Desserts week

Showstopper

The Showstopper challenge in Dessert Week of the Great British Baking Show ™, Season 14, was:

"Make a sharing-sized dessert which is encased within a highly decorative meringue bombe"

Showstopper

When talking about the Showstopper in Desserts Week (Episode 7) of Season 14 of The Great British Baking Show ™, Prue Leith said "A meringue bombe should look like a sphere and inside it there should be any kind of dessert the contestants like."

Paul Hollywood added "The meringue itself is probably going to be a French meringue because it is stable and strong."

Prue Leith closed with "the most obvious option is to use a mould for the bombe, in which case the bakers will do the mould in two halves."

"Flowers for my bee"

Marzipan bumblebees buzzed around Saku's flowery bombe, and inside there were two flavors of profiteroles ... passion fruit creme patisserie and pistachio with Irish Cream.

This showstopper was judged to be a little short on flavor and there was an opinion that the choux buns were too flat.

Croquembouche

Cristy made a croquembouche of summer berry creme diplomat, protruding from a bombe of multi-colored meringue kisses, which are attached using royal icing.

The end result looked really pretty, with many primary, glossy colors, but the inner dessert was judged "messy and too sweet".

Plum and Ginger

Branches of pink plum blossom were wrapped around Tasha's bombe. There were profiteroles filled with plum and ginger creme diplomat. The profiteroles were covered in plum craquelin.

The decoration was judged highly - looked very elegant, and the flavors were "good".

"Game, Set and Match"

With his tennis-themed bombe, Josh served up his cheesecake of mascarpone whipped cream with a touch of champagne, sandwiched by layers of strawberry mousse and strawberry jam.

The judges loved the flavor, and the attention to detail.

"English Italian Summer"

Genoise Sponge, pistachio cremeux and a compote of strawberry and basil joined a mousse inside a french meringue bombe for Matty's showstopper.

Paul Hollywood didn't like the addition of basil to this dish. He also judged it a little messy.

"Pale Blue Dot"

Beneath an earth's crust of chocolate genoise, Dan's trifle consisted of orange creme patisserie, strawberry bavarois and a core of raspberry jelly.

During the preparation, Prue Leith had expressed concern that the wet layers in the trifle might make everything too soggy, but she judged it very highly in the end.

In Dessert Week, Dan was Star Baker.

Lessons learned in Dessert Week, Showstopper

French Meringue

French meringue is sometimes called “common meringue.” It is meringue at its simplest—egg whites, cream of tartar, and granulated sugar are whipped together until they become light, fluffy, thick, and aerated. Because this method doesn’t require heating the mixture, it must be baked to become safe to eat.

Choux Buns - problems

Saku's choux buns were pronounced 'flat'. This almost certainly means there was too much moisture in them. Either she did not dry the dough enough, or they were not cooked enough. Most bakers recommend drying the dough really well and cracking the door of the oven open when the choux buns are baked.

To 'dry' the dough simply means add enough flour to avoid a wet choux paste.

Creme Diplomat

Creme Diplomat is a Creme Patisserie (sometimes known as 'custard cream , or pastry cream, and very often shorted to 'creme pat') which is combined with whipped cream.

The most common ratio of creme patisserie to whipped cream is 2:1.

Craquelin

Craquelin is the art of adding a crunchy topping to choux pastry puffs (profiteroles).

Craquelin is a dough of butter, flour and sugar, but with a much higher ratio of butter than, say, cookie dough. The high butter content makes it easy to roll out really thinly and then, while the profiteroles are cooking, the butter melts and the craquelin breaks up as intended.

Try to roll it really thinly - you need a large surface area and you need to reduce the drag of gravity that might pull the craqulein off your choux buns.

Croquembouche

A croquembouche is a French dessert made from a cone, or pyramid, of choux pastry buns arranged in a cone shape and bound together with caramel.

The spun caramel is much easier than it looks as long as you have a sugar themometer!

Croque en bouche means "crack in the mouth," a reference to the crunchy caramel coating.

Bavarois

Bavarois, also known as Bavarian cream or crème bavaroise, is a French dessert.

The custard is made from: Crème anglaise, egg yolks, sugar, vanilla, and milk.

The mixture is set in a cold mold and unmolded before serving.

Bavarois can be served in a cup like a mousse or set in a mold like a panna cotta.