So, it's Dessert Week, so I thought I'd make
some of my favourite puddings just for you, Noel. So excited.
Oh, good. OK, what about this, a cheesecake?
Oh, that stinks! What's that made from?
Well, it's a cheesecake, so it's made of Stilton.
Right. You got anything else?
Yeah, I have. What about this, then?
Is this underwear?
Well, yeah it's a knickerbocker glory.
I don't think so. Oh, man.
I mean, I think you're taking these recipes
just a little bit too literally.
Well, can I tempt you with my spotted dick?
I do not want to see that. Oh, fair enough, then.
Welcome to The Great British Bake Off.
Is that Prue or Paul's?
Last time...
Holy mackerel.
..the bakers took on botanicals.
It's recognisable, like cat pee.
Late bloomer Josh finally got Star Baker.
Oh, my goodness me. Perfection.
Matty had a horticultural horror show.
It isn't a Showstopper.
As did Saku.
Your flavours are lacking.
But it was Dana who was guilty of gilding the lily...
Is it style above substance?
..and she became the seventh baker to leave the competition.
I'm so proud of myself.
I feel like I've smashed it, Week Six!
Now... I'm pooing myself. ..it's Dessert Week.
And I'm so excited I've brought my own spoon.
I've brought my own spoon!
The bakers face a wobbly Signature Bake...
It's jiggly, she's jiggly.
..a race against time in the Technical...
horrible feeling these are going to be raw.
We're going to be right on the buzzer, aren't we, I think?
..and it's bombes away in the Showstopper.
You don't make meringue bombes every day, do you?
No there's a reason for that. They're hard!
..whose dessert-making skills will desert them...
Oh, my gosh what have I done?
..when it comes to the crunch?
That is disgusting. These are inedible.
Oh, my gosh, it's mad.
Week Seven. It's been like a life journey.
The imposter syndrome has kicked in massively.
When my name's not called to go, I've been quite surprised.
I spend my time, like, seeing, "Have they looked at me yet?
"Are they trying to avoid looking at me cos they've got to say my name?"
Or have they looked at me like, "Get ready, you're going."
Star Baker last week, that was really special.
I'm still running through it now even a week later.
I like dessert, I like anything sweet, anything savoury, every food!
This week is hard. It's going to be dramatic for sure.
Enjoyable to watch, not enjoyable to do.
Hello, bakers. Welcome back to the tent.
It's Dessert Week,
and I'm so excited I've brought my own spoon.
I'm so excited as well.
I've brought my own spoon, check this out!
I can't wait. What are they baking?
Well, the judges would like you to bake
a batch of eight exquisite creme caramels. Mmm.
Your creme caramels should consist of
a beautifully-set baked custard with a caramel sauce.
Now, you've only got two hours and 45 minutes.
On your marks. Get set. Bake!
You know, a creme caramel is just cold and it's gelatinous.
It's gross.
I love creme caramels.
You want it to be lovely to eat and just sort of melt in the mouth.
Very retro, aren't they?
It sort of reminds me of, like, being young.
Everything was very...brown.
Creme caramel, you may remember when you were a kid.
It's, basically, you get a beautiful caramel on the top,
falling down the side of a silky smooth, set custard.
Baking a perfect custard is really tricky.
When it's perfectly baked, it will be just set.
It wobbles like a jelly.
If it overbakes, it gets little holes in it
and becomes stodgy and rock hard.
Obviously, they can introduce flavour into the caramel or the custard,
but the caramel has to be the star of the show.
You want a rich golden brown.
If it's too pale, you're not going to taste it.
If you go to the black stage, then it's going to taste burnt.
My mother used to make absolutely perfectly baked custard
which her mum had taught her.
Took me a long time to learn that.
Hi, Dan. Good morning.
Tell us all about your creme caramel.
So I am doing the aromatic flavours of a Thai green curry.
Good lord. What are you thinking?
What I'm thinking is... Why?
He's changing up the game, babes. He's changing it up.
No, no, look. I think it sounds really interesting.
Dan's Thai-inspired creme caramels will be flavoured
with coriander root, galangal, lemongrass and lime.
But how's the sweetness going to work with the, the tang, spice...
I've worked quite hard with getting the amount of aromatics in there
because if you put too much in, it becomes quite bitter.
It sets, does it?
It's not on the firm side. It's just on the nice...
On the wobble. On the wobbly side, yeah.
I like it. On the Alison side. Yes!
We've got eight tea bags for 800 grams of coconut milk
and 200 grams of milk,
and that's just literally going to be left to infuse for a while.
So, I've just put in some lemongrass
and I'm putting in some galangal now.
So, it's from the ginger family.
Whatever the flavours the bakers are using,
they'll need to strike a perfect balance...
Have I worried you? Yeah.
In a good way or a bad way? Bad.
..or risk overpowering the dish's classic caramel flavour.
It's rosemary that I've brought from home from my mum's garden.
Rosemary's an interesting one.
Cos you go slightly over, it becomes medicinal.
Or you think of a roast. Yeah.
It's trying to find that balance.
How did you know when you'd reached the right amount of rosemary?
Wing it.
She flies by the seat of her pants.
Right, I trust you, Tash.
Tasha's rosemary-infused custard will be sandwiched between
a honey caramel and fig compote.
Dessert week, yes or no?
I say yes. You say yes? I say no to creme caramel. Ah.
Have you seen the challenge videos on YouTube?
No. People have to, like, inhale them without their hands.
Oh... They have to, like, suction them into their mouths.
Oh, no. Not sure about that.
Paul's going to have to eat a lot.
What, without his hands? Yeah, I'm going to tie him up.
I think we'd pay good money to see... Kinky handcuffs.
No, I don't want to see that. HE IMITATES WHIP CRACK
It's not just the judges consuming copious creme caramels.
In practice, I've been doing 12.
When we was waiting to come in,
everyone was like, "We're only doing eight."
I'm going to do 12 anyway.
Hopefully there's some margin for error, then.
Matty's favourite eight creme caramels will feature
a custard infused with chai, coconut and vanilla,
though he's not entirely sure why.
Why chai?
Do you drink chai a lot, do you, at school and stuff?
Not particularly. I'm more of a coffee kind of guy.
So again, why chai?
I wanted to do something with coconut cos I quite like the flavour
of coconut and I feel that it marries quite nicely.
Sounds great. Thank you.
Matty, don't let him upset you. Every time.
Thank you, Matty. Thank you, cheers.
Why did he say that? Do you think he likes chai?
It's a good question. I don't even know if I like chai.
I'm nervous for you now. Good luck.
I'm just starting on my caramel.
I'm just looking for a nice, deep amber colour.
Achieving a perfect caramel means walking a tightrope.
It's quite a temperamental process,
and it takes patience, and I've not got much of that.
Apply too much heat too quickly and it will be ruined.
You need to be really careful.
If you just go 30 seconds over, bitter.
It's, uh, just getting the timing right.
That looks pretty good.
I feel like that's right.
But heat it too slowly...
It's taking forever.
..and it won't become caramel at all.
Feels, like, a bit crystallised.
I might have to redo it, you know.
I'm just going to redo it.
As Matty starts again...
Got the honey going in, sticky.
..two bakers are taking a different approach to caramel.
I'm doing a cheat's way
because I'm just literally using honey.
I'm just heating the honey until it's reduced.
This is jaggery. It belongs to the palm family.
We use in Sri Lanka quite a lot.
But for Saku, jaggery involves an extra risk.
Jaggery sets harder. Yeah.
It's hard to get out of the...of a mould.
What point do you tip it out, then? Still when it is hot.
If it goes cold, no, it's sticking.
You'd need a chisel and a hammer to get them out.
Using jaggery, cardamom and nutmeg,
Saku's creme caramels will be mini versions of
a popular pudding from her homeland.
I am making a Sri Lankan dessert, watalappan.
My mum made those at home. This is one of her favourite.
When I am coming here every morning, I ring her.
She knows that I am making this today.
Also infusing family flavours is Josh.
Creme caramel was my nan's favourite
and also one of her favourite flavours was plums and custard.
Do you know what I love about you? You always honour your Nana.
I know, yeah. It's so lovely. She'd be so proud of you.
Josh's cinnamon and orange custard will be topped
with cinnamon-spiced plums and tempered chocolate butterflies
in an attempt to build on last week's success.
Hello, Star Baker. Hello.
That was good, wasn't it, last week? Yeah, that was amazing.
That was amazing. I was not expecting that at all.
So you've had a handshake, right? Yeah.
And you've been Star Baker? Yeah.
Imagine if you win Star Baker again. No?
I don't know.
So, when I practised it, I overdid the honey
and it was rock solid, so I want to get a balance.
I'm going to put that in my ramekins.
Just gotta do a nice, thin caramel.
So I'm going to use it all, so it's about two tablespoons.
Caramel take two.
I went too slow with it, I think, so I'm going to speed up the heat.
I need it to be made now.
Bakers, you are halfway through.
This is the infused milk for my custard.
So I'm just going to pass it through a sieve
and then bring that together with the eggs.
So, the eggs is what's going to set it.
Achieving the correct balance between whole eggs
and egg yolks is crucial.
You want your custard to have a nice wobble
but you don't want it to be too hard like rubber.
Not enough whole eggs, and the custard won't set correctly.
Three eggs and four yolks. Bit worried it might not set.
But too many and it will set firm...
Eight whole eggs.
..and lose the delicate texture the judges are looking for.
It's rich, not hugely thick.
Still wibbly-wobbly in the middle.
I'm just going to gently whisk this mixture into the egg.
It's quite empty in the tent now. It's horrible.
Do you think you'll stay in touch? Yeah, definitely.
I mean. I'm very difficult to stay in touch with, I am,
cos I never answer my phone. Spend two weeks to reply to a text.
Remain a little bit enigmatic and mysterious.
"Where's Dan gone?" No-one knows. No-one knows!
"Is Dan still alive?" Nobody knows. Nobody knows.
Like Bigfoot, there was a sighting,
just a blurry picture of Dan just leaving like that.
That will pour into my ramekin and my caramel.
Caramel on the bottom, custard on top.
Gotta make sure they're all the same amount.
It needs to have a little water bath around it.
So, the hot water bath stops the eggs from curdling.
Makes me nervous that everyone is, like, putting it in the oven
and I'm still making bloomin' caramel.
Here we go, 35 minutes.
140 for about 30 to 35 minutes.
Be good to me.
I don't get why it's not working.
It feels like it's crystallising again.
And now we actually have a problem, so I'm going again.
And everyone else's are, like, in the oven
and my caramel isn't even cooked.
As Matty attempts to conquer his caramel for the third time...
Can't do anything else until this is sorted.
..everyone else can turn to their toppings.
I'm going to make some fig jam.
They were worried about my creme caramels tasting medicinal.
I'm thinking maybe I add a bit more sugar.
The plums I'm going to cut into cubes, and I'm going to just
stew them with some orange juice and cinnamon.
I don't want them to fall apart, I want them to keep their shape.
Going to put some orange segments in some orange liqueur.
Should go still like a citrus tartness, but sweet as well.
With orange decoration, an orange zest,
and nutmeg-infused custard,
Cristy is hoping her citrus flavours will impress Paul and Prue.
How much has it taken over your life, this situation? Oh, my gosh.
You don't stop practising, you don't stop thinking about it,
you go to bed and you're having dreams.
You dream about it as well? Yeah!
Really? It's mad, yeah...
What sort of dreams have you had?
Paul going, "It's not good enough!" ALISON LAUGHS
How simple is that? It's so annoying.
It's pretty much there, to be fair.
Probably needs longer, but I'm very conscious of time.
They take 25 to 35 minutes...
..so I'm trying them at 25 and praying to God.
Bakers... You have... Half an hour... Left.
That's not good.
That's not good at all.
Don't think it's going to be ready,
but I'm just going to do a wobble check.
Here we go.
There's absolutely no room for error when it comes to
the bake of a creme caramel.
They're wobbling. Just checking the wobble.
Take them out a minute too early...
Hooray. Yeah? Yeah.
..and they could collapse when de-moulded.
Got a nice little cheeky little wobble on them. Oh, yeah.
Wobbly, but not too wobbly.
Wibbly-wobbly.
But too long, and they will set too hard,
resulting in a bubbly, scrambled egg texture.
I think they're basically nearly there.
I'm going to give them two minutes.
They've still got 15 minutes to go. Well, more than 15.
I wanted them out in the fridge by now,
not still liquid in the oven. Will they take ages to cool down?
Yeah. It's all about heating things up and cooling it down.
You've really simplified this show here, Noel.
Baking. You heard it here first.
Why don't we just not do either?
We'd be in the same situation we were. I've had a good go at it!
They've all got the wobble in the middle,
so I'm going to leave them at that now.
They've got a slight wobble.
Yeah, they're cooked.
So, I'm just going to let them cool.
To obviously de-mould, you need to get them nice and cold.
While most of the bakers are cooling their creme caramels,
that's the last thing Saku wants.
Now I need to turn this out.
As the colder hers gets...
The jaggery, when it hardens, I can't take it out, it breaks.
..the more likely they are to stick to the moulds.
Please come.
SHE SIGHS
Why it's not happening?
Yes!
Yes, it is.
Time for some decor, which is more caramel, so I can't wait.
Butterfly is always synonymous with my nan.
When she was coming towards the end, she'd always say,
"Whenever you see a butterfly around, that's me watching."
That's so beautiful.
It's weird because you don't see many butterflies any more, do you?
I get loads in the garden. Do you? You've gotta have the right plants.
Lots of flowers, and they like buddleia plants.
Well, I've got Astroturf. SHE LAUGHS
I think that's where you're going wrong.
Course it's working first time, this one.
The one where I've got plenty of time to sort out.
I want to get some spirals.
I'm doing little honeycomb tuiles.
Look, look who's here.
What's he doing here?
He shouldn't be in here now, should he? No!
He's off, he's off, it's fine. Like a wild tiger,
just sort of milling about.
When's the zookeeper coming?
You mean Prue?
Looks good, I'm happy.
My mum, I want her to be proud!
They're coming out regardless.
Got to rapidly cool 'em.
Go on Noel, tell 'em.
Bakers, you have ten minutes left.
Time is ticking!
You can do this.
Yes, you can! We believe in you.
HE SIGHS
Flippin' hell.
We are turning out.
This is the crunch time now, isn't it?
You don't know until you de-mould it, do you?
Oh, this is so stressful.
Ideally, I'd have them in the fridge for an hour, but here we are.
I've got my fingers crossed for numerous things right now.
I hate this part.
Moment of truth.
It's jiggly. She's jiggly.
They've just got loads of little bubbles, haven't they?
They're just on the edge of set.
I don't know what they're going to be like. I'm very nervous.
Not too bad.
A few more, and then I can breathe again.
Go, go, go.
That's two.
Hello. Oh, you're coming in at a de-moulding time.
I'm like your lucky charm, aren't I?
No, you're not.
Please, come out of there. Noel! Threaten it.
You've gotta come back, you're making me scared. Am I bad juju?
Am I? No, Noel, go away.
Come on. It's the suction.
Come back when they're out. I love to watch this bit. No!
It's the best bit. All right, I'll leave you. OK, come out.
There you go! Thank you, Jesus.
That's cos I went to leave. I know!
Oh, you bugger.
I've had a collapse.
Donkey.
Probably needed another minute in the oven.
Should've made 12, like Matty, shouldn't I?
Let's pick the eight.
I like that one.
Bakers, you've got just one minute left.
Better get a move on doing that, actually.
Sticky nuts, I'm calling them.
Bee tuiles.
The tuiles, they are not artistic.
Butterfly sits on top.
Tried my best. That's all you can do.
Bakers, your time is up.
What a horrible challenge.
Please step away from your creme caramels.
Well done, kids. Well done.
It's in the flavour now, innit? In the tasting.
That was so stressful.
I weren't expecting to get 'em out.
It's time for the bakers' Signature creme caramels
to face the judgment of Paul and Prue.
Hello, Dan. Hello.
So, these are my Thai green curry-inspired creme caramels.
Don't say curry. OK.
Just Thai. Don't say curry. Thai-inspired. This is bonkers, I'm loving it.
Have you got curry in there? No.
It's sort of intriguing though, isn't it? OK, OK.
It's got the wobble, which I love. The wobble's there.
You're suffering from a slight under-bake. I am.
That one looks a bit desperate, Dan.
I love that texture.
That's beautiful. It really is.
You've got your flavours spot-on.
It's the lemongrass that makes that.
It's very nearly perfect.
It doesn't look perfect because they're collapsed,
but that flavour is lovely. Thank you. That's great,
thank you very much. You've invented a dessert, Dan.
Well done. Thank you.
The texture on the side is pretty bad.
I mean, it's bubbled up quite badly.
And that's because you left them in the oven too long. A bit overcooked.
That's boiled inside. Gosh.
At the moment the orange is there, but the caramel isn't.
They're too solid. OK.
That's the big issue. Oh, OK.
They look really interesting.
I was worried about you making caramel with honey.
Could it have been a little bit thicker? Yeah.
There's a swimming pool of sweetness.
It needs to be on the top, really.
That is a beautiful set. Smooth as anything.
The fig comes through, the rosemary's barely there.
But the flavour, it's lacking a little bit of direction.
I think using honey was such a lovely idea.
But everything is too sweet.
OK, thank you.
They're so pretty. They're almost identical.
And your jaggery seems to have worked. It's nice and evenly shiny.
It's very sweet. Yeah. Which I sort of expected.
Cardamom comes through beautifully, but it's too thick.
How many eggs did you have? Eight. Eight whole eggs?
Yeah. I think that could be the problem.
You've got too much egg white. Hmm. OK, yeah.
Straight off I think they look very, very pretty
and there's a lot of finesse to this.
There's a lot of bubbles in there on the side.
They're slightly overbaked.
The spiced plum and the orange together,
the taste in that is delicious, with the sweetness level just so.
The plums are not as cooked as I'd expected,
and that's rather nice.
They've got a sort of freshness of fresh fruit.
Just the texture's slightly off. It is overbaked.
But you can't get over the flavour of that. Thank you.
Well done, Josh.
They look quite attractive. I think your caramel could have been
a little bit darker. You can tell by the colour there, it's too pale.
Yeah. But they look nice and smooth.
I love the flavour. Hmm.
Because the chai flavour's quite strong, it's interesting.
And I think it really works.
But they are probably a little overbaked.
Looks like a frankfurter sausage. You know, when you get the skin
on a frankfurter? You're not selling it, Paul! That's enough now.
Tastes good, though. Well done. No, it really tastes delicious.
I keep wanting to go back for another bite. Thank you, Matty.
Thank you. I'd actually eat a hot dog creme caramel.
It went all right, to be fair, I think.
When they was commenting on the colour of the caramel,
you don't know how lucky you are to have any caramel here!
I wouldn't take a risk unless it was worth taking.
I've created a little dessert for myself. I'm happy I pleased Paul.
Oh, I'm sad. It's not silky and smooth.
It is not good for me. I will be in danger.
It was the bubbles. The stupid bubbles.
I'm not going to be making them again.
The bakers have no idea what awaits them in the Technical Challenge.
Hello, bakers, welcome back to the tent,
it's time for your Technical Challenge.
Today it's been set for you by Paul Hollywood.
I don't know if you've noticed but he's wearing desert boots.
What you think are desert boots are actually dessert boots.
They're made out of a thin layer of trifle.
They're new on the market. Check those out.
So, Paul, have you got any words of advice for our bakers?
This recipe has got three very distinctive textures.
You've got to get them all right for it to work.
OK, well, judges, you can leave now. No snacks, remember,
leave some room for dessert, thank you.
LAUGHTER
Paul would love you to make six individual orange
and ginger treacle puddings.
Your steamed sponges should be soft and light,
and served with a smooth custard and a ginger and orange syrup.
You've got an hour and a half, which is plenty of time.
On your marks. Get set. Bake!
I don't know how to make this.
I am following the instructions. We'll get there.
I've never made anything like this before.
So it's going to go real well.
I love a steamed pudding. It's a proper rib-sticking pudding,
isn't it, like? Get it down you!
Paul, this is one of my absolute favourite puddings.
A proper steamed sponge pudding.
Yeah. This has got a beautiful golden syrup on the top.
Served with creme anglaise, and then you have the ginger
and the orange syrup as well. Let's go through the dangers.
The killer thing, I think, with this is timing.
Yeah, OK. Straight away they have to crack on with
the syrup that goes on the top.
Now we've allowed 20 minutes with the syrup, getting it right.
And then they've got to think of the sponge,
and it's critical that they get the bake right.
40 minutes minimum. 40. 4-0.
Now with an hour and a half, that doesn't give you
a lot of wriggle room. No.
Who's going to use their time wisely?
Would you like to try one, Prue? Yes, please!
Then you have this beautiful syrup.
That with the creme anglaise, which is beautiful
and silky smooth. The orange, the ginger,
it just blends beautiful together. It's amazing because
the texture is both very moist and yet it's light.
Hmm. Paul, this is heaven.
I'm looking forward to six more of them.
And I'm going to have difficulty not eating all of this.
So my syrup, make the caramel.
With 50g of caster sugar and three tablespoons of water.
Yeah, I'm buzzing for that. Cannot wait to make more caramel.
I'm mentally scarred.
You know your way around a treacle pudding, don't you?
No. I do not. No. You're too young. Yeah.
Nobody eats puddings any more, do they?
Not steamed ones, do they?
It's like something from the Victorian era.
This is nearly, nearly there.
Carefully pour in the boiling water.
Add some lemon wedge and stir until the mixture comes to the boil.
Simmer to produce a golden syrup. That's not golden.
So this is going to go in the bottom of the sponge,
so I'm going to get this bad boy syrupy.
This don't look right. It's stuck.
So I assume once it heats up it will melt, maybe?
What's going down in the Tash kitchen?
SHE EXHALES
You do this every single time you have a technical.
I get a massive sigh. What's going on?
I don't understand why they've asked us to make
a caramel and then add a load of boiling water.
Cos it makes it all juicy for when it's in the sponge.
If I go there, you go here. Let's switch.
I'm assuming. Ain't got a clue.
Make an orange and ginger sponge batter.
Butter's gone in, caster sugar's gone in. Eggs have just gone in.
Let's do the stem ginger.
No-one's going to want a big bit of stem ginger, you know.
Chopping this like a nutter.
Grated zest of an orange.
Then I'll fold through my flour.
How's everyone making their sponge?
What am I doing wrong? Oh, look it's starting to mix in.
Is it? Or am I just fooling myself?
I think I'm just fooling myself. It's all to the side.
Treacle pudding. It's not very modern, is it?
It's from an era of Prue Leith, isn't it?
It might be more Paul, actually. '70s stodge.
Yeah, '70s stodge. Yeah, yeah.
Little 12-year-old Paul with his blue eyes gleaming.
"Mum, mum!" He's got a conker in one hand.
Yeah, that's it, yeah. And a little school bag over his shoulder.
Rushes in. Eats his treacle pudding.
I don't know, but it is too runny.
It needs to be a golden syrup kind of a texture.
I don't want to go on to too many steps because I think this is going to be quite a crucial bit.
I want to watch this and make sure it's OK.
Any delay at this stage will mean less time to bake.
It's going for ages.
And with it needing at least 40 minutes in the oven...
I'm going to spend a minute or two just getting this bang-on.
..this could prove disastrous.
Put the kettle on.
Bakers, it seems nuts but you're halfway through already.
This is a quick one, isn't it? Really.
I love a quickie. I love a...
I think we're about there then now.
Spoon some syrup into the mould.
It's very pale, but it's got to go in.
Divide the sponge batter between moulds.
I'm very aware that this isn't ready yet.
What have you been doing? I know! How's he already there?
Don't look at others. Stop. Just concentrate on yourself. Yeah.
This is your week.
Why do you laugh when I say that? Next week's your week.
Cover with paper and foil.
Can you tell I never did Scouts? It says steam
in a bain-marie in the oven.
Right, my little beauties.
How long we are baking? I have no idea how long.
Maybe I'll leave them in for 25, 30 minutes.
They're only small, aren't they? Do 25 minutes.
20 minutes.
Yeah, so I've started with the sponge,
nothing, like, extravagant,
just creaming the butter and then I'll add the sugar.
I have no idea if that syrup is what it should look like,
so we will find out when they eat it.
Bakers, you have half an hour left.
Is that it?
Time is ticking!
Bit stressed but I shouldn't be. Just chill out.
I can make the creme anglaise now.
I looked at the ingredients, I'm like, "Yes! I have done this."
So I'm going to heat the milk and the cream.
Whisk your egg yolks with your caster sugar till nice and pale.
Pour over your eggs nice and slowly.
Stir it until it goes thick.
But not that thick.
It has to be pouring consistency, I think.
How long do these things take to steam?
I want to give that as long as I can in there.
I don't want to serve them anything underbaked.
Serve the puddings with a jug of ginger and orange syrup.
So I've just added the orange juice and the stem ginger.
Reduce to a pouring consistency.
Do you like technicals, Saku?
SHE MOUTHS
Why? Because it is not the full instructions, isn't it?
That's the thing. If you've never made one... It's really hard.
..where do you get the knowledge?
Shall I tell you where you get that knowledge from? Yes, please.
Just look at everyone else's.
Don't want to over reduce this.
But I don't want it too loose either.
So it's now over reduced. Ah!
Bakers, you have ten minutes left.
I should check these, I'm going to check this one.
Should I just take one out and see how it's looking?
I don't know how I'm going to tell they're done, cos
they're literally covered up, aren't they?
The moment of truth.
Oh! It's not done.
They're not done.
Think it needs longer. I don't know. They seem soft.
Turn that oven up. A little bit more.
I think the bain-marie is actually slowing down the cooking.
I'm going to go rogue and stick them in without the bain-marie.
Oh, da-da-da-da.
Bakers, you have five minutes left.
We're going to be right on the buzzer, aren't we, I think.
It's going to be a rush job.
Josh looks a bit scared. Are you going to be all right?
Are you going to be all right, five minutes good?
Got to get them out. They're not done.
But they're going to have to be done. I'm really scared now.
Give me strength, Lord.
Horrible feeling these are going to be raw.
Oh, dear.
Oh, flip, they're raw. Oh!
SHE GASPS
It's a bit uncooked at the top.
Oh! No. That one's raw.
Oh, wow. They're so raw.
Oh, my gosh, they can't eat this, they're going to get ill.
Oh, my gosh, what have I done?
Bakers, you have one minute left.
No! Oh!
Oh, no!
This is a car crash.
I'm not even pouring them.
OK, that one's more cooked.
Do I have to be judged? Aw.
Are they meant to be raw or what?
Your time is up.
Oh, my God.
I can't! I can't serve that!
LAUGHTER
Please come and place your bakes behind your photographs
on the gingham table.
They can't eat them.
Oh, they're going to need a straw.
If any of you need a flask...
Aw! I can't cope.
LAUGHTER
The judges are looking for six impeccable treacle puddings,
served with a delicious syrup and silky custard,
and comprising of light, airy perfectly steamed sponges.
ALISON LAUGHS
It's your duty.
That is disgusting.
Well, OK, let's start over here. Those are raw.
These are inedible. They really are.
Creme anglaise is OK.
HE CHUCKLES
Pouring consistency.
Moving on. Creme anglaise is OK.
The syrup's not bad as well, actually.
Steamed sponges are inedible.
That's just stodge. They needed another quarter of an hour
or something.
Creme anglaise looks OK.
The syrup looks pretty good as well. Same problem.
This is even worse. Uh, these are inedible.
They needed much longer cooking.
The size of them are terrible as well.
We actually have something that's got a bake on it.
OK, so let's taste this.
The flavour's good.
The orange tang coming through nicely.
Mm-mm.
This has some element of a bake. It's the right consistency.
And it's the right balance of ginger and orange.
Moving on to the last one. That is terrible.
I think this is a bit burnt.
Slightly, yeah.
That's pretty awful. It's just liquid. Nil points!
Yeah, nil points.
ALISON: Paul and Prue will now rank the puddings
from worst to least worst.
So in sixth place we have this one.
Matty, it's a disaster. Oh, it is.
In fifth spot we have this one. Saku, terrible. I know.
Fourth is Cristy and in third place is Josh.
In second place we have this one.
And, Dan, I'm afraid we're still on the terrible.
I know. And in first place is this one.
Tash. Not as terrible,
but pretty terrible. But at least it was edible.
Thanks.
Anyway, you've all learnt a little bit about how
to make steamed puddings.
At least you're all roughly on
the same level, do you know what I mean? That's not a compliment!
Is this making you feel better?
You've let Prue down, you've let me down,
you've let yourselves down.
Consider yourselves roasted.
I will take that.
A win is a win.
I'm trying my best. Because I want to come back.
Went all right.
Flashbacks to being at school, that. You know, when they're like...
They're worse than angry. They're so disappointed.
But we got a laugh!
Dessert week. It's been a roller-coaster.
I think the technical was
the worst thing I have ever judged on Bake Off. Oh!
It's up there. I was disappointed.
Judging that was quite difficult.
So I guess we have to ignore the technical.
The signature they did OK. Now you look at Dan,
you know, with that sort of Thai influence there with his flavours.
But it worked, didn't it? It was really odd, but it did work.
And Matty did OK. Josh did OK. I think Josh did OK.
I think what we've got here, we've got a split.
I think the girls are in trouble and the lads are safer than the girls.
Even Tasha? I'm devastated.
She's middling, but Saku and Cristy are in a worse position.
It's going to make the show stopper exciting, I think.
Some of them will come out fighting
and some of them will be demoralised.
Did I roast them a bit too much? No. Yes.
A little bit.
Hello, bakers. Welcome back to the tent.
And well done for getting to
the show stopper on Dessert Week without running away.
Yes, there's certainly been no deserters just yet, has there, Noel?
No, but it was touch-and-go yesterday.
It certainly was. It certainly was.
So for your show stopper challenge,
the judges would like you to make
a sharing size dessert which is encased within
a highly decorative meringue bombe.
Now that is a bombe with an "e".
I don't want any explosions in the tent.
And I, for one, don't want to be picking meringue out of
my barnet all day tomorrow. That's very true.
You have four hours until we dispose your bombes by yamming them down.
On your marks. Get set. Bake!
This is the worst challenge yet.
My practice ones have not been successful. I'm pooing myself.
The biggest challenge is going to be making the meringue bombe itself.
I've done nine million meringues this week and two worked.
It lives up to its name of a bombe.
It's a high-risk one, innit. And potentially the last.
What we're asking for is a meringue bombe.
It looks like a sphere,
and inside it any kind of dessert they like.
The meringue itself is probably
going to be French meringue
because it's stable and it's strong.
So French meringue is essentially whisked egg whites with sugar.
And getting nice, hopefully glossy, stiff peaks.
That's what I'm hoping for.
We've asked for a bombe shape,
so we're testing them on their meringue engineering skills.
The most obvious is to use a mould.
The bakers will do it in two halves.
There's a terrific danger that they'll crack.
Now this is dessert week, so we are expecting mousse,
creams, creme diplomats, sponge, chocolate,
anything that they wish, but they must taste
and work amazingly well together.
I am making the choux buns first, vigorously!
First thing we're going for is a genoise sponge.
Once that's out the oven it frees it up to be used for the meringue.
Of course it's someone's last bake.
After the Technical Challenge we are expecting perfection.
We can't have Mr Hollywood disappointed again.
He gets very bad-tempered when he's disappointed.
Hi, Matty. Good morning. Hello, Matty. Morning.
Tell us all about your meringue bombe.
Well, I'm hoping to produce something slightly better
than yesterday. Well, that'd be good.
Baked would be good. Something edible.
I thought I'll push the boat out and do something a bit weird.
So pistachio, strawberry and basil, so it's kind of like
a fusion between English summer and Italian summer. Nice.
A summer sandwich cake of pistachio cremeux
and strawberry and basil compote
mousse will sit inside Matty's French meringue bombe.
I'm really concerned about the meringue. Is it stable?
Icing sugar's also going in.
Makes it a little bit more dense, so that hopefully it holds itself.
OK, well, you seem to know what you're talking about.
But there again, what does that mean?
You see, I've lost all faith, you see.
You've got to build me back up again.
Yep, yep, stiff peaks.
Got to do the old Bake Off thing, haven't I?
Just going to put my meringue mixture into the moulds.
And you don't make meringue bombes every day, do you?
No, there's a reason for that. Why?
They're hard.
This is make or break now.
With a spherical shape and weight of a dessert to support...
I'm literally shaking.
..it's essential the bakers produce strong meringue shells.
It's got to take quite a weight. It's quite a big bombe, this one.
Any imperfections or thin areas now...
Get it as even as possible.
..could cause cracks and weaknesses later.
I've got an extra mould in case one's cracks are too deep to mend.
Oh, I hope it will come in one piece.
My meringue bombe today is called the Pale Blue Dot,
based on our humble little home, the Earth.
We're just basically suspended in a galaxy.
All our little woes and worries in the tent are
insignificant in the grand scheme of the universe, isn't it?
Beneath an Earth's crust of chocolate genoise,
Dan's trifle consists of orange creme pat,
strawberry bavarois,
and his Earth's core
of raspberry jelly.
These layers are quite moist.
So are they not going to make your meringue too soggy?
That's why I've sort of put the sponge on the outside, as
a bit of a barrier as well.
So I've tried to use really light sort of mousses
and things, but I have found when I made it, it was still quite heavy.
Yes. And I think with my big pie fingers,
I just need to be really delicate with the moving around of it.
What you going to do with your big fingers? Well, I need
to turn these into patisserie delicate fingers,
but I sometimes struggle with that. Good luck, sounds good.
OK, thank you very much, cheers.
While Dan gets on with his blue dot...
Just piped Macclesfield, glorious Cheshire.
..Josh's aim is fixed on a small green ball.
So summer months I love to watch Wimbledon
and play a bit of tennis.
And I've got home-grown strawberries off the garden,
so strawberries and cream is the flavours.
It's a match made in heaven.
Within his tennis-themed bombe,
Josh will be serving up his
cheesecake of mascarpone whipped cream
with a touch of champagne,
sandwiched by layers of strawberry mousse and strawberry jam.
It's going to be a green ball.
I'm going to put, like, tennis balls, tennis rackets,
strawberries on there. I'm going in.
I think I can fit both in at the same time.
Right, meringue, it's been nice knowing you.
Bake meringues low and slow.
Thank God they're in.
So I'm doing mine at 110 for 1 hour and 45 minutes.
That's going in for an hour and a half.
But while everyone else is baking
both halves of their bombes together...
One in the oven.
..Saku has decided to bake hers separately.
I don't want to bake both together, so I'm making the base later.
It is a flower bonnet. There will be bees.
My bee is my son. He is Binera.
In short we all call him bee, the buzzing bee.
Sometimes he's a pain in the bottom, just like buzzing everywhere. Yeah.
Marzipan bumblebees will buzz around Saku's flowery bombe,
and inside will be two flavours of profiteroles,
passion fruit creme pat,
and pistachio and Irish cream.
Saku, yesterday you let me down.
Let it go. Please, let it go.
Exactly. Please, let it go? Yes.
All right, then. Saku. You're joking, aren't you?
That's too early!
Right, then. There's so much going on. I've got to get another bowl.
I'm absolutely rinsing the bowls already.
With their bombes away and the time a-ticking...
Cannot relax. There's no time for relaxing in this game, is there?
..the bakers must multi-task if they're to create
the multitude of elements they'll need for their dessert.
Speed baking... Speed merchant for sponges, meringues, mousses.
These are the strawberries, they're off my garden.
So these are going to be used for multiple things. I've got
a jam base. I'm also going to make a strawberry mousse on the top.
Just strawberries and basil for the compote. Also goes into the mousse.
Raspberry puree, it is going to be
the molten core, so I need to get these frozen quick.
Making a little hole at the bum. If not it will collapse.
Little bum hole.
Hi, Tasha. Hello. How's it going?
It's OK. I'm keeping it simple-ish today.
I'm going with plum, ginger.
Paul, ginger... Paul, ginger? Yeah, you don't want to override the...
Plum and ginger. Not Paul and ginger.
That would be interesting, wouldn't it?
I wonder what he'd actually taste like in a bake.
Bet it would look good, but it would be sour.
Branches of pink plum blossom will wrap around
Tasha's bombe containing profiterole plums, filled
with plum and ginger creme diplomat, and topped with plum craquelin.
Choux pastry is a lot of arm strength, which I don't have.
But Tasha isn't the only baker filling their bombe
with choux pastry.
Just going to get my bits ready for the choux buns.
There's pressure when other people are doing the same thing,
which I'm thrilled about.
But Cristy is hoping to make her profiteroles stand out
by making them stand up.
So I'm doing a little mini croquembouche.
A mini croquembouche? Yes.
And then how's the meringue fitting over the top of that?
The lid on top sort of domes over.
Cristy will really be hoping to spoil the judges with
a croquembouche of summer berry creme diplomat
protruding from a bombe covered in multicoloured meringue kisses.
The kisses only take an hour.
So I'm going to make some royal icing
and construct it like that all round. Oh, you're going to stick
them on with royal icing? Yeah.
So it'll be sort of spiky? Yeah.
Oh, lovely, it sounds quite modern.
Do you think this is going to help or hinder your bake?
Are you going to keep that on all day?
Bakers, you are halfway through.
Come on, meringue!
Mine's all cracking.
Round the sides, it's all come up and left it all behind.
You seem so chilled out today. I'm not going to be chilled if those
meringues don't work when they come out. So what happens if these
meringues don't work? We panic.
Would that be the worst thing that could happen? Yeah.
Right, OK, do you know what? I'm going to get them out.
Oh, I'm so worried.
Yeah, they look good. That one looks good.
Oh, he can use an oven!
Oh, not great, if I'm honest.
Oh, my gosh.
It's properly cracked.
I feel sick. I'm nervous.
Demoulding the spheres is scary.
A steady hand is critical...
Slow, slow, slow, slow, slow. Don't rush.
..as the smallest fracture line could result
in a bombe shell explosion.
It's a delicate little petal, that is.
Oh, it's cracking like a good 'un.
This one looks really nice.
It didn't crack.
Very, very thin there. It's like a meteor's hit it.
Thank you, Lord Jesus. Ah!
CRACKING, GASPING
Oh, my God.
The same is going to happen to the others.
SHE SIGHS
Oh, my God.
I've got one, I've got one, haven't I?
It looks like a cave or something.
I'm not taking any chances. I'm going to cut it.
If two crack, then it wasn't meant to be.
It's just cracked on the inside, not the outside,
but I'm going to weld it up with the royal icing.
LAUGHTER
This is fine, this one's fine.
Ooh, look at your domes. They're good, right?
Yeah, I know. They're out, thankfully.
Come on, let's show those judges. Yeah.
Let's go bang! Put that in your pipe, Hollywood.
This is the next layer on my dessert,
mascarpone and champagne filling.
But while everyone else finishes off their dessert elements...
The choux needs to get in the oven as quickly as I can get it.
..Saku still has half a bombe to bake.
Uh, now I'm making the second lot of meringue.
This is the base. Oh, now I am running behind.
You couldn't break those now, could you?
Don't touch them, Noel. Don't joke. What sort of weight could they take?
A squirrel? Stop it.
A gerbil? A large otter? Stop it.
Bakers, you have half an hour left.
I can't worry, I can't panic.
It's too fiddly for panicking.
I'm just using the royal icing that I've made to just stick them all on.
So I'm just piping some tennis balls on to here.
Are you making bumblebees? I love that guy.
That's queen bee. Oh, queen bee. Ah!
That's her crown. Come on. I thought it was her lips.
I thought that bee was pouting.
That's the storm brewing from the south pole, that is.
So meringue bombes, Prue.
I do think that all of them sound absolutely delicious.
It comes down to that meringue.
This will strengthen it up.
Matty and Dan's got the trickiest position.
They've all got so many layers. Just trying to line my meringue,
the Earth's crust.
And those things are quite moussey. They're mostly liquid. Yeah.
What you don't want it anything too wet touching the meringue.
A few of them are using the choux.
They're clever enough to put their mixtures inside choux pastry.
But they actually weigh a ton. Yeah.
I think there's a good danger that all of them could collapse.
It's quite a difficult challenge.
Yeah, we want to see some good baking. No mess ups today.
And no talking about yesterday.
No. OK, then.
It was bad, though, wasn't it?
Bakers, you have 15 minutes left.
It's the molten core of the Earth.
That'll sit in there, and my dessert should be able to just sit in there.
Now worries whether baking time will be enough.
If I take it too early, it will crack.
It's cracked all the way through. Doesn't want to hold.
I'm just going to have to prop it up, aren't I?
Bakers, you have five minutes left.
NOEL WHISTLES I'm going as fast as I can!
I think we've got the look of Wimbledon here.
I'm going to forget about the croquembouche.
My health's more important than Paul.
Oh, God, maybe I've gone a layer too high.
Jesus Christ.
Ah!
Ah, I ruined it.
All cracked.
Bakers, you have one minute left.
He's going to expect a flipping croquembouche, and he's going to
lift it up and see this.
Lid's going on.
I think it's collapsing.
I'm just waiting for it to break, basically.
Heartbreaking.
Bakers, your time is up.
Step away from your show stoppers.
It's not going to stay on its own.
It's just too spherical.
Well done, everyone.
Well done. I'm proud of ya.
No-one's coming in on that clap, are they?
Oh, God.
Oh, I'm so glad it's done, though.
Really tough gig, that.
That was revolting.
Six meringue bombes ready to explode.
But will the judges be blown away?
It's show stopper time for our Josh.
Well, I must say, the piping is excellent
and the idea is original, and it's beautifully done.
And that is a proper dessert inside.
Now it just has to taste good.
Isn't that a little triumph?
So you've got a shortcake base, strawberry jam,
mascarpone and whipped cream filling,
and then you've got a strawberry mousse on top.
Well, Josh, I'll tell you what, if Wimbledon did strawberries
and cream like that, it would be fantastic.
The jam gives it a nice strawberry acidic kick.
It's delicious. I think you've created something very beautiful
indeed. Well done, Josh. Well done, Josh.
Well done, buddy.
I think the plum blossom is so sweet, lovely.
It does join and it is a ball.
Which is not easy to do. And the decoration,
I quite like on it. Let's have a look. Oh, my goodness. Mm!
A little bowl of buns. With craquelin on top.
The craquelin's quite effective, isn't it? Yeah.
Inside we've got plum and ginger creme diplomat.
On their own it's a slightly acidic flavour.
Together with the meringue, it does work beautiful.
The idea of a bombe is you eat a bit of the meringue as well.
I like it. It's not too sweet inside.
Well done, Tasha. Thank you very much.
You know, I think the look of it is really very good.
It's quite artistic, colourful. Yeah.
Wow. The bombe itself is nice. Inside looks a bit...
Well, I say a bit. It's a lot messy. Yeah.
Maybe we'll take that bit off there.
Inside is strawberry and basil mousse,
pistachio cremeux,
strawberry and basil compote, and pistachio genoise sponge.
Somehow the pistachio flavour is too rich and heavy.
The basil, I'm not quite sure I like it... OK.
..with the strawberry. Yeah.
The meringue is very good.
I think this outside is a little triumph.
Thank you, Matty. Thank you.
I think the whole thing looks really pretty.
A little bit like a bee hive.
You struggled a bit with the base cos you've got... Yeah, mm.
..several pieces because it's just.. It blasted.
It's just... Now it's blasted, yeah.
It's not much of a bombe, though.
It's just a few choux buns sitting in the middle of a stand.
The dark chocolate, it is pistachio and Irish cream.
And with the white chocolate, it's passion fruit curd.
The choux buns don't look good.
They're a little bit flat. You do get the Irish liqueur.
It's just not strong enough.
There are elements that are really good.
You just needed to do a bit more on flavour.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
It's an amazingly, wonderfully
ambitious thing to get the entire world...
In a meringue. ..in a meringue.
Overall, I think you've created a nice shape.
There's a nice dome to that.
I'll just have a quick look inside. Oh, OK, there you go.
Yep. Oh, right. OK. That's very clever.
So it is a trifle with chocolate genoise sponge,
orange creme patisserie, a strawberry bavarois,
and raspberry jelly sphere for the middle of the Earth.
I love the layers to it, cos you've got a sharpness certainly
to the jelly in the middle.
The sponge on the outside is delicious as well.
The whole thing works together lovely,
and I think you've created a lovely trifle in the centre of the Earth.
What's wrong with that? Nothing. Well done.
Ah, that's great, thank you very much.
Well done!
Well, you're not ever going to expect me not to like
the look of that.
Colours are amazing.
Quite impressive looking at that on the outside.
Can I just say something? A bombe is nice if it's round.
Do you know what? We can move them away now.
And I think it's more impressive like that.
Looks like the bombe's already gone off.
That is a bit of a mess inside. What is that?
It's actually profiteroles, not a croquembouche.
And they're filled with a creme diplomat with berry coulis.
There's too much icing, too sweet. OK.
But I love the filling. It's nice and sharp.
I think you've let yourself down a lot with that interior.
It's like the middle wasn't important.
You just chucked something in.
But from the outside, it's fantastic.
Sometimes you do get pretty things who are ugly on the inside.
Oh, no!
It was tough.
I don't really think I've done enough to stay in.
I'd be just on the cusp of getting into
the quarterfinals. I would be disappointed.
It went better than I could ever have hoped for,
to be honest, so I've had the biggest smile on my face.
I was really pleased with that. That went really,
really well, didn't it?
My meringue cracked
and they didn't get the flavour from the profiteroles.
You are in danger!
Well, were you blown away by the bombes?
Were they the comeback kids after their technical?
Josh was my comeback kid. That strawberry cake was beautiful.
It was. Nice to see Dan come back again this week.
You opened up the Earth's core
and you saw layers on layers on layers. A very pretty design.
And all beautifully concentric, yeah.
Both those guys are in line for Star Baker. And Cristy and Saku...
In real danger. ..I think one of those two will be going home.
Saku, she had no base at all.
It was literally just like a cloche over half a dozen choux buns.
I wouldn't have minded that.
The problem with Saku has been not enough oomph in her flavours.
Yeah. Where did Cristy go wrong, cos it looked incredible, didn't it?
Looks can be deceiving. That's very true.
Style above substance, cos it wasn't very nice inside.
Yeah. I think I prefer style over substance.
That's why you're not a judge.
Well done, bakers, for getting through Dessert Week.
I've got the amazing job of announcing Star Baker.
The judges really struggled with this one.
Today's Star Baker is...
..Dan.
APPLAUSE
That means I've got the horrible and really hard job,
but the baker who is leaving us this week is...
..Saku.
That's fine.
I'm so proud of myself.
We're going to miss you so much!
I don't miss baking, but I will miss them.
It's really sad to leave them.
It's a privilege to be a part of this lovely family.
Well done, Dan. Very close, I'm sure.
Thank you very much, Prue. Appreciate it. It was really good.
Nothing in it between me and Josh, by the sounds of things.
And he's a phenomenal baker, so just to edge past him this week,
it filled me with loads of confidence and I'm super happy.
I think my wife will be super surprised.
I genuinely thought I was going.
I'm made up. To be able to say you're a Bake Off quarterfinalist...
I'm in the quarterfinal.
Oh, my God.
Can't believe it at all. To think how far we've all come
since that week one. It's absolutely amazing.
PHONE RINGS
VOICEMAIL: Welcome to the...
She clearly wasn't expecting me to get Star Baker today, was she?
Next time... I'm running around the tent!
..it's the quarterfinals...
PARTY HORN ..and Party Week.
Go, go, go.
The bakers take on Paul's all-time favourite signature...
This better be good.
..an insect-inspired technical...
I forgot to pipe antennas. Idiot.
..and a huge...
I'm behind time. It need to be proving ages ago.
This is the hardest I've had to work.
..multicoloured showstopper.
Bakers, you've had four hours.
It's a big bake, isn't it? It's too big for me.
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