Hello, viewer, it is pastry week. What's your favourite pastry, Noel?
I love a flaky pastry, Matt.
Hmm me too. Like this fella here.
Listen, mate, I can't pay you back this week. Something's come up.
Also, I know I said I'd give you a lift to the airport
but it's not gonna work out.
Ah. So flaky!
So flaky.
BOTH: Welcome to The Great British Bake Off.
Last time it was custard week.
Is there such a thing as too much custard? No! No.
Sandro looked set for success...
A little bit of the sauce.
...But it was Syabira...
The judges are gonna be smashed!
...who conquered custard...
That custard gateau is impressive.
...and earned the Star Baker crown.
Janusz melted under pressure...
My ice cream didn't set.
...but in the end it was Kevin who had his final wobble...
Oh, no.
...and became the latest baker to leave the tent.
I'm nothing but proud, really.
Now...
I wanna see baking nirvana.
...it's the quarterfinal...
Should have paid attention.
...and pastry week. Oh, my God.
The final five face a super-sweet signature...
I don't wanna present raw pastry!
...and get on a roll with a tricky technical...
Manga tout.
Manjay tout? Ooh, that's got confusing!
...but it's back to school for some...
Too much maths!
...with a spectacular storybook showstopper.
Ahhh! That's hot.
But who will have a fairy-tale ending...
Shame it wasn't an ice cream competition.
...and for whom is this chapter about to come to a close?
It is just mind-blowing right now.
I can't believe it. I reached the quarterfinal.
It's exciting times.
Good luck, babe. Best of luck, you too.
Dude, best of luck, man.
It is just mind-blowing right now.
I mean, I can't believe I'm here.
I'm now surrounded by all star bakers.
We just don't know who's leaving. It could be anyone.
But there is no weak link.
Quarterfinals, quarterfinals, quarterfinals. Yeah!
I think now there's the stage that any mistake can eliminate you.
There is no room for a bad bake now.
Bakers, welcome back to the tent for pastry week.
Uh, Noel what immediately springs to mind when I say the word "party"?
Oh, Studio 54, 1977,
Bianca Jagger comes in on a white horse.
Andy Warhol's there supping prosecco
out of Evel Knievel's chest wig.
That's right, vol au vents.
For your quarterfinal Signature Challenge
the judges would like you each to bake
a batch of 12 sweet vol au vents.
Your vol au vents should be made from beautiful, flaky,
rough puff pastry and filled with a sweet mouthwatering filling
of your choice.
You have two minutes, and one hour and 58 minutes.
On your marks. Get set.
BOTH: Vol au vents!
I have never heard of, like, vol au vents before.
Do you know, it's just like party food you get from the supermarket?
Vol au vent - it's something so from '70s.
It's pastry week. We've given the bakers two hours
to produce sweet vol au vents.
Now, traditionally, we think vol au vent, we think savoury.
But we've put a slight twist on it.
And they're normally savoury.
This is sweet vol au vent. It's like another new level.
Puff pastry lends itself to either sweet or savoury.
The key thing is with this challenge is getting that lamination
and getting that beautiful golden colour and crisp
on the vol au vent itself.
The filling has to pack a punch.
It can be anything they like.
It needs to be both light so they don't spoil
the flakiness of the pastry, but they need to be flavourful.
It's the quarterfinal and we're expecting
nothing but perfection from our five amazing bakers.
I think with my signatures, usually I'm calm.
Then again, things can still go wrong.
I mean, uh, you never know. It is the tent after all.
Because this is the quarterfinal
Paul and I will be really ruthless.
I mean, we have to have everything perfect.
I think at this time in the competition
any little mistake will be picked on.
We'll see.
Syabira, hello. Hello, hi. Good morning.
Good morning, Syabira.
Star Baker last week.
It's in the past now. Again. It's clean slate this week.
Again. Again. Tell us about your vol au vent.
It's called citrus dreams vol au vent.
It's a pastry case and then inside it's gonna be
orange and mandarin and,
I put a little bit hint of clove and cardamom
to enhance the flavour of the orange itself.
So what's actually in the vol au vent?
Have you got a creme pat in there, or...?
It's a... orange and mandarin cream cheese.
Oh, orange. Oh, right OK.
Enhanced with orange liqueur, Syabira is hoping
the citrus cream cheese-filled vol au vent will be enough
to maintain her strong run in the competition,
landing her Star Baker for a third week running.
That sounds good. Are you comfortable with this one?
I hope so.
Do you wanna be in the semifinal?
Course she does!
I want to. How much?
Very much. Honestly very much!
All right, good luck. Good luck, Syabira. Thank you. Thank you.
Maybe they expect something more like creme pat
but I tried with the custard.
It's just, it's not enough to enhance the flavour
so I hope I'm making the right decision here.
Yet to match Syabira's success...
I just lose track of, like, time.
and then at the end I start panicking.
...Abdul is keen to impress
with his take on the classic vol au vent.
My vol au vents, I,
I don't have much rise on them
because that's how I just prefer them.
Because if I get too much rise they go wonky.
Hi, Abdul. Hello. Hello, Abdul.
I don't want to spook you
but you are the only baker who hasn't had Star Baker.
Yes, I know, yes!
So what about doing it today? No pressure.
I will try. So, you know, each week I've been giving my best.
What I find always helps you with your confidence
is someone reminding you that you haven't been Star Baker
at the beginning of the day! Yeah, yeah.
I'm prepping him. I want him to do it.
Abdul's path to success lies
with vol au vent dipped in chocolate
topped with strawberries
and filled with a berry compote and coconut creme pat.
I heard that Paul just likes
the feel of coconut on his feet.
So he grates up coconuts, puts it on his carpet
and his lovely fake-tanned feet just crunching away on coconut shavings.
It's an image, innit? It is. It is indeed.
You take that with you through to the semifinal.
Rough puff pastry consists of four simple ingredients...
So this is just flour, water, salt and butter.
...and one baker keen to keep his flavours
in the same vein is Janusz.
Strawberries and cream.
You know, it's a classic one, so hopefully they will like it.
Janusz. Hello. Hello, Janusz. Hello.
Tell us about your vol au vent.
I've decided to make basically strawberries and cream.
Is it whipped cream inside it or...?
Uh, I'm gonna make creme pat. That holds strawberries much better.
Janusz will fill each rough puff vol au vent
with fresh strawberries covered in a summer fruit liqueur glaze.
He's planning to put a twist on the classic combination
by replacing the more traditional cream base with custard.
So you've got creme pat cream and strawberries.
Well, creme pat and strawberries. OK.
Yeah. No cream. No cream.
OK and how are you gonna make sure your creme pat's not gloopy?
Well, I'm gonna try it.
If it's gloopy I'm gonna replace it with whipped cream!
Or? I've got a plan for it.
If it's gloopy, it's gonna be whipped cream
and then you're gonna know that it was gloopy.
The plan is to grate some frozen butter
and use that for the lamination.
The key to successful lamination...
You don't want the butter to be soft at all.
You want it to still stay cold.
...lies in keeping the layers of pastry and butter
as cool as possible.
I'm gonna grate my frozen butter.
It looks like cheese.
Cold, cold, cold, and never melt your butter.
Failure to do so means the butter will ooze out,
the layers will be lost
and the vol au vents will have no rise.
They go to the freezer now.
But one baker is throwing caution to the wind.
Everyone else is using cold butter.
I actually need room temperature butter.
Still want chunks of butter in here.
Maxy plans to fill her experimental vol au vent
with Chantilly cream
laced with gooseberry and cloudberry jam.
She's hoping to avoid any butter leaks by selecting a robust pastry.
I've used strong bread flour
and I used, like, room temperature butter
which I broke up into pieces.
So you used room temperature... Yeah.
...popped it in, folded it initially and then popped them in the fridge.
Yeah, and I used ice-cold water as well.
And how many folds did you give it?
Three. So...
Three singles or three book?
Three... Three doubles. Yeah.
Three doubles.
OK.
While still keeping his pastry cold
Sandro is putting a different twist on his dough.
I'm just really coating this with sugar.
So there's a lot of caramelisation.
He's also hoping some inside knowledge
will give him the upper hand.
So I'm making a key lime cheesecake vol au vent.
I chose these flavours because I want to get a handshake.
And Paul loves... that's his favourite dessert is Key lime pie.
Sandro aims to get Paul onside
with his version of the classic Key lime pie
using a lime creme pat,
lime jam and ginger biscuits
but, as it's his favourite, Paul's expectations are sky-high.
OK so what limes are you using?
Are you using Key limes or are you using Persians?
I'm using limes.
PAUL LAUGHS
Green ones! Any, any limes. Oh, I like, I like the Key limes. Oh!
PAUL CHUCKLES
Bakers, you are halfway through!
It's getting a bit soft now
so I'm gonna quickly pop it back in the freezer.
I'm gonna allow it to chill again.
Refrigerate it for 20 minutes and then it's time to bake.
As their pastry chills, the bakers now have
the opportunity to make a start on their fillings.
My pastry is chilling. I'm making my creme pat.
Now I'll start making the custard.
I'm putting in coconut extract which should enhance that flavour.
I've got two jams to make.
Gooseberry and cloudberry.
Mandarin cordial, orange zest, a little bit of clove and cardamom,
cream cheese and whipping cream.
I'm just making cream in case my custard is gloopy.
Lime jam.
I mean, it tastes like lime, it's thick how I want it to be.
Hello! Hi.
How's it going, do you want me to touch all your stuff?
You can touch if you want. It is...
What's that for? It's for doing egg wash on my, uh...
Egg wash. Yeah. I egg-washed a priest once.
What?! He wasn't looking.
Bit of a bust-up, just egg-washed his legs.
Came out lovely, all crispy. Oh, gosh.
This has gone weird, innit? Yes!
Hmm, that is lime.
That is definitely lime.
In creating their vol au vents...
Now I'm gonna roll it and do the shells that I want.
...speed is of the essence...
I'm gonna roll this out into a rectangle.
...as the shells must be assembled and baked
before the temperature of the pastry rises and butter melts.
It has to be nice and neat but at the same time not to try
and melt the butter too much.
Base layers nice and thin.
I'm gonna have 12 bottoms and then 20 for tops.
A typical vol au vent shell is formed by
layering hollow circles of pastry into a tower.
But, once again, Maxy has other ideas.
They are squares.
I'm going for a square-shaped vol au vent.
Maxy. Yes, darl. Tell me if it's gloopy. You be the judge. OK?
It's on the thicker side.
If you've got cream, put some cream in it.
Whipped cream. Mm. OK, I will.
Bit of egg wash after egg wash.
And then it's going straight into the oven. How long do we have left?
Bakers, you have half an hour left.
Exactly what I thought.
Matt, all this talk about handshakes.
Have you had a handshake? Hmm.
I mean, I've never had a handshake.
What, in your life? No.
Would you like one? Yeah.
How did that feel? Oh, it was nice.
Was it all right? Yeah.
The difference is Hollywood's palms are very hairy.
I know. He makes me comb the hair on his hands sometimes.
They need to be baked for about 20 minutes.
I've put about ten to 15 minutes.
So it's 190 degree.
13 to 15 minutes.
Don't know what's gonna happen in the oven. You just don't know.
I don't wanna get my hopes up too high.
SANDRO GASPS
Oh. It's not been on. My oven's not been on.
The oven wasn't hot.
I forgot to press the, the on button.
So could still work out
and it could be an absolute fail today.
Give me the custard.
Just give me the custard.
With assembly time at a premium...
It's only two-hour challenge. We're all gonna struggle.
Vol au vent brown. Why is it not browning?
...it's essential they have any other elements prepared.
Just gonna prep everything.
I'm just chucking in my little strawberries
into my elderflower syrup.
Quick and easy to make.
It's gonna be a tight one as per usual.
This biscuit is not the most important thing
so, as long as these keep its shape, then it's fine.
I found out that I cannot make custard, so there we are.
I moved on to make my summer fruit punch glaze.
This is the pecan praline with orange zest.
Important thing is this berry
and the custard cools down really enough before I put it in the shell
because, or else the shell goes all soggy.
See, I could never be a baker cos I don't like the early starts.
I am the same as well. Are you?
I am not a morning person at all.
What time do you go to bed at night?
I, my usual time is about 1.30 to, uh, two o'clock, uh...
Oh, really? Yes, yes. And when do you wake up then in the morning?
And I wake up around, 9, 9:30, 10.
Do you know what? I think you should probably go
and get yourself checked out because you might actually be a teenager!
I haven't got...
HE LAUGHS
I think it's cooked. Really?
It's gonna be the worst vol au vents I've ever made.
They're not golden yet.
And they're really leaning.
I think it's done cos I can see the bottom is actually golden.
If the bottom is golden remove them.
All right, I'll take it out.
The butter is leaking, actually.
It's the first time I've seen the butter is leaking out.
They're OK. They're laminated.
They should be fine. They go to the freezer now.
It's cooked.
I'd say...
...another five minutes, but that's really cutting it short.
I don't wanna present raw pastry. Oh, God!
Now, Matthew, if you're a good boy and you do the time call well
you can have a chocolate.
Bakers, you have 15 minutes!
There you go, good boy.
15 minutes and they're not even out the oven. Ha-ha!
They look terrible. They're all wonky.
The, the butter's just coming out.
It's just oozing out. Everything is lopsided.
There's not even one perfect one.
I'm just piping some cream onto my vol au vents.
It's just whipped cream.
Think custard worked out in my head but not in real life.
I'm gonna sprinkle some praline at the bottom
cos it's gonna sit at room temperature for a while.
I'm just taking out the middle bit now
so I can fill it with the custard.
They look like Yorkshire puddings, they do.
Look at this business... Mess.
Oh, are they a bit flat or something?
Not happy at all.
But it's all right. It'll do for today. Nothing else I can do.
Not sure anyone's ever said "it'll do" on Bake Off. Yeah, it'll...
What's happening with these trousers today?
Thought I'd go with leather trousers so it's easy to clean.
Show Prue your leather trousers
and she'll forget about the height of your vol au vents.
She'll forget, yeah! Good luck.
I'll sit there like that with my... Just. ..vol au vents.
Handshake from me!
You know what? I'm just gonna take 'em out. Got no choice.
What a disaster, eh?
Bakers, you have five minutes left.
How great do these look?
I am just gonna pipe it in.
I don't know if I can even put the cream in.
I can't believe this, honestly.
Full of ginger - I can smell it.
Ah, I'm pushing myself and I'm breaking my shells.
Cos it's warm, it's just too liquidy.
This is really not good. Really, really, really not good.
Oh, my God.
So hopefully everything will be perfect
because if you're doing classics you cannot really go wrong on them.
Ah, stress!
This is so risky.
Just the final bits left, so just pushing myself.
Ah breathe, breathe, breathe!
Bakers, your time is up.
Please step away from your bakes.
Bit messy.
Why?
Look how BLEEP they look.
Maxy, it's OK.
It's judgement time for the bakers' sweet vol au vents.
They're not even a quarter of the height I expect them to be. Mm-hm.
Uh, so they are very flat and very pale.
I think the butter leaked as well.
This is the first time where the butter leaked.
There's no butter on there at all. It's bone dry.
It's OK, the chocolate's solidified round the side.
It's so pale and so thin it's almost just a sheet of puff pastry
with bits on the top. OK.
I think you've got too many flavours in there.
Because there are too many flavours
you can't taste anything individually, and it's a bit murky.
Bit underbaked and too thin. And too complicated. Poor Abdul.
That's OK. Could we think of something nice to say?
Welcome to the quarterfinal!
THEY LAUGH
Thank you so much, guys.
They're all over the place, aren't they? Yeah, yeah.
We didn't ask for a leaning tower of Pisa.
You've got a burnt biscuit sitting
on top of quite a dark and very low vol au vent.
The flavour is amazing. But it needs to be much lighter.
Vol au vents should be nice and light and airy.
You, it melts in the mouth. Yeah.
Pastry's overbaked but think the flavour is fantastic.
I don't agree that the ginger biscuit's burnt.
That's burnt! What do you think?
I think it looks overbaked.
Thank you. Here am I trying to help you, Sandro!
He's brutal today, in't he?
He IS brutal today.
They're quite attractive. I quite like what you've done
with the strawberries on the top with the glaze.
They're a bit uneven.
Probably needed a little bit longer in the oven.
They're a little pale for a vol au vent.
How did you get on with the creme pat? What creme pat? What creme pat?
Oh, it never happened!
Oh, I take it gloopy, then. It never happened!
So what we've got here is creme Chantilly, is it?
It's just whipped cream. Just cream. Strawberries and cream.
This is really still raw inside.
It's a bit boring
because all there is is cream and strawberry
and pretty dry vol au vent. HE HUFFS
It's a shame, actually. The creme pat would've worked
if you'd put cream with it.
Thank you. Thank you.
My vol au vents decided to go for a dance in the oven.
Um, they spread, you know, they're all over the place.
Bit irregular in size. Bit irregular on height,
a bit irregular on colour. Not very appealing to look at. I know.
A bit dry. And quite flat. Yeah. I...
I expected them to be much higher.
Square's actually quite difficult to do.
Round is easier, which is why most vol au vents are round.
I think they needed a longer bake time, for sure.
Probably. Were you rushed for time at the end? I was. Yeah.
It's just raw down at the bottom here.
Really thick band of raw pastry. Really underbaked, isn't it?
Sorry.
I had a terrible time making them, so...
Oddly I didn't think both jams would work, but they do.
The gooseberry and the cloudberry are, are delicious.
Unfortunately, you do get that overriding flavour
of raw pastry sitting there on the bottom. Thank you.
Thanks, Maxy. OK.
They liked the flavours ,though.
Yeah, I knew they were going to be raw.
Oh, gosh.
I like the overall look of them. I think they look quite authentic
and all pretty much the same size as well.
Nice height. Looks like you've trapped the butter inside it
because you get the height without the lamination on the outside.
The pastry's just about cooked through.
It's a little doughy in the middle.
Probably about two minutes away from being perfect.
What did you put down at the bottom? The orange praline.
Cos that's gone back to a liquid
because it's got liquid on top of it. Which is nice.
I think the flavours are beautiful. I really do.
This is a delicious vol au vent.
The custard inside is light
and the pecan praline is just delicious.
Think you've done a nice job with those vol au vents, well done.
Thank you. Thank you.
Well done. Thank you.
Paul says two minutes from perfect.
If I have those two minutes. I don't.
The rise - Paul said it should be four times. That's a bit crazy.
The flavours were good.
But it's pastry week so I do have to be
a bit worried, seeing as I had undercooked pastry.
Paul said it was boring.
Well, strawberries and cream, you cannot go wrong with it
but, at the same time, I can understand why it's boring.
I feel like if it was just perfectly risen
and all of that, I would've got my handshake today. Huh-huh!
I don't even want it now. Now, I don't want it. At all.
The bakers have no idea what they'll be asked to make
in the mystery that is the Technical Challenge.
Bakers, it's time for your Technical Challenge
which today has been set by
Prue-lio Iglesias!
Ah, we love your music.
Ah, so sexy. Yeah.
Even better without the moustache. Yeah. Agreed.
Will you give us some words of advice, please?
Bakers, there are 29 ingredients in this recipe.
So please get the balance right.
As ever, the Technical Challenge will be judged blind
so we're gonna have to ask Prue-lio Englesias
and Paul Hollywood to leave the tent.
They'll probably kiss. Yeah.
For your Technical Challenge,
Prue-lio would like you to make eight spring rolls.
Featuring a delicate pastry that have been deep-fried
to crispy perfection.
And they must be served alongside a dipping sauce.
You have one hour and 20 minutes.
On your marks. Get set. Bake!
Ay ay ay.
What is this, mate?
Right. The deep fryer.
I am quite surprised with spring rolls, I'm not gonna lie.
Never made them before. First time making them.
It's new thing to do.
My mum she used to make them, but I don't remember much, though.
Should've paid attention. Should've paid attention.
Yeah, I'm just trying to figure out what I'm doing. I don't know.
So Prue, spring rolls.
I mean, I don't think many people make spring rolls
but I thought it's a great test.
After all, it is the quarterfinal and it's quite difficult.
So the pastry's tricky.
And I think we'll have some of the bakers struggling
with huge great bubbles
and those bubbles come because the water's in the pastry.
And we haven't told them how much water.
If it's too wet the bubbles will be huge and ugly and misshapen.
But they should be more like this one, which is absolutely smooth.
I think it's a great challenge.
It's nice to have something savoury in the tent, actually.
Yeah, isn't it? When we have so much sweetness.
All crispy. Nice thin pastry with a beautiful breakdown
of all that filling together.
You've got a bit of everything in there.
It's a great snack.
PRUE MUMBLES MOUTHFULLY
Sorry, what did you say?!
It's easy for you to say, Prue.
Mm!
The first part is make a stiff dough and rest.
I just don't know how much water to put in.
I'm literally just guessing.
Maybe one more tablespoon.
You have to not add a lot. It's quite stiff.
A stiff dough is required for a smooth shell.
I think my dough is very stiff.
At the same time it has a nice spring.
If the bakers add too much water,
unsightly bubbles will appear when fried.
It says stiff dough. But it is a bit smooth.
Maybe it's a bit too soft - I don't know. How is it meant to rest?
Are we meant to cover it, or what do we do?
All right, soak the noodles and wood ear mushrooms.
What even is that? Wood ear mushrooms?!
Perfect.
These mushrooms look so weird.
Is this your mushrooms? Yeah.
Do you ever go foraging?
A long time ago.
Did anyone go with you or you just took it upon yourself?
Me, uh, me and my neighbours.
You and your neighbours?! I suppose it's big, isn't it, in Sweden?
Yeah. They're like they're more in touch with nature.
With nature, definitely.
Pretty much always naked and eating mushrooms.
Do you miss those times? Um... The sort of mushroom nakeds?!
Getting kidnapped by your neighbours and going foraging!
I miss those times!
If you tried that now, wouldn't work out, I don't think. Not in Peckham.
No. I don't even live in Peckham.
So then I need to cut cabbage and manga tout.
Manjay toot?
Mang toot?
Is this a mange-tout?
Cut into fine... This must be manjay-tout.
I don't really do these kind of foods.
OK, I need to cook these
but it doesn't really say how much of what to put in.
Well you know you need to figure out the proportions.
That was expected on a technical this week.
So that black mushroom is very strong taste,
you don't want to put too much in it.
Ah. Forgot about the mushrooms.
HE CHUCKLES
Oh, they're massive, man.
I think I need to chop them.
Bakers, you are halfway through.
I'm gonna start panicking now.
I'm starting step number four. Knead the dough
and divide it into eight equal pieces.
Roll out one piece of the dough to eight centimetres circle.
Repeat with another piece of dough
so you have two eight-centimetre circles.
Sprinkle the top of one of
the circles of dough with cornflour.
Then place the other one on top. And then roll it to 22 centimetre.
Whoo, that's got confusing! Wow.
Too much maths!
This is like a full-speed spring roll-making competition.
I don't know how people can get this done in one hour and 20 minutes.
Place the two circles of dough in the pan and cook on both sides.
Right, quick!
Fold the dough in half so that you have two transparent wrappers.
Perfect, I can see my fingers.
So now I need to trim each wrapper into square shape.
I'm on step number seven, uh,
which is assemble and seal the spring rolls.
Paul and Prue demand sumptuous spring rolls
packed full of flavour.
The technique for filling is put a good, generous amount
so they've got a taste of everything.
They get things to taste - delicousness-ness-ness-ness.
If short-changed...
I don't want too much of this.
...the dominant taste will be the pastry shell.
Maxy, do you make this sort of thing, often?
I BUY this sort of thing often.
Yeah. When I saw we had an hour and 20, I was like,
I'd just go down the takeaway.
I'd get some spring rolls,
I'd probably get a chow mein while I'm at it.
What's stopping you?
Well, we don't have that luxury
of leaving this place! Oh, that's a shame.
Bakers, you have 15 minutes left.
I need to fry them. Oh.
Bye-bye, babies!
In order to achieve the crisp golden brown shells Paul and Prue expect...
Sounds like frying.
...the oil temperature needs to be hot enough...
That is 180 degree.
...they must be fried for long enough...
They need to cook for another maybe three to four minutes, really.
...and be monitored carefully.
Let's swap side.
But it's no mean feat...
Sauce... Sauce. I'm multi-tasking.
...when the bakers have dipping sauces to prepare.
The list doesn't say a thing, so we're just gonna wing it.
I think it will be difficult to get the right blend, definitely.
Soy sauce.
Fish sauce.
Palm sugar. Why is this so stressful?
I'm gonna taste and then I'm gonna adjust.
Ugh!
That is horrible! Oh, bleurgh!
They're turning to the raw side. Turn to the other side, dudes.
So it's eight.
They're looking crispy.
Matt, would you buy that? Yeah. I've already got a deep fat fryer.
No not the...
That was a nice way of putting, "Er, no!"
Bakers, you have five minutes left.
Oh, my goodness!
This is crazy!
Come on, guys. These are coming out.
Uh-oh. I just under-fried it but I don't think I have time.
Come on, time is very tight.
None of them cracked.
SANDRO EXHALES
Come on. I think I made mine too small.
Come on, buddy.
I'm ready for this technical to be over.
Bakers, your time is up.
Oh, God, they're tiny!
Please bring your spring rolls down to the gingham table
and place them behind your photographs.
Mine are so small compared to everyone else's. Oh, God.
Doesn't matter.
Paul and Prue are expecting eight identical spring rolls
with crisp golden-brown pastry,
a delicious filling
and a perfectly balanced dipping sauce.
So, start with this one.
There's a LOT of bubbles in this.
That means there's too much water in the dough.
Yeah. And it's not been fried enough.
It's still quite raw - you can see how clear that one is.
It should've stayed in there a little longer.
Let's have a look inside.
Filling looks quite good.
Yeah, it looks busy, doesn't it?
The flavour's good.
Dipping sauce is nice and sharp as well.
It just needs to be deep-fried for longer.
Yeah. Right.
Moving on, they're a bit dinky but they're quite crispy.
The issue is there's not much filling. It's all pastry.
And because it's mostly pastry it's a bit stodgy.
Hmm. I mean, it tastes OK, just not enough filling. Yeah.
OK, the next one. Let's have a look. Crispy.
Lovely crack when you cut it.
But the air holes are a little bit big
so it's probably a little bit wet.
Lots of mushroom in there.
There is, isn't there? Yeah. Hmm.
There's a little bit too much mushroom.
It's definitely a mushroom spring roll.
OK. Moving on, they're all roughly all the same size.
The bubbles are there but not quite as big as some of the others.
Nice blend inside. The actual mixture content is good.
I like the crisp pastry very much.
It's beautifully thin, that pastry, and the dipping is nice. Lovely.
OK moving on to the last one here.
There's only seven, not eight. It's a shame we're missing one.
What? I made eight!
These air holes are huge.
It's a pity, because where it's crisp, it's really nice.
The pastry is delicious and very crispy.
And the sauce is good. But where's the eighth?
Paul and Prue will now rank
the spring rolls from last to first place.
In fifth place we have this one.
Maxy, too small, too much pastry, not enough filling. Yeah.
In fourth, we have this one. Whose is this?
Syabira, it's not been fried enough.
In third place is this one.
Abdul, bit too much mushroom. But they were good.
In second spot...
...we have this one. Whose is this?
Pretty good. But where was the eighth?
Deep-fried eight,
seven ended up on the plate, don't know what happened.
Genuinely!
Who ate Janusz's spring roll?
Probably me!
Well, that means in first place, we have Sandro.
The pastry was excellent. Delicious and lovely dipping sauce.
Well done.
Ha-ha!
That's what my kid does. He's like "Aah!"
Yeah, now that I've got the tech win
it has evened me out and I'm just trying to secure my spot.
I made eight spring rolls. And there were seven.
Still came second.
Not bad.
It's very tough competition at the moment.
Other bakers is really good.
So tomorrow I would need to be more focused.
We are all just neck to neck, literally.
It is just too close to call between all of us.
Gonna make sure I have a good rest and
smash it tomorrow, hopefully. Hopefully.
I hope I... I hope I will.
The bakers have just one more pastry challenge...
Good luck, guys.
...in which to impress the judges.
Hello, bakers, welcome back to the tent.
It's time for your pastry showstopper challenge.
Now, for your showstopper this week
Paul and Prue would like you each to bake an incredible 3D pie scene
inspired by your favourite childhood story or nursery rhyme.
Your scene can either be sweet or savoury
but must consist of eight pies, shaped and beautifully decorated.
Hickory dickory dock, you have four hours on the clock.
On your marks. Get set. Bake!
OK. I'm so scared.
I've got 12 pages to my recipe for one bake.
I've got a book for my one bake.
I mean it is the quarterfinal
so you've got to give it, like, your absolute best.
The showstopper challenge our bakers have to face
is a storybook pie scene.
We want the bakers to create a scene
that's instantly recognisable when we look at it.
So it could be any nursery rhyme,
any children's story,
it is down to the bakers,
but the star of this particular challenge
has to be the crust.
When I cut into the pie I wanna see a beautiful, thin pastry,
creating a beautiful, buttery flavour with
a filling that packs a punch.
I know what's my favourite. Pork pie.
Can the bakers make a really good pastry
that properly holds their filling?
And that is all about not getting
the filling too wet, which will make for a soggy bottom
and not have it too stiff, so that it's too dry or hard.
This is pastry week and to be honest I'm not happy
with what they've created so far. They should be doing better.
We've got five fantastic bakers. There is no room for error.
If they just crack out eight perfect pork pies, I will not be impressed.
I wanna see baking nirvana.
Abdul. Hello. Hello, Abdul. Good morning.
Tell us all about your pie scene. What are you doing?
Um, so my pie scene is based on the book Treasure Island.
And the curry that I'm bringing is called Khatta Baingan which means,
uh, bittersweet aubergine.
Inspired by his mum's recipe
Abdul hopes to strike gold this week with his Treasure Island theme.
He's making a selection of sweet and savoury pies
depicting the island,
boat and chest in meticulous detail.
So the pie scene itself will have an island,
uh, that will be made out of,
uh, apple and blackberry crumble tart.
This sounds great. I mean... Well, it sounds good.
...the idea of the apple as the island
and the curry as, as the ship. Yes.
What pastry is that sitting in?
Um, so the pastry I'm making, I'm making two types of pastry.
There's sweet shortcrust and there's a shortcrust.
It sounds good. Good luck, Abdul.
Thank you, guys. Thank you.
The bakers can use whichever pastry they wish
when creating their fairy tale bakes.
Get this into a breadcrumby, sweets pastry.
MIXER THUDS RHYTHMICALLY
Selecting the correct type of pastry and filling is crucial
as they need to take into account
both flavour and structural integrity.
Initially I'm making a filo pastry.
But that is not sturdy enough.
So this is the hot oil pastry.
It's like hot water crust but hot oil.
Syabira, good morning.
Hello, good morning. Hello.
Tell us all about your pie scene.
I am making Jack And The Beanstalk today.
I admired Jack during my childhood
cos he could climb up his very tall beanstalk
up to the sky.
And I was little at that point and I can see the coconut tree,
actually very high up to the sky. So I try to...
So this is Jack and the Coconut Tree!
Jack and the Coconut Tree in Malaysia!
And, just like the protagonist in her story,
Syabira is aspiring to reach the top spot again this week
with her elaborate two-tiered structure
complete with Jack, a giant,
his castle and of course the beanstalk,
all fashioned using a unique Malaysian pastry.
Your filling is? Chicken rendang filling.
It's a very traditional filling that I really like.
I usually eat it with rice.
You could put rice and that into a pastry.
It's too much carbs - you don't want that on your calorie counter!
No, no, no, I do, I really do!
Is it? I never know people put rice in a pie!
Look forward to this, cos these flavours sound amazing.
Thank you. They do. Good luck. Thank you.
Thank you.
As well as ensuring the pastry's fit for purpose
the bakers must carefully choose what goes inside their pies.
For the chana dal I'm basically gonna cook it in, in, in water
because it takes about 40 minutes for it to, like, go soft.
The aubergine and the potatoes are kind of the main, main aspect of it.
And it seems that curry is a hot choice of filling in the tent today.
I am using home flavours.
Spicy chicken which is a recipe that has been passed down
from my mum and my grandma.
Maxy's hoping to bounce back from her disappointing signature with
a bake that is out of this world.
And the star of her Twinkle Twinkle pie scene will be
a curry-filled globe
made with thin sheets of delicate filo pastry,
a risky gamble, given its notoriously delicate nature.
Tell us about the globe.
The globe is going to be made out of filo pastry.
FILO pastry? Yeah. Quite tricky.
You're going to make filo pastry?
Yeah. By yourself.
Yeah.
That's a bit of a feat to make a decent filo pastry.
You need to harness this.
You struggled with time in the last couple of weeks now. Yeah.
I think you need to bring it back,
try and just get this focused on this, as quickly as possible.
Thank you. Thank you.
Good luck. Thank you.
Recognise my ambition here cos I'm making filo,
which is a bit, a bit tricky.
So I'm starting off with the ice cream.
Whilst I'm doing that I'm also doing the savoury pastry.
These leather trousers are made out of rough puff pastry. Wow.
See the food colouring a little bit there?
Ha!
Chicken rendang, which is my favourite classic food that I love
to cook all the time,
I've tried the spiciness level on week three.
The judges can handle it.
Is it very spicy?
So I've got onion, mustard, parsley.
I'm gonna put some pepper, there's already salt in it.
Janusz has decided
to dedicate his bake to man's best friend.
So my sausage dog's name is Nigel.
Sausage dog pie will be a sausage doll,
sausage log - no, it's gonna be not a sausage dog meat!
It's gonna be a SAUSAGE meat!
Janusz is hoping the judges will lap up his unique take on
the Very Hungry Caterpillar,
consisting of a picnic scene with an elaborate decorative tree
and each pie shaped to represent its contents.
Have you made a lot of food inspired by your dog?
I haven't made any food inspired by my dog. That's the first one.
Will he be watching this? Have you got a message for Nigel?
Well, he's gonna be even on a TV.
Nigel if you're watching, woof woof, woof, woof-woof-woof.
Aww! He's gonna appreciate this.
Yeah. Get off that sofa!
Never!
Whilst Janusz has opted for a canine twist to his tale,
Sandro's going for a more traditional approach to the story.
So my 3D story is based on the Very Hungry Caterpillar.
Uh, which I've read to the kids I was working with.
Sandro's pulling out all the stops with two side dishes
and a staggering selection of meat and fruit pies,
each one individually shaped to depict
both the caterpillar and his daily diet.
In the story, are those all the things that the caterpillar eats?
And more, yes. And he eats a lot more.
I've got about 16 pies altogether.
Oh, my goodness.
You are overdoing it, Sandro. Yes!
What kind of pastry?
The pastry, well I wouldn't, I don't know the name of the pastry
but it's done with flour and water. Right.
Pastry dough. Just flour and water?
And some seasonings and butter. Oh, right.
I think we'd better leave him to it.
Absolutely - we'll leave you to it. Good luck, Sandro.
Thank you. Good luck. Thank you.
Bakers, you are halfway through! Was that too much?
I need to hurry up!
With at least eight pies to make and bake...
Ice cream cone.
Now let me get that baking now since the oven is free.
...the bakers must juggle the complex production line of pasties.
I've got all the fillings ready, all the pastries ready.
I'm gonna start baking my pies in a moment.
And with varying fillings,
timings and temperatures, it's no mean feat.
My little stars. So ideally I'd like to begin with
the cases of my fruit tart.
I'm rushing!
Page four of 15.
Haven't done the pears yet, chorizo's done?
So now, tree castle, still on castle.
And whilst most are going for the methodical approach...
Oh, I forgot to put my bay leaf in there. Ah.
...Maxy is freestyling.
I should've put this in earlier.
Might've put a bit too much cloves in here.
Ah, I didn't work this out properly.
I don't know if I'm burning my rice.
I've forgotten quite a few important things.
With fillings made and chilled...
Allow that to thicken.
...the bakers must now shape and assemble their pies.
They're apple pies. So bake them, shape them,
bake them, shape them. There's my apple.
So this is the large boat, basically,
that I'm making right now.
This is gonna be cherry pie, which is really quick to make.
This will go in the oven to bake.
Go on, have some cherries and paprika. See what that's like.
What, is that what you're doing - cherries and paprika?
No, yeah. I'll, I'll get it ready for you. One sec.
Is this a thing or have you just made this up?
No, they're gonna eat it, so...
I have paprika sometimes on baked beans.
That's how classy I am.
Hmm, yeah, it's good. Is it really?
Are you just mucking about? Yeah!
Oh, was that not what you're gonna do? No.
My eyes feel fuzzy.
My liver's doing something it's never done before!
Sort of turning round. NOEL MAKES WHIRRING SOUND
Just need this to cool.
Don't want it to affect the pie, don't want it to be too soggy.
Jack gonna taste a very rustic boy
with rendang filling,
his little legs, hands, now Jack is a decent boy.
Bakers, you have one hour left.
Oh, gosh.
This might go completely fail.
OK. In it goes.
With multiple pastries going into the oven at different times,
the bakers are feeling the heat.
Right now, I'm multitasking.
Uh... mix spice with the apples.
Ooh, I was reading the wrong bit. OK.
I'm looking, I'm way... I'm missing a plum.
I don't even know. They're all muddled up now.
The bakers need to create a three-dimensional scene
that looks spectacular from all angles.
We have the octopus legs coming out.
I'm gonna poke these in the filling,
so it's gonna be, like, standing up.
Imaginative and intricate decoration is required.
This is my treetop.
That's Noel's head underneath.
I asked him for help, he helped.
I'm making creme pat to go over my fruits in my cups.
So, this is the ice cream cone.
Now it's just decorating, putting them all together.
Would you like some cheeses?
I'm not on schedule.
Ooh, arr, me hearties!
Arr!
Would you have liked to have been a pirate in days gone by?
Oh, my God, that must have been crazy. No way, man. Yeah.
There was, like, so much, like, bloodshedding.
You wouldn't have wanted to make someone walk the plank?
Uh, no, not really, no.
Not even Paul Hollywood? Ooh, no.
It's a good way to get rid of him. ABDUL CHUCKLES
The dog will be there for half an hour.
And those - eight, ten minutes.
Ah, OK. Filo pastry for the globe.
I don't have a watch, do you? I ain't got a watch.
Shall we make it up? Yeah.
What do you reckon? Half hour? Half hour.
Bakers, you've got half an hour left.
Slowly everything is going in.
There's only 30 minutes left. This is crazy, man.
I'm putting a layer of spinach in,
cos my mum always cooks spinach,
so I just thought might as well put it in my pie.
Then it's rice.
I'm running out of time.
Oh, they're starting to pop and crack a bit.
I'm gonna give my fish one more minute,
because they always say that my pastry is raw.
So I'm covering cracks up with some land.
Ideally I would've wanted to go a bit thinner.
I'm making a pear, but I think it's gone pear-shaped.
Look, I don't have time.
My pastry is breaking!
Oh, it needs a bit more time.
Cooked. Ow, cooked.
Ah!
Little stars.
Come on, sausage dog, bake.
Gotta make the neatest one the face and I'll try and hide the cracks.
And they smell delicious.
HE GROANS
Don't know how to put the giant together.
It's too big of a giant.
I'll take it as a giant is sitting down.
Bad, bad giant.
I've still got BLEEP in the oven.
These are meant to be clouds.
I don't know if they look like clouds.
Nope, it wouldn't stick.
I might need to settle with only one beanstalk now.
That's a little bit of glitter to make my fish fishy.
Some of them I have painted, so that's good.
Bakers, you have five minutes left.
I think it's baked.
Come on.
Oh, you look cute.
Ah! That's hot.
Bakers, your time is up.
Please step away from your bakes.
HE SIGHS
Yay! It's all done.
It's so ugly.
SHE LAUGHS
SIGHING I'm so glad it's finished.
Oh, we've done it.
After four hours making their Showstopper pie scenes,
with a place in the semifinal at stake,
the bakers now face the judgement of Paul and Prue.
Janusz, would you like to bring up your Showstopper, please?
Janusz, I think you could have made the fish
more obviously defined. Yeah.
If you hadn't told me it was a fish, I wouldn't have known.
The salmon's beautifully cooked. The pastry's all right.
I mean, it could be a little bit flakier,
cos it's mainly just one big lump of salmon.
This is the sausage meat, is it, in the dog's head? Yes.
Personally, I don't like big gaps in between that.
Normally you'd fill that with a gelatine or something.
Basically, this is a sausage roll.
Sausage meat is nice.
It's all a bit dry.
Now this one is...? Dauphinoise.
The pastry's quite nice.
It's packed out, so as you cut into it, it's solid.
Mmm. It's a nice eat, that one.
We're on to pudding now.
This is apple.
It's lovely. It's a bit dry inside, that.
That apple mixture should be a little bit wetter than that.
I think your flavours in all of them are good.
I just think the interaction with the crust
and the interior is where it fails slightly.
It needed another element to it to wet that mixture down inside.
Thanks, Janusz. Thank you. Thank you.
I mean, overall it's quite effective. It's pretty good.
You can see what it is.
It's a bit rough and ready.
So this is the chana dal?
Aubergine curry with chana dal.
I think the flavour is amazing.
The aubergine in the curry is spectacular.
It's really tasty.
Right, let's have a look at this crumble.
I love that. Just delicious.
I think the pastry's nice and short.
Again, it's nice and thin, it's crispy.
Overall I think you've done a good job,
surprisingly, how simple that is.
Thank you. Thanks, Abdul. Well done.
I think it looks quite attractive.
You've had a bit of issues with it cracking here, haven't you?
Yeah. That's a lot of pie filling.
But I like the flavour. OK.
The pastry's sort of lost, because it's a bit soft.
It's very dry inside. It's like a sandwich, not a pie.
The bottom of it is just raw.
Let's have a look at these cherry.
Tough as old boots.
Did you make the ice cream? I did.
Shame it wasn't an ice cream competition.
That's really nice.
I think basically overall you've lost your way with this pastry.
OK.
The star really, for me, is the stars at the moment.
The half globe has lost its way a little bit.
Shall we start with these? Yeah.
I quite like the taste.
I think it needed something with it, though,
because as it's cooled, it's turned into a pate.
Right. The globe.
I would've baked that filo for longer.
You want that flake in a filo.
I think filo was probably the wrong choice for that.
This is the cloud. Yeah. It's beautifully baked.
It's a nice short pastry to go with a lovely creamy top.
If I've got one complaint, I think the ratio of fruit
to cream is a bit wrong.
You need a bit more fruit and a bit less cream.
But otherwise, it's just perfect.
Thank you.
Thank God.
HE MOUTHS
It's clever, using this pastry. Thank you.
Because it's bulletproof and you can't go wrong.
Very, very good.
That's lovely.
Flaky, falls apart, buttery on the fingers.
The filling is spicy, but still moist
and somehow luscious.
It's a real treat.
Unctuous.
Unctuous, that's the word I'm looking for.
I mean, this is your other pie, isn't it? Chicken rendang pie.
The pastry, thin, thin, thin.
Filling is well packed.
It's a nice-looking pie.
Mmm, the chicken is delicious
and it's all being kept inside a very neat parcel.
If I had any quarrel with it, it is a little dry.
Well done. Thank you.
MATT: Well done. Thank you.
SYABIRA CHUCKLES
Well done.
I've got mixed emotions.
I think I've got a mixture of good and bad comments.
I just hope I've done enough to save me.
The ambition was something that definitely worked against me,
but they liked my ice cream.
I feel a little bit traumatised,
because it's the quarterfinal.
You want it to be amazing,
and it just wasn't quite...
It was really disappointing.
For three out of five of them, pastry wasn't very good,
and all their pies were too dry inside.
I thought Syabira's was very good. Yeah.
Clever. Good choice of pastry and when you got into the pie,
it was a beautiful curry inside.
And also, Abdul's pastry was beautiful.
The aubergine curry was fantastic.
When you look at Janusz's,
actually, they looked great,
but where he lost it really is not necessarily his flavours,
they were all quite dry. Yeah. Very.
And there were big gaps in between
the pie and the filling. Too much air.
And I thought Maxy, I loved her chicken,
but then you looked at the filo half globe.
The filo wasn't good.
Overall, I think she struggled,
and she's not the only one to struggle.
Sandro. Really bad.
The actual pie itself wasn't baked enough.
It was quite raw inside.
What he should have done is a much smaller, thinner caterpillar.
I know it's a hungry caterpillar who eats a lot,
but it could've been a smaller one. Yeah.
I'm quite disappointed.
In line for going home,
I think obviously Maxy.
And for me, obviously Sandro.
Bakers, luckily for me this week I have the lovely job
of announcing Star Baker.
And the person who is Star Baker this week is...
Syabira.
Well done.
We've grown attached to all of you
and we don't want to say goodbye to anyone here,
but I'm afraid we do have to say goodbye.
So I'm sorry to say the person leaving us this week is...
Maxy.
SHE SIGHS
Gosh.
I told you guys.
Well done, Maxy.
Oh, Maxy. You've done really well. Really well.
You've been so brilliant, honestly.
I can't believe it.
I had a bad, bad week.
I knew it. I knew it was me.
I knew it was coming,
but I was hoping my Showstopper would've saved me.
You got through to the quarterfinals. I know.
That's a big thing. Yeah.
It's really sad to go,
but I'm happy
and I'm proud that I made it this far.
You're a lucky boy. I am. Yes, I am.
Couldn't be happier.
I've still got a chance to get to the finals.
I'm through to the semifinals.
How weird is that?
Stay calm.
Just go in, give it my best again,
and then hope.
Please don't cry.
I'm trying not to cry.
Maxy's leaving.
Ahh, sad.
Best buddy. MAXY CHUCKLES
I don't know whether she can cry or laugh, she's like...
She's both. She's a mix.
I'm sorry. I feel so confused.
I don't know if I want to be happy or cry.
It was really sad to lose Maxy.
She's been one of the strongest bakers coming into today.
It was very close between Sandro and Maxy,
and Sandro's really got to watch it now.
Next week is still a clean slate.
I have to fight for the spot to be in the final,
which is a dream for me.
Next time...
Anything I can do? Stay away.
...it's a patisserie semifinal
for the four remaining bakers.
Oh, my God. I burnt my caramel.
There's no time to wobble,
with a Signature that demands precision... I'm stressed.
...a testing Technical...
I'm trying to hold back my tears right now. Please stay.
...and a spectacular towering Nordic Showstopper.
My hands are shaking.
Get this wrong, they're going home.
Subtitles by Red Bee Media