Last time... Oh, ah!
..the quarterfinals took us back to the disco decade.
What was the '70s like? Yeah, I wasn't there, hon.
Whilst Dylan continued to harvest handshakes...
Oh! Sweet! I'm sick of giving them to you, though.
..it was Georgie's stunning Showstopper...
It's 1970s and you've got it to a T.
..that secured her second Star Baker.
Oh, my God, no. But gravity took hold of Illiyin's gateaux
and her time in the tent hit the ground.
Over and out, Bake Off.
This time... Crack on! ..it's the semifinal.
Ah! Crunch time.
But who can perfect patisserie...
It's going to be intense. Why are they making us do this?
Don't understand. Come on!
..and who will fall...
You will kick yourself if you lose this now.
..at the final hurdle?
Oh! Ah!
I'm going. I've had enough. I'm going.
Just four remain in The Great British Bake Off.
Only three can make it to the final.
Good luck, everyone. Good luck. We got this.
Semifinals day.
LAUGHS
Yeah, it's real now.
The chances of going to the final have never been higher.
Like, you have 75% chance of getting into the final.
But then the chances of going home have also never been higher.
You have a 25% chance of going home.
They have upped the stakes, and patisserie is it.
Unfortunately Northern portions don't fit well with patisserie.
When you see the word patisserie you're like high-end, hard,
they're pulling out all the stops.
Hello, bakers, welcome back to the tent. It's patisserie week
but, more importantly, it's the semifinal.
So, for your semifinal Signature
the judges would like you to bake two batches
of eight laminated breakfast pastries.
Your pastries can be any design
but at least one batch must be filled or topped.
Remember, this is patisserie week
so the judges are looking for a fantastic finish.
Or a hot Swede.
On your marks. Get set. Bake!
This is the most ambitious Signature Challenge ever set
in The Great British Bake off.
I'm doing really difficult maths and everything for this.
To give the bakers enough time
to present two perfect batches of breakfast pastries,
for the first time ever the judges have allowed them one hour
to prepare their dough so that it can rest overnight.
This is undoubtedly one of the most difficult challenges
that the bakers will face.
So we're looking for folds of dough and butter.
Now, the yeast in the dough will grow and the butter will melt
and create a beautiful honeycomb.
We're asking for beautiful lamination so it's flaky
and you can see every single layer.
You want a finish that's crispy golden brown on the outside
and it packs a punch with the flavouring inside.
Everything has to go perfect today.
We've got four amazing bakers. Only three are going to go through.
And no-one can afford to make a mistake in this challenge.
The fun part is tomorrow.
The semifinalists' dough has been resting overnight.
Yeah, it looks all right. They now have three hours
to complete their breakfast pastries. That's perfect.
We'll see what happens in three hours.
Hello, Georgie, you all right? Hello, Georgie. Hello.
Tell us about your pastries, what're you doing?
One's going to be a pain suisse with chocolate chips
and the second are going to be the pinwheels
and that's going to have a dalgona cream.
Dalgona, whipped coffee cream and hazelnuts
will fill Georgie's pinwheels
while her chocolate-filled pain suisse
boasts an ambitious cross lamination
that's required endless practice.
I've made nearly 200.
And... 200? I really want to be in the final.
Why don't you just take one of the others out? Yeah. With this.
Yeah. I'll throw it over.
Just throw it towards Dylan. Yeah.
ALISON: Whilst Georgie aims to impress
with decorative lamination... This is going to be a lot of rolling.
..Christiaan is once again hoping that it's what's inside that counts.
So I'm doing a Danish topped with saffron roasted rhubarb.
I love sweet things but I love experimenting with other flavours
and kind of, like, seeing how far you can take it.
And I think growing up gay, like, you know, made me
look for other things that were also different.
But I do think it opens up your mind more.
And it's just a lot of fun as well, isn't it?
Alongside his saffron and rhubarb Danish,
Christiaan hopes to begin his journey to the final
with a Gruyere cheese swirl flavoured with za'atar.
Christiaan. Oh, hello, you. How you doing, semifinalist?
I know, can you believe it? This has got to be your week, right... Oh...
..patisserie? I don't know, is it?
You still haven't had a Star Baker.
Don't. I'm the only one here without Star Baker.
Always that bridesmaid, ain't ya? I know.
As long as I win the final, it's fine. Exactly!
To even reach the final,
the bakers will have to conquer lamination.
I am putting butter into my dough.
But, you see, your butter's soft enough that you can roll it...
I'm going to just give this a quick little...
..but not so soft that it disappears into the dough
and you'll lose the layers.
Dylan will be doing something exciting with thermometers.
If your butter's too hard you get butter shards
and then your pastry won't laminate properly.
I just go, that looks about right. Crack on.
Making a pocket of butter in-between the dough
and then you roll it out.
Going to start using my frozen pins so everything's cold
cos I need to keep the butter cold.
So this is the first fold, so this is a letter fold. So you bring one
one-third of the way, the other two-thirds of the way.
So this was, like, the book fold.
So you need pastry, butter, pastry, butter, pastry, butter.
At this point I just want to chill it.
In-between every time that you fold it
you're going to have to put it back in the fridge. Whilst Christiaan
and Georgie are preparing pastries featuring complex flavours
and designs... So I'm just going to pop it in the freezer.
..Gill's planned a breakfast that's a little less continental.
We're having sausage sandwiches and bananas and custard.
That's so English. Bolton is coming to Paris
or Paris is coming to Bolton.
ALISON: Gill will add fennel to her sausage whirls
and she'll fill Danish pastries with a banana creme patissiere
and decorate with bruleed bananas.
I think that sounds delicious. Yeah, it does sound nice. Yeah.
How do you feel about being in the semifinal?
I'm trying not to think about the final next week. I'm just trying
to concentrate on today and hope that I get through.
Live in the moment. That's it, yeah.
Every moment in this Signature Challenge is crucial.
Three hours is definitely not a long time.
The bakers need to fold their dough as many times as possible.
You roll your dough, then you do your first turn,
then you put it back in the fridge then it has half an hour. Then you
do your second turn, you put it back in the fridge. It has half an hour.
So literally just to get your dough done you would end up with using up
your entire time. But the longer they spend
perfecting their layers... You can see the lamination in there.
..the less time they'll have for proving and baking.
It's just so much faff.
I don't imagine that you're bothered about patisserie, are you...?
It's not something I do on a regular basis. It's too fancy-schmancy
for you, innit? It's a bit faffy. Yeah. Bit faffy. You've got to
pull it off today. I know, I've got to try and pull it off today.
Think you're going to be all right. You're in the semifinal. I know.
Where did the time go? Yesterday there was 12 of us in here.
What do you think they're all doing now?
I believe Mike's at Glastonbury. Oh, is he?
They're having a brilliant time. Having a fabulous time.
You're in here stressed out, baking, and they're just in the rave tent.
But not everyone's stressed out by patisserie week.
I was practising every time with two hours. I thought we had two hours.
Dylan misread the rules for this challenge
and has been practising completing it in just two hours
rather than three. I can't believe I didn't read it properly.
It's actually ridiculous.
To deliver 16 breakfast pastries in what he thought was just two hours,
Dylan planned just one design - a croissant.
One batch with a hazelnut creme patissiere
and another with cinnamon.
This sounds quite simple for you. Quite simple flavours and...
Well, that was cos I was just so worried about the time.
How are you introducing the creme pat? I wanted to pipe it in.
What, when it's baked? Yeah.
So it'll lose all the lamination.
So I thought the best way if the proving isn't perfect,
kind of hide away from that is to... Pipe it inside so you can't see.
..fill them. Yeah.
Leave one empty.
Well, I'll see how they turn out.
Bakers, you're halfway through. Oh, God.
That's a very strong call-out.
Strong and serious, it's the semifinal.
No jokes. No laughs.
Just powerful baking. Yes.
Lamination. If racing to create layers of butter and pastry
wasn't hard enough... It looks all right.
..the semifinalists must now shape their laminated dough fast enough
to give them as much time to prove as possible.
I'm just cutting out my squares
so they can start proving.
Once they've puffed up it's going to be like a floral shape.
I'm going to cut them into squares
and then they're going to be turned into little pinwheels.
I mean, look how you just know what you're talking about. Yeah...
Who have you become? Who am I now? I don't know who I am any more.
I've been really worried for this challenge.
It is doable but the time is tight.
We're having to do it at such speed.
Why are you making us do this? This is just cruel.
Whilst Dylan has just one croissant design for both his batches...
These are sort of minimalist croissants.
..Georgie's second pastry is even more complicated than her pinwheels.
This is the cross lamination, so I'm cutting it
and then popping it on the top.
So, usually, say if you've got a croissant
you'll see all the layers from the side. This, it will be on the top
so you're going to see all the lamination. So basically
I'm putting myself up for slaughter.
But it's the semifinal so I have to do something adventurous.
Got to put the sausage meat in this.
These are my fennel seeds. This is my nod to the posh.
Now, the secret is you want it tight so it stays tight
but you don't want it too tight
because then it doesn't have the space to grow.
Pain aux raisin if you're talking Danish. But it's pain aux sausage.
Smells nice over here.
We're doing some za'atar. It's like a Middle Eastern spice mix.
It's a really kind of rich flavour.
You're in the semifinal. You know what, part of me feels as if it was
last week that there was 12 of us in the tent. I was thinking
about Andy today going, "Oh, my God." Exactly.
It's like when you think about all the fallen bakers...
And they're all buried out the back.
Cos when you get kicked out of here,
rolling pin, back of the head.
And we put you in a big piping bag, tie it up. Oh, no. This is gross.
And then Prue digs a hole, like in Goodfellas,
and then Alison just kicks your body into the hole. Stop it.
And that's the truth of Bake Off.
The Dame don't muck about, that's all I'm saying.
These need to prove. I moved so much slower at the beginning,
what was I doing? I want to get as long as I can for proving
cos I think the proving is my main issue.
Just going to pop a thermometer in here just to kind of see
what the temperature is like.
At 30 degrees that butter just melts away
and you don't get your lamination.
So you want your pastries to prove at about 26 max, I think.
Let's let these babies grow.
Even if they're ready to prove... Hopefully I can give them an hour.
..the bakers still need to perfect any fillings or toppings.
I'm going to make hazelnut paste now. Italian fingers for you,
the heat doesn't touch me.
So this is my banana creme pat.
I just really like the saffron with the rhubarb.
The rhubarb is quite, like, sharp and punchy.
I thought that would be a nice combination.
The extra hour Dylan thought he had... Oh, I'm so dumb.
..seems to have disappeared.
So these still won't have enough time to prove. I think I must be
the most disorganised person to have made it to the semifinal.
I'm going to put them in the oven with a bit of steam
and just put a thermometer in. Hopefully that works better.
Cool?
LAUGHTER
When I heard that Paul was able to do this in the time I was like,
what is he, like some sort of magic man?
Bakers, you've got one hour left.
Everything now rests on the bakers' next move -
when to stop proving... I just need to watch this temperature,
if it goes too high then my butter will start to melt.
..and start baking. Waiting game now.
But every minute proving
will mean a minute less baking.
They take about 25 minutes to cook
plus I'm going to have to get this oven on to preheat.
None of them have got long to prove.
Ah!
DUCKS QUACK
So I'm proving them for as long as I can, really,
just pushing it to the end. I'm just going to keep checking them.
So we've got 45 minutes.
This is just like a transient state of...whatever.
And that's as much time as they've got,
whether they're ready or not, they're going in.
These ones are 100% not proved enough.
I'm going to take 'em out and put my oven on.
Oh, God, that's hot in there.
Jeepers!
You know I got basically everything wrong in this challenge.
If you'd known that you'd had three hours what would you have done
differently? Well, they did say it seemed a bit simple.
Did they say you seemed a bit simple or this seemed a bit simple?
A bit simple. That's what they say to me.
"You seem a bit simple, Noel." And I'm like, I am simple.
The decisions that you make while under pressure is just so weird.
I really hope this works. I'm just breaking up my cardamom pods
then I can put them in my apple sauce.
I'm just making my cinnamon sugar that I'm going to toss them in.
Let's just do this, then.
Cos if you don't prove it enough the yeast will explode in the oven
and then it'll chuck all the butter out.
That's when you end up with a dry Danish,
and we're not at home to Mr Dry Danish.
I mean, this is like the moment of truth, isn't it?
Oh, it's so annoying.
Yeah, but the butter's not even leaking out that much. It is.
They look pretty well proved. It's hell, isn't it?
It's hell in here.
Bakers, you've got half an hour left.
I'm just looking at the colour.
When the colour's nice I'll take 'em out.
I'm just going to give as long as possible. Turn the temperature up.
I'm just making my creme pat,
which I just kind of want it to taste like hazelnut ice cream.
Right, we're going in. Woohoo.
Gill's are out, yay. Look really good, Gill.
Ta-da-da-da-daa!
How much time do we have left? You have ten minutes left.
OK, I'm just going to pull them now.
It's all going to be last-minute rushes now.
Bruleeing bananas is hopefully where I don't set the tent on fire.
These are not good. The dough isn't cooked, they're underproved.
I would've liked to have baked them for a bit longer
but I need to fill them.
Let's do it.
Relieved it's over. They look all right to me. I'd eat them.
But Paul's told me to leave one without the cream in.
This is so tight. One minute left.
Now it's a case of which ones do I want to hide? Just throw these on.
Little brush of the orange. Oh, the lemon.
Bakers, your time is up.
Group hug. Come on, Dylan. Dylan. Dylan, come in, in here.
In a minute. Dylan's like, "No, I'm busy."
"I've got croissants to gaze at." Come on. That was painful.
Come on, come on, come on. Oh, we did it.
It's judgment time for the semifinalists' breakfast pastries.
Hello, Georgie. Hello, everyone. Hi, Georgie.
I do like the colour. The time just went.
And you've scorched them. You know they're going to be crispy. Yeah.
This has got the... Creme patisserie...
SHE MUTTERS
Tastes lovely. Beautifully crisp. Just a little doughy in the middle.
When you're baking off the pastry, try and rush it
and it looks like it's done, and then inside just concertinas up.
Yeah. The pinwheels look absolutely delicious and beautiful.
Thank you, Prue.
Same thing with this, really. Yeah.
Too high. And it hasn't managed to laminate. Yeah.
I love this one. The flavour is perfect. Yeah, the coffee.
Beautifully judged. Delicious. Just a bit of extra time
and they would've been right. Would've been fine, yeah. Yeah.
They don't look too bad.
You've probably put a little bit too much filling in. OK.
As the meat is cooking, it's opening up... OK.
..releasing moisture... Right. ..and then pushing it out. Right.
Which is why it opened up. OK.
ALISON: Oh, lovely crunchies.
You've literally got a whole sausage in there.
LAUGHTER
It's delaminated itself. OK. It's been rushed a little bit.
The layers haven't really joined together. OK.
But having said that, you're nearly there.
The sausage is a bit thick
but I must say I love the flavour of the sausage. Mm.
So there's a banana and creme pat and then some bruleed bananas. Mm.
It needed more proving. You see the thick bars here.
Yeah. OK. You were nearly there. Yeah.
It all tastes excellent but it is a bit tough and doughy. OK.
They look really inviting.
If I saw them in a pastry shop window, I'd want one.
Yeah, for sure. Good.
This is the za'atar, isn't it? Za'atar and the gruyere.
Yeah, it's pretty good inside.
The flavour is absolutely lovely.
The za'atar level is delicious. It's not overpowering.
And I think you're nearly there with the proving and the baking as well.
Here we've got the saffron and rhubarb Danish.
Wow, that's a punchy rhubarb, that one. Mm. Very tart.
It's really tart and rhubarby which is lovely. That's very you.
Strong, out the box flavours and it's worked. Thank you.
They don't look as neat as I expected them to look.
They are a bit of a mess.
Well, they're certainly well filled.
Certainly hiding a multitude of sins, isn't it?
Well, you don't know yet. I have left you the plain one.
I'm going to have a look at that one. That plain one... No.
Cos that looks a good one, though. No. That's not fair.
Ah, so they're not as honeycombed... That bit's all right.
In the middle it just needed longer to prove. Needed longer proving.
Yeah.
I love the cinnamon. Yeah?
Good and punchy, it's strong enough.
Flavour's lovely with the cinnamon. Let's look at the chocolate one.
Bit sloppy. I piped it in when it was warm.
Well, you'd never have managed it in two hours, that's for sure. Yeah!
That tastes like tahini.
The hazelnut paste doesn't quite work. And it's too sloppy.
And I'm not convinced that just piping a load of stuff inside
a croissant and destroying what you've essentially spent hours
trying to build up is what you should've done.
I think it was probably one of the worst things I've made on the show.
Bread is something I really like and so it's just, like, proving is
that one thing which is easy
but it's the one thing which just ruins your croissants like that.
Can you really ever have too much sausage? I don't think so.
Everyone had issues with proving and it's not been my best work.
But it's done. I do really want to give myself every chance
to get through to next week.
But none of us know what's going on because everyone had an issue.
So we're all a bit nervous. Ah!
The semifinalists have no idea what they'll be baking next.
Your Technical Challenge has been set by patisserie Paul.
Patisserie Paul, any words of wisdom?
You have to really be careful of the layers
and be extremely accurate. As always, this is judged blind.
So, judges, you may now leave the tent, thank you.
Bye-bye, Patisserie Paul.
So, Paul would love you to make the exquisite French patisserie classic,
gateau opera, or opera cake.
Your opera cakes should have eight layers of joconde sponge,
coffee, creme aux beurre and a dark chocolate ganache.
And it should be able to sing Nessun Dorma at the end.
Patisserie Paul has given you 2 hours and 45 minutes.
On your marks. Get set. Bake!
Oh, my God.
Opera cakes, I've never had one. They sound nice.
I think the opera cake originates from the layers of the opera house.
Paul said you want the layers to be really nice and even
so it is a bit scary.
Paul, an opera cake. Really difficult.
You have layers of joconde sponge, creme aux beurre,
then you have the ganache. There's two ways to introduce
the coffee flavour into this. One is in the creme aux beurre
and the other one is the syrup
drizzled over the top of the joconde.
Once you've got to the top and you've got your glaze on
then you need to think about trimming it off.
When you cut through, how do you stop that smearing?
You can only do this with a hot knife.
On the top they're going to have to temper some chocolate.
It's all about the detail.
You're showing off with this particular cake.
First thing to hit you is the coffee.
It's absolutely perfect, isn't it?
So they've got all the ingredients and the quantities.
Except for the coffee. But otherwise you've just said make joconde,
make ganache, make creme aux beurre. Yeah.
It's tricky. This is the semifinal.
We need to test our four amazing bakers.
"Make the chocolate ganache."
So I'm going to pour my cream over the chocolate
and allow it to sort of melt a bit.
You've made an opera cake before. No, never made an opera cake. No?
Never made a joconde sponge. I know the theory.
Why are they called opera cakes? Who knows how the French mind works?
"Make the joconde." So if you've never made a joconde it's like,
I've no idea what everyone else is doing.
Do you ever learn much about baking from being here?
I'm Michelin starred. Prue gave me a Michelin star.
She glued it to my head.
Start by whisking up the eggs, ground almonds and the caster sugar.
It's meant to be a light sponge, I know that and that's about it.
It has no levelling agent so this is really important.
They want us to add egg whites to it. So we have to make a meringue,
fold it in and also incorporate air into the egg yolks.
This cooks really quickly, I think.
Want to make sure I've got enough.
You make, like, a second mixture.
Egg whites, sugar, and you sift the flour over it
and then you combine the two together.
How come that you're making that and that separately?
And then you add them together later? I think it is because you can
actually incorporate a lot more air into your egg whites.
Don't give you much here, do they? Oh, no. I mean, honestly.
So I'm just folding in my meringue, lightens it up a bit.
What's everyone else doing here?
I think they've got theirs in, whipping with it. Don't know.
Oh! Is that for the joconde as well?
Oh, my God, I've... I've done it wrong.
Well, it says for the joconde, those,
and then there's a gap and then there's more ingredients.
I don't understand.
I'm going. I've had enough. I'm going...
I just don't want to do it.
I'm done. I'm done.
I'm going to stand here until the end.
Just feel useless. Listen to me.
I've been where you are, what you've just done, listen,
this is what you're doing. You put yourself into a, "I can't do this,
"I'm no good." Listen to me, you've got this, a million percent.
Please, I'm begging ya.
Get that negative and throw it away right now. Yeah.
Come back to the positive cos, listen, I'm telling you now,
you will kick yourself... Yeah. ..if you lose this now. Yeah.
I just don't know what to do with it, Alison. You do. I don't.
You do. Listen, just read it slowly.
Get out of your space and go back to where GG always is, yeah? Yeah.
I know. All right? You've got this. All right? OK.
Bakers, you are halfway through.
So behind now.
I've put 'em in for 10 minutes. Maybe around, like, 10-12 minutes.
Whilst Georgie remakes her sponge,
the rest of the bakers move on to the coffee elements.
Make the coffee syrup. Which we're going to spread over the cake.
Coffee extract to taste.
Do they not know that I can't taste coffee? For the love of god, people.
So they're going in now. They're not right anyway.
Creme aux beurre, that's just a French buttercream.
Add the butter in and that's your creme aux beurre.
I think I'm going to add the espresso extract now.
Half a teaspoon to begin with.
Smells really strong. Don't want to put much in.
Oh, I could eat this all day.
I am going to put in another one. Be bold.
Did a half teaspoon, so I'm going to add another one.
Definitely more coffee.
Taste it now.
I think it's fine.
Oh, should I do a bit more?
Needs more. I don't want to overwhelm.
Might do a little bit more.
Oh, that's really good, actually. Stop there.
Right, let's have a look.
It's cooked.
I'm going to take that as done.
I think that looks all right.
It's rising a little bit. It'll just have to do. At least it's risen.
How's it going? As long as I get something on the dish it'll be fine.
You've got to get out of your head. That's the thing. I know.
It's just in your head. I shouldn't be like that, really.
It's just in your head, ultimately. "I'm going, I'm just not doing it.
"I'm going to stand here until it's finished."
So I am just going to cut this sponge.
It's a bit thick so I'm just going to cut it down a bit.
Not the best, I don't think, but they're going to come out.
Paul's opera cake recipe demands eight layers.
Cake, syrup, chocolate, buttercream and then again.
And as the sides will be exposed...
So I'm going to soak it with the syrup.
..every layer must be the same thickness.
Looks beautiful. And perfectly level.
It's not filling it properly. What a mess.
There we go, freeze.
Bakers, you've got half an hour left. "For the decoration,
"temper the chocolate and spread over the transfer square,
"making these beautiful musical notes decorations."
E sharp, G, G, B.
I can't wait to see the musical notes on it. Yeah.
It's going to be cute. It makes me want to sing opera.
VOCALISES
What a lovely voice. Oh!
"Using a sharp knife, make 1.5cm cuts.
"Curl the acetate into a two
"and place in the glasses to set."
It's a job well done, mate.
So that can just stay there now. I need to get the other layers on.
Final layer of buttercream.
Oh, that buttercream's bloody beautiful.
I'm going to top it with the last sponge.
And then soak it in the syrup.
There's just so many layers and so many things going on it's like, oh!
I can feel like a tension in here now. It is like...
Crunch time. Yes.
They're going to be looking for perfection in this.
I'm hoping once I've cut the ends it'll be fine.
Bakers, you have 15 minutes left.
The glaze is going on.
Ah. I think the proof's going to be in when I unmould it.
I know I've got other issues
so I just want to make sure this top layer is right.
How do you even get it off?
Apparently like that.
It's all right, I just need to trim it down.
I'm just going to get a hot knife and just hope for the best.
I'm a bit nervous.
Oh, took that edge off with the handle. That's annoying.
The layer's so messy.
Pretty nice.
So I'm moving back to my chocolate decoration.
Sugar, they're all snapping.
I'm going to put these in the freezer for a minute, actually.
Bakers, you've got one minute left.
Oh, Christ.
Fingers crossed I'll get a couple.
Oh, it might have been a bad idea to freeze these in here
cos it's going to be such a pain to get... Oh.
Just breaking in my hands. Oh, no.
My curls haven't worked. I think I made them too thin.
That's actually beautiful.
Bakers, your time is up.
Ah, do you know what? It'll have to do.
Please bring your opera cakes down to the table
and place them behind your photographs.
That was awful.
Yours looks awesome, Dylan. Oh, look at your curls.
Wow. Wow.
Mine's a mess. Oh... Mine is a bit of a mess.
Paul and Prue are expecting
eight precise layers including light joconde sponge,
beautifully smooth coffee creme aux beurre
and chocolate ganache all topped with tempered chocolate curls.
OK. Start with this one.
Well, the curls on the chocolate could've been a bit curlier
and higher. Yeah.
They're very nice and neat, the layers. Mm.
It is all very good. There's not a lot of coffee.
There's some. There's some but not a lot.
This one looks a bit uneven.
Look at the difference between that layer of ganache and that. Yeah.
Not getting a lot of coffee in that one. Getting chocolate. Mm.
This is very nice. It's got nice neat layers.
That looks very even, doesn't it? It's very good.
Mm - coffee.
Chocolate's good, too. Mm. That is really lovely.
That's nice.
I love these curls.
They're not quite in the middle but they're very nice.
But the layers are all over the place.
Quite a big layer of chocolate on there, isn't there?
There's coffee. Coffee.
Definite coffee. Curls are lovely. I like the shine.
It's probably a bit too much chocolate on top.
Paul and Prue will now rank the opera cakes from worst to first.
In fourth place we have this one.
Georgie, it's not quite enough coffee
and the layers aren't quite even.
In third spot we have this one, whose is this?
Christiaan, coffee level was quite nice
but it was just a little bit untidy.
In second place we have this one.
Who's that? Gill, the only complaint I can find is that
the chocolate curls weren't very perfect
and I would've liked a tiny bit more coffee.
Which means in first place - Dylan.
Very neat and the coffee level was spot-on and each layer was equal.
Well done.
I'm feeling a bit more optimistic about getting into the final now.
Just when I was placing those chocolate curls
I was like, "Oh, yeah, this is really up my street."
Like, I'm not good at the arts, crafty style of baking.
I think I'm much better at making things look plain,
which doesn't sound good. I'm looking at it as a positive second
rather than third from bottom.
I was hoping to come just that one spot higher.
It's so hard when you can't understand what they're asking
of you. I've never had that before. But it was really close.
And this morning everyone had a technical issue with the bake
so it's going to come down to tomorrow.
One challenge remains before we discover who will be this year's
last Star Baker and who won't be making it to the final.
Good luck, everyone. Do your best.
I think it's more important to them to get into the final
almost than it is to win.
Once you get into the final you go, "Well, I was a finalist."
And it's sort of pretty amazing.
But the only one that's slightly in front is Christiaan.
He's never had Star Baker, though.
He's always second. He's always the bridesmaid.
Dylan struggled I think in the Signature but he won the Technical.
So he's ping ponged a little bit, hasn't he? The one who absolutely
doesn't believe she'll get through is Georgie.
But she wants it the most, in a weird way. She wants it terribly.
Gill's just shocked she's here. Yes.
If they all have an amazing Showstopper... Then where are we?
..what are we going to do? I don't know.
When it gets that tight we will look back over previous weeks...
And then beyond that will you look to what they did at school?
Possibly. And beyond that. Primary school.
LAUGHTER
"Which one of you walked first?" Yeah.
Hello, bakers, welcome back to the tent.
It's your Showstopper Challenge
and the judges would love you to create an exquisite display
of 12 fruit-shaped entremets.
Entremets literally means "between servings". Which means
you can eat as many as you want cos it's not an actual meal.
Each of your entremets should be decorated to look like
your chosen fruits.
You have 4 hours, 30 minutes.
Good luck, everyone. There's only this bake between you
and the final of The Great British Bake Off.
On your marks. Get set. Bake!
Obviously I've practised them.
This is the first time I've ever made entremets,
I don't think I've ever eaten entremets.
I think it's so tight today. Everything has to be perfect.
It's going to be intense. Ai, ai, ai.
But what's new?
Today's Showstopper Challenge
is to make 12 entremets fruit shaped.
So say they're making a tangerine,
it must look like a tangerine and it must taste like a tangerine.
It's all about textures. When you bite into an entremet,
you think of the lightest mousse you've ever had
and you think of several layers of that.
This is truly a delicious challenge.
The key thing is setting each particular layer
before you add the next one. If you don't,
it'll bleed and they're going to have to start again.
Once the bakers have produced all their entremets,
now they've got to think how they're going to display it.
They could use biscuit, they could use chocolate.
You want it to really show off the entremets.
This is the last chance to get to the final.
It's probably the most important challenge of the whole lot.
Hi, Gill. Hello, there.
Tell us about your entremets.
I am making strawberry entremets which is inspired by the time
we went pick your own strawberrying as a family.
And my dad lost his car keys while we were picking.
There were some looks between my mother and father at that point.
Gill aims not to lose her place in the final
with a buttercream basket
surrounded by mirror glazed strawberry mousse entremets,
featuring a sharp strawberry and mint gel.
And they'll sit on delicate lemon shortbread
in the shape of her dad's lost car keys.
Your flavours are always good. OK. When you first came to the tent
we were a bit concerned about your finesse. Yeah.
But actually that's changed now. Absolutely. I like the story, too.
Every family has that story. We lost ours on the beach. Oh, right!
I bet you look after your car keys really well. I do.
LAUGHTER
NOEL: After a disastrous Technical Challenge...
Need to move quick today.
..Georgie's hoping to be picked for the grand final
thanks to not just one fruit entremets but two.
One's lemon and lime with a pistachio shortbread
and blackberry and whisky chocolate cake.
I know the judges like alcohol, so I was like, just do anything.
Welsh whisky soaked chocolate cake with blackberry comfit and mousse
will sit in a chocolate basket alongside Georgie's lemon entremets
with a strong limoncello kick
for a Showstopper that she hopes won't be her last.
Do you know... You nearly left, like Jeff.
Alison gave me a talking to as well. So I'm glad you guys were there.
We have to try and keep you on track. But you know what?
You're tired as well. And this is a lot. Yeah.
Oh! Yeah... What have I just done?
What are you doing? Is that my fault?
Oh, my... No, I put them backwards. Um, yeah.
You're supposed it through the sieve first, yeah? Yeah.
You trying to sieve it through a bowl into a sieve? What's going on?
It's good that you really want to get to the final. Oh, my gosh.
To get through the Showstopper...
Right, first element done.
..one thing all the bakers need is a perfectly set silky mousse.
My life's more Angel Delight than a mousse.
It's a strawberry and mascarpone mousse
but it's got white chocolate in it.
Before I started Bake Off I had no idea about mousse and how it works.
You can literally use anything to make a mousse.
I have this, which is my avocado mousse.
And this has got a bit of pistachio in it
and then inside that is going to be a chocolate choux bun
and then have a lime dark chocolate ganache inside. So it's going to act
like the core of the avocado? Yeah. Oh, that's lovely.
Dylan's choux bun centres will be coated in caramel,
his avocado entremets served in a nougatine pallet box,
and his orange entremets made with
an orange and white chocolate whipped ganache
and genoise sponge soaked in orange liqueur.
And the outside is going to be what, how are you texturing it?
So I'm dipping them in cocoa butter then the avocado I'm going to spray
with just a bit of purple cocoa butter. Mm-hm.
And then I'm going to spray them all with, like, a neutral glaze
so it gives like a knobbly, shiny wax effect
and I think they look super cool.
Obviously you're aiming to be in the final.
What would that make you feel like if you got through to the final
of The Great British Bake Off? I want to be a chef, right?
And so I think this, the whole thing has been, like...
..sick, because it's like, like...
I feel like so much of it has, like, affirmed certain things,
like I didn't even know if I was any good, you know, before
and I think if I make it to the final it's like, "Wow!"
I mean, you have had a very good run. Thank you. You really have.
NOEL: A creamy mousse is just the beginning
of the bakers' daunting to-do list.
OK, right. I'm going to make this curd now.
Any classic entremets must also have a separate complementary centre.
The diced strawberries are going in the centre
with some mint in it as well.
The orange one will have a insert of orange jam.
I need this done really quick because it needs to freeze.
So this is limoncello.
And Georgie isn't the only baker bringing a taste of Italy
to their Showstopper.
I can taste it.
I'm doing, like, a lot of things at the same time.
The basil is for my basil jelly. It's like a really thin layer
that goes on top of my bergamot insert.
I imagine that most people will have drunken earl grey tea,
which is the main flavouring and that is the bergamot.
Inspired by a trip to Italy with his partner Nick,
Christiaan's bergamot and basil filled citrus entremets
will join sour apple and orange liqueur entremets,
completing a display that's even more ambitious than his flavours.
So the centrepiece is going to be, like, a lemon biscuit tree
and I'm doing lemon meringue piped leaves
and I'll individually add them on.
You're not messing around with this Showstopper today, are ya?
It is semifinal... Hang on... Christiaan... ..is this standing up?
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So you're making the tree and the leaves?
Yeah, yeah.
Christiaan... OK. Um, I hope you're not over ambitious here.
We'll leave you to it. I think you need all the time.
Thank you, Christiaan.
As well as setting mousses and centres,
the bakers must also find time to perfect the baked elements
that the judges have demanded.
So this is going to be the chocolate cake.
So the orange entremets have genoise sponge at the bottom.
Get it in. Get it cooked. Get it cooled.
Bing, bang, boom. Bish, bash, bosh.
Do you know what I thought when I saw your keys?
I thought it was like you leave 'em in a bowl.
When I thought of this lovely story
and I called it Pick Your Own Car Keys, my husband just went,
"There's going to be so much innuendo about that."
Both of them are going to have a pistachio dacquoise biscuit base.
And I'm still on my time schedule so that's really good.
Are you on sched? I'm happy. Yeah, I am on schedule.
This is the key to your success.
I've got here, 20 minutes, which is room for error,
so if anything goes wrong I've got an extra 20 minutes.
I've calculated it.
I'm going to call my autobiography Room For Error.
Bakers, you are halfway through.
Oh, my God, what the hell is this?
This is not a genoise sponge. This is a mess.
I just hope I can get what I need from it.
Time is now the semifinalists' enemy.
Ah!
Happy with them. The faster they can assemble their entremets...
Phew! ..the more chance they'll have to set
and be decorated to look like their chosen fruit.
And that choux bun, it's sort of reminiscent of the avocado pip.
After this, the choux only takes 15 minutes
and then I can assemble everything.
I've put a little bit of mousse in the bottom of the moulds.
Then I've put the frozen insert in and now I'm just topping them up.
Adding on the dacquoise biscuit. It's to make a realistic strawberry,
they're not the biggest in the world.
I'm hoping that will show finesse.
But finesse... It's so weird.
..could prove hard to come by for Dylan. It's all odd shapes
because I couldn't get the genoise a good enough diameter.
And he's not alone.
I've done it wrong. I should've put this in when that was not solid.
BLEEP.
Georgie has frozen her mousse before adding her inserts.
So now there's not going to be enough room.
Ah, sugar, what am I going to do?
Unable to press them into soft mousse,
she'll have to cut each one down to fit. Ah... Ah.
Potentially ruining her balance of flavours.
I'm so annoyed I've done this now.
You've got one chance cos you need to freeze them to get them to set.
If they don't come out of the moulds you've got no time to do it again.
Then we're all doomed.
What a silly cow.
Just pop these in the freezer and then I'll move on.
Bakers, you've got one hour left.
BLEEP. Sorry!
Didn't lose any.
Christiaan and Dylan are really pushing the boat out, aren't they?
Christiaan's doing a sour apple, the bergamot
and the way that he's putting that together in a tree,
I hope he has the time. And Dylan as well.
I love the idea of the avocado, that's going to be fascinating
to see what that actually tastes like. And the way he's trying
to make the stone of the avocado. With the choux. The choux bun.
The one that's playing it safer is definitely Gill.
The fact that it's a simple strawberry and a biscuit,
we're not going to mark her down for that.
I need to start weaving.
Georgie's lacking in confidence. Yeah. A chocolate basket,
I mean, that's really interesting. She really does have the skills.
She just never sort of believes in herself. Yeah, yeah, sure.
I need to check the entremets and I am a little bit scared.
The thing they really need to worry about is the textures.
You've got to allow for things to set.
If you try and rush it, it's like the whole thing will collapse down.
They kind of feel frozen.
This is going to be very, very tricky.
So we're just going to try and make a nice avocado shape.
If their entremets aren't frozen...
Yes.
..the bakers may not have enough remaining time to decorate them.
Ah!
Well, hopefully they don't mind food off the floor.
Might not stay.
Just got to get 'em out.
BLEEP.
Frozen, which is what I want.
OK, I'm going to leave these in the freezer for a bit
before I unmould any more. Cos they're warming up already.
Bakers, you have half an hour left.
Half an hour. Are you mental?
Just not what you want to hear, is it?
So the basket's done.
So I'm dipping mine in cocoa butter
and then spraying them with a neutral glaze.
Mirror glaze is a bit of a pain.
Too cold and it's going to be lumpy.
Too hot and it's just going to melt the entremets
and also just completely melt off.
Right, looks like we're ready to go.
You have 15 minutes left.
Just about enough. We'll see.
Hopefully the texture of the strawberry won't be masked
by the mirror glaze.
God, my fingers are freezing after that.
Please, please, please work.
Ah.
I'm going to spray them with cocoa butter.
It's tense.
I can't breathe.
I can't feel my fingers.
Just wish they were a bit neater but it what it is.
It's all right, I do have another one. Is it still cold?
No. Let me just pop it in the freezer. Bakers,
you have five minutes left.
I don't know if it will freeze in time. I don't know why
I just threw that one away. I probably could've used it still.
I'm not really happy with what the bottom looks like
so I'm thinking to maybe dip them in pistachio for a little edge
but I don't know if that's a good idea or a very bad last-minute idea.
Yeah, that's all I can do.
How much time do we have left? One minute to finish your entremets.
Come on, Dyl, you can do it.
Oh, my God. Come on!
Please, Dylan, please.
Your time is up.
Well done, bakers.
I'm missing an orange. Bloody hell.
It's judgment time for the semifinalists' entremets.
Gill, it's time for your Showstopper.
Gill, describe your entremets.
My Pick Your Own Keys entremets
is strawberry and mint centre
then a strawberry mousse with a white chocolate glaze
and a lemon shortbread.
That basket is lovely. I like your dad's keys.
I don't know why he couldn't find them. They're pretty obvious.
I like the strawberries
cos proportionally they're all the right size. Yes.
The mint really works, too.
The mint and the mousse all work really nicely together.
I think they're little exquisite balls of strawberry.
I'd be very happy to stand here and gobble the rest up. Yeah, agreed.
Thank you. Well done, Gill. Thank you, Gill.
Well done, love. Thank you.
Dylan, it's time for your Showstopper.
Dylan, can you remind us about your Showstopper, please?
One of them is orange.
It has a orange whipped white chocolate ganache,
genoise sponge and then orange jam on the inside.
And then the avocado one is an avocado and pistachio
with a choux bun in the middle dipped in caramel
and dark chocolate and lime ganache. I like your nougatine.
That works beautifully well as a basket.
I love the fact that the covering on the outside is glistening
so it looks like they've just been picked.
There's the stone.
LAUGHING: Look at that.
Oh, wow. Cheers, Christiaan.
It's a very strange feeling cos it's so realistic I think,
"Oh, my God, I've got some of the skin there,
"I'll have to eat avocado skin." It messes with your mind.
That is so delicate
and the pistachio is fascinating in it. And I think it works beautifully
cos I've never had anything quite like it.
I think the pistachio goes so well with the chocolate.
It is a little work of art.
Fascinating to see what this orange is going to be like now.
Wow.
I love that, too. I love the bitterness of the marmalade
with the sweetness of the mousse, it's just lovely.
It's one thing being able to produce an entremet with the idea of a fruit
but to make it look like the fruit is very clever. Well done.
Cheers. Thank you, Dylan.
You were worried for nothing, see?
Christiaan, would you like to bring up your Showstopper?
Christiaan, tell us all about your entremets, please.
We have pistachio dacquoise topped with an apple compote
encased in an apple mousse and then the other ones are basil jelly
encased in a bergamot lemon mousse.
It is staggeringly beautiful.
I love the colours, quite a vibrant yellow on that
and the classic sour apple green.
And besides which it goes with my outfit perfectly.
It does, actually. There they are there. It's a work of art.
You've done something really exceptional. Thank you.
That little thin line is basil jelly? That's the basil jelly, yeah.
The dacquoise with the basil jelly works beautifully well together.
The contrast when you get a bit of the crunch is lovely.
But the bergamot, the citrus flavour coming through is just stunning.
I think you've created something really elegant there.
That mousse has a real good apple flavour.
I think the mousse is delicious
and you sort of carry through that sour apple flavour
which then works as a whole
again with the dacquoise down at the bottom.
I don't think you've put a foot wrong. Well done, Christiaan.
Thank you.
You smashed it.
Georgie, would you like to bring up your entremets, please?
Georgie, tell us all about your entremets, please.
The lemon is a limoncello mousse, lime curd and pistachio shortbread
and the blackberry is blackberry mousse comfit,
creme pat and a chocolate sponge with a dash of Welsh whisky on it.
They look absolutely wonderful
and I'm so impressed with the basket.
The basket and the filling look amazing. I love these blackberries.
And the finish on top of the lemon as well. Clever.
Beautiful. Oh, thank you.
What's interesting is because the mousse is really smooth,
the contrast of the jam, which has got almost whole fruit in it,
it's just lovely. I love the comfit inside,
it's got that sharpness that goes really well with the mousse.
Even the chocolate sponge with the alcohol kick.
Is it a kick? Cos I don't know how much I put in there. There was...
It's just a kick. Just a little bit. You know it's there.
Mm.
Yes, Georgie. The limoncello, is it?
Mm, that's delicious. Ah, thank you. Really good.
It's nice and light
and the shortbread down the bottom really works nicely with it as well.
And the proportions are perfect. It's just a delicious thing to eat.
Thank you.
Now do you believe in yourself? Yeah, I do.
The first time I've been really happy and, yeah. Thank you so much.
Finally. Well done, babe. Thank you. Thanks, guys.
Oh, thank God.
That was one semifinal judging, wasn't it?
Everyone did so brilliantly.
I feel like I witnessed Bake Off history.
I was sat there like, "Wow!" One after another after another,
everyone hit it. I'm definitely not a shoo-in for the final.
I don't think it's ever been this tight
ever in the history of Bake Off.
And I am worried because I was fourth in Technical.
I've done everything that I could do. It might be me.
That was probably one of the best Showstoppers I've ever seen.
Some of these bakes are just awesome.
Especially from Christiaan with the bergamot and the sour apple
cos that sour apple was spot-on.
And so was Dylan's. It looks so like a real avocado.
I will say one thing which I discovered after -
Dylan was missing an entremet.
Is that going to go against him? Well, yes, you're supposed to do 12.
And, actually, Georgie did a good job.
That limoncello in there, the kick from it was beautiful.
It was such a pleasure to eat.
Gill, hers was delicious, the shortbread was perfect. Yeah.
The mousse was perfect. This is going to be so tough.
Is it possible that Jeff can still go through?
LAUGHTER
Well done, bakers. What a semifinal.
I've also got the best job of announcing Star Baker.
This week's Star Baker
and the person definitely going through to the final is...
..Christiaan!
CHEERING
Well done!
Thank you. Finally...the bride.
Well done. Ah, that means I've got the devastating job
of announcing which person will be leaving us.
It's heartbreaking cos I feel like
you should all go through to the final.
The person who's leaving us this week is...
..Gill. And quite right, too. Oh...
Oh, Gill. Gill...
Oh! I love you. You've got to do this for the girls. OK?
You can't let these boys keep having it.
They outbaked me by a mile.
Ah! Patisserie got me.
But I can't be sad. I've had the absolute best time.
Brilliant. Can't be sad.
LAUGHS
Well done, Gill. Thanks, Paul. Did the North proud.
VOICEOVER: It wasn't the fact that Gill messed up,
it was just that everybody else was that little bit better.
And she's such a lovely lady and she represented the North
and my part of the world extremely well.
Oh, I'm so sorry to see Gill go.
She just goes for very homely flavours, which I absolutely love.
Perhaps not quite as ambitious, but just as good a baker.
It broke my heart to hear Gill's name being called
but I also thought, "Oh, my God, I'm a finalist."
It was so bittersweet.
Congratuatlions. You done it, babes. You're going into the final!
Yma o hyd, bois bach! The Welsh are still in! Yay!
Hey, babe. Hello, you all right?
I got Star Baker.
Ah! I genuinely did!
Thanks for everything. No, you are a star.
And you know that, don't you? This is your calling.
VOICEOVER: The greatest privilege of getting into the final,
it's about this whole thing gives you the opportunity
to actually invest time into something that you love.
I'm not thinking about anything else, I'm just thinking about
making good food and this is all I've ever wanted.
It's absolutely insane.
Thank you, everybody. It's been absolutely marvellous
and you've made me feel so special.
I've really, really loved it. Thank you. Thank you so much.
You. I want you. Come on. Come on.
LAUGHTER
INDISTINCT CHATTER
I did my best. Thank you. Thank you.
Every bake that I had has been something special to me
or about somebody who's special to me.
And, yeah, I've just baked what I know and what I love for who I love.
Now I'm going to go and rob that lilac bowl
cos I've had me eye on it forever.
Go, go, go!
Week one, I was on the back bench
and I said, "Oh, look, a lavender bowl.
Wouldn't it to be lovely to have a bowl like that?"
So, I won't get my cake stand but I've got my bowl.
LAUGHTER
Next time...
It's the final! But there can only be one winner.
Ah! Oh!
I need to get my head sorted.
And the winner of The Great British Bake Off 2024...
Oh, God. Definitely overbaked.
BLEEP.
Ow! Ah!
..is...
Are you a Star Baker in the making?
If you'd like to apply for the next series of Bake Off, visit...
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