Masterclass The Great British Bake Off

The Great British Bake Off sees 12 home bakers battle it out

over cakes, pies and pastries

in a bid to become Britain's best amateur baker.

Some rise to the challenge, while other fall apart.

-HE SIGHS

-It's a shame. It's a shame.

Technically, this is absolutely rubbish.

Recovery from disaster.

Each week the bakers are asked to complete three challenges.

But the most feared by far, and the most revealing,

is the Technical Challenge.

-Who knows how it's going to go?

-It's like the worst nightmare, this is.

Always a closely-guarded secret,

success in this challenge relies upon their baking skills...

Oh, my days.

..experience...

The number of decades I've been baking, it does help.

..and intuition in the context of a classic recipe.

I do know what it should be like in the end. Just not entirely sure

how to get it to that point.

But now it's the turn of Bake Off's very own judges to get baking themselves.

Queen of cakes Mary Berry and master baker Paul Hollywood

have so far been judging other people's efforts.

-Good flavour.

-Looks like a chocolate breeze block.

That is absolutely delicious!

-I think it works.

-It's different. I don't know that I like it.

To say it was a disaster would be a humiliation to disaster.

Go on, say something nice!

But now it's time for Mary and Paul to show off their skills

and make all of the Technical Challenges,

so that you can get the perfect result every time.

Well, Paul and I have had it pretty good, just judging.

But now it's all on us. So we've got to show you exactly what to do,

step by step, to get even better results than the bakers.

Paul will be making his rum babas, a light and fragile sponge dessert

soaked in rich rum syrup,

a mind-boggling eight-strand plaited loaf

with its perfectly golden crust,

and Paul's traditional hand-raised pie,

packed full of tender chicken and juicy apricots.

Mary brings us her recipe for treacle tart - a real classic

with a perfect balance of thin pastry and decadent filling,

and creme caramel,

a freestanding sweet custard with a layer of moist caramel on top.

And finally, if you've ever wondered how to shape dough,

pipe meringue or create spun sugar, Mary and Paul will show you

how to get the perfect results with a series of quick tips.

Finally, a chance for Mary and I to get baking ourselves

in the Bake Off tent and show you guys exactly how to do

all the Technical Challenges properly. Game on.

This year, the Bake Off began with cakes.

The bakers started by creating colourful concoctions

with their own take on the upside-down cake,

before wowing the judges with their ingenious

and technically difficult hidden design cakes.

But what caught many of them out was Paul's half cake/half dough

Technical Challenge.

Bakers, adopt the brace position.

This is your first Technical Challenge.

This recipe is for a classic, 1970s' staple.

Rum baba.

Four perfect babas with cream in the middle

-and perfectly-sliced fruit on top. On your marks.

-Get set.

-Bake!

I'm quite afraid of this recipe.

I've got no idea what I'm doing!

Rum babas are cakes made from leavened dough,

a highly enriched batter that is soaked in rum syrup,

decorated with fruit and Chantilly cream.

Rum baba. It's that strange hybrid between cake and bread.

But it's something very special. But a little bit tricky.

-Very tricky.

-But you'll show us that it's easy.

Let's just see how easy it is, shall we?

What would you like? Can I do any weighing for you?

Can you weigh up 220 grams of strong flour, please?

Sometimes plain flour is used for rum baba, isn't it?

I tend to use strong flour because it's quite a wet dough,

and so strong flour will give you that spring in the oven

-to give you that dome on the top of the rum baba itself.

-That's it.

Thank you. Could you also give me seven grams of fast-action yeast?

Half a teaspoon of salt.

Keep the salt and yeast separate in the bowl to start with

as the salt will slow the development of the yeast.

Measure out 50g of sugar, 2 medium eggs and 70ml milk.

Add a little bit of milk to start with.

-I want to develop the dough first before I add that butter.

-Right.

So just start stirring in the mixtures,

just taking it from round the side, more milk.

So carry on working this dough,

manipulating it, building up that gluten and moving the bowl around,

keeping it active.

There's always a danger of giving up too soon,

but the batter needs as much air in as possible to create the sponge.

And what you could start doing now, please, Mary,

is begin to add the butter.

Measure out 100 grams of softened butter.

It's important to develop the dough fully before adding the fat,

as fat slows the gluten development and makes it weaker,

which is why enriched dough is soft and fragile.

Rub that butter into that dough.

This is the most important stage of making rum baba.

See, it's getting more gelatinous now, more stringy.

You have to incorporate all the butter properly -

otherwise you'll get streaks in there.

Now you are extremely strong and have got very good arms,

could I please do this in a machine with a dough-hook?

Course you could. Just take your time, it'll take about ten minutes,

so imagine how long it'll take doing this.

I thoroughly recommend using a dough-hook, then.

It's beginning to come now.

-It's lovely and shiny, not a lump in sight.

-No.

What I'm going to do is coat that in a little bit of flour now.

You get moisture molecules sitting on the outside of the dough/batter,

and the moisture is soaked up by the flour

and it just helps you to manipulate it a little bit easier.

Give it a light coating in the flour.

So you're taking in quite a bit of extra flour

-to the flour that you've used.

-I'm coating the outside of it.

-Any moisture it's holding there...

-Right.

..will soak up.

At that stage, I'd leave that for nature to take its course.

A good hour in a warm environment and that will start to grow.

-Can I just feel it?

-Yeah, of course.

Now when you press it, the indentation stays there.

-That's right.

-And when you've proved it, it should spring back.

It will, but don't forget, that's a very soft batter.

If you have risen batter and put your finger in it, it'll still leave an indentation, it could collapse.

-It's very delicate.

-Right.

Cover in clingfilm and leave for an hour to double in size.

OK, Mary, here are four rum baba moulds.

Would you mind brushing the inside with plenty of butter

and then just a light coating of sugar, please.

Now, this is the mix which has been resting for about an hour.

It's sort of about double the amount.

It's quite aerated already, and it's perfect for going straight

into a piping bag and then we'll pipe that into the bowls themselves.

I've well buttered that. I don't have to do it in the middle, do I?

You can a little,

cos I'm trying to get a little bit of a lip on it as well.

Well, I'll make sure I do it well. Otherwise I'll get blamed!

-Yes, you will.

-Right. And then sugar?

Just a light dusting of sugar, please.

Sugaring the moulds helps get these fragile cakes out of the tins once baked.

But for some in the Bake Off, it didn't go to plan.

-I've ruined it completely. Do you know what I've done?

-What?

-Used salt in my tin.

-Oh, no!

-I want to go home!

Oh, I've messed up big-style here.

It's going to put me in the bad books from the start,

it's going to..."John's the boy who messed around with salt."

So, you do that.

That's sugar.

-It'll give it a nice crust, won't it? If you have sugar.

-Absolutely.

And all you do is pipe round the mould, about halfway up.

Because that will grow. Snip it off, and there you have it.

Join the rest up with your fingers.

-And another one.

-Keeping up with Hollywood is quite difficult.

Come on, Mary, hurry up. Thank you. And again, pipe the last one in.

There you go.

So they need to rise for about an hour in a warm place,

and then they're going to be baked. You must cover it,

because what you don't want, at this stage, is for the top to get a skin on.

So you take a polythene bag, prop it up with a couple of spice jars

or something and tuck the rest underneath.

What we've got, though, is proving drawers,

essentially a humidifier. Set it around 32, 33 degrees.

These are going to go in there, and we'll leave them to rise

and have a look in about an hour.

-Wow!

-Yes.

-Here we go.

-They look absolutely beautiful. Really well risen.

And you were quite wise to suggest that it was buttered all over,

because it's just come over the rim.

That'll give it the little ridge that you put your cream on.

But you see it, it's soft, it's delicate.

You've got to be really careful at this stage.

It's an enriched dough, any form of knocking will drop that

and it'll lose its dome.

So these are going to go straight into the oven now.

160 fan, 180 non-fan,

for about 20-25 minutes until they're beautiful and golden brown.

Because of the amount of butter and sugar in this enriched dough,

the tops can colour quickly and the babas may look baked

before they're actually done inside.

Here's hoping.

If over-baked, the babas will become crispy on the outside.

Under-baked, and these delicate sponges will collapse.

A challenge the bakers found tricky.

Oh. It's all gone wrong.

They're all stuck to the dish.

-They look a bit of all right.

-Nice and golden brown.

They've released quite well.

Do it while it's warm, because the butter's still warm in the mould.

And actually they'll come out easier.

What I've got to make now is a syrup

to go with this and let it soak in while it's still warm.

For the syrup, measure out 250g of caster sugar, 20ml of hot water

-and then add the rum.

-How many tablespoons?

-Three to four.

-One...

-two, three.

-You call that a tablespoon?!

-Absolutely perfect.

-Don't want it too weak.

-Mary, that's brutal!

-No, just right.

OK, all I'm going to do is heat this up now.

I can feel that that's actually all dissolved in there

-amongst your half a bottle of rum!

-You might need a little more rum...

We're not putting any more rum in there! Let me have a look and see.

Actually, it's pretty good.

So we've got warm babas, hot sauce and on it goes.

If you find that it's not soaking in, we can turn it upside-down.

It's to ensure that it's equally spread.

If that was a normal cake mixture

-and you tried to turn it upside-down, it would all break apart.

-Yeah.

This is quite strong, with big holes in,

and so it will take being turned over.

The other way of doing it is to tilt it, take more syrup,

then just drizzle it over the top again.

-And then you serve it while everything is very, very cold.

-Yes.

Allow the hot babas to completely soak up all of the rum syrup.

Then put them in the fridge to cool for about half an hour,

so that they are ready to decorate.

It's lovely. It's just the right amount of rum.

Now I've got some cream in here, whipped up some vanilla

and some icing sugar.

All I'm going to do is pipe around, keeping it in the centre.

After that, fruit on the top.

Lovely. Now, the finishing touch...

-..is some icing sugar.

-This is my most useful thing in the kitchen.

You know when you burn the side of an apple pie - I'm sure you never do -

you put an awful lot on that side and a little less on the others.

But these are perfect.

And, of course, once you've done it, because they're moist, they do...

-Soak it back up. How simple is that?

-I think they look wonderful.

A rum baba made by hand. Piped cream in the middle, fruit on top,

covered in a stock syrup with rum inside it.

That's how simple it should've been.

Well, this was the first of our Technical Challenges, Mary.

And obviously there was a bit of a Rumgate between me and yourself.

So the only way to see if the rum was the right level is to eat it.

Absolutely.

This is the strange hybrid between cake and bread,

never been seen before on Bake Off.

And that's what caught them out, I think.

-Enough rum?

-Well, I wouldn't mind a little bit more.

-Unbelievable.

It's moist, it's sharp with the fruit,

you've got that beautiful Chantilly cream inside.

-It's unusual and it's different, and it's so good.

-Mm.

Mm! Lovely.

And now Paul's top tip to perfectly pipe with cream.

When I first started in a bakery, my first chore was to pipe cream

into either doughnuts or the top of the cookies.

Very simple rule - get a good bag,

either a cloth one or a plastic one like this,

and make sure it's filled to the top and you seal the top,

either with fingers, by twisting it, or just with your hands.

Put a bit of tension on there. Just so the cream comes right to the end.

So you start...

and then turn, turn, turn, release.

That inside any bun, or on top of any cake, looks fantastic.

The next ones you can do, hold your piping bag straight down,

pipe till you're happy you've got enough, release.

Then you can do any swirl. So again, start from the top,

keeping the tension all the way.

And so the whole thing is neatly done with equal pressure.

That's the key when icing or piping.

Week two of the Bake Off saw the bakers doing battle with bread.

They were asked to make signature flatbreads...

..and a show-stopping batch of bagels.

But it was Paul's tricky Technical Challenge

that really got the bakers in a twist.

We are calling this the Rapunzel Challenge.

We're asking you today to prepare and bake an eight-strand plaited loaf.

We want each plait to be an even width and length,

-with a nice golden crust and a soft crumb.

-On your marks.

-Get set.

-Bake!

Time to experiment a bit.

I didn't even know there was such a thing.

A complicated eight-strand plaited loaf,

with a crunchy golden crust and dense crumb structure.

Eight-strand plait. To me, it seems a very difficult choice.

That's precisely why I chose it.

I wanted to see them sweat a little bit on the Technical Challenge,

and it was nice to choose something even a baker would find difficult.

So to start with, we need to make the base dough.

So can you put 500g of flour into there for me, please?

-And strong flour, of course?

-Strong flour. High in gluten.

That gives you the elasticity and strength

to hold the bubbles inside as the bread grows.

Seven grams of fast-action yeast, please.

If you can only get the fresh yeast, then you need to add 12 grams.

Give me 10 grams of salt.

That goes in there to the other side of the bowl. Why do we do that?

Because if you put it over the other side with the yeast,

-it slows down the action. Am I getting there?

-You are.

Come and work with me any time. OK, the next ingredient I'm adding -

-olive oil.

-Does that have to be a good olive oil?

You don't need to use virgin olive oil, just any olive oil is fine.

Now, I'm adding about 320ml of water.

Cool water is absolutely fine.

Start off by adding half of it.

Fingers like a mixer.

-In you go. And then just turn it.

-So often bread recipes say warm water.

-You were saying cool.

-If you want to use warm water, that's fine.

It just speeds it up.

And the thing about making bread is, the slower the prove,

the more intense the flavour, the better the fermentation.

All I've done there is crushed the dough together

and you end up with a soft dough like that.

That still needs work.

Olive oil onto the bench, pop your dough into that.

And just coat the outside with the olive oil.

One thing I've learnt from you is not to add too much extra flour,

and also having a nice oily surface, it's much easier to work.

If I add lots and lots of flour to that, it'll take forever to rise,

air holes will be very tight, and it'll end up like a house brick.

So as I work it more, I begin to speed up.

And you do this for about ten minutes.

But it is important at the very beginning

to have that fairly wet dough,

which looked as though it would stick to the table

and everything else, but because of that olive oil, it's completely free.

It's very difficult for bakers to teach people how to knead.

Everyone's got their own way. I hold the bottom...

grab the top. You've initially stretched it. Then you roll it up.

So you're in, you've ripped and then you're rolling up.

And that's the motion I've used for many, many years, and it works.

Everything's been incorporated in. It's got a lovely shine from the olive oil.

It's quite stretchy and resistant as well.

So pop that in a bowl,

clingfilm that and leave that for about an hour.

-Here it is then, Mary.

-That's fully proved.

It couldn't get any more proved. It'd be climbing out the bowl and trying to get off the table.

-It will carry on growing.

-So the aim is to get it to double its size?

At least double in size.

And you can see it, it's just full of air.

Sinking back in, you've burst all the bubbles and it starts to drop.

Those little creases there are actually signs that the bread

is risen and then fallen back.

We call it "the drop".

If you saw your dough like that, you'd instantly go, "It's fully proved."

It's exhausted all the flour and it's fallen back

-and created creases.

-So the next move?

The next move is to tip it out, just stretch it slightly.

Bang it down a little bit.

Now you want to divide it into eight, so find roughly halfway.

And then divide that again.

And then once you've got your pieces, lay them out.

That one's a bit small. That one's a bit big.

This bit was quite tricky.

And I know the bakers will struggle with this.

The bakers were asked to divide the dough

into eight equal portions, which some took more literally than others.

-It's 106 grams per portion.

-OK, that's pretty precise!

-So this is per strand, is it?

-Per strand.

-To make the octopus.

The eight strands must be evenly rolled out,

or else you'll get an uneven, lopsided plait.

I haven't done any of the kind of fancy weighing out,

but I figure if they're all roughly the same thickness...

But I might've completely stuffed it up.

You've got to roll each piece out nice and neat and equal.

You start in the middle, rolling it.

And then you roll out.

You put quite a bit of weight on your hands and you can see,

I open and flare my fingers like that.

And sometimes you'll hit an air pocket like that one there.

That will affect the growth, you see, if it wasn't knocked out.

You can see, on the bench, there's not a lot of flour, is there?

You want that dough to stick.

If there's too much flour, it just skids.

-You need that bit of adhesion, don't you?

-Yeah, you need that bit of bite.

So we roll it out. Now, you went something like that, did you?

-I'm not doing karate on it, Mary.

-I have every sympathy with our bakers.

-I can tell you, it's pretty difficult.

-It's hard.

Roll out eight equal strands. And then you're ready to assemble.

So all I'm going to do is line them up, like an octopus.

I think if I were doing it, it would stay a bit like an octopus!

-HE LAUGHS

-OK.

Gather the ends and then just tuck them together and tack them

to the table. So you've got something to plait with.

That's your starting point there.

Each one of them is numbered. One, two, three, four, five, six,

seven, eight. What you've got to be careful of,

and no matter who you are, you will need the sequence to do this.

If you haven't got the sequence, you won't get it.

And even with the sequence to follow,

the bakers found themselves in a bit of a knot.

"Eight over five, until the dough's ended."

I'm feeling like this could go horribly, horribly wrong.

"Eight under seven, over one..."

One, two, three, four, five.

"Eight over five.

"Two under three..."

That looks a bit weird. But how can I mess that up?

Eight...

Then eight over five, so one, two, three, four, five. That goes there.

Eight under seven,

and then seven...

over one. I've got no idea what I'm doing.

Six over one.

Three over eight. Three over eight...

What I love about this particular challenge is that after a while,

everyone sounds like Rain Man. Eight over five, five over two.

Oh, dear!

MEL: This is like the Generation Game gone bad.

Seven over one. Is that seven? I've no idea. Seven over one.

I'm going again. I'm going again.

OK, so what you've got is eight strands laid out.

As you move it, you then recount.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight.

The first move is the only move you don't repeat. So you start off...

-Eight under seven over one.

-OK.

So when we count again, that's one, two, three, four, five, six,

seven, eight.

The next move is your start of your four sequence.

So two goes under three

and over eight.

-Simple.

-Simple.

And then one over four.

The next move is seven under six over one.

And then eight over five.

-There.

-I'm keeping very quiet so as not to muddle you.

There's two under three over eight, and you repeat that till you finish.

Seven under six over one. Eight over five.

Two under three over eight. One over four...

Paul might've been doing this for years,

but to make this complicated plait yourself, make sure you have

the sequence written down in front of you before you start.

All the way...

down to the bottom.

HE CHUCKLES

Like that. Squeeze.

There you have it.

An eight-strand plait. Very simple...ish.

That is magnificent.

-Easy.

-Easy peasy.

-Easy peasy. I mean...

-How old were you when you first did your first one like this?

-16.

What you're looking for, you've got your line running across the top,

you've got the two either side and then you roll it over.

There's your sequence again.

You need to prove that up.

Allow the dough to prove again for about an hour,

although the plaited structure will prevent the dough from rising

as much as it might normally.

Once it's ready, brush it with egg wash and a pinch of salt,

to help form the crunchy golden crust.

Bake in the oven for at least 25 minutes,

until the dough is fully baked inside.

Paul might make it look simple,

but the bakers got themselves in a bit of a twist over this challenge.

Oh, go in!

There's no turning back now.

Technically this is absolutely rubbish.

It's just... There is nothing good about this loaf.

-Is it stuck, Sarah Jane?

-I don't know if it's right or not.

I kind of freestyled a bit towards the end.

Oh, my giddy aunt.

-SUE:

-What's wrong with that?

Cooked! Yay!

-OK, Mary, let's have a look.

-Well, that's got the wow factor, for me.

-It looks amazing.

-If you knock it, it's a loud, hollow sound.

And if you lift underneath, I've got asbestos fingers,

you've got all the beautiful colours underneath - the golden brown -

and you can see where it's all interlaced all the way down.

-And it smells divine.

-Can I have a taste then?

-No.

-Why not?

You want to leave it for at least half an hour,

three quarters of an hour.

The inside of is still going to be very, very hot.

-Even the very, sort of, end?

-Leave it alone!

-Now it's time to eat the plaited loaf.

-Seems a long wait.

-Absolutely.

-You want the crust?

-Definitely. That just looks wonderful.

Look at the structure inside.

How even it is, considering it's all been plaited individually.

It's such a beautiful loaf. Once it's baked and it's cooled,

which is the best way of keeping bread?

I just wrap it up in loose paper and put it in a breadbin.

-Not in a fridge?

-No, no. If you put it in a fridge, they stale three times quicker.

The cool air in the fridge draws all the moisture out from it.

I love it cos it's crusty.

-It tastes like bread ought to taste like.

-Mm.

Really lovely.

And now Paul's top tip for shaping a bloomer perfectly.

You start with your dough, which has been rising for about an hour.

From the bowl, in the flour, just flatten out the dough gently.

This is to distribute the air pockets that have started growing

and to make them equal inside the dough. Grab the ends of the dough

and fold them over each other.

Knuckles in, and you can hear the air pockets

bursting as you use your knuckles. Top of the dough,

fold over. Fingers go over. And use your thumbs.

You roll the dough up, keeping it nice and tight.

One quick roll. Tuck the ends to neaten it up.

Make sure you get one line underneath, because the bread will be weak where the line is,

and if it's right at the bottom of the loaf, it'll mean the loaf

will bloom up naturally without splitting at the side.

Onto a baking tray, leave that to rise for about an hour.

Then get a knife, cut - and there you have it. The perfect bloomer.

Week three of the Bake Off tested the bakers' knowledge of tarts.

From fruity tarte tatins...

..to spectacular designer fruit tarts,

the bakers battled and baked to impress the judges.

But it was an old, classic tart recipe that Mary chose to test them on

in the Technical Challenge.

This week the Technical Challenge is going to be...

a treacle tart with a woven lattice top.

OK, this is Mary Berry's recipe, OK? No pressure!

It's got to be perfect. So...

-On your marks.

-And get set.

-Bake!

I've never made a treacle tart ever.

So... I've probably seen one,

but I've never like, "Oh, treacle tart - I need one."

Mary Berry's recipe - such pressure. It's got to be perfect.

A traditional English dessert made with shortcrust pastry

and a thick filling of golden syrup, breadcrumbs, and lemon juice.

Why did you pick this as the Technical Challenge?

I chose treacle tart because it's pretty tricky to make.

But it's an absolute British classic.

First off, put a heavy baking sheet in a pre-heated oven

at 200 degrees, 180 fan.

When you come to bake the tart, this will bake the pastry base perfectly.

With cake tins at home, you forget the exact size.

So I always, with a waterproof pen, write "7 inches, 18 centimetres"

and you know exactly where you are.

Seriously, that's what you do? You go round your whole kitchen...

All my cake tins.

-Next time I'm at yours I'm going to check all your tins.

-Most of them.

But it does help. So there it is, ready for action.

-We've got to make the pastry first. So 250 grams of plain flour.

-250.

130 grams of butter.

And then just process that until it becomes like breadcrumbs.

Then I'm going to add just over three tablespoonfuls of water.

And that is just about right. And off they go.

That's it. And I'm going to gather those bits up by hand.

I like doing it by hand, the whole thing,

-because I feel more in control.

-I feel very in control with this,

and I can nip and do other things at the same time.

I know by the sound when it's done.

You're a professional baker and I'm a home cook.

-So I'm just going to knead that, first of all.

-Can I feel that?

-I mean, it's still quite short, isn't it?

-That's what I want.

I want it short, but I don't want it to all break apart

when I roll it out.

So that's come together very nicely and I'm just going to chill that.

It'll be easier to handle.

Chill in the fridge for 20 minutes to relax the pastry.

Now I'm going to take off 150 grams of that for the lattice.

Put that to one side, flour the board and then roll it out,

and I want it to be nice and thin.

-We do not want a soggy bottom.

-No, absolutely not.

So the aim is to keep it fairly round and keep freeing it.

Still, I want that thinner. Yeah. So, I've got my tin here.

I take that base and slip that underneath there,

to the middle, and then fold the sides in, so all the way round.

And it's very easy to transport it into the middle here.

And then just flick the sides over.

So I'm just going to push that in all the way round,

first of all with my finger like that, pressing it in,

and then take a little lump of pastry and you press that in,

keep flouring it like that. All the way round,

so you get the indentations of the tin.

That's it. And I'm ready to roll out the lattice.

Roll out the set-aside pastry for the lattice so that it's very thin

and big enough to fit over the tart.

Place on clingfilm and leave in the fridge to chill,

which will make it easier to cut into strips later.

Then we'll get on to the filling.

There's about six slices here of white bread, it's a day-old.

You can always use the crust, make breadcrumbs of them

and use them perhaps for cauliflower cheese or something like that.

-That's perfect.

-Lovely and fine.

If you use one or two-day-old bread, you'll be able to get it fine.

If you use really fresh bread, you can't really get it fine.

For the filling, measure out 400 grams of golden syrup into a pan

and put on a gentle heat.

Add the zest and juice of two lemons and fully mix in your breadcrumbs.

Prick the thin pastry base with a fork

so that it doesn't rise during baking,

and pour the smooth treacle filling into the lined pastry case.

If the mixture looks runny, add a few more breadcrumbs

until you have a thick, smooth mixture.

MEL: It's awesome. It looks really, really good.

It's gone very Krypton Factor, hasn't it?

I could watch this for hours.

Agh!

Let's try that again.

To make the perfect lattice,

remove the chilled rolled-out pastry from the fridge and egg wash.

I am going to glaze this now rather than try to do it on the actual tart.

-That's a nice tip, cos it just stops it going straight into the treacle, doesn't it?

-It does.

Then wet all the way round the edge there.

-That's ready for the lattice to stick.

-Yeah.

I'm not letting it drip down the sides, cos I know

there's a bit of pastry left that some little person will be making jam tarts.

So I'm going to cut those strips.

And you can make them as thin or as wide as you like,

but I like them fairly thin.

And you need ten, five across one way

and five across the other way.

Carefully line the vertical strips across the tart,

and weave the horizontal strips through them.

I'm quite nervous having you looking over the side of me!

Make sure the strips are longer than the tart tin so that they hang

over the edge, preventing any shrinkage during baking.

We want these strips to stick to the pastry,

and I'm just going to press down gently

and let the actual tart tin do the cutting.

Just go round, pushing it down, and I know that all those

pieces of lattice are sticking to the actual pastry underneath,

so you can gather all those together into a ball and use them later.

There we are.

Bake in the pre-heated oven on the hot baking tray

for about ten minutes until the pastry has started to colour.

Then reduce the oven temperature to 180, 160 fan,

until the pastry is golden and the filling is set.

Oh!

This just looks like the cat's been sick on.

To be quite honest, I've got not a clue whether that's done or not.

-Your latticework was the neatest one out of all the bakers that did it.

-Do you think I might've won?

-You might've got through.

-Number one?

-Maybe.

Your treacle tart is perfectly baked when it is a rich golden colour

and the filling is set, not wobbling inside.

Allow to cool a little so that the pastry edges shrink away from the sides,

so you can lift it out of its case cleanly.

Slide the tart off the base of the tin onto your plate,

and serve warm with a little cream or custard.

And let's have a look at the bottom. How's that?

No soggy bottom there, Mary.

That's because we put it on very, very hot baking sheet

and we haven't baked it blind, and it's got wafer-thin pastry.

That's it.

Now that, as you can see, looks lovely and soft in the middle.

It looks so good. I mean, that pastry is wafer-thin.

That's lovely. It's light, beautiful lemons coming through.

And the good thing about this treacle tart is you can make it ahead,

just serve it warm and it'll keep too,

so you don't have to eat it all on one day - though perhaps we might!

-A true classic.

-Mm.

And now Mary's top tip to get cold butter the perfect temperature.

One of the real problems when you're creaming butter and sugar together

to make a cake is getting the butter at the right temperature.

It's nearly always too hard. This is a foolproof way of softening it.

Here I've got butter. It's very, very cold, straight from the fridge.

Put those squares into lukewarm water,

sort of the temperature of a baby's bath,

and leave it for about ten minutes.

This now is squidgy and soft.

Just the temperature for doing a creaming method.

Get rid of that water.

And there it is, as soft as can be.

A simple, simple, foolproof way of doing it,

and that is absolutely perfect.

Look how lovely and soft that is.

Softened butter in no time - a perfect tip ready for cake making.

Desserts was the battle ground for week four of the Bake Off.

The bakers created flourless tortes in all shapes and sizes.

And incredible layered, gravity-defying meringues.

But despite these elaborate bakes, it was the Technical Challenge that brought on a bit of a wobble.

Today's Technical Challenge is the mainstay of French cuisine -

creme caramel. You've got to master a baked custard and a caramel,

and you've got to turn it out and give it a nice wobble we're looking for.

-On your marks.

-Get set.

-Bake.

This was a popular thing in the'70s, like Black Forest gateau.

Quite a lot could go wrong, so it is actually quite difficult.

I do know what it should be like in the end,

just not entirely sure how to get it to that point.

A freestanding sweet, baked custard

topped with a layer of moist caramel. Easy when you know how,

but the technique is notoriously hit-or-miss.

First of all, you need to make the caramel that goes in the bottom of the dish.

Measure out 160 grams of granulated sugar

and place into a stainless steel pan, with six tablespoons of water.

One, two, three...

Avoid using a non-stick pan, because the mixture will crystallise.

I can still feel a little bit of grit at the bottom there.

Once all the sugar has dissolved, do NOT stir it,

but wait for the mixture to become clear and boil rapidly,

-watching it the whole time.

-Don't be tempted to put a spoon in there,

because it will immediately cloud over and begin to crystallize.

When sugar is heated,

each crystal is broken down into carbon, hydrogen and oxygen.

The hydrogen and oxygen re-combine to form water, which evaporates,

leaving the carbon, which becomes caramel.

-Now you can smell the caramel.

-You can.

And notice it was making that rapid noise. It's now quietened down.

Don't let it get too dark. Have everything ready.

And I have not buttered the ramekins.

If you butter the ramekins first, what happens is you pour

the caramel in and it'll go cloudy and crystallise.

Then just gently pour that into each one.

Now this will cool very rapidly, won't it?

Start to solidify within minutes.

And this is very, very hot.

And it is very important to be aware how hot this is.

-Don't have any children around you at this time.

-No.

-Do you know how I get the sugar off?

-How?

Put water into that, you just fill it halfway full, boil it,

and within 30 seconds your pan's clean. I'll pop that one over there.

That's a jolly good tip.

So these are a sort of deep caramel colour,

and we'll leave those just on the top here.

They don't need to go in the fridge. And they will set.

Then I will butter them.

Making caramel correctly is something that can really impress.

But the bakers didn't find it as easy as Mary makes it look.

Panicking here a little bit now.

Oh, bloody hell. Is that burnt?

-Let's smell it.

-It smells burnt.

-That's burnt.

Even though it's really tempting to stir this,

it really is best to leave it alone.

I'm dicing with death here.

So, we now make the custard. Four medium eggs.

-25 grams of sugar, perhaps you can get that ready for me.

-Caster sugar?

Caster sugar.

And then I'm going to add some vanilla extract.

Now, there are all sorts of kinds of vanilla you can do for this.

You can infuse a vanilla pod in the milk, you can use vanilla paste.

I prefer not to use essence. It's not as good.

This is extract, and I'm going to add a good teaspoonful

and that will give a good flavour.

So I'm going to beat that together until it's smooth.

Gently warm 600ml of full-fat milk in a pan.

When I put my finger in and I can't keep it in, that is the temperature.

-That's perfect. I could just hold it in there.

-OK.

Right, so just beat like that.

For custard, it is important to add the hot milk to the cold mixture,

and NOT the other way around.

We poured the hot milk onto the eggs. That's the right way round.

If you do it the other way round, the egg would overcook.

Cos you're putting egg mixture into a hot pan

and it would start to scramble it.

To make sure there are no lumps in your custard,

you can strain it.

Once the caramel has completely set, butter the ramekins generously.

The one thing that I like about caramel custard

is you can make it ahead,

and it is greatly improved by making ahead.

And we're going to cook them bain-marie,

and bain-marie simply means that you're cooking it in boiling water.

Divide the custard equally between the ramekins

before adding the boiling water for the bain-marie.

Whatever heat the oven reaches, the water can never go above 100 degrees,

and the evaporating water simultaneously cools it.

The heat is dispersed evenly by the water,

baking the custard gently so that it is perfectly tender.

It's important that when you're putting the water in,

it doesn't go into the custard, because it would weaken it.

Put them in a pre-heated oven at 150 degrees, 130 fan.

We're aiming to get a custard that doesn't have a bubble in sight.

If there are bubbles all the way round,

it means that the custard is tough,

and we don't want a tough custard.

Bake for 20 to 30 minutes until the custard is perfectly set,

with just a very slight wobble.

Not good. So I'm hoping if it starts cooling, it should set a tiny bit.

SHE GIGGLES

It came out in one piece and it's got a caramel on the top!

No, I... Oh.

-We're going to smash porcelain!

-Oh, my goodness.

There's little bits of broken china on there and everything!

Yeah, that's what I thought. Yeah... Pfft.

-HE CHUCKLES

-Oh, well.

Right, let's see if they're done.

So they should not be coloured.

I'm just going to test whether, in the very centre here, there's a wobble.

-Now can you see there's a wobble?

-Definitely, Mary.

-That's right.

Leave them in the water just for another ten minutes or so,

and they will just gently go on cooking right through to the middle.

Let them get stone cold in the fridge,

and then the custard makes the hard caramel underneath soft,

so that when you turn it out you get that lovely runny sauce.

Now, we've made six.

You could easily have made just one in a two-pint dish.

Again you would do it in the bain-marie, but it would take

about 10 or 15 minutes to cook.

Once cool, leave them to set in the fridge

for as long as you can, preferably overnight,

so that the custard absorbs the caramel flavour

and they are ready to be turned out.

Tip them forward

so that the weight of the custard will drop down a bit.

-Can you see the caramel coming up?

-Yeah.

We've been all the way round, and then you simply take the plate,

like that, and I'm going to give that a really good shake, first of all.

-And then over there, another shake.

-Do you want me to have a go?

No. Because I would be at home without you, or without my Paul,

and you have to be able to cope on your own.

I'm going to make quite sure it's coming out.

I heard a plop - I thought I did. So let's just lift that up.

There it is. Now that is a perfect colour.

It is sort of a deep caramel.

-If it's looking any darker than that, it will be bitter.

-Yeah.

And that's just lovely, and you've got your custard.

Now, if you do that too soon, the very top here becomes pale.

It loses its colour.

So by all means loosen them, but turn them out just before.

I think they look absolutely fantastic, Mary.

Absolutely perfect, and I can't wait to try one.

That's delicious. It melts in the mouth.

It's smooth, texture's superb.

Caramel's excellent.

-Not a bubble in sight. They're gorgeous.

-Mm!

And now Paul's top tip for perfectly spun sugar.

All I've got in a pan is sugar,

it's been caramelised with a little bit of water.

Make sure you've got a good lump of sugar on the end of your whisk. Get a steel ready.

And quickly, as it cools it crystallises.

This is basically candy floss.

And you end up with a nest of sugar

that on top of any gateau looks fantastic.

Now, what I've got here is a bowl that I brushed with olive oil.

I'm just going to draw a line across the top.

You need to do this a few times to build up the strength of the cage itself.

And you can see now, the structure's beginning to form.

So just crack the bottom to release the caramel.

And there you have it - a sugar basket that will make

any pudding or cake look a million dollars.

It was halfway through the Bake Off that our bakers faced Pie Week.

They pitted themselves against puff pastry for their Signature Wellingtons,

and went all Stars and Stripes with their show-stopping American pies.

But this week saw another of Paul's Technical Challenges,

when he set them the notoriously tricky hand-raised pie.

For today's Technical Challenge, we would like you

to make a hand-raised pie.

Now, this is made with a hot water crust, which is the kind of pastry

that basically defies all the rules of pastry making.

Hand-raised pies were actually used by Sweeney Todd

and Mrs Lovett to conceal their victims,

so Paul and Mary better watch out if the judging is unfavourable.

-On your marks.

-Get set.

-Bake.

"And mix in with the flour until it comes together and turn out."

Shall I just stick it...? I'm going to stick it all in.

I'm just, I'm totally perplexed by this.

HE SIGHS

It's going to be an interesting experience.

A savoury pie made with hand-raised hot water crust pastry

and a juicy chicken, bacon and apricot layered filling.

It's basically a hand-raised pie around a dolly,

just like this, crimped round the outside, egg washed and baked.

Pretty straightforward, you think.

But the difficulty is making the hot water crust pastry itself,

because you're using boiling hot water.

For the pastry, weigh out 50g of butter,

200g of plain flour, and 40g of strong flour.

The strong flour gives it that little bit of strength to keep the walls of the pie straight.

Then use your hand to crumb the mixture together into breadcrumbs.

Weigh out 60g of lard and leave it to melt in 100ml of hot water.

Add to the flour mixture and mix together with a wooden spoon.

It comes together quite nicely. It's still quite warm.

It feels lovely, but it needs a little bit of manipulation.

Traditionally, a hot water crust pastry was made of flour and lard, wasn't it?

You've added a bit of butter to it. Is that for flavour?

I think it adds to it, gives it a lovely flavour. And colour.

And it's very warm, have you felt that?

-It's lovely. It's a totally different pastry, isn't it?

-Absolutely, yeah.

The more you work this, two things happen. It becomes more glutinous.

But secondly, it begins to cool.

When it becomes cool, it becomes very rigid.

So what we want to do is try and manipulate this around a dolly now,

-while it's soft.

-Right.

Just cut that in half. Just take off a little bit.

I'm going to make two little balls, for the lids.

-A very small amount for the lid, a thin lid?

-Yes.

It's only basically the width of the dolly.

I'm going to rub some oil into the side of the dolly.

I haven't got one at home and when I make this sort of thing,

-I use a jam jar.

-Yeah, you can use a jam jar.

The advantage of using a jam jar is, when you come to get it off,

you can put very hot water in the jam jar, and that

melts the lard a bit and it pulls it out quickly.

That's a good idea, actually.

-Just gently shape the bottom of it.

-Mm-hm.

Place your dolly into the middle

and then draw it up the side of the dolly itself.

Making sure we haven't got too much of a fat bottom.

I'm trying to make it look as neat as possible

and as equal as you can up the side.

Shape the pastry evenly around both of the dollies

and place them on a non-stick baking tray. Trim the top of the pastry

so there's a smooth, neat edge to the top of the pies.

Don't make them too tall, as the walls could sag during baking.

All I'm doing is flattening down the lid.

You can use your fingers or roll it out with a rolling pin, then cut it with a cutter.

As long as it's roughly the size of the dolly.

I'm going to pop these in the fridge as they are.

-Shall I do that for you?

-Yes, please, Mary.

What's it worth not to drop it?

-HE CHUCKLES

-You'll do them again!

But dropping them was the least of our bakers' worries.

I've never seen one of these before in my whole life.

I don't know if this is right.

This is going to go really wrong.

I'm going to start again.

How do you get these things off?

So far, we are all in exactly the same predicament.

Nobody was able to get their pastry off of the dollies.

MEL: Is knocking going to help?

-Why use a stupid thing like this?

-Must be a technique.

-This can't be right.

-It's out! It's out, it's out, it's out!

Right, how did I do that just then?

Sometimes they can be a bit tricky to get out.

I would've thought it's quite a good idea to put clingfilm firmly round the dolly before you put it in.

Absolutely. You can use clingfilm, you can use paper, baking parchment.

Very neat. And nice thin pastry there, you've got.

For the filling, chop up smoked bacon, chicken and dried apricots.

The amount you need will depend on the height that you've made your pie.

Make sure you cut the raw meat on a different board

to the apricots.

-You're making chicken and bacon.

-Yep.

-You could make them all sorts of flavours.

-Beef's fantastic.

Pork and apple works extremely well.

But as long as you've got them cut up into enough chunky pieces,

-they'll go well.

-Season with pepper, salt and fresh thyme.

Oh, there's nothing like fresh thyme. You can grow it in a window box.

-Is it easy to grow?

-Terribly easy. You can grow it from cuttings

and it's got such a lovely flavour.

So we're going to put a line of bacon at the bottom.

-How many layers are you doing?

-We're going to do two.

Make sure it's pushed in right the way down to the sides.

The next thing to add is chicken, and again, push it all to the walls.

These are going to be the support of the pie as it's baking

because it's not in a mould,

so it's going to need some support from the filling.

-That'll keep it upright, won't it?

-Absolutely.

Then add a layer of apricots, and repeat with all three layers

until the pies are full and compact.

Now what we have to do... is put our lids on.

I'm going to cut out a little circle, because when it comes out

the oven, that's where the gelatine will go inside and set the interior.

Put the lids onto the pies, making sure that they fit neatly

inside the edges. Crimp the edges to seal them, leaving no gaps

for the filling to leak out.

Make a gap with your finger and then push with the other one in,

and then again a gap, and push in.

Gap and push in. Gap, push in.

Non-meat eaters could use all butter in the pastry if they wanted to,

and do all sorts of roasted vegetables and things like that.

Yeah, mushrooms work really well in there.

You want some form of substance in there to make the pie a proper pie.

Egg wash the top of the pies, as this will bond the walls to the lids

and give the pastry a lovely golden colour.

OK, an hour in the oven. 160 fan, 180 non-fan.

Can't wait.

Whilst Mary might be looking forward to them, the bakers weren't enjoying

making the pies anywhere near as much.

Isn't this the most horrible challenge you've ever done in your life?

They look absolutely awful.

Mine do look bad.

They look a bit of all right.

Final thing to put in there is, of course, the gelatine.

And what I've got in here is water, vegetable stock cube and gelatine.

That has to go in while this is hot, because, as it dries,

it congeals and then solidifies.

The jelly is crucial, keeping all the layers in place

by filling the gaps and keeping the pie moist.

But it's also crucial that the jelly stays inside the pie.

Please do not leak.

Stop dripping.

It's going down and then out the bottom!

HE SIGHS

They've been resting overnight, the gelatine's now beautifully set.

-Here we go. You should see all the layers.

-I'm most excited.

That is a picture in itself - the apricot, the chicken, the bacon,

all in beautiful proportions and the pastry's crisp all the way through.

Oh, look, the jelly is absolutely filling every gap.

Everybody's got to have a go at this.

Great pastry, easy to make - I think it's a fantastic pie.

It's a wonderful combination and I'm enjoying every mouthful.

Five Technical Challenges done and complete,

and we've still got five more to go, which I think get harder and harder.

This one is a real winner.

You can say that again, Mary.

Next time, Mary and Paul take on five more of the Technical Challenges that they set the bakers.

I don't think anybody could ever resist those.

Have a go of that. Go on, Mary, chuck it down.

Your cakes have just dropped in the oven - think about that.

-That's the one!

-The king and queen of the kitchen will take you through

-each of the recipes step by step...

-It's tricky to make,

but it is one of the most delicious cakes you'll ever make.

..offering all the hints and tips to get the perfect result

every time at home.

And I hope everybody at least tries to make one.

Paul shows us his knack for kneading dough,

and Mary gives us her twist on how to pipe the perfect meringues.

Join us next time for the Great British Bake Off Masterclass.

Can I have some more, please, Mary?

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