Episode 4 The Great British Bake Off

This year in The Great British Bake Off,

judges Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood couldn't have asked for more.

The bakers have been unbelievable.

I mean, after last year, I thought they can never get any better.

But I was proved wrong again.

They displayed exceptional talent as they strove for excellence.

Really lovely.

Very good.

We've had very difficult challenges this year,

and so timing has been so important.

And, at times, they almost snapped under the pressure.

HE GROANS

My mind's gone blank!

That was stressful!

It's not hot enough!

I'd sooner have another baby!

But, ultimately, produced bakes of outstanding quality.

Queen Victoria would be proud.

Oh!

Well done, Nadiya.

SHE SIGHS

Now the bakers have hung up their aprons,

Mary and Paul have made the tent their own.

This time, the recipes reach new heights as they take us

through some of the most ambitious bakes from the series.

We've got some great bakes for you on this masterclass.

We've got real show stoppers,

centrepieces for the middle of the table.

We've got some little things you can just dip in and out of

with a cup of tea. But whichever takes your fancy,

we've got something to make you bake at home.

These are tried and tested recipes

and I can't wait to get going to show you exactly how to make them.

Coming up...

Mary makes a tennis cake.

An intricately decorated Victorian-style fruit cake.

Followed by dainty French-style mokatines,

perfect for an afternoon tea.

Paul puts his own twist on a patisserie classic,

tutti-frutti and mocha cream horns.

Before ending with the ultimate show stopper,

a spectacular choux pastry tower.

Religieuse a l'ancienne.

As the bakers got paired down and the final came even closer,

week seven saw the Bake Off tent step back in time with a Victorian theme.

Bakers, it's that time again.

It's the technical challenge.

And, for this one, Mary has raided her antique cookbooks

and has come up with a marvellous recipe from the 1890s.

Mary and Paul would like you to make...

tennis cake.

Yes. You and us both.

You've got three hours to make this.

-On your marks...

-Get set...

-BOTH: Bake!

With 25 separate ingredients and four major parts to Mary's cake...

Oh, my God!

..the bakers had to up their game with what they served up.

I mean, it can't be that hard, right? It's a cake.

The instructions aren't that detailed, no.

It sort of says, "Using a creaming method, make the cake."

What more do you need to know other than that, you know?

The intricate decoration of Mary's tennis cake

is matched only by the lavishly rich fruitcake underneath.

In Victorian times, tennis cake was very popular

because it was the sport that everybody played.

Do you enjoy tennis, Mary?

I love tennis, but not in Victorian times.

Come on, let's get going.

I'm going to make the fruitcake,

and to start with we need lots of fruit.

And I put quite a few cherries in mine.

350g of cherries.

Glacier cherries.

And then they need quartering.

Guess who's going to quarter them?

-It's all right, just...

-Really?

Just some chopped apricots as well, and some chopped nuts.

Unbelievable.

-That's it.

-You can buy cherries cut, you know, Mary.

I know, but I like to do it myself, then you know...

But you're not, though, are you?

Well, you're going to roughly chop them, so that's all right.

-The main thing is, in the middle of a cherry is a pool of syrup.

-Yeah.

Once that's chopped, they really needs to be washed

to get rid of that surplus syrup in the middle.

Once you've washed them, it's important to dry them thoroughly.

Excess moisture prevents them from staying suspended in the mix.

Then to the other fruits. Now, this is something a bit unusual.

It's a can of pineapple.

And drain all the liquid off them.

It doesn't matter whether it's crushed pineapple,

pineapple rings, the main thing is for it to be chopped finely

and every little bit of water taken away.

If you don't drain it and you don't get all the water away,

it'll mean that all the fruit will go to the bottom of the cake

cos the mixture would be too slack.

So, every bit of liquid is taken out of them.

But you've still got the flavour.

And the juice, well, you could use that. Drink it. Do whatever.

-Fruit salad.

-Fruit salad.

It would be a lovely sweetening agent to a fresh fruit salad.

So, there we are. We're getting there. Now, we need some apricots.

350g of ready-to-eat apricots.

The dried apricots that Victorians had

were a little bit harder than that.

So, I suppose they would have chopped them a little bit finer.

But it does give a lovely flavour to the cake.

And you can see how rich it is with fruit.

Now, all we've got to do is to add some sultanas.

-Do you want me to chop the sultanas?

-I do.

No!

THEY LAUGH

Are you actually doing anything on this recipe, Mary?

No, I especially made this recipe with so much chopping for you.

And it's no good trying to put into a processer to chop these,

they would all be far too fine.

So, it is something that you want to do by hand.

-You can buy apricot pieces.

-Can you?

Well, you haven't got them today, so sorry about that.

So, if anyone wants to make this at home, if life's too short,

they could actually buy chopped apricots.

I think I'd better nip out to get the next ingredient,

we could get it chopping, and that almonds.

-So, you could have chopped almonds.

-You want chopped almonds as well?

-Now, wait a minute.

-You can get nibbed almonds, Mary.

-You can.

But you couldn't in Victorian times

and we are doing it just as the Victorians would make it,

except I'm going to use a machine to beat the butter.

Yeah, exactly! So, what do you want me to do?

A little mouse on a belt running around keeping the mixer going?

You can't pick everything. It seems to be all the nasty jobs...

-Yes, but...

-..I've got to do by hand because it's Victorian.

When it comes to the mixing, it's not Victorian any more.

It's modern!

Well, I suppose Victorians would perhaps have had another minion

in the kitchen who would be chopping that.

They wouldn't have the likes of you.

I've seen Upstairs, Downstairs, Mary.

Put the fruit in a bowl and add 100g of chopped, blanched almonds.

Then, zest two lemons.

Juice?

No, you don't put the juice because it would react

with the raising agent which is baking powder.

That's perfect. That'll give a lovely lemony flavour.

And add 350g of sultanas.

That's a good mix. Thank you.

Cream together 250g of unsalted butter with 250g of caster sugar.

-You can have a rest while this is going on.

-Well, thanks.

You can have a rest, too, Mary(!)

I'm just going to scrape down the sides of the bowl.

While I'm doing that, can you put five eggs in there?

Right. Now, could you do me 250g of self raising flour?

Now, I'm going to add a little of that flour on top of the fruit.

Like that. Giving it a coating.

Again, helps to suspend it.

Pour in half the eggs and begin to mix.

Then add a little of the flour, so that it doesn't curdle.

I suppose a heaped tablespoon.

Gradually add the remaining egg

before finally folding in the rest of the flour.

No need to sieve it.

So, round the outside and down the middle.

Like that. When it's nearly all in, you can add the fruit.

And then here,

I'm just going to see that these are coated with a bit of the flour.

Then you just put all of that in and it's a lot of fruit.

In it goes, every single scrap.

-And because we dried it well, it's all separate. Look.

-Mmm.

And that is important.

As if there aren't enough ingredients in here,

just one more job - and no more chopping!

75g of ground almonds.

-They're already ground for you.

-Oh, thank you(!)

In there. That's it. Now, I promise you, that is everything in there.

-Are you sure?

-Absolutely everything.

Looks like little jewels, these little bits of cherry in there.

Put the cake mix into a double-lined 23cm by 15cm tin,

making sure to push the mixture into the corners.

So, into the oven at 140 fan. And it will take about two hours.

Covering it with foil for the last bit of time if it gets too brown.

So, now it is almond paste time.

First of all, ground almonds.

And you don't have to grind them for me.

250g of ground almonds.

To the almonds, add 150g of caster sugar...

..50g of icing sugar...

..one egg...

..and a teaspoon of almond extract.

-Adding some extract just intensifies the flavour.

-Mmm.

There we are, and that needs pounding together.

You love using your hands, don't you?

For me, baking is all about consistency.

And if you know what it feels like with your hands,

you're going to be a good baker. And that's the way I was taught

and that's the way I'll probably always be.

Bring the mix together and knead it to a stiff paste.

Then, roll it out to a rectangle just a bit larger than the top of the cake.

That's good enough, I think.

I've made a template to remind me what the tennis court looks like.

Neatly cut the edges,

so you're left with a perfect 23cm by 15cm rectangle.

Then put it aside on non-stick paper and cover with food wrap.

That's it.

Mary's recipe required the bakers to make every element from scratch...

Never even thought of making my own sugar paste.

Just imagined it's not a home-baker thing.

..so it was inevitable that they had the odd sticky moment.

SHE GROANS

That's really nasty!

Maybe I should do it again?

This is a joke, isn't it?

What is that? Sugar paste?

-Yeah. Mine's quite different to yours, isn't it?

-It is, yes.

Everyone else has got it like...

something that you can actually roll out.

So, what's happened with that icing?

I can't make it. Oh, this is...

-Honestly.

-Have you got time to do it again?

It's annoying, isn't it?

Listen, mate. Don't let a fondant tennis court be the end of you.

I know, this is it!

HE SIGHS

Now, it's on to sugar paste.

And we start off by putting everything in a bowl over hot water,

not boiling water.

Gently warm two tablespoons of water,

four tablespoons of liquid glucose,

one and a half teaspoons of glycerin,

and four leaves of gelatine.

There's no need to pre-soak them on this occasion.

Be careful not to let the water boil, because if you overheat the gelatine

it can seize and become hard and rubbery.

-Can you weigh me 500g of icing sugar?

-OK.

And that's sieved icing sugar.

And if you can put half of it on the table, and half, leave in the bowl.

Once the gelatine has dissolved,

pour the mixture into the bowl with the icing sugar

and mix to a smooth paste.

Right, I'm going to make a well in the centre. You tip it all in.

Fold in the remaining icing sugar and knead the paste

-until it's smooth and pliable.

-That's coming together really well.

I'm going to pinch a bit...

..from the side and that is for the tennis ball.

Gradually add food colouring until you achieve a grass court green.

I certainly think you've earned your keep.

Yeah, this is your recipe!

-I've done rather well out of this.

-Haven't you?!

No, I have made the tennis ball.

HE LAUGHS

Roll it out and cut it to size using the template.

Then lay it on top of the almond paste.

To stop it drying out, back goes the clingfilm over the top.

The cake has had two hours. It's the right colour.

-A big old cake, isn't he?

-I leave that in the tin to cool.

Now, of course, our bakers didn't have this privilege of time.

At home, you'll most likely make the cake the day before, get it cold.

It has sunk a little bit.

HE SIGHS

Damn, damn, damn, damn!

It's too hot. It's boiling.

It's not going to do in time.

If making all the individual elements had challenged the bakers,

serving up the final decoration put them in a spin.

I think I can remember what a tennis court looks like.

Two small tennis rackets.

I'm really not happy with my icing.

-Tennis rackets, tennis rackets...

-Not set.

The handle's not ready yet.

Fridge. Fridge!

-Fridge? Oh, no, I think I'm going to freeze.

-Freeze?

I'll freeze, you fridge.

BEEPER

They're all broken.

Ugh!

-What did you make that with? Icing?

-Yeah.

-It's yellow.

Yeah, I probably left it in the oven too long.

Oven?

Yeah.

Now, it's royal icing time.

Whisk up three egg whites until frothy

and then gradually add 675g of sieved icing sugar.

Now, that is pretty good!

We're going to put this in three different bowls.

Once you've divided up the icing, colour one third pale pink,

one third light gold and leave the last third white.

As we're not going to be doing this for a bit, we should put

a damp cloth over the top, otherwise you get a crust on the top.

It's just about right like that. Not touching it.

Now we've got the royal icing

and we've got to, first of all, do the tennis rackets.

-Do you play a lot of tennis, Mary?

-On Mondays.

Done with the same four for nearly 30 years.

-The same people?

-Mm.

-Really?

-Yes.

It's more about the friendship than the tennis.

It doesn't matter who wins.

As long as it's me!

-Oh, you're that competitive, are you?

-No, I'm not.

You'll also need to pipe a net

which needs to be 12cm long by 3cm high.

We're ready for tennis, aren't we?

Now, that, ideally leave overnight to set.

-Yes.

-Now it's an assembly job.

Turn the cooled cake out, brush the top with apricot jam.

Just a thin layer, not quite to the edge.

That's it. Right, can you level that on for me?

So that's my drawing and that's fairly accurate.

Using the template, mark out the tennis court and then pipe the lines.

And then, using the coloured icing,

pipe a decorative border around the edge.

It looks lovely, that, Mary.

Stick the net on and place a tennis racket on either side.

Not forgetting the sugar paste tennis ball.

I think that's it then, Mary, isn't it?

Well, I think that was one of the difficult challenges

we've given our poor bakers.

It's been quite a marathon for us to do.

I'm happy with that. I think it looks really good.

I'm up for tennis, Mary.

I think, go and get a cup of tea as well, to be honest.

Tennis cake. Good enough for Wimbledon.

It looks lovely.

That looks good!

Right, do you want a piece, Mary?

SHE LAUGHS

It's very rich so you only need a small slice.

Beautifully moist and I think the pineapple makes all the difference.

They're well chopped up, them, I think.

-You're not going to let me forget that, are you?

-No.

Half an hour chopping up that fruit!

It's worth it, though.

It tastes good, it looks good, and with a cup of tea,

-you can't beat it.

-Absolutely!

And now Paul's simple technique for shaping Danish pastries.

Here I have a Danish pastry.

We divide it into four squares.

Like so.

Now, with these two, I'm going to turn them into a kite

so you cut in about a third roughly from each corner

into the middle all the way through.

The same with this one.

Then you pick a corner.

Leave one flat, fold the other one into the middle.

Leave one flat, fold it into the middle.

Leave that one, fold that one in.

Leave that one, fold that one in.

There you have it. Do the same with the other one.

Leave that, fold it into the middle.

Leave one, fold into the middle.

And again and again.

There you have the kites.

Now, this is another one.

Pick two opposite corners, draw your knife down,

cut all the way through, not joining them together, though.

Make sure you leave a little gap both sides.

Fold over, press down.

Fold over and press down.

There's one.

Exactly the same with the other one.

Pick your two corners, draw your knife in.

Same again.

Cutting inside, you're making another square inside.

Folding it over and again.

So, there you have it.

Beautiful shapes to bake with.

I'm sure it'll impress your family.

Week eight was the quarterfinals and it was all about patisserie.

Good morning, bakers.

The following Signature Challenge has been assessed

by the Double Entendre Police and I'm delighted to inform you

that, this morning, Paul and Mary would love you to make cream horns.

Cream horn is very simply a spiral of pastry with some

-cream in the middle.

-Absolutely!

So, bakers, please,

Mary and Paul would like you to make two different flavours.

12 of each flavour, 24 horns in total.

You've got three-and-a-half hours, bakers. On your marks...

Horn away!

BOTH: Bake!

The bakers chose an array of fillings from the more traditional...

to the more adventurous.

One of them is coffee and vanilla swirl,

and the other one is a bruleed banana mixed in with the cream.

-Bananas and custard...

-..go lovely!

It's just...

That was like a treat for me on a Sunday.

You've chosen unusual flavours, haven't you?

I am making peach, lemon and thyme cream horns

and butterscotch and smoked almond.

Paul is filling half of his cream horns with a mocha creme patissiere.

And the other half with a limoncello tutti-frutti cream.

Cream horns, Mary!

I haven't made those since I was at college and I quite enjoyed that.

I love cream horns.

I think, made well, they're delicious with a good puff pastry.

We asked them to make 24. I'm only going to make 12.

That's a more realistic number that people would make at home.

To start with, I need to make the puff pastry, so could you

weigh me up 150g of CHILLED, and it is chilled, strong, white flour.

-Chilled?

-Chilled.

-Right.

It really helps to keep the actual puff pastry cold.

-Did you say 150?

-150, please.

And, on top of that, 150g of plain flour.

I'm using a strong flour to give it strength in the puff pastry

and then a little bit of breakability as well

which comes from the plain flour.

-And I'm aiming for 300 in total?

-300 in total.

Add a pinch of salt, two eggs

and 100mls of ice-cold water to the flour.

That's how I like my glass of wine in the evening,

to have that nice, chilled look on the outside.

I know that, Mary!

Mix around. A little bit more in there.

Once the dough comes together, tip it out onto a floured surface.

So, I'm just going to work that dough a little bit.

It's quite cold, which is good.

I'm happy with that.

Don't want to work that too much, because this is going to be folded.

So, I'm going to go a little bit of...wrap.

Do you sometimes, in your puff pastry,

rub in a bit of butter into the flour first?

No, so much butter goes into it anyway, you don't really need to.

-Mm.

-I've worked that dough together.

It's got a little bit glutinous, little bit stretchy.

It's warmed up a bit.

I want to chill that down for about 20 minutes before I use it again.

-OK.

-Thank you.

While the dough is chilling, take 300g of cold, unsalted butter

and flatten it out.

That's pretty hard.

It is indeed.

Place it between two sheets of nonstick paper

and pop it back in the fridge for 15 to 20 minutes.

BIRDS TWEET

There's your butter.

Now, your chilled dough is very, very cold,

-but that's how it should be, is it?

-That's fine.

First of all, flatten it down and then roll it out.

I'm doing it this way, which is more croissant way, really.

You need to cover three-quarters of this with the butter.

So, I'm being as quick as I possibly can.

Get your butter.

Ripping off pieces of the butter to cover two thirds of it.

Then I'm going to cover half that with the dough,

then the top half moves over to there.

And then I'll seal the sides,

just to stop it coming out at this stage.

Little bit of flour again. I'm going to roll it once.

That's not a turn, that's just put the butter in.

Start in the middle, tap up...

tap down. Don't start from the top and work up,

cos all the butter will just go to the top.

Fold it over once.

That's called a single turn.

This...

is a book turn,

where you fold it into the middle

and then fold it over again.

Chill that down

another 20 minutes and then we'll fold it again.

This technique of rolling,

folding and chilling

builds up layers within the dough.

It's a process that needs to be repeated twice more,

using single turns.

What you can see in there is very, very thin, faint lines.

That's the lamination of the dough and butter.

-It looks like a book on its side...

-Yeah.

-..with all the leaves.

Exactly. Now, what I'm going to do is roll this pastry out

into a rough rectangle.

Using a sharp knife or a pizza cutter,

divide the dough into 12 long strips.

And then wrap each strip around a cone-shaped mould.

Start down the bottom, pinch it round,

make sure it's adhered to it, and then begin to wrap around.

You're overlapping it

and you haven't greased... You didn't grease these, did you?

Don't think there's any need to.

Not with the amount of butter that's in there.

It's important to keep the pastry cool,

so when you finish the first six,

put them on a lined baking tray in the fridge.

You all right there?

-Just about.

-Balancing act.

They've rolled around a bit, but that's OK.

What I want to do, I've just got an egg here, which I've beaten.

I'm just going to brush it over the horns.

This will give it a lovely shine.

Also it will make quite sure that all the strips

-are sticking to each other.

-Exactly.

It does give it a lovely, brown...

I like a nice rich colour on the puff pastry.

OK, nice egg wash.

What I've got is some granulated sugar. Thank you.

That gives a nice crunchiness on top?

It does give a lovely crunchy finish to it.

Don't forget to put them on nonstick paper, because otherwise,

-when it caramelises, tricky to get off.

-Exactly.

Got my horns ready, they're going to go into the oven at 180 fan...

for around...15 minutes, 12, 15 minutes.

In the tent, it's the bake that often determines success or failure.

I'll only really know when they bake whether they are OK.

And for some of the bakers,

producing a perfect horn spiralled out of control.

They're not...perfect.

Burst a little bit.

Look like a right dog's dinner.

The plain rough puff and the chocolate ones just haven't bonded.

Oh, no!

-PAUL:

-All right, Mary, let's bring these...horns out.

They look...so tempting.

-Don't they look lovely?

-I love the sugary top.

Again, that little bit of extra...

sugar really makes a difference to the overall appearance of them.

What I'm going to do, it's like a mocha filling.

-The other one will be like a tutti-frutti.

-Oh.

-All right?

For the mocha filling, you need to make creme patissiere.

Start by heating up 400ml of milk

and put 100g caster sugar and four egg yolks in a bowl.

-There we are.

-Lovely.

Just going to whisk that together.

If you can weigh me up 40g of corn starch as well.

Obviously, this is going to be the thickener in the creme pats.

Who needs a machine when you've got a Paul Hollywood?

PAUL LAUGHS

-Have you got...that's 40g there, yeah?

-Yeah.

-Lovely.

And I've got some coffee essence there as well.

This is quite strong coffee essence.

-So, you need very little.

-Yeah...

Having made a mistake of adding too much once.

PAUL LAUGHS

-There you are.

-I'm actually going to put a tablespoon in.

-So, you're making a strengthened custard?

-Basically, yeah.

Thank you.

Pop that back on the heat.

Just going to cook this out a minute.

Just to thicken it.

Oh, smell that, Mary.

-Mm.

-Lovely, isn't it?

-Bit of all right.

It's all right, isn't it?

Now, as it cools down, it will thicken a little bit more.

I'm happy with that.

Now, what I want to do first...

Come to these for a brief minute.

Pop these out, put them to one side.

Now, over here I've got 200g of melted chocolate,

which we're going to add to that custard mixture,

but before I do....

I know what you're going to do, you're going to dip the ends in.

Just drop a little bit in there.

Gosh, that makes them look very smart, doesn't it?

Dip six of the pastry horns in the chocolate

and then put them aside to set.

Thank you.

And I'm going to pour in this chocolate.

Just stir that through.

Now, this is a mocha.

Look at that.

Thanks, Mum.

Put the creme patissiere in a bowl, cover and leave to cool.

Thank you.

That's one filling.

For Paul's tutti-frutti filling, whip up 150g of double cream...

..with 250g of ricotta.

I'm going to add a little bit of limoncello to this as well.

Have you ever tried limoncello, Mary?

-I certainly have and I like it a lot.

-PAUL LAUGHS

-Please, nobody's been at the bottle.

-Are you sure?

-Yeah.

It's not very cold. I like it when it's nice and cold, actually.

You need a tablespoon.

I'm just going to whisk these together.

Happy with that.

Then add 75g of mixed candied peel.

-There you are.

-Lovely.

I'll bung that...put a few of those on the top, as well as the other ones.

-I've got a bit to spare here, you can have that.

-Lovely.

And that is the basic fillings,

you've got some limoncello, a bit of ricotta, you've got...

-mixed fruits. Isn't that delicious?

-Mm.

Lovely.

I'll get a load of this mixture.

Because the mixed peel's in there, I need a bigger hole at the bottom,

so, I'm just going to pipe in, all the way up...

to the top. There's one.

And what you could do, Mary,

just get a bit of extra mixed peel and pop it onto the...

I can do that.

And finally, pipe the cooled mocha creme patissiere

into the horns dipped in chocolate.

Just about get them all on there.

So, there you have it, my tutti-frutti cream horns

and my mocha choca cream horns.

-Looking forward to them, Mary?

-They're magnificent. Can't wait.

-Now, which one are you going to have?

-Tutti-frutti.

OK, there you go.

I'm going to take this one.

It does look spectacular, though.

It should be.

-Mm!

-Mm.

Mm!

The candied fruits are different and they're special.

Well, I love this with the chocolate, with the cream in there.

Coffee, the flavour mixes really well with a very light puff pastry.

This is fabulous, well done. Just the ticket.

From a patisserie classic to one that's a little more obscure.

For today's technical challenge we would like you to make

nine identical mokatines.

-You've got two hours. On your marks.

-Get set.

-BOTH:

-Bake.

What?

I did actually see this in Mary Berry's recipe book.

Did I read it? No.

I thought, "Well, I'm not going to make that, that's really fiddly."

-Didn't even read it.

-No, I haven't heard of mokatines before, no.

So a bit at a loss with this, really.

Mary's mokatines wouldn't look out of place in a Parisian patisserie.

Coffee-flavoured buttercream

sandwiched between a light Genoise sponge

and decorated with tiny rosettes of coffee creme au beurre.

It was quite a tricky challenge, the mokatines.

Quarter-final. Very tricky.

-Right.

-OK.

-How is it done?

We're going to do a Genoise to start with

and I'm going to need three eggs, please.

-Whole eggs?

-Whole eggs straight in there. Lovely.

Large eggs.

Perfect.

And then I'm going to whisk those with sugar

and I need 75g of caster sugar.

There you go, Mary.

The eggs and sugar need whisking until they reach ribbon stage

and, at the same time, weigh up 75g of plain flour.

You'll know when ribbon stage is reached

when the mixture is light and frothy

and you're able to make a ribbon-like pattern on the surface.

Let me just show you that.

This has got to leave an impression when I lift the whisk up

but it's got to sink back in again.

Do it too much, like a meringue, the flour won't go in smoothly.

So it's just sinking back in straightaway.

I have ready 40g of melted butter here.

It's essential that the butter is melted and just runny, but cool.

Too hot and it will separate.

Then sieve half of the flour into the eggs and sugar.

And I'm going to fold that in, going round the outside,

through the centre,

and trickle the butter, half of it,

round the edge.

Like that.

Going right at the bottom

so that I don't get any pockets of flour.

Fold in the remaining flour

and trickle in the rest of the butter.

That's it.

Then pour the mixture into an 18cm tin which has been greased and lined.

Pour that in. Again, not from a great height.

If you do it from a great height,

you lose all those air bubbles that you've got in.

If there's a little pocket of flour,

just give it a bit of a stir in the tin.

The crime with making something like Genoise is to go on folding,

then it separates.

Now, that needs to go in my pre-heated oven which is 160

and it'll take about 25 minutes.

Keep an eye on it.

It wants to be a pale golden on the outside

and shrinking away from the side.

Don't hang about with it. You've got to put it straight in the oven.

So here goes.

Gentle hand.

And in we go.

The key to a successful Genoise is technique.

Get the method wrong and it's a recipe for disaster.

Hopefully, that's how it's meant to be done, but I'm not too sure.

It's a guessing game today.

Flat. That's how it's looking.

It's hardly light and fluffy.

-What's up, love?

-Everything's going wrong.

-On the plus side...

-It wasn't a Genoise to begin with.

..that's an excellent orthopaedic mattress.

That looks about right.

Important that it's a good colour,

springs back and it's shrinking from the sides

more than a Victoria sandwich would do.

We'll just leave that in the tin for five minutes or so

-and then we'll turn it out.

-OK.

Now we're going to make some coffee butter icing.

Sieve 225g of icing sugar in a bowl.

Now, in the pan here, I've got 50g of melted butter

and I'm going to add two tablespoons of milk.

One.

Two.

And I'm going to add one tablespoonful of coffee.

Once all the coffee has dissolved,

mix it into the icing sugar.

-Beautifully done. You can leave the spoon in it if you like.

-OK.

Cover the buttercream and allow it to stiffen up a bit in the fridge.

Now it's creme au beurre time,

and it's creme au beurre mocha.

Start by making a simple sugar syrup

with 40g caster sugar and two tablespoons of water.

One. Two.

And, so, on the stove

and dissolving it first.

And then the other ingredients. Can I have one egg yolk in a big bowl?

That sounds a bit odd but that's how I want it.

A creme au beurre is French buttercream

and, so, what's different about our buttercream,

it's just butter and sugar,

whereas the French buttercream has added egg yolk,

and it is very rich and very delicious.

It's important that the sugar syrup is taken to the thread stage

and doesn't turn to caramel.

That's achieved when it forms a slim strand

when pulled apart between two spoons.

-That's it. There it is.

-There it is.

Thin thread. It's bringing up in a thread.

Carefully whisk the hot sugar syrup into the egg yolk

by pouring it slowly yet continually

so they emulsify and the egg doesn't scramble.

Then add 75g of softened butter.

There we are. Creme au beurre.

To make it mocha, add about two teaspoons of coffee extract.

But go easy on it because the extract is really, really strong.

Cover and chill in the fridge to firm up

and bring out the coffee buttercream icing that was made earlier.

That's lovely. How's that doing?

That needs a bit of a Hollywood beat, I think. It's a bit stiff.

Perfect.

Use a serrated knife to cut the Genoise sponge in half.

I often find it best to go around the outside,

gently pressing it in in a sawing action.

Try and get it even.

Then all the way through there.

I'm going to fill it.

It's beautifully moist.

I'll use about half that.

It's been in the fridge.

If it gets a little bit too hard, just give it a good beat.

Put all of that in the middle.

Spread it right to the edge.

Right to the corners.

And pop that on top.

That seems fine. I think it will be better to ice the flat top

so let's just turn that over.

Now I'm going to make some fondant icing

which I'm going to float in between my piping.

Mary's icing needs to be a pouring consistency

so, to start, take a 100g block of sugar paste.

And I'm just going to chop that up a bit and just thin it down.

You will only need a few tablespoons of water to slacken the sugar paste.

I've got to add a little bit of brown colouring to that.

Add enough to turn it a rich chocolate colour.

That looks a good colour and perfect to flood.

I'm going to pipe round the outside

and so it'll just sit in the middle,

so I'll just put that to one side.

Trim the edges, then cut the sponge into nine equal squares.

That's beautiful.

With the remaining buttercream,

skim the sides of each sponge square

and dip them in chopped, toasted almond nibs.

Put it in the nuts like that all the way round.

There's one ready.

Then I'm going to pipe round the creme au beurre

and I've already filled one of the piping tubes.

Thank you.

Pipe tiny rosettes of the mocha creme au beurre around the bottom edge

and the top of each mokatine,

ensuring there are no gaps.

There we are. Now we're ready for flooding.

There we are. Just pour it into the middle.

That's it. And it'll take its own level. There it is.

And it has this beautiful shine.

To meet Mary's high standards,

the bakers needed to display absolute precision.

I've been weighing out the icing,

making sure there's exactly the same amount in each square.

I am going all out to win the technical.

This is so fiddly it's unbelievable.

It could all rest on the placing of the icing.

Never made a fondant icing.

Is it meant to look...

I think this is probably the worst day of baking to date.

That's good, Mary. I'll do that with a toothpick now.

-OK, right to the corners.

-I will.

They need to go into the fridge to chill down.

And I think they look very stylish

and they wouldn't look out of place

in the window of a French patisserie.

I think they look fantastic. We'll have them with a cup of tea later.

-We certainly will.

-I'll take them.

-Do be careful.

-Oh, yes.

After all that work.

Well, there are my mokatines. What do you think of them?

I think they look great.

Isn't that delicious, Mary?

And the base of Genoise just makes it special.

The coffee really lifts it up.

The creme au beurre's delicious. Nice and creamy, silky.

-They do look really smart.

-Absolutely.

They look fantastic.

They taste even better.

And now Mary has a speedy tip to line a round cake tin.

What you do normally is you take the base

and you run round with a pencil.

In our house, everybody seems to pinch the pencils,

so if you haven't got a pencil, just take a square of baking parchment

and fold it like this.

First fold it in half and make it as neat as you can, like that.

And then over again. It looks as though I'm making a paper dart,

but I'm not, I promise you.

Then you fold it over again, like that,

and then you fold it over again, like that.

So, there we are. We've almost got our paper dart

but what you do is you take the base of the tin

and you just put it like that to the centre,

then make a mark there with your nail,

and then you just cut it round.

If you're very strong, you can tear this.

So it's really very, very quick.

You open that out and you've got a perfect round.

So, what you do now is you take the base of the tin

and it's a good idea to actually butter that or grease it

because this will slip about.

So pop that in the base like that,

then put the circle that you've done

and all we do is just press that round neatly

and you've got a perfect round and your cake won't stick on the bottom.

For the quarter-final Showstopper, the bakers were challenged

with a particularly demanding patisserie bake.

Paul and Mary would like you to create a religieuse a l'ancienne.

Now, this is a choux mountain.

Think combination, looks-wise, of Bride of Christ and Davros.

We want her to be at least three tiers of eclairs, also freestanding.

-No dowelling, please.

-No.

-And decorated with buttercream.

You've got four hours on the clock.

-On your marks...

-Get set...

-Bake!

-Bake!

As one of the trickiest Showstoppers ever set by Mary and Paul,

and a place in the semi-finals at stake,

the bakers let their flavour combinations run wild.

From lime and basil to bubble gum and peppermint.

They had to make their religieuse stand out

as well as stand up.

Paul's candy-striped tower of eclairs is filled

with a pistachio and raspberry creme patissiere

and decorated with vanilla buttercream.

A cracker of a bake!

It's a big structure. It's got to support itself

and it's got to taste good as well.

But you're going to show us how to do it perfectly.

We'll break it down in stages.

Now, to start with, I need to make the sweet pastry.

Weigh up 165g of plain flour

and 25g of ground almonds,

then 55g of caster sugar.

Thank you. I'm just going to mix this together with my hand first.

Now, I've got the 125g of cubed butter,

which I'm going to rub in there, and then I need one egg to go in here.

-And you just make that till it's like breadcrumbs?

-Yeah.

-That's coming together very nicely.

-That'll do.

Mary, can you crack an egg in there for me, please?

Mind your hands.

Thank you. Now, this is the binding agent in the pastry

so I'm just going to whizz this round quickly to start with.

Picking up all the bits in the bowl.

And a little bit of flour, if you could.

A couple of turns just to build up a little bit of gluten,

a little bit of resistance in there and I'm happy with that.

Cover the pastry in food wrap, then chill it for about an hour.

Thank you.

Now, the next thing we're going to prepare is the choux pastry.

Now, I should have some water there, please. 500ml of water.

I need 200g of unsalted butter, as well.

Let's put a little pinch of salt in the water.

Melt the butter in the hot water.

Weigh up 260g of strong white flour...

-Here you are.

-Thank you very much indeed.

..and beat four eggs in a bowl.

Merci.

I'm just going to throw my flour in there, my STRONG flour.

-Right.

-Give this a bit of a mix.

Incorporate this into the butter-water solution.

I think that's quite frightening for people who make eclairs

for the first time because as soon as you add that flour

to the hot liquid, you think,

"Oh, it's all lumpy, curdled and horrible,"

but it all comes back as soon as you beat it.

It comes back beautifully smooth.

That now has come together into a lovely roux.

-Technically it's a panada, isn't it?

-Yeah.

But it is like mash. That's the consistency.

It should feel like mash, look a bit like mash,

and people should be able to relate to that

if they've never made it before.

Place the warm dough in a mixer and gradually add the eggs.

Then spoon the choux mix into a piping bag.

Now, I'm just tightening up the bottom.

What I've done here, I've got fourteen 9cm lines,

sixteen 12cm, and twelve 6cm lines.

Using the templates as your guide, carefully pipe each eclair.

All I'm doing when I'm piping this

is running the nozzle along the bottom of the tray

to keep it as round and cylindrical as I possibly can.

If you try and pipe down, flat and run across,

you flatten off the top of it.

I'll do a bit of scraping.

-I'll tell you what you could do for me, Mary.

-What's that?

Do the old wet finger at the end of the eclair for me.

So, a wet finger just to...

Just to dab them in, the little nipples at the end, if you like.

Just to make them a perfect shape.

I've found my vocation in life.

-There we are.

-Lovely.

I've just made a couple of round ones which will go on the top.

I'll just neaten that off a little bit.

Right, in they go.

Bake the eclairs for ten minutes at 200 degrees fan,

then reduce the temperature to 170 fan for 25 minutes

until they're golden-brown.

The little fellows.

Then the medium ones.

Finally the bigger fellows.

Now, what I need to do is get these off the bench

cos I'm about to roll sweet pastry on this,

so I just need to move these out of the way.

-While I'm doing this, Mary, could you bring me the sweet pastry, please, from the fridge?

-Right.

It's nicely chilled down.

Thank you. Now, I've got some discs over here.

This represents the tiers of the religieuse as it is.

So let's just knock out this pastry first.

Roll it out until it's about half a centimetre thick.

Keep it moving. A little dusting of flour again.

Always start from the middle up, middle down.

That way you ensure it's nice and even.

That one will fit about there.

Using different-sized templates, cut out four circles,

one 18cm diameter,

a 15cm,

a 12cm

and finally an 8cm.

If you can't find these exact-sized things in your kitchen,

you could always draw circles.

Yeah. Very simple.

It's important the pastry discs are flat,

so bake them sandwiched between two sheets of non-stick paper

and two baking trays.

Place that over the top and that weight will hold the disc down

to stop it from blooming up.

I've heated the oven to 170 fan.

It's going to go in for about 12 minutes.

We're then going to take the paper off, and the tray,

and then bake it again for about another 15, 20 minutes again.

And that'll dry it out, make sure it's going to be nice and solid

to go on the structure.

Right. Let's bring out these discs. Look at those fellows.

Flat as pancakes. Lovely colour.

-Yep.

-I'll leave them to one side. Now I'm going to make the creme pat

for the filling. Two types of filling.

One's going to be raspberry and one's going to be pistachio.

To start, weigh up 200g of caster sugar and then add eight egg yolks.

-And could you weigh me up 80g of cornflour as well, please?

-80g.

I'm just going to whisk these together.

And 80g of softened butter just put to one side.

Gently warm 800ml of milk in a pan.

OK.

I'm going to drop some of this milk into the mixture

to loosen it down a little bit first.

Pour the rest of it in.

-That's your 80g of butter.

-Thank you.

I'm going to cook this out a little bit.

Using a balloon whisk, stir the mixture over a gentle heat

until it thickens.

Measure out two tablespoons of pistachio paste

and two tablespoons of raspberry powder.

It's thickening up nicely now, isn't it?

If you could throw the butter straight in, please.

As you can see, it's beautifully soft.

Then divide the creme patissiere between the two bowls

and thoroughly mix in the flavourings.

Cover and refrigerate.

Thank you. Lovely.

OK, Mary, we've got all our choux buns here cooled and crispy,

ready to be filled, and these are our fillings - the pistachio and the raspberry.

Now, you've got a piping bag there with a nozzle on it.

Wait a minute, I've never seen a nozzle like that before.

-These are piercing nozzles. You use them for jam doughnuts.

-Right.

-Now, your job is pistachio.

-Right.

And this is not a race, Paul Hollywood.

It's not a race, you're quite right.

Fill half of the small, medium and large eclairs

with the pistachio creme patissiere

and the other half with the raspberry creme patissiere.

OK, Mary, we've got all our buns filled.

Now we need to think of the icing.

So, if you could weigh me up 500g of sifted fondant icing sugar,

which should be in there. Thank you.

Now, fondant icing sugar gives a much better shine, doesn't it?

I'm going to add the liquid.

It's probably going to take about 50ml to 500g of the icing sugar

to make a good, stiff icing.

Slowly and carefully add cold water to the fondant sugar

until it becomes a thick paste.

Right, it's nearly there. It's quite a stiff mixture.

The thing with icing sugar and fondant icing sugar,

you've got to be really careful with the addition of water.

If it's too runny, it'll just run off the top of the buns.

Split the mixture and colour one half pink and one half green.

Using a flat nozzle, pipe the green icing

onto the pistachio-filled eclairs

and the pink icing onto the raspberry ones.

Ugh! Time, time, time!

If making the component parts had tested the bakers...

It's just... Oh!

I'm not looking forward to this bit. I'm trying to avoid it.

..now they had to take it up a level.

Oh, I'm too nervous for construction!

Hey. Get back!

OK, stop shaking, stop shaking!

This is the acid test.

Off-kilter!

-WHISPERS:

-Please hold. Please hold.

Ow! It's SO hot it's unreal.

Ugh!

Ooh, come on!

No, no, don't do this to me.

-NADIYA:

-It's a little bit Leaning Tower of Pisa.

OK, Mary, we've got some caramel here,

which is obviously just sugar and water been caramelised.

I'm just going to put a little bit of caramel on the bottom.

I'm going to put a little bit on this.

Using the caramel as glue, stick the longest eclairs

on the largest pastry disc,

alternating between the two flavours.

Continue to stick the eclairs until you complete the bottom tier.

Trim the tops so they are all an equal height.

Repeat the process with the medium-sized eclairs

and then with the smallest ones.

-Well done.

-Now we've got all our component parts at the moment

and over there, in a piping bag,

what I've done is knock up a quick buttercream.

It's just butter, icing sugar and a little bit of vanilla essence.

What I'm going to do is just use this to put the next level on.

It's really a tasty glue.

-WHISPERS:

-It's a tasty glue.

Carefully build the eclair tower tier by tier,

before finally decorating with rosettes of buttercream

around the outside.

That does look absolutely stunning.

An immense amount of work, but stunning.

-That is your last masterpiece for this series.

-I know.

It's a bit sad really, but we've got to try it.

But I don't want to ruin it too much!

-Why don't you just take the top two?

-There's a little diddy one.

Mm!

-That is delicious, you know.

-So good!

The flavour and the texture of the choux, the filling,

the pistachio flavour's beautiful on it, and the icing.

The raspberry is very, very sharp and I think that goes so well

because the actual iced eclairs are very, very sweet.

-Yeah, they are.

-It goes very well.

I really enjoyed the Masterclasses this year.

I think some of the challenges were a little bit tricky,

but we hope we've imparted enough knowledge

for people to try it themselves.

-And we've included lots and lots of tips.

-That's true.

-Till next year, Mary.

-Till next year. Cheers.

-Cheers.