Masterclass 2 The Great British Bake Off

Over ten weeks,

13 of Britain's best amateur bakers

took to the tent to whisk, mix, and knead

in an attempt to win The Great British Bake Off.

I'm bending down to have a look

because I'm waiting for my pie to cook!

Each week, they faced three challenges.

The Signature, which showcased their creativity and individuality...

I know what I'm doing, but I don't necessarily know why I'm doing it.

..the tricky Technical, where their knowledge,

skill and intuition were tested...

To weigh or not to weigh?

..and the Showstopper, that had to astound, amaze, and delight.

Demanding only the highest standards were our resident judges,

Paul Hollywood and Mary Berry.

That crumble on the top with nuts is a lovely surprise.

One of my pet hates is a soggy bottom.

You've managed to get a soggy top.

But now, Mary and Paul are back to take over the tent.

The masterclasses are a chance for Mary and I to show you exactly how

to do all the techniques and follow the recipes stage by stage.

The challenges get more difficult, but Paul and I are here

to show you every trick in the book.

Coming up - Mary Berry treats us to her all-time favourite recipe.

A tantalising tipsy trifle, packed with Swiss roll sponge and pears,

topped off with delicious home-made custard, fresh cream, and cherries.

A French classic, illes flottantes -

moreish meringues floating on a sea of creme anglaise,

topped with spun sugar.

A family fruit pie bursting with apricots and almonds,

covered in a sweet shortcrust pastry.

Paul shows how to bake the best British egg custard tart,

made with a sweet shortcrust pastry,

and topped with fresh nutmeg.

And he takes us through a spectacular, showstopping

filo pie centrepiece - spanakopita,

filled with rich feta cheese and spinach.

And if you've ever wanted a child-friendly way

of icing fairy cakes,

or wondered how to blind bake pastry,

Mary and Paul will show you how to get wonderful results

every time with their quick tips.

Mary and I will take you step by step through each recipe.

It doesn't matter if it's hard,

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

Follow us, we will show you the correct way of doing it

so you can impress all your friends.

As the weeks progressed, the challenges got harder and harder.

Week three's Signature Bake was an opportunity for the bakers to

showcase a family recipe, asking for their take on a classic dessert.

Paul and Mary would really love you to make your favourite trifle.

Now, this could be anything ranging from a Scottish tipsy laird,

whatever that is, to an Italian zuppa inglese,

to Mary's own personal favourite,

which is, of course the rum, whiskey, vodka, sherry trifle.

So, bakers...

on your marks...

-Get set! BOTH:

-Bake!

I'm going to be making, like, a tropical trifle.

And I'm making the custard out of coconut milk.

Now, yours has no alcohol in?

No. I'm Muslim, so I don't use alcohol at all,

but I was hoping that the lemon curd

would sort of compensate for that sharpness.

The trifle is raspberry and almond trifle.

There's an almond boudoir biscuit, which will be

soaked in the lovely Amaretto.

Mary's Tipsy Trifle has layers of sherry-soaked sponge,

Ratafia biscuits and pears,

topped with custard and fresh cream.

This is my family favourite trifle.

I'm going to put pears in it,

I'm going to soak it in sherry, and then I'm going to put...

When you say "soak," it's going to be, like, half a bottle?

No. It's just enough to give a nice flavour.

You, you're winding me up!

Then on top of that, a nice layer of vanilla custard, home-made.

No jelly, Mary?

No. I sometimes put jelly in if I'm doing it for the children.

But, for me, a trifle's not a trifle without jelly.

Well, I'm doing my family favourite one,

and it happens to be with a bit of booze in.

-It's your family against my family.

-Exactly.

-You've got to impress me now. Go on.

-All right.

The thing to start off with is to line the tin.

Grease a Swiss roll tin with butter...

Push that butter into the corners.

..and line with baking parchment.

So we have a nicely-lined tin.

I've now got to make the Swiss roll.

To make the sponge mixture,

first combine four large eggs

with 100g of sugar.

So, full speed ahead.

Whisk until light and frothy.

That looks about right to me.

Now, it's not as stiff as meringue.

Can you see there?

It's just sort of a light ribbon

and sinking back in.

Sift 100g of self-raising flour,

folding as you go.

A fatless sponge is beautifully light and it holds its shape.

Whereas if you use a sponge with fat in, it will crumb.

Pour the mixture into the baking tray,

making sure the surface is even.

So that's taken its own level.

Place in the oven at 220 degrees for 10 to 12 minutes,

until a pale, golden brown all over.

That's it. There we are.

And now, I'm going to turn that out onto some sugared paper.

It gives a nice crust to it and it's traditional.

-You expect it.

-It is.

Gently peel the paper away from the sponge, leave to cool slightly,

before spreading evenly with strawberry jam.

If you do it with raspberry jam,

when you soaked it up with fruit juice or sherry,

it goes a nasty grey colour,

whereas strawberry keeps its colour.

And then, it does help,

to get a tight roll,

press that down at the end like that.

Lifting the paper, begin to roll up the sponge.

It isn't easy, the first part,

so just push it in and encourage it,

and look down and see that

it IS tucking in.

So, there it is.

And then, once you get going, it's quite easy.

Right, so, we start the work now.

Carefully slice the Swiss roll

into 14 even pieces,

and use to line the bowl.

I find it best to do the outside first.

-And you notice that I'm putting pressure to push it in.

-Yeah.

The jam sticks the Swiss roll to the sides of the bowl,

making assembly simple.

When all the sponge is in,

it's time for the biscuit layer.

I'm going to put 20 Ratafias on top

and I don't want to put them in a processor.

If you just sort of break them up a bit,

just more or less like that.

-That size.

-Crumble it?

Yes, in there. And that will give a lovely almond flavour.

And now, for the fruit.

So, I've chosen to put pears in there.

You could use apricots, you could use white peaches.

We want a clear juice to go in there.

Don't choose a red fruit like strawberries or raspberries,

because you will lose that lovely spiral.

Combine 150ml of canned pear juice

with 250ml of sherry,

and pour over the sponge and crumbled biscuits.

That will need a little bit of help to soak it up,

so just press that down to level it.

Still crisp at the moment,

but the juice will all be absorbed into the sponges.

Meanwhile, I can make some custard.

So, in goes the milk.

To make the custard, gently heat 600ml of whole milk

and 300ml of single cream in a saucepan.

I'm going to keep an eye on that. It's NOT going to boil over.

In a bowl, combine three egg yolks with 50g of caster sugar,

50g of cornflour,

and a teaspoon of vanilla extract.

You could make it totally with egg yolks, but it's tricky to make

and I always like to add a stabiliser of cornflour.

But under pressure to perform,

some of the bakers were finding even a simple custard hard to get right.

I've got scrambled eggs!

This needs to be done again.

This is an ex-custard.

You've got to be on the ball with it,

especially with stuff like custard,

which can curdle so easily.

So I'm having to be attentive.

I've curdled it again!

It's like school dinners gone wrong,

only with vanilla and...

Argh!

Now, this coming up to the boil, steams over.

I'm not going to let it boil over,

so I'm going to pour that on, and stir.

To prevent your custard from curdling, gradually add

the hot milk and cream to the egg mix and continue to whisk.

You've done a good job there.

Now, that has already thickened, but let's just put it back in the pan.

Continue to stir over a high heat

until the mixture thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon.

I'm just moving that off the heat now,

and I'm going to chop up the pears.

Tip all that in, like that.

I'm going to put the custard on while it's hot.

So there it is, going in.

And you can see, it's a perfect consistency.

I'm just going to push that over the top there,

and it should be filling in the gaps

all the way.

Cover the bowl with clingfilm and put in the fridge

for a minimum of two hours, before adding the finishing touches.

So, to finish the trifle, I'm going to put some cream on top.

Lightly whip 250ml of cream,

then spread evenly over the top of the trifle,

saving three tablespoons for the final decoration.

If you don't get the custard the right consistency,

as you serve the trifle,

it all goes into one,

and you do want to be able to see all the layers.

Whisk the remaining cream until firm.

That's perfect.

So, if you take teaspoons of this whipped cream

and then just put it round.

If you piped it, it would be neater, wouldn't it?

Do you know, I'm not awfully keen on piping at home,

and I like informal blobs.

When you serve it at home and you put jelly underneath,

-you can put your...pipe it.

-Yeah.

To finish, topped with toasted, flaked almonds and cherries.

So, ultimately, you can do whatever you want with a trifle.

-That's the point, isn't it?

-But I like that trifle.

I know what's gone into it, no jelly in sight.

-Come on. Verdict!

-Hang on!

-Don't take that long!

All right! Hang on!

-Love it.

-Oh!

The jam almost replaces the jelly.

Not quite, but the flavour's there.

-The flavour's lovely.

-Good.

Well, you took such a long time about it, I was wondering what was coming!

-You're through to the next round, Mary.

-Thank you!

You're Star Baker.

That's what I'd like to be.

And now, Paul's tip on how to avoid a soggy bottom.

This is how to do it,

and it's blind baking.

You start with your tin.

We've already rolled out our shortcrust or sweet pastry,

and you line the tin gently

by pushing the pastry inside

and pushing it right down to the bottom of the base of the tin.

You can either use your fingers or, one of Mary's big tips

is to use a piece of pastry

to push inside the flutes of the tin,

all the way around, to make sure the pastry is nice and neat.

Personally, I like to use my fingers.

Once you've done that, just fold over the ends

and then break it off with your hands

by pushing across the top.

There you have your lined shell.

Prepare your food wrap,

making two cuts straight down.

One, the other side,

just to make sure it covers all the tin.

You'd think that food wrap would melt. In fact, it doesn't.

It bakes, rather than melts.

Put your food wrap over the top

and do exactly the same as you did with the pastry.

Make sure it's pushed in all the way.

So I'm going to use mung beans.

Small, they'll get into the sides.

In fact, you could use rice, if you like.

Anything you've got that's dry.

Put plenty of those in there

and put a bit of pressure in there to force them to the outside.

Now, I'd bake that at 220 degrees Celsius for about 20 minutes.

That will ensure that the pastry

is baked all the way around

and at the bottom and avoid that soggy bottom.

As dessert week continues, Mary had chosen a Technical Challenge

to put the bakers' repertoires to the test.

We would like you to make illes flottantes, or floating islands,

which are, of course, little tiny poached meringues,

light and fluffy in a sea of creme anglaise and topped with spun sugar.

So, on your marks.

-Get set.

-Bake!

Why would you even float a meringue on custard?

I haven't made it before,

but I know what it should look like,

which is always helpful.

Mary's Floating Islands - a timeless French pudding.

Delicately poached meringues

resting in a pool of warm creme anglaise.

So, to start off with, I'm going on heat the cream

-and milk, ready for the custard.

-OK.

So I've got 300ml of double cream

and 300ml of milk.

So, equal quantities, and I'm going to put those in the pan.

Now, you poach the meringue in here,

so you must have a wide pan.

I'm going to do six of them,

-and so I've got to be able to get all six in that pan.

-Yeah.

So, in goes the milk and the cream.

This is a creme anglaise we're making, and that is French.

It has no thickening agent like cornflour,

-what we would have if we were making custard.

-Yeah.

So, I've got the cream and milk in there.

I now need some vanilla bean paste

and I'm going to put a teaspoon of that in.

You could use vanilla extract.

Or you could use the bean itself, couldn't you?

Of course you can.

I try to use all the things that are available,

and then people can use what's in the cupboard.

I'm putting the lid on and turning it up,

and I want that to become very, very hot.

To make the meringues, start by separating six eggs,

setting aside the yolks for the creme anglaise.

So I'll turn this on, fast speed.

Whisk the egg whites to stiff peaks,

then add 150g of caster sugar,

a tablespoon at a time.

MIXER WHIRS

I'm glad that noise has finished!

How about that?!

All right, OK!

Right, so, I'm going to have six rather big meringues

and I'm going to put them on top of

the hot, just below simmering, cream and milk.

And to help me do that,

I'm going to shape them with two wet spoons.

Now, that's something that our bakers didn't do

and they didn't get really smooth results.

I don't want to be the first one.

I'll wait till someone else does it, see how they do it,

and then I'll do mine.

So it's a waiting game for me now.

Is that big enough?

Because it says to make six.

And that's the size of the spoon.

I'm seeing Beca do it. She has quite big ones.

For the first time making quenelles, I don't think they're too bad.

Mary will be big on uniformity, I think.

She's going to want them to be all the same size.

They're meant to look like three-sided spoon shapes,

three of them together.

That's what I'm trying to achieve.

So I'm going to take two spoons.

They've got to be slippery and wet.

So, a nice big spoon like that.

The aim is to get a lovely, smooth, oval shape.

If you don't use a wet spoon, you get a lot of rough edges.

And I'm going to dip that in again.

Into the water, because that's what makes it nice and smooth.

And then, just round it off.

-Can you see, that's...

-Yeah.

So they're full-sized, old-fashioned tablespoons.

And you just gently put those on top, like that.

And don't let them slip,

because you do not want that custard all over the top.

-We want them snowy white on top.

-Yeah.

Repeat with the remaining meringue,

placing the six quenelles into the poaching liquid.

That's it. This is very, very hot.

Just below simmering, and you take the lid and put it on top.

And the idea is to cook them in the steam.

Yep, you're poaching them, actually. Poaching them in there.

Actually poaching them, and it's the steam that cooks the top of them.

You've got to leave them in the steam for nine to ten minutes.

-Don't look at them before nine minutes, don't let them bubble.

-OK.

If you lift the lid off, you've lost the steam

and they wouldn't cook on top.

So, ideally, a glass lid is the best way to do it,

-so you can keep an eye on them as well.

-We'll leave them.

So, Paul, it's had about nine minutes,

and I can see through the lid that they have puffed up,

and, let's have a look...

I can see they're huge!

And that is because they've been cooked from underneath

from the very, very hot liquid and then the steam has sealed the top.

So just lift that out.

They're surprisingly firm

and you can handle them and put them onto a wire rack.

If you haven't got a wire rack,

you can just put them onto parchment paper.

To make the creme anglaise, whisk together the six egg yolks

saved from making the meringue with 100g of caster sugar.

When pale and creamy, add to the still-warm poaching milk,

whisking continuously.

I'm going to pour that into the pan.

Now, it's absolutely runny at this stage,

and it's got to be watched

and removed immediately it has thickened as much as I want.

You're using the yolks, aren't you, to thicken this mix up,

thicken the anglaise up?

Exactly. And that is the tricky part.

But get it right, and it's wonderful.

So, Paul, it's a lighter colour now, it's beautifully smooth

and it just coats the back of a spoon.

Unlike the custard that perhaps you'd use for something like a trifle,

would be much thicker and it would have a stabiliser like cornflour.

This has no cornflour, just the egg yolks and it's thinner,

but just coating the back of the spoon.

Floating Islands are commonly topped with a runny, caramel sauce,

but Mary took the challenge one step further.

"Make spun sugar."

-HE LAUGHS

-So, that's what we do!

I'm heating the sugar

so it sticks to back of the spoon.

And then, with a bit of luck...

No, that's not right.

Ruby, your face can only be described as...quizzical.

You need to do less of the Dr Evil and more of the spinning.

I can't. I don't know what I do with it.

I don't know what temperature it has to be at.

I mean, this one's ruined.

I've got to wait for that to go.

So what's ruined about this one? Do you think it's too..?

Oh, I haven't got a clue. I don't know anything about it.

Do you know roughly what temperature it's supposed to be?

Absolutely not. Absolutely not.

To make the caramel, melt 100g of caster sugar

in a small, stainless steel pan over a medium heat,

until it turns to a dark, golden colour.

Got a lovely clear caramel there.

Wrap some parchment around a rolling pin.

And in goes the fork.

Then, using the fork, flick the caramel back

and forth to create the spun sugar.

-I like that. Don't you?

-You like making a mess, don't you?

-Yes. Now, come on, you have a go. You finish it off.

-Right.

This is a reason for doing it in the garden.

-Yeah, I know.

-Or out on a patio.

Gather them all up, try and keep them as light as possible.

And it's them that we'll place on the top.

So, spun sugar's done, made the creme anglaise,

and we've got the meringue.

Here's the serving dish.

Put some custard underneath.

Just the right consistency.

And you just put those on like that.

You have to give them a bit of a push to get all six on,

-because they're so big.

-Yeah.

You may like to serve them in a slightly deeper dish than

this, to get all the custard in.

-Is that about right?

-Mmm-hmm.

There we are.

Pull that one a bit more forward than that one.

And then, spun sugar on the top.

One for you.

And one for me.

Looks beautiful.

Nice, strong caramel,

beautifully-poached meringue

and a gorgeous sauce anglaise.

-How easy was that?

-You can't wait to get going!

I think it looks lovely.

I've been very patient while you've been making this,

because I've been wanting to try this for ages.

Put it underneath, on the custard.

Not a bit of custard on top, we managed that all right.

And, as you can see, the meringue doesn't fall apart.

It keeps a perfect shape as you eat it.

A little bit of creme anglaise, a little bit of the meringue.

That's delicious, that.

That flavour of the creme anglaise

and then that beautiful,

almost marshmallow-like meringue

with the crispy caramel on the top.

It's a beautiful dish.

Very summery and very special.

And really quite simple to make, if you follow a few simple rules.

As the Bake Off progressed, the Technical Challenges became

harder, and week four's was going to give the bakers a bit of a wobble.

OK. Now, the Technical Challenge.

This week, we are looking...

..for custard tarts.

12 individual custard tarts.

You've got two hours to bake these individual tarts.

-On your marks.

-Get set.

-Bake!

Love custard tarts!

LOVE some custard tarts!

Never thought to make one, though.

Perhaps I should have.

It feels like a puzzle. I quite like it.

It's quite exciting.

Paul's creamy egg custard tarts are made

with sweet golden shortcrust pastry

and topped with fresh nutmeg.

For me, it was one of my first jobs,

along with... I was jamming doughnuts, I was creaming scones,

I was rolling out puff pastry, and making custard tarts.

I must have been 14-years-old, on a Saturday, making them,

and I used to have trays and trays of these things to do.

But we're going to make this one from scratch.

For the pastry, put 165g of plain flour,

25g of ground almonds,

and 55g of caster sugar into a bowl.

Normally, we wouldn't put this in in the bakery when we did it.

It's too expensive to put it in there.

It makes the custard tart very, very expensive,

but I think it adds an element to it, a nuttiness as well,

and I think it's a little bit of extra crunch.

OK, this is just softened butter, 120g of unsalted butter,

and what I'm going to do is just crumb this down.

Just basically rub the butter into the flour, almonds and sugar.

When the mixture looks like crumbs, add one egg to bind it together.

Can I have a little bit of flour?

If you just dip you hand in that...

Yes, I've never used a flour shaker.

I've always used my hands, because we didn't have one at home.

I'll get you one for Christmas!

I'm very happy to use my hands on that occasion. I think it's good.

I'm just going to pat it down.

I'm going to work it a little bit.

I think, because of the almond paste in there,

it's going to make this very short indeed.

If you're using whole flour, then the protein levels,

however small, will bind together.

But the fact that you've added the almond paste to it

will break that protein down a little bit.

It's only a small amount, but it'll make a difference.

And you can see that's all it needed.

Just a little bit of smoothing off.

Job's done.

Now, I'm just going to wrap that and pop it into the fridge.

Right, Mary, now I need to make the custard itself.

So, can you give me 700ml of milk?

It should be in there already.

That's already measured.

-What I'm going to do with this is just warm it up slightly.

-Right.

In the pan, and then that will go on a heat just to warm through.

For the custard filling, measure seven egg yolks

and 90g of caster sugar.

Start off with this dissolving process

for the caster sugar and the egg yolks.

Right, it's halfway there.

It's still a little bit grainy, but not that much.

Over here, I have the milk. It's warm now, it's not boiling.

-Oh, lukewarm?

-Yes. A little bit in to start with.

Melt down that sugar.

-I like making a mess.

-You are making a mess!

And then the rest of the milk goes in.

The more egg yolks that you put in there, the quicker it will bake.

You have to understand that you're not just putting it in a bowl

and cooking it, or poaching it and making a creme brulee.

What you're actually doing is cooking it through in a pastry,

so you've got to think of the bake of the pastry,

the penetration of the heat through the tin

through the pastry into the custard,

so that's why you add the extra yolks.

To give you that richness and, of course, flavour as well.

So that's melted beautifully now.

So that's an egg custard.

That's a basic egg custard.

Something Paul thought the bakers should have known how to make.

Just deciding whether I should cook the custard or not.

"Make the custard filling." Helpful (!)

It just says, "Make the custard filling."

Is "make," prepare?

Is "make," cook?

Is "make" just your opinion?

This is what happens.

You know, you just start doubting everything and stuff.

-Do you feel safe, doing the technical?

-No.

Is it quite nice? No? HE LAUGHS

By now, the pastry should be well-chilled.

Perfect. I might just pop a bit of flour on there.

Grab a rolling pin, and then what you want to do is roll it out.

Quite thin, because the thicker that it is on the pastry,

the worse it will be.

Less liquid will be able to get inside.

So, once you've rolled it out once...

..lift your pastry up,

plenty of flour underneath again.

Roll it back down, and turn it.

And that's it.

Using an 11cm cutter, make 12 discs of pastry to line the muffin tin,

overlapping the top of the cups by a few millimetres.

What you can do as well, once you've done that,

just pattern it round the outside, so it's nice and neat.

Now, you could also just pinch it with your fingers

all the way around to give it a ridge.

I think it looks professional and just gives it a nice finish.

It does give it a nice finish.

So, gently push them all inside the tins.

It's basically a bit like doing mince pies, you know?

But custard tarts are always on the deep side,

so you get lots of custard

and not too much pastry.

-That's the same as my mince pies, though, Mary.

-Is it?

I always make mince pies with these moulds because they look just...

You can get more mincemeat in there, you know?

There's our tart shells, lined, ready.

We just need to fill them with the custard mix now.

Now, here's our custard mix,

-but what we're going to use is a jug...

-You need a jug of some sort.

..to fill these with.

Now, what you've got to do is fill them up as high as you possibly can

without them falling over the top.

It's essential to pour it from a jug.

You can't put it in with a ladle, and if you spill a few drops,

you should mop it up straight away,

because otherwise, it will get under the pastry and it will stick.

Exactly.

Now, the final magic thing.

Nutmeg. Fresh nutmeg.

Critical.

Classic custard tart would be nothing without some nutmeg.

It reminds me of custard tarts. Every time I smell a nutmeg,

it just reminds me of a custard tart.

The last job is to bake it.

200 degrees for about 25 to half an hour.

And this will then cook the custard and bake the tart.

What you're looking for is a small dome

to begin to grow and expand with the egg yolks.

That's when it's ready to come out.

Not only is the cooking time and oven temperature important,

but allowing adequate cooling time is also essential.

How many minutes did she just say?

Five minutes. HE SIGHS

I don't think they're so uncooked that they'll be inedible,

but they do need to cool.

The pastry's too soft.

How on earth do you get these out?

Have not got a clue.

Don't look at the procedure.

-SHE SIGHS

-Oh, dear.

That's broken now, anyway.

Oh, sugar!

Oh, jeez!

Oh, no!

Look at that!

OK, I brought these out of the oven 20 minutes ago.

They're nice and cool,

and as you can see,

they're releasing quite well

from the shell.

Look underneath.

Lovely and brown, baked all the way round, filled with custard,

a little bit of nutmeg that gives it the lift.

I hope that we're going to have a taste.

Do you know what?

I will give you the honour of choosing one of those to eat.

Which one are you going to try?

-This one looks perfect.

-That one?

This will take me back a few years.

After three, Mary. Three, two, one.

Mmm!

Do you know, I like them this...just warm.

They're not too set.

The custard's like a jelly, it's creamy, the pastry's buttery,

and you can taste that almond.

You know what's so beautiful about these?

There's not a bubble in the custard.

Just like a creme caramel, there shouldn't be a bubble.

If it bubbles, it's tough, isn't it?

And this is just perfect.

-Well baked. They're all right, them, Mary, aren't they?

-Mmm!

Week four of the Bake Off continued to test the bakers' knowledge

on pastry, this time with a Signature Challenge which

required them to make one of Mary's favourites.

Which is a double-crusted fruit pie.

Which means, oh, yes, pastry not just on the top

but on the bottom as well, and not soggy.

Right, so the pastry can be sweet or shortcrust.

It's up to you, you can fill it with whatever fruit you like.

-On your marks.

-Get set.

-Bake!

The only thing I want from this pastry today is for it to be crisp.

The terror of a soggy bottom has been keeping me up all night.

I eat trifle, I love trifle. Breadsticks, I love breadsticks.

You know, cakes, I love cakes, but I hate fruit pie.

So, how do I judge it?

No matter what I do, I taste it and it's disgusting.

Well, Mary's Wobbly Pie is a family favourite,

bursting with apricots and marzipan,

covered in a sweet shortcrust pastry.

Paul, I'm making a double-crusted pie with apricots in.

I call it Wobbly because the pastry makes little mounds on top

and I'm making it from a very sweet crust.

And that's what makes the mounds on top of the pastry over the apricots.

So I'm going to do the pastry in a processer.

Could you weigh me the flour, first of all?

You'll need 225g of plain flour

and 100g of icing sugar.

And I want it to be particularly sweet,

because if you have a sweet shortcrust,

it gets brown quicker than a plain shortcrust.

So that can go straight into the processor.

Remember to put the blade in first.

How many time have I done it without a blade in?!

So, in that goes.

Add 100g of cubed butter and blend.

That's really fine, sort of breadcrumb texture.

Sometimes you add water to a sweet shortcrust.

-I'm going to add a whole egg.

-OK.

Process, until the mixture starts to come together.

I don't let it go on until the ball actually forms.

I stop it at this and work it together myself.

-That's a good idea.

-It gives a better result.

Flour the work surface and bring the mixture together.

Wrap in clingfilm and pop in the fridge to rest.

Right, so, this is our sweet crust pastry,

and I'm going to line the tin with it and put some on top.

This is a 23cm tin... and nine inches.

I write on the bottom in a marker pen,

because when you're in a hurry, you can't find a ruler,

-somebody's borrowed it, and then you know exactly where you are.

-OK.

I like a deep rim around the outside,

because you get a better shape, I think.

Roll out the pastry.

Two-thirds for the pie base and the remaining third for the lid.

Nice and thin. That's good.

Then, you put that in like that.

Unfold the pastry base until it covers the sides of the tin,

gently pushing the dough into the flutes.

-See how it takes the shape all the way around?

-Yeah.

And, again, I'm pushing it right into the bottom.

-You don't want it to not get into the corners.

-Yeah.

So, we've completed that all the way round.

I'm going to just roll out the top, ready.

It's quite an easy one to work with, actually.

The whole thing is very easy.

It's one of my most popular, double-pastry tarts that I make.

Sometimes I put pears in it. Pears go very well.

You can put canned peaches in it,

you can put fresh apricots in.

It takes slightly longer to cook with fresh apricots,

but sadly, fresh apricots are very rarely available.

-It's a very short season.

-Yeah.

So, there it is, ready to go on the top.

The bakers had free rein over what filling was to

go into their pies, and not one combination was the same.

I have apple and ginger in there.

I think they go well together,

and in my crust I have pecan and walnuts crushed up

to give it sort of an earthy sort of flavour.

I'm doing an apple pie which has got golden raisins in it.

It's also got pecans and walnuts.

Oh, my God, that smells SO good!

Sweet, buttery appleness! Yum!

Cherry apple!

It's just something that my mum's mum came up with one day

when my brother and I refused to eat rhubarb pie.

She called it cherry apple tart. We lapped it up.

Because cherry apple does sound more appealing to a child than rhubarb.

So, like, a mix of peach and frangipane.

I remove, obviously, the stone,

and then I fill that with a bit of frangipane

and then I place in a whole almond to sort of replicate the stone.

This is a very good way, at Christmas time,

or when you've been icing perhaps a cake, and you've got some

marzipan left, it's a good way of using up that marzipan.

Anything from 150g.

-Depends how much almonds you sort of want in it.

-Yeah.

So you grate that.

And this is a white marzipan.

You can use the yellow one if you prefer.

What's the benefit of using all the small pieces?

-Just so it melts better in the pie?

-It melts much better.

If you just cut it into pieces, you get uneven lumps.

And it's better just to bother to grate quite a lot.

It's a way of evenly distributing the marzipan, isn't it?

Of course it is, yes. There we are.

Spread out the marzipan evenly in the base of the pie.

And you don't have to bind it with egg or anything.

Just leave it as it is.

Drain two 400g tins of halved apricots

and arrange them on the top.

I'm putting them with the rounded side up.

And there's a reason for that,

because when the pastry goes over the top,

it moulds itself like little mountains.

Moisten the edge of the pastry case and gently place the lid on top.

Then you just go around with your hand, pressing that down.

-It seals it.

-It seals it all the way around.

So, there it is.

-No glaze, no fluting.

-Really?

Nothing at all.

I just leave that and put it into the oven.

-As it is?

-As it is.

So that goes in, 180 degrees centigrade, fan,

for about 30-35 minutes.

Keep an eye on it.

When it came to keeping an eye on their fruit pies,

it was crunch time for the bakers.

Pastry does look a little bit crumbly,

but hopefully that's not too bad a thing.

It looks very nice on top

and I'm just hoping that that's replicated underneath.

So I'm hoping, by boosting up the temperature, it will cook

the pastry quicker and that's what I need, for the pastry to be cooked.

-Is that burning a bit?

-I think it might be, you know.

I think that brown stuff is burn.

Ooh, it looks nice.

-Ooh!

-Is that some leak?

I think it's just fat.

That bit might be soggy.

Do you know what, it is what it is now.

Looks grand, that, Mary.

It does. It's got a nice crust around the outside.

Each little mound is tinged with pale golden brown.

If the edge begins to catch,

you can always put a little bit of foil around the outside.

Leave the pie to cool, then remove from the tin.

It looks as though it needs a little finish to it.

I could have glazed it,

but what I like to do is just a sifting of icing sugar over the top

and then I'm going to slip that on top...

..and then it's ready to taste.

There it is.

And serve it with clotted cream.

Creme fraiche, I think, goes very well with it.

I'd have that with any type, honestly.

That looks fantastic. I can't wait to try it.

Still a little bit warm, which is fantastic.

And just look at that for a nice brown underneath.

It's beautiful.

The pastry crumbles.

You can taste that marzipan, then you've got that slight...

..tang coming from the apricots.

And then, again, the lid, it's a crispy lid.

And with the cream, actually. That's gorgeous, that. Really tasty.

And now Mary's tip on child friendly,

mess-free cupcake icing.

Children love decorating cakes, but it can be a bit of a messy business.

I usually use something like a piping bag and tube,

but if you haven't got one of those,

you can use something like a ketchup bottle or even mustard,

really well scrubbed out.

And what you do is take the whole lid off and wash it thoroughly

and then fill it with icing.

And the icing wants to be slightly more liquid than usual,

because little hands find it quite difficult to squeeze.

So, do a rose or whatever you like.

And if it's a bit uneven, when it's given to auntie or their best friend,

they'll know that they made it themselves.

There we are, a sort of rose on one.

Let's have a go with a chocolate one.

I find it best to start from the middle and go round, like a snail.

Also doing it with this means you don't get too much icing.

So often when they're doing cupcakes,

there's more icing than there is cake.

So, there we are.

And the other one you could do a face,

they could make noughts and crosses.

The children, grandchildren or your own children

will have such fun doing this.

And no mess.

Just put that to one side

and it's ready to have another go.

Week four's Showstopper tested the bakers on one of the most

notorious of pastries.

It's got to be, please, a filo pastry pie.

The most important thing is that the pastry is made from scratch.

It could be freeform or it could be in a tin, shape it how you want.

-On your marks.

-Get set.

Bake!

So, my filo pie is sort of a Moroccan vegetable spicy...

thing.

Almond, rose and raspberry filo pie.

Fresh fig and feta filo flan,

which is a bit of a mouthful.

I'm making spanakopita.

Classic Greek pie

and very delicious it is, too, when it's made right.

With Paul's simple recipe for a Greek spanakopita,

you too can make your own filo pastry at home.

Do you like spinach?

I absolutely love fresh spinach.

I loathe spinach.

But I love making this.

-Do you really?

-Yes.

It goes so well with feta.

Yeah, it does. I don't like feta either!

Would you like me to take over? HE LAUGHS

I'll do the filling and you could do the pastry.

But it's a special thing to make.

I don't mind it, actually, wrapped in filo pastry.

It works for me, as a whole deal.

I mean, to be honest, you could put many different things in there,

but the classic thing is spinach and feta.

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

Measure out 200g of strong flour.

There's absolutely no rush at all(!)

I'm shaking like mad!

Thank you very much indeed.

And to this I'm going to add a little pinch of salt.

-That was a jolly good pinch! I would approve of that.

-OK!

And then after that, I'm going to add some olive oil to this.

Add a tablespoon of olive oil,

and you'll need around 120ml of warm water.

Have you ever made filo, Mary? You must have done.

I have made it when I was at college, and it was an hilarious time.

We threw it about, we got there in the end,

but I've never been tempted to make it since.

Yes. Pour the water in, I'm just going to hold some back.

Add a little at a time, until the dough comes together.

So what I'm going to do is just turn it round the bowl,

get all these ingredients to start binding together.

It's quite a smooth, glossy dough, this.

It's got no rising agent in it, as such.

A little bit more in there. But this thing's going to really stretch.

You have to work at this dough to get it quite glutinous,

quite stretchy.

So, all I've done now is bring it together in a ball.

I'm going to work that now for a bit.

In about 1966, filo pastry came and we could buy it in the shops,

and I can remember going out

and seeing this pastry being made here for the first time in England.

-Yeah.

-And there were huge great rollers, like a mangle,

and the factory had all women in doing it, and it went through

all these mangles, and there were still people turning those,

and that was about 1966, '67,

and it became available in all the shops.

It is, obviously, easy to just go to the shop and buy some.

It's already layered, it's wafered and it's ready and it IS good.

The quality of the stuff that you can buy is good.

But it's also good and interesting to try it yourself.

You work it exactly the same way as you do a bread dough,

but because it's so small, it's easy to control.

All I'm doing is flattening it down and then rolling up.

And what you need to do is rest it in a fridge.

Realistically, you want to leave it in there for at least an hour.

What's happened is all the gluten strands

have bonded together quite tightly.

As it sits in the fridge, it just releases, so you've got more...

You know, you've got more chance to spread it out

and stretch it for as long as you can.

So at the moment, I'm happy with that.

It's smooth, it's elastic, now that it's got some tension.

So, what I'm going to do is just wrap it up and pop it in the fridge.

And leave to rest for a minimum of one hour.

The bakers had their own ways of working the dough,

but the aim was to make it stretchy, smooth and malleable.

It's not only therapeutic,

you can take some of your frustrations out on it.

Show us your technique, then, Ruby!

I'm scared I'm going to end up hitting one of you!

That's all right. Do it in front of Mary, it's fine.

-MEL:

-Ooh, she's got a good slap, Mary, hasn't she?

Go on, you have a go, Mary.

You are rotten!

-MEL:

-Come on, Bez!

Ooh, it's cold!

THEY LAUGH

Go on, give it a good slapping, Mary! Go on!

-There is steel in those arms!

-Blue steel!

OK, Mary, now I'm going to start to create the filling.

Could you pass me that large bowl of spinach, please?

This is obviously fresh.

And that will wilt down to next to nothing.

-Down to virtually nothing.

-How much is in there?

There's 900g, so a couple of big bags in there.

So I've got a pan here that's getting hot.

You literally just grab all your spinach.

And, of course, that's freshly washed

so the water that's around it, that's all you, need isn't it?

That will create enough steam.

And, again, the moisture's inside the leaves.

Now, literally, you leave that.

A couple of minutes, it'll start to steam,

and then it will sweat down.

Once it's sweated down, we can drain it and prepare it

and mix it with the feta.

OK, Mary. There we have it. There's our wilted spinach.

What I'm going to do is just grab this lot.

I'm going to pass it through here

and try and get as much liquid out of here as possible.

Using the back of a spoon, squeeze the liquid out of the spinach.

Because what you don't want to do is

when you actually come to roll this thing up in the filo pastry,

to have all that liquid inside when you do it.

Place onto kitchen roll to soak up any excess.

Well, that's pretty dry now.

It is there. I think it's nearly there.

Put the spinach into a bowl, adding the zest of a lemon.

Little bit of seasoning in there.

The spinach is going to have an inherent flavour,

but obviously, you need to highlight that flavour as well.

The lemon's going to cut through this.

And I'm going to add a little bit of nutmeg.

Now, that lemon, don't let's waste it.

We could just put a bit of clingfilm round it,

put it in the fridge and perhaps use it for lemon drizzle cake or

a slice of lemon in gin and tonic.

Gin and tonic! I knew it would come round to that somewhere!

Nearly everything in there. The last thing we're going to add...

actually, can you pass me an egg over there, please?

And the egg will be the binding agent in this.

Thank you very much indeed.

And that will make the whole mixture set.

Yes, exactly.

And then, finally, we're going to break up some pieces of this

beautiful feta.

Do you like feta?

I love it.

This is about 200g of the stuff.

Carry on just crumbling it in.

I'm going to get my hands in there

and just mix all the ingredients together.

I love doing jobs like this, especially mucky jobs.

This is going to be the main body of the filo pastry.

OK, that's our ingredients for the filling finished.

All we've got to prepare now is the pastry.

A winning filo pastry should be rolled thin enough to read

a newspaper through.

So, I've got my home-made broomstick that my dear husband did for me.

I sent him to the garden centre one morning.

What I do like about this is the fact that it's quite long,

so when the sheet gets bigger,

you know you've got an even thickness to the pastry.

My battle's going well at the moment. I am defeating filo.

What I'm finding is that it takes me roughly going on two hours

to get all of these rolled out, so I need to crack on, really.

Here we go, Mary. We've got the pastry

that's been resting in the fridge for at least an hour.

It's nice and cold, and it's quite relaxed now as well.

Because what I'm about to do to it is alter its world.

I'm going to stick it through this pasta machine.

I think that's a brilliant idea,

because a lot of people have got that tucked in the cupboard.

Pasta machines are quite simple to use.

I mean, they are very useful, but no-one actually uses them a lot.

It is one of those things that you just leave in the cupboard.

A second use for it, excellent!

Here's my dough.

Just put a little bit of cornflour in it.

I'm going to divide this dough into five pieces.

It's like plaiting a loaf.

If I start taking this through on its highest setting at the moment...

Take it through again.

When you say "the highest setting",

you mean as thin as it can go or as wide as it can go?

No, this is the widest, this is the widest.

You know, the thickest it will allow through.

So, take it through a couple of times.

And then begin slowly to take it down to three,

take it through again and again.

Take it down.

So what you do is begin to stretch the dough this way.

You can see, it's like a strudel.

You know when you're working with a strudel,

the strudel itself, you should be able to read a newspaper through it.

And as I gently stretch that...

Shall I go and get a newspaper for you to have a read?

-HE LAUGHS

-Can you hold that side there?

If you could just begin to stretch it this way.

Do you know, it feels like silk.

Yeah, I know. It's got no yeast in it,

so it's got nothing forcing air into it.

What we're doing is gently taking this out,

taking out the sides first.

And then what I'm going to do is just pull out the interior as well.

Nice and gently. As you can see, it's not ripping at the moment,

and if you do it gently and just wobble it,

you're enticing it to come out.

And you see how thin that's getting now.

You can actually start to see the bench through it, you know?

Repeat the rolling out process with the remaining dough

to make five layers.

How would you do it if you hadn't got a pasta machine?

Rolling pin. Rolling pin and plenty of cornflour.

And just literally bear with it

and just stretch, stretch, stretch all the time.

Brush each layer with melted butter before placing the next on top.

So, it's very flexible, isn't it?

It is. Even with the five layers on now.

I'm just going to put a bit of extra butter on it.

OK, so we've coated that in butter

and I think we're good to go with the filling.

The bakers' ambitions were high

when it came to their filo Showstoppers,

with Ali trying to impress on a grand scale.

Ali, do you need all of that bench?!

The thing is, mine is two metres long.

I'll see what I can do, don't worry. Thanks, Ali.

-Sorry, Kimberly.

-No worries.

This is all part of the DVD you'll be releasing.

This my baking fitness DVD!

Filo Yourself Thin!

Last one! Oh, dear! I thought I'd never get to the bottom of this!

This is the most complicated bit.

That is one large sort of filo snake you need to wrangle.

-Yes!

-Yeah!

Now we bring the filling in, which is here.

Pile the spinach mixture onto the pastry in an even line.

What I'm going to do is just gently fold over the ends

just to seal it up slightly.

And what I'm going to do is just roll over the top.

Again, that puts a little bit of stretch on it as well.

It's a bit like doing the swiss roll at this stage, you know?

Just going to stretch...

Hold the dough and just gently tease it there.

Now we need...I'm just going to move that paper.

-Give it to me. I'll have it up this end.

-Thank you.

What I'm going to do is just coil this whole thing up.

The end bit, just tuck it underneath.

Brush it with some more butter.

Could you get an egg for me, please?

I just need a beaten egg as well.

All right. So it's butter AND egg?

Yeah. You want that strong colour.

You want that really dark colour on top,

and it will give a slight crispiness to it as well.

For me, there's only one ingredient that's fantastic to go in there

and that's sesame seed.

Those are untoasted?

Untoasted, it'll roast in the oven.

So a good drizzle of sesame seeds on the top.

Here we've got our spanakopita to go in the oven.

We set the oven to 190, fan,

and this will go in for about 35 to 40 minutes.

Beautiful golden brown.

There we have it, Mary.

That looks absolutely wonderful.

It's a bit hot. So, what I need to do...

Very hot, lovely and crispy.

I quite understand why you put that butter AND egg on top.

It gives a lovely colour.

-What I'm going to do is place it straight onto this.

-Right.

The smell is lovely!

Smell, you can smell the feta, the melted feta, the spinach.

Gorgeous colour.

It's crispy, it's got loads of layers, full of butter,

topped with beautiful sesame seeds.

That will be delicious.

I can't wait!

Here we go, then, Mary.

Oh, I like that. I really like that.

One of the things that I think really lifts it is the lemon.

That lemon that's inside as well with the spinach

and feta, I think is gorgeous.

Just look at that! Conker-brown underneath, really good.

And I can see all the layers. Lovely.

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

-Paul Hollywood's, every time.

-Good!

Well, that's all our bakes done there, Mary,

so we're going to be back next time

and we're actually going to be hitting some very tricky bakes.

We'll have to do some practising.

Do you know what, I don't know why I'm using a fork.

It one of those things that you just use your hands for, you know?

Next time, Mary and Paul take on

five more of the challenges that they set the bakers.

Right, that's absolutely perfect.

Gosh, rich and indulgent!

But why not, every so often?

Our lord and lady of the kitchen will take you through their

favourite Signatures, Technical and Showstoppers, step by step...

Now I'm going to show you how to do it myself - PROPERLY!

..offering all the hints and tips,

so that you can achieve baking excellence at home, every time.

Well?!

It feels very naughty, and I'm enjoying every mouthful.

Paul reveals his own recipe for sourdough starter,

and Mary shows us how to make creamy, fresh butter.

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

I can't wait to see that sliced straight through the cherries.

Lovely!

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd