It was the quarter final on The Great British Bake Off this week, as the five remaining contestants returned to the tent for three new challenges set by judges Prue Leith and Paul Hollywood.
For this week’s Bake Off theme, the Great British Bake Off 2022 line-up were tasked with making vol-au-vents for the Signature, spring rolls for the Technical and a 3D pie display for the Showstopper.
But, while Syabira managed to bag her third Star Baker accolade, Week 8 was no easy feat for the contestants. After one bad week, two-time Star Baker winner Maxy was sent home, and Paul Hollywood revealed that “Sandro has really got to watch it now.”
Here, reigning Bake Off champ Giuseppe Dell’Anno talks all things Pastry Week, revealing what he really thinks about the judges’ critiques.
Giuseppe on Pastry Week
The week’s episode felt very odd. It’s difficult to pinpoint one single reason, but I was left with a very strange after taste after watching it. The judging felt rather harsh, which might be expected from a Bake Off quarter final, but it came across somewhat artificially and deliberately brutal.
Almost all bakers got bad reviews for their Signature, nobody got full marks for the Technical and the Showstopper didn’t reach the levels you would expect from a Week 8 challenge, despite Paul expecting “baking nirvana” from the bakers.
All in all, I found the episode quite underwhelming, and I struggle to make it the bakers’ responsibility. Was the time allocated to the challenges too short? Were the briefs off mark? Perhaps. For sure, the judges seemed unreasonably critical towards the bakers.
I’ve always praised them for their honesty and constructive feedback, but calling Sandro’s Showstopper pastry “tough as old boots” felt really unnecessary.
Favourite bake
I particularly liked the appearance and flavour combination of Syabira’s vol-au-vents. I have never made sweet ones, and often use shop-bought puff pastry to make a quick bite for a dinner party, but I’m intrigued by the idea of making sweet vol-au-vents, and I’ll certainly give Syabira’s recipe a go.
Her set looked immaculate, the pastry fully puffed up and the judges were very complimentary about the overall result. She was effectively the only baker to get any positive feedback from the judges for the Technical challenge in an otherwise rather brutal set of comments. So, well done to her.
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Least favourite bake
I was rather disappointed with the general look of the Showstoppers. No doubt the brief was as whacky as Bake Off gets, but it did give freedom to the bakers to pick their favourite pastry and their favourite fillings, so the potential was there to produce something truly spectacular.
However, none of them wowed me, if I’m brutally honest. Generally speaking, if you pick the right type of pastry, you can mould it into very intricate lattices with high levels of definition and shape it into really interesting geometries, but for some reason none of the bakers did.
I suspect that the judges’ request to produce different fillings distracted them from focusing on the pastry. Perhaps, had the judges asked for a single or a simpler filling, the bakers would have had more time to dedicate to the pastry, making it the true protagonist of the challenge as it should have been.
And perhaps they would have had the time to make this showstopper more in line with what you’d expect from a Bake Off quarter final.
Syabira’s ‘Jack & the Beanstalk’ Pie Scene Showstopper. #GBBO pic.twitter.com/TcWeKxAm8v
— British Bake Off (@BritishBakeOff) November 1, 2022
Tip of the Week: Perfect pastry
There are many types of pastry and each of them comes with its own challenges. However, generally speaking, what makes a good pastry is flakiness; nobody wants to bite into a tough or hard pastry shell.
Zooming into the structure of a layer of pastry, what makes it crumbly and flaky is the lack of a strong gluten network (opposite to what you’d want in bread, for example) and the presence of clusters or layers of fat – it’s the discreet micro-lumps of fat that make the pastry break apart easily.
So, the key is not to work the pastry too much (so very little gluten is formed) and use fat (butter or lard) that is as cold as possible, so that it does not incorporate fully into the dough and it segregates into discreet lumps or layers.
Giuseppe Answers
Were you shocked to see Maxy go?
I would have been shocked if anybody had told me that she was going to go before watching the episode. But this week, Maxy had a truly terrible week. All her bakes had problems. It clearly was not her best day. I had the impression that she looked almost disheartened from the start.
It is possible that after eight weeks, fatigue was starting to kick in. I remember vividly my state at this stage in the competition last year, and you do start to run low on energy and stamina. Bake Off is more of a marathon than a sprint, and being able to sustain the motivation for so long is no trivial feat.
I suspect that Maxy had just run out of steam at this point and you could see how disappointed she was with herself, but she can only be proud with what she has achieved. Making it in the tent is a success of its own, but making it to the quarter final is an achievement that nobody will ever take away from her.
“Still finding it hard to believe that I actually made it to the Tent”
— British Bake Off (@BritishBakeOff) November 1, 2022
Here’s Maxy’s lovely letter to all you Bake Off fans… ❤️ #GBBO pic.twitter.com/zTmnmno3gP
Should Sandro be worried after Paul’s comments?
That was a very odd thing to say. Notoriously, the competition starts from scratch every week and at the beginning of the episode, all bakers are in the same position. So, Sandro doesn’t need to worry any more than any other contestant.
Perhaps what Paul really meant to say is that he is an excellent baker and that a couple of times he has had the judges concerned by getting a bit too close to elimination. But who hasn’t?
Syabira, Abdul and Janusz have all fallen at the bottom of the rank at some point over the past eight weeks, so I think that all of them need to be careful as they all move within a very narrow performance band, and anybody at this stage could get the wooden spoon.
Who do you think will be in the final?
The names that I pulled out of the initial dozen after episode 1 were Syabira and Janusz, and I am sticking to those! Their qualities have been shining through in every single episode. They have had their wobbles, admittedly, but even their substandard bakes were nothing short of remarkable.
I have fewer certainties when it comes to picking a name for the third element. I had predicted Maxy or Sandro initially, so again, I’ll stick to my guns and predict that Sandro will take the third spot.
However, Bake Off has surprised us before with unexpected eliminations… Who can forget the shock when Jurgen was asked to leave the tent in last year’s semi-final? Also, for a second week in a row this week, Abdul has had very little criticism from the judges, so he might be a reasonable contender for the final.
As is always the case at this stage, I wouldn’t wish any of them to go, but I can’t wait to watch the next episode and find out who will be part of the mighty trio.
A Week in the Life of Giuseppe
This week, I will run my very first baking class! I used to lecture students back in my academic years, but teaching how to make cannoli is somewhat more rewarding than teaching fracture mechanics.
If nothing else, at the end of the lesson, there’s plenty of treats to share with the class! I am now heading to Cambridgeshire for the last leg of my book tour and I’m looking forward to meeting more of you in person!
To make your own show-stopping bakes at home, Giuseppe’s debut cookbook, Giuseppe’s Italian Bakes (Quadrille, £20) is available to order.
The Great British Bake Off airs on Channel 4 on Tuesdays at 8pm. Looking for something else to watch? Check out our TV Guide or visit our dedicated Entertainment hub for the latest news.
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