Masterclass 1 The Great British Bake Off

Over ten weeks, The Great British Bake Off

pushed 13 of Britain's best amateur bakers to their limit...

..as they battled it out to be crowned this year's winner.

Success! Ha-ha!

Some proved they had what it takes...

Yes!

..while others melted in the heat of the moment.

Oh...ooh, I feel sick, making this!

Every week, the bakers were set three challenges...

-I'm behind.

-Yep.

-Stressed.

-Yep.

The Signature Bake showcased their personality

and creative flair.

All in all...

..not a good bake.

The terrifying Technical,

where their intuition and instinct were put under a microscope.

I mean...what?

There will be grandmothers up and down the country

being like, "Oh, she can't even make a piping bag."

And the Showstopper,

where nothing less than absolutely spectacular

was expected.

Casting their critical eye were Bake Off's very own judges -

doyen of the dough Paul Hollywood

and renowned home cook Mary Berry.

Oh, dear - it's so doughy, and it's not well-risen.

I can't eat this.

It's totally different. Never seen anything like it before.

It is a piece of art.

HOWARD LAUGHS

I've been baking for 50 years.

and I've learnt lots of new ideas from our bakers.

How about that?

The standard in the tent got higher and higher.

They actually inspired me as well

with a couple of new ideas I'd never seen before,

which never happened before.

But now it's Mary and Paul's turn to get baking themselves...

You like doing that.

What Mary and I are going to show you

are our favourite Signatures, our favourite Technicals

and our favourite Showstopper challenges.

..giving us their own delectable take on cakes and breads.

To be honest with you, Mary, I've been dying to eat this all day.

Coming up, Mary's moist, citrusy sandwich cake,

filled with orange butter cream,

the angel food cake with its soft light sponge

and a sumptuous lemon and passion fruit curd,

Paul's crunchy yeasted breadsticks

packed full of juicy whole green olives

and a delightful English muffin

with its soft pillowy centre and a golden brown top.

Finally, Mary and Paul give you their take

on week one's Showstopper -

a gorgeous three-tiered chocolate fudge gateaux,

encased in swirls of tempered chocolate.

And if you've ever wondered how to pull off

a perfectly-plaited loaf,

or create beautiful two-tone icing rosettes,

Mary and Paul show you how to get the perfect results

with some quick tips.

Mary and I are going to show you some techniques, some styles,

some creative ideas that will take your baking to another level.

This year, the bakers began with cakes,

starting with a deceptively simple home baking staple -

their take on a classic sandwich cake.

What Mary and Paul are looking for

is a twist on a British classic - a sandwich cake.

The filling of your sandwich can be anything from lemon drizzle,

coffee and walnut, ham,

to a classic Victoria.

You've got two hours to bake, decorate and serve your cakes, and...

Mel, if you'd like to dust down that catch phrase.

-For the first time - on your marks...

-Get set...

BOTH: Bake!

It's a cardamom sponge. I went to India last year.

It would have been fresh cardamom there,

and I had cardamom in lots of different food.

I'm making cake, I think. Lemon and poppy seed cake.

Comes out really nice, as long as I don't put too much lemon in.

Which I've done before.

I'm putting it in sandwich moulds, so it's going to be sliced up

like a giant jam sandwich, Victoria sponge.

Normally people like my cakes.

But then the people who eat my cakes

aren't normally professionals, or judges...or professional judges.

Mary's sandwich cake uses a simple but unusual ingredient throughout.

What are you going to make?

If this was your challenge, what would you do?

I'm going to make a whole spiced orange cake.

It really is rather different

and has a wonderful, strong orange flavour

with a little bit of spice.

Cook a whole orange

by placing it in a pan of boiling water

for 30 minutes until soft.

You just put in a point of a knife and when it comes out easily,

you know it's done.

There's the orange, all beautifully soft,

and to chop it up, I use a processor.

We do not want a smooth puree.

We want nice little bits in there.

That consistency is just perfect.

It really does give it the most lovely orange flavour.

That little bit of a kick to it as well

and then the sweetness inside.

It's a good idea to use the whole thing.

I'm going to take two tablespoonfuls, ready for the icing,

and that will give flavour to the icing.

This is ready to go back into the actual cake mixture.

So the cake mixture is a classic Victoria sandwich mixture,

with added spices.

For Mary's simple all-in-one cake mix,

start by taking four eggs.

If I do that, it goes all the way down the side.

It doesn't really matter, does it?

But you like doing that. You like doing that.

Add 275g of self-raising flour

and two level teaspoons of baking powder.

Now you may be thinking,

"Why am I adding baking powder to self-raising flour?"

For the all-in-one method,

I've always added just a little baking powder.

If you add too much, it will rise up and fall down again in the oven.

-Yes.

-So it's not clever to add too much.

Then add one teaspoon of ground cinnamon,

one teaspoon of mixed spice,

275g of baking spread

and 275g of caster sugar.

So just put that on and mix it until it's blended together.

Don't go on and on, because it doesn't make a better mixture.

Just until everything's smooth.

Overworking the mixture

will develop the gluten in the flour,

resulting in a heavy sponge.

It's very quick - just check and have a look.

That's fine.

If you haven't got a processor,

you've chopped up the orange by hand,

you could do it with a hand beater, all in one, or with a wooden spoon.

Now is the stage to add this brightly-coloured orange.

-That literally took seconds, didn't it?

-It did.

You should have a thick drop batter that holds the fruit in place.

Once blended, divide the mixture equally between two 20cm cake tins

and smooth out until even.

Well, those look fine and the oven is set.

160 fan. That's 180 conventional.

About 30 to 35 minutes.

Every oven has different instructions.

You know your own oven at home. It may take longer than I say.

Put both tins on the same shelf and keep the oven door closed

until the cakes are coming away from the sides,

otherwise they could sink - as one of our bakers found out.

Oh! What...?

That...is not cooking.

No, no, no, no.

MARK LAUGHS

No, no, no!

-Smell that. The orange and the spices are coming through.

-Lovely.

-Most people get hold of that...

-Watch your fingers, Mary.

You've got asbestos fingers, haven't you?

That's exactly what the children say

when I take hot plates out of the oven.

-Most people would turn that straight on to the rack.

-Yeah.

And then you get the imprint on the top.

So if you actually put that between, like that,

and then lift that off.

And then you can peel the paper off at this stage or later,

but it does let you see the beautiful even colour.

You then take this and flip it over like that.

I'll leave those to get quite cold, put them over here.

And the icing is a butter icing, but butter icing with a difference.

To make the icing,

cream 50g of softened butter in a bowl

until it's light, fluffy and pale.

Then sift in 175g of icing sugar.

So will you put in 250g full-fat mascarpone?

Look carefully on the label.

If you get low fat, it's watery and the icing will be too runny.

Nothing better than full-fat, Mary.

Nothing wrong with full fat, I've said it so many times.

Just have a smaller slice.

HE LAUGHS

Doesn't work with me.

So you can put all that in now.

Oops!

PAUL CHUCKLES

Look at it!

I'll get my own back.

Whisk everything together until you have a smooth mix.

Lastly, in goes the reserved orange. Then just work that in.

You can do it with a wooden spoon or you can do it like this.

It then has this lovely, bright orange colour.

That's it. So there's the mixture. It's a good colour.

It's obvious that it's orange

and it's spreadable, holding its shape.

Just what we want it to be.

To pack in more of her citrus icing,

Mary creates four layers out of the two sandwich cakes.

The bottom layer can go straight on the actual serving dish.

-Get that out of your way.

-There we are.

Now you can look and see the mixture.

It's well-risen, it's even aeration in there

and the little flecks of orange.

-It's beautiful. It smells fantastic.

-Doesn't it?

-Yeah.

So just spread it fairly evenly, right to the edges there.

-You want to see it, don't you?

-You want to see it.

Then we put the next one on top.

Dividing your icing into quarters

will give you an equal amount of icing on each layer.

Pop that over the top.

Press it down with your hands

so that your icing is just coming out.

Scrape every scrap out of the bowl. Just level that all the way round.

So that's our cake, but it just needs to be made more elegant.

Simple decoration can be very effective.

Something which some of our bakers may have forgotten.

I was going to cut it into the shape of a lemon

but it turns out I'm cutting off the only bit of the cake

that's actually cooked.

Oh, God.

I am just going to cover it in the butter cream.

Hopefully the expert bakers won't notice that it's terrible.

MARK CHUCKLES

Right - the decoration I've chosen to do

is to take a slightly larger orange and crystallise it.

Hold it firmly, it doesn't matter which way up you've got it,

and press that very, very hard and pull strips from it.

This simple, tasty decoration of crystallised orange zest

is made by peeling thin strips of orange.

And it isn't difficult to do and it's not really very wasteful,

-because you can use the orange in fruit salad afterwards.

-Yeah.

Place in a pan with 50g of sugar. Add water.

I'm going to shake that a bit and let that bubble up

and it'll take about ten minutes.

Keep an eye on it.

Then drain, dry off and place onto a lined baking tray.

And then you just sprinkle sugar, caster sugar, over the top,

and leave it on top of a radiator for about 12 hours.

And you could just put a little design around the outside.

And everybody gets to taste.

This is one of my favourite cakes.

It's the sort of cake that I have in the cake tin.

-Would you be tempted?

-I would be tempted.

It's simple, but there's been another element added,

which is the orange.

You just want to eat it now.

I just...oh, yeah.

I think we'll save it for a little bit later.

-Oh, Paul!

-Oh Paul?

-You can't wait, can you?

That's ridiculous.

It's nothing if not fresh.

That was more than the slice that I had accounted for.

It's supposed to serve eight.

It's moist, got a great sponge.

I think that with a cup of tea would be a marriage made in heaven.

Well, to think that a cake that I've made for you

is a marriage made in heaven, I think that is a compliment.

-Thank you very much. MUFFLED:

-No problem.

And now, Paul's top tip for a perfectly-plaited loaf.

I'm going to show you how to make a basic plait.

Watch carefully.

Bring your dough out of the bowl.

Divide it into two,

right down the middle.

Roll each piece out by stretching it,

flattening it down.

Use your knuckles

and then roll out -

all the same, right the way along.

Likewise, the second one. Perfect - two of them.

Now the plaiting.

Shape it into a cross.

What you've got to do is use these two, then those two.

You start with the top, move it down one.

This one is the opposite side, you move it down two,

so you go one-two, move it up.

Again, this one comes down one, this one goes up two.

This one comes down one,

this goes up two.

Same again.

Down one, up two.

Down one, up two.

Down one, up two - all the way down to the bottom

and you end up with a beautiful plait,

just like that.

The second bake of Cake Week

was the one bakers had been dreading -

their first ever Technical Challenge.

As always, they had no clue what they might be baking,

so Mary kicked off with a classic cake

that's notoriously difficult to get right.

Bakers, it's time for your first Technical Challenge.

Let's have a communal shoulder roll. De-stress.

Devilishly difficult, Beelzebub's last stand -

it's an angel food cake.

This is a delicate, light sponge topped with whipped cream

and drizzled with a lemon and passion fruit curd.

-On your marks...

-Get set...

-BOTH: Bake!

I've never seen an angel food cake.

If I was expecting to be spoon fed, I don't think it's going to happen.

Although difficult, Mary will explain

how to achieve a beautiful angel food cake in simple steps.

This is a first. We've never had this on the Bake Off.

It's a wonderful, traditional white cake.

It's white because it's made from just the egg whites.

A good recipe, it will work.

But you've got to take great care.

Start by separating ten large eggs,

setting aside the yolks for later to make the lemon curd.

Now you see the way that egg white clings to the egg yolk.

That shows a really fresh egg.

Add the finely-grated zest of two unwaxed lemons,

one teaspoon of cream of tartar,

half a teaspoon of salt

and a tablespoon of lemon juice.

I'm going to make this in a big freestanding mixer

because there's an awful lot to whisk.

Beat it until it sort of looks like cloud.

Whisk the egg whites on a high speed for about one minute.

Angel food cake's light and delicate sponge

gets its rise and height from the air in this meringue-like mix.

Ah...peace reigns.

Now that is frothy, it's light.

If you've got a hand mixer, you need the biggest bowl you've got.

So I'm going to add now, on full speed,

little by little, the sugar,

and it will get much firmer.

A spoonful at a time, add 200g of caster sugar

until you have a firm meringue.

Now that's done. It's risen well up the bowl.

It's lovely and frothy.

Then add to your meringue a mix of 125g of plain flour

and 100g of caster sugar.

You've got to get that flour in beautifully evenly

without having pockets of flour.

Keeping that lightness in the meringue,

that delicacy, that air in the meringue.

That's the key to this.

Adding flour turns the mix from a meringue to a cake.

But you must take care not to knock the air out.

I don't know whether to sift the flour in

or whether to mix some of this with that

and then fold through the rest.

I think I'll just sift it in gradually.

Will I? I'm not sure.

You spend a lot of time getting air into the egg whites

and then you have to not get rid of it.

The easiest task becomes like a minefield of difficulties

in the Technical Challenge.

I'm massacring it.

I've got all the air out of it, somehow.

I'm going to have to start again.

This airy, delicate mixture needs a unique kind of tin.

So this is a special tin for making angel cake in.

It has a loose base like this.

But not everybody's got that tin

and perhaps you don't want to go out and buy one,

so I've got a sort of suggestion here,

after a lot of experimenting.

Take a 24cm to 28cm spring form tin,

place an empty drinks can in the centre

and line the bottom with baking parchment.

Right, move that to one side and we'll use our special tin.

You don't grease it.

If you grease the tin, it has nothing to support it,

because it grips all the way up and hangs to the side of the tin

and that's very important.

So we just tip that in...

-Do you want me to hold that, Mary?

-That's lovely.

Don't hold it from a great height,

because you'll lose some of the air that you've meticulously beaten in.

Level out the mixture, then put in an oven for 45 minutes.

Set at 170 degrees, or 150 degrees for a fan oven,

until the cake is well-risen up the sides

and golden brown on top.

Here we go, then.

Leave to cool upside down.

Does that mean the cake or me?

Very weird, but that's what the instruction says.

How can that be right?

That's why it's got legs, Glenn, that's what they're there for.

The legs are there because it needs to be upside down.

Either I have got it wrong

-or everyone else has got it wrong.

-Right.

It says leave to cool upside down. To me, this is upside down.

-Which way did you put it in the oven?

-It went in this way.

So this is upside down

and I will turn it the right way up to serve it.

That looks a bit of all right.

-Looks OK that, Maz.

-It certainly does.

You turn it upside down

and it is gripping to the side of the tin.

It isn't going to fall out, so we just cool it in the tin

and that's exactly how you leave it.

And the reason for doing that is to allow the air bubbles,

while they're still warm, to settle,

rather than concertinaing down at the bottom,

which is what would happen.

It would have a great big dip in it.

So we can really put that behind us for the moment.

While your cake is cooling, make the lemon curd

using the ten egg yolks saved from earlier.

Add to these the zest of two large lemons.

Then, into a pan, put the juice of six large lemons,

400g of caster sugar

and the blended egg yolks.

I'm going to do it directly over the heat.

If you're at all nervous,

you can put it over a pan of simmering water

in an oven glass bowl and just stir it.

But I am going to wing it and do it directly on the heat.

And I'm going to stir that constantly.

This is something that you can't leave.

You mustn't have too much heat underneath this.

You must be able to feel the sides of the pan.

It will turn into scrambled egg

if you don't watch it for every moment.

Put 175g of cubed butter into the pan

and heat until it's just melted.

You can see there's just a few little pieces of butter there

and that will just melt into the lemon curd.

So you need to decant that now, do you?

Set half the curd aside to add passion fruit to later.

The other half will keep in a jar in the fridge for up to a month.

Lemon curd made.

What we've got to do is whip the cream.

Then, in a large bowl, put 300ml of pouring double cream,

and half a teaspoon of vanilla extract,

whisking until it's formed soft peaks.

That looks just the right consistency to me.

It's holding its own. That's ready for the angel cake.

Using a palette knife, loosen the cake from the tin

and turn out onto the serving dish.

Now we've got our whipped cream here.

The cream should cover your entire cake.

So once one's evenly coated it,

you can decide whether you are going to have it rough like a snow scene

or whether you're going to have it very sort of tailored and smooth.

What would you go for?

Smooth.

So, Paul, we now need to have

a drizzle of lemon curd and passion fruit.

Oh! And the other one?

Well done. Thank you very much.

Mix the passion fruit flesh and seeds into the lemon curd

until thoroughly blended.

Spoon the curd over the cake,

letting it drizzle over the sides for a natural-looking finish.

And there it is - ready to serve.

And the remainder of this, put in a small bowl

and everybody can have a little bit more.

There's my angel food cake, masked with cream

and then we have the lovely lemon curd and passion fruit.

Can't wait to try it, Mary.

So, Paul, what do you think of my angel food cake?

It's all right.

To be honest with you, Mary, I've been dying to eat this all day.

It's been cooling down,

you finished it off, it looks amazing.

I just want to have a slice of it now.

It's just such a different cake.

It's good that we had time to make a nice lot of lemon curd

so as not to waste those egg yolks.

That does look good.

You see, it's so light and so white inside,

the meringue in there.

It's beautiful. It's the rising agent in this.

The outside looks delicious

and then the curd with the passion fruit in there looks stunning

and to be honest...I've got to have a piece.

Mary Berry...

You've nailed that one, Mary.

Week two of the Bake Off

saw the bakers having to tackle bread.

They kneaded...

It's really sticky

and actually, it's quite nice working with it.

I love kneading.

..proved...

Awesome.

..and shaped.

Where did you get the inspiration for this?

It sounds weird, but it actually came in a dream.

But Paul Hollywood began by taking them back to basics,

asking the bakers to make a personal favourite of his.

Now, for your Signature Bake today, please,

we'd like you to make 36 breadsticks.

Mary and Paul are looking for a crisp, dry texture,

something you can just snap in half when you break it -

a little bit like one of Paul's hair shards.

You've got two hours in which to bake.

-So on your marks...

-Get set...

-Bake!

I'm making fennel and chilli breadsticks today.

Rather than just getting heat, you get a subtlety of flavour.

I'm making rosemary and raisin breadsticks.

It's a classic Italian flavour.

It's sort of laced with ginger and I'm using chilli oil

and then the tip of the match

is going to be a chilli-infused dark chocolate.

But Paul's yeasted breadsticks are packed with juicy green olives

with a good snap that perfectly contrasts

the tangy softness of the olives.

Now, what I'm going to show you is a fantastic idea

that is using yeasted dough but we're using whole green olives.

So it's that additional something, a little bit different.

Now to start with, I need to weigh the ingredients -

well, sorry, YOU have to weigh the ingredients.

Can I have a kilo of strong flour, please?

Right.

I use strong flour because it's got a lot of gluten in there.

It's got a lot of bonding agent.

Because of the liquid that's going in this,

which is nearly 80% liquid,

you need that gluten to be able to bind it together,

to stretch the dough.

Along with the flour,

put 20g of salt and 20g of yeast into a bowl...

..keeping these separate, so the yeast isn't slowed

by coming into contact with the salt.

In there, a good glug of olive oil.

And over here, I've got 800mls of water.

Now, this is cool water, not warm water.

In all your bread making, you use cold water?

Yeah, because I don't want to speed up the proving process,

because the proving process should be slow.

The slower it proves, the more flavour you get.

The faster it proves, the less flavour it gets.

Start it off slow,

purely because I don't want to get covered in flour,

and just mix it, mix it, mix it.

Start with only half the water in the bowl,

and then add the rest of it bit by bit.

You can hear - hear the motor's struggling?

It's telling you it needs more water so a little bit more water in there.

Switch to a high speed and mix for ten minutes

to ensure the gluten is properly developed

and a good dough is formed.

Thinking of what you say to the bakers,

you usually like them to do everything by hand.

This is one of the first occasions I've heard you say,

"Use a mixing machine. It'll be better."

Because it's such a wet dough.

To do it by hand is possible,

but I would advise people who had a mixer to use it.

I'm very keen on that.

I am today, actually. My arms are sore.

Let's have a quick look at this.

You see? It's stretching now.

What I'm going to do is add some olives to that.

-They look good.

-They do.

-And they are pitted olives.

Pitted green olives - go straight in.

The kilo of olives must be incorporated slowly

so they stay whole and moist.

If you don't like green olives, sun dried tomatoes, bacon,

mushrooms, peppers - anything you want.

Once the olives are mixed evenly throughout the dough,

separate it into two oiled, rectangular boxes.

-You don't need to level it off?

-No.

It's a living thing, a dough, and it'll want to grow.

And that's its job.

Prove for about an hour or until the dough has doubled in size.

A good prove helps develop the gluten

and lets the olive flavour infiltrate the dough.

OK, Mary, look at them. If I take the lid off this...

This has been left for about an hour.

It's full of life, it's very soft,

and what I've got here is a bit of semolina

and this helps it not to stick too much to the bench.

Just dust the top.

As well as the dough,

cover the worktop with a mixture of flour and semolina.

-You like doing that, don't you?

-I love doing that.

One of my favourite things.

And then you grab your dough.

Basically, what you've got to do is coax it out onto the bench.

You can see the bubbles, the gluten, the stretch, the air holes.

But it's so heavy with olives.

Now I'll work on these two, put that to one side.

That would make a good focaccia.

Just stretch it out, put it on a tray,

fingers in, olive oil, prove for half an hour, bang - great focaccia.

But I'm going to show you how to make some sticks with this.

What to do, Scotch scraper...

You find the width of an olive and then you trim like that

and then flick it away.

You're trying not to cut an olive in half.

You try not to, try to keep them as whole as possible.

and then flick them away.

You do this all the way along.

-So if you handle these too much, do you lose all your air?

-Yeah.

This has got all the air in it already that I need.

-So you don't handle it any more.

-If I flatten that now, it's wasted.

You're just stretching it, that's all you're doing -

you're cutting and stretching.

The proving has actually already happened.

Grab each one.

Perfect at the beginning of a meal. Bit of olive oil, bit of balsamic.

Maybe serve with some Parma ham. It's delicious.

-You could wrap round...

-Exactly.

-And you leave all this surplus flour, all this - no glaze?

-No, nothing.

-Really very simple to make, isn't it?

-It is.

Soon as they're finished,

because they've got lots of air in them,

I'll whack them straight in the oven and bake them off.

And do you have a hot oven for that?

I would do 220, yeah, which would be fan.

-220 fan?

-220.

We bake in the bakery at 240 with these

and then normally stay in for about 20 minutes, 15 minutes.

You'd have to keep your eye on them.

Timing and temperature are crucial to producing a good breadstick.

I've turned the oven up a bit to try and get them to cook quicker,

which is probably the wrong thing to do.

Just seconds too long in the oven and they'll burn.

I don't know whether to turn the oven up.

Sod it. Up. We're going hotter, we're going hotter.

Get the temperature wrong

and you could end up with a soft breadstick

with no snap.

No. Needs more.

Excuse me, Mary. I think these guys will be done.

-And indeed they are. Look at these.

-Wow.

I'll slide them off.

-Do you swap them around at all?

-No. The oven's quite well balanced.

At home, you might have to swap them about,

because not all ovens are even.

Yeah, exactly. There you have 'em.

Beautiful, Italian sfilatino olive sticks.

Green olives, lots of flavour,

beautiful ciabatta-style bread as well.

Lovely and crispy. Fantastic at any party.

Very simple and very quick to make.

Choose you weapon, Mary.

I think I'll just have half. They look splendid.

I'll have the other half of that, no problem.

I'm choosing the one with the olive next to it.

Mmm...I'd go for that.

They've got that crispness, they've got that bite,

they've got that...you know, real strength to the dough.

-Mmm.

-Beautiful, aren't they?

I think, for the best result, you've got to have green olives.

Now, Mary's top tip on how to pipe beautiful two-toned rosettes.

If you want to make an impressive finish on a cake,

two-tone icing is fun to do.

So you put the icing into the piping bag,

drop it down and see if you can get it on one side

and then go with another colour in the other side.

And just enough in the bag so you can get going.

You can just about see through the bag,

I've got some pink and some white.

And you get this lovely stripy effect.

I've done mine in eight portions, so everybody gets a rosette.

You may want to cover the whole cake with rosettes.

Just whatever takes your fancy.

That's it, a lovely decorative cake.

Very quickly done, without special equipment.

After surviving the Signature Challenge on week two,

the bakers faced the terrifying prospect

of a bread Technical Challenge set by our master baker.

In his element, Paul ensured they had nowhere to hide

by choosing an absolute classic.

Today, we're asking you to make eight identical English muffins.

Now what we are looking for is an even bake, a chewy texture

and light air holes in the actual crumb texture.

-On your marks...

-Get set...

-Bake!

The only thing that'll help me on this

is the fact that I know what the end result should be like.

This is a journey into the unknown.

I have made them before, but they were a complete disaster.

My husband still ate them, though, bless him.

Paul's traditional English muffin is toasted on a griddle

until golden brown.

Right, Mary. English muffins.

I promise you, they are a great favourite of mine.

They are one of my favourites.

I've been making them for years in hotels, you know -

English muffin for breakfast, eggs Benedict. Very classic.

I'll show you how to make them. Fairly straightforward.

I need to weigh up the ingredients and I'll do this one by hand.

-So can I have 300g of strong bread flour, please?

-Right.

I'm using strong bread flour again -

I want that gluten, I want that protein,

I want that rise, I want that power that the flour will give me.

-Any time today, Mary, will be great.

-I just am careful.

300 - thank you very much indeed.

I'm just going to crack one small egg into that as well.

Add 6g of yeast and 6g of salt on opposite sides of the bowl.

Can I have 15g of caster sugar

and 15g of softened butter, please?

You will need up to about 200ml of full-fat milk.

Now what you do is you start off by pouring the milk into the middle.

Hands in. Just turn it round with your hand first,

break that egg up.

You can see that needs more of that milk,

so you add a little bit at a time and you begin to crush it

and it begins to absorb all that flour.

You're choosing milk as your liquid and not water.

It gives it a slightly denser structure

and alters the flavour slightly as well.

Milk will tend to sit on the dough and it's not going to go "boom!"

like a bread would and bloom in the oven.

The acid in the milk actually slows the yeast down a little bit.

But it adds to the flavour.

Because I've got eggs in there and butter,

I'm actually going to use flour on the bench instead of olive oil.

If you use olive oil with the egg and the butter,

you'll see all the white come out of it,

it'll emulsify too much.

What I'm going to do is just mix all those ingredients together.

Incorporate all the butter and then begin to roll up the dough.

Knead the dough for ten minutes until it becomes smooth and silky.

It's just to make sure

that I've got some gluten building up in there as well.

The technique is heel of the palm, fingers and roll it up.

Heel of the palm, fingers and roll it up.

Now you can see already how smooth that's gone

just in the time that I've done it.

In a bowl.

-You don't flour the bowl or grease the bowl?

-Don't need to.

And what I'm going to do now is give it a bit of rest time.

It's important that you give it this rest time

because if you don't, it'll have no flavour.

The flavour comes from the proving of the dough itself.

Cover it up and then leave it for about half an hour

just to activate it - and it will grow.

Look at the size of that.

That's actually been just under an hour, it's taken an hour.

-That was in a warming drawer?

-A warming drawer.

So if they were just proving in a warm kitchen,

that would take about one and a half times as long, wouldn't it?

Yeah, it'd probably take an hour and a half.

-But it would give the same results.

-Exact same result, yes.

What I'm going to do is gently lift out the dough.

You can see it collapses down to nothing again,

and then gently just shape it into a rough ball.

I've got semolina and flour.

Again, the semolina is just a bit of grit

cos what we're going to do is put this on a bake stone to bake it

and then the grit will just rise it slightly off the hot plate

and stop it from burning too much.

It's a little bit of protection.

I'm going to roll it out to roughly the thickness

of about an inch.

Just gently pat it, relax it,

cos if you don't relax it, when you cut it, it will shrink in.

We're looking for eight of these, so we start here,

cut straight down, twist.

So you twist...

And twist...

Once the first four muffins have been cut out,

gently re-roll the dough to the same depth

and cut out again.

Repeat the process until there are eight muffins.

So the secret is to get them all at the same height at this stage.

Yeah, exactly.

Grab your muffins.

Just place them carefully onto a tray,

because these have now got to prove up.

Leave the muffins somewhere warm and prove for 30 minutes

until they spring back when touched.

There we go. These guys have been resting.

Now you can see, they're full of air.

You see? They bounce back. Feel them.

They've sort of got a skin across the top.

Push the sides, you can see there's resistance.

They're very delicate.

What you've got here is the hot plate.

-So that's not greased?

-No, you don't need to.

What's happened is you've got semolina

on the bottom of these muffins

and that will prevent them from sticking on there.

What's happening now, the yeast is in there,

the yeast is going to become highly active

because there's heat underneath baking it.

There's nothing on the top

so the top can freely grow, which is what's going to happen.

But treat it and think of it like a salmon.

You know when you cook a salmon fillet

and you place it on a frying pan,

and you see the way it cooks halfway up...

Halfway. ..and then you flip it, and then it meets in the middle,

and then you have a beautifully-cooked salmon.

Exactly the same method for this

If you haven't got such a thing as a plate like that,

-you could use a very heavy frying pan.

-Yes.

Put in a frying pan, on high, pop it in there,

and it will do exactly the same.

Each side needs five to six minutes,

but, despite being straightforward,

this didn't stop the bakers being confounded.

It's a bit of an unknown quantity, this bit.

That's just not meant to happen!

Urgh!

I'm thinking a long, slow griddle.

I think they're going to take quite a long time to cook

Oh, that one's sizzling a bit. I don't know what happened there.

I'm in danger of overcooking them,

but I really don't want them to be doughy in the middle.

Argh! How do you know?! How do you know?!

Not quite an even bake, is it?

That one there is still showing a bit of the yellow.

That's it. Best I can do.

They do look good.

Every one exactly the same size, same rise.

-Can we have a taste?

-Nope.

Why not?

The main reason why you can't eat them now is because they're

still warm, they're still doughy inside, so, if you eat them,

they'll give you really bad indigestion,

-so you need to leave them to cool first.

-How long?

-About an hour, hour and a half.

-I'll be back.

There they are, then, Mary.

You can smell them, can't you?

They're still just off-warm, so they're just cool enough now to eat.

They look absolutely beautiful.

English muffins are quite my most favourite.

Oh, lovely.

Oh, yes.

Beautiful colour, top and bottom.

The texture - it's open enough, it's got lots of flavour,

it's got that beautiful dark colour on the top and the bottom,

and it's baked all the way through.

It's got everything.

It doesn't really need anything on it, at all,

just a good butter on top.

So good. In fact, I'm going to have some more.

Maybe an egg...with a hollandaise sauce,

and a little bit of bacon.

Now Paul gives us his quick tip on how to shape a country loaf.

This took me a while to learn how to do properly,

but I'm going to show you.

I was let into this secret about two years into my baking career.

You need to cut off a third like that.

There's the top, there's the bottom.

Roll it up and then shape it round.

Using the heel of your palm, and shaping into the table.

Pat down one side.

Get the other piece, place it on top.

Push it down quite firmly.

Bit of flour on the top of that.

Fingers right the way through till you feel the bench underneath.

Get your knife,

cut all the way around. Quite deep.

Place it on your bench,

finger in, and the cuts, as you see, will open up,

goes into an oven and makes that cottage loaf beautifully crispy.

Now you've got to try it.

For the first time ever, Mary and Paul are going to

make their take on a Showstopper - making the chocolate creation cake

that they set the bakers in their first week in the tent.

It had to be big and bold, with beautiful chocolate decoration.

We are looking for a magnificent chocolate cake.

We want you to go cocoa loco.

We want tiers, if you like, it can be a novelty cake...

The judges would love you to use at least two types of chocolate

to decorate your cakes.

-So, on your marks...

-Get set...

BOTH: Bake!

Mary and Paul were looking for them to demonstrate their creativity...

I'm just going to pick off individual thyme leaves

and scatter them over the top of my baking parchment.

..a real attention to detail...

I want that richness from the chocolate, and then you get

a burst of raspberry to cut through that.

..and incredible chocolate decoration skills.

Success!

But not everything went according to plan.

We've got about an hour left, and I need more than an hour to

even finish with any semblance of a cake.

Mary and Paul are going to make a spectacular

three-tiered chocolate gateaux,

decorated with three types of chocolate.

So, on to our Showstopper cake.

We've chosen a really lovely chocolate cake.

It's got to be bold and beautiful, so I thought three layers,

three tiers of chocolate, a white chocolate ganache.

And you're quite good at tempering chocolate -

we'll do a design around the outside.

-OK.

-Now, this cake is something I've been making for years.

I call it my chocolate fudge cake.

It's a very good base for a cake, it's lovely and moist,

it's really chocolaty,

and I find, to make a good chocolate flavour, you should use cocoa.

So, if you could measure me 125g of cocoa,

and that gives a strong chocolate flavour.

Into the cocoa, stir 200ml of boiling water.

And it should be a thick paste.

Add six large eggs, 100ml of milk,

350g of self-raising flour,

and a tablespoon of baking powder.

-That is... There you are.

-One tablespoon...

15 mill, one tablespoon...

-One tablespoon, OK...

-But...

-I've never heard of it...

-Level it.

-I'm doing it now!

What are you like?

Nagging. Nagging. I'm seeking perfection.

Add 550g of caster sugar and 200g of softened butter.

So, down with the top.

I'm going to speed that up for a moment.

Mary's all-in-one method,

using extra baking powder, means you only need to do

one mix of the ingredients to guarantee you

a rich, chocolaty sponge.

So, what are you looking for when you're mixing it?

What sort of consistency and texture?

It's a soft dropping batter.

That looks right to me.

Can I just have a look at that inside?

It's such a nice colour.

Mary gets the perfect cake height

by filling two 20cm sandwich tins to halfway...

-It's a lovely mixture, isn't it?

-It is.

..and one 10cm and one 15cm cake tin

to two thirds full.

The 20cm tins need 25 to 30 minutes,

the 10cm tin needs 35 to 40 minutes,

and the 15cm tin needs 45 to 50 minutes.

So, our fudge cakes are beautifully baked,

nice and level on top, and they need to be stone-cold.

I'm now going to make some white chocolate ganache.

Now, that can be very tricky to make,

but I've evolved a recipe that is foolproof.

I've got 300ml of double cream here.

Pour the cream in a pan and heat until it's hand hot.

Then break up 400g of white chocolate.

I'm not accounting for any that you might eat en route.

Add to the pan and stir until it's dissolved.

You see, I've still got my hand here, touching the side of the pan,

so you realise it's not getting too hot.

Because of its high fat content,

white chocolate can easily split, so be careful.

As soon as the chocolate is fully melted,

pour into a bowl and let it set in the fridge.

Going to get that last little drop out.

-Looks like curd, doesn't it, at this stage?

-It's lovely.

So, that needs to get absolutely cold.

Once cooled, beat it into 300g of cream cheese,

a spoonful at a time.

Do you want to mix, and I'll put it in?

-I think I'd rather you mixed and I put it in.

-Ah, OK, then!

Now, that looks absolutely perfect. The consistency that we want.

Look, it's just sort of spreadable.

-Yep.

-And we'll be able to get a nice finish to that cake.

Working with chocolate is easy,

just as long as you follow some simple rules.

But, as our bakers discovered,

just one mistake, and things could get very sticky.

-I'm behind...

-Yep.

-..stressed...

-Yep.

..slightly doolally.

These are optimal conditions for Bake Off.

My ganache has gone wrong.

This is meant to be a lot more solid than it is.

As you can see, it's very runny.

There's no way this will set in time.

Leave the rest up to the one up there.

Well, and Paul Hollywood and Mary Berry.

I tried the chocolate stripe cigars a few times,

with no success whatsoever.

I tried it the other day and it worked, so I'm going with it...

on the strength of that one trial.

Ah-ha!

Those have worked really well. Are you pleased?

They're all right. You can tell the ones that have tempered better.

You've got a tiny temper there.

These are hopefully going to sit on...

This is really nerve-racking.

Chocolate tempering needn't be nerve-racking,

or so Paul says...

Basically, what we're going to do is build a collar

to go around the outside of your chocolate cake.

Tempering is the process of heating and cooling chocolate

to create a high shine and a good snap.

Once it's melted, we take it up to 47.

Once it reaches 47, I'll just take it off the heat,

and then it needs to cool down to 31.

At 31 degrees C, you can then pipe it, do something with it,

and then it will set.

Tempering creates new small crystals in the chocolate,

that gives it its professional-looking finish.

Nearly there. 46.

Going over 47 degrees risks burning the chocolate,

making it lumpy and bitter.

47. And off it comes.

Rest of the buttons will go in there,

and we need to cool that down to 31.

Paul's using the seeding method of tempering,

adding cold chocolate.

It's like adding ice cubes to your gin and tonic.

-Do you remember that, Mary?

-I do, very well.

There's no sign of any now.

If you look at that now, it's just dropped below 31,

so we're now good to go.

Pipe directly on to acetate, which has been marked out

to the height of the collar.

And what sort of shop would sell acetate?

-Model shops would have it.

-Model shops.

Acetate provides a flexible template for your tempered chocolate,

allowing you to wrap it around the cake.

Literally just doing circles...

Excuse me, Mary.

And then, once I've done that, I'm going to strengthen it

by just going over the bottom bit a little bit thicker, you know?

Because what we don't want to do is see this thing collapse.

Can you straighten out that bit of acetate for me, please?

That's it, thank you. Just to flatten it down a bit.

You can do anything on acetate. You could do someone's name...

Mary...

You don't need any help with the spelling?

I've got a long way to go, you know,

but I'll still be here to keep an eye on you.

The piped chocolate needs to be left to set at room temperature.

Time to assemble the cakes.

-They feel lovely and squidgy and fresh.

-Yes, they do.

-These are quite soft at the edge...

-They are.

..which is as they should be.

Slice in half the 10cm and the 15cm cakes.

Sawing action, backwards and forwards.

So, we've got a bowl full of icing here.

Half will do to cover the whole cake.

-And the rest will do to sandwich the layers.

-OK.

-It spreads beautifully, doesn't it?

-It does.

Sandwich each layer together.

This is going to taste good, Mary, I just know it is.

Then we have our little...

I've been just a little too generous there, haven't I?

Now we come to the assembly.

Heated and sieved apricot jam is used to stick the cakes together.

Right, that's on top.

Also known as masking jam, it helps prevent the crumbs

from getting into the icing.

So, I'm going to start here...

Take your time to ensure your icing is even.

Paul, this is taking me a long time, because it's very, very fresh to do.

How about you starting on the other side?

-I'll try.

-We'll put the bowl between us.

But, for our bakers, as time ran out,

icing was the least of their worries.

It's not going to stay, that is not going to stay.

Um...

No, I am not very organised, at this point.

It's not cold enough yet, and I'm worried.

OK, bakers, that's one minute left.

Come on, come on.

It hasn't worked.

It would not be a Bake Off squirrel without a pair of hazelnuts.

There we go.

Please don't break. Please don't break.

Oh, you son of a...!

So, I'm just finishing that off. So, that's fine.

It's all ready for your beautiful finish.

What we'll do is start one side here,

feed this...

I'm going in a bit blind. Am I still on target there?

You're on target and you're level.

Put the bottom one on now.

Gently coax it round.

What I'm going to do is just gently peel off...

Got to be careful...

It's looking good.

I feel like giving you a big clap.

If you don't have a thermometer,

Mary has a simple tip to produce elegant chocolate curls.

I've been doing a bit of experimenting,

and I find a combination of half chocolate cake covering

and half a less expensive chocolate,

with about cocoa solids between 35 and 40,

that is put in a bowl over hot water,

melted together, and then poured out like that...

And then, if you take a cheese parer...

This one was bought for £1.50.

And then you just drag it across the top.

I think that's rather pretty, with a little pleating on it.

I like that one, yes.

So, press it down really, really hard.

Give it a little wriggle...

Really big, bold rolls.

I think that you could put some on the top.

Just pile them up.

You're known for dusting flour all over the place with your hands.

I'll do it with icing sugar all over the top.

It just gives a little finish like snow.

Such a special occasion.

That, I think, is a true Showstopper.

That looks great.

That would certainly get through to the next round,

-and possibly even Star Baker. Well done, Mary.

-Thank you.

Well, Paul, this is our Showstopper chocolate creation.

The snap on that chocolate is beautiful.

And you've got such a good shine from it.

-There's your piece.

-Lovely.

I'm just going to get my knife in here.

Get myself a wedge, too.

Now for the eating. The sponge looks great.

I think it was right that we filled the middle of each one,

otherwise it would be too solid and chocolate...

Gosh, that white chocolate ganache goes really well

with the simple chocolate cake base.

So, you've got a sponge chocolate, you've got a ganache,

you've got tempered chocolate.

Three different types of chocolate going on in there,

and three different textures,

but, all together, the flavours work really well.

The bakers did a fantastic job, they reached great heights.

The standard has risen tremendously.

I think, the next time we're together,

we're going to start raising our standards, as well,

to show people exactly how they can do the Signatures,

the Technical, and the Showstoppers, to our level.

Not their level, our level.

I'll keep practising, Mr Hollywood

So will I!

Next time...

How about that?

..Mary and Paul take on five more of the tasks which they set the bakers.

The challenges get more difficult,

but Paul and I are here to show you every trick in the book.

Our judges will take us through each of the recipes, step by step...

If you do this,

all your baking at home will get better and better. I promise

..letting us in on all the secrets, to achieve outstanding results.

Do you think it's better than the shop-bought filo?

-Paul Hollywood's every time.

-Good.

And Paul also shows us the trick to blind-baking pastry,

while Mary reveals a fun cake decorating tip for kids.

The children will have such fun doing this.

Join us next time for The Great British Bake Off Masterclass

It doesn't matter if it's hard,

it doesn't matter if it's got stages in,

follow us, we'll show you the correct way of doing it,

so you can impress all your friends.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd