The Great British Bake Off/Baking Show – Week 4 – Mexican Week

October 9, 2022 by
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We’re back in the tent with all the bakers for Mexican week. You will recall last week, bread week, that no one was sent home due to Rebs and Abdul both being ill. This episode was a missed opportunity to teach viewers about Mexican desserts/bakes but instead an hour riddled with insensitive comments/props which demonstrated a clear lack of knowledge by all.

To open the show Noel and Matt appeared in sombreros and sarapes. Noel stated that they could not do any Mexican jokes – to which Matt replied, “Not even Juan?”. This horrible pun and their cartoonish get up was culturally insensitive and didn’t sit well with many viewers. To compound this later in the show the two comedians played the maracas and Matt announced a time check yelling ¡Arriba, Arriba!.

Comments were made by contestants that there really isn’t any baking in Mexico were also shameful and one contestant applying a huge black moustache on his cake was too much. This could have been a wonderful opportunity for the show to teach viewers about the many wonderful Mexican desserts but sadly it was wasted.

I recommend Fany Gerson’s My Sweet Mexico: Recipes for Authentic Pastries, Breads, Candies, Beverages, and Frozen Treats for those wishing to learn more about Mexican baking (she also has two titles devoted to frozen treats). There are two additional books coming out next month that I am excited about Chicano Bakes: Recipes for Mexican Pan Dulce, Tamales, and My Favorite Desserts and ¡Viva Desserts!: Traditional and Reinvented Sweets from a Mexican-American Kitchen. I’m sure there are some delicious baking recipes in many of our Mexican cookbooks in the Library but I believe these are the ones that solely focus on baking/dessert.

Darcie’s $0.02: I echo Jenny’s sentiments about the cultural insensitivity. There is a significant Hispanic population in my small Midwestern farming community, the majority of whom are Mexican, and we are lucky to have several mercados that offer pan dulce and other Mexican baked goods. Therefore I was quite disappointed with both the dismissal of Mexican baking culture – it flourishes both in and outside of the country’s borders – and the tired stereotypes (maracas?!). Do better, GBBO.

Signature: 12 individual pan dulce (sweet bread) of the yeasted variety in 2 1/2 hours.

Many of the bakers went the concha route with a craquelin top – some with fillings some without. For your reference there are fifteen online recipes for conchas in our library. This is one baked item that is on my ever growing bucket list. Kevin went his own way with pan borrachos, a type of “drunk” bread and stated that he loved how they wobbled. They did look amazing.

Overall the judging was not favorable. Paul again told a baker that there was no “punch” of flavor. Many were told that their offerings were dry, dense, underproofed etc. Maxy and Kevin received good comments.

Darcie’s $0.02: You could tell that the bakers were grossly unfamiliar with the bakes they were making. I was gobsmacked at the thickness of some of the craquelin – even if you weren’t familiar with this crunchy topping from conchas, you think these bakers would know about it from making cream puffs and understand that you can’t make it 1/4 inch thick. Most of bakers went very traditional with their flavors – I would have opted for something with pineapple not just because it is a perfect match for scoring a craquelin topping but it would also be a great flavor for a sweet bread.

Paul Hollywood’s spicy beef tacos

Technical: 8 Mexican tacos with yellow corn tortillas, steak, refried beans, guacamole and pico de gallo in 2 hours.

The bakers didn’t do well in this technical. Critiques included too much filling, too thick of a tortilla, not the right shape etc. Maxy reigned supreme taking first place. Carole, Rebs and James were at the bottom.

Darcie’s $0.02: I guess they are running out of good ideas because this is not a baking challenge. I know no one who makes corn tortillas from dried field corn – I don’t think that is even nixtamalized, which is essential (I see that they did add some masa harina but still). And they didn’t even give them a proper tortilla press! I was likewise perplexed by the refried bean ‘recipe’ which doesn’t resemble any that I am familiar with, but I do not claim to be a Mexican food expert so maybe this is a valid version. I did have to chuckle at Carole peeling the avocado like it was an apple.

Recipe: Paul Hollywood’s spicy beef tacos.

Showstopper Challenge: Tres leches cake. 4 layers of milk-soaked cake in 4 hours.

Our Library has 90 online recipes for Tres leches cake.

The day was not a good one for the bakers – as judgments were harsh. Dry, tough, chili too strong, liquor too strong, etc. I thought Paul wanted some punchy flavors. Dawn’s cake was simple but effective – the flavor was “heavenly” – a really good job. Maxy received the best comments – good piping, colorful, flavor was good – and overall, a good job.

Maxy earned star baker for a second time. She is one to watch along with Janusz as they are tied on star baker wins.

Darcie’s $0.02: This was a better challenge, although making tres leches into a layer cake is nontraditional (Kevin had it right when he said “a tres leches sponge is not for stacking”) and again a bit of a cultural slap in the face. I think many of the bakers should have followed the “KISS” principle (keep it simple, stupid) because they were trying to put in too many flavors and elements. As Dawn’s cake showed, simplicity can pay dividends when well executed. I agree that Maxy and Janusz are the breakout bakers, although I’m keeping my eye on Syabira and Sandro, who are less consistent but have some great moments.

Two bakers were sent home – James and Rebs.

Jane saw/heard nothing that she thought needed translating – but leave us a comment if you need some clarification.

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11 Comments

  • Foodycat  on  October 9, 2022

    It really gets on my nerves the way Paul Hollywood does a series in a country (like they did with Japan week and now Mexico) comes back as an “expert” and then says and does really ignorant things about the culture. The whole fiesta/so colourful! etc is so reductive.

    And if all the baker’s pan dulce was underproved, it does suggest they weren’t given enough time.

  • KatieK1  on  October 9, 2022

    Several critiques I’ve read online about this episode said there should have been a guest Mexican judge.

    • Jenny  on  October 9, 2022

      A Mexican consultant or expert to help plan the challenges – and monitor the “humor” would be great too.

  • Fyretigger  on  October 10, 2022

    The technical challenges in general have always been a little dicey — we’re going to ask you to make something you may or may not have ever heard of or seen before and may or may not have ever had and we are going to give you skimpy directions about how to make it. How is that a test of baking skill? The technical challenges keep getting more obscure. By that standard, this challenge was one of the more reasonable ones as most people in the western world have had a taco, so seen a tortilla. Yet this week still went to a whole new level of ridiculous. How are making guacamole and refried beans without recipes baking skills? A pierogi cookbook is one of the current EYB book giveaways, maybe GBBO could make pierogis a future technical challenge with the entire filling instructions being “Make potato and cheese filling,” without any guidance that the potatoes should be boiled and the two mashed together.

    In this episode, Paul was dead wrong when about one tortilla he said “There’s spots of char on this one. There shouldn’t be any.” Spots of char on tortillas are perfectly acceptable, and also regionally expected; you can Google “How to char tortillas.”

    I absolutely agree with Jenny about guest Judges being crucial to culturally themed weeks. And I think GBBO would benefit from them in all episodes for the freshness it would impart. Of course, a guest judge might step on Paul Hollywood’s wedding train of an ego during bread week. Though in fairness, Paul does seem to be a good sport about being poked fun at about same.

    Regarding humor, has GBBO had any genuine humor since Sandi Toksvig left? Noel Fielding has always left me cold. And while I appreciate Matt Lucas as an actor (wonderful in Doctor Who as a companion and in the concert version of Les Misérables as Thénardier), he does not excel at the semi-scripted humor of the current GBBO. I deeply miss the warmth and compassion of Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins from the BBC days, who would notoriously let f-bombs freely flow during tapings in order to make video unusable when the camera was getting too intrusive during baker meltdowns.

  • anya_sf  on  October 10, 2022

    I agree that the tacos were a cooking challenge rather than a baking challenge. And has no one studied Spanish? Why so many mispronunciations?

  • dwager  on  October 10, 2022

    Unfortunately for a show I really love, their episodes devoted to a specific country are universally tone-deaf and feature uninteresting bakes. Even when they did American-style pies, Hollywood said he hoped they wouldn’t really make them like an American because they would be too sweet. If you don’t want them to make the cuisine of a country, don’t assign them the challenge! And if you do, bring in an appropriate consultant to make an interesting challenge.

  • gamulholland  on  October 10, 2022

    Or how about “Paul doesn’t like tofu” or “Paul doesn’t like gherkins”— as Noel said, and I’m paraphrasing, is he five? But yes, the technical is just silly. It would really test technical skill if they got decent instructions and found out who was the best of a good lot instead of the best of a bad lot, as it so often is these days since they have too little time and so little to go on. Thumbs-up on the cultural pro idea— remember the little travel videos they would make back in the day? I remember one from a European monastery or some such (it’s been a while). I get it that the pandemic has made that harder, but I totally agree with bringing the expert to the tent. And it would be nice to see the signature and showstopper be less about construction and engineering and more about, you know, baking.

  • Foodycat  on  October 11, 2022

    @Fyretigger you are overestimating the popularity and accessibility of Mexican food in the UK! Most of the tortillas you can buy in supermarkets are big soft wheat ones, or at best a mix of wheat and corn. Outside a couple of places, if you get tacos they are hard-shell. It’s very possible that none of the contestants have ever seen or eaten a proper masa tortilla.

  • sanfrannative  on  October 11, 2022

    As a CA native this episode drove me nuts. When Prue stated confidently that conchas should be filled, it sent me right up the proverbial wall!!

  • gamulholland  on  October 12, 2022

    @Foodycat — I was trying to introduce my aunt in Belfast to fish tacos to spice up her family’s meals on Fridays in Lent (we’re the American relatives who emigrated— I live in Southern California), and it involved sending her a packet of fairly authentic taco seasoning and conceding that any flatbread would probably be fine as a substitute for a tortilla. 🙂

  • Fyretigger  on  October 12, 2022

    @Foodycat I guess I am naive about the UK food scene. I fell into the mistake of assuming that the UK and US are mostly alike, ‘two countries separated by a common tongue’ and all that. It’s hard to imagine that tacos are so unusual that most in the UK would never have been exposed to a soft corn tortilla, but I will take your word for it. To me, that would be like not knowing what a pizza is. Maybe in the UK naan, chapati and papadam are ubiquitous knowledge, while in the US few would know them. In fairness, I have Irish heritage on both sides of the family yet only heard of boxty during the lockdown.

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