Masterclass The Great British Bake Off

Welcome to The Great British Bake Off Masterclass.

Judges Mary Berry and I will be doing the baking.

We'll guide you through challenges faced by the bakers in this year's Bake Off.

We will show you some little tips and tricks that will help you at home to create something magical.

From the mixing, to the baking, to the finishing,

to the presentation, at home you will get the same results.

Coming up, my luxury pork pies

encased in notoriously-difficult-to-handle hot water crust pastry,

filled with the perfect combination of pork loin and a quail's egg.

Mary Berry's chocolate roulade recipe.

Mary will show you how to get the perfect roll every time.

My traditional iced fingers - a complex combination

of sweet yet buttery dough, precisely piped with whipped cream and strawberry jam.

And Mary's Sachertorte - a technically tricky, dense chocolate cake

with its signature glossy ganache icing.

'Over the course of eight weeks

'earlier this year, Mary and I saw twelve of the country's

'very best home bakers go head-to-head as they fought it out to be crowned

'Britain's best amateur baker.

'Together, Mary and I devised the three challenges in each round...'

-That's very, very good.

-Absolutely delicious.

'..and the technical challenge was the trickiest of all.'

They come in all shapes and sizes, don't they?

-Some of them are a bit irregular.

-Good gracious!

Eleven really lovely tarte au citron.

Because the recipe was always a surprise on the day,

the bakers had no chance to practise and had to rely completely

on their own knowledge and skill to get a good result.

'Week five of the competition was all about pies, showcasing the bakers' pastry skills,

'but also showing us their understanding of the balance of flavours.

'For the technical challenge, I chose a first for The Great British Bake Off.'

We're going to ask you to make a batch of six miniature pork pies.

And in each pie we'd like there to be one quail's egg

and, for the first time in this competition, we're going to ask you to work with hot water crust pastry.

Pork pies with quails' eggs in the middle and hot water crust pastry.

Yes. I chose this as a technical challenge because it's quite tricky.

Once you've got the hot water crust pastry made,

then it's all about rolling it out.

Then you've got to do the filling for it, put the quail's egg

right in the middle, put the lid on,

crimp it, egg wash it and then, finally, you've got to get that bake bang on.

So, we're going to start with the hot water crust pastry.

We need to weigh up the flours.

So, I'm using two types of flour -

plain flour and strong flour. Overwhelmingly plain flour.

In fact, 200 grams to 40 grams of strong.

Gluten is the wheat protein in flour that gives the dough its elasticity.

Plain flour contains less gluten than strong flour

and is used when a crisper texture is needed in the finished bake.

That little bit of strong will give it a bit of extra gluten to bind it together,

to give it that quality, so when we're rolling it out, it stays quite rubbery, which is what you need.

The next thing I've got is 50 grams of butter and 60 grams of lard,

-all right? A little job for you in a minute, Mary.

-Is it?

-It's melting the lard in boiling water.

-Oh, I can just manage that.

60 grams. You need to melt that in 100ml of boiling water.

One teaspoon of salt in that water, please.

In here, I've got butter and flour.

I'm just going to rub this flour.

I'm interested that you're using butter WITH lard.

When I've ever made hot water crust pastry, I've used ALL lard.

-Are you adding the butter for flavour?

-Unique flavour. It's better.

The butter adds that quality of a little bit of dairy in there,

that flavour of butter, which is good.

-That's melted for you.

-Thank you very much indeed.

Now, this needs to go in here.

Obviously, at this stage, it is going to be rather hot.

Well, the last thing you want is boiling hot fat in your hands.

So, again, stir it round first, incorporating all the flour.

And you can see, it's starting to turn into a proper paste now.

I can touch that now. It cooled off as soon as it impacted on the flour.

Make sure you rub round to get everything out of that bowl.

Beautifully clean bowl.

All on that lump.

I'm just going to put a little bit of flour there, cos it's going to take a bit of working,

just into a ball, so it's more of a smooth paste.

-Just gently work it.

-So, that's to work in the fat evenly?

-That's right, yeah.

Hot water crust pastry requires the mixture to be hot rather than cold,

so as to make the dough easier to roll out.

The large quantity of liquid used produces a hard, strong finish,

making it suitable for holding heavy mixtures.

I'm just going to begin to start flattening.

And now it's essentially been worked into a ball.

-That's very good.

-Now, this one needs to be rolled out with a rolling pin.

It's in there. Flatten it down with your fingers first as much as you can.

Flatten the dough lightly with your fingers and then roll out evenly

with a rolling pin until three to five millimetres thick.

All I'm doing, occasionally, is just putting a little bit of flour on.

I'll tell you why -

it relaxes the dough, so it can skid back to where it should be.

I could roll this the size of this tray with no flour underneath

and what'll happen is, when you put the lids in, it'll shrink back

while it's trying to rest.

And you're going to make it nice and thin,

-that's where the bakers went wrong, some of them. They had it too chunky.

-They had it too thick.

'The bakers seemed a little thrown by my choice of recipe.'

What's it say? Stirring till it comes together.

Work into a ball.

Looks like a ball already.

I'm not going to risk using it all.

That could be my downfall.

'The trickiest stage was the all-important pastry.

'Mary-Anne had never worked with hot water crust dough before.'

It's quite odd working with something that's quite so warm.

Normally, with pastry, it's supposed to be cold, cold, cold.

'Jo made an early error with her pastry.'

I got the flour wrong.

But, hopefully, it's right now.

'Holly was also unfamiliar with this type of pastry.'

I don't get how this pastry works at all. It's rock hard.

It's quite odd stuff.

These are the trays that we're going to use. These are the trays that the bakers had.

The main thing is they've got to have almost straight sides and not buntings that are sort of round.

You don't want the shallow ones, you want straight sides. That's key.

Six of these.

Now, what I'm going to do, I need to make the cut for the base,

obviously to line the base, to line the side,

and then to line about 5ml to 10ml away from the edge of that.

Find something around the kitchen that will fit that size.

-A small saucer you could run round. Something like that.

-Yeah, that would be fine.

Make sure it's relaxed.

Get a little knife. Just cut gently round.

You want to get it as smooth as you can.

Press up against the side and get right down to the bottom.

Get it down as much as you can.

There's your overlap. There's plenty extra if you need it.

You're pressing down and getting rid of all those folds,

-but keeping the pastry very thin...

-Yeah.

-..all the way round and the base.

-Exactly. Exactly.

-There is no need to grease the tins when you're making these pies?

-Not these ones, no.

This has got so much fat in this mix,

it should just slide out anyway.

The chances of this thing sticking are very rare.

'Form the excess pastry back into a small ball.

'Roll out again to the same thickness as before

'and using a small cutter

'cut out six lids large enough to just cover the top of your pie cases.'

On the top of every lid, we need to have a hole, and that's to get the gelatine in later.

If you get a little piping-bag nozzle, put it into the middle,

make your hole, and then just gently open it up.

It has to be quite a big hole

in order to be able to pour the gelatine in?

Yes. Yes, it does.

'Line a baking tray with greaseproof paper and lay the lids on.'

These are going to go in the fridge now, just for about half an hour,

just to chill down slightly, again harden the lard and the butter.

'Placing the baking tray in the fridge helps firm up the pastry.'

While they're chilling down, we're going to make the filling.

This is some streaky, unsmoked bacon - 100 grams,

and 300 grams of pork loin.

Now, pork loin's got, obviously, very little fat in there,

and that's the reason we add the streaky bacon -

to add a bit of fat to it, a little bit of flavour to it, as well.

It does make a difference in the pork pie.

So, would you mind chopping up that as finely as you could, please?

-I will. Nice and fine and I'll remove this bit of sinew here.

-Yes, lovely.

Sinew pieces will never go tender...

-Yeah.

-..and I will just trim it off.

Also, what's going in there, is an onion and a small bunch of parsley.

I'd much rather cut this by hand. You get a better texture.

If you did it in a processor, it could easily get like sausage meat.

And every little piece is going to be tender,

-because the loin is the most tender part of pork.

-Exactly, yes.

The binding agent will be the pork. It'll bind everything together.

You're looking for a dispersion of onion blended with pork

and again, a good blend of the bacon in there

and, finally, a little bit of zing coming from the parsley.

Was there a reason why you used unsmoked bacon?

-Smoked bacon will just overwhelm everything.

-Oh, right.

Essentially, the bacon's been added more as a fat, but again, it gives you a bit of flavour as well.

-So, you don't want it to overwhelm the pork, but just balance with it.

-And the seasoning?

Once I've blended it all, then I'll season it, yes.

I use quite a bit of salt.

The only seasoning, really, is actually going to come from the bacon.

Do you know, at home, if I'm doing this,

I am not too good at seasoning, because you can't taste it.

So, what I do, is I take a little bit of that out

and sort of squeeze it together

and fry it in a little flavourless oil, and then taste it, and then you know

-whether you've got the seasoning quite right.

-That's a nice tip.

Give that a good mix, cos what you don't want is all that salt to stay in one place.

Then, the next job is quails' eggs.

-Right.

-I need to boil these quails' eggs.

Some of them had difficulty about boiling quails' eggs.

-Apparently, yeah.

-They weren't quite sure how long to do them.

I do mine, for hard boiled, two and a half minutes.

How long do you boil a quail's egg for? Do you know?

-No-one seems to know.

-Well...

-How long do you boil a quail egg? Does anyone know?

-All I know...

-is under two and a half minutes, cos this is overdone!

-Is it?

-Yeah.

I don't know! Something so small, timing it right.

And it must soft-boiled not hard-boiled cos they're going to cook again inside the pie.

So, I think that's going to be very tricky.

Are you ready? Jump up if you are.

I've never boiled an egg before.

-What, just a normal egg or just a quail's egg?

-A normal egg.

-You've never boiled a normal egg before?!

-No.

You can make a macaroon but you can't boil an egg?

No.

It's important, as soon as they're cool, to peel them.

If you leave them for half an hour, it's difficult to get the shell off.

So, that's the last one peeled.

-There you are.

-Beautifully done. Thank you very much, Mary.

OK, they're the shells and they're the lids.

Now it's a case of putting it all together.

Put your fingers into the side, encourage them to have a flat side where hits the base.

While it's cold, it's the best time to do it. It'll give you a little bit more leeway, you know?

-And, of course, it gives more room for the meat.

-Exactly, yeah.

Take a spoonful of the mixture, drop it into the bottom.

When that's in, you need to push that down to the bottom with your fingers.

Push down the bottom, build up the mixture round the side.

That is where the quail's egg will sit.

Paul, you've chosen to do six individual ones.

Could you do these in a loaf tin?

-Yes, you could.

-Same amount of mixture?

Yeah, same amount and again, you just build it up, put one on each,

or use a proper egg, a full-size chicken egg and just put them all the way along.

'Once all six quails' eggs have been placed,

'fill the remainder of the cavity with the rest of the pork meat,

'ensuring it's packed tightly around the sides and on top of the eggs.'

It's really essential to press it down.

I think some of them had some gaps through not pressing it down.

Yeah. When we cut the pie open, you saw the egg floating round

with a little bit of pork, because they never compressed all the pork down.

Now, the next stage is to egg-wash it and then pop the lid on.

Now, if we start here, all I'm going to do is just delicately brush a little bit of egg round here.

And this is just so the lid can adhere to the base.

So, now we're ready to put the lids on this.

'Once the pies have been topped,

'trim the edges with a knife to neaten and seal

'with some decorative crimping.'

Fingers in, lift up the side.

-You could do it with a fork if you're no good at crimping, couldn't you?

-Yeah, course you could.

'Top each pie with egg-wash and they're ready for the oven.'

Going to go into a fan oven at 190 for 40 minutes.

They look amazing.

A lovely golden brown colour on top.

What I want to do is pop a knife in there

and just open that hole up a bit.

Over in this pan,

we've got 100ml of water, which is bringing up to the boil.

In there, we've dropped one chicken stock cube.

What I've got here is leaf gelatine. You can use the powdered gelatine,

although this tends to be a bit easier

cos it just softens in the water.

Powdered gelatine you have to bring back with boiling water and dissolve it.

I'll just squeeze the water out of there.

And this will then go inside the stock and dissolve.

It's pretty much instant with this stuff.

'Once dissolved,

'transfer to a jug and gradually fill the pork pie cavities.'

You've got to be really careful, haven't you?

And pour very, very gently and watch when it comes...

-Yes.

-..anywhere near the top.

-Exactly.

And then you need to chill them, preferably overnight,

and the pure reason being is that you want to solidify that gelatine.

But don't put these into the fridge until they're cold.

You can't put warm pork into a fridge.

Leave them out till they're cool,

then pop them in the fridge overnight.

In the morning, you'll end up with some beautiful pork pies.

Like a battalion of little soldiers!

'When it came to the judging, however, to be honest,

'I was highly impressed.'

I like the look of this.

There's been some form of display. There's a pattern round the outside which looks nice.

And it's got a good colour on it, as well. It's a good bake.

I must say, I like that, the appearance.

It looks homemade and inviting and it's lovely thin pastry.

-Good flavour. I like that.

-So do I.

It's a lovely thin crust.

That's one of the things that's difficult to get right,

I'm sure you found. You're not too sure whether you've put your fingers

into the very corner at the bottom to make it thin, as well.

They look so tempting.

I am dying to taste one.

-There you go.

-That does look very, very good.

-You like?

-I am savouring every bit.

It's nice, isn't it?

Well, what I like is the pastry is really, really crisp. Mmm.

In the sixth week of the Bake Off,

we decided to test the bakers on their dessert-making skills.

Our challenges included a baked cheesecake,

the French classic croque-en-bouche

and, for the technical challenge,

Mary chose a classic recipe that really stretched our bakers.

Today's technical challenge is...

a chocolate roulade,

A nice, thin sponge, neatly filled and neatly rolled.

This is a difficult challenge, this one.

So, Mary, why did you pick

the chocolate roulade as a technical challenge?

Because I simply love it.

It's good as a dessert and it's good as a special cake too.

And this recipe is extremely light... it has no flour in.

But it's quite tricky, so it's good to show everybody how to do it.

The trickiness comes down to the actual folding

and that's what makes it a special technical challenge.

Exactly. It's difficult to roll,

because you can end up by not getting a Catherine wheel effect.

-Where do you want to start?

-I want to start with the tin.

Now, the tin is 23 by 33 centimetres and it wants to be straight-sided.

And if you haven't got a tin like this,

if your roasting tin is similar

it'll work, you just need to line up the sides.

I'm using non-stick parchment.

And you just fold it to, sort of, the size of the tin.

Now, the tin needs to be buttered,

-because you want the paper to stick to it, otherwise it'll slip.

-Yes.

Then we come to the ingredients.

First of all the chocolate.

And we need 175 grams of that. That's six ounces.

And I don't use one of the high cocoa content chocolate.

If you use high cocoa content 70%, it really is too bitter.

I agree. I think a lot of chocolate nowadays is very bitter.

This is just the bar that you'll buy in the sweet shop.

-Yeah.

-But it must be pure chocolate.

And the way to melt that is not to be rushed.

If you are in a hurry, you need to chop that up finely.

If this pan is boiling,

it will melt too quickly and you'll get a hard crust on it.

So, gently, gently. Remember that chocolate melts in a child's pocket,

so it doesn't need intense heat.

-OK.

-Then we come to the eggs. I've got six eggs here.

And I'm going to put the whites in here and the yolks in there.

And you want to make quite sure that you get no egg yolk in with the egg white,

because if you do, the egg whites won't whisk up to a full volume.

The raising agent in this is the egg white.

People that do have a problem with flour actually in recipes,

this is an ideal one.

Yes. And this is something that coeliacs can eat.

Do you utilise these egg yolks at all?

These egg yolks are going into the roulade.

We're going to mix them with the sugar.

But I start off by doing the egg whites,

-then I don't have to wash the whisk in-between.

-Yeah.

And then whisk on full volume until it'll look a bit like cloud.

The egg whites need to be stiff, but not dry.

This will take one to two minutes.

That's just about right.

It looks like cloud.

I'm going to tip the egg yolks into a bowl here.

I need to whisk those with sugar.

175 grams of caster sugar.

In it goes.

And I'm going to whisk those together.

There's egg white on there. That doesn't matter.

Put that in. Again, full speed ahead!

As that is whisking,

if there's a bit of egg yolk and sugar at the top,

as there is on the top of that bowl,

just scrape it down all the way round,

or you'll get streaks in it.

-That's it. And then not quite ready, so on full speed ahead again.

-Yeah.

The mixture is ready after two or three minutes

when thick and creamy in consistency.

-Right, now you can see that it holds its shape.

-Yeah.

It's called the ribbon stage.

Next, add the melted and cooled chocolate

and stir until combined.

Now, I'm going to take some of the egg white.

I'm not going to fold the whole lot in at once,

cos if you do that, it'll be streaky.

-Yeah.

-I'm going to beat in a bit of the egg white.

So, a couple of really good spoons going in there like that.

So, this will slacken it down.

And I'm beating that in and it'll make it a bit more runny.

Now, that looks well included,

those first two tablespoons in with the chocolate.

It's quite smooth.

And I'm going to add the rest all at once of the egg whites.

I'm going to tip that up and then put this in.

So, this is the crucial bit really, isn't it, the roulade?

-It is.

-You slacken it off first

before adding the majority of the egg whites.

And I'm going to fold that in, and folding is going round

the edge of the bowl and then cutting through the middle.

And that wants to be a very gentle movement.

So, because the egg white is the rising agent,

-you're trying to keep as much air in that as possible at this stage?

-Exactly.

Exactly. There is no flour in here.

If they don't incorporate all the egg whites into this mix,

-you'll get this mottled effect within the sponge, of white?

-That's right.

I know the consistency looks like it's split.

It has those little sort of dots of...

-Of moisture and then dry and moist and dry.

-Exactly.

I've got the cocoa. I'm going to put two tablespoons in.

Must sieve it, because we don't want it in lumpy.

And don't mistakenly put drinking chocolate in,

because that would be a very weak flavour.

But it is the cocoa that stabilises the mixture.

You'll get a good rise and it'll be a little bit firmer.

As well as adding richness to the flavour,

cocoa powder has a binding quality that helps

the ingredients to combine and create a firmer, more stable sponge.

I know some recipes don't put any cocoa in.

But I've tried all sorts to get the ultimate one

and I think this one is the best.

And then I'm going to fold that in just as I did before,

round the outside of the bowl and cut through the middle.

And only mix until it is...

everything has just included.

-Don't over-mix it.

-Yeah.

Once you've mixed this, you've got to put it in the tin

and bake it straightaway.

Once the mixture is in the tin,

it needs to be baked straightaway so no air is lost.

And then push the mixture into the sides.

If you don't push it into the sides, it won't rise evenly.

You're looking for a nice,

-even layer so the roulade is nice and flat and square.

-That's right.

So, that wants to go in the oven at 160 fan

and that will take about 20 or 25 minutes.

Bake the roulade until it's risen and starting to come away

from the sides with a firm and crisp top.

That looks just right.

It's got a crust on top.

It does slightly sink and expect it to. And it is well risen.

-And all we've got to do now is let it get cool.

-OK.

It must be cold before you put the cream in,

otherwise the cream seeps into the mixture and also it melts.

-Yeah.

-So, we'll let that get cold.

Mary's roulade recipe was a great choice

and allowed our bakers to showcase their knowledge.

So, listen, have you made a roulade before?

I have, back in the day at school. It was my nemesis!

Jo clearly knew the secret of how to mix a roulade.

You can knock the air out of them.

They need to be really light and airy.

Janet had her own technique,

which proved she knew her stuff.

I don't want to take any of the air away by patting it too much.

Oh, go on, get in the corner.

And Holly demonstrated her understanding of the science of the sponge.

It's a little bit uneven, but that's the problem with fatless sponges.

I think they're quite hard to smooth over

cos they don't have that fat to kind of even out as it, as it melts.

Once cooled, it's ready for the filling.

Take 300ml of double cream and whisk until thick.

Important to have a double cream that pours.

-Mm-hm.

-Look out for the word 'pouring' on the side of the pack.

What it is to have such force.

I think I'll stand to one side while you're doing that.

It's unlikely that you'll over-whip when you do it by hand.

If you do it with a machine,

the machine easily over-whips and then it would separate.

That looks the perfect consistency.

Really firm.

I thought that might be coming over my head, yes.

Right, so, we're going to turn this out.

Take another piece of paper, and this is non-stick,

put it on the worktop,

and then a little icing sugar over the top.

You can do this with a sieve or you can do it with a shaker.

And there'll be a cloud of icing sugar

which will come all over us, so watch out.

So, just take hold of that and give it one bold tip.

-Yeah.

-One, two, three, over.

Remove the tin and carefully peel away the baking paper,

before topping with the cream.

Now, I've chosen to put whipped cream in here.

You could also put some chopped strawberries, raspberries.

-Cherries.

-Cherries. Stoned cherries.

-Yeah.

-But, of course, if you're going to freeze it,

you would freeze it just with cream in.

-And, believe it or not, it freezes beautifully.

-Really?

Just spread that over,

right to the edges.

Now, the rolling up is the part I enjoy.

-It's the part that a lot of people are terrified of.

-Mm-hm.

I'll give you a foolproof way of doing it.

To get a tight roll, you take a knife

and you almost cut through about half an inch from the end.

And then you break that, absolutely break it,

because I'm expecting loads of cracks. It's part of its charm.

So, get hold of that and physically break it all the way along there.

-And that is the middle of the sort of Catherine wheel...

-Yeah.

..and it's what you do for the best result.

Pick up the paper, hold it and then just gently make that go round.

Now, this is cracking all the time that I do it,

and as I'm turning it, I'm pressing the cracked bits back in.

And quite firmly.

-Can you see I'm doing that quite firmly as you go.

-Yeah.

Our bakers had a real problem with this

because they were nervous about, quite rightly, rolling it up.

Janet forgot the crucial element, icing sugar on the baking parchment.

It's the only way of preventing the sponge from sticking.

Ahh! I should have put icing sugar or caster sugar on the bottom,

cos of the fudginess of it.

How absolutely ridiculous to make a stupid error like that.

This doesn't even count as a roulade. It looks like a disaster area.

This is the scary bit.

Ooh, and it's cracking!

Needs a corset!

That's what it needs.

Doesn't look like it's done yet.

Holly wasn't too pleased with the finished result.

Oh, dear. Doesn't look great, does it?

I need some Mary Berry advice, that's what I need!

Push that again and more cracks.

To ensure perfect presentation,

finish the last roll of the roulade on your serving plate.

Top with a final dusting of icing sugar

and neaten by trimming both ends.

-Aha.

-And there it is.

And you should have a nice, tight spiral

like a Swiss roll, like Catherine wheel.

What you've showed us today is certainly...

you can see where they've slipped up.

And if they'd followed some basic rules,

they would have ended up with something as perfect as that.

In the blind tasting,

we were looking at the execution of the roll as well as the taste.

I quite like the look of this one!

-It's quite tasty.

-Mmm, it's very good.

-It has broken up a lot.

-It's not bad.

-But they've tried to do a swirl.

The overall appearance of it looks quite nice, though.

-The flavour's good.

-Flavour's good.

Now, this one looks nice. Slightly cracked.

-It's got a nice taste.

-Mm.

There's a little bit of a bend there. A little bit of a curl.

-Yeah. This one's made quite a bit of effort to get a good roll.

-Yeah.

I enjoy chocolate roulade.

I think it's just a fantastic and beautiful-looking thing.

It just looks gorgeously filled with all that cream

and I think the informality of the cracking just is tempting.

It's quite a dense sponge, but the flavour's in there,

that lightness which the meringue adds to it.

-Then you have that beautiful cream that lifts it to another level.

-I think it's a winner.

In week seven, the bakers reached the semi-final.

Precision and finesse would be the key.

It was my turn to set the technical bake and, even if I say it myself,

what a brilliant choice my favourite childhood sweet treat proved to be.

Today's Technical Challenge is one of my all-time favourites -

iced fingers.

12 identical fingers, filled with cream and jam.

So, Paul, why have you chosen these iced buns

-for your Technical Challenge?

-I grew up with them

and they're one of my favourite things I've had in a bakery.

My dad used to be pretty good at them.

I bet you've chosen it

cos there's plenty of time for people to go wrong.

There are a few stages that you can go wrong,

but it's down to the rolling stage and dough stage.

Right, to start with, I need 500 grams of strong white flour.

Can't use plain flour, you have to use strong.

Plain flour's for biscuits and crackers.

-BOTH:

-And cakes.

-You almost forgot that.

-Ha-ha, you see!

And strong flour is for bread.

Strong flour is best for baking breads and recipes

where yeast is used, as it ensures a good, even rise and crumb structure.

500 grams of flour straight in the bowl.

Mm-hmm.

The next thing I'm going to add is my yeast, and I'm using...

instant or fast-action yeast, and here, I've got 14 grams.

Straight in to the side.

The next thing I'm going to add in is 40 grams of butter.

Is that salted butter or unsalted butter?

-For this you can use either and I'm using unsalted.

-Mmm.

And then I'm going to put in ten grams of salt,

just normal cooking salt.

Salt goes in opposite to the yeast.

It's a nice little tip this.

Salt on yeast will certainly retard it if not kill it.

So, you blend the yeast in first, then blend the salt in.

OK. The next thing to go in is caster sugar.

And you want 50 grams of caster sugar in there.

The reason why I'm using caster sugar is actually because...

you don't want to feel the grains inside the dough. That's the only reason.

And then I've got two eggs to go in there as well.

-Whole eggs?

-Yes, whole eggs.

-You don't have to beat them?

-No, you're fine.

Two eggs straight in. Next thing to add is your milk and your water.

Now, over there, I've got 150 mil of warm milk.

Milk tends to slow yeast down.

So, if you warm the milk up a little bit,

it'll act as a starter for the yeast, so it'll get growing.

The next thing I'm going to is add the water.

I've got 140 mil of water.

Hold some back, and I'll show you why.

To start with,

-here we go, I'll move this out of the way.

-Action.

I'm going to get really messy, you know?

Get your hands in and just stir with your fingers to start it off.

Could you do this in a mixer if you wanted to?

You could. I prefer to use my hands.

Now, this is really a conventional dough, so it's not too wet.

You can see there you've still got some residue flour that needs picking up.

That's when you put the rest of the water in. Put a little bit in there.

And at this stage, it's coming together. See? It's become one ball.

-Yeah.

-It's ready to tip out onto a lightly floured surface.

A dusting of flour on it.

Get your dough. Pop it in there.

I've compensated to the fact that people will add flour into that.

That's why you start with a wetter dough, OK?

Now, begin just by turning it, rolling it over like this.

Flip it over, roll, roll, roll.

Look at the muscles going!

What I'm trying to do is incorporate the eggs, the butter

and everything into that dough to get it smoother.

-Those people who've got bread making machines...

-Yeah.

-could they do this in there?

-Yeah.

What I'm doing is just building up the gluten.

The gluten is now releasing from the flour particles,

going into the dough, and forming, you can see there,

the stretches that you see, where the dough's beginning to split?

-Mmm. Yeah.

-That is the beginning...

-Let me feel it.

-..of the gluten.

-Yeah. It's still quite a wet dough, isn't it?

-It is.

Yeah, well it's a soft dough.

It's a soft dough rather than a wet dough. And then begin to stretch.

See, I'm just holding the back.

You pummel at that for at least five to ten minutes.

And this dough will begin to get smoother and smoother.

All the sugar will begin to dissolve.

It will become more glutinous.

You've got a nice, soft dough there that's well incorporated.

-That goes back into your bowl.

-Right.

-Would you Clingfilm that for me, please?

-I will. I've got cleaner hands.

Yes, it just prevents the dough from skinning.

So, what is happening at the moment, the yeast is beginning to eat,

feed itself on the flour.

And then it'll exhaust itself, so it'll grow, grow, multiply, get bigger.

You need to leave it for about an hour and a quarter. It'll then at least double in size.

-And you just put the Clingfilm over the top?

-Yeah.

Leave it in an ambient temperature. Normal household conditions.

Room temperature's around 20 Celsius. That's perfect.

Proving is the pre-baked period,

where yeast reacts with the liquid and flour to produce carbon dioxide,

causing the dough to rise without heat.

So, Paul, this has risen like Vesuvius.

It's huge cos of the heat in here.

You've got to be careful when you peel this off.

That's the structure of the gluten we built up when we kneaded it.

-Right.

-And this has proved up. Proving, rising, it's the same.

Now, I heed to tip this out onto a floured surface.

Run your finger round it

and dig all of this lovely, soft dough out.

Now, I need to coat this.

A bit of flour.

Cos as it rests, or proves, it actually gets softer.

Even softer.

Now, I need to divide this...

into 12. So, just divide in half.

And again.

-And again.

-And each in three.

-Yeah, each one into three.

To ensure perfectly even-size fingers, you can weigh the dough.

Each piece needs to be 70 grams.

Get each one and you just ball it up.

Turn it on the table...and a ball.

Shape all 12 pieces into balls,

then hand-roll into fingers, approximately five inches in length.

Place in two rows of six on a non-stick baking tray.

Again, gently roll them out first, and they're nice and equal.

That goes on the tray.

-They look beautifully even.

-They're perfect.

Right, I'm going to put those to prove,

but in our house, I'd have to put them away from the dog.

The fingers need to prove for about 40 minutes until doubled in size.

OK, Mary, here they are, fully risen.

And you can see, if you touch it, they spring back.

-They've risen, so they all touch each and will have soft sides.

-Exactly.

OK, Mary. These are going to go in the oven now for 10 minutes. 190 fan or 210 non-fan, all right?

-Very hot, then?

-Very hot oven and very quickly.

Cos of the sugar and eggs in there, it will actually bake very quickly.

But I want them to remain soft, which is why they're only getting 10 minutes.

Here we are, Mary, cooled buns.

They look a beautiful regiment.

Got to then split these off.

And, of course, there's the structure you're looking for. Nice...

and soft. Smell that.

It smells divine.

It was a complex recipe with many stages.

These fingers required meticulous and strict attention to detail.

Mary-Anne took a very professional approach.

Consistency is what they look for, especially in batches, and they want 12.

And when the judges ask for a batch, they want consistency across the batch,

which is why I'm taking the time to

make sure that the dough is

approximately the same weight - about 85 grams in each one.

What's in a few grams? But they will make a difference.

I just know he's going to have his eagle eye

looking for unequal-looking buns.

Here we are, Mary. Cooled buns.

They look a beautiful regiment.

Separate the fingers and leave them to cool whilst you make the icing.

Icing sugar goes in, 200 grams.

OK, I'm also going to add water. Do we get a spoon?

'Course not. Use your fingers.

Cos you get to feel the icing as well.

I'd put a little bit more water in that - not a lot.

The secret is not to get too much runny icing

because it runs down the side.

You'll need to use approximately 32 millilitres of water,

or enough to achieve a loose but not runny consistency.

So, what you're looking for is that.

-See the way it holds its shape...

-It's got a lovely shine, too.

Exactly. And that holds. Once it's dripped once, it stops.

And that's the texture you're looking for in the icing sugar.

OK, get your bun, drop it in,

wriggle it around a bit,

lift it out, run your finger down it...

There you go.

'Once all the fingers are iced,

'leave aside for a few minutes until set.'

'When it came to the all-important finishing,

'Jo really struggled cos her icing was far too runny.'

-So, this was Paul's way? This is Paul's dipping?

-Yes, this is dipping.

I don't like the dipped look. I lost half of it on the table.

It all dripped down. Try and tidy this up a little.

Holly was well aware that consistency was key.

It says in the recipe to dip them in the icing.

And I don't think I can do that,

so this is what I'm going to do instead.

I'm quite good at making things look the same. So, even if they don't taste that good

I hope I'll get a couple of points for the fact that they look quite similar.

Oh, it's blooming hard work!

I didn't know how you could dip in to a thick paste,

so I thought I would do what I hoped would be better...

or as good.

-OK, Mary, if I give you these four here...

-Right.

..what I'd like you to do -

a diagonal line about three-quarters of the way through.

-A diagonal line.

-A diagonal line.

-Just slice it down.

-Below the icing?

-Yes.

'Open up the fingers and pipe in a generous amount of cream.'

You've made a few of these in your time?

I've done a few of these in my time!

'Finish by piping a line of jam across the cream

'and top with a dusting of icing sugar.'

There you go - some classic iced buns filled with cream

and a line of jam.

They just look absolutely mouth-watering.

-We had very varied results, didn't we, in the icing?

-We did.

Gosh, this is...

-Don't they look good?

-I'm pleasantly surprised.

'Our judging all rested on presentation and the perfect bake.

'This was, after all, the semi-final.'

-Mmm.

-These are nice. Good, even bake. Icing's not bad.

-Quite nice this zigzag finish here, isn't it?

-Mmm.

Just done. Another minute or two less they wouldn't have been baked.

That's a nice iced bun. The texture's good.

It's soft.

It's got an equal colour.

It's beautiful.

The icing hasn't covered the whole top,

-but it's got a nice taste, hasn't it?

-Mmm!

-It's very, very good.

-Absolutely delicious!

Now, this one, it's got more of uniform icing on it,

although the icing was a little bit too wet -

that's why it's run down the side.

I think you've done us proud. Those look absolutely wonderful.

To be nice and coated all over, and then lots and lots of cream inside,

and again a nice piping of jam. You don't need a lot of jam.

Just one line just to balance up. They are beautiful things made properly.

The texture of them is so soft.

Using that enriched dough makes them beautiful.

-Mmm.

-Do you like them?

-They're nectar.

-They're lovely, aren't they?

-Mmm!

-Delicious.

'By the final, I think the bakers knew the score.

'That nothing but perfect baking and presentation would do in order for Mary and I to choose

'who would crowned Britain's best amateur baker.

'The final technical bake had to be the most demanding of the series,

'so Mary selected a recipe that would give the bakers no margin for error.'

Our technical challenge today is our hardest yet.

It is the Sachertorte.

You've got a really dense torte and on top we need to get a nice,

shiny slick of chocolate ganache.

Sachertorte, Mary. This was the technical challenge at the final.

Why did you choose that one?

I chose it because I don't think any of them had ever made it before.

It's the ultimate cake that you would find in a very posh hotel

and it is difficult to make.

It's a one-tier cake with a very dense cake mixture,

and the icing has to be really shiny.

And also, it tested their piping skills

because they had to write "Sacher" across the top

and get the spelling right.

So, Mary, how do we start to make this cake?

First of all, the cake tin.

This is a nine inch, 23 centimetre cake tin.

It's got a loose base. And I've really well greased that.

And then if you put a piece of non-stick paper in the bottom -

that will make sure that we get it out. First of all,

I start with the creaming mixture

and I'd like 150 grams of unsalted butter.

So, that goes into the mixing machine.

And then 100 grams of caster sugar.

And, of course, you use caster sugar rather than granulated

cos you don't want any granules in the cake.

-Turn that on just to mix it for a moment, then add the caster sugar.

-Yeah.

'The mixture will be ready after two or three minutes,

'once the sugar is combined and the texture is light and thick.'

That looks absolutely fine now.

It's a lot whiter, it's beautifully creamy and it'll be less granular from the sugar.

The next thing to go in is melted chocolate,

and I've got 150 grams.

It's plan chocolate. It's not the posh 70%,

-it's 39% cocoa solids.

-OK.

And I melted it over the top of a pan of hot water.

-Slowly I've taken it off and it's just got to the pouring stage.

-OK.

If you put it in hot, of course it would melt the butter and the sugar.

At the same time, I'm going to put vanilla extract in

and I'm going to use half a teaspoon.

-It smells lovely, doesn't it?

-It does.

'Whisk until the chocolate

'is fully incorporated and the colour is even.'

That, to me, looks well whisked.

Now we add the eggs.

Five large eggs, please.

First of all, I'm going to separate the eggs.

Do it very carefully cos you don't want to get

the yolks and the whites mixed.

Put the yolks in there, the whites in here.

Obviously, five eggs in this relatively small mix

is quite a lot of eggs. It's going to be very, very rich.

It's very rich, it's very dense, but that's all part of its charm.

I'm going to add the egg yolk and I shall turn this on full speed.

'Add the egg yolks one at a time.

'Once all are combined, sieve in 55 grams of plain flour.'

The reason I'm sieving the flour, Paul, is it's an expensive cake

and I'm just taking every precaution that it's perfect.

And also, we're going to add some ground almonds.

It almost acts like a binding agent just to pull the mix together?

It stabilises the mixture and will help it to keep.

This cake is much better eaten the day after.

And the ground almonds also add to the denseness.

So, in that goes, 75 grams.

And, at this stage, it's folding it in.

So, round the outside of the bowl

and fold it in, and it will be very stiff at this stage.

-What liquid is left to go in this, then? Egg white?

-Just egg whites, that's all.

And fresh egg whites give much more volume.

An older egg white is runny when you crack it

and you can't get such a volume.

Whisk it up until it looks like cloud.

So, again on full speed.

Now, this is not ready, but I just want to show it to you.

This really hasn't got full volume yet. It's still rather yellow.

It will get a bit whiter than that and it'll be sort of soft peaks.

But it just needs a bit more. You can over-whip it at this stage. And, if so,

it breaks into pieces in the top of the bowl.

'Whisk the egg whites for a couple of minutes

'until they're stiff but not dry.'

That looks just what I'm wanting.

So, we've got plenty of volume there

and I'm going to take about a third of that into here.

I think that's just about a third.

So, I'm beating that in.

-This just slackens down the mix to allow you to put the rest in.

-Exactly.

So, I'm going to take the rest of the egg white

and put that in in one go.

This is the key stage, I think,

when you're starting to fold in lightly the last bit of meringue.

Once you've slackened off the mix,

the addition of the extra essentially air

being added to a slacker mix would then retain the air.

Adding it to a thicker mix in one bulk would just decimate the air bubbles

-and therefore give you a flatter Sachertorte as well.

-Exactly. It's coming through.

I'm doing it carefully and slowly.

And, if you want to, you can make the actual base of the Sachertorte

a day before or two days before and then ice it when you want it.

So, all that mixture out in more or less one blob,

and then you're not taking the air out of it. So, in it goes.

And it's a perfect mixture, absolutely smooth.

If you haven't mixed the egg white in properly,

-what happens, it looks curdled.

-Yeah.

Then, important to level this.

It will not take its own level because it's a fairly stiff mixture.

And try not to get it up the sides of the tin,

because that'll just burn on the tin and also be difficult to get out.

-It's not going to grow massively up the side of that, is it?

-No.

It'll just be a little bit deeper. So, that's ready to go into the oven.

-You should have your oven set, and it should be 160 fan.

-Yeah.

That's 180 in a conventional oven.

It'll take between 45 minutes and 50 minutes.

It's got to be shrinking away from the sides of the tin.

It has a slight crust on the top.

If it does sink, it usually means that you've slightly undercooked it.

'At this stage in the competition,

'all the bakers were aware of exactly what they needed to do to impress us.'

It's going to be quite a hard challenge and I haven't actually made one of these before.

But I've made ganache and I have made a torte before, so, yeah,

we'll see how it goes.

'Mary-Anne had her own way of melting, or burning, chocolate.'

I'm melting some more chocolate because the first lot burnt.

'Mixing in the egg whites was no problem for Holly.'

This first couple of spoons full are just to loosen,

cos otherwise it's very, very hard to fold egg whites

into a stiff cake mixture.

'Jo was also confident she knew the tricks when it came to mixing.'

Well, you just have to do these cutting motions rather than...

You don't want to lose the air.

It's...

..OK. It's not completely level.

-So, the cake is baked and it is level across the top.

-Yeah.

I've freed it from the tin, still have the paper underneath,

and this is absolutely cooled, and you just peel that off the base.

With it being quite a robust cake, you can actually treat it

a little bit harder.

'Place on a serving plate and spread the cake

'with gently warmed apricot jam.'

Sieved apricot jam. Of course, you don't want to get that too hot,

just enough to melt it.

If it's really thick, you can add a little water to it.

It just helps to seal in the moisture of the cake, doesn't it, with the apricot jam?

Not only does it seal in the moisture, it means that

any loose crumb is attached to the cake and doesn't get in and spoil the icing.

-These little air bubbles in the top, can you just push them down slightly?

-Just press them down.

And if you press it down and fill it with apricot jam,

-that'll make it quite level.

-Yeah.

'Allow the jam to set whilst making the icing.'

-The icing is a, a chocolate ganache.

-Yeah.

And I'm going to put double cream - and it must double pouring cream.

And that's 200 millilitres.

'Ganache is a rich chocolate mixture commonly used as an icing or filling

'and forms the base for chocolate truffles.'

Then a plain chocolate, 150 grams.

That's five ounces.

-And we're using the same chocolate that went into the cake as well?

-Exactly.

There's steam coming up from the cream. Take it off the heat

and tip the chocolate into that.

That will just start to melt, and on no account put it back on the heat.

It will naturally melt. It won't curdle, it won't separate.

It's quite easy to do, but you must do it off the heat.

'Once the cream and chocolate are well combined,

'leave to cool for a few minutes until thickened slightly.

'Then pour the ganache over the top of the torte.'

-I'm just letting it take its own form.

-Mmm.

Then I'm going to encourage it to slip down the front...

..and all around, tilting it.

I can just run along here, like that, and it will run down.

If you haven't got it quite right, you're going to have to use a palette knife dipped in water.

But I've been able to avoid that,

because you do begin to lose the shine.

'Finish by scraping the excess chocolate

'from the edge of the plate with a palette knife

'and wipe clean with damp kitchen paper.

'Leave the torte for a couple of hours for the icing to set,

'then pipe the word "Sacher" across the top

'in melted milk chocolate for a classic finish.'

Just going to ruin my cake, that's what's going to happen. Right.

'The icing of the torte was critical and the pressure showed.'

That's it.

'Holly proved she knew the secret when piping a Sachertorte.

'Don't stop halfway, and do it all in one go as if handwriting.'

'Mary-Anne's daughter, Sacha,

'was the cause of her simple spelling mistake.'

SHE GASPS

You wrote Sacha!

'In judging, we were meticulous.

'We wanted an event cake with a mirrored finish.

'They did well!'

-Well, we've got some shiny tops, haven't we?

-Shall we start from this side?

-Yeah.

The ganache could have been a little bit thick, but it has got the right consistency.

-That cake looks pretty well done as well.

-The cake looks very good.

Getting the apricot through, which is good.

I think it's a nice cake, that one.

It's a nice cake - a little over decorated.

Yeah.

Now, this one, it's got the nice ganache on, this one.

I think that could have done with a little bit longer bake.

It's got more of a high mirror finish, which is what you're looking for for a Sacher.

-These two could both have done with just a little more, five more minutes.

-Mmm.

Made beautifully, Mary, may I say?

I think the glaze that you've got on the top is stunning. I think the ganache was superb.

-Proof of the pudding.

-Right.

-Hmm!

-Mmm, that's a bit of all right, isn't it? Mmm, very good.

Moist. Chocolaty.

There is a definite zing of that apricot that's left on there as well, that sweetness sitting there.

And again that almost fudge quality to that chocolate on the top.

Mary, fantastic. Absolutely fantastic.

This was the last of the technical challenges. A bit sad, really.

It is sad, but I've really enjoyed these masterclasses.

We've had plenty of time to go through every detail

of the technical challenges, so everybody at home can make them.

And all you need is a good pair of scales, good ingredients,

and follow every single step, and success should be the result.

I hope we've inspired everybody to get going.

Get into the kitchen and start baking.

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