Masterclass 1 The Great British Bake Off

12 of Britain's best amateur bakers spent ten weeks

baking like they've never baked before.

They had triumphant peaks...

That's absolutely scrumptious.

..and the odd sticky moment...

The mix is too wet, I don't know how she's going to recover that.

..as they whisked, piped and spun their way through the challenges.

They'll either be great, or a complete disaster,

there's no in-between.

Each week, they rose to the occasion,

proving that in the Great British Bake Off tent,

we should always expect the unexpected.

Do you know, it's been a real joy to judge this year -

they've been so keen, so creative

and their results have been mind-blowing.

I think the bakers really pushed

the boundaries of technique this year.

The style and the finesse and the precision.

I think the class of 2014 are exceptional.

Now they've hung up their aprons and the flour has settled.

So it's time, once again,

for our very own Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood

to take over the Bake Off tent...

..show off their skills...

One-handed, as usual.

..and share their favourite recipes from the series,

helping you get the perfect result every time.

Well, the bakers have left, we've got the tent to ourselves

and now, it's our turn to actually get baking.

After weeks and weeks of judging,

finally, Mary and I show you how it should be done.

Coming up...

Paul Hollywood puts his contemporary twist on a classic -

a stripy two-toned liquorice and blackcurrant Swiss roll.

Mary Berry gets fruity with a very British cherry cake...

..and her recipe for fruit and nut Florentines.

Paul bakes two types of savoury biscuits,

perfect for any cheese board.

And, finally, Mary makes a sensational Showstopper

with her mini coffee and walnut cakes.

Paul, our very first masterclass, and it's so odd,

it's so peaceful, you could hear a pin drop.

No-one here, just you and me.

No Mel or Sue mucking around, messing things up.

-And none of our bakers.

-I know, isn't it quiet?

We're going to do the first signature,

that was a Swiss roll.

The Signature Challenge was the bakers' chance

to show off their individuality, ability and panache.

Bakers, today, you've got your first-ever Signature Challenge.

And Paul and Mary would love you to make your very best Swiss roll.

The crucial feature is the very tight roll which creates the swirl,

that signature swirl - there's a mime for you, OK?

You've got two-and-a-half hours, very good luck everybody.

-On your marks...

-Get set...

-BAKE!

Whilst some of the bakers made more traditional Swiss rolls...

Swiss roll was the Sunday treat at home -

no matter what, we had to be at home for mother's Swiss roll.

..others were a bit more adventurous.

I am baking my design into the Swiss roll.

It's a Japanese thing traditionally called...

..Kawaii?

But Paul's take on the first Signature Challenge

is a striped liquorice and blackcurrant Swiss roll,

filled with blackcurrant jam

and liquorice buttercream.

This basically comes from flavours of my youth,

things that I loved when I was a kid.

I think this is going to be sensational, we'll see.

Well, hopefully it'll start us off on the right path.

Now, to start it off, I need to make the stripes and then on top of that,

they're going to have the white of the traditional sponge.

So can you weigh up for me 70g of unsalted butter?

I want 70g of icing sugar in there, as well, please.

You notice that I'm much more careful than when you do it,

you get it all over me.

-There you are, off you go.

-Lovely.

Now, I need two egg whites doing.

What are you going to do with the yolks?

I dunno, I might make an omelette later, do you fancy something?

You can tell these are really fresh eggs,

the way the white is clinging to the egg yolk.

I've had a few of your Swiss rolls in the last few years,

I hope you like this one.

Well, it certainly seems different.

Cream the butter and icing sugar together.

I'm going to add the egg white and then whisk this through.

Weigh up 80g of plain flour, ready to fold into the mix.

What was all that about the peace in the tent and nobody here?

-You've made enough row about that.

-My arm's killing me already.

Right, so, in there, you've got the butter, icing sugar and egg whites.

Now I'm going to put the plain flour straight in here, into the mix.

Thank you.

Mix the ingredients all together.

We see how white it is without the egg yolk?

It's quite a pale mixture.

Now I'm going to put a teaspoon of the liquorice essence in here.

It looks like medicine!

It does! You wouldn't want to eat that, Mary. That is really strong.

And here, I've got a teaspoon of black food colouring.

Now, liquorice essence is dark,

but I really want to make the point that this is liquorice,

so using black food colouring will give your senses another kick.

So you then mix this all together

and it'll go a grey colour, a bit like concrete.

Gosh, the smell of that is very, very strong.

-It'll pipe that now.

-Do you know what that looks like?

I was brought up in Bath, and it looks like fuller's earth

and you use it for poultices and it's exactly that colour.

Sorry about that, but I can remember it,

that you used to have it put on sprains and things.

-That's fuller's earth.

-Looks like a poultice - charming!

Right, we're going to pop this straight into the piping bag.

Now I've already got a small nozzle on there.

-That's about a half-inch, isn't it?

-Yeah, about a half-inch long.

If you haven't got a nozzle, if you've got these piping bags,

you can just snip it and it'll still do the job.

With all this food colouring,

you want to avoid it with your hands,

because it'll probably stain your hands for three weeks.

So this is a Swiss roll tin which you've lined with non-stick paper?

So you've got butter on the bottom and on the sides

and I've just folded over the edge and I'll show you why now.

When you pipe, go inside

and then draw it out.

So nice and steady with the piping,

I'm doing diagonal lines across the sponge.

Are you meaning to get it all over the table?

Are you're whingeing about the state of the bench now?

These lines will eventually be the liquorice stripes

on the outside of the roll.

The consistency is thick,

so when the main sponge mix is poured over them,

they should keep their shape.

This type of decorative sponge

wasn't unusual in the Bake Off tent this year,

but the techniques they used were.

I'm just going to pop this in the freezer.

What I've found at home is too much pink takes many hours to freeze,

and the only time I've got it to look beautiful at home

was either when I used a tiny amount of pink

or when I freeze it for about four hours.

As I've got two-and-a-half hours, that's not enough time. Freeze.

There we go. Three minutes in the oven.

Right, Mary, we're going to make the sponge now.

Can you give me three large eggs in a large bowl, please?

You weigh up the 75g of caster sugar.

-Catch!

-Thank you.

75g coming up.

My guess is you're doing a whisked sponge.

I'm doing a whisked sponge, yes.

So I'm going to get the eggs, crack it straight in here,

get my whizzer going.

While I'm doing my whizzer, can you weigh 75g of self-raising flour,

as well, please, in one of those little bowls?

I'm going to whisk this up until the ribbon stage

and then sift in the flour.

Ribbon stage is reached when the mixture is light and frothy

and you're able to make a ribbon-like pattern

on the surface.

Now the next thing to go in is the self-raising flour

which I'm going to sift in.

Unusual for me to sift -

anything that's got air has got to keep the air in it,

like a Genoese, or a whisked sponge,

there is only one way of doing it.

So round the outside and cut through the middle.

It always used to be with a metal spoon,

but now we've got flexible spatulas.

Did you have plastic when you were a kid, Mary?

-No.

-What was it? Flint?

Things have changed, as you keep telling me.

Once the mixture is thoroughly folded,

pour it over the liquorice stripes,

making sure it fills all the gaps and is perfectly level.

The sponge needs to be completely flat when baked.

-What about this little corner?

-It's going over there now.

There it goes - like a river, like a wave of sponge

piling over to the corner.

Now this will go into the oven at 180 fan

for about ten minutes.

The delicate sponge of a Swiss roll requires baking with precision.

Go.

I'd never use a timer at home.

I'm so tempted just to watch it for the whole time whilst it's baking!

It must be only just baked.

Any further and it won't be moist enough to roll without cracking.

It's such a small range where you can go over so easily,

and I have burnt some.

Because I've done it for ten minutes

and I've found that it's overdone but less than that, it's raw.

-There it is Mary.

-That's a beautiful, perfect colour.

I'm just going to leave that for five, ten minutes

to cool slightly.

Now in the meantime I want to make up the buttercream.

To make the liquorice buttercream,

weigh 75g of butter,

then add in 225g of icing sugar.

And we've got a little bit of milk there, as well.

Why do you put milk in it?

I'm just going to wet it down so it doesn't go all over me when I start to mix this.

Finish off with a half-teaspoon of liquorice essence

and beat together.

Are you looking forward to trying this? Do you like liquorice?

-I've never asked you that.

-I love liquorice.

When I get a packet of Allsorts, the plain liquorice

is the one that I always go to.

I always go for the coconut.

Oh, no, I certainly don't.

Now, there we have it.

That's the perfect consistency to go inside the Swiss roll.

We've got some blackcurrant jam.

-I think blackcurrant and liquorice together...

-Lovely!

..is a fantastic mix.

Now I've got a tray here, and over here I've got a piece of paper.

Would you mind

scattering lots of caster sugar over there for me?

Normally, you would tip it straight onto the caster sugar

That's what I was just thinking.

But because all the decoration is on the underside,

we have to flip it first and then flip it out.

We're going to flip all this over.

There we have it.

That is a great reveal, isn't it?

What I'm going to do is flip this straight over onto that sugar.

I'll hold it.

So I'm just going to pop this buttercream onto there.

It's very important that this is cool,

because otherwise, the buttercream will melt

straight into the back of the sponge.

I'm happy with that.

And now I'm going to add the blackcurrant jam.

I think it looks lovely.

And again, take the blackcurrant jam to the outside.

Wait till you try this with the liquorice,

Never had anything like it before, it's so unusual.

I'm happy with that.

Looks pretty even to me.

It's crucial not to overfill your Swiss roll.

Looking all right so far!

Because, as some of our bakers found,

when it comes to the all-important rolling,

it's tricky to achieve the characteristic swirl

without it cracking.

It's cracking a bit.

Are there going to be any cracks?

No, I'm happy with that.

Oh, no, it's split!

And with a decorative sponge like Paul's,

you need to be especially careful.

That's the same sort of rule

that you have with all Swiss rolls -

just make an indentation not quite

to the bottom of the Swiss roll and actually crack it over.

It's jolly important that first bit of roll

to get it like a Catherine wheel, isn't it?

Exactly, and then I can begin

to roll up the remaining sponge.

-Look at that, Mary!

-That looks pretty good

and you've managed not to get any blackcurrant on...

Any blackcurrant, exactly, I was trying to be careful with that!

There it is, Mary. Blackcurrant and liquorice Swiss roll.

It does look stunning and so different.

Excuse fingers, Mary.

Oh!

The liquorice comes through, it is...

Who would think of having liquorice in a cake?

And, gosh, it goes well.

With the blackcurrant, too...lovely.

Liquorice is one of those flavours that you love or hate, isn't it?

But I think it proves a point,

you can bring any flavour into anything you want,

but just enjoy baking it.

Well, I'm going in for some more.

The cake theme continued into the technical challenge.

But the bakers were unaware of what Paul and Mary

had in store for them.

Your very first Technical Challenge

is Mary's classic cherry cake.

You need the cherries suspended throughout, drizzled with some icing

and some lovely toasted almonds on top.

You have got two hours to pop Mary's cherry...in the oven

-and bring it out again. On your marks.

-Get set.

-Bake!

Oh, God!

Technical Challenge, this is how it feels!

Mary's cherry cake is a classic

and deceptively tricky.

The recipe is...sparse.

It's not that difficult, I didn't think.

But get it right and you'll be rewarded with a beautiful,

golden ring of sponge,

a smothering of lemon icing

and a scattering of toasted almonds and cherries.

You had the honour of kicking off the Technical Challenges this year

and you chose a cherry cake - why did you choose that?

Because a cherry cake is quite tricky to make.

How many times have you seen cherries at the bottom of the cake?

-Never.

-Well, you're Mr Perfect.

You said that, Mary, not me.

I'm going to make this cherry cake all-in-one method, all very easy.

So if you can weigh 200g of cherries.

Glace cherries - I like the red ones, I can't bear

the yellow and the green ones.

It's best to quarter them to keep them suspended in the mixture.

Quarter each one?! I'll be here for hours!

Well, get on and do it, come on.

And then I'm going to rinse them, because as you can see,

the board is very sticky, you're sticky

and if you don't wash off the syrup,

-they will sink.

-OK.

Are you going to stand there and watch me cut

-all of these into quarters?

-I am.

-Have you got nothing better to do, Mary?

-I was going to read my book.

It was the proper preparation of the cherries

that was key for this challenge.

We don't know what "prepare" means. Does she mean wash?

Does she mean cut? I'm going for cut.

I'm just going to cut the cherries in half rather than quarters,

you want to have a big chunk of cherry, don't you?

I remember reading that you have to dry cherries

before you add them to a mix, because otherwise, they sink.

I'll see what everyone else is doing.

You need to wash them and then you need to coat them in flour,

because if you don't, they'll sink to the bottom of the cake.

There we are, all the surplus syrup is gone...

Couldn't you have just washed them whole?

If you wash them as the whole,

there's that pool of syrup in the middle

and if you chop them up afterwards, again, you've got that surplus syrup.

And the next thing is I'm going to toss them in a little flour,

so if you'd be kind enough to measure

225g of self-raising flour.

That's absolutely dry now, I'll take a little bit of that flour away

and put that like that and just toss them in that.

And, again, that stops them from sinking in the mixture.

And that's ready.

Now I'm going to use the all-in-one method,

so if you can put the other ingredients into there.

To the flour, add 175g of softened butter.

You could use a baking spread

but I like the flavour of the butter for this recipe.

Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh!

I think you've done that before.

-Yeah, bang on.

-Let me check. Absolutely right.

Then add 175g of caster sugar

and 50g of ground almonds.

Now the reason for adding ground almonds, it makes it very moist

and, again, helps to suspend the actual cherries.

Anything else?

Yes, the zest of a lemon, there's some lemons over there.

And, lastly, three eggs in there and three large eggs.

-Whole eggs?

-Whole eggs.

So it's the all... Oh, look at him, doing it with one hand.

None down the side.

It doesn't matter, does it? Really?

-But a bit did come down the side, didn't it?

-No! A little bit.

When I'm doing it with children, I put a plate underneath.

-Are you saying you're working with children?

-No.

I said IF I'm making it with children, you put a plate underneath

and then if they are a bit nervous, cracking,

and it all drips down the side, it goes in onto a plate,

then you can put it back into the mixture, but OK.

Have you noticed the only thing I haven't put in is the cherries?

If I put the cherries in at this stage,

what would happen is they would all get mashed up.

So everything in there, except for the cherries.

And expect this to be a rather stiffer mixture

than a Victoria sandwich, because we have used more dry ingredients.

That's perfect.

Just make sure that that is a lovely, even mixture.

Now I add the cherries.

-OK.

-All in, beautifully quartered, I might say.

Fold that in.

You have some nice, decent pieces of cherry.

Spoon the mixture into a greased 20cm ring mould.

Level that over, because it's quite a stiff mixture

and it won't take its own level.

So there we are, ready to go into the oven.

-That will go in at 160 fan.

-OK.

Using a ring mould means the cake bakes quicker.

as the heat gets into the centre.

So the bakers needed to use their experience and judgment

to decide if it was ready.

I think it's ready to come out.

Right, I think I'm going to take mine out.

I think it's all right - miracle!

And it was only when the cakes were turned out

that they had any idea if their cherries had sunk or not.

That's OK.

Hang on...

I can't see my cherries like yours.

That's probably a good thing, mine are all at the bottom!

RICHARD CHUCKLES

So that took about 35 minutes, it's well-risen,

a nice, pale, golden brown

and it's been out about ten minutes

so it's shrinking away from the sides.

So turn that upside-down like that.

Beautiful.

The cherries are evenly distributed all the way around.

Now that needs to get cold before we put the icing on.

For the icing, you'll need 175g of icing sugar

and the juice of a lemon.

So mixing the juice with the icing sugar,

it's best to be cautious, so hold some back.

It looks pretty good.

So it wants to be a thick consistency that will drizzle down the side.

-I think maybe just a shade...

-I think that's all right.

OK, well, I've got to toast some almonds to go on the top.

Wait a minute, I'll get that off.

Don't worry, I am being careful.

-You wouldn't know it was there.

-Lovely.

I said the consistency was perfect -

if that was wetter, it'd have stuck on the shirt.

But our bakers had their own ideas when it came to icing.

Well, I've just made that up on the spot, I'm thinking spider's web.

The glaze, I don't think, should be really thick.

I could be wrong, but you've got to go with your instincts.

It's often the simple things in the Bake Off tent

that go wrong when you take your eye off the ball.

I didn't leave enough cherries to decorate

because I didn't look at the recipe!

I saw icing and lemons and almonds.

Just toasting the almonds at the moment to get them done

and let them cool down, make sure the pan doesn't get too hot.

If you over-toast them, they can become bitter,

so you've to watch that.

-I can smell something burning.

-Yeah...

No, no, something's burning.

OK...

Oh! It's mine!

OK, do that again, then. Thank you.

I know you can buy them toasted but I quite like toasting them myself,

just moving them round all the time

until they're a golden colour.

Can you do the cherries? Five cherries.

I daren't say cut them into eighths, but about that size if you can.

Eighths? You know you can buy these cut and washed?

-I'd rather you did them freshly for me.

-I bet you do!

-Five, six, five...

-It's up to you, but do as I say.

And those want to be cool, ready to do the decoration.

Here we are.

So I'm going to put that on all the way around.

-Let me get some of this out for you.

-Thank you.

Now when I get it to that stage, I'm going to just encourage it

to go down a bit, a bit like icicles

coming off a roof.

That's it.

Then the almonds,

just sprinkle them around, informally over the top.

That's beginning to look good,

and then we've got these little jewels here -

how beautifully are they cut up?

Whoever did that certainly knew what they were doing.

I think we can do with a little bit over here.

-Am I being too fussy?

-Yeah, you are, yeah.

It's like an artist, doesn't know when to stop.

But I love doing this - I like the absolute finish

and that looks great fun.

That's it, a special cake

for perhaps a celebration occasion.

My 30th.

Or my...

Don't say.

It's so easy to cut

because, this shape, you get a perfect piece every time.

A nice amount of cherries in there.

Evenly distributed.

A bit keen!

I love lemon, lemon icing.

I think it's fantastic.

And that, with the cherries, this just goes really well with it,

so you need a mug of tea.

PAUL SLURPS

Ah! That's how you eat cake!

Sip of tea, bite of cake, sip of tea, bite of cake.

And it all just washes down.

It's pretty good.

I totally agree, it's delicious.

And now Mary's quick tip for lining a tin.

When I'm making cakes for a crowd, I like to use a traybake tin,

or a roasting tin, and I line it with foil.

It's easy to lift the cake in and out.

But often, you poke your finger through the foil

as you're actually lining it.

So let me show you a way that you can do it quickly

without doing that.

To get the measurement right, put the tin on top,

you need plenty up one side and the other.

You need to tear that off.

If you've got scissors to hand, you can do it with scissors,

but our scissors seem to vanish in the kitchen

and they're never in the drawer when I want them.

The secret of all this is to get the tray

and turn it upside-down,

put the foil on top

and then just mould it down like that.

And there's no chance of your finger or thumb going through

the corner, so lift that off,

turn it back over the other way

and then just drop that in.

So you then just grease the inside.

You have some spare at the sides

so you can lift it out once it comes out of the oven.

You can do exactly the same with a loaf tin like that.

So there's my tip for lining tins efficiently with foil

without poking your finger through the corners.

Week two was all about biscuits.

First off, the bakers had to express their savoury side

in the Signature Challenge.

Welcome to biscuit week - we love biscuit week.

Paul and Mary would love you to make...

-STARTS SINGING:

-# Savoury biscuits

# I'm going to sing it Savoury biscuits... #

Sorry. 36 savoury biscuits, please, ladies and gents.

-So, you've got two hours - on your marks...

-Get set...

OPERATICALLY: # Bake! #

Mary and Paul were looking for savoury biscuits

that would go well with a cheese course.

They needed to be uniform in size, thin,

and crispy or crumbly in texture.

So what flavours have you got?

-Parmesan and chive.

-Ah...

These crackers are my father-in-law's favourite crackers.

He's a real cheese eater.

I'm making fenugreek and carom seed crackers, like water biscuits.

Is this something that's been passed down?

Yes, my mum's recipe.

For Paul's take on this Signature Challenge,

he's going to make two sorts of savoury biscuits.

One he'll flavour with poppy seeds,

and the other with a Parmesan and sun-dried tomato mix.

For a Signature Challenge, savoury biscuits,

what could be better?

After all that sugar, it's nice to have a bit of a savoury kick.

Now, this particular recipe, I've been doing in hotels

for at least 15 years and it was very, very popular.

-Are they nice and crisp?

-Let's hope so.

-Oh, right.

Now to start with, Mary, can you weigh me 375g of plain flour?

-Thank you.

-I will do my best.

Now we're using plain flour...

You can actually use strong flour, as well.

-What would you like now?

-125g of unsalted butter, please.

I like to use unsalted butter because then you can alter the salt.

-OK?

-Yes, please.

Thank you very much, indeed.

I'm just breaking down this mix a little bit.

Basically, I'm making a little crumb.

I just need a little teaspoon of salt in there as well, please.

Thank you very much.

Can you get me two medium eggs, please?

You got a bit down the side of the bowl there, Mary.

There was not a scrap because I did them carefully.

There you are.

Do you want me to keep the shells to put round your hostas?

PAUL LAUGHS

Right...

I'm just going to add the egg, which will start the whole mix off,

and then I'm going to add a little bit of water,

about 40ml of water.

The pastry begins to come together.

It's quite a stiff mixture, this,

and you can see that already.

So you end up with a mixture that's partially mixed.

Divide that into two, that's about right.

-It feels like a shortbread.

-Yeah, it does feel a little bit like a shortbread.

There's not such a high proportion of fat in it.

And there's no sugar in it.

So I'm going to add two tablespoons of poppy seeds.

I love poppy seeds - it gives a sort of crunch to it.

It gives it a lot of crunch, but also that lovely flavour.

You can't put enough poppy seed in a mix, as far as I'm concerned.

Ooh...look at them, Mary!

OK.

That's one of my mixtures, right?

It's mixed beautifully, I'm just going to leave that to one side.

To the second half of the dough,

add a tablespoon of sundried tomato puree

and 40g of grated Parmesan cheese.

Thank you very much indeed.

Now, you've added...

Essentially, you've added a wet ingredient to a good mix,

so, to counter that, adding the Parmesan finds that balance.

You may need to add a little bit of flour, but we'll see how it goes.

Pop the cheese straight in there

and bring this together.

MACHINE WHIZZES

Like revving a car, pulse it.

When you're revving your car, it's a lot louder than that.

Coming together nicely.

Well, you can tell when it's mixed,

because it'll be all one pinky colour, won't it?

Exactly.

So there we have it.

We've got a tomato one with Parmesan cheese

and we've got a poppy seed one.

So park that over there for a minute.

Bit of flour on the bench, get your rolling pin,

slap it in the middle, roll up and roll down.

OK? Turn it over, roll up, roll down.

Did you come from that school of training where it said

"You should never turn your pastry"?

I did. We had rolling pins just like you've got.

There's no point, in my opinion,

of having a rolling pin that's got any fancy ends to it,

or glass ones that you fill with iced water.

The good old-fashioned rolling pin that you've got,

really long, will get to any size.

Yeah, absolutely.

Job's a good 'un. OK?

So I'm just going to slice this down the middle.

This is just basic baking parchment.

Little bit of flour on it.

Because this is still just been made,

I want to chill that down before I cut them.

It helps with the bake

and then it also helps keep its rigidity when it bakes.

So you've got a nicer shape.

And you use a cutter to cut it.

You do a sharp cut.

-If it's warm, you can't cut it neatly.

-Exactly.

Cut it in half, goes on the tray.

Now, when we used to do these in the hotel,

we'd pop them into the fridge like that and then leave them.

They'd be in there for about two or three days.

And as we need them, we'd bring out a sheet,

cut what we need, and it's a great way of making sure

you have fresh, warm biscuits.

OK, that's going to go in the fridge.

-Have they firmed up?

-Yep.

So these have been in the fridge for a minimum of half an hour,

just firms up the butter, and they're ready to cut.

-OK.

-You can cut them any way you want.

Valentine's Day, cut them into a heart, if you want.

When I was working in the bakeries,

we'd always cut it with that one.

Then I went to work at the five-star hotels,

they said, "No, cut it with that one."

See, that's posh, they reckon, and that's working class.

-Obviously, you're used to that, but I'm used to that.

-Of course.

-Well, you can do just what you like. Come on.

-OK

I'm going to cut out a couple of these little discs.

If you can just get a little bit of flour,

I want you to just... "Pfff!"

..and put a little dusting of flour on there as well.

-How many are you putting on a tray?

-Could possibly get nine.

-Oh, yes.

-Are you expecting them to spread?

They spread a little bit, they puff up slightly.

Can you pass me the poppy seed one, please?

Little bit of flour on there for me, please, Mary.

-OK.

-I need nine of these fellas.

Why are you putting flour on here

rather than non-stick paper?

Because I prefer it going...

It's almost stone-baked appearance,

you know what I mean?

-I think it gets more of a proper bake underneath.

-OK.

Some people always put flour underneath scones.

And bread as well.

How many have we got there?

Six, seven...

Seven!

Eight and...nine.

Now, I'm going to make a little egg wash.

Whisk this up.

I'm going to put a little bit of a glaze on it,

on each one, right?

Now, this is the poppy seed one,

but on the next one, the tomato one,

I'm actually going to add a few sesame seeds to it.

Now, these are going to be baked off at 180 fan for about 10, 15 minutes,

all right? And you'll see them puff up slightly.

They'll be biscuit-like.

You'll see the colour.

It was the uniformity and precision of the bake

that was all-important in the savoury biscuit challenge.

Now, we watch these like a hawk,

because, 30 seconds,

they'll go from being not done enough to far too done.

Not an easy task in the pressurised environment of the Bake Off tent.

They've cooked rather quickly underneath.

I don't know why that is.

They're not baking evenly, so I'm having to take out odd ones.

I'm not happy with them, going back in for another minute.

I'm cutting out the crackers now

after they've actually baked on both sides.

Perfectly round.

Maybe another minute. I will turn them round.

I'm up to the wire.

Oh, me too.

There they are, then, Mary.

Look at those cheese biscuits.

They've been cooling on the tray

for about 10-15 minutes,

they're just about touchable.

If you're going to use these this evening,

just leave them out - they'll stay crisp, not a problem.

There you have it, Mary.

Beautiful tomato and Parmesan biscuits,

topped with sesame seed,

and poppy seed biscuits

beautifully baked with a little glaze of egg wash.

Mmm! That was crisp, as it should be.

They can be eaten on their own

but I think with cheese, they're amazing.

Any cheese goes really well.

If you melt a Camembert or a brie,

use them as dips, it really works.

Oh, I think these with the tomato and the sesame seed,

they look so appealing - the moment you open them,

there are little flakes all the way up.

And look at that bake underneath -

it's just the right colour.

-You certainly don't need butter, do you?

-No.

-Absolutely lovely.

The second Technical Challenge was crunch time for the bakers -

an Italian biscuit that not everyone had even heard of,

let alone baked.

So, today, we would like you to make 18 Florentines.

OK. Mixed reaction.

We've got a lot of love for you, we hope you do very, very well.

You've got one hour and a quarter.

On your marks...

Get set and BAKE!

One hour and a quarter? Jeez.

I've eaten plenty of Florentines, but I've never made one, so...yeah.

We'll see what happens.

Flying blind and hoping for the best.

Mary's lacy Florentines are a delicate mix of fruit and nuts,

brushed with a thin layer of glossy chocolate.

I like Florentines because they are very special to eat.

It's a bit like making brandy snaps. It's sort of a brandy snap mixture,

which has lots of chopped fruit in, and nuts and things.

I'm going to make 18, just like our bakers did.

To start with, make a caramel sauce,

with 50g of butter and 50g of demerara sugar.

Why demerara, Mary?

Because it gives it that little bit of crunch.

And 50g of golden syrup.

Right, we've got the first three ingredients in there,

so I'm now going to heat it until the butter has melted.

It doesn't take any time to do this.

You just look at that.

There's just a tiny little bit to melt,

and, in fact, if I move that from the heat now,

it'll do it in the hot pan.

Let's turn that off again. There we are.

And then we add the other ingredients.

So we have 50g of flour to go in there.

-50g of plain flour or self-raising or...?

-Plain flour.

Little bit more, and what else?

And 50g of mixed peel.

Now this is what we used to use all the time

for hot cross buns, fruit cake...

I love mixed peel, I think it's fantastic.

And then it's 25g of all the other ingredients.

So, to your sweet mix, add 25g of finely chopped almonds,

25g of chopped walnut pieces,

and 25g of finely chopped dried cranberries.

Now we've got all those together, so all I've got to do is to mix that.

Everything is coated until it's all one colour.

I would sort of say it's sort of a toffee colour.

Yep, golden.

Mary's recipe should make 18 full-sized Florentines -

something that our bakers seem to struggle with.

I'm trying to work out the numbers of how many grams

they should be each.

I'd have thought you'd cut them out.

Cut them out after you've baked them.

There isn't much mixture, which is a bit scary.

I think I need to weigh it and divide it,

because it's hard to judge 18,

so...start again.

You can't get them all on the same tray

because they do spread,

so I've got three trays here.

My maths isn't that good, but if you divide it into three,

into thirds, and each third will do six.

So if you just take a teaspoon like that and put six...

You see, I'm leaving plenty of room for spreading.

Yep. Can you remember the first time you made these?

I don't think I can.

I remember the first time I made brandy snaps,

which are very similar without the chocolate on top

and without the fruit.

Now, I have taken one third away from there,

and just have a look at them before flattening them.

That one's a bit smaller, so just do that.

They all look about the size, room to spread,

then you press them down.

And you can either press them down with a spoon

or you can even press them with your hand.

That's it. So, there they are, the six.

I can do six on that tray,

six on that tray,

and they need to go into the oven,

and you want to preset the oven at 160 degrees fan.

They'll take between eight and ten minutes.

And at that stage, you've really got to keep an eye on them.

Into the hands of fate we go.

What do you reckon, Richard?

-Seven minutes?

-I'm...

-Check them.

-I'll just keep looking at them.

I don't know how long to bake it for.

Just wait and watch, really.

Seven minutes? Seven minutes, why not?

I think they're golden brown...

-They're already golden brown!

-How...? I was going to say...

It's difficult cos the colour is already...

Look, that one's moving!

Richard, I'm about a minute behind you,

so I'm going to see what you do...

Cool. If I cry, leave them in. Or take them out.

THEY LAUGH

I'm doing it, I'm doing it, I'm doing it.

I think they might be over. I hope not.

Now, those will be a bit soft at the moment.

I think this first tray will have cooled off a bit by now.

That's it.

Nice colour, nice caramel.

It's so easy to get these too brown.

Also, if you get them too brown,

the fruit dries out and the nuts become bitter.

There they are. We want to get them cool - actually, cold,

because when you put the chocolate on,

and you put the chocolate on the underside,

they've got to be really cold.

That's it.

OK, Mary, so what next?

We're going to melt the chocolate

and we're going to temper the chocolate.

For Mary's Florentines,

you'll need to cut up 200g of plain chocolate

and gently melt half of it

to a temperature of around 50 degrees Celsius.

-Remember that chocolate melts in a child's pocket...

-Brilliant.

..so you don't need intense heat underneath.

If you put intense heat under chocolate,

it will cloud over once you cool it again.

That's it.

Take it off the heat and add the remaining chocolate

to bring down the temperature to around 30 degrees Celsius.

Lovely smell, isn't it?

Now, can you see they are quite lacy?

And first of all, I did it with a pallet knife,

and I found that the chocolate went through the lacy bits

and I found it easier to put it in my hand

and take a pastry brush or a clean paintbrush

and just brush it over the top.

It's painting.

I like painting.

I went to art school, you know, Mary.

Well, I'll let you do some. Lovely, messy job, this.

The correct way is to brush the chocolate

onto the flat side of each Florentine -

a step that baffled some of our bakers.

The way I'm putting the chocolate seems fine, I think.

But I'm not 100% sure, let's say that. Yeah.

"Spread one side of each with chocolate

"and then decorate in classic zigzag" -

I'm racking my brains, trying to think,

"What the hell does that look like?"

Because it's got holes in the biscuit,

it's running through onto my hands.

This is my interpretation of a zigzag.

I think the pattern should be done with a fork,

and it makes a wiggly on the back of it.

I think that's what I've seen before,

so that's what I'm going to go with.

I don't know whether it's piped on top

or whether it's with the fork - I don't know.

Can't be the fork.

I'm just going to go with my instinct.

I've got a bit of a surprise for you in a minute.

Have you? What have you got me doing?

This is a tile spreader.

If you use the small teeth - have a go -

and you just go across the top with a nice zigzag pattern.

Nice bit of drag in that, Mary.

How are you getting on with your gadget?

Yeah, not bad. It's making a mark, see?

Oh, yes.

That's it.

Lovely. Can I have one of these now, Mary?

No, you just wait until they're set.

-How long's that going to be?

-About five minutes.

My Florentines. Finally, you can taste them.

The little lines on the bottom really stand out

now that they've cooled.

I just think they look lovely. Great with a coffee.

-So can I nab one?

-Yeah, on the condition you don't dunk it,

because all the chocolate will melt in there.

I don't know. Right, here we go.

Crisp, as well.

Don't like them.

-I love them.

-Good.

I think the flavour of the mixed peel really works with it,

I think that little bit of zing that it brings is beautiful,

and that little bit of crunch that you get, and that dark chocolate...

As a package, that's a really nice Florentine.

And if you make them sometimes very, very tiny,

they're lovely to have with a cup of coffee at the end of a meal.

And now Paul's top tip for shaping a great tear-and-share loaf.

Here I have a dough that's been mixed

and been left to prove for an hour.

It's lovely and light.

I want to show you how to make the shape of a fougasse.

Little bit of flour underneath,

and on the top.

Roll this out into an oval,

from the middle up

and the middle down.

Turn it over, same again.

There you have it, an oval shape.

Now you need to cut it, using a pizza cutter.

Cut two slashes down the middle,

leave a gap, and again.

Open them up.

Now we have to do three diagonal cuts each side,

one, two, three.

Same on the other side.

Open them up, there you have it,

a beautiful fougasse.

Transfer that to a tray, leave that to prove for an hour,

and bake it off.

The first Showstopper Challenge of the series was all about

classic British cakes, but there was a catch.

Ha-ha! They would like you to bake them in perfect miniature.

We want 36 miniature cakes,

but they have to be identical and beautifully decorated.

You've got three-and-a-half hours.

-On your marks...

-Get set... BOTH:

-Bake!

They could choose any one they liked,

from Victoria sandwiches to lemon drizzle cakes.

Some went down a less conventional route...

I'm making a Genoese sponge,

which is raspberry and lemon.

The top has a pipette, which is full of a lemon syrup

that I've made, so you soak the top bit yourself.

So... HE LAUGHS

You've got 36 of these pipettes?!

Yeah, it's a fun cake.

Slightly medical.

LUIS LAUGHS

..whilst others tried to reach new heights.

I'm making Victoria sponge.

Just going to have four tiers.

36 four-tiered cakes?!

-How would you eat it?

-Easily.

Just put it in your mouth.

However, Mary has chosen classic coffee and walnut cakes,

perfect miniatures of delicious moist sponge

smothered with a coffee buttercream

and rolled in chopped walnuts.

So, Mary,

this is the Showstopper Challenge that we set them -

we wanted miniature cakes.

It's pretty tricky to get miniature ones absolutely even,

so it was a good challenge.

Our bakers had to make 36, but I'm just going to do 16.

Right, I'm going to do the all-in-one mixture.

-Can you do a bit of weighing for me?

-Yes.

-I've put the bowl at the end.

Start off by measuring out 150g of muscovado sugar.

Now, if you find - in the cupboard - that gets a bit hard, which it does,

you can just put it in the microwave for a short flash

and every piece will separate.

Add 150g of butter...

Oh, look at that!

..crack in three whole eggs...

..150g of self-raising flour...

and one level teaspoon of baking powder.

Anything else?

Yes, just one tablespoon of coffee essence.

Now, if you don't have coffee essence,

you could use a teaspoonful of instant coffee in warm water.

Or espresso or something like that?

Yes, you can choose what coffee you like.

Beat until your mixture becomes a light coffee colour

and then add 75g of walnut pieces.

The reason for not putting them in at the beginning is

they would get smashed and would become too fine.

These are miniature cakes,

so I've got little miniature rings for this,

and I've lined each one.

If you don't line them, they will stick.

-Can you take that and put it into a piping bag?

-Yep.

In a bakery, you use piping bags far more than we ever do at home.

Absolutely. I think they're really useful.

Well, it means you can be accurate,

and, after all, we're making these little miniature cakes,

and we want each one to be the same.

So just fill them exactly halfway up.

And that gives them plenty of room to rise.

But the bakers had their own ideas for dividing up their cake mix.

I'm just trying to measure equal amounts into my trays

so my thicknesses hopefully come out the same.

I like to use an ice cream scoop to measure

because I find that it fills them right to the top

without them going over, and makes it really even each time.

And some even went for a "bake now, cut later" method.

So I've made all the sponges, I've got the cream ready,

so I'm just going to make 36 pieces of each size.

OK, I think...

-Happy with that.

-Have you got 16?

-Absolutely.

-That's it.

They need to go in the oven at 170 fan, about 12 minutes.

Again, it's one of those occasions that you really want to look

and see that they are just a pale golden colour on top -

a little bit darker than you would expect

because there's coffee in there - and well-risen.

Achieving the perfect bake is one thing, but if you make a mistake

with your basic mix, it can be a recipe for disaster.

Oh, Claire, look what you've done.

Absolutely no idea.

Poor Claire. She's having real trouble with her chocolate cakes.

The recipe's not right.

It could be that the mix is too wet.

When you get that almost volcano eruption,

it normally points it to that,

and I don't know how she'll recover that.

I've had to change my plan so I'm going to salvage some of this

and do melted chocolate and a bit of a decoration on top.

There they are, all baked.

First of all, I'm going to take off all the rings.

Some of them are a little bit higher than the others

but that doesn't matter because I need to trim them down.

So If I take each one and take it to the size of the rim,

and then cut them in half,

because it's really nice to have a filling in the middle.

Now, all these tops could easily go into trifle,

but more than likely, I would sit and eat them.

Tell me what it's like.

Nice sponge, that, Mary.

And it's so important to have them all an even shape.

And I was really worried when our bakers were doing this,

and not everybody got them to a perfect size.

That's it.

So we're ready for the next manoeuvre,

which is making buttercream to go with that.

150g of softened butter and then 450g of icing sugar.

And then some coffee essence,

or strong coffee, a tablespoon,

two tablespoonfuls of milk...

-Full fat? Skimmed? Doesn't matter?

-Doesn't matter at all,

wouldn't make a difference for something like this.

That's everything in the bowl. I'm just going to beat that together.

You know what's going to happen when you start that, don't you?

-I do.

-Can you just stand to the right of that mixer, please, Mary,

-when you switch it on?

-Why have you suddenly started to be nice to me?

You wanted me to be covered in all this, I'm sure.

You're right.

Once you've creamed the butter and icing sugar,

use about a third of the mix to sandwich the sponges together.

Doesn't matter a bit if it oozes out of the side.

Put it on like that and press it down.

Have you got another knife up there? You might help me.

-Coffee and walnut goes so well.

-Doesn't it? Yeah.

If you like, you can do an almond version instead of walnut.

Would it work with peanut?

I think it would be absolutely horrible with peanuts,

but if you like it, you could do it with peanuts

and add some peanut butter to it.

Then you've got to take each one and coat it,

because we're going to roll it in nuts.

So, you spread the icing all the way round the outside,

and it doesn't have to be perfect.

Mine here looks a little bit lumpy, but it doesn't matter -

all I've got to do is toss that in the nuts.

Then a piping swirl of the same icing with a decoration on the top.

I remember once I phoned you up

and said, "Mary, I'm just down the road, can I pop in?"

And you went, "Oh, yes, no problem," so I popped round...

Five minutes' notice, there was a lemon drizzle.

There was warm shortbread biscuits and a pot of tea.

How did you do that, Mary?

Well, I knew if I hadn't done it, you'd complain.

And anyway, I can usually hear you in your noisy cars

halfway down the road, so I know you're passing.

I need to sort that exhaust out.

I think we're very lucky to have you on the Bake Off.

I think really you should be on Top Gear

with all those racing enthusiasts.

But you are a master baker.

You've got a big tray at the end there,

and if you can just tip some nuts in,

no need to weigh them,

but sort of about 200g, something like...

Now these really have been chopped up, haven't they?

Yeah, and that's going to give a lovely crunchy outside.

So it's quite easy to do this because you just pick them up

and then you just drop them down and roll them like that.

So there they are.

Oh, so you just...? OK.

-And I knew you'd do two at once. Time is money.

-Time is money.

Well, it's kept you quiet for a long time, helping me do this.

Yes. I enjoy making cakes, Mary, with you.

Do you remember that old children's thing back in the '50s?

-Listen with Mother.

-Listen with Mother.

I'm like "Baking with Mother".

Listen with Mother, and it was on at five o'clock,

and the first thing they used to say was,

"Are you sitting comfortably?"

Do you remember that?

Yeah. No, I don't, I don't remember. I wasn't even born, Mary.

When were you born, then?

-1976.

-Gosh.

-You're just a lad, aren't you?

-Yeah.

So we have our soldiers all lined up.

We've got some icing left, into a piping bag,

and we just need to put a rosette on the top

and a coffee bean on top of that.

Please note that they're all exactly the same size,

what we're always saying to our bakers.

Consistency, consistency, consistency.

And as I cut down, you'll get two layers

with a nice bit of filling in there.

It's certainly held its moisture beautifully.

The taste, as well, is delicious.

You certainly get the flavour of the nuts, the coffee...

The buttercream's just set.

It's gorgeous.

And they look so inviting.

Nice one, Mary.

So, the next time we do a Masterclass, Mary,

things get a little bit tougher, because our challenges

that we set for the bakers did get a little bit tricky.

Mary and Paul will be putting themselves

in the bakers' shoes once again,

as they take on five more of the tasks.

As the challenges get more difficult, there's nothing to fear.

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

I've got some good old favourites hidden in my store cupboard,

bakes that I've been making for many, many years,

and it's my turn to pass them onto you.

They'll show you how to create bakes you never thought you could.

I love it, it's fun.

Paul reveals a great way to jazz up your pie pastry.

You could use anything, the choice is yours. Go mad.

And Mary shows us an easy way to rustle up some party biscuits.

They're so quick to make and children just love them.

Join us next time

for The Great British Bake Off Masterclass.