The Great British Bake Off: Forgotten Bakes
October 18, 2017 7:50 PM - Season 8, Episode 8 - Subscribe

Our five bakers are stepping back in time and using unfamiliar recipes for Forgotten Bakes week. There's a sweet and savoury signature challenge and Prue sets a boozy technical (Channel 4 Description).
posted by PearlRose (15 comments total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
Can I just say, I have no idea why you would build a lattice top on a sheet of parchment and then put it on the pie. That seems to be just asking for the lattice to fall apart. I feel like sometimes there needs to be more flouting of the technical's instructions. Rebel, bakers!

The clangers sounded delicious though. I wish I had an excuse to make lunchtime pies for myself so I could have those. Much yummier than my usual lunch tbh. (Although I might not do suet pastry. I can barely bring myself to do half lard/half butter pastries.)

Really sad to see Liam go. (Also, did Sandi choke up again? SHE IS ALL OF US.) I was rooting for him, and now that he, Julia, and Yan are all out, I have nothing left to root for except Steven to depart the tent. Speaking of, what was up with Steven's palm-based rum measurement? 50mls of liquid is not, like, a quarter teaspoon of salt that you can kinda half-ass it. I give you side-eye, sir. SIDE EYE.

Now the most important question: how the hell did Stacey tear her oven door off!?!?!? And was that the first swear beeped out on Bake Off? (Ooooh, Channel 4!) I've always given those ovens a lustful look (tuck the door out of the way! don't worry about burning yourself on it as you wrestle awkward things in and out!) but now I feel like they must be sneaky traps lying in wait, watching for their opportunities to sabotage bakes. You fancy slidey-doorey ovens, you also get side-eye now.
posted by sldownard at 3:30 AM on October 19, 2017 [1 favorite]


Liam noooooooo. :((((((( I was literally shouting, "Get the bake in the oven! Stop messing around and GET THE BAKE IN THE OVEN." The look of the lattice was clearly far less important than getting the damn thing cooked through. If he hadn't completely botched the technical, I don't think he would have gone home.

There were considerably more shots of Prue ecstatically eating clangers than I would have expected. Also amused that the Prue Pat has evolved into the Prue Punch.

I keep forgetting to mention, but the way Noel tends to sing the, "Ready, Set, Bake," gives me so much joy. Also, Don't Look Back in Clanger, lol.

Two more episodes and I kind of hope Sophie takes it, but I don't really care that much. All my faves are gone, too.
posted by merriment at 5:06 AM on October 19, 2017 [3 favorites]


Kate has been dragging for weeks so it was criminal that Liam got kicked off this week. CRIMINAL. Kate needs to go.

They all seemed to struggle this week though, a tough set of challenges overall.
posted by GuyZero at 9:51 AM on October 19, 2017 [1 favorite]


It was definitely a tough week. Very sad Liam went.

But the oven door. Really, nobody from the show or the property or something came over to fix the oven door? What if the other oven had not been available? That really bugged me. : /
posted by Glinn at 4:47 PM on October 19, 2017 [4 favorites]


I think the other oven was available and whatever show staff that came out just got edited out. The editors knew how it all turned out so they just kept the story simple.
posted by GuyZero at 4:58 PM on October 19, 2017


As for the oven door, I think Stacey said her cake was almost done, it just needed a couple minutes more, then of course, the door went all to pieces. It was probably better to finish that cake in that oven, then move to a different one for the rest of her components.

Otherwise, I kind of want to know what Kate's lucky talisman is, then I want to steal it. The number of close calls she's made it through is something else.

I'm really sad Liam left, too! I started rattling off all my favorites when Julia left three weeks ago, and now we're down to ...Sophie. It's really odd, because normally I don't get so attached. I was feeling Sandi's emotions at the end there, though--she really is all of us!

Of the bakes themselves this week, I might make that Rum Nicky. It looked like a lovely thing to make for Christmas, and unlike ...most of the bakers I can actually pull off a decent lattice top. Are lattice tops really that hard? I've always found them fiddly, but never was nearly as confused by them as some of the bakers. Maybe it's a timing thing, or maybe it's the fact I assemble the things on top of the pie and don't mess with the parchment paper assembly before sliding it over the top nonsense.
posted by PearlRose at 5:40 PM on October 19, 2017 [1 favorite]


Yeah, I'm surprised Kate survived, none of her bakes seemed especially solid this week. I mean, I like her and all, but Liam has been more consistently capable. It wasn't a stellar Liam week, but Kate didn't do particularly well in all 3 bakes either. Probably ended up being a cointoss. (Liam had better clangers compared to Kate, but Kate's Rum Nickey was better than Liam's. Neither did particularly well in the showstopper.)

Stacey pulled off a miracle though - she's always trying to improve herself, and it doesn't usually work, and gah all the pink and yellow and yet... And yet it's her style and she's figuring out where her boundaries are and it clicked just right this week. I suspect next week it's going to be a Kate/Stacey showdown, but Sophie could have a meltdown too, or Steven could make the style over substance mistake and end up getting cut.

Honestly at this point, while I'd be surprised if Kate makes it to the finals, it feels like any of the remaining bakers could simply have a bad day and find themselves without someone lesser to take the fall.
posted by Kyol at 10:16 AM on October 20, 2017 [1 favorite]


I really love the Bake off format. It used to drive me nuts that past performance doesn't seem to be counted for the current episode, but it allows those amazing come backs like Stacey. I love people who constantly shoot for the moon. When Stacey is good she'll better than Steve.
posted by DoveBrown at 10:03 AM on October 21, 2017


Speaking of, what was up with Steven's palm-based rum measurement? 50mls of liquid is not, like, a quarter teaspoon of salt that you can kinda half-ass it. I give you side-eye, sir. SIDE EYE.

They didn't give them any measuring cups.
posted by Rock Steady at 8:21 AM on October 23, 2017 [2 favorites]


how the hell did Stacey tear her oven door off!?!?!?

Its those fancy ovens with the door that slides underneath. Anything which runs on rails like that breaks at some point (dishwasher drawers, kitchen drawers, sliding wardrobe doors, there was an AskMe about a sliding door that got stuck the other day...). Wouldn't have happened with a regular hinged oven door.
posted by EndsOfInvention at 9:38 AM on October 23, 2017


And no pouring spouts, so they couldn't just use any free pouring skills. Honestly I half expect that that one was relatively resistant to over-pouring if the lattice was done right - the booze would evaporate off, leaving a general molasses-y note behind.

Speaking of, is dark or spiced rum more common in England? Over here when someone says rum, I tend to think of silver, which isn't particularly noted for having a flavor you'd notice being left behind in a pie. I mean, very nice in a coke with a lime, yes, but not especially noted for baking.
posted by Kyol at 9:40 AM on October 23, 2017 [1 favorite]


Kyol, dark rum is a fairly common baking ingredient in the UK, often paired with dried fruit or chocolate, especially in Christmas cooking. I think it’s a key ingredient in mince pies, Christmas cake and Christmas pudding. Rum butter often uses dark rum.

I never drink it but had a dusty bottle for years as a baking ingredient.

Example: https://www.deliaonline.com/search?s=Dark+rum

https://www.nigella.com/recipes/search?term=Dark+rum&occasion=&theme=

Brandy is also popular for similar purposes.
posted by NoiselessPenguin at 11:56 AM on October 23, 2017


Speaking of, what was up with Steven's palm-based rum measurement? 50mls of liquid is not, like, a quarter teaspoon of salt that you can kinda half-ass it. I give you side-eye, sir. SIDE EYE.

They didn't give them any measuring cups.

But then, at the end someone was talking about having added a teaspoon of something... if they had teaspoons, they had a tedious but functional way of measuring out 50ml.
posted by ManyLeggedCreature at 4:25 PM on October 25, 2017


I was amazed at how much trouble there was with a lattice! They're fairly straightforward once you've done them a few times, and there's always the standard cheat of throwing the pastry in the freezer for a few minutes so it'll hold its shape while you weave it together.

Poor Liam, I'm going to miss him. Now I'm rooting for Sophie. Stephen's too perfect, Kate and Stacy are both wildly inconsistent. And I love that Sophie basically taught herself to bake in the last 3 years, which is impressive as shit.
posted by suelac at 5:37 PM on November 25, 2017 [1 favorite]


I would have operated on the assumption that 1 kg = 1 L of water, and that’s close enough for rum, and used the scale.
posted by ocherdraco at 8:50 PM on September 13, 2018 [1 favorite]


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