For this week\u2019s Bake Off theme<\/a>, the Great British Bake Off 2022 line-up<\/a> were tasked with making vol-au-vents for the Signature, spring rolls for the Technical and a 3D pie display for the Showstopper.<\/p>\n But, while Syabira<\/a> managed to bag her third Star Baker<\/a> accolade, Week 8 was no easy feat for the contestants. After one bad week, two-time Star Baker winner Maxy<\/a> was sent home, and Paul Hollywood revealed that \u201cSandro<\/a> has really got to watch it now.\u201d<\/p>\n Here, reigning Bake Off champ Giuseppe Dell\u2019Anno talks all things Pastry Week, revealing what he\u00a0really\u00a0<\/em>thinks about the judges\u2019 critiques.<\/p>\n The week\u2019s episode felt very odd. It\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n Almost all bakers got bad reviews for their Signature, nobody got full marks for the Technical and the Showstopper didn\u2019t reach the levels you would expect from a Week 8 challenge, despite Paul expecting \u201cbaking nirvana\u201d from the bakers.<\/p>\n All in all, I found the episode quite underwhelming, and I struggle to make it the bakers\u2019 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.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve always praised them for their honesty and constructive feedback, but calling Sandro\u2019s Showstopper pastry \u201ctough as old boots\u201d felt really unnecessary.<\/p>\n I particularly liked the appearance and flavour combination of Syabira\u2019s 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\u2019m intrigued by the idea of making sweet vol-au-vents, and I\u2019ll certainly give Syabira\u2019s recipe a go.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n However, none of them wowed me, if I\u2019m 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.<\/p>\n I suspect that the judges\u2019 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.<\/p>\n And perhaps they would have had the time to make this showstopper more in line with what you\u2019d expect from a Bake Off quarter final.<\/p>\n Syabira\u2019s \u2018Jack & the Beanstalk\u2019 Pie Scene Showstopper. #GBBO<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/TcWeKxAm8v<\/a><\/p>\u2014 British Bake Off (@BritishBakeOff) November 1, 2022<\/a><\/blockquote>Giuseppe on Pastry Week<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Favourite bake<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>Least favourite bake<\/strong><\/h2>\n