakers.

A PEAR of judges who are RAISIN the game.

The bakers can't afford to make any MIS-CAKES.

As they won't get to the semifinal.

-Hang on, that's not punny.

-I've got MUFFIN left!

-Welcome to...

-BOTH:

-..Junior Bake Off.

It's finals week.

And a cracking Technical...

-Ah!

-..awaits the five quarterfinalists.

Why is this going all wrong?

Followed by a savoury Showstopper.

I forgot to put the eggwash on.

But whose Bake Off dreams...

-My magical touch!

-..will be pie in the sky?

GASPING

The first five bakers to enter the quarterfinals

are about to face two baking challenges.

I bet you it'll be biscuits or something.

It must be biscuits or cake. I think it's cake.

In two days' time, three of them will go through to the semifinal.

But first they must impress judges Allegra and Nadiya.

We've left shortbread and sponge far behind us.

We need to see them do something different.

We want to see them give it their all.

Nadiya and I have set the bar so much higher.

-They'd better get ready.

-I just need to, like, feel on the cloth.

There's a jug and three bowls.

In her heat, Francesca from Middlesex

delighted the judges with her eye for detail.

It's a texturised fondant so that it looks like grass.

I'm hoping to bring back the fact that I'm a total perfectionist.

Evie from Leicestershire shone

with a birthday cake full of humour and colour.

That just makes me smile!

Since I found out I was through to the quarterfinals,

the kitchen has been in a bit of a war.

The floor is covered in flour and lots of different baking things.

Zac from west London proved to the judges

he knows his Middle Eastern flavours.

I don't want to go over-sweet, because then it doesn't taste nice.

-Yes, yes, yes!

-Good idea. A little bit at a time.

I've been practising every day.

Luckily, my brother's not here, so he doesn't distract me.

Nikki from north London achieved perfection

with a complex cake with mature flavour combinations.

That is so light. Like eating clouds.

Getting ready for the quarterfinal,

it's been very hectic and baking nonstop, basically!

Tyrese from east London delivered an ingenious creation

inspired by his St Lucian roots.

-Ho-ho-ho!

-Cor!

I think that if I push myself even further,

I'll be able to win Junior Bake Off.

In fact, no, I'm going to win!

Bakers, welcome back! Our quarterfinalists.

-Are you happy to be here?

-ALL:

-Yeah.

Because you are our quarterfinalists,

our Technical Challenge is going to really, really test you to the max.

The judges would like you to follow one of Nadiya's recipes for...

six dacquoise.

These mini hazelnut meringues are dipped in chocolate

and sandwiched together with an orange cream.

Judges, what are you looking for?

So, the hazelnut meringue should be crisp on the outside,

slightly chewy in the centre.

And the orange cream in the middle needs to be delicately flavoured

and give us an even distribution of candied peel around the outside.

-Sounds amazing!

-Guys, you know the score.

-Have you washed your hands?

-Let's have a look!

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

-Beautiful.

-Brilliant.

OK, bakers, you've got 1 hour and 20 minutes

before we taste your lovely mini dacquoise.

-On your marks.

-Get set. BOTH:

-Bake!

I'm used to meringues and making them.

And I've heard of dacquoise, but I've never sort of seen them.

A bit nervous, to say the least.

Nadiya, this is a really great recipe of yours.

But I think you're asking a lot of the young bakers.

It's a hazelnut meringue.

Simple enough, but there are pitfalls.

They've got to blitz those hazelnuts just enough.

A second too long, and that could turn to hazelnut butter.

The whole point of this is, it's light.

The contrast of textures straight away,

from the crunch on the outside,

that lovely, long chew in the middle.

Little bit of orange and then a big wallop of chocolate

and then the cream to round it off. Lovely.

A dacquoise takes its name from the French town of Dax.

It was created in the 18th century as a hazelnut meringue cake,

and became popular with the English upper classes.

I'm mixing the egg whites till they are puffy and light.

And then I'll add the sugar.

I put the egg yolks in instead of the egg whites!

Oh, my goodness!

To give the dacquoise its unique flavour,

the bakers need to add ground hazelnuts to the whipped egg whites.

You want them to be sort of like a powdery consistency.

Oh, shoot!

I've over-blitzed the nuts.

SHE LAUGHS

Why is this going all wrong?

I've done exactly the same.

Just says, "A fine powder."

And it's kind of a...paste.

I'm worried it's going to get really oily.

Because meringue is so delicate, it could become quite runny

and it wouldn't be able to hold its shape in the oven.

-Hello.

-Hi, Zac.

-Hi.

-You made hazelnut butter.

-Yep.

-Do you have a plan from here?

I think I'm going to de-juice the oil from the batter.

So you're going to pat it between the paper?

-Yeah.

-You've got the right idea. Try and get that grease out.

But time's ticking.

-Yeah.

-Keep going.

-All right, good luck.

I'm just using my fingers to, like, make it a bit more mushy.

-Wait, can I see yours?

-It's actually quite crumbly. That's good.

I'm adding the nuts quite slowly

so that I don't knock all the air out of the meringue.

Seems quite runny.

I'm quite happy with how they're looking.

They haven't got a stiff peak,

but I don't think that will affect it that much.

So I need to cook for 15 to 20 minutes.

If you want to try this at home,

make sure an adult knows what you're doing.

Bakers, you've already had half your time. You've got 40 minutes left.

With the hazelnut meringues in the oven,

the bakers move on to their orange cream filling.

"Whisk double cream to a dropping consistency

"and stir in orange zest."

I think the really hard bit

will be making sure your cream doesn't curdle.

I think it's, like, clotted too much.

This has never happened.

I need to fold the orange zest into the cream to make it orange cream.

So now I'm crystallising the orange strips in the sugar and water.

I'm waiting for it to become translucent,

but right now, I couldn't see through it,

so I'm going to leave it to boil for, like maybe, five more minutes.

Just have to check...

Ah!

Yeah, I'm happy with them. Like, really happy.

No, they're not cooked. Mine aren't cooked.

-They were still raw.

-Yeah, they're still raw.

Maybe it's because of the oil.

But I'm worried I'll overbake them and the middle's going to be hard.

Just 30 minutes left, bakers!

'Time to make the chocolate dip.'

Once the meringues are cooled, this has got to go on them.

You can't have it on too high heat,

because then it goes really bad and thick and separates.

-Hi, Zac.

-Hello!

-How are you?

-Good, thank you.

Now, you've been chatting a lot with Francesca.

Have you been giving each other tips?

-Yeah, we've had the same problem.

-Ah, right.

-Oh, no!

Is that because you were copying each other, or it just happened?

-It just happened!

-It just happened!

-OK, OK.

-It just happened!

-All right, well, I'm intrigued to see how they both turn out.

-Yeah.

FRANCESCA GROANS

Not half as good as I'd like them to be.

I'm actually really happy they haven't cracked.

20 minutes left, which means I need to dip these,

fill these and coat them in candied orange peel.

Quickly.

They're too flat to dip, so I'm going to drizzle it over.

-Go on, lass! Go on, lass!

-# Get it in the piping bag

-BOTH:

-# Get it in the piping bag Get it in the piping bag

-# Evie, get it in the piping bag

-Quick, quick

-# Get it in the piping bag

-Get it in the piping bag! #

Ooh.

It's not going so well.

It's separating, because it got whipped too much.

Five minutes, bakers!

I don't know if I'm going to make it.

Hopefully. Just need to quickly do these ones.

I can usually pipe quickly, but apparently not today.

They look all right, so...

I'm on my sixth one. I can get this done.

Just sprinkling it, making it look nice.

OK, there.

That's it, bakers! Stop what you are doing.

Could you now please bring them over to the gingham altar?

I feel the judges have given one of the toughest challenges

as we've all won our heats and it's the quarterfinal.

I'm feeling a bit nervous about that, cos I don't think my bake

was up to the standard I would have liked it to be.

Nadiya and Allegra were looking for six hazelnut dacquoise,

which are crisp on the outside, chewy in the centre,

dipped with dark chocolate

and sandwiched together with a delicate orange cream.

Well, Tyrese, the toughest part of this challenge is that dacquoise.

You've got that spot-on.

I know you had a little bit of trouble with your cream,

but that is perfect.

Mm.

Crunchy on the outside, chewy in the middle.

-You nailed it. Delicious!

-Thank you.

Francesca, these are beautiful,

but we just have to start with the fact they're not what we asked for.

It took a split second

for the hazelnut to go from crumby to a complete butter,

and that's why the dacquoise is flat.

Mm.

They're erring on the edge of hazelnut biscuit.

You've invented a new biscuit,

and we're just going to call it the Francesquoise.

Evie, you gave us tiny weeny little dacquoise.

I know you had the same trouble with your hazelnut, but I have to say,

you've got a little bit more lift.

Because you've made yours slightly smaller,

they've just slightly overbaked,

so we lost a little bit of the chew in the centre.

It is delicious, and what I really like is you've been very generous

with that zest that you candied perfectly.

-Well done!

-Thank you.

Nikki, that is a very well-made dacquoise.

You've got a lovely point on both ends.

You've dipped that chocolate really, really well.

-Mm!

-That dacquoise is chewy and umptious!

Perfect. Absolutely perfect!

-Zac.

-When we said delicately dipped...

-Yeah.

-LAUGHTER

Do you like chocolate, Zac? HE CHUCKLES

Surprisingly, it does have a touch of chew to it,

which is very nice indeed.

Unfortunately, all of the flavours are masked by that much chocolate.

Nadiya and Allegra now need to decide

which two dacquoise they thought were the best.

So, in no particular order, the first person in our top two...

..is Nikki

for giving us a crisp dacquoise with a beautiful, chewy inside.

The second person in our top two is Tyrese

for his beautifully shaped dacquoise

and lovely, neatly dipped chocolate.

Zac, Evie, Francesca, you know the score, guys.

It could all change in this afternoon's Showstopper,

but before we do that, come and taste your dacquoise, will you?

I really still haven't comprehended that I'm here,

and I've got the top two this time.

It's crazy.

I was quite surprised when the judges picked me,

as my cream, it clotted.

So, obviously they saw something else in my dacquoise.

Probably couldn't have hoped for better with what I baked,

so it went OK.

Next, it's the Showstopper challenge, and our judges

want to test the bakers' pastry-making skills with a pie.

-Oh! I do love a good pie, me.

-Ah, but, Mark, it's not any old pie.

FRENCH ACCENT: It's a French pie!

Oh, well, I won't be needing this, then.

-Yeah. It's far more sophisticated than that.

-Ohh!

Welcome back, bakers. This is your Showstopper Challenge.

Nadiya and Allegra would like you to make six mini savoury galettes.

Best of luck, guys. You have 1 hour and 30 minutes to do this.

-On your marks.

-Get set.

-Bake!

We're asking them to make savoury galettes,

which is a French rustic free-form pie

where you get to see the filling through a hole in the middle.

We're testing the bakers' ability to make shortcrust pastry,

And they've also got to understand flavours.

It's not going to be an easy bake, but it's not meant to be easy.

This is for a place in the semifinals.

Oops. Right now, I'm putting together the flour, butter and salt.

Doing it in a food processor stops it from overworking

and also, you can tell more easily when it's done.

So...

my Showstopper is a spiced sweet potato and goat's cheese galette

with a parsley oil.

It's got a bit of a Middle Eastern sort of flavour to it.

Nikki's hoping her spicy sweet potato and goat's cheese galettes

will book her a place in the semifinal.

They'll be flavoured with cumin

and topped with fresh pomegranate and pumpkin seeds.

Are you cooking your sweet potato before?

Yeah, cos sometimes I found it's not really cooked all the way through,

so I cook them for a little bit in the oven.

How many times have your family had to have this for dinner?

About six times.

So I've made it Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday.

Yeah!

Like Nikki, Tyrese's galettes will also feature sweet potato.

I wanted to do something that had to do with the Caribbean,

so I decided to use sweet potato

cos they like to use sweet potato quite a lot in their dishes.

Tyrese will be adding salmon to his sweet potato galette,

and he'll be spicing it up with cayenne pepper, paprika

and he'll top it with lemon and dill.

Your filling, are you cooking it before, or are you...?

-No, I'm going to cook it in the pastry.

-OK.

I'm going to chop my salmon up, season it,

and then put that at the bottom.

And then I just sprinkle my sweet potato and peppers on top.

-I'm sensing a really Caribbean-y kind of feel to this.

-Yeah.

I'm obsessed. Like, I don't know what's wrong with me, like...

The thing is, you must be excited about your food.

-Yeah.

-You can't cook food unless you're excited about it.

I'm looking forward to tasting that!

I'm making a spiced meat galette.

The reason why I've chosen this is my dad is Lebanese, so...

And this is one of my favourite Lebanese, like, pastries.

There's sumac, there's paprika.

It's called a lahm bi ajeen.

Zac's spiced minced lamb galettes will also be packed with onions,

peppers and tomatoes, then garnished with a tahini dressing.

I'm flattening it like a disc so that it gets colder faster.

So I'm just going to put it in the fridge for ten minutes.

With the pastry chilling, the bakers start on their filling.

There's mushrooms, red onions, cherry tomatoes,

pepper and olive oil.

My Showstopper is a vegetarian breakfast,

because sometimes I make it for my mum and give it to her in bed.

One day she said, "I'm going to become a vegetarian,"

and my grandpa said, "That won't last very long,"

and 20 years later, she ate a cheeseburger.

Evie's shaping her tomato, peppers and mushroom breakfast

into heart-shaped galettes, which she'll top with an egg.

We've got this lovely-smelling mixture here.

Are you cooking this before you put it into the pastry?

No, I'm putting it in the pastry

and then I'm going to cook it in the oven.

-OK.

-Well, everything in that mix is a nice, quick cook, so that works.

-Yeah.

-Can't wait to have breakfast with you.

Ooh.

I'm doing a Malaysian lamb curry filling,

so it needs to be aromatic, and also, it needs to have quite a kick.

Francesca's Malaysian galettes will be filled with minced lamb

cooked in coconut milk and authentic spices.

Francesca, that smells so yummy!

What is in that mix?

So there's garlic, lemongrass,

ginger, curry powder and some spices.

Where did you get the recipe from?

Malaysian curries are a favourite in the family,

so it's quite an old recipe that everyone uses.

Reluctantly, I'm going to leave your delicious-smelling pan.

Can you just waft as we leave?

Just waft. Thank you, thank you!

Bakers, you've had 30 minutes. You've got one hour left.

Time for chilli!

So this is coconut milk, and I've just added it to my curry,

and it just needs to stew for a couple of minutes.

I've just seasoned my fish, and I'm just letting it marinate

until my dough's ready and everything.

The problem is right now, the meat mixture is too wet,

so I'm just going to cook it for a bit longer

so the mixture absorbs more of the liquid.

The tent smells really good.

I actually, in a way, prefer the savoury things to sweet things.

There's lots of different spices and flavours going on.

Yeah, it's really nice to look around

and see everyone doing a different thing.

I have these rolling pin guides that are 2.5mm thick,

and when I've rolled them out to the thickness of the guides,

then I'll be able to use the pastry.

I like to roll out my pastry

in between two sheets of baking paper.

You don't really need to use a lot of flour like you would do

if you were doing normal pastry on the worktop.

So, yeah, it's a good method.

So I'm just adding the cold filling.

Otherwise it's going to melt the pastry.

This is like a pie, but free-form,

so it's supposed to be rolled over at the sides.

Oh, yes! This is my game.

-Looking good, Tyrese.

-Ohh!

-How are we feeling?

-All right.

But I don't know how much time I have left, so...

You've got about 40 minutes left. Ish.

-14?

-40.

-40.

-40.

Oh! I was about to say!

They've got to go in for...

15 minutes.

I forgot to put the eggwash on.

I'm brushing it with eggwash halfway in between,

just so that it gets a golden crust.

The first lot of galettes have already been in for nine minutes,

and the other lot have just gone in, so they'll need 20 minutes.

I just need to do the egg now.

Bakers, you've got 15 minutes left!

Ooh!

There we go.

I can't get it off.

I'm happy with the finished result.

Yes!

I think that's the best one. I'll leave that to the front.

-Can you take one side?

-Yeah.

OK.

GASPING

INDISTINCT SPEECH OFF-CAMERA

Phew!

And...

my magical touch!

That's it, bakers! Stop what you're doing.

Done.

I'm feeling relieved it's over!

I'm feeling quite nervous.

I don't really want to go home, but if that is the consequence,

then I've just got to have my head up high, really.

-Nikki, they are a gorgeous, even golden colour all over.

-Thank you.

And I'm just having a very discreet feel of the bottom.

It's lovely. Very nice, golden brown, just what you want.

That salty goat's cheese, sweet potato, chilli just in the back.

Sweetness of that pomegranate. I've got a little bit of everything.

-That's delicious.

-Thank you.

They look absolutely lovely!

But I think maybe you could have just gone

slightly heavier on the eggwash.

They're a little bit light.

-Whoo!

-LAUGHTER

That's hot without being really, really hot.

The salmon and the smoked paprika you used, it's not overwhelming.

-They are a great bake.

-Thank you.

That's a lovely breakfast. Wonderful heart shapes.

I know you worked really hard to get it thin, but in some parts,

it was a little bit too thin, so they've just kind of fallen apart.

Yeah, just a little bit of leakage just there.

Mm! The tomatoes have roasted up, sweetened up.

The egg, for me, is runny and perfect.

I'd be very happy to have this for breakfast.

-It's just lacking a little bit of seasoning.

-OK.

We've got to point out the fact

that some of them, structurally, have not quite held up.

The way you've shaped them is uniform,

and that's always really nice, when they look the same.

The pastry round the edge is short and delicious

and perfectly seasoned.

The filling is flawless.

They are delicious Malaysian galettes.

Zac, beautifully presented, as always.

There's loads of pastry on the outside.

I'm slightly missing the filling.

The pastry's cooked under here,

but it's slightly undercooked on the inside.

Your filling is delicious. You can taste the sumac.

The flavours are all there. Really, really nice.

How do you think yours went?

-It went OK.

-I think yours went quite well.

Well, judges, all these on here I could eat, no problem whatsoever.

-Francesca, she put a curry in a pie.

-That's a great galette.

The pastry tastes great

and the filling tastes astronomically delicious!

-Let's move on to Evie.

-The pastry was really thin.

It just needed refining just a little bit more.

-Zac.

-His pastry was golden, even all on top.

Just kind of missed the open pie part.

I wanted to see more filling.

Now, Tyrese's galettes, they were pretty powerful, weren't they?

-Your face!

-He's really taken the flavours of St Lucia

and turned it into a gorgeous galette.

Let's talk about Nikki.

Perfect pastry, beautiful filling.

I would have that every day for a very long time.

Five brilliant bakers, but only three places left in the semifinal.

Nikki and Tyrese did really, really well in the morning,

and they've done really well this afternoon,

but there are others that have done really well,

and we've got to consider them.

What a fantastic quarterfinal.

You should all be very, very proud of yourselves, bakers.

But as you know, we can only take three of you to the semifinals.

And the first baker is...

-..Tyrese!

-Well done, Tyrese.

-Yes!

-The second baker going through to the semifinals is...

..Nikki!

The third baker going through to the semifinal is...

-..Francesca!

-Well done, guys.

Sadly, that means we have to say goodbye to Evie and Zac.

Guys, thank you so much. You've been absolutely amazing.

That was a really difficult decision for our judges.

-BOTH:

-Well done, guys!

-High fives all round.

-High fives all round.

-Well done.

They showed a great understanding of pastry,

great understanding of flavour combinations,

put it all together in three pretty amazing Showstoppers.

I cannot wait for the semifinals.

The heat has definitely been turned up,

but to have even got through this round, it's incredible.

-..Francesca.

-Evie, well done.

Now I know that the judges, they expect more from me.

In the semifinals, I'm going to come back, bring it and smash it.

The fact we're going to get the creme de la creme of the quarters

and put them through to the semis,

all of them in the same room together,

it's going to be explosive in there.

In the next quarterfinal, the bakers get tied in knots...

Twists and the folds.

-It's a bit "uhhh"!

-..there's panic over patisserie...

-They're raw.

-..for a place in the semifinal.