The Great British Bake Off: Pastry Week
October 25, 2023 11:31 AM - Season 14, Episode 5 - Subscribe
The bakers makes savoury pies and a classic French rough puff pastry, before creating showstopping decorative sweet pies.
Getting a real sense the Matty will “oh gosh” his way into the top three and I’m thrilled.
posted by potent_cyprus at 6:03 PM on October 25, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by potent_cyprus at 6:03 PM on October 25, 2023 [3 favorites]
As a person who believes every food tastes better in a crust, I love pastry week. I could eat it all. I will miss Nicky so much. Matty is adorable. Saku is really funny--she always surprises me. It's a great group of bakers and everyone is having so much fun. I'm glad they've lightened up. Alison rolling over a workstation? Alison hugging everyone? Alison taking care of Tash? Yes, please. She's even lightened Noel up, which can't be great for his goth persona.
posted by ceejaytee at 6:20 AM on October 27, 2023 [4 favorites]
posted by ceejaytee at 6:20 AM on October 27, 2023 [4 favorites]
Alison is sunshine in human form!
posted by ellieBOA at 7:54 AM on October 27, 2023 [4 favorites]
posted by ellieBOA at 7:54 AM on October 27, 2023 [4 favorites]
Am I crazy or are Alison and Noel starting to evince some of the warmth and chemistry of the good old Mel and Sue days? They seem to genuinely like and amuse each other, which is more than I could say for the last couple of pairings.
posted by merriment at 6:14 PM on October 27, 2023 [10 favorites]
posted by merriment at 6:14 PM on October 27, 2023 [10 favorites]
I really like Alison and Noel together, and I'm enjoying this season quite a bit! Wasn't at all surprised at who went home this week...but starting nowish I will definitely be sad at whoever leaves. They're all so sweet!
posted by BlahLaLa at 6:18 PM on October 27, 2023
posted by BlahLaLa at 6:18 PM on October 27, 2023
Happy to see Rowan off but I'm quite sad about Nicki. She pulled together a very nice showstopper I thought. I'm a bit surprised that my wife and I have been very good at guessing who will get star baker each week; I guess it will get harder as the field continues to narrow.
But holy heck how beautiful was that sunflower pie!
posted by dbx at 6:53 PM on October 27, 2023 [1 favorite]
But holy heck how beautiful was that sunflower pie!
posted by dbx at 6:53 PM on October 27, 2023 [1 favorite]
I’ve been watching this alongside the line by line similar Britain’s Best Woodworker - basically Bake-off (including Mel) with respirators and ear defenders. I’d recommend it is you like this show.
posted by rongorongo at 5:48 AM on October 28, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by rongorongo at 5:48 AM on October 28, 2023 [1 favorite]
I'm glad Saku's pie charts were well received, but I would have liked a fuller review of how the cream cheese pastry turned out. She and Rowan and Nicky have been fairly consistently having a bit of trouble with their bakes, so I figured going in it would be some combo of them to leave.
Yay for Christy! I thought her raspberry frangipane sounded marvelous. Still, Josh has been so close to star baker a couple times now, so I hope he takes it soon.
Alison is the greatest, and I loved her suit this week too.
posted by the primroses were over at 10:26 AM on October 28, 2023 [1 favorite]
Yay for Christy! I thought her raspberry frangipane sounded marvelous. Still, Josh has been so close to star baker a couple times now, so I hope he takes it soon.
Alison is the greatest, and I loved her suit this week too.
posted by the primroses were over at 10:26 AM on October 28, 2023 [1 favorite]
Am I crazy or are Alison and Noel starting to evince some of the warmth and chemistry of the good old Mel and Sue days?
I was worried they might be leaning too hard towards the flirty side, and all other things being equal I probably prefer the "we spend family Christmas together" vibe of Noel and Sandi, but I love Alison and I'd certainly rather the hosts be giggling together about their late-night texts than whatever was going on before. Noel has certainly gotten his impish energy back, though some of the contestants probably wish he hadn't.
posted by babelfish at 3:56 PM on October 28, 2023
I was worried they might be leaning too hard towards the flirty side, and all other things being equal I probably prefer the "we spend family Christmas together" vibe of Noel and Sandi, but I love Alison and I'd certainly rather the hosts be giggling together about their late-night texts than whatever was going on before. Noel has certainly gotten his impish energy back, though some of the contestants probably wish he hadn't.
posted by babelfish at 3:56 PM on October 28, 2023
The Great British Baking Show Recap: Pies Are Squared [Vulture / Archive]
posted by ellieBOA at 12:24 PM on October 29, 2023
posted by ellieBOA at 12:24 PM on October 29, 2023
"what the fuck is wrong with us, America, why don't we make meat pies? Why do we only make a small handful of fruit pies?"
That site does not have anything close to the number of fruit pies in American cookery. It doesn't even have Key Lime or Banana Cream, which I would put among the basics. Off the top of my head I can think of:
apple, dutch apple, pear, quince
blackberry (and relatives, marionberry, ollalieberry, boysenberry, raspberry)
cherry
blueberry
strawberry, strawberry rhubarb
raisin
apricot, peach, nectarine, plum
lemon meringue, key lime, shaker lemon, lemon chiffon
banana, pineapple, coconut
persimmon, pumpkin, sweet potato, squash
(and naturally all sorts of combinations and variations not listed. The last apricot pie I made was a dried apricot pie.)
Okay the last three aren't fruits, and neither is rhubarb- but on that note I recently had an amazing fresh corn custard pie with blueberry compote. Anyway, fruit pies are one thing America does really well. Meat pies- I totally agree that we have too few! Chicken pot pie, natchitoches pies, Michigan pasty, fried meat pies, crawfish pie- they tend to be of the hand pie type.
posted by oneirodynia at 10:31 PM on October 29, 2023 [3 favorites]
That site does not have anything close to the number of fruit pies in American cookery. It doesn't even have Key Lime or Banana Cream, which I would put among the basics. Off the top of my head I can think of:
apple, dutch apple, pear, quince
blackberry (and relatives, marionberry, ollalieberry, boysenberry, raspberry)
cherry
blueberry
strawberry, strawberry rhubarb
raisin
apricot, peach, nectarine, plum
lemon meringue, key lime, shaker lemon, lemon chiffon
banana, pineapple, coconut
persimmon, pumpkin, sweet potato, squash
(and naturally all sorts of combinations and variations not listed. The last apricot pie I made was a dried apricot pie.)
Okay the last three aren't fruits, and neither is rhubarb- but on that note I recently had an amazing fresh corn custard pie with blueberry compote. Anyway, fruit pies are one thing America does really well. Meat pies- I totally agree that we have too few! Chicken pot pie, natchitoches pies, Michigan pasty, fried meat pies, crawfish pie- they tend to be of the hand pie type.
posted by oneirodynia at 10:31 PM on October 29, 2023 [3 favorites]
Meat pies- I totally agree that we have too few! Chicken pot pie, natchitoches pies, Michigan pasty, fried meat pies, crawfish pie- they tend to be of the hand pie type.
We used to have way more. I have a cookbook with a bunch of "retro pies", a collection of older pie recipes from various older cookbooks, and they have a bunch of savory pie recipes - chicken pies, pork and greens pies, something called a "Cape Cod Company Pie" with both seafood and chicken, a "Thanksgiving leftovers" pie where you use crushed-up stuffing mix as the crust, and a bunch of things that are actually more like quiches with tops on (including a quiche in which you embed some hard-boiled eggs). There's also "Sea Pie", which ironically doesn't always include seafood; it was something fed to sailors on old-timey whaling ships, and they used whatever they had. If you're from certain parts of New England, or had family from the Acadian parts of Maritime Canada, you may have also had tourtiere.
I notice that the savory pies they had on the show were referred to as "picnic pies", and that may help explain why they're not as much of a Thing here in the US - I get the sense that they're meant to be eaten either room temperature or cold, and that may put us off. "Picnic" equals "sandwich" over here as well, since sandwiches are less labor-intensive.
....that said, I have a growing collection of "savory pie options" bookmarked online because dammit, it's a good idea.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 10:18 AM on October 30, 2023 [3 favorites]
We used to have way more. I have a cookbook with a bunch of "retro pies", a collection of older pie recipes from various older cookbooks, and they have a bunch of savory pie recipes - chicken pies, pork and greens pies, something called a "Cape Cod Company Pie" with both seafood and chicken, a "Thanksgiving leftovers" pie where you use crushed-up stuffing mix as the crust, and a bunch of things that are actually more like quiches with tops on (including a quiche in which you embed some hard-boiled eggs). There's also "Sea Pie", which ironically doesn't always include seafood; it was something fed to sailors on old-timey whaling ships, and they used whatever they had. If you're from certain parts of New England, or had family from the Acadian parts of Maritime Canada, you may have also had tourtiere.
I notice that the savory pies they had on the show were referred to as "picnic pies", and that may help explain why they're not as much of a Thing here in the US - I get the sense that they're meant to be eaten either room temperature or cold, and that may put us off. "Picnic" equals "sandwich" over here as well, since sandwiches are less labor-intensive.
....that said, I have a growing collection of "savory pie options" bookmarked online because dammit, it's a good idea.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 10:18 AM on October 30, 2023 [3 favorites]
Oh, and another note for this:
That site does not have anything close to the number of fruit pies in American cookery. It doesn't even have Key Lime or Banana Cream, which I would put among the basics.
The site also has vanishingly few of the custard/cream pies, and no chess pies. There are also some older-timey pies that have fallen out of favor over the years - like vinegar pie, a super-basic thing for when you want pie but don't have much to put IN it, or shoofly pie (for when you at least have molasses); or nesselrode pie, which apparently was in vogue in the mid-20th-Century but then kind of faded. It also doesn't mention bean pies, which is basically a pumpkin pie except you use mashed cooked beans as opposed to mashed cooked pumpkin.
I don't think it's so much that "America" doesn't have a lot of pies - it's more that America is split up into a whole lot of different regions and cultural groups, all of which have their own specific pies which the other groups may not know about. The only way I even know about chess pies or Nesselrode pies is because I live near a fabulous pie shop in New York, and have tried both there. (Nesselrode is really intriguing - a chestnut cream pie with some fruitcake-style candied fruit and a little chocolate mixed in.)
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 5:54 AM on October 31, 2023 [2 favorites]
That site does not have anything close to the number of fruit pies in American cookery. It doesn't even have Key Lime or Banana Cream, which I would put among the basics.
The site also has vanishingly few of the custard/cream pies, and no chess pies. There are also some older-timey pies that have fallen out of favor over the years - like vinegar pie, a super-basic thing for when you want pie but don't have much to put IN it, or shoofly pie (for when you at least have molasses); or nesselrode pie, which apparently was in vogue in the mid-20th-Century but then kind of faded. It also doesn't mention bean pies, which is basically a pumpkin pie except you use mashed cooked beans as opposed to mashed cooked pumpkin.
I don't think it's so much that "America" doesn't have a lot of pies - it's more that America is split up into a whole lot of different regions and cultural groups, all of which have their own specific pies which the other groups may not know about. The only way I even know about chess pies or Nesselrode pies is because I live near a fabulous pie shop in New York, and have tried both there. (Nesselrode is really intriguing - a chestnut cream pie with some fruitcake-style candied fruit and a little chocolate mixed in.)
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 5:54 AM on October 31, 2023 [2 favorites]
a "Thanksgiving leftovers" pie where you use crushed-up stuffing mix as the crust
We do a turkey pot pie with the leftovers, including the green bean casserole and the stuffing in the mix and then top it with the leftover crust from the apple pie. But I'm going to need to think about this one a bit.
Anyway, I'm all in on savory pies, and we do a lot of things that are savory-pie-adjacent (if you squint, strata to quiche to hand pie is a spectrum) already. I do need to figure out a vegetarian alternative to lard in the hot water crust though. A lot of times I use coconut oil where lard would be called for (mainly in my refried beans), but I think that might be overpowering in a savory pie with a lot of mushroom and onion.
posted by thecaddy at 6:47 AM on October 31, 2023
We do a turkey pot pie with the leftovers, including the green bean casserole and the stuffing in the mix and then top it with the leftover crust from the apple pie. But I'm going to need to think about this one a bit.
Anyway, I'm all in on savory pies, and we do a lot of things that are savory-pie-adjacent (if you squint, strata to quiche to hand pie is a spectrum) already. I do need to figure out a vegetarian alternative to lard in the hot water crust though. A lot of times I use coconut oil where lard would be called for (mainly in my refried beans), but I think that might be overpowering in a savory pie with a lot of mushroom and onion.
posted by thecaddy at 6:47 AM on October 31, 2023
The Defector crew pretty much nails the technical this week! Slightly over for Chris, but overall one of their best efforts yet.
posted by Carillon at 3:28 PM on November 1, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by Carillon at 3:28 PM on November 1, 2023 [1 favorite]
I love the Defector bake offs because I am always curious about how baking these things would go at home, but am far too lazy to attempt them. I am so glad Chris did not pull his bake out before it was edible just to meet the arbitrary constraints of the challenge. What a waste of delicious potatoes that would have been.
Describing Paul as "worse posh Guy Fieri with no joy" is devastating. Paul is devasted. (lol)
posted by the primroses were over at 10:19 AM on November 4, 2023 [1 favorite]
Describing Paul as "worse posh Guy Fieri with no joy" is devastating. Paul is devasted. (lol)
posted by the primroses were over at 10:19 AM on November 4, 2023 [1 favorite]
I too, am finally enjoying the hosts again. I haven't been a fan of Noel since the beginning, but Alison finally is showing me that maybe he's not a completely annoying arse.
My longtime observation/question (exacerbated by this episode): Why is it that American in all its random inventiveness only has two forms of baking implements with removable bottoms (springform pan and a tart pan). I want all of the awesome British pans: the removable bottom square pan; the removable bottom muffin pan; and the creme de la creme: that pan that allows you to reconfigure it to make whatever size you want.
Why is it that none of the British pies are served in their tin, but 99% of American bakes are?
posted by hydra77 at 6:49 AM on November 7, 2023
My longtime observation/question (exacerbated by this episode): Why is it that American in all its random inventiveness only has two forms of baking implements with removable bottoms (springform pan and a tart pan). I want all of the awesome British pans: the removable bottom square pan; the removable bottom muffin pan; and the creme de la creme: that pan that allows you to reconfigure it to make whatever size you want.
Why is it that none of the British pies are served in their tin, but 99% of American bakes are?
posted by hydra77 at 6:49 AM on November 7, 2023
thecaddy, all butter hot water crust totally works and is nice to eat. Do it! A vegan version would be harder, I think, but vegetarian is definitely achievable.
posted by janell at 10:41 AM on November 26, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by janell at 10:41 AM on November 26, 2023 [1 favorite]
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...dangit, that's right, I was going to head over to the pasty shop in town for a not particularly good pasty for lunch today.
I'll miss Nicky, she was fun, and I think Saku and Dana are on thin ice.
posted by Kyol at 12:40 PM on October 25, 2023 [2 favorites]