Heat Three Junior Bake Off

Starting at the Bake Off tent,

we're going to see some dry ingredients,

followed by some fluffy marshmallow clouds,

which takes us into the late morning,

with high temperatures of 200 degrees centigrade.

As we head towards the afternoon,

the steamy conditions will continue with an increase in pressure

rising from the judges and heading towards the bakers.

You may see some lemon drizzle on the horizon by late evening.

Welcome to Junior Bake Off.

It's flipping good fun in the tent...

Hey!

..with a chocolate pancake Technical.

I'm going to need to wash my hands after this.

But which baker will be consigned to history...

You've just knocked his head off.

-..when re-creations occur...

-Don't move.

-..in biscuits?

It's day three of the heats and the judges will have to choose

just one of these four bakers for the quarterfinals.

So, who will it be?

Well, this is nice.

Ben is 11 and he's his school radio DJ near his home in Shropshire.

In some things, like art and music, you can see your art,

you can listen to the music,

but in baking you can actually taste your work.

Francesca from London is 11 years old

and has practised her bakes on her grandad, who's a dim sum chef.

I've just baked and baked and baked,

so I'm just hoping that I've practised enough times

to produce something that's not a complete flop.

11-year-old Oliver is from Staffordshire.

He's a black belt in karate

and plays in goal for his school football team.

Most of my friends didn't even know I was baking

until I took in a couple of things for them to try.

The comments they gave was quite good

and I was really proud of myself.

I don't have half the stuff in here.

Is this really necessary?

Ten-year-old Hannah from Birmingham

was inspired to bake by her grandma, and she has another baking idol.

I'm looking forward to meeting Nadiya because she won Bake Off

last year and she baked for the Queen.

It's really cool to bake for the Queen.

The first of today's two challenges is the Technical,

which tests the bakers' ability to follow a recipe -

a recipe none of them has seen before.

-Now, who likes pancakes?

-I do!

-Who likes chocolate?

-I do!

Well, put them together and you get

this morning's Technical Challenge.

Allegra and Nadiya would like you to make a chocolate pancake cake.

-BOTH:

-Hey! A chocolate pancake cake.

-Hoo! A chocolate pancake cake.

-That's enough of that.

These consist of 12 pancakes sandwiched together

with hazelnut chocolate spread,

topped off with a chocolate ganache and crushed hazelnuts.

Judges, what are you looking for?

The absolute key is that your pancakes are as thin as possible.

And we'd like you evenly distribute the chocolate and the hazelnut

through the layers. And we want, at the end, a nice, neat stack.

Excellent. Now, before we get started,

have you all washed your hands?

Let's have a look. I think they have, Sam.

Looking pretty clean.

You've got one hour and 30 minutes

to complete your Technical Challenge.

-The best of luck. On your marks...

-Get set... BOTH:

-Bake.

A pancake cake is a French dessert known as a mille crepe.

Flour in a large bowl.

Mille, meaning a thousand.

-Have you made this before?

-No.

But in this Technical, the judges are only demanding 12 layers.

I have done pancakes before so I'm hoping it turns out all right.

"Never a bad time for a pancake in my house" is what I say.

We're looking for those 12 lovely layers covered in the gorgeous,

shiny ganache topped with the hazelnut.

I think we should get in.

You can see that those hazelnuts are distributed right from the centre

all the way out.

Mmm. Because they're nice and thin, easy to get through,

the chocolate eases into your mouth.

And the big crunch of the roasted hazelnuts on top.

But this can go wrong right at the start

because if they don't beat their batter properly

and get all the flour really worked into the milk,

then they're never ever going to be able to make nice, light pancakes.

So, I've put in flour, eggs, bit of salt, vanilla extract.

That's pretty much it.

Need some liquid in it.

My batter is a bit lumpy.

I'm going to mix it a bit more so it's lump-free.

It should be, like, a liquid and not like this.

-Hi, Ben.

-Hiya.

-How are we doing?

-I think I've got a pretty good batter here.

I just need to get it down from the sides a little bit.

-Are you happy with this consistency?

-I'm pretty happy.

I just thought that it might be a little bit better

-without as much fluid.

-Good luck.

-Thank you.

Pan's getting nice and hot.

-Let's have some nice, thin pancakes, please.

-Thank you.

-MARK:

-If you want to try this at home...

I'm putting some butter in the pan so the pancakes won't stick.

..tell a grown-up so they know what you're up to.

I love pancakes.

Ladling an equal amount of batter into the bubbling butter

should ensure the pancakes are the same size.

It's a little bit too thick, it's a little bit lumpy, as well.

I'm going to go and put some more milk in now.

All 12 layers should turn out a nice even colour.

I'm looking for it to be golden brown on the underside

and then I'll flip it over.

That's better. That's a much better pancake.

Some people say that the first one is like a trial run.

Yeah, I'd definitely agree with that.

Ready for the flip.

-Yes.

-Ben, nice one.

I can't flip pancakes.

OK.

This isn't going very well.

Burnt. It's not the best pancake,

but at least it's got a little bit better shape

than this one over here.

I haven't burnt any yet and I'm hoping it will carry on like that.

This is my fifth

and I haven't got much batter left.

I think I might need to make some more.

I've made six so far,

but I think that one kind of burnt.

It's a little bit nerve-racking, looking over the workbench

and seeing that I've got close competition.

-Here we go.

-You'll make me drop it.

-Oh, we won't.

-Sorry.

Hey!

This is the eighth. After this I never want to make pancakes again.

-Wow.

-That's amazing.

-Awesome.

-So uniform.

I've got to say, Francesca,

you seem to be in complete control of what you're doing.

-Yes.

-Yeah?

I'm kind of a bit of a bit of a control freak.

I like to be in control, otherwise I feel things are going to go

out of hand and then they're going to fail.

That's definitely going to help you in the Bake Off tent.

-Yeah, all right?

-Yeah.

1, 2, 3, 4...

5, 6, 7...

8, 9, 10, 11...

12.

Bakers, you are halfway through.

You've got 45 minutes left.

With their pancakes lined up, the bakers can now move on

to making the chocolate ganache topping.

I haven't actually made ganache before,

so I'm hoping that this works.

I need to heat up cream until it's just boiling

and then pour it over dark chocolate and then stir

until the cream melts the chocolate.

One of the tricks that I find is just to put the cream

just at boiling point.

I don't think the cream was hot enough,

so the chocolate hasn't melted.

So I think I'll just keep putting it on here

just to get a little bit of the heat.

I'm just warning you, don't over-boil your cream

because I did that and it's turned out rather mushy.

If ganache gets too hot,

the cocoa solids and the fat start to separate,

giving it a grainy rather than shiny texture.

Bakers, you have 15 minutes left.

With all of the elements prepared, it's time to assemble.

Take a pancake and then you spread hazelnut spread on it

and then you sprinkle the chopped hazelnuts on it.

I'm not really happy with how it's going,

but I think if I keep on trying and we'll see what the end result is.

I forgot the hazelnuts.

This is my chocolate ganache and then I'll top it

with some chopped hazelnuts.

I intend to put a smiley face on the top.

This is going to make it stand out a bit.

Bakers, two minutes left.

-You scared Hannah to death.

-Sorry, Hannah.

My number one saying, it doesn't have to be neat to be nice.

It's a bit messy.

I'm going to need to wash my hands after this.

OK, bakers, that's it, stop what you're doing.

Mine's horrible!

Could you please bring your pancake stacks over to the gingham altar?

The judges were looking for a neat stack of 12 thin pancakes

with an even distribution of nuts and chocolate between the layers,

all covered in a shiny chocolate ganache.

Ben, we've got lots of hazelnut, which I like,

and a lovely, glossy ganache.

-That's yum.

-It is very delicious indeed.

You've got a judicious, nice amount of chocolate in there.

One thing, Ben, I'm not seeing quite as much golden

-on the actual pancakes as I might do.

-Yeah, but otherwise good.

Francesca, I have one word for you - boom!

Absolutely gorgeous.

You can see there's a lovely distribution of the chocolate

and the hazelnut all the way through. Lovely, glossy ganache.

We're going in.

I've got ooze, I've got squish!

Mm, mm, mm, mm, mmm!

It's so important to get enough hazelnut all the way through.

It's not too much, it's not too little, it's just right.

-Fabulous.

-Delicious.

Oliver, we like a bit of personalisation in the tent

and you've certainly done that.

But the ganache has lost its gloss.

-You probably overheated the cream slightly.

-Yeah.

Your pancakes are cooked really well,

but I think you might have forgotten the hazelnuts.

-On a few layers.

-On a few layers.

So it's got nothing to hold that spread with.

Hannah, looking at it straight away, your ganache is lovely and shiny,

but I want more of it.

You haven't got it on top,

but you've got plenty of spread on the inside.

You can see the hazelnuts are basically in the middle,

which is why it's given it that shape.

They are cooked well.

Did some of them go a little bit over?

-I think so.

-You can just taste it.

It's slightly, kind of, a bit more golden.

-OK.

-But apart from that, it's delicious.

-Thank you.

Nadiya and Allegra will now decide

which two pancake cakes are their favourites.

The first of our top two pancake cakes is Francesca's

-for making it as good as I could.

-Thank you.

And the second person is Ben,

for making a very, very delicious pancake cake.

Allegra said it was as good as anything she would have made,

so I'm really happy to hear that

and really proud that I made it to her standards.

I'm really overwhelmed about coming in the top two.

It gives me a real boost for my Showstopper,

gives me loads of confidence.

I'm happy to see the back of pancakes forever.

For the next challenge, our bakers are going to need to do some

history research to create a biscuit.

I've actually got a historical biscuit right here.

How exciting.

Wow! Is that actual chewing gum?

-Yeah.

-And is that genuine mould?

-I think it is.

-Oh, my goodness!

How old is this biscuit?

Maybe a decade old.

And how did you come to get it in your possession?

I found it down the back of the sofa.

Fascinating.

Bakers, it's Showstopper time.

This afternoon, Allegra and Nadiya would like you to recreate

a moment in history in biscuit form.

It needs to be a minimum of 12 biscuits.

You've got 90 minutes.

-On your marks...

-Get set... BOTH:

-Bake.

I'm pretty prepared for this bake.

NADIYA: The bakers have to think about the creative aspect,

but there is a big element of engineering

throughout the whole thing.

We want to see them stand up straight

and we want to see some sort of construction.

They must be really careful about the kind of glue they use

to hold their structure together to get their biscuit upright,

because otherwise we could just be looking at a lot of rubble.

I put butter, flour, caster sugar and bicarb into the mix

and then I blitz until it looks like breadcrumbs.

Three of the bakers are making gingerbread,

an ideal biscuit dough for 3-D structures.

Then you add golden syrup and egg until it binds together.

It's the addition of sticky golden syrup

that gives the gingerbread its strength.

I am making a tribute to the London 2012 Olympics.

I think it's quite an important time in Olympic history.

On my podiums we've got gingerbread men who have obviously won medals.

My brother has ginger hair and he can run extremely fast,

so we always say he has got ginger power.

As well as his gingerbread champions on gingerbread podiums,

Ben is also creating a London 2012 banner

in vanilla shortbread biscuit.

So, how many biscuits are you making?

About 30 to 40.

About 30 to 40?

-You have only got 90 minutes!

-Yes.

So, would you like to be in the Olympics?

If there was a squash event I'd definitely...

-Badminton, me, mate.

-He likes his badminton.

-Squash county champion.

-Are you?

-Yeah.

I'd love to see you play Sam at squash.

-I'd pay, I'd pay.

-No, badminton.

-Yeah, well, play that.

-I'll smash you at badminton, kid.

-All right, calm down!

-All right. Hey...

-I'll smash him.

Hey, easy, easy.

-Ben, good luck, mate.

-Thank you.

-Good luck. And you, calm down.

I'll see you on the court, I'll see you on the court.

No, no, now let him bake his biscuits.

I chose this because I really enjoy learning about the Romans.

So I'm going to do a biscuit recreation

of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius.

So I'll be recreating the town of Pompeii

with all of the people fleeing from the volcano,

and the volcano's going to be erupting strawberry jam.

Francesca's Pompeiians, along with their horses,

will be flavoured with orange zest and cocoa.

She's building them a three-storey amphitheatre and a chocolate house.

-Hi, Francesca.

-Hi.

What is your base dough?

It was originally a gingerbread dough,

but I looked up what kind of flavours the Romans enjoyed

and orange was a very, very popular flavour.

So I asked myself what flavour goes with orange and the most obvious

answer is chocolate, so I'm kneading the cocoa in.

Have you ever had any problems?

Sometimes when I add too much cocoa it tastes bitter or it cracks

in the oven because it's quite dry.

After this morning, I've got high expectations.

So, I quite like space,

so my Showstopper is an orange gingerbread recreation

of Neil Armstrong's landing on the moon.

So I'm making a 3-D rocket with a moon, some stars,

an astronaut and a flag.

Hannah will decorate her orange gingerbread rocket with royal icing.

Neil Armstrong will be sticking his flag

into a chocolate chip cookie moon.

I think the hardest bit is assembling everything

because I've got to make it stand up and it has to be 3-D.

It has fallen a few times, but I've managed to quickly get it back up.

Oliver is the only baker who isn't making gingerbread.

It's a bit like shortbread but it's a bit softer,

and it's lemon and almond mixed together.

I'm going to be making a re-enactment of swan-upping,

which is an event that started way back,

and it's where they count all of the cygnets on the River Thames.

Oliver's biscuit depiction of this annual event will feature 12 swans

sandwiched between lemon-flavoured vanilla fondant icing.

They'll sit on a giant shortbread biscuit

topped with a royal icing River Thames.

It's quite a snappy biscuit.

It should snap,

but then on the inside it should be smooth and light.

Once I've made this dough, it goes into the fridge to cool,

because when I chill it, it helps it keep its shape.

Ben is wasting no time chilling.

Right, that's the first lot done.

I've got a lot to do, you know? 30 biscuits, I think,

in total. A minimum of 12.

I haven't stuck to the brief again, I never do.

I'm rolling out my dough.

I'm using these rolling pin guides to make sure I get

a really even biscuit so that they all cook at the same rate.

The reason I'm putting it in between two pieces of parchment paper

is because if you don't,

the dough will actually crack while you're rolling it.

It should be about a centimetre thick.

My gran bought my swan cutters for me,

which are really helpful because they allow you to have

the intricate design on the swan.

I'm preparing pieces of biscuit for my Roman amphitheatre,

which is where the Romans watched gladiators.

I'm baking them around a can so that they turn out round,

and then when I take two halves and join them together

they will, hopefully, form a circular amphitheatre.

Bakers, you have had half your time. You've got 45 minutes left.

With the first batch of biscuits baking,

Hannah and Oliver are moving on to their bases.

I am weighing out my cookie dough for my moon.

It will be one big biscuit.

I'll do them in, like, blobs,

so then it will merge together and give it a bumpy effect.

This is shaped a bit like a river,

which is supposed to signify the River Thames.

Oh! An arm's dropped off again.

The flour basically keeps it from breaking up, or it should do.

Not really in this case.

Right, OK, these need to come out.

Oh, dear.

-Oh, they look wicked!

-Thank you.

The biscuits have spread slightly, so not quite according to plan,

but I'll have to do what I have.

Pretty happy, yeah, they're nice and...soft.

That's not a good sign.

OK, I'm just going to whack them in the oven for a while longer.

-Oh, is that the moon?

-Yeah.

Oh!

-It's good.

-I love that.

You've even got the craters and stuff like that.

We all know that the moon is made of cheese, so,

is there any cheese in this?

-No.

-Oh!

-Oh, ah...

OK, bakers, you've had one hour.

You've got half an hour left.

So, I'm going to glue here, but first I need to decorate.

Oh, God, this is snapping.

I'm going to hope I can glue this together.

This is royal icing.

Hannah's royal icing is made by mixing icing sugar with water,

which hardens once dry.

I'm going to divide it into thirds.

So it's going to be red, white and blue for the American flag,

because Neil Armstrong was from America.

Ben is still making biscuits.

These are to construct the podium.

It's very, very hard, trying to get them not to break.

These look brilliant!

You've just knocked his head off, but other than that, fantastic.

Right, here comes the hard part.

Ben is using buttercream icing as his glue,

which is made by mixing icing sugar and butter.

The purpose of this white icing is just to try and give the podium here

a little bit more support

and give it more of a chance of standing up, really.

This is not working.

This is apricot jam, which should help it stick to the biscuit.

They've all got sad faces on them because they're running away

from a volcanic eruption,

which is probably not the most happy of places.

I'm a little bit worried,

but I think I can get it done in time.

I texturised the fondant so that it looks like grass,

and it makes a really good foothold so that they stay up

when you put them into the grass.

I'm trying to stick now the gingerbread to the podiums.

Bakers, you have ten minutes left.

This is not holding up.

The stress is getting to me.

I don't think I'm going to get it all done.

I've got to stand the rocket up.

-OK, yeah, yeah, yeah.

-They need to slide in.

-So you need to get that stable and then that slides in there.

-Yeah.

Just stay on.

Damn.

Go on, Hannah, go on.

-That's it, that's staying.

-All right!

Don't move, don't move.

I'm a little bit worried.

I think that's OK.

60 seconds, bakers.

Right, that's it.

Bakers, step away from your creations.

Baking in the tent and the time condition I found quite stressful.

I was a bit rushed again.

Bwhooof!

The brief was to give us a biscuit that stood up

and you've absolutely done that. Great rocket.

And not only that, it feels absolutely rock solid.

I particularly like the crater on the bottom.

Did you run out of time to cover the stars and the face?

-Yeah.

-I think that's the only thing that's missing.

Shall we try it?

Mmm!

The combination of the ginger and the orange is perfect.

Delicious. Really nice.

And that little bit of sweetness that comes from the icing.

-Nicely done, Hannah, thank you very much.

-Thank you.

It absolutely, excuse me, takes the biscuit,

for being the biggest Showstopper we've ever had.

The detail here - I love the finishing line...

But it's a little messy, Ben.

Mm, that's got a lovely kick to it at the back.

Beautifully baked. And you wanted ginger for your brother

because he's got ginger power. That biscuit's got ginger power.

You've got to try the vanilla biscuits.

They are delicious and buttery crisp.

Yeah, the ginger's good, but the vanilla's great.

Beautifully done. I mean, I'm so impressed with those figures.

-It's time to eat a biscuit.

-Let's try.

The biscuit is cooked really well.

It's crisp, it's buttery, it's delicious,

but it doesn't need to be sandwiched

with two layers of fondant.

Too sweet. But, for me, that's a good bake.

Your swans would swim away happily, Oliver, good job.

The way you've made the amphitheatre was extraordinary.

Huge technical detail here.

The piping, it is truly a work of art.

You can see each of them have their own individual expressions

of fear and horror.

That's perfectly baked underneath.

Deliciously crisp.

Simply cooked, but nicely done,

as good as any gingerbread you'll ever taste.

And also it's just so confidently stuck in there.

-A really good bit of judgment, really.

-Thank you.

You're really good.

Everybody's was really good.

Only one can go through, though.

So, judges, this morning,

Technical Challenge was the pancake chocolate cake.

Francesca, she really stood out, didn't she?

-She absolutely smashed it.

-Ben, Oliver and Hannah,

they were competing with something that was perfect,

so, you know, it was tough.

But Ben was the one that you decided to put in your top two this morning.

How did Ben do this afternoon?

We asked for 12 biscuits, we got three times the amount.

If he'd scaled it back slightly, he could have used his time better.

-What about Oliver?

-We could have had less fondant,

it was really, really sweet. But his bakes were really good.

Hannah, she didn't finish off her stars, did she?

But she iced her rocket ship beautifully.

And Francesca?

I mean, really, it's just so imaginative and so well executed.

We've got great baking, a little bit of architecture, and bravery,

which is exactly what we want in this tent.

OK, is this going to be a long deliberation, do you think?

-I think we know.

-I think we know, too.

Well, bakers, what can we say?

You've all been absolutely brilliant.

However, you do know that Allegra and Nadiya can only take one of you

through to the quarterfinals.

This baker has illustrated extraordinary technical ability

and creative brilliance.

The person going through to the quarterfinals is...

..Francesca.

Well done, Francesca.

I'm honestly just shocked.

Fantastic, well done.

Francesca, she is not only a great baker,

but she's managed to engineer a biscuit building.

Well done.

She gave us this moment in history that was just mesmerising

and a great bake, too.

Between now and the quarterfinals, I'm just going to carry on baking

and make sure my next Showstopper is perfect for the tent.

-Next time...

-Oh!

-..the bakers take a trip around the globe...

-Good day, mate.

-G'day, mate.

..using exotic ingredients...

Any good?

..that are a first for the judges.

It's like nothing I've tasted before.