The Great British Bake Off/Baking Show – Week 6 – Autumn 2024

More than half way through this season of The Great British Bake Off! This week’s theme was “autumn.”

Signature challenge: Sweet autumnal pie with pastry and a seasonal flavor /produce in 2 hours and 45 minutes.

Nelly, my queen, looked beautiful with her autumn inspired headpiece. I loved when she was cutting out her owls and said, “owls live in the night just like me”. I am or was a night owl. Now I just love the darkness – I am not turning into Noel – there is something about being at home cooking, reading or watching a movie with the fireplace roaring and a blanket of darkness outside the windows.

Nelly made a traditional Slovakian pie called Jabikové Pité – I am Slovakian and know about our great love of poppyseed! I added a similar recipe to the Library here, Slovakian apple and poppyseed pie from Relaxed Recipes. Nelly said that her traditional pastry contained baking powder so it was hard to control the thickness. They also had a photograph that looked similar to Nelly’s pie – below.

Regarding the addition of baking powder to crust, I found this article over at the Kitchn explaining how baking powder makes a crust tender and flaky. The author, Jessie Sheehan, gives props to Rose Levy Beranbaum and her The Pie and Pastry Bible recipe for Basic flaky pie crust that adds baking powder for the flaky, tender quality.

Gill went with a margarine and lard crust her mother used for her blackberry and apple pie. Dylan took the road less traveled with a laminated rough puff pastry for his apple and cider creation. Illiyin made a blueberry, ginger and pear pie. Christiaan’s offering was a pumpkin and quince pie. Sumayah made a beetroot custard, with dried beetroot and spinach powder in her crust. It looked beautiful. Some bakers were dinged for overbaked, cracked or undercooked crust.

Darcie: I find it interesting that several bakers chose a short crust pastry, when for me (and I suspect most Americans), pie means a flaky, light crust or perhaps a crumb crust. The shape differs between the UK and US pies as well, with the ones on this side of the pond having a sloped edge instead of a vertical one. Is the defining feature for UK pies the addition of a top crust? Color me confused.

Regardless of the definition, most of the bakers made gorgeous, well-decorated pies. Several had timing issues, with either over- or under-baked crusts. I almost thought Dylan was going to pull off that rough puff crust but it didn’t quite work. Nelly’s filling was intriguing, not the least because I bought a pound of poppy seeds only to discover another pound already in the freezer.

Technical challenge: Set by Prue Leith Sticky vegan parkin cut into 16 squares in 1 and 1/2 hours

Gill predicted the technical challenge in her interview before the technical began and ironically she forgot to add the baking powder to her ingredients. Judging had Gill in last place, Sumayah in third, Georgie in second and Illiyin in first.

Darcie: It’s always tough when the bakers have no idea of what the finished product is supposed to look, feel, or taste like. But as we have seen, even when they know it doesn’t always help! Gill was right, she couldn’t do any worse in the technical than she did the previous week.

Showstopper challenge: An autumnal festival cake featuring vegetables in 4 hours.

Dylan dropped one of his fresh out of the oven layers on the way to the freezer and had to rebake that layer, thankfully he had batter in the fridge leftover.

Judging went well for most. Sumayah got a handshake for her autumn leaves cake which was beautiful and delicious. She had two different cakes for each layer – one was beetroot, ginger and walnut and the other was parsnip and flaked almonds. Paul said it was the best cake he ever had and Prue exclaimed, “You are one hell of a baker.”

Christiaan, Gill and Illiyin received favorable judging. Georgie was told her cake was very dense – but the flavor was okay. The judges thought Nelly overcomplicated her showstopper with too many ingredients fighting against each other although her design was nice. Dylan was told his cake was messy but it looked lovely to me – the white chocolate peacock was stunning and his flavours beetroot, orange and cardamom with cream cheese frosting were well received.

Darcie: The theme of this challenge was lovely, and didn’t involve anyone having to build a structure so they could spend more time on decoration. What Sumayah did in the time allotted was amazing, even more so because of her age. There’s no way I was pulling that off at age 19; I was still burning toast. Dylan handled his misstep much more calmly than I would have, pressing on to remake that cake with the clock ticking. His monochrome cake concept was sophisticated and could have been impressive if had more time to smooth, shape, and decorate the top layer. I was so sad to see Nelly go, but her indominable spirit and positive attitude are inspiring. She is a definite must-follow on social media.

Results: Sumayah was named star baker. And my heart is broken as Nelly was sent home. I love her spirit. Her parting remarks were lovely. She wants to teach her children to enjoy not to win and that she left a piece of Nelly with everyone there. She is a beautiful person and hope she does more with her baking. I have already told her – write that cookbook – we will love it!