The Great British Bake Off: Pastry Week
October 27, 2021 11:04 AM - Season 12, Episode 6 - Subscribe

It's Pastry Week and the bakers tackle signature choux pastry doughnuts and a tricky Turkish technical, before making a savory, delicately designed showstopping pie packed full of flavor.
posted by ellieBOA (16 comments total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
 
The innuendo this week!!! And yay Christelle and her excited family!
posted by ellieBOA at 11:46 AM on October 27, 2021 [6 favorites]


I enjoyed this episode again, though many of the off the cuff innuendo jokes were very obviously rehearsed. Baklava is a huge pain to make but on the other hand everyone knows what it is.

The pies were amazing, I am definitely into a curry pie.
posted by jeather at 1:17 PM on October 27, 2021 [1 favorite]


The one time the dirty banter didn't seem rehearsed was towards the beginning when Paul said a line identically a second time trying to get a clean take. The editors did him dirty leaving it in.

Pretty good episode. I'm wary about savory on this show (they seem to like it pretty bland; the mexican dishes always look a travesty) but some of that stuff looked rad.

The contestant who left got a... "Oh, I forgot she was still in." from my watch partner

posted by supercres at 2:32 PM on October 27, 2021


Crystelle's pie looked so good. And, of course, Giuseppe's, which was gorgeous. My motto is, food tastes better when it's wrapped in a crust, so savory pies always make me happy.
posted by ceejaytee at 8:18 AM on October 28, 2021 [2 favorites]


I gotta say the Crystelle fakeouts were both great, both in the trailer/bumper and how Paul got her to approach the table. Well done editors, well done Paul.

And yeah, I'm always sort of annoyed at challenges that fail because the baker apparently forget how time works and don't allow for enough time to cool. It's one thing when the tent is 8c warmer than it was when they made their plans, or have an oops, I need to remake my dough because it didn't come out right, but when they just sort of hope that things will cool down enough to work out? Figure out where you can save some time, because thermodynamics rushes for no one.
posted by Kyol at 11:12 AM on October 28, 2021 [2 favorites]


they seem to like it pretty bland

I have always wondered how spicy exactly those dishes that the judges say are too spicy actually are.
posted by jeather at 11:40 AM on October 28, 2021 [5 favorites]


I enjoyed the collective despair in the tent when they revealed baklava as the technical challenge. Also the what felt like an extremely long take of George trying to figure out tongs while Paul watched just killed me.
posted by Rora at 8:02 PM on October 28, 2021 [4 favorites]


I'm so happy for Crystelle and loved Lizzie's potato fish and Giuseppe's owl.

At least it seemed like pastry week did not fall on the hottest days of the shoot, as it feels like it often has in past seasons.
posted by the primroses were over at 8:51 AM on October 29, 2021 [4 favorites]


I'm relieved that the time allotted for challenges seems to have ticked up a bit this season. The last few years, it's been so miserably tight that the standard mode was failure more often than not. A little more breathing room does make a significant difference to the bakers' ability to succeed. That being said, the standard really does seem very high this year, regardless, and the bakers are all so lovely.
posted by merriment at 9:45 AM on October 29, 2021 [5 favorites]


I'm just really enjoying this. I enjoyed the extra burst of personality this episode featured from the hosts. I genuinely like the contestants and am amused seeing what they come up with. Maybe it's the ever-extending Covid times we're living in but I absolutely look forward to each new episode with real joy.

Amanda, meh. I didn't really care that she left, but she's the last one of those for me. Going forward, I'm gonna feel sad about anyone who leaves. (Though I predict George will be next.) Giuseppe and Jurgen are the obvious frontrunners but I also feel like on the right day, with the right bakes, Lizzie is a contender.
posted by BlahLaLa at 6:55 PM on October 29, 2021 [6 favorites]


Crystelles showstopper looked awesome, I don't always think the showstoppers are super appetizing as they can get very stylized, but hers looked just fantastic.
posted by Carillon at 11:13 PM on October 29, 2021 [4 favorites]


Between this episode and this week's Binging With Babish recreating "Mrs. Lovett's Meat Pies", my desire to attempt making a hot water crust savory pie for the first time is increasing.
posted by dnash at 8:47 AM on October 30, 2021 [3 favorites]


The pure joy of that phone call at the end was wonderful.
posted by miss-lapin at 10:14 AM on October 31, 2021 [2 favorites]


Did anyone else find "choux-nuts" a silly-sounding and totally unnecessary alternative to "French crullers?" Or was that just me?

I don't see George lasting much longer, which is a shame because he's one of my favorites. Something about his energy and the way he often just squeaks through reminds me of Glenn, another contestant I really liked.

I have always wondered how spicy exactly those dishes that the judges say are too spicy actually are.
Me too. I always feel bad for the contestants who are trying to thread the needle of "spicy at a level that is delicious to them/their families" and "not too spicy for the judges."
posted by Fish, fish, are you doing your duty? at 11:08 AM on October 31, 2021 [5 favorites]


Did anyone else find "choux-nuts" a silly-sounding and totally unnecessary alternative to "French crullers?"

Aha! So that's what a cruller is!

... Crullers aren't really a thing here. I know the word because I've heard people mention them on US television shows, but I couldn't have told you what they looked like, and if I wanted to buy one I'd have to research it; even Krispy Kreme don't seem to have them on the menu in the UK. I'm sure you've got options if you're in London, but I tried googling for "cruller [my nearest city]" and it offered me an old Krispy Kreme Facebook post, and then went straight into "here's a recipe for crullers (did you want us to include the city name in the search?)" and "here's a shoe shop in the city you mentioned (did you want us to include the word 'cruller'?)".

Choux-nuts, on the other hand, are something introduced a few years back by Marks & Spencer, which has branches all over the place. Not sure if M&S are still selling them, but you can definitely still get them from Caffe Nero, a national coffee chain. It's certainly a silly name, but as that M&S press release says, it was part of a flurry of hybrid cakes and pastries with portmanteau names that appeared after the cronut rose to fame.

Mind you, given the circumlocutions GBBO employs to avoid saying things like "this week we want you to make a Jammie Dodger" or "today's technical is a homemade Twix", it would have been absolutely in keeping for it to be a name they'd made up themselves.
posted by ManyLeggedCreature at 7:25 AM on November 13, 2021 [3 favorites]


Huh, I learned something new - in Milwaukee, a cruller is like a straightened out cake doughnut, but burst open a bit, making a lot of room for crunchy fried bits and sugar glaze to intermingle.

But searching google for 'cruller' shows mostly French crullers, so ... huh.
posted by Kyol at 12:46 PM on November 14, 2021 [3 favorites]


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