Masterclass 4 The Great British Bake Off

After weeks spent conquering cakes, tackling tuile

and duelling over doughs...

Come on!

..the heat was turned up as the remaining bakers

fought for a place in the finals.

Last one.

Each week they faced three challenges demanding

high-level skill, intricacy and baking intuition.

Looks all right.

Some surpassed their own expectations...

I don't know what I was thinking.

They're delicious.

THEY CHEER

Yay!

While others collapsed under the pressure...

and left the tent for good.

It just gets to you.

Having taught us how to temper chocolate, master muffins

and impress with perfect pies and puddings, legendry judging duo

Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood

are taking over the tent for the final time,

with five of their favourite challenges from the last few weeks

of The Great British Bake Off.

From pastry to French week, and even some ideas from the final programme.

Coming in here, baking with nobody around me bar Mary Berry -

it's a dream to me and I find it the easiest job in the world.

Coming up...

Mary's take on the classic Sussex pond pudding,

given a new lease of life with the addition of apples.

A French delicacy - religieuses.

Crisp choux pastry filled with sumptuous creme patissiere and

glazed with a rich chocolate ganache.

Paul's signature wheat-free loaf.

A deliciously dark rye bread with a secret ingredient.

And perfect pretzels, step by step.

Paul shows us how to make a savoury and a sweet version of these

doughy delights.

For the grand finale, Mary shares with us

her own take on a classic opera cake.

And if you've ever wondered how to spin the perfect pizza base

or tell if your eggs are fresh, then Paul and Mary will be

letting you in on some secrets along the way.

As the final came ever closer,

the difficulty of the bakes stepped up a gear.

And week seven's Signature Challenge asked for a new take

on an old favourite.

Paul and Mary are asking for a heart-warming classic.

It's a suet pudding, please. It could be sweet or savoury.

Should be family-sized, should be delicious.

Now, your pud can be steamed, boiled, baked

but you've got three hours to make it. So on your marks...

-Get set...

-BOTH: Bake!

It's not terribly difficult making a pudding like this.

It must be well cooked.

Because a slightly raw, heavy suet pudding is no joy.

I'm making a big roly-poly pudding.

Agen prunes and Armagnac.

I mean, it's a spotted dick by any other name,

but there aren't any currants in it.

I replaced those with...

Persian berries.

If the bake doesn't go well, I'll just drown my sorrows.

For Mary's suet pudding, she's making a traditional

Sussex pond pudding,

packing it full of apples for extra flavour.

Sussex pond pudding, a classic.

Traditionally, put a lemon in the middle.

A lemon? A whole lemon in the middle?

A whole lemon, and then add butter and muscovado sugar.

It's terribly calorific.

I've cut down on the butter and the sugar and I've put lots of apple

in it, because there's nothing nicer than an apple suet crust.

So the first thing I'm going to do is make the suet crust pastry.

Start by weighing 225g of self-raising flour into a bowl.

Then add 100g of suet.

-So if I can have those...

-Yes.

Then I add... The liquid for this is milk and water.

Add 75ml of water to 75ml of milk.

That's it.

Pour into the flour and suet.

So you used to eat this when you were a little girl.

We had all sorts of different puddings.

Because, of course, it was economical.

When my mother made suet crust puddings, you went to the

butchers and you took the fat off from around the beef kidney.

Mum would come home and grate it and use it in steamed puddings -

-roly-polies and things like that.

-Yes.

So just mix that until it holds together.

And you want to use a blunt knife.

And you notice how I'm doing a cutting action.

There certainly is no reason to get out a machine for that.

Now I'll see if it will come together with my hands.

-Can I have a feel?

-Yes.

Oh, yes it's nice. Nice dough.

That's right. It's coming together.

Do you still like baking, Mary?

I love it. I absolutely love it.

You know, at the end of the day, when you've had a really tiring day,

there's nothing I like more than coming home, baking, cooking.

I enjoy it. Now just go on until you've cleaned the bowl.

When the dough has come together, lightly dust the work surface

and roll out to a circle roughly 30cm in width.

And if you start off with a round-shape ball

it's quite easy to keep it into a circle.

I'm going to get the ruler out in a minute.

-Not bad.

-That's 30.

Now, I've got a very well-buttered bowl here.

When you've got bowls in the cupboard you never remember

how big they are. So what I do is get the bowl and I write on the bottom.

This is a 1.5 litre, two and three-quarter pint.

Do it with a marker pen, you know where you are.

That's a good idea.

Cut one quarter out of the circle and set aside for the lid.

Lift the rest into the bowl to line it.

It doesn't matter if you handle it too much.

You just follow the recipe. I'm going to push that down.

You've done this before, haven't you, Mary?

I have. And really work that join so nothing could leak.

Now we come to the lid.

Doesn't need to be too thick, it's not going to leak out.

Put it to one side. So I've got the basin done, the lid done.

Now to the filling.

If you can just cut the end off the lemon and prick it all over

with a cocktail stick, and that lets some of the juices flow.

Peel, core and dice three Cox's apples.

If you use Bramley's, which is the normal apple for cooking,

they just disintegrate.

Add 175g of light muscovado sugar and 150g of cubed butter.

And you can imagine what happens.

It all melts and becomes a wonderful sauce.

Start with a layer of the apple, sit the lemon on top,

then pack in the rest of the filling.

What happens to it is it shrinks down,

so I'm packing it absolutely in and it'll actually dome up over the top.

Dampen the edges of the pastry with some water, place the lid on top

and press down to seal completely.

And it doesn't need any fancy edging.

You don't need to pleat it or do anything.

I was going to offer.

No, no, no. Because you don't see it. So there it is.

I'm going to put a lid on it and I've got some non-stick paper...

and some foil.

Cut a square of foil and a square of non-stick baking parchment.

Make a pleat in both to allow the pudding to expand as it cooks.

Then tuck the edges under the rim of basin.

Of course, I remember when there wasn't foil.

I remember when it was introduced, I suppose it was about 1966.

We were terribly excited. I was on a magazine

and the first roll came from America. So useful.

What were you using, rock and flint?

I'm not going to answer that. Right, that's it.

Take a long strip of foil, fold in half lengthways

and then in half again to strengthen it.

Then you take a lid,

because if the bottom here

touches the bottom,

it cooks too quickly.

So if you put it like that, then sit that on top...

-Nice idea.

-And then you put that over the top, like that.

So lift that carefully into the pan.

And the water should come halfway up.

Fold it over the top. Lid on.

And let that simmer,

look after itself for about three and a half hours.

Shall we have a cup of tea, then?

Check on your pudding occasionally and top up the water if necessary.

In the tent, the bakers were cooking their suet puddings

in a variety of ways. Some with better results than others.

Some of it's stuck, which isn't ideal.

It looks like how it's supposed to look.

I don't know what it's like inside, obviously,

but hopefully it's all right.

To give an extra bit of texture,

I'm going to sift some sugar on the top, which will crisp up.

Also, hopefully, hiding the bit where the mixture clearly stuck.

I don't know.

Oh, my God, that smells amazing!

I think what we might do... Blowtorch.

That's perfecto. That's quite nice, isn't it?

-No, don't burn that bit.

-HE GROANS

I might have to slice that bit off.

The Sussex pond pudding should be ready by now.

It's had about three and a half hours. Take the foil off.

Wow!

And you see what a lovely colour it is.

Let that rest a few moments, just while it's shrinking back.

Hold it in a tea towel and just see that it's loosened at the sides.

-Which it is.

-You can see that, can't you? Yes.

If it doesn't come out in one piece, it's not the end of the world.

-Nobody's going to notice.

-I will.

It often actually bursts because of all that sugar and butter inside.

It's best to turn the pudding out onto a plate with high sides,

to catch any juices that may escape.

Come on.

Ah... Look at that. That looks amazing!

I think we ought to get in there while it's wonderfully hot.

I think we should as well, Mary.

As I cut through here, I'm going through the lemon.

You can smell it.

-We'll share a plate.

-No.

-Well, we've only got one plate

so you're going to have to share a plate.

That's it. You do the cream. Not all over for me.

-Shall I just keep it on the side, then?

-Yes.

There?

I think you should taste it first.

-This was a Signature Bake, wasn't it?

-It was.

OK, so could you tell us about your Signature Bake, please?

My Signature Bake is Sussex pond pudding but my version,

and I hope that you're going to like it... Come on, have a...

I mean, the overall look of it I like.

I think it's creative, you've used some great flavours

but I think ultimately it comes down to the flavour, Mary.

Don't be beastly.

-Bit of all right.

-I'll have some more of that, yeah.

Lovely, that, Mary.

-I'm through to the next round.

-You are.

-Thank you.

Now, if you've always wanted to shape pizza like a pro,

here's Paul with some tips.

Now, I'm going to show you how to roll out a pizza properly.

Very simple, really.

Here's my beautiful piece of pizza dough.

I've also got to add some semolina-and-flour mix.

And the reason why I add semolina to the flour is because it adds that

little bit of graininess to it, it keeps the pizza base really crisp.

Pizza should be in the oven for a maximum of seven minutes.

Any more than that dries it out

and it loses what I think is a proper pizza base.

Now. Lift up your dough.

Place it in the flour-semolina mix.

Roll it round.

Big, heavy rolling pin.

From the middle up, middle down.

Turn it.

Try and keep it as circular as you possibly can.

Now, that is enough. This is the fun bit.

That, at the moment,

is one equal level throughout.

Now, what I'm going to do is pick it up,

stretch it slightly with my fingers and then throw it up in the sky.

You need to do it at least three times,

and it sends all the dough that's in the middle to the outside.

It's centrifugal force. That's all I'm doing with this.

Throw it up, throw it up, catch it on the back of your hand.

If you catch it with your fingers it will go straight through.

Throw it up. Put that back down.

You can see the air and how light that is underneath.

It's all gone thick around the outside

and it's thin in the middle, ready for your topping.

With their signature suet pudding safely under their belts,

the bakers faced a terrifying technical.

And, as usual, they had no idea what to expect.

Paul and Mary would like you, please, to make eight religieuses,

which means "nun" in French. Made from choux pastry.

They should be filled with creme patissiere,

smothered in chocolate ganache and piped with whipped cream.

I've never eaten a nun before. On your marks...

Get set...

(SINGING) Baaaaake!

I've eaten plenty of these, I've never made one.

I don't even know quite how to pronounce it.

I know what it's meant to look like. So that's a start.

Even though I've made choux pastry quite often, I feel physically sick.

Mary's recipe for religieuses will help you master choux pastry

and bring a certain je ne sais quoi to your baking.

A real classic from France. You'll find them in every patisserie.

When was the first time you had one of these?

I had one of these when I went to the Cordon Bleu to do a course,

-in my youth...

-Don't rub it in.

You know, when you were in short trousers.

Anyway, it isn't difficult, it's fun to do.

You need to make a template.

So you take some non-stick parchment and then find something

about 5cm and run the pencil around the outside.

Draw eight circles onto a sheet of baking paper.

Then, using something smaller as a guide,

draw another eight roughly half the size.

Once you've done them a few times, you don't need a template,

but it's best to start off with one.

To make the choux pastry,

put 150ml of water in a heavy saucepan.

Add 60g of cubed butter and melt over a medium heat.

If you put it in a solid block, it will just take longer.

Once the butter has melted, take the pan off the heat

and add 75g of plain flour all in one go.

And to begin with, it looks awful and all lumpy, but that's where

you have to give it a really, really good beat and it will come smooth.

It clings together like a shiny ball. Look, that is quite smooth.

-Yes.

-So back on the heat.

Continue to beat over a low heat for three to five minutes.

Stirring constantly to cook the flour.

Remove the pan from the heat,

leave to cool slightly before gradually adding in two beaten eggs.

Just take a little of that to start with.

If you added it on the heat, you'd find that you'd overcook the egg.

-Scrambled egg.

-Scrambled egg, and we don't want that.

Beat well between each addition to form a smooth and shiny paste.

Without any detailed instructions to follow, the bakers had to

rely on their experience to get it right.

There's a stage once you've added the flour in

and then you really need to dry the mixture off a bit.

And I've just shoved the eggs in.

I think I'll just have to use my intuition a little bit.

Get to the stage where I recognise it as choux pastry.

Would have expected it to be a bit thicker.

Well, if I beat that over a high heat, I'm going to end up with

a scrambled, floury mess, so scratch that. Let's start again.

There we have the completed choux pastry.

That is very stiff and firm.

Going to cool that a little. Enough to handle.

Spoon the mixture into a piping bag fitted with

a 1.5cm plain nozzle.

Right, so we've got the template here, which slops about.

So a tip is - just put a little bit in the corner

and that will make the paper stick.

Pipe round disks, using your templates as a guide.

Pressing down to the edge of the circle and then up.

Now, if I put them in the oven like that, they would rise up in peaks.

So just take some water and dab it on top.

This has got to be a little bit flat so that,

when you put the top on, it sits well into it.

That's it. So they go in the oven at 200 fan.

And later on we'll be turning them down to dry them out.

After ten minutes, reduce the temperature to 170

and bake for a further 10 to 15 minutes.

Make sure you keep a close eye on them.

They can easily burn, as some of our bakers found out.

Once it's in the oven, it does tend to do its own thing.

Come on, babies, rise.

Well, the little ones are puffing up well.

Yeah, they've puffed up nicely. Happy with that.

SUE: How are your hot nuns?

Quite flat. Rubbish. They haven't risen up like a choux bun should.

When the buns are golden brown and firm, remove from the oven

and pierce each with a skewer to allow the steam to escape.

And if you don't do that,

you'll have a soggy middle - not a soggy bottom - a soggy middle.

We've done soggy top, soggy bottom - now we've done soggy middle.

They feel nice and dry on top but I know they'll be wet in the middle.

Once all the choux buns are pierced,

return them to the oven for four or five minutes.

This extra time will allow them to thoroughly dry out.

Now it's creme patissiere time.

-I'm going to need 500ml of milk here.

-Full-fat milk?

Full-fat ideally, but it's not the end of the world.

Whatever you've got in the fridge.

Add the seeds from one vanilla pod and slowly bring to the boil.

Now, if you haven't got a vanilla pod, you could use vanilla extract,

about a teaspoonful, or you could use a vanilla paste.

Beat six egg yolks with 75g of caster sugar until pale and foamy.

If you use granulated sugar, it would take longer to dissolve.

But it would do the same thing.

Then add 25g of plain flour and 20g of cornflour.

It does need to be whisked in until it's smooth.

Allow the milk to cool slightly and then pour into the egg mix.

When combined, return to the heat.

So back, watching it all the time because it could catch.

The aim is to get that beautifully thickened

because we've got to pipe it into the buns.

When the creme patissiere is thick, pour it into a bowl to cool.

And by now I think the choux buns should be really dried out.

Oh, yes, look at those guys.

They do look good. And also, when you pick them up now,

which you can do, they should be crisp.

-Can you hear?

-I can feel how crisp they are.

So I'm going to let the buns get cold, the creme patissiere get cold,

and I ought to make the chocolate ganache to give a lovely finish.

Bring to the boil 150ml of double cream,

then break 200g of plain chocolate into squares.

Now, the chocolate I've chosen to use is about 36 to 40 cocoa solids.

-If you use a 70, it will separate.

-Yes.

And this is fine. Plain chocolate.

That's come to be very, very hot. I'm going to move that off the heat

and drop in all the chocolate.

Stir the chocolate until melted and shiny.

Now, it looks as though it's never going to dissolve, but it does.

And no extra heat needed.

Overheat it and you'll lose that shine. I'm going to put

that into a small bowl like that, and then I will dip the buns in it.

With all the elements made, you'd think the hardest part was over,

but our bakers' troubles had only just begun.

My days!

-HE CHUCKLES

-Messy, messy.

Stay up!

SHE SIGHS

Oh!

Just stop falling over.

We're all organised.

We've got our choux buns, creme patissiere,

ganache and cream to do the little crown around the top.

Make a hole in each of the buns,

large enough to pipe in the creme patissiere.

Just go through all of those.

And these can be made ahead, but don't fill them

with the creme patissiere because they'll go soft.

To assemble the religieuses,

pipe the cooled creme patissiere into the choux buns.

In, and then squeeze until it comes out of the base.

Can I have a go, Mary?

Come on, you'll do it ten times quicker than me.

Once they're all filled,

it's time to coat the buns in the chocolate ganache.

Right, so take each one and dip it in.

Only halfway round.

Like that. And then shake it about.

Swirl it and then put it back on the tray.

Repeat this until all of the choux buns are coated.

Press it down and leave it.

And you've got to really judge this.

If that is still a bit runny, it will slip off to one side.

So move it around until it sticks.

For the finishing touch to your religieuses,

pipe a ring of whipped cream stars around the buns.

I think they look great, you know.

I think they look quite professional.

Right, let's have a try of this.

I'm just going to see how you tackle it first.

It's going to get messy any way you do it, you know.

It is indulgent, isn't it?

You've got that beautiful creme patissiere inside,

that little bit of cream on the outside.

The chocolate ganache is delicious.

Well done, top of the class. Again.

How many points?

Out of ten? I never give ten...

-11.

-MARY LAUGHS

Week eight, and the bakers have proved their prowess with doughs,

cakes, biscuits and pies

but with the quarterfinal came new challenges.

Working with unconventional ingredients.

We'd like you to make a loaf. Not just any loaf.

We'd like you to make a loaf using unusual flours,

such as chestnut or rice.

You can use any flavours you want, of course - they are up to you.

You've got three hours on your Signature Bake, so on your marks...

-Get set...

-Bake.

I'm making a spelt, potato and rosemary focaccia.

I'm making a spelt loaf and it's mango and nigella seeds.

I'm using a completely gluten-free flour.

It's a mixture of tapioca, rice and potato.

It's like mango chutney in a bread.

It is a new experience for me, yes.

Paul's rye loaf has a dark, earthy crumb,

a crisp crust and a rich, malty taste.

What I'm going to do now is show you how to make a wheat-free loaf.

I'm actually going to use rye, and a lot of people think it's a wheat.

It's not - it's actually a grass. It's a wild grass.

So we're going to use rye flour and produce a 100% rye bread.

So coeliacs will like this one?

No. Coeliacs can't, because they can't eat gluten.

I'm glad you're explaining it to me, because I don't know.

Go on, start from scratch.

What it's good for is for people who have a slight intolerance

to gluten. Because it's less in gluten.

Or if you have a total wheat allergy, again,

-this is the bread to go for.

-Indeed.

And do you know what, can I tell you a little secret?

-I've got a little bit of hay fever and...

-Poor darling.

And because the rye is a grass, with the dust spores

I might sneeze a bit. So be careful when you weigh it up.

Can I have 500g of rye flour, please?

You go at that end of the bench. It is very fine, isn't it?

It is, like talcum powder.

Add to that 10g of salt and 10g of yeast.

And I know to put the yeast exactly the other side.

I'm sure it's the same with rye flour.

It is, and because it's a rye flour, you expect it to be quite dark.

Now, I'm going to make it even darker, by adding black treacle.

Could you get one tablespoon of the black treacle?

And again, this is going to give it the sweetness too,

and give it a little bit of malt flavour to it.

It's fantastic. Beautiful. Thank you very much indeed.

Now, I also need my water, please.

Take 350ml of cool water,

putting three-quarters straight into the bowl.

I'm actually not using my hands for this.

It's quite a stiff dough and quite a difficult one to work with,

so using a mixer's perfect. Pop it down.

I'm just going pop it onto one,

while I just stand over here a second.

-I'll keep an eye on it.

-Mary, you just watch it for me. Thank you.

As the dough starts to come together,

gradually add the remaining water.

Lovely. Thank you very much. Now we just leave the mixer to work.

You don't want to put it on high speed.

There's a couple of reasons, really.

It's quite a dry dough, so what you've got to do is have a slow mix,

If you go too fast, it can actually damage the machine.

So what you're trying to do at this stage is mix it

until the dough becomes nice and smooth.

Is it going to be quite a close textured bread?

It's the nature of the beast with rye. Yes, it's 100% rye.

If you want to change it and put 20% wheat flour in,

then put 20% wheat flour in,

and that will lighten it up but still give you the flavour of rye.

So I can change places with you now. Everything's absorbed

OK, it's brought together the dough. It would struggle with a dough

like this, so I'm just going to give it a little knead by hand.

Could you pass me some olive oil, please?

Coat the surface with the oil to stop the dough sticking.

Back on the Bake Off, the final few were adjusting to

using their alternative flours.

For me, this is more difficult than normal flour.

But I think part of that is just because it's so new.

This has a balloon whisk and whisks for at least three to four minutes.

Because it's the only way I'm going to get the air in it,

apart from the yeast.

Just need to build up the gluten a little bit,

so that's why I'm working it a little bit more than I normally would.

As you can see, you couldn't possibly knead that.

You could, but you'd get into an awful mess.

With Paul's rye bread, most of the work has been done in the mixer

so it just needs shaping.

All I'm doing here is tucking under the dough with my hands

and spinning it in the oil.

This is actually a very simple loaf to do, isn't it?

It's a bit like a soda bread.

It's just literally just bringing the stuff together.

Now, what I'm going to do is put this dough into a banneton.

It shapes the dough as it rises.

So what I'm going to do is, to stop the dough from sticking too

much to the material, I'm going to get some rye flour

and just sprinkle it inside, all over.

Put the dough into the floured banneton,

placing the smooth top upside down.

So when that's turned out, the underneath will be on top.

-Yes.

-Ah, right.

-That's why the rough bit is there,

-where I tucked everything underneath.

-Yes.

Smoothed it on the top, and then I'll tip this upside down.

The material will come with it, the material pulls away and reveals

the loaf. If you put it into a tin or a bowl, it will stick.

This is known as a rye basket, because most rye breads

are risen in baskets, because it controls the shape.

But if people are watching at home and they haven't got this basket,

could you just put it on a baking sheet?

To be honest, what they can do is use a fruit bowl.

You know the wicker baskets? Then cover it muslin,

coat it in flour, and you'll have exactly the same thing.

-Even a clean tea towel?

-Yes. A tea towel's perfect.

A linen tea towel.

Brilliant. Now, that goes into a proving drawer.

The dough needs to prove, so cover and leave to double in size.

Right, Mary, let's have a look at this dough.

It been in here an hour and a half.

Obviously, an artificial heat, at 35 degrees, which forces this up.

Over here I've got a baking tray.

What I'm going to do is flip this dough out onto the tray now...

and you'll find that the material just pulls away from the dough.

It's a lovely sort of rustic look to it.

It is indeed.

Now, the oven has been preheated to 220 degrees.

It needs to stay in there for a minimum of 30 minutes.

What I tend to do, because I like a strong colour,

I would actually leave it in there for about 40 minutes.

-So...

-Also, it will give it a very good crust if you leave it in there.

That's what you want on rye bread. You want the heavy crust.

So I'm going to slash it with a knife.

One, two, three, four, and get it straight into the oven.

If you could open that up for me, Mary, please.

In it goes, and we'll have a look at it in 30 minutes.

For some, the alternative flours

were turning out some unexpected results.

Bakers, you've got ten minutes left. Time to stop loafing around.

No, it's not playing ball.

Oh, hello, cheeky. That'll do.

-Let's try and get that in one piece and just...

-Jigsaw.

Yes, I've looked underneath.

A broken loaf will not compete with that.

There it is, Mary.

Crispy, crunchy, earthy rye bread which also has that little

addition of black treacle, which gives it a gorgeous crumb inside.

Well, it does look most inviting.

Let me cut you off... Do you like the end? I love the end.

Oh, please, yes. Well, we could share it.

It is a robust loaf, isn't it?

Yes. Very heavy.

Look, see, Mary, how dense it is inside.

-It is. Absolutely.

-It tastes lovely, though.

-Shall I just give you that wedge?

-Yes. It's still warm. Lovely.

Yes, it is. What are you going to have with this, Mary?

I'd like some of that cream cheese, and ham would be nice.

-Smoked ham goes awfully well with it.

-Yes. No, I agree.

Quite a crust on here, and that's just what I like.

And a dough like this,

because it's so dense, it will actually keep for about a week.

-Where would you keep it?

-Just in a bag.

-Not in the fridge?

If you put bread in the fridge, it stales three times quicker.

-Does it?

-Because it dries out the loaf. So always leave it outside.

Just wrap it up in a bag and it'll be fine.

I enjoyed that.

Mm! Bit of all right.

Ever wondered how to test the freshness of an egg?

Mary has a handy tip.

Nowadays, the eggs that you buy are all dated.

They've also got a lion on, and the lion means that the chicken

has been inoculated against salmonella.

But sometimes you're given eggs from a farm or a friend,

and you're never quite sure how old it is.

As the eggs get older, the moisture inside evaporates

and it becomes very light. So to test whether the eggs are fresh,

let's first of all take the egg that's freshly bought and dated.

And if you put it in water, it should sink.

I'll do it gently because it might break at the bottom.

There it is.

Now, this egg, I happen to know, is pretty old

so we'll see whether it floats...

There you are. That's been about a bit, so throw it away.

The final, and with just three bakers remaining, Paul had

a troublesome technical challenge to put their baking skills to the test.

OK, bakers.

What we'd like you to make today, please, is something

never before seen on the Bake Off.

Pretzels. Six savoury, six sweet.

We'd like them tied into a classic pretzel knot.

Yeah, for sure - we all know what that is.

And you've got two and a half hours in which to bake them.

On your marks...

-Get set...

-Bake.

I love pretzels but I've never, ever made them before.

I've not made them before. I've made bread similar to a pretzel before.

Obviously, I know what pretzel is.

The trick with the pretzel is going to be the shaping of it.

So this is going to be quite some challenge.

Obviously, I've never made it - who makes a pretzel?

It's just not a thing.

Paul's recipe is for both a traditional savoury pretzel

and a zesty sweet variety.

Right, Mary, it's my turn to do the technical challenge from the final.

I'm going to show you how to make them properly.

Could you weigh up for me 500g of strong white flour, please?

Add 10g and salt and 7g of yeast.

Now, I'll be using instant yeast, the fast-action stuff.

If you haven't got fast-action and you really want to use fresh,

you need to add about another third of the weight again.

Add 40g of softened butter, and you'll also need 280ml of milk.

Now, that jar, Mary, does that take you back at all?

-I think that's... I think that's malt.

-It is malt. It's malt extract.

We used to have this in the war. It was in the sideboard

and we used to have to have a tablespoon of it a day.

Don't ask me why.

Spoon one tablespoon into the mix.

It really does make a difference. It helps with the colour, you know,

the richness of the colour of the pretzel, because you want that dark.

Mixing by hand, gradually add the milk until a dough is formed.

This is going to be quite stiff,

because you want that definition in that pretzel shape.

When the dough has come together, knead for ten minutes

or until it's smooth and glossy.

Now, all I'm doing... You see how all I'm doing is basically

rolling up the dough. A bit of pressure on there.

When the dough is smooth,

divide in half and place each into a small bowl.

Thank you very much, Mary.

First one was the plain one, straight in.

Second one is the sweet one.

To the sweet half, add the zest of two oranges

and 50g of poppy seeds.

That will do. I'll need to work this mix together.

-Look at that burst of colour in there.

-Lovely.

It's such a nice dough. You can use any of the citrus fruits in here.

It's the citrus flavour that drives through that darkness

of the pretzel, and it's what you crave for.

When you bite into it, you've got that crunch of the poppy

and then you get that beautiful flavour,

whether it's mandarin, satsuma, orange or lemon.

Or lime, actually. Lime would be nice.

When the zest and seeds have been thoroughly

worked into the dough, shape into a ball.

I'm going to place it back in the bowl, and then I'm going to

wrap them with food wrap.

-Is it there?

-Men can never find anything.

OK, rip out the food wrap.

Could I do that in a machine?

Think about how long it's just taken me to prepare those two doughs.

Look at your shoulders, look at the muscle. I haven't got that.

The thing is, that's just taken me five minutes.

If you're using a machine, it takes four and a half minutes.

People at home, if you haven't got a mixer, contact me

and I'll go round there. £1,000 per pretzel.

Leave to prove until doubled in size.

With their dough made,

the bakers had the most challenging bit to come -

the shaping.

Making no sense.

It's got to be a double twist, though.

-What?

-It says double twist.

-A double twist?

-Yes, my love. A double twist.

-Double twist?!

-It's basically dough gymnastics, isn't it?

Propel and twist.

-That's normally a pretzel shape, isn't it?

-Is it?

What people are doing...

That's... No. Good luck, Frances.

-Look at those guys.

-Gracious!

You can see how much they grow.

I'm just going to coat the bench in a little bit of flour.

Each dough needs to be rolled out and divided in to six equal pieces.

You start with one.

You keep it fat and then taper it off.

Apply some pressure to the dough, working from the middle outwards

to push out any air bubbles that may have formed.

That's the sort of shape you look for for a pretzel, OK?

Then bring it to a U, and then you need to twist it twice,

bring it back on itself, and tack it - all right?

Lift it up and then just stretch it slightly.

OK, so that's one. Do another one.

Each piece should be 40 to 50cm in length.

Resting them part way

allows he gluten to relax,

preventing them from springing back.

I was working with guys in Germany

-who picked it up did the twist, you know.

-Yeah.

And they went back in and did it that way.

But what I do is, I just grab the ends and twist twice,

and then place it on the side, pinch it, and then you open it up.

There's another pretzel.

Do you want to have a go?

I'm extremely nervous and I won't do them as well, but I will have a go.

OK, so grab your dough and keep on rolling it all the way.

That's not bad.

It's not bad. So you make a U first.

One hand over the other, twist it twice...

..and then tack it to the side.

PAUL CHUCKLES

The bakers were also finding the pretzels a little tricky,

and they were about to take the plunge.

Please, please, please work.

It just seems insane, popping these in here.

If you leave them in too long, you boil them.

And that's not going to be cool.

Look at them. They look like flipping octopuses.

They've been in a while.

A minute in total, now.

-They've sort of...expanded.

-They've ballooned.

These are not looking like the pretzels I like to enjoy.

To get the pretzel its characteristic dark colour,

we need to make a lye.

We've got a pot here with boiling water to which I'm going to

add bicarbonate of soda.

The colour of the dough would normally be very mature and matt brown.

You put this in, coat it, it gives it that shine

and it alters the colour and gives it that very woody-looking finish.

Add 21g of bicarbonate of soda into seven litres of boiling water.

You can see it instantly starts frothing up.

Gracious me!

Now, I'll start with the savoury ones first.

Gently drop each pretzel in to the boiling water.

They basically have to be dipped.

It's not like a bagel, where I'm going to poach them in there.

All it is a dip.

Remove onto a baking tray, reshaping if needed.

While the pretzels are still wet, sprinkle 50g of sesame seeds

and 20g of rock salt over the top.

Before they go in the oven, they need to be cut.

This is to let the devil out.

So a deep slash right at the base.

-A straight cut.

-It will open up there as it bakes.

Now repeat the process with the sweet pretzels.

As soon as you've got the last one in,

start bringing the first one out.

So it's just literally in and out.

Can you straighten that one up a little bit for me, Mary?

You've got hands like asbestos.

Of course I can, that's no problem.

The pretzels will need to be baked at 200 degrees.

Now they're all ready to go into the oven.

-Very well.

-Thank you very much, Mary.

20, 25 minutes later, rich dark colour...

We should have our pretzels.

To decorate the sweet pretzels,

Paul makes some candied orange zest and a syrupy glaze.

Peel an orange and cut into thin slivers of zest.

You would think I'm making marmalade.

It's about the only time I cut up peel like this.

Squeeze the juice from three oranges into a saucepan,

add 100g of caster sugar and bring to the boil.

And I'm also going to add now the rind, which is going to soften up.

Boil for one minute and pass through a sieve.

This has been softened in the syrup.

Coat the zest in 25g of caster sugar and leave to dry.

That will be fantastic and beautiful on top of the pretzels.

Continue to cook the syrup until reduced and sticky.

-They look about perfect.

-They do.

Wow, look at them. Gorgeous. Nice deep, rich brown colour.

Look at these guys.

You need to put the syrup on while these pretzels are still hot,

and these are still hot, so this is the perfect time to put it on.

Immediately you do that and it sort of brings them alive, doesn't it?

Oh, yes.

Sprinkle over the candied peel to finish.

So at the end of the day, Mary,

after a hard day's toil, you end up with 12 pretzels.

Six savoury with the rock salt and the sesame seed,

and six beautiful sweet ones with the poppy seed and the orange.

All very rewarding.

I'll take this savoury one here.

You can hear the crack on the outside.

It's lovely, chewy and soft on the inside.

-I'll give you half of that one.

-I love the mahogany colour.

Mmm. I like the soft centre.

And yet it's all crispy and crackling at the ends.

It's delicious.

These look good. Orange and poppy seed. A wonderful combination.

I'm just going to snap that in half. There we are, you can have half.

Thank you.

-What a shine from that orange glaze.

-Yeah, I know.

Mmm. And just a little bit of spring in the middle.

And soft. So good.

They're beautiful. The poppy seed adds to the texture

and then that gorgeous orange flavour comes through.

-It's one of my favourite bakes.

-I'll have some more.

PAUL CHUCKLES

To end on a high note, we return to the semifinal.

Bonjour, bakers. Welcome to your French Showstopper Challenge.

Today we would like to make the most delicate

and complex of cakes. The opera cake.

When somebody looks at your opera cake, they should break into song.

-So, ladies, on your marks...

-Get your funk on, Brunnhildes...

(OPERATICALLY) Bake!

I'm making a passion fruit mousseline.

I've got saffron as a flavour as well.

So I'm making my lemon and lavender soap-opera cake.

Ha-ha!

-(SING SONG)

-Chocolate buttons, chocolate buttons!

Caramel...

Ground up something or another. I don't know what that is.

-It's ground up banana chips.

-Banana chips.

Mary's opera cake is a lesson in elegance and precision

and the perfect way to impress your guests.

I think it's perhaps the most glamorous cake that I've ever made.

It's a matter of getting all the layers right.

First of all, you have a joconde sponge, which has almonds in it.

And then it has chocolate ganache, creme au beurre,

and you build up the layers.

And on top, I put a layer of raspberry jam

and lots of raspberries over the top.

It's ticking all the boxes. I love chocolate, I love raspberries.

Well, I'm going to start off. I soak the sponge with syrup.

To make the syrup, pour 200ml of water into a saucepan

and add 100g of caster sugar.

Dissolve the sugar first of all,

and then we'll boil it rapidly until it's a thin syrup.

This should take four to five minutes,

while you start on the meringue base for the joconde sponge.

Could I have three egg whites?

Reserve the egg yolks in a separate bowl.

-I'm going to use those for the creme au beurre later.

-OK.

So this is a whisked sponge, but it has the addition of almonds.

It's full of flavour and it's a lovely close texture.

There's your egg whites, Mary.

So you make a meringue first of all.

Whisk the egg whites to stiff peaks

and then gradually add in 15g of caster sugar.

When the meringue is glossy, cover and set aside.

Now we come to the main part of the sponge

-and I need 100g of ground almonds.

-OK.

On top of the almonds, add 100g of icing sugar.

No need to sieve the icing sugar.

And in with the sugar and the almonds goes three eggs.

I'm just going to check over here.

The syrup is thick now,

and I'm going to add the Kirsch and let it get cold. It's supposed

to be three tablespoons, and we'd better be fairly accurate.

No having quick swigs.

Too late.

If you haven't got Kirsch at home, you could always use something like

orange liquor, cherry brandy.

You could. Vodka, you could put in there, Mary.

Put the syrup aside to cool, and continue with the sponge.

Add the three eggs to the ground almonds and icing sugar.

And you whisk that mixture until it is thick.

That looks as though it's doubled its volume.

It's still runny, but it's much thicker.

Weigh out 30g of plain flour.

I'll sieve it in just to make quite sure it's absolutely smooth.

When the flour is combined, gently fold the meringue into the mix.

And in order to get it in quite smoothly,

you want to do this in three batches.

The first third, you can be quite rough with, almost beating.

Then when you get it slackened down, you can add the rest

a little more quickly.

There it is. It looks a bit like snow.

-And that is your raising agent, because we've used plain flour.

-Yes.

The final ingredient for the sponge is 30g of butter,

melted and cooled.

Pour it down the side of the bowl and then fold in.

Why do you put it around the outside?

You can bring it in gradually from the outside.

If it's all in the middle, then it doesn't go in so easily.

Again, very carefully.

If you go on beating this, it will lose all its volume.

When the butter is incorporated, pour the mix into a greased

and lined Swiss roll tin.

Just gently tip it in. Push it into the corners.

And that is very important.

It must be one level all the way over because I am going to split it.

It's ready to go into the oven at 200 degrees

and that's a fan oven and it'll take between five and seven minutes.

It needs to be very carefully watched.

The sponge is ready when it's a pale golden brown and springy to touch.

-Yes, that looks right.

-Lovely.

So this is how it should look.

Shrinking away, as it is there, from the side.

Turn the sponge onto a sheet of baking parchment.

Don't do it straight onto the rack, because it'll stick to the rack.

And tip it straight onto the paper like that.

-Lift it away.

-Your hands are like asbestos, Mary.

-I know.

Peel the paper off the sponge.

So just pull that back gently, all the way,

and leave that to get cool.

When it is cold, I've got to put a sharp knife through that

-and then I'll cut the strips in half and build up four layers.

-OK.

So we'll just pop that to one side.

To make the chocolate ganache filling, pour 100ml of double cream

into a pan and heat until just bubbling.

Now, that double cream should be pouring cream.

Remove from the heat and add 100g of plain chocolate.

Stir until all the chocolate has melted

and the ganache is smooth and glossy.

One of the most useful icings and so simple. That's it.

Pour the ganache into a bowl to cool.

Then we come to the posh creme au beurre.

Very French and very traditional.

-You remember we had three egg yolks?

-Yes.

-I need those to put into the mixing bowl.

-There you go.

Creme au beurre is a buttercream filling enriched with egg yolks

and sweetened with a sugar syrup.

I need 75g of caster sugar.

Dissolve in three tablespoons of water, then boil steadily

until the syrup reaches 110 degrees centigrade and thickens.

Now, I've got a thermometer here and I'm going to test it,

but you don't really need one. I can just show you the consistency.

That's exactly 110.

Now, I've got the egg yolks in here and I can start whisking those.

With the food mixer running, pour the syrup over the egg yolks.

So, it's sort of like a very runny golden syrup.

Continue to whisk until the mixture is thick and mousse-like.

That's just the consistency that I want. Sort of soft whipped cream.

It's gone pale in colour and it's ready to have the butter in.

OK. Is that softened butter that you're putting in, then?

It's softened butter and while it's beating,

you put it in little by little.

So, full speed ahead.

Add 225g of unsalted butter a little at a time.

Now, the machine's done all the work.

To finish, add two teaspoons of vanilla paste.

You may have at home vanilla extract

or you can scoop out the beans from a whole vanilla pod.

You can actually see this paste now quite a lot, and you never used

to see it, a few years ago. It's quite a new thing.

It's sort of new and people are trying it, but I always say,

"Use what you've already got."

Continue to mix until well combined.

We have achieved our creme au beurre.

It looks incredible. It's got that lovely shine to it as well.

So, what you can do with that, you can spread it,

you can pipe it, you can colour it, you can flavour it.

Now, we've got to start assembling our cake.

But with the clock ticking, the bakers weren't quite as cool

as Mary when it came to layering up their opera cakes.

-What opera is your cake?

-What's a tragedy?

I'm going to start my construction because I will feel better

in my soul knowing that I've got something together.

I just want to get the buttercream really level.

There's still one more layer of sponge, buttercream

-and chocolate to go on.

-I've not got time to mess around loads.

I feel like I'm about to have a heart attack.

So, for our final act in the opera, we put it together.

Using a bread knife, carefully slice the cooled sponge in half.

You're doing a good job there, Mary.

I hope the front door bell doesn't go or any of those things.

I want to finish it.

-How about that, then?

-That's good.

-I'm out the other side.

Now cut in half lengthways so you have four layers.

-That's it.

-To assemble the cake, brush one of the sponges

with one quarter of the Kirsch syrup.

And you just dab it over.

If you don't like alcohol, you could do it with just a lemon syrup.

Then spread on half of the creme au beurre.

Traditionally, each of the opera cake's thin layers

should be exactly the same height.

Do it to the edges.

Remember that we are going to trim the edges.

Right. We're on to the next layer.

Place another sponge on top.

Again, brush with one quarter of the Kirsch syrup,

then spread over the chocolate ganache.

If there's a birthday in the family, it would make a wonderful dessert

and you could put candles all across the top.

Mind you, when you get to my age, you wouldn't get them on, would you?

Take a lot of wax, that, Mary.

-Maybe just one big one.

-I think that might be sensible.

The next two layers are Kirsch-soaked sponge

and the rest of the creme au beurre.

Then we come to our final layer here.

Flatten it down.

Even if the mixture is oozing out, that's good.

Spread over the remaining Kirsch syrup.

I'm going to brush over some sieved raspberry jam.

Smells good. And then on top of that, fresh raspberries.

Arrange the raspberries close together

and remember to leave space to trim down the edges.

It works out very well, this,

because each person gets a double row of the raspberries.

And finally, brush over a little of the sieved jam, to glaze.

So if that goes into the fridge for two or three hours, really,

just to firm up and then we'll sharply cut it up.

Right. Into the fridge it goes.

When the cake is thoroughly chilled,

trim to reveal sharp, clean edges and clearly-defined layers.

Because we chilled it really well, it means that you get a nice, clear cut.

We're getting the distinct layers there.

Well, I'm quite proud of that.

It is tricky, it does take time but if you do it stage-by-stage,

you will achieve something exactly like that.

At the end of the day, if it looks like that,

it's well worth the effort.

Are you ready?

That's lovely, that, Mary.

I love to see the stripes all the way down.

Now, let's see what it tastes like.

The first thing I get is the Kirsch, and I like that.

Wow. You get a big kick from the Kirsch, don't you?

-You do.

-I like that. That's really nice.

And the creme au beurre is so creamy and soft

and then you come down to the chocolate ganache

and the whole thing is sharpened up by the raspberries on the top.

You can taste that beautiful sponge as well.

That all goes well as a package. I think it's a beautiful opera cake.

-well done, Mary. That's delish.

-Quite impressive.

Now, this is the last of our masterclass recipes.

Looking back, this year, the standard was so high

and got higher and higher all the way through.

-Where are we going to go next year?

-I've no idea.

We've got to find even more tricky bakes that are well-worth making.

-Quite a challenge.

-It's going to be fun.

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