Missing the chance to join in with Bake Off German week due to our ongoing kitchen renovation, was a disappointment. But if I have to miss out on Pastry week as well, it could just turn out to be a blessing.
It’s not that I don’t like pastry, my regular consumption of pies proves I do, just that I find making it the most difficult and daunting aspect of baking.
They say practice makes perfect, and although I’m a long way from that, I will accept practice is slowly improving my pastry skills. All be it for only certain types.
If I’m making a pie at home, be it sweet or savoury, my go-to is shortcrust and I’m now fairly comfortable with this. If a dessert calls for choux, I’m just about there. I will admit, it took a few abortive attempts to get it right, but the joy of a homemade, cream-filled eclair made it worthwhile.
Those two I’m ok with, but at the first mention of puff or filo pastry in a recipe, you’ll find me in the chiller cabinet aisle of the supermarket, hunting out the ready-made.
The one exception is if I’m making sausage rolls. Delia Smith might not be the most fashionable name in baking these days but her quick flaky pastry recipe has never let me down. Wrapped around sausage meat that has spice and dried fruit added, it works wonderfully. It won’t be long until I’m baking some for Christmas.
The challenges the bakers faced on this week’s Bake Off were to produce a batch of chouxnuts, a baklava and finally a decorated terrine pie
Chouxnuts , as the name suggests, are a choux pastry version of a doughnut. It’s a new concept to me but the bakers all seemed to know of them. I’d be interested to try one, my expectation is they’d be light and crispy, but the lack of a deep fat fryer in the kitchen rules out making my own.
For the baklava, the key requirement was making filo. As gorgeous as this sweet, pistachio filled treat is, the only way I’d attempt making one is with a box of shop-bought pastry by my side.
For once it was the show stopper challenge that caught my imagination. Everyone seems to love a pie, and these are truly a thing of beauty. The point where pie making becomes an art form.
Calum Franklin’s Pie Room cookbook has been on my shelf for a while now. I’ve flicked through it a few times, never quite plucking up the courage to make anything. Bake Off might just have provided the incentive to have a go.
Now all I have to do is work out how to use the new oven.
David in the kitchen. 