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The older I get, the more cynical I get. It is not a fact I am proud of, but it is a fact. I disbelieve just about everything the establishment and the media tell us. I am convinced that we are manipulated into being the submissive, law-abiding robots that we have become. It grieves me greatly.

Thursday 20 August 2015

Bake Off Episode 3 Series 6

This week ten bakers baking.  Having read back to my blogs on the first two episodes, I realise this is an incredibly boring subject and written because I am not in the mood to write, but I have started so I shall finish

My favourites are Mat the fireman from Kent and Nadiya, a full time mum from Leeds.  My least favourite is Paul the humourless Prison Governor from Wales. 

Challenge 1
Quick bread 
To me quick bread would mean nipping to the Coop for a loaf, but to Paul Hollywood it is bread raised with a raising agent other than yeast

Along with the dough raising agent, there are a few eyebrow raising ingredients.  Flora's rye and fig bread might not work.  Dorret has taken the ingredients from a waldorf salad and is putting them in a bread - walnut, sultanas and blue cheese. Tamal has also gone for figs, his is with goats cheese - on bread yes, just not sure it goes together in bread.  Alvin has a mediterranean theme - manchego cheese and prosciutto.  Pick a country and stick to it Alvin, none of this wandering across borders.  Paul has gone for orange and cranberries.  There seem to be a lot of cranberries in recipes this year.  Has the cranberry marketing board got at Mary?  Ugne's bread has chocolate. I love chocolate, but I don't like the sound of it in a bread.  Sue tells us that soda bread must not be kneaded, as the camera pans to Mat and Nadiya kneading their soda bread.  

The judging proved Sue right, Mat's bread was not crumbly enough and Nadiya's looked too much like yeast bread.  Ugne's chocolate bread worked surprisingly well, as did Flora's blend of flours and the addition of figs.  Dorret's lumps of stilton could have been bigger for more of a flavour.  Paul's bread was so good, Paul Hollywood shook his hand.  Paul was almost overwhelmed.  Ian's pesto and wild garlic was a 'work of magic', but no handshake for him, so clearly not masonic magic.  Worryingly, Mat does seem to be bottom of the pack at this stage. 

Technical Challenge 
4 identical crusty french baguettes

Paul shows us how it is done - steam in the oven, Paul expects them to know that.  Mary thinks Paul is being particularly nasty.  

Mel advises Alvin not to think about ciabatta.  Sandy's french accent is abysmal, let us hope her bread is better.  Alvin seems to be quite knowledgeable about the slashing technique, everyone else seems quite daunted by it.  Ian, Tamal, Sandy all knew to add water to the oven for the steam.  Mat ignores such techniques and seems to think a few French words will be sufficient to assist his bread, although the baguettes come out underproven, but he takes some consolation that they are consistently underproven.  I can't help but worry that Mat may be going home.  Paul and Nadiya are both on all fours, peering into the same oven, bonding over the bread.  

Judging
Picky Paul is looking for 4 equal sized baguettes, crispy.   

There are a lot of 'under proven' and a couple accused of being more like ciabatta - Alvin being one of those who did not heed Mel's advice.  They hadn't all mastered the scoring, Dorret in particular over doing the cutting.   Paul Prison was at the bottom of the baguette heap, closely followed by Nadiya and Mat.  Tamal was a very respectable 3rd, even though his were under baked, with Flora's underproven baguettes second and Ian, last week's star baker Ian, came first.  

Showstopper
The challenge was to make 3D bread sculptures, using at least three types of bread, one of which has to be filled.  

Tamal - bread bicycle
Chelsea buns, fennel dough frame, five spiced buns in the basket.  

Alvin - cornucopia - horn of plenty.  
Alvin has really gone for the plenty in his roll filled horn, he overstretched himself last week and then panicked. Interesting to see that he has gone for the same approach this week.

Paul - King of the Jungle
All very Alpha Male, a sculpture of a lion with different kind of breads.  

Mat - Brighton Pavilion
Curry flavoured loaves representing Brighton pavilion.

Nadiya - snake charmer's basket
Nadiya has also gone for Indian flavours.  Do she and Mat copy each other's homework? 

Sandy  - basket with flowers 

Flora - herb couture 
Herb breads in the shape of a corset and skirt 

Ian - flowering plant 
black olive & parmesan plant, brioche flowers.  

Ugne - soft bread, easter basked, truffle infuse brioche bunnies with maple syrup and crispy bacon.  As Mary says 'wait and see'.  

Dorret - Tracey Emin's unmade bed.  
Dorret's sculpture will replicate Tracey Emin's unmade bed.  For me that didn't work as art, I particularly remember the dirty underwear on the floor - will Dorret try and copy that as well? Dorret admits that she has not practised it though. For me this is reminiscent of Marie admitting her biscotti had broken, highlighting your own errors is a sign of impending doom.  It also deprives Paul Hollywood of deflating egos by pointing it out.  

Judging

Tamal - spectacular, different technique in each.  Paul Hollywood says his Chelsea bun - doesn't get much better.  It could have a sweet filling in it - that would make it a lot better for me.  

Sandy's basket of flowers - clumsy, Paul H asks if she was going for cardboard with her pita bread poppy petals - ouch! She is redeemed somewhat by her pesto grisini. 

Alvin's horn of plenty - achieved a lot, texture is beautiful, craft is perfect, each piece is baked to perfection.  Paul H gets quite concerned that he might have heaped too much praise and draws some back by pointing out that Alvin has not quite followed the brief.

Ugne baking is good, but Paul is not sure about truffle oil with brioche.

Ian's Flour Power plant sculpture, is deemed magnificent, with a lovely flavour, just baked.  

Flora's herb couture is praised for its delicacy.

Nadiya's  snake charmer basket has great colour and tastes, but just needed a bit longer in the oven.  All good together.  

Paul's king of the jungle looks absolutely fantastic to me.  Paul H agrees, stating it is exceptional, and the detail is amazing.   

Mat's curry inspired Brighton Pavilion was deemed very effective, simplified, with nice flavours, however it was underproved and underbaked bread.  

Dorret's unmade bread - Mary suggests that choosing something untidy to start with is not a good impression.  The bedhead not defined enough, flavours work well.  The chelsea bun bed base was baked on the outside but raw in the middle due to apricots.  

This week's star baker - Ian (again!).  

An extra award for Paul because of his lion sculpture, which is the best bread sculpture Paul H has ever seen.  It was amazing.  

Going home - Dorret. 

I feel very sorry for Dorret, as I always feel sorry for the baker going home.  Nadiya and Paul were not far behind her and may also have gone.   Paul was saved by his showstopper.  There were a few comments on Twitter that Paul should have won, but Ian's breads were excellent in every category whilst Paul came bottom in the technical challenge.  Also Paul Hollywood is the master baker, not us, so we will allow him to know what he is talking about.  













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