Desserts week
This is the seventh week of Season 14 of The Great British Baking Show ™ and focuses on desserts.
This page is all about the food that the show brings to our screens. The goal is to have a lasting memory of some of the flavors and taste combinations, to bring some creativity and ideas to your own cooking. I hope you find it fun and useful.
Signature Dish
In episode 7 of Season 14 of The Great British Baking Show ™, the 6 remaining contestants were required to create eight identical crème caramels - beautifully set baked custards. They had 2 hours 45 minutes.
Of crème caramels, Paul Hollywood said "It's basically a beautiful caramel sauce on the top, falling down the sides of a silky, smooth, set custard."
Prue Leith added "Baking a perfect custard is really tricky. When it's perfectly baked it will be just set. A crème caramel should wobble like a jelly. It if overbakes, it gets little holes in it and becomes a little stodgy or even hard."
For this episode of The Great British Baking Show ™, Paul Hollywood said "Obviously, the contestants can introduce any flavor into the custard of the crème caramel, or into the caramel sauce. However, the caramel has to be the star. We want it to be golden brown. If it's too pale, we're not going to get the full flavor."
Below, I share the flavors that the contestants brought to the beautiful crème caramel.
Mini Watalappan
Saku used jaggary instead of sugar in her crème caramels. She also used cardamom and nutmeg for flavors from her homeland of Sri Lanka.
Paul Hollywood judged her creme caramels as being too sweet and a little solid (see notes below about the balance of eggs yolks and egg whites).
Cristy's Orange Creme Caramels
Cristy flavored her crème caramels with orange zest and orange decoration over a nutmeg infused custard, with traditional caramel.
Paul Hollywood judged this dish harshly - he considered it badly overcooked (the caramel was showing a lot of bubbles which is a sign of overcooking).
Fig, Honey and Rosemary
Tasha, like Saku, opted to swap out the traditional caramel sauce. In Tasha's case, she used honey in place of caramel.
Tasha's rosemary-infused custard was sandwiched between a honey caramel and a fig compote, and was served with rosemary tuiles.
Paul Hollywood judged the crème caramel as being "the most perfect texture". He found, however, that the honey sauce was too sweet and that the flavor profile 'lost direction'.
Nan's Favorite
Josh's cinnamon and orange custard was topped with cinnamon-spiced plums and tempered chocolate butterflies.
Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith judged the custard as slightly overbaked, but said that the plum and orange compote was a lovely combination.
Chai Crème Caramel
Matty's creme caramel featured a custard infused with 8 chai teabags (with 800 gm of coconut milk and 200 gm of milk). He added coconut and vanilla for a balanced flavor.
Prue Leith said "I love the flavour. It's really tasty. I could eat the whole thing."
Thai Crème Caramels
Dan's Thai-inspired dish was flavored with coriander root, galangal, lemongrass and lime.
During the cooking of the signature challenge, both judges expressed concerns. Paul Hollywood asked "how are you going to balance the sweetness with the tang and spice?" (Answer - Dan said he'd worked hard to achieve the right balance.) Prue Leith was more concerned that it wouldn't set, and she turned out to be right - the dish ended up being a little too wobbly. In favor terms, though, Paul Hollywood said "That tastes beautiful. The flavors are spot on."
The Relaxed Recipes version of this dish is here.
In Dessert Week, Dan was Star Baker.
Also in Desserts Week
Lessons learned in Dessert Week
Jaggary
Jaggery is commonly used across the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia. It can vary from golden brown to dark brown in color. Jaggery can taste similar to fresh cane juice, maple syrup, caramel, or molasses, depending on its contents.
Jaggery is often touted as being “healthier” than other forms of sugar. It has more vitamins and minerals and a lower sucrose content than sugar.
Balance of yolks / whites
There was talk among the contestants in The Great British Baking Show Season 2023 (Desserts Week) about the ratio of egg yolks and egg whites for a successful crème caramel. The culinary profession seems to lean towards the use of 3 whites for every set of 5 yolks and this is more or less what most contestants favored. Saku used 8 whole eggs and was judged harshly for the texture that this created.
Chai
There is a lot of mystique surrounding 'chai' but the word simply means 'tea' in Hindi. It is a blend of tea, cardamom, allspice, cinnamon, cloves and ginger. You can blend your own or buy a ready-mixed powder, either loose or in tea-bags. If you don't like the ready-made flavor, feel free to experiment with the ratio of the different spices.
Tempering Chocolate
Tempering chocolate is a crucial step in ensuring that chocolate creations have a beautiful shine, a satisfying snap, and a smooth texture. It's a process of carefully melting and cooling chocolate to align the cocoa butter crystals, which are responsible for the chocolate's properties.
The idea is to melt two-thirds of your chocolate over simmering water in the bottom bowl, ensuring the chocolate doesn't touch the water directly. (See helpful equipment below).
Thai Spices in desserts
Lemongrass and galangal are both strongly flavoured, and so should be used with caution. Always start with just a pinch and slowly add more. If you end up using too much, then it is possible to use coconut cream to lessen the spice.
