Great British Bake Off – Recap – Week 6 – Japanese

For the first time ever, it was Japanese week in the white tent. I enjoyed the feeling of the tent this week but wondered why they didn’t elaborate more on the exquisite pastry culture of Japan.

Tim Anderson, author of several books on Japanese cuisine stated on Instagram: “So, #GBBO did a ‘Japan week’ and apparently it was a parade of orientalism and good old fashioned ‘pan-Asian’-style cultural muddling, with very little to accurately represent Japan’s truly outstanding pastry culture. I was going to post an angry rant about this, but I often feel like I’m just shouting into the abyss about that kind of thing. So instead I thought I would compile some recommendations for excellent Japanese bakeries, patisseries, and traditional sweets shops in London that can give you a much better (and more delicious!) impression of what Japanese pastry is all about:

? @minamoto_london for luxury dorayaki, traditional sweets, and a beautiful range of seasonal fruit-based wagashi and jellies (this is my go-to when I’m after something quite special)
? #TetoteFactory, mainly for savoury filled breads like their hot dog roll or curry pan, but they also do an exemplary anpan
? @wacafelondon for Japanese-style French patisserie and cakes, including one of London’s finest mont blancs (a pastry so enthusiastically adopted in Japan that it may as well be Japanese); they also do really pretty lattes!
? @sakuradolondon, also for Japanese-French pastries, particularly their gorgeous purple sweet potato items, mille crepes, and cheesecakes
? @happyskybakery for perfect shokupan
? @lanka_uk for all manner of matcha delights, including Swiss rolls and Paris-Brests
☕️ @omotesando.koffee for those delicious little cuboid canelé things
? The London branch of @cafekitsune, which I haven’t been to yet, but it looks awesome! There are others as well!”

If you are looking for a book on Japanese baking here are a few that I love: Japanese Pâtisserie, Kyotofu: Uniquely Delicious Japanese Desserts and Tanoshii: The Joy of Japanese Style Cakes & Desserts. If any of our members know of other Japanese pastry titles, please leave a comment. (For Asian flavors I do love Jason Licker’s books and The Way of Kueh.)

Here are our bakers:

• Dave, 30, Armoured Guard
• Hermine, 39, Accountant
• Laura, 31, Digital Manager
• Linda, 61, Retirement Living Team Manager (eliminated Week 5)
• Loriea, 27, Diagnostic Radiographer (eliminated Week 1)
• Lottie, 31, Pantomime Producer
• Makbul, 51, Accountant (eliminated Week 2)
• Marc (a.k.a. Hammish, his dog’s name), 51, Bronze Resin Sculptor
• Mark, 32, Project Manager
• Peter, 20, Accounting and Finance Student
• Rowan, 55, Music Teacher (eliminated Week 3)
• Sura, 31, Pharmacy Dispenser (eliminated Week 4)

Signature bake: 8 soft steamed buns with any filling (sweet or savory) in 2 hours and 30 minutes.

Paul stated that the dough should be soft and chewy but not too chewy. Okay. What is too chewy, Paul?

Bun flavors: Dave made a Katsu chicken curry, Peter a lamb stir-fry, Laura a Chinese flavored pork belly, Marc a Dhal inspired bun, Hermine went for a spiced chicken, mushroom and dried shrimp offering and Mark and Lottie made burger inspired buns with Gherkins. Both made a “Gherkin free” sample for Paul who is not a fan of “anything green” per Noel. Lottie went the extra step and gave them “chips with that”.

The judging was mixed. Good flavors, dry fillings, too much filling, not enough, and so forth. Lottie made a good point – if Paul would have tried her burger bun with the Gherkin relish perhaps it wouldn’t have been too dry.

Recipes:

• Lottie’s cheeseburger steamed buns
• Dave’s chicken shaped Katsu curry buns

Technical: Set by Prue. A matcha crepe cake (with 12 crepes) filled with strawberries, white chocolate buttercream, and edible flowers in 2 hours.

Overall the crepe cakes were not pleasant to look upon. The judging left Laura in last place with Lottie in 2nd and Peter in first.

Recipes:

• Prue’s Matcha mille crêpe cake

Showstopper: a Kawaii cake in 4 hours, keeping in mind Japanese flavors such as yuzu, sake and matcha.

I only have one Kawaii cookbook, Kawaii Sweet World Cookbook, which is adorable but I haven’t baked anything from it as of yet. I am not a baker of cute things. I do have Kim-Joy’s cookbooks which are filled with cuteness.

The final cakes all looked “cute and charming” at least to me which fulfilled the brief. Even Mark L’s avocado babies looked great but were deemed inedible. Lottie’s cotton jiggle toadstool with whiskey fudge sounded great and Paul was impressed. Judging went nicely save Mark L’s inedible offering.

Recipes:

• Lottie’s toadstool cake
• Marc’s Hamish the dog cake
• Laura’s upside down pineapple cake

Final results: Lottie was named star baker and Mark L was sent home with his adorable inedible avocado babies.