Pies and Tarts The Great British Bake Off

-The tension is palpable, we're halfway through.

-It's all drama, zero gimmicks.

Hang on - I've booked some men with tassels and dancing shorts.

Great. That means I can still fire you out the cannon!

-Welcome...

-..to The Great British Bake Off!

Last time...

Freezer, freezer, freezer.

..desserts proved the undoing of Iain.

No, no, no, no, you've got...

Richard came out on top...

Now, that's what I call a sauce pudding.

..and was crowned Star Baker for the second time.

-Ooh, well done!

-Well done, Richard.

This time...

OK...

..the bakers tackle pies and tarts.

I've got it as thin as I dare.

With a Signature that challenges the steadiest of hands.

Whoa...

A technical that gets everyone in a spin.

I think this has to be one of the strangest things I've ever done.

And a towering Showstopper...

If that stays up without falling, I'll be amazed.

..that might just prove too much to handle.

Oh, my goodness.

We're half way through the Bake Off,

and unfortunately Diana has been taken ill.

Everyone was expecting to see Diana today and have Diana baking with us,

so it's a bit sad that she's not here.

We're missing her already, she's a lively character

and she's good for the team.

Sadly, she won't be able to continue in the Bake Off tent.

I'm going to miss Diana so much

cos she's my grandma in the tent. What am I going to do?

Morning, bakers, and welcome back to the tent.

For the Signature Challenge today,

Paul and Mary would very much like you to make a family-sized custard tart.

Mmm... Custard.

-There are a few rules though, Sue.

-Strict, Melly.

-Firstly, please don't put your tarts in the bin.

-No.

That would be good.

Got two and a half hours. On your marks...

-Get set, bake!

-..Bake.

What am I looking for...? Sorry.

I love custard tarts, so I normally make the custard tart on its own,

but I needed to spruce it up a bit so that's what I'm doing.

Achieving the perfect custard tart

takes real skill. It's all about texture.

We're looking for a crispy base, and a beautiful silky custard.

When it comes to the pastry,

if it's badly put in the pastry ring,

they'll make holes and the custard will leak out.

It is quite a difficult challenge to get really perfect.

Morning, Norman. What is your version of the custard tart?

I chose tarte au citron.

It's always been a favourite of mine.

I first tasted it in France about 20 years ago.

Never had anything as exotic as that before.

Norman's French classic will be dusted with icing sugar

and topped with candied lemon.

You've kept it simple. Very simple.

I haven't stretched myself today. I'm stretching myself tomorrow.

I like a man who knows when he's stretching himself.

-Well, you need to warm up. This is your warm up.

-It is.

You're making a basic tarte au citron. That thing must be beautifully level.

No cracks in sight, and just about set.

Yes.

I am making today

an apricot tart with pistachio pastry.

Martha will be topping her tart with runny honey -

but she's not feeling very confident about this challenge.

I like eating pastry. I just don't enjoy making it.

Out of all the things that you bake, this is probably my least favourite.

It's one of those things that if you're a bit older

I think you make a lot - people like Nancy

I think make a lot of pastry, so...

have to see how it goes.

I'm just going to bring it together.

The trick is to work the dough just the right amount,

so that when baked it'll have a melt in the mouth crumbly texture,

not one that's chewy.

Pastry's my favourite. I love making pastry.

And rather than do a sort of bog standard custard tart

I want to experiment a bit.

Nancy's using cocoa powder in her pastry,

and filling it with a thick passion fruit custard.

She'll bake it in a rather thin tin.

-Is that your ring?

-Yes.

-It's very shallow.

With the pastry in there,

how much filling are you actually going to get in there?

Erm... Quite a lot.

Well, I wouldn't say quite a lot, when you look at that.

You're thinking it's going to look half pastry, half filling,

-but it's deceiving.

-OK.

I'm just going to put it in the fridge now.

It's always best to

chill it for quite a while before you use it.

It'll roll out better without cracking.

Chilling the pastry is really important,

so I'm hoping that I've chilled it for enough time before I line it.

But not too long, or it won't bake.

-Hello, Kate.

-Hi.

-Whereabouts are you up to with your tart?

My pastry is in the freezer just chilling down,

and I've got the rhubarb on the go.

-So this is your classic rhubarb and custard.

-It is. It is.

Kate's rhubarb and custard tart

will feature an almond and rosemary pastry,

and a swirl of her rhubarb compote.

Any decoration on top?

The rhubarbs are in a swirl so I'm going to put them

onto the pastry case,

then pour the custard in and then do a swirl,

10, 15 minutes into the baking.

I'm liking the body there...

Well, you have to wobble it out of the oven, and

I don't want to leave the oven door open so I do have to put it on the top and then swirl it.

-I wanted to keep it simple because I love custard tarts.

-There's nothing simple about that.

Well... As simple as I could.

At the moment I'm just preparing the fillings,

just need some pureed mango, which I'm just sorting out now.

Luis, Chetna, Richard, Nancy and Norman

are also flavouring their tarts with fruit.

But they've chosen to add it into the custard mix.

I haven't done this quite a lot.

I know that four or five lemons is just about right.

But changing the consistency could make it harder

for the custard to set.

I think the trickiest ting about custard is

getting the egg to other ingredients right.

If you've got too little egg, then it's not going to set.

If you've got too much egg, it's a bit rubbery and not very nice.

Luis's making a tropical fruit tart,

that hails from a region not often known for its sunshine.

-Morning.

-Morning, Luis.

So what's your version of a tart?

OK. I'm doing a tropical Manchester tart.

The flavours are passion fruit, orange, lime and some mango puree.

So what's the Mancunian element?

-Er - the Mancunian is it's made by a Mancunian.

-That works for me.

This is for poaching figs,

this is dessert wine with cinnamon, honey and peppercorns as well.

When they're out of season, figs are just texture and no taste, so

hopefully poaching them will bring some of the sweetness out.

Richard's tart features an almond pastry.

He's setting his poached figs in a basic custard with a twist.

I love an orange custard, but

cos it had to be special I thought I'd put some poached figs in it.

Orange and fig together should work quite well.

The orange coming through should be nice and sharp,

and those figs should be beautiful when you put a knife through them.

I hope they are. They taste nice at home.

-Good luck.

-Thank you.

Chetna is going one step further than everyone else,

by adding fruit and rice to her mix.

We have a pudding in India which is called kheer

and it's made in milk and rice.

And usually in the summer season you eat mango with it,

so I've thought I'll try and mix it together.

Chetna's kheer-inspired custard tart

is topped with fresh mangoes and raspberries.

She's paying close attention to balancing her flavours.

It's not an extremely sweet tart, it's just mildly sweet

so I'm going to make the rice slightly sweet

and have the custard on top of it.

The downside with it is because it's dark in colour,

if you start adding extra flour you'll alter the colour of it.

So I'm not using any flour at all to roll it out.

You don't want the pastry too thin because

it can spring holes and leak but

at the same time you do want thin pastry because...

I dunno - thinner the better, really.

It's just sticking a lot and I'm having to roll it again

which is a nightmare because it makes it a bit tougher.

I'm having to add a bit more flour which I don't want to do, but...

we'll get it in there.

I've decided to use clingfilm,

because you can get the pastry really thin and kind of

pick up the whole sheet like that, and then...

Not making this look easy.

..roll it over like that.

Sort it out while it's in there.

Because it's too... I'm working it way too much.

And I'll just patch it up at the sides.

At the moment I'm just lining my tart tin.

I've got it as thin as I dare,

and I'm just going to blind bake the pastry case.

When you blind bake pastry,

what happens is the fat sets, the pastry cooks,

and then when you pour your liquid in,

it's already got a solid base to sit in

otherwise it'd all just go really soggy and messy.

Blind baking the pastry is essential,

and SHOULD stop any leaks.

BEEP

Oh, this is my worst bit.

I feel so nervous today. I don't really know why.

Are you a pie or a tart?

-Oh, a tart.

-Yeah. I'm a tart as well.

-I am too.

-Yeah.

Look at our hairdos.

I think we've got slightly tart hairdos today.

OK, bakers, that's one hour remaining. You can't keep a tart waiting.

Time is money, time is money. Come on!

-You OK?

-Yes, I just hate making pastry...

Oh, yours looks really good!

The next tricky thing is I've got to trim the pastry.

So I have to literally carve away at it.

To achieve a perfect finish,

the edges of the pastry case need to be delicately trimmed

while still hot.

-You pleased with that?

-Yeah, it's come out neat, hasn't it?

-Hasn't it?

-Yeah it's really neat.

Yeah, the key to making a good tart I suppose is

making a nice job of the pastry, you know.

I'm just making sure it's all clear of the edge,

so it's got a nice clear edge when I take it out of the case.

A steady hand is vital,

as the custard is poured into the pastry cases.

Any overspill could be disastrous.

TIMER BEEPS

Shush!

If you kind of carry it from here full and put it in

it's a recipe for disaster, so

fill it halfway, put it in the oven,

fill the rest in the oven door.

Whoa...

Well done, well done. Don't slip it over!

Oh...

Bit of a spill, but...hopefully that'll dribble out.

Nothing to do but wait now, innit? Might taste a bit of custard.

Right, bakers, I know you're all pie-eyed by this stage

but you still have half an hour left.

The real challenge is knowing when to take the tarts out.

I think it's got a wobble. Hopefully it has.

It's still got a little bit of a tremble. Which is what I want.

Looks pretty good to me.

It's the moment of truth, I'm just going to take it out of the case.

How does he do it? Every time.

OK, bakers, that's five minutes!

I'm going to turn it up a bit.

I knew it was going to be... Yeah, it was going to be tight.

It's not as set as I would like, but

I think I'm going to need to get it out now.

Well, some custard did escape, didn't it?

Come on, metal base. Come on!

-Can't get it out.

-Can I help you?

-It's just about to fall off, move it that way a bit.

-Is it?

OK. I reckon it's going to come off now.

No. No, no...

Ooh... This side's nearly off. Oh, no!

It's OK...

Well done!

Icing sugar gives it a nice finish.

Right, has to come out... Oh, no, that's fine.

Oh, phew!

Pastry, over!

I like it short.

SHE SIGHS

The bakers won't know if they've succeeded

until Paul and Mary cut into their tarts.

Erm... I think it looks a mess, if I'm honest.

A tarte au citron should be clean, sharp and very neat.

It is just baked. It could have done with a little bit more.

The flavour is fantastic -

but I think overall the presentation is not good.

Considering that you had all that time to make one mix and a pastry,

I expected something a little bit better.

Nancy, it looks totally original. Very attractive.

I like the idea that it's shallow,

because I know that Paul was a bit worried about

not all the filling getting in.

-I like that, Nancy.

-SHE LAUGHS

-I think the whole thing, it works. It's very good.

-Thank you very much.

I think you could have cooked your rice a bit longer.

-Oh.

-I think the pastry is excellent, the look of it looks good,

but I think you missed it on the flavours. For the first time,

you've missed it on the flavours.

Right. Are we going to get that rhubarb coming through?

It's in the bottom and on the top.

It's custard. It's almost, your taste buds are picking up

the tang from the rhubarb but not the flavour.

But it's lovely pastry, beautiful decoration

-and a well flavoured custard.

-Thank you.

We've had a little bit of...

Was that leakage, or going on the way to the oven?

That was me being a clumsy lad.

As I put it in, I knocked it...

-But you've got a steady hand. You've shown us in the past.

-Usually!

-I was really looking forward to tasting the orange.

-Mmm.

-Very little orange comes through. It's a shame.

-Oh, well.

-Thank you very much.

-Thank you.

The first thing you look at it,

it needs a shine, a lovely glaze of some sort.

There's a lot of moisture there, isn't there,

-a lot of wetness, coming through from those apricots.

-Yes.

Looks as though that pastry is not quite done underneath.

I think the consistency, looking at it,

should be a little bit firmer.

-I'm not convinced about the flavour.

-Oh, OK.

-It's quite tart, apricot.

-OK.

-For me in the custard.

-Thank you very much, Martha.

-Thank you.

The pastry from here looks perfect.

Very thin, a perfect colour.

The custard has got a lovely shine. Perfect set.

Nice and thin, the pastry as well, sides and bottom.

OK, thank you.

You've got the sharpness coming through,

all the citrus fruits coming through really well.

Very difficult to critique, actually. But thank you.

-Thank you very much, guys.

-Thank you.

I guess it's just hard when you spend

two and a half hours making something

for them to kind of hate it. It's quite...quite hard.

And it hasn't happened to me yet, so...

I had a really good round there, I think,

so erm... yeah, I'm totally delighted.

Paul said he couldn't critique it, he couldn't find a fault with it,

and... I mean, that's just fantastic.

Paul said that this is the first time

I missed on my flavours.

But I thought, just to get a hint of everything -

I should have just gone... bang, you know.

It went marvellously well,

so yeah, I'm really pleased. Relieved.

When you're planning a wedding you might think,

big white meringue dress - tick.

Live salsa band - tick.

Cake to break over the bride's head...what?

I tell you what, brides have it very easy these days compared to days of yore.

An edible centrepiece is a long established ritual on the tables of wedding feasts.

But rather than the cutting of a tiered white cake that we know today,

past traditions were a little more unusual.

For some time it was customary for the groom to break a bride cake

over his beloved's head for good luck.

Another alleged ritual was for a couple to kiss

over a pile of scones and biscuits.

But perhaps the most intriguing was the 17th century bride pie.

Everyone's familiar with wedding cakes, or bride cakes,

as they were called, and they've been around for a very long time,

but we also used to have the savoury elements in the bridal feast - pies.

If you look some of the ingredients up, they're nearly all aphrodisiacs.

So good for bridal chamber activity and hopefully children to come.

Exactly.

Amongst sweet and savoury ingredients, arguably the most potent

to encourage a fertile wedding night was lamb testicles.

There's a real whiff of locker room about this, isn't there?

I think there is, but there are other ingredients too.

We've got sweetbreads, ox cheek, or ox pallet, and the most powerful

aphrodisiac of the Renaissance period, globe artichokes.

There is something about the look of this which is not...

-Does it remind you a little bit of something else?

-Not dissimilar.

-Yes!

This is a bride pie for the top layer of society.

It's made to a recipe from one of the great English cookery authors

of the 17th century, a man called Robert May.

Oh, lord, hang on. What's this?

Some of the later recipes tell you to put the glass ring in

and the person who finds it is likely to be the next one to be wed.

It's rather like the bridal bouquet being thrown now.

But, Ivan, I think we've been through something quite special together,

what with all the aphrodisiacs, so really I have to make it official.

Will you marry me? Doesn't quite fit there.

-Just a minute, I haven't said "I will" yet!

-Oh, yes, sorry!

-SUE:

-The bakers were able to practise making their first pastry dish

at home, but they have no idea what's coming next.

Bakers, time for the dreaded fiendish technical challenge.

Now this week, it is one of Paul's recipes.

Paul, if you could leave the tent before you say something we regret.

Off you go now, Paul. And Mary.

Now, this is the deal, bakers.

Mary and Paul, please, would like you to make...

mini pear pies.

Now, they are made with a perfectly poached pear

surrounded by spirals of rough puff pastry

and baked until golden brown.

You've got two hours to do this, so...

-On your marks...

-Get set...

-Bake!

I have absolutely not a clue what we are doing.

I have never made a mini pear pie. I've never even poached a pear.

It seems quite straightforward,

although I've never seen this recipe before.

But I shall bash along with it.

-PAUL:

-There they are, Mary!

Gosh, they look quite something.

Why did you choose pear pies for a challenge?

I think it's a great challenge to check their timing.

First of all they've got to make a cheat's puff pastry,

but the other angle is they've got to poach a pear, and bake it,

so the tricky thing is trying to cool the pear

and trying to chill the dough.

If the pear's too hot, the pastry will just simply fall off.

And this is just perfection.

Both the pear and the pastry are perfectly cooked.

It's a very difficult challenge but we're here to test them.

I'm just reading the pastry ingredients,

making sure I've got everything.

And it says combine all the ingredients to make a quick

puff pastry, so that's what I'm going to do.

We're trying to make a quick rough puff, which basically involves

knocking up a bit of dough and folding some fat into it.

I've literally never heard of this pudding, so I'll be flying blind.

It'll be a nice voyage of discovery for me today.

This is ready, I'm going to roll it out.

I'm just going to dot the fat into it and then start folding it.

The fat has to stay in big chunks so that then we get some flakes.

Something scientific probably happens to it.

If they're too heavy-handed with the dough at this stage,

the fat could melt and the pastry won't achieve distinctive layers.

Fold the top third up, bottom third...no.

Top third down and then the bottom third up and over the top third.

Turn 90 degrees, which I've just done,

and then roll out again and then repeat the fold and roll.

I feel a bit under pressure that I need to do well in this

because this morning wasn't brilliant, to say the least.

You have to chill it because the butter

and the lard start melting cos you're handling it, and you want

the butter and lard to stay intact and be like a marbled effect.

So by chilling it they go hard again,

so when you roll and fold they don't just vanish into the dough.

They need to repeat this process twice more before the pastry

is ready to be baked.

Right, mine's on the bottom layer of the fridge.

-OK, mine's middle, hers is top.

-Awesome.

Prepping the pears.

All it says is to prep the pears and make the poaching syrup.

So I'm going to do that.

The poaching syrup is a mixture of white wine, sugar,

orange zest and cinnamon.

I've got the pastry chilling in the fridge. I'm halfway through peeling

the pears. I'm just getting the poaching liquid on to heat up now.

I have poached pears once, that was absolutely years ago.

If the pears are poached for too long, they'll collapse

when wrapped in pastry.

I don't want them completely soft

because they're going to cook a little bit more in the oven,

but I want them so you don't want to cut into them and to be hard.

Not quite sure how long they take but once they're soft,

that'll be a good indication they're done.

Too sweet for me.

I won't be drinking that.

Bakers, you've got an hour till we want to see Paul's mini pear pies

out on your benches.

I'm ready to go into the fridge, get my pastry out

and give it a roll and put it back in again.

There is an element of repetition in this

but it's mixed with the fear of hoping I don't ruin my pears.

I don't really know when my pears are done, so...

I know it's not allowed but I'm looking at other people.

-Think they're done.

-Are they nice and soft? Your pears?

That's a good question, let's test.

I've got a nice pear, Luis.

Are they soft enough?

I think so. What's the worst that could happen?

Well...you don't get through to next week?

Yeah. Put them back in.

I'm joking, I'm joking.

I might take them out now.

The big challenge is to successfully wrap the pears.

The bakers need to judge the perfect moment -

if the pears are too hot, the pastry will slip off mid-bake.

I've just put the pears in the fridge,

because I think they need to be cold before you put the pastry on them

because otherwise I think they're going to be really hot

and the pastry will just melt, and that will not be very good.

And they've only got 40 minutes to go.

It's the last folding, because it still needs to rest again,

then come out and then roll it and then cut thinly

and then put it on the pears and then...bake!

Very large, long rectangle, right.

It says in the recipe to roll it no thicker than five millimetres.

I think I'm slightly thinner.

Half an hour left.

With an ideal bake time of 25 minutes, and none of the pears

yet wrapped, all of the bakers are cutting it fine.

Very concerned about time.

How are we supposed to cut these strips in this time?

The pears need to be coated in a thin layer of poaching syrup

to help the pastry stay firmly in place.

"Starting from the bottom, wrap the pastry strips round each one."

Give that a try. One way or another.

Argh! Come on, come on, come on.

I think this has to be up there with one of the strangest things

I've ever done.

It's like mummifying a pear.

This pastry is extremely thick,

possibly even too thick.

Considering I have no idea what they're meant to look like,

I'm not too unhappy with how they look.

I'm going to put three in and then the other three join them

when they are made, because I prefer to have three cooked

than none cooked. Right, in these three go.

Come on, pears, at least three of you can bake.

I'm going to put the temperature up.

OK, bakers, 15 minutes!

On the only challenge where if it goes pear-shaped, it's going right.

Really, really, really pushed for time.

I thought they would take 20 minutes.

Now, because I haven't got that long, I'm going to say 15!

Whack up the oven.

Hopefully they won't need long

because they ain't going to get long.

No way they're going to be done in time.

Let's get that heat up. Well, I think they need about

20 minutes in the oven, but we've only got ten minutes left.

It's beginning to catch colour, just beginning to.

There's one at the back that I think looks really good.

I'm going to put that one right under their nose.

I'm not really impressed with these but they might be all right.

Mine's all gone to pot anyway, all mine have fallen off.

Oh.

OK, bakers, you've got one minute left before Paul turns up!

One minute!

I think I'm going to get them out now.

They've got a good colour on them.

OK, puff pear pie purveyors,

this challenge is now over.

Please leave your pears

and bring them up and put them behind your photo, please.

Mary and Paul are looking for perfectly poached pears,

well wrapped, in a thin golden brown pastry.

Right, shall we have a look at this one?

What we're looking for is thin strips to go round.

These look like thinnish strips.

And it has held together.

The pear's poached lovely, the pastry's got a bit of crunch

on the outside but it's just raw on the inside, isn't it?

It just hasn't been in there long enough.

Moving onto this...mess, pastry was too thick going on.

Probably you put it on when it was too hot

and the whole thing concertinaed down into a mess.

Pear's not quite done.

Pear's not... No, it isn't poached properly either.

We have got some thinner sheets going round there

but just not long enough in the oven.

This isn't too bad, actually.

Nice colour, nice swirls going up

and actually they've got a bit of flake on there as well.

This one's got a bit of colour.

And it's sort of got the swirls round it. Slipped a bit at the top.

I think the pear could have done with a bit longer, don't you, Mary?

It's acceptable.

This one's got a nice spiral on, it's covering all the pear.

Probably needed a little bit longer in the oven

looking at the colour here. This one looks good.

Nice strong colour.

Good with flavour. It's nice.

The pears are done. When you look at it, it's a gorgeous

golden brown colour.

-This one shows that it can be done.

-Yeah.

But which bake went the least, or the most, pear-shaped?

Seventh place is this one. Richard.

What a shocker, eh?

Absolutely. Now, obviously, I think the pastry was too thick.

You put it on too warm.

But the poaching of the pear was...was under-done!

-I think I got a full house, didn't I?

-Yeah, you did.

And in sixth place, this one. It's not quite cooked.

MEL: Norman takes fifth place, and Nancy fourth.

Number three is this one. Not bad, Kate.

Nice colour on this as well.

And in second place...

-You've got a good bake and a well flavoured pear.

-Thank you.

Obviously in first place, is this one. Well done, Martha.

The pastry was nice and thin, the pear was poached well.

The whole thing together, that's what you needed to do.

I feel amazing coming first!

This morning I was like weepy Martha who made a rubbish custard tart,

and now I've completely forgotten about that and it's just amazing.

Awful! What an awful task!

I'll never wrap a piece of fruit in pastry again,

I'll be honest with you. Hated it.

I think that was as bad as it could possibly have gone.

I think I would have probably done better

had I set the tent on fire, to be honest.

So, Paul and Mary, we're halfway through Bake Off now.

At this point,

surely there's some indication as to who is doing really well.

I think Luis has to be up there.

I think his first tart was very good,

although his technical wasn't particularly good.

And Nancy, the chocolate tart she made,

so flavoursome and a very polished finish.

I think Kate is being particularly good as well.

Her rhubarb didn't come through, but the custard was good

and the bake was good and she was third in the technical.

So if we look at the other end of the spectrum

and those who haven't done so well.

I wasn't convinced that Martha's Signature Bake was that good.

But she came first in the technical.

I think that Norman is in a difficult position.

He was doing a tarte au citron.

Although the flavour was very good, the actual finish was not good.

The one that surprised me this week is Richard.

Bottom of the technical and sort of for me mid-station on his Signature.

-OK, well, all to play for?

-They've got a big day today.

-Have they? What they up to?

-They've got a very big day.

-Oh!

Hello, bakers, and welcome to your pie Showstopper.

Now, Paul and Mary asked you to make a pie with tiers.

Doesn't mean there's sadness involved in the making of it,

just layers.

And, unlike Mel and myself on a night out,

they must be able to support themselves.

Now, these pies can be sweet or savoury,

that's completely up to you. You can use any pastry you desire.

Four and a half hours to do your three-tiered pie. On your marks...

-Get set...

-Bake!

Right...spoon.

We've asked for a three-tiered pie minimum - could be more tiers.

The pastry is all-important.

They've got to choose a good strong pastry to hold the filling

and that will support the other tiers.

-PAUL:

-This is a pie challenge.

The choice of fillings and flavours is entirely up to them.

But theme it, have a reason so they all link together,

that'll be the key thing.

They've got to really think about this challenge.

Trying to be really tidy today

because there's so much stuff on my bench.

-Hello, Luis.

-Morning. You all right?

Tell us your pies, please.

OK, I am making, I call it the Four Fruity Seasons Tower.

And each one represents a different season.

What it is at a glance, they look like fruit pies,

because the tops are all fruit filled,

but inside they're actually different meats.

Luis's Fruity Season Pies will all be wrapped up in

plain hot water crust pastry and split over four tiers.

Luis, you know you only have to make three tiers, m'love.

You've made this quite hard for yourself.

Well, the top one is only tiny.

It was minimum of three tiers, and knowing you,

you like to go to the extra mile.

I do, but I have kept them a bit smaller than normal.

I'm making my hot water crust pastry,

and I'm going to have to go in with my hands straightaway.

Even though it's quite hot.

Like Luis,

Kate, Richard and Martha are making all of their pies

with hot water crust pastry.

I'm using hot water crust pastry because it is just strong.

You can probably build a house out of it, to be honest.

I'm just going to knead it a bit more.

I love a hot water crust pastry, it's such a nice thing to work with.

But if it's too hot it kind of drops in the pan,

but if it's too cold it breaks and can be brittle.

Kate will fill all three of her hot water crust pies with pork,

and they'll be individually flavoured with a rhubarb,

prune and apple coulis.

I'm sticking to one kind of pastry. I think it looks nice

and I do make them a bit at home, but they take a long time to cook.

So I need to get the pastry done really quickly.

-Morning, Martha.

-Hello.

-Hello, Martha.

So what have you chosen for your three-tiered pie? Have you got a theme?

Yeah, I'm making like, a three little pigs themed pie.

And here we are!

Martha's making a chorizo, pulled pork and traditional pork pie

and is going the extra mile with her pastries.

I love the idea that you're flavouring the hot water crust pastry -

hopefully the colour should come through,

but more the flavour as well.

I'm looking forward to huffing and puffing, and blowing your pie in my direction.

It's going straight...

in my face.

Chetna, Richard and Norman are pre-cooking their fillings before baking their pies in the oven.

This can help stop moist fillings seeping into the pastry, making it soggy.

I'm making three pies. One is a venison, haggis and spinach pie.

The fish course is a haddock and cheese sauce,

and the dessert's a raspberry and passion fruit meringue pie.

Norman's dessert pie will be crowned with a lavender meringue,

and sit on top his Pieful Tower.

He's set himself the additional challenge of making three different types of pastry.

I suppose I'm stretching myself a bit. I've been here long enough now

to see how things work, and I'm going to aim a wee bit higher today, you know.

-Hello, Richard.

-Morning.

-What have you decided to do?

-I'm doing posh builder pies today.

-Nice! Nice!

-What's that then? Full English breakfast pie? Steak and chips pie?

-With doughnuts?

It's steak and ale pie, and chicken and mushroom.

Richard's three hot water crust pies

will also include something for pudding.

There's going to be a pear and apple pie with a frangipane base on it as well.

-What pastry are you using for that?

-I'm using hot water crust for that one as well.

Interesting. Never had a dessert inside a hot water crust pastry before.

It stays nice and sweet, I'm cooking the pears down so they're almost caramelised.

You're very brave, Richard, going back to the old pear.

I know I've got to get back on the horse with pears.

Good man - face your nemesis, come on. Exposure therapy.

I'm just dividing up for the first two pies here.

The bakers need to take extra care rolling their dough to the perfect thickness.

Strong pastry is essential to stand up to moist fillings

and support pies stacked on top of each other.

That's not too bad.

At the moment I'm just lining the first tin.

With it being hot water crust it's pretty robust, so I always do it

to about five or six mil thick, which is plenty to be honest, you

don't want it too thick otherwise it's a bit white and gooey inside.

So I'm just patching up any kind of thinner looking areas

because I think once you've got all the fat bubbling away,

the thin bits of pastry do tend to split, which will make it leak.

Nancy's preparing her first pie, but to make life more difficult

she's hand-raising it without using a tin.

It's a bit awkward because I need three hands, really.

Got to build the filling up

and at the same time build the pastry up over the edge.

Nancy is filling her hot water crust pie with chicken and gammon.

She's also hand-raising her two sweet pies.

-Hello, Nancy.

-Morning.

-What are your two?

-I'm going to make a trio of apple pies.

-Nice.

I'm doing a hot water crust pastry for this with dried apple

in the middle, then I'm going to do puff pastry galette

with creamed apple filling, and then my top pie is a simple

shortcrust one crust pie of blackberry and apples, and no tins.

No tins?

No tins on anything.

You've got to be aware of fat bottoms on some of these pies.

Nancy, they're like children. Raised by hand...

-With fat bottoms.

-And then supported...with fat bottoms.

Chetna is also stretching herself, by making all of her pies

from different pastries.

I am making four different pies. This one's the hot water crust.

It is a bit risky to do so many different pastries,

but it's just a perfect mix of pastry and my flavours.

Chetna's four fusion pies are themed around classic Indian dishes.

There'll be made from a combination of hot water crust,

shortcrust and flaky pastry.

You've got an awful lot of spices,

is this going to be hot pies or are they going to be aromatic?

They're not going to be spicy hot

but they're going to have lots of flavours in it.

Your flavouring is always good.

Except, I feel, for your Signature,

so that...

-You shaking there a bit, Chetna?

-Yeah.

Right, going in with the prune.

With hot water crust pastry you don't have to blind bake,

it's literally make your pastry, fill it,

put your lid on, in the oven, there's no need to do anything else.

The bakers must be careful not to over-fill their pastry cases.

Too much filling and the pies might burst.

I'm just flattening out the haggis to go in the bottom of the pie

and the venison will rest on top of that.

Normski. Would it be appropriate to quote some Robert Burns?

Would you address the haggis?

Fair fa' your honest, sonsie face, Great chieftain o the puddin'-race!

Well are you worthy of a grace As long as my arm.

I ken you're awful smelly but you'll soon be doon ma belly.

There's a lot of verses to that but those are all the ones I know.

I like that one, what was it?

I know you're very smelly but you'll soon be in my belly?

That's right! Spot on.

It's an orangey colour anyway which is what it'll be when it's cooked,

which can make it a bit harder to see when it's cooked.

But I'm more scared of under-cooking than over-cooking here.

Right, one in.

Ooh, that's a tight squeeze!

Ahhh. Two down.

One part of my mind's telling me it's time for a cup of coffee.

The other part's saying, time to get on with it.

So two of my pies are in the oven, I'm doing four.

Now I'm making the flaky, which is the fourth pie.

I'm just making my second batch of hot water crust pastry.

I've got two pies in the oven

and now I'm just knocking up the final pie.

"Knocking up." Lovingly crafting the final pie!

It's for a sweet pie, sitting on the top

and we'll pop this into the fridge until this pie comes out.

I want a pencil, really. Richard, can I...? Thank you.

OK, bakers, you've got one hour, so put a lid on it!

I need another 15 minutes. Third in, one more to go.

I'm just laying the sweet potato, I've got kind of like, pulled pork

and then sweet potato layers going through the pie.

I'm nearly there, I just need to get this in and can relax a bit.

Relax? Then you've got to worry about them bursting...

I just need to get this one in then I'm done.

And we're going in.

An hour till the end of the challenge,

and I think it'll probably take an hour.

Which one's that then?

That's apple, pear and frangipane in the bottom,

-hopefully the frangipane will have kept it...

-That looks good.

I worry there's so much in it that the frangipane might still be a little bit un-frangipaned.

This is the Italian meringue for my top pie.

And it's raspberry and passion fruit,

so I'm hoping this will thicken up on time.

The raspberry and sugar will set, but I've also got cornflour in it.

That's sort of the belt and braces, if you like.

Right, you bunch of pie-ro-maniacs. You've got 30 minutes left on the clock.

That's it, they're all out.

So just need them to cool a bit and I can start stacking them up.

Not too bad, actually. Not too bad.

Going to just pipe something onto my hand. This tastes of lavender!

It does.

It really tastes of lavender.

I tell you what, I'm going to have a look,

make sure this is cooked underneath.

It should be.

Yeah.

Ooh.

Oh, my goodness.

-Martha, what's going... Ooh!

-It's having a plumbing problem!

We've got a little bit of weepage there.

OK, so what is that leaking?

It's leaking fat, which is gross.

I think I might put it back in the oven to dry out.

On the plus side at least you can work out exactly how much liquid's been lost.

OK, ten minutes to get yourself out of hot water...crust.

OK...

Hey, check this out. Spirit level!

Now...I don't think Paul Hollywood will be very impressed with this pie.

Maybe if I can just take off the burnt bit...

I just hope they won't moan about the colour.

That's my only worry.

Thing is it's such a big pie you've got to cook it through,

so you're going to get a bit catching on the top.

Are you worried about that?

I am a little bit.

If that stays up, without falling, I'll be amazed.

When I practised, I think

I must have made the bottom pie a little bit bigger.

There we go.

Sur-pies! You've got one minute left.

Ooh, there it goes!

Right, bakers, good news, time's run out.

Give me a pie five, someone. Wahey!

Yours looks amazing, Richard.

It's burnt!

It's judgement day for the pies.

I do think they look good. Got a nice colour,

nice height to it as well.

Nice ridge, it drops down, it's the classic pork pie shape.

It's a good bake, nice strong colour,

you've got a lot of filling in there.

Very good, yeah, very good.

I like the texture, I like the flavour, too.

Nice bake again, being consistent with the colour.

So this is the prune one.

It's a great looking pie, that.

It's lovely, absolutely delicious.

And the pastry, so crisp, it's really lovely.

Impressive, quite a stable mix. Bit burnt.

I think I was so worried about trying to get the bottoms to cook

that I left them in long enough for the tops to catch.

You've been consistent, they're all a little bit over-cooked

but we will get lovely crisp pastry.

You've got lots of filling there, which is good.

Not much flavour coming from that frangipane.

The point of a frangipane is to expose it to the heat,

not cover it up.

Because it's down at the bottom the heat can't penetrate and it can't caramelise.

And the last one, steak and ale?

That is absolutely wonderful.

Stunning, it really is. The pastry's excellent, it's just over-baked.

The whole appearance is the most attractive.

Good pastry, flaky.

The flavour queen's back.

Very good, good blend.

I think it looks great. The colour on the bake is fantastic.

It's holding together beautifully as we cut it.

But we really have got far too thick a pastry.

But the whole idea, I think, is lovely.

It's the pastry that lets you down.

Obviously you've done it all without a tin, you get a brownie point

to your name for that because they've all turned out

looking quite good.

Nice layers in there, it's quite distinctive.

I think the flavours are fantastic. I think it's quite dry inside.

I'll try the meringue first.

Very pale underneath, I daren't lift it again

because the whole thing's going to collapse.

When something is cut it's got to hold enough,

and this is weeping out over the tray.

And it has affected the pastry underneath.

What's in that egg white?

-Lavender.

-Lavender? It's probably a little bit too powerful for that.

It's pretty good.

It's an interesting idea and interesting flavours

but it's just a bit too crumbly.

Overall I think the top two look pretty good - the bottom one, it's caught slightly, hasn't it?

-And leaked.

-Yes it has.

-OK, let's start.

That looks a lovely little pie when you get into it,

-it needs just a little bit more cooking.

-OK.

That's nice. Nice layers, well thought out, well baked.

Now for the monster.

Oh, hello, that's a three-man job.

I love the idea, adding paprika to the pastry.

The paprika in there and chorizo in there, it's fantastic.

It's really, really, different

and it's such a shame that it is over-baked,

but very interesting filling and it complements all the others.

Mary and Paul must now decide who will leave the tent this week

and who will be named Star Baker.

So, Paul and Mary, I think it's safe to say that none of us

will ever, ever want to eat a pie again.

-Not today anyway.

-Not today.

So who's done particularly well this week, do you think?

I think Nancy's done well, very consistent again

and I think Kate's done well.

I think the flavours in her Showstopper were very good.

And her pies were in beautiful proportion.

Which leads us to a slightly bigger question of those who

haven't done so well this week.

Well, Richard can do so well, but he hasn't had a great week this week.

Has he done enough to make him safe for next week, do you think?

I think he's down there, I think he's down there with Norman.

I've never had lavender in meringue and I don't ever think I want it again.

Also, Martha hasn't excelled this weekend.

Her Showstoppers today did look pretty bad at the bottom,

but the top two layers were OK,

the look of them.

You've discussed people you think might leave -

the bigger question is, with Diana sick, is it right that anybody goes?

Whether we leave it this week I don't know - I think

it's something you're going to have to find out in a bit.

You want to give us any sort of clue?

-No.

-Teasers?

-No.

-Honestly?

-No.

-Every time I ask you.

-No.

-No.

Bakers, long weekend, and thank you.

You have all contributed to Britain's first ever hot water crust shortage.

Now, this week's Star Baker has for a long time been a bridesmaid,

never the blushing bride.

But thanks to huge quantities of piggy,

I'm delighted to say this week's Star Baker is Kate.

Now, this bit gets harder as the weeks go by.

I'm afraid the person who will not be joining us next week is...

..Norman.

But thanks for the lavender meringue.

-Oh, the lavender will stay with.

-We'll never forget it.

It was an honour, sir, you're a gentleman.

I'm lucky to make it this far.

Oh, don't be silly, no.

I'm overjoyed I've made it to fifth week of the Bake Off.

At the same time a wee bit sad I'm having to go home. I never thought

I'd get this far, and I'll look on it as being an excellent

experience, and something that will stay in my memories for a long time.

That was a narrow escape, cor, what a touch.

Erm... Yeah. I feel very lucky to have stayed in.

I cannot believe I survived pastry, I thought

if I was going to go at any point, definitely pastry.

But I'm still here and that's amazing.

You should be a bit like...

I am a bit, I will be.

Puts shivers down your spine. Fantastic.

Especially in pie week,

because Luis was saying that no Southerner should ever win pie week.

And I'm as Southern as they get. So that's good.

Next time...

What am I doing?

..the bakers tackle European cakes.

Never done a Scandinavian recipe in my life.

With a Signature that could make them opt out of Europe.

I hate this bit.

Moment of truth.

A technical that really works up a sweat.

Am I showing a bit?

And a monumental Showstopper...

Nothing like cutting it fine, is there?

..that puts the hungry in Hungary.

I think I might just start again, again.