The Great British Bake Off/Baking Show – Week 9 – Patisserie Week 2024

This week was patisserie week for the semi-final round. Even our strong bakers were nervous wanting to achieve the ultimate goal of reaching the finals.

Signature challenge: Two batches of eight laminated breakfast pastries with one batch being filled or topped. For the first time – the bakers had one hour to prepare their dough so that it could rest overnight. The next day they had three hours to prepare their breakfast pastries.

I thought three hours to make two different laminated pastries (even with the one hour start the day before) seemed crazy but then don’t all the challenges.

Dylan had misunderstood the brief and thought he had two hours to make the pastries and took the easy route – croissants – one cinnamon and one hazelnut filled. He piped his filling in the hazelnut version. Paul told him to leave one empty so he could check the lamination. His croissants “were a bit of a mess”, needed more proofing and his hazelnut filling tasted like tahini and didn’t work according to Paul.

Georgie made Coffee and hazelnut pinwheels & Chocolate Pain Suisse and was told they had good color and tasted lovely. However, they were a bit doughy and her pinwheels didn’t laminate correctly.

Gill created Pain au sausage sandwich and Banana & custard pastries that needed more proofing but tasted excellent. Christiaan’s Rhubarb and saffron danish & za‘atar and gruyère swirls looked as if they belonged in a pastry shop and were “nearly there” meaning nearly perfect.

Darcie: It’s the semi-final which puts extra pressure on the bakers. There is so much tension in the tent that it made me anxious just watching – I can’t imagine how nervous the bakers must be. Nevertheless, they had to execute a major challenge in only 3 hours (plus 1 hour the previous day). Three hours to do full laminated pastry is bonkers! Considering the time constraints it is no wonder each of the bakers had underproved doughs. No one really wowed the judges but none of the bakers failed miserably, meaning a fairly even playing field for the rest of the semi-final.

Technical challenge: Set by Paul an Opera cake in 2 hours and 45 minutes with eight layers of Joconde sponge, Crème au beurre (French buttercream) and dark chocolate ganache. Paul stated that the secret to cutting clean slices is to use a hot knife.

There are different stories of the origin of the Opera cake from wiki: “An advertisement in Le Gaulois in 1899 offers a “gateau opéra”. The cake was popularized by the French patisserie house Dalloyau , but its origin is unclear. Cyriaque Gavillon claimed to have created the cake there in 1955 and that his wife Andrée Gavillon named it after the Opéra Garnier. Gaston Lenôtre (1920–2009) claimed he invented the dessert in 1960.”

Gill had never made an Opera cake before and Georgie had a breakdown and declared she was just going to stand there until the end. Alison talked her off the ledge and she managed to get the job done.

Judging: Georgie came in last, Christiaan third, Gill second and Dylan made first place.

Darcie: I know what it’s like to make a terrible mistake in a clutch moment from competing in sports, so kudos to Georgie for sticking with it despite a glaring error. Even though she came last, at least she had a finished product. The challenges become more diabolical each week and this was a whopper, but it was an excellent skills test as each element was something the bakers should know how to make, and the layers had to be neat and even. Considering the time crunch and the fact that they are baking in a tent without air conditioning the bakes looked amazing.

Showstopper challenge: 12 fruit shaped entremets in 4 hours and 30 minutes.

All the bakers made incredible showstoppers. Christiaan created a masterpiece of ‘Sorrento Citrus’ Entremets with a lemon biscuit tree. Dylan made a lovely creation but was short one entremet in his Avocado and Orange Entremets; Georgie made two fruits for her ‘Market Box Fruits’ Entremets that were housed in a chocolate basket – blackberry and lemons with limoncello. Gill’s “Pick Your Own Key” basket contained strawberries with strawberry mascarpone mousse.

Christiaan was star baker and Gill was sent home. I’m surprised that Gill was sent home – I know that Dylan was great during most of the season but he made two croissants in the signature that weren’t judged highly and he was short one entremet in the showstopper. And I understand that they want him in the final – in that case they shouldn’t have sent anyone home – and had four in the final. It didn’t seem fair to Gill.

Darcie: Gill played it safe by making only one type of entremet while the rest of the bakers had two different flavors and designs, all of which were amazing. This challenge was at a level above anything that came before it. Cedric Grolet better watch out, because what Christiaan and Dylan produced looked nearly as good as his creations – and they made them in a tent. I really wanted to taste all of these entremets because the flavor combinations sounded wonderful, especially Christiaan’s (I’m a sucker for basil).

I think the fact that Gill chose only one flavor coupled with the humbleness of some previous bakes sealed Gill’s fate. I’m not convinced that a bias toward younger contestants (something mentioned by more than one person) played a role, but I concede that it possibly did. Gill handled her exit with grace, and took home the lavender bowl she had been eyeing from week one.

Translation service: Jane previously defined faff – as it means it’s difficult to do and often feels like more trouble than it is worth.