Scrummy Handshakes - A Great British Bake Off Fan Podcast

Hi All - it is with mixed emotions that I am announcing that this is the last episode of Scrummy Handshakes - at least for now. Alison can't return and doing this withougt her makes me ... well... sad. Maybe the future will bring a different path, but for now, this is what I need to do. I hope you enjoy this last episode where we tear through the rest of Juniors! We see: Amazing builds of meringue, illusion cakes, mirrors, jellies, and much more. Floor cookies and the worst floor cake in bakeoff history. Some touching moments. Laughing with Harry. Hurting Harry! Lola. All the Lola. Victories for all. A deserving winner and a satisfying final round. I will still keep the Instagram alive: @scrummyhandshakes but feel free to follow my personal one as well: IG: @iwassheldonfirst Keep on Baking!

Still traveling a lot so baking limited - but did make some brown butter CC cookies! And then had some my employee made - hers were better so I got her recipe :-) Ellie Jean Taylor is having a baby! Bake off starts in UK on Tuesday sept 26... still no confirmation from Netflix on their having episodes 3 days later. Last round for Heat B before recombining the groups. Pastry - the differentiator in my book. A lot can go wrong and the options are wide. In the technical they ere asked to make pop ta.... (i mean) STARS. They had to make their own peanut butter to go with jelly inside the pastry. Keys to this were get the thickness right, make the peanut butter smooth, and crimp to hold it all in. Aisya and Fraser did this pretty well. Frasers got a bit overbakes=d though and it pushed him to 2nd in the technical. Salma did a decent job. Both Tomas and Gabriel struggled. Tomos with uneven rolling of his pastry and gabriel with over saltiness and not blending his peanut butter smooth... and not crimping, earning him last. In the showstopper they had to make a family crest using pastry. some went sweet (Gabriel and Tomos) while the other went savory. Salma went with what was more of a dough than a pastry crust. It was yeasted and had no butter. Hers was "good" but Liam was wanting for short crust so it cost her I believe. Aisya went with a spicy chicken pastry and traditional short crust. Colorful... but a little messy. Tasty though. Fraser - delicious and used star anise brilliantly, but very simple in its design. The two sweet pies both used fruit - a risk for sure because of moisture. Gabriel added a creme patissiere ... which looked very lumpy... but apparently tasted good. He blind baked his crust which was smart. Tomos... did not blind bake and this was a mistake. Soggy bottom. Kiss of death and he was sent home. Star baker went to Fraser who is a brilliant baker. I was pulling for Aisya, but at least they both head to finals. So we combine both groups next episode: Heat A: Lola, Quique, Macy, Kezia Heat B: Fraser, Aisya, Gabriel, Salma My bets are on Fraser or Aisya. I'm excited to see them all again though - hope its a good contest.

Sheldon talks about making Christina Tosi's (Milk Bar) Cornflake Marshmallow Chocolate Chip Cookie - - one word "yum" and talks about the next step of making his own recipe. Where are they now with Nancy Birtwhistle - Season 5 winner. Rav's dress looked amazing! No new bake off news yet...was hoping for contestants. Technical "Rainbow baked Alaska". Banana ice cream... eww. Biggest challenge was getting ice cream to set. Gabriel's forgot butter and flour in the cake... so added it after. Salma and Fraser nailed it. Gabriel and Mia and Aisya did not. Setting issues. In the showstopper - illusion desserts. Most made a cake, Salma sort of did but used Maltese biscuit. Three people chose pizza to make an illusion on - Mia, Salma, and Tomos. All had different flavors and approach. Salma's stood out. Mia's stood out the other direction... Fraser's meatball sandwiches looked absolutely professional - flavor of mint maybe not a great choice. Aisya's "chicken satay" was amazing. Gabriel's "fish and chips" looked a bit messy to me... Rav seemed to like the flavor, but in my personal opinion, Gabriel did not meet the visual part of the brief. Apparently Mia's jam snafu on the pizza though was worse as she ended up going home. I disagreed in general... but as I've said before - I didn't taste them. Next week = Pastry for B to decide who goes on to finals week.

Episode 50!!! Very excited to bring the show to you - it’s fun and I love talking about this topic. Tell your baking friends to come along for the ride! Follow us on IG @scrummyhandshakes So I made a little investment in my baking journey. Alison turned me on to Christina Tosi of Milk Bar fame - she also does a show on Netflix called Bake Squad - 10 out of 10 must watch if you love GBBO. I kept seeing a “masterclass” kind of thing for her on a platform called Studio. She teaches 3 of Milk Bar’s famous recipes - Cornflake Choc Chip Marshmallow cookie, Milk Bar Pie, and Birthday Layer Cake - but she also teaches her process for recipe creation, prototyping, etc. Something like 16 hours of classes. So - I decided I wanted to up my learning and I got it! Started on the cookies and these look exciting. There is a sub recipe for the “cornflake crunch” aspect of the cookie and just that is a fantastic mix in that could be used for a ton of stuff. I bet you could top ice cream with it and it would be amazing. Very excited to see how these things go! Bake off news: it’s starting soon! Expect to see the line up of bakers ANY day now! ALSO - big format changes! Reading several articles on the subject and and it appears that there will be no “national themed” weeks this year based on feedback from the fans. This is probably for the best as there have been a few cringe moments sprouting from those weeks. Best to play it safe. New theme is “Party Cakes”. It also appears the bakes will be more “approachable”. Paul says “In a way we’ve returned to the philosophy of the first three series”. I like it already! In where are they now this week, let’s take a look at series nine and someone that I very much enjoyed on the show Briony Williams. She was one of the only bakers I can recall that had a visible physical “difference” - she has no fingers on her left hand - It in no way should be called a disability at all - she rocked in the kitchen and nothing slowed her down. Post bake off she was a presenter for Channel 4’s “Food unwrapped” as well as “Escape to the Country” and writes columns for publications such as BristolLife. Follow her on her Instagram along with her 150k followers @brionymaybakes where she posts a lot about her life and adventures as well as tons of recipes. Bread week for Heat B! First comment - I just love Rav and Liam as judges. They almost look like a "couple" they are so comfortable with each other. The bakers kick things off with a pull apart bear bread with spicy harissa and parmesan with tapenade side. This is a non-yeasted bread and Aisya knew right away what to do with it. She gave almost a mini-tutorial. Fraser and Mia had strong looking bakes, while Sasha dropped a couple of hers. D'vonte and tomos were "ok" along with Gabriel. Taking technical was Aisya took the top spot followed by Mia and Fraser. D'vonte at the 7th slot with Gabriel last. Over blitzing the tapenade and not baking the bears "together" were the two big challenges. In showstopper it was your best day in focaccia! They were allowed to make dough the day before (I wish they would show that footage!). These were pretty straight forward with a few nuances - Fraser went sourdough - a bold move that paid off. D'Vonte made 2 types but gave up the send proof - a gamble that did NOT pay off. Aisya's was gorgeous. Mia's had lots of promise but she should have cooked her sausage first. Gabriel did one with veggies and chili salt, but the chili wasn't present - only the salt.... salma did a nice job but had a way to go from being 5th in technical. Star went to Fraser... not crazy that he won (must have been delicious) but I thought Aisya was stronger as a whole. They sent D'vonte home - that 2nd proof miss... but honestly ... I felt Gabriel deserved to go more. Last in technical and over salted with poor design. Will see when actual new bake off starts but will continue with Juniors until then!

Episode reviewed: Juniors S7E7 - Heat B Biscuit Week Start off with bakes - It was Ghirardelli baking week for Sheldon. Brownies, White chocolate macadamia / cashew cookies, and straight up chocolate chip. Oh and Ovens are the devil. 11:37: where are they now. S12 finalist - Crystelle Pereira IG: @crystellepereira has been doing great it appears since her finalist appearance on season 12 of GBBO whee she, Giuseppe, and Chigs battled for the win. Her instagram is full of fun and tips - most recently she has been doing unique fruits and veggies. She has a new book - Flavor Kitchen (yes the US version has no “u” hahaha) 15:42 - Covering of the episode. Biscuit week after no-one was sent home last time. Technical: Snack-cessorie - sable biscuit sunglasses with boiled sweet lenses and a “surprise between the lenses. Some issues with some bakers on their shaping of the biscuits. Mia dropped most of her tray and was only able to deliver one pair vs the three in the brief. Olivia was put at a bit of an unfair advantage - one task was to bash up the sweets and she was a bit too tiny to do this effectively. Set her back on the bake but she still managed to be 6th. Nice work by Frazer and Aisya on this one Showstopper: Cookie box about your life. The big takeaway was “neatness was tops” - a lot of comments made when there were gaps in edges. Mia’s was all beat up and her lemon poppyseed biscuits needed more lemon. Frazer- proving he is 45 and not 15 - used self-harvested hogweed as one of his flavors but it looked amazing as did Aisya’s. Salma had five different flavors which were all pretty good but didn’t necessarily complement each other. Olivia had some uneven bake and maybe too much clove in her gingerbread. Tomos was a bit untidy and used orange extract that tasted artificial. He and D’vonte didn’t chill their dough which led to some wonky edges. It ended up that Fraser was Star - well deserved, but then Olivia was sent home. Now granted, I didn’t taste the bake, but I felt Mia overall had the worse day… and Olivia was almost star on day 1… I felt that “feats of strength” candy smash unfairly set her back, so I disagree with sending her home. But alas - I’m not the judge! Follow us on IG: @scrummyhandshakes

Episode reviewed: Juniors S7E6 - Heat B Cake Week Start off with bakes - Sheldon takes on Bundt and the return of Choux - hear how it turned out. 12:35: where are they now. Former host Sandi Tosvig. So many interesting things I learned about her - I spend more time than I normally would on this segment, but she is fascinating and up to some very cool things. 19:30 - Covering of the episode. 8 new kids in the tent from 9 year old Olivia to 15 year old Fraser and Mia. The have a good mix of bakers. Sheldon has some “opinions” on one… it’s possible he’s never baked before hahaha. Technical: Upside down pumpkin spice cake with toffee sauce - image of Liam’s face on the bottom. Strong showing by the youngest in the group! A couple of absolute disasters. Showstopper: Wildest dreams in cake. There are definitely some wild dreams and some great cake. Super impressed with Salma, Olivia, and Aisha. Fraser gets my honorable mention. At risk next time if they don’t improve: Gabriel, Tomas, Mia. Maybe D’Vonte. Rumor that GBBO may be starting again mid-September. If that’s the case, we will accelerate coverage of the Juniors and cover actual GBBO each week it is released on US Netflix. Follow us on IG: @scrummyhandshakes

It’s Juniors S7E5 - pastry day for Heat A! For bakes this week I took on some oatmeal butterscotch cookies - but with a little twist of my own in how I prepped them. I had two delicious desserts from local bakers, a cinnamon chop oatmeal cream pie and a chocolate chocolate chip bunny cake with cream cheese icing. Where are they Now: This week we take a ride to Season 10. We look at one of the finalists - Steph (Steph) Blackwell. Steph struggled in the tent for confidence, but she was an amazing baker that always just brought the goods. I like to start my research on Social Media and we head to her IG: @stephiblackwell where she has 139k followers. The last time she posted was in May of 2022 where she was showing us her 2nd book “Bake Yourself Happy” a follow up to her first book The Joy of Baking. Prior to bakeoff Steph used to be a very strong athlete - all country in hurdles before an injury sidelined her. She was star baker on the show FOUR times. She talks openly about mental health struggles including her own eating disorder that she has under management. But I’ll be honest aside from that IG post over a year ago the only thing I’ve been able to determine is that she still shares recipes and a column in Chesire Life Magazine. See one published in August 2023. Other than that … that’s it. Warning. - spoilers below Two bakes as is typical with Juniors. The Technical brought us the “religious” - which is normally a nun, but Rev threw a curveball and asked them to make a choir pastry Harry with hazelnut pastry cream. A few didn’t get the pastry right (Lola and Macy) a couple botched the cream. Quique and Kezia did well with Kecia taking first. Lola was at the back with Eliza 5th. Eggs were the key to the choux and over whipping was the cream’s biggest faults. Showstopper was “Takaway pie” (takeaway is what we call take out in the States.). First time they had to do Savory. All the bakers went for short crust. The key to a great shortcrust is WATER and the amount of working. Some very creative bakes - Lola with a beep dish “alliteration pie”, Macy with Korma. Bothe Quique and Eliza took on “Chinese” - one with pork the other with duck. Kezia did a chicken and lamb doner pie. Lola did well, Macy had some constructive comments but not bad, Quique was a bit underbaked but good on flavor, Kecia knocked it out of the park, and Eliza ran short on time and was underbakes and her duck was over cooked. Eliza impressed me again with her kindness and maturity, but alas it wasn’t enough… she was sent home.She was crying at the end, but ultimately was a good sport and left with dignity. She will be missed. Kecia - always humble - took a very well deserved Star Baker. I am shocked that both of the youngest two made the finals for the heat. (Lola and Quique) Next week we see Heat B for the first time. Follow us on IG: @scrummyhandshakes

It’s Juniors S7E4 - dessert day for Heat A! Baking was limited to making some homemade pancakes and discovering the multitude of recipes for self rising flour.It was maddening! Where are they Now: Season 11 winner Peter Sawkins. From Edinburgh Scotland, Peter was the youngest winner in Bake Off history. He was known for his big smile and gluten free ability. Has continued to bake a lot post GBBO and can frequently see him posting about it on IG: Peter_bakes He approaches his social media and baking with humility that makes him easy to like. Had a little snafu with social media a while back when people assumed he was coming out based on a video snippet - he handled it beautifully and with kindness in explaining that this was not the case. He has released two books - Peter Bakes and Peter’s Baking Party which is designed to help kids with baking. Warning. - spoilers below Two bakes as is typical with Juniors. The Technical brought the art of meringue to the tent, testing the bakes ability to make, pipe, and bake the tricky egg white delight. They had to create Fruity Pineapple (shaped) Bombs with mango and passionfruit cream in the middle Most did fine with it a few cracks in the meringue, a few missed steps, some “floor meringue”. A couple of issues with the cream for some, but overall the bakers did well. Mia struggles a bi with time and ended up spreading and not piping the meringue and didn’t make the “leaves”. This left her last in the technical, with Quique fifth, and Macy 4th. Kezia and Eliza did some nice piping work but Eliza’s cream was a bit over whipped leaving her 3rd and Kecia’s color was off giving her 2nd. This left 9 year old Lola at the top of the technical! She was beaming. Showstopper brought us cheesecake dream vacations. Goos efforts by pretty much everyone! Macy made two layer campfire cheesecake. Quique did a Basque cheesecake - he had a little upset that dinged up the side - he recovered nicely. Mia did white chocolate with coconut lime flavored Antartica cheesecake - he flavors weren’t quite there but it looked nice. Eliza did a delightful tiramisu cheesecake with included the use of tuile - very nice. Kezia did a LOT in her Hawaiian dream cheesecake with homemade biscuit base and orange sponge “dirt”. Lola did a mermaid dream with ginger nut biscuits and cream cheese based cheesecake delivering an attractive and tasty result. Star baker went to Lola! I’ve never seen anyone SO happy to win it. The last place technical and miss on flavors led to Mia going home. She didn’t take it so well… but alas … she’s a kid. Open sobbing that kind of took away from Lola’s moment in my opinion. Next week Pastry day for Heat A! Follow us on IG: @scrummyhandshakes

It’s Juniors S7E3 - Bread day for Heat A! Kick off with some GBBO news - our friend Giesseppe Dell’Anno from Season 12 has a new book - Giessupe’s Easy Bakes available for Pre-order. This is his 2nd book - the first was from about a year ago. I’m tempted to get it Where are they Now: Hermine Dossou - Season 11. From west Africa and moved to London in 2001 for education. Has been baking her own things since age 8 and kept on rolling. She loves high end French baking, and it showed in her style and flair on the show… but she was just shy of making it to the finals. So what is she doing NOW. Well she has a new book available for pre-order - The Thrifty Baker. She posted this on instagram - bakealongwithhermine - back in May. She hasn’t really been active on the channel despite almost 100k followers. 2021 interviews - Hermine is an accountant prior to bake off, with one child. She was a semi-finalist and was also on the holiday episode of bake off. She did a special food truck tour this year called “Give peas a chance” which supported an effort to help farming families in Malawi become more self-sufficient. The country was recently hit with a massive cyclone that left over 500,000 without homes and destroyed many crops at their peak. Two bakes as is typical with Juniors. The Technical brought a steamer to the tent for the first time (in Juniors). Panda steamed buns. They gave them an hour to make these mushroom and ginger filled concoctions. It involved black food coloring and the messiness did not disappoint. Some challenges with making neat pockets of dough, proofing and steaming times. Lola had the toughest go of it - she barely rolled out her dough so not much filling which left her at the end. Kezia had great forming technique and flavor earning her the top spot in this round. I do have to say Eliza impresses me not only with her cool head, but in her willingness to help others - she does it multiple times each episode. What a great example of a kid! In the showstopper, they had to make their heroes in a sweet bread. They were allowed to start their dough the day before to proof overnight. Some that had a sweeter dough like brioche… that was a lot of proof time.. Eliza’s looked like a bread blob spilling over the bowl onto the pan. Interesting takes by several - there were two Frida Kahlo takes. Eliza’s had three types of flavors in it, and Mia’s had a honey dough, but both come out really well. Though Eliza’s lack of a second proof left hers a little tight. Lola did Captain Tom in bread, filled generously with Hazelnuts and chocolate spread. Looked great. Quique had the MOST adorable story of how his was his teacher - the way he described her melted my heart. His result was good, but a little under proofed. Will had some challenges - skipped a 2nd proof, and burned a part of the design so had to remake. Macy kept it simple in her brioche and icing sugar Toni Duggan and it paid off. Kezia did a strong bake in her brioche tribute to Jemma Wilson. Will’s weak showing in the showstopper sent him home despite a reasonably strong 3rd in the technical, and Kecia brings home Star Baker. Follow us on IG: @scrummyhandshakes

Juniors S7E2 - Heat A Biscuit week! Been a quiet week for the hosts - no baking, but a shoutout for a local to Richmond biscuit maker: Cafe Warshafsky - https://www.cafewarshafsky.com/ We do a quick where are they now with one of the "controversial" bakers - Ruby Tandoh. Two bakes this week: Liam's Peanut Butter Millionaire shortbread, and a "biscuit Piniata" Spoilers below: In the Shortbreads, the issues came mostly to getting a good bake on the shortbread (several underbaked), or getting the caramel. Lola, Mia, Joey all ruined caramel first try. In Judging several had issues with soft bakes, Will over stoked his peanut butter caramel and it came out hard. Bottom of the heap: Joey and Quique with Eliza Taking top honors. In the showstopper - bake time reared its ugly head again. Mia, Will, Kezia all had structural issues from underbaking. Joey tried brandy snaps as his structure and it did not pay off. Biggest surprise - Quique bringing home a handshake for his beehive pinata ... and then getting STAR BAKER. I personally felt Eliza should have been the win. And, no surprise based on the day, last episode's star baker Joey... was sent home. Follow us on IG: @ScrummyHandshakes

Cupcake win! Had a great result using Bob's Red Mill buttermilk for my cakes. Nice buttercream color as well from the Ann Clark food coloring I picked up and the 1M piping tip! Nice to finally report on a triumph hahah! Couple of news stories - Network ITV has given new GBBO host Alison Hammond a very nice contract to lock her into the network. In another article (both of these from the Irish Mirror) Prue talks about how nice it is to have another woman on the show and that she didn't get a lot of the jokes when it was 3 men. A quick "Who are they" segment about Juniors host Harry Hill (not his birth name) where we learn a bit about him including his original profession - I was very surprised! Heat A of Juniors follows the "formula" two very young and absolutely adorable little ones - Lola and Quique - are my out of the box favorites. Lola's attitude on baking is what EVERYONE's should be! "Hey Ho, let's give it a go!" Mia age 11, Macy, 10 and Eliza are the "middle of the packers", Will, 11, is the one I feel is going to bring nice artistic flare. Joey, 11, is probably the "ringer" who is a liiiiitle arrogant but knows his stuff it appears, and then the "veteran" is Kezia at age 13. Paul was substituting for Liam who was out sick so the kids had a nice surprise when he showed up! First technical challenge was "mini piggy rolls" essentially swiss rolled sponge with berry and mascarpone filling coated in pink chocolate and decorated to look like a pig. The big test here was "the sponge". Very easy to overbake this or not cool it right and you get a cracked mess... which many did. One comment - they only had an HOUR for this... that's a tough call. Mia had the most problems... and only delivered 3 of the 6 ... which landed her last in the technical. Lola - who approached the whole thing with a smile created what Paul called "abstract art" and landed 7th. There were a few that were dry and not so nice looking... Quique went a little chocolate crazy, Joey came out decently and Kezia was the definite "most attractive pigs" which landed her the technical win. In the showstopper, the bakers had to create a cake depicted their proudest moment. There were some sweet stories, and a lot of "lemon cake" choices. Fondant or Buttercream were the typical toppers with a few interesting flavors. three interesting cakes: Macy with carrot cake (it collapsed a bit - as carrot cake can do - under the weight of the fondant); Quique with an almond cake that used olive oil, and Joey with a Japanese Chiffon cake. This paid off for Joey even though he overbaked them and they burned a bit... but they still tasted amazing. He pulled out the Star baker with this. Picked up a tip - when using artificial flavors - like will and his bubblegum buttercream - a little salt can balance out the artificial flavoring. As usual - on day one of Juniors... nobody goes home. follow us on IG: @scrummyhandshakes

Food coloring is the kick off topic - imagine wanting patriotic red and Blue and ending up with Baby blue and pink?! So Sheldon invested in some of the "good stuff". Details coming forth! Also - it was finally time to "harvest" the homemade vanilla started last November. This looks to be delightful - hope to test some out soon. We do a quick "where are they now" with Jurgen (or is it Juergen?) Krauss from season 12. In a recent interview he stated had it not been for the "fully sequestered" nature of his season, he probably would not have applied! He wanted complete focus on baking. He continues to trombone and bake like crazy! New book coming in September "The German Baking Book" - IG @juergenthebread Five bakes in this Masterclass: Mary's Tipsy Trifle - Key tip: don't use raspberry jam if soaking with booze... it turns grey. She used strawberry. Mary sifts her flour - is that still a thing? Paul gives a side bar tip on avoiding soggy bottoms - blind bake... yeah ok. But interesting tip - he used plastic wrap to line the tarts... never seen that. Ile Flottant (floating islands) are a poached meringue - the big tips from this are that when you are scooping and forming the meringues use a wet spoon to get a smooth exterior. Also - once you pop them in the pan to steam - do NOT open it until they are done. A glass top is very helpful so you don't boil and you can tell when things are done. Spun sugar... looks cool... but does it add anything? Mary does not recommend making it in the kitchen hahah Egg custard tart is next - its a golden short crust made even "shorter" by Paul by using partial ground almonds replacing part of the flour. Paul gets in there with his hands as usual. Seven egg yolks used for the custard! A key to this recipe is rolling the crust very thin. Tip was using a tooth pick to impress a design around the perimeter of the crusts. A big key to these is to use something with a "pour spout" when filling the tarts - if you spill outside the crust wipe it up immediately or it could run behind the crust and STICK. Also critical is cooling time... remove too soon and you could have a mess. Double crust fruit pie - Mary's "wobbly" pie names for the shape the top crust takes forming around the apricot mounds. Mary uses a sweet crust made in the food processor. Key to this is using only an egg as the liquid and not letting it get to "ball" stage in the food processor - Mary takes it out and finishes the crust to a ball by hand. In this pie is marzipan. A tip is to shred it using a cheese grater so that it gets better distributed and melts completely. Phyllo (filo) Pie is the next one. On GBBO the bakers could do sweet or savory. Paul chooses Spanakopita ... even though he doesn't like spinach or feta. What was fascinating - watching Paul knead "automatically" while having a full on conversation with Mary... just wow. Paul uses a pasta maker to do most of the rolling (the bakers did rolling pin or one uses a broomstick to get the width!). Paul then proceeded to do the rest of the stretch by hand...that looked very precarious to me. Butter AND egg on the top make for a delightfully delish looking finish. Follow us! IG: scrummyhandshakes for more Great British Baking Show episode review, fun baking antics, and just good ole fashioned entertainment

Croissants. It's been on Sheldon's list to try. Well, he did. we discuss this and the lessons learned. There were many. The experience required a cupcake recovery bake. I find a nice buttercream recipe from natashaskitchen.com We also talk "mixers". We dive into the Masterclasses of season 4 with the first one today. Five bakes: Spiced orange cake with orange buttercream. Mary boiled a whole orange. Victoria sponge with self rising flour AND baking powder - why both? Key - keep oven doors CLOSED - we saw the debacle from a contestant on the show. Tip from Mary on flipping out cake without getting "grid marks".We also see Mary make crystalized orange peel. yum! Next up - Angel Food cake with lemon and passionfruit curd.This cake uses a massive TEN egg whites. I hate when I have a ton of eggs and the recipes only needs one component... I need a list of recipes for "yolk" or "whites" only to use when I have this situation! Special pan needed... but Mary gives a tip if you don't have it. This cake you cool upside down! Keys: pour batter close to surface to retain air. Stir curd constantly at VERY low heat (Mary touches side of pan). When making meringue - just a spoonful of sugar at a time. Yeasted breadsticks made the next appearance. a very soft and sticky dough - so much that Paul even uses a mixer! The dough structure looks amazing. Tips: listen to mixer - if motor struggling, add water. Temperature is critical - must be very hot of you want that crisp. 220C Fan! We get a quick tip on two tone icing from Mary. English Muffins - one of my favorites. A reasonably easy looking recipe. Paul says "you can see if it needs more milk".... can you, Paul? Show us! Full 10 minutes of kneading and REST time. 30 if in warming drawer... 90 if in the kitchen. The hot griddle (a hot cast iron pan can also work!) is the key for that nice brown finish. MUST let these cool 90 minutes as they continue to "cook". Final bake was the E1 Showstopper - a Chocolate Fudge Gateau. Three different cake sizes makes this a logistical nightmare to keep track of for us normal folk... Tips on tempering chocolate: heat to 47C cool to 31C (Paul adds chocolate to facilitate cooling). Acetate used (available at a hobby store) to pipe the chocolate on and apply to the cake. Something they seem to do a lot - cover the cake in sieved apricot jam to hold the crumbs in - could a crumb coat do the same? Next week - S4E12 MC. Follow us on Instagram: scrummyhandshakes

Follow us on Instagram: Scrummyhandshakes Lots of baking - cookies 3 ways and an 8 egg yolk vanilla cake with swiss buttercream... Sheldon gives himself a B to B- New Season of The Professionals! No Tom! New host is Ellie Jane Taylor - a comedian, TV host, and author joins Liam, Cherish and Benoit. I am not familiar with her, but she looks like she could be a lot of fun! Follow her on IG: @elliejanetaylor In this episode the three finalists from Season 1 take on a wedding cake challenge. SPOILER ALERT - we reveal the S1 finalists below and in the episode! There were two challenges: Create a "traditional British" wedding cake, and then create your own "modern cake". They had 11 hours for the first one (which to me would just feel exhausting... but that's not a ton of time for a 3 tiered wedding cake), and five hours for the second. For the first cake: Miranda: Wrapped her tins in brown paper. Made one continuous batch. Decorated with 200 sugar paste (which we know as fondant these days) primroses. Overall it looked delicate and spring like. I felt her decorative beads were mayyyybe a little wonky. Ruth: separate mixes for each layer. She is VERY fast in her work - impressive. Made Sugar paste roses which were beautiful and made the surface look a bit pillow like. Hers was my personal favorite. Romantic and elegant. Edd: Non-traditional - no nuts, lighter cake. Decorated with very neat looking sugar paste daisies. He had to level things up inside with some almond paste. He brought it all together with some ribbon and a nice looking "band" around the cakes. In this round - Mary liked Miranda's cake - boozy and rich. Paul leaned more to Ruth's even though in one of the layers it looked like the fruit had sunk a bit. Some fun history of the British Wedding cake. The originals were more "bread" like, sugar only for the very wealthy. Paul does a little trip and shows us the way they were made. 3 tiers: One for the day, one for first anniversary, one for first child christening. Original idea thought to be of a baker who saw St. Brides church and modeled it after that. Queen Victoria created the modern decorated wedding cake - the "royal icing" comes from this. Traditional cakes used fruited cake as they had to sit several days to allow the royal icing to set. WW2 was a time of rations and we learn of some of the history. Also dive into how in the 1980's we started to see a turn away from "tradition" and why. The second "cake" let the bakers go wild: Miranda went with w white chocolate rose cake with 4 toppings: white chocolate ganache, buttercream, sugarpaste roses and real roses. Hers was the closest to a "wedding cake". Incidentally - white chocolate ganache can be a real pain as white chocolate has only cocoa butter so is finicky. A very pretty cake but still a little what looked like non-straight lines when I saw the result. Ruth went all in on lemon meringue pie. Using short crust, lemon curd, a lemon drizzle sponge, and italian meringue she had some complex elements and despite some shaky moments with the italian meringue - tricky element that requires 115C sugar syrup on the nose. Overall hers looked fantastic - especially once she pulled out the glitter. Edd went what I consider an odd route... he basically just made a bunch of macarons and stuck them to a styrofoam cone. They looked really good but was this a wedding cake? I'm not so sure. So then came the end... which was weird... Paul and Mary each had their overall favorite... but no winner was chosen. 16 hours worth of baking and ... that's it. Super weird.

Follow us on Instagram: Scrummyhandshakes Houston's tortillas, Cookie madness, and Sheldon tackles puff pastry! Where are they now: Season 1 winner - Edd Kimber (Theboywhobakes) Season 3 E15 - Christmas Masterclass Christmas cake: like a fruitcake. Tips on treacle. Mary Origami. So much TIME. Want more visuals when discussing the "crossroads" of a bake. Mince Pie: UK eat 70MM a year! Sweet short crust pastry - looks fun! No blind bake needed. Paul swears it's more robust because he uses his hands to mix. Buche de Noel: essentially a chocolate ganache covered swiss roll. Special pans needed. Baking parchment with foil - where is this marvel? Tips on gangle minimal mixing to avoid reducing volume. Rolling secrets! How not to ruin ganache. Paul's Panettone: Brioche meets panettone. lots of fruit means lots of yeast needed. Room temp eggs and warm milk get things started. Look for the webbing. Then after butter - you want that sheen. Chilling overnight CRITICAL. Another special pan? ... maybe a paint can will work? A side story of the christmas pudding - Agnes Weston and the sailors that she took care of. Christmas pudding: tip on how to get rid of muscovado sugar lumps. Bread crumbs are better with JUST 1 day old bread - too much more and the crumbs are too small. Parchment foil... or parchment, then foil. Mary the foil engineer...7 HOURS in a water bath... Finally, Paul needs to can the "old" jokes. Christmas chelsea buns: Great way to use Christmas leftovers. How much liquid for your dough? You have to "feel it". Rolling vs kneading... For enriched dough Paul is generous with the bench flour. Tacking the dough important for this recipe - you need to "lift, tug, roll" to get the tight bun desired. Next week - perhaps diving into S1 "wedding cakes episode" or S2 masterclass.

Follow us on Instagram: Scrummyhandshakes ! Roku app messing with my head! Tackling Tuiles - a tale of 2 recipes. Sheldon tries one from a book... result is spotty... then recognizes some MAJOR differences from Mary's Where are they now - Brendan Lynch Season 3 Easter Masterclass - SIX recipes! Easter Simnel Cake - it's all about the marzipan! Crystalizing flower that are edible - it's pretty EASY! WHY Slather with butter AND line with parchment?? Hot Cross Buns - Paul's dad had a bake shop (news to me) and they used "bun essence" to juice sales. Careful with the milk! Kneading serves multi purposes. Master the "Cage roll" What the heck does "squidgy" and "unxious" mean? Easter Biscuits (cookies for us Americans) - You must "feel" the dough to know if it's ready. Minimize Mixing! The Palette knife trick. TWELVE lemons in the icing??? Tsoureki - Cypriot Easter Bread. Special spices. PAUL USES A MIXER! Blood of Christ eggs... a little weird. Some lacking advice on oven temp adjustment. A brief history of the Easter Egg. Easter Lemon Pavlova - Good example of "cloud like eggs". I now know what to do with leftover yolks! Warm lemons give more juice. You can microwave a lemon... if you dare. Took much heat will split your lemon curd and ruin it. Mary is human - even her pavlova cracks sometimes. Chocolate custard tarts - FULL puff pastry! Paul's rolling technique looks SO easy - we all know it isn't. Marbled butter is the KEY to puff pastry. KEEP IT COLD. Relaxing the dough - a move that gets brushed over, but one worth practicing. Pretty sure "corn flour" is American version of "corn starch"... maybe.

Sheldon dives into S3E12 - Masterclass where they take on the signature bakes. But first, a little baking! It’s cookies galore - some successes … but also a big fail involving getting confused about whether baking soda was added. Pro tip: too much baking soda can reallllllly toss a hand grenade on a bake. Redemption came in the form of an old standby chocolate chip. FIVE bakes in this one, all were Paul and Mary’s takes on some of the signature challenges in the season and lots of lessons. Flatbreads - Paul chose a recipe with camembert cheese and quince jelly (we discuss what these are). We hit on the finer points of flatbreads (Sheldon having his naan failure flashbacks). Good tips on why he uses oil not flout for these kind of doughs, how to test if a pan is hot enough to cook flatbreads, and the importance of how to work these doughs for success. Then a little sidebar with Mary showing how to completely line a cake tin with parchment. Let’s just say after watching Mary do it, Sheldon is opting for a heavy greasing as the alternative. Next bake it taste tannin and Mary chooses a bake with apples and caramel. Mary chooses a rough puff pastry here, using VERY cold butter and lard so it can be grated. Typical tips on making something with butter - the colder the butter the better the rise and “puff”. Twice in this episode we get good puff pastry tips - we watch the importance of the “fold” / turn and they do a total of 4, with refrigeration after the first 2. This is to keep the butter from melting. Reminders on making caramel - never use a non-stick pan and when you pour it into a pan make sure it is UNgreased. She chooses “eating apples” - pink lady, leaves on the skin, and slices SUPER thin.. Tips : add some lemon juice to apples to keep from browning, and don’t turn out this dish until right before serving. We then move to beef Wellington - moooore pastry lessons. Good tips on rolling out super cold butter - coat in flour first! In Paul’s puff he uses an egg - he insists it gives more flavor, color, and spring. Mary learns how Paul “tacks” the pastry to the board when rolling up as it allows him to roll more tightly. Sheldon also learns that “kitchen roll” is what Americans call paper towel. Sheldon also discusses his “blue collar” idea for beef Wellington - the Meatball Wally. Sticky toffee apple and pecan sponge pudding is next. Toffee. It’s ALL about that toffee sauce… Mary with a good tip on adding only part of the egg and then a bit of flour to stabilize prior to adding the rest of the egg. Sheldon has questions on UK vanilla… is it light in color? Looks much lighter than his own. Mary basically is a kitchen engineer with her foil steam covers and cradles for the bake… impressive. Finally Chelsea buns. Paul uses fruit in his. Sheldon would choose nuts and add some of that toffee sauce from Mary’s last recipe. We get some clearer tips: plain dough use oil, enriched dough use flour. Beautiful bakes all around.

Baking adventures - Cookies galore, trying some local GIANT macarons. Sheldon gets a new work surface! 5 bakes: Queens Pudding, Jam donuts, chocolate tea cakes, Fraisier cake, and fondant fancies Couple ongoing themes: using the "Bain Marie water bath cooking seems to be a recurring theme. Caster sugar also seems to be used an awful lot - I mean it's the "same" but will it impact regular bakes? Queens pudding key lessons: Make sure you pan fits in the Bain Marie bath before you butter it. When adding hot milk mix to eggs - just add a splash to temper the egg temp or you might cook them. When making jam - use equal weights fruits and sugar. Caster sugar for meringue. Use FRESH eggs and never a plastic bowl with making meringue. Jam donut lessons: add more yeast than breads - enriched dough. Kneading speed helps prevent sticking. Using a mixer with dough hooks could create overworking of dough. For an enriched dough knead with flour not oil. Cool completely before filling. Chocolate tea cakes lessons: Tricky chocolate work. Using a mold - let chocolate cool a bit before spreading around mold or else it will run down the sides. Let chocolate harden up in the room - NOT the fridge - otherwise it will oxidize and lose its shine. Put a bit of melted chocolate on meringue so biscuit adheres better. Faisier cake lessons: Using self rising flour makes it easier - it is AP but with some salt and leaving in it. Side bar: SO many flours - the key difference is often the protein content. The danger zone on this cake is in mixing in butter - don't do it too much or you can lose the air - and when pouring batter into mold pour in close to bottom of mold so you don't knock out air. Mary uses corn "flour" in creme pat. Most recipes show corn starch - these are different things technically so a bit confusing. Whisk corn flour with sugar first - coats it and prevents clumping. Fondant fancies lessons: A basic sponge where all of the ingredients are the same weight. To keep cake as flat as possible, Mary pushes batter to corners creating a "dent" in the middle that will fill in and even out. On genoise especially do NOT open the oven door or it's toast. Mary puts buttercream on the sides of the cake so fondant doesn't pick up crumbs. if after chilling it doesn't smooth well - heat knife in hot water. Use hot water with fondant to smooth it out until dippable.

Sheldon dives into S3E10 - the first of 2 Masterclasses. But first, a little baking! I had a whole lot of extra coconut lying around… it’s a long story… and then remembered I had a loaf over pie crust in the freezer! Coconut cream pie it is. Had a little issue with my crust sagging down the sides of my pie plate… might have been that this crust was maybe the “runt” of my batch fro before so I had to roll it a bit thin. Overall, my count cream seems delightful and I got to use my homemade vanilla! Gonna get some whip cream later today and try this pie. FIVE bakes in this one, all were technical challenges in the season and lots of lessons. Rum Babas - this is a bake that I might try. A leavened dog - like cake and bread had a baby. Some good tips on making dough - don’t add the butter until you’ve let it get started with some milk first or the fat in the butter will stifle the growth. Paul loves making stuff with his hands… but Mary asks the practical question os “CAN I use a machine?”. Yes. Yes you can. We also see Mary’s “eyeballing 3 tablespoons of rum …. That’s more like a cup hahaha. These look delightful and may give me a reason to buy a sprinkler for icing sugar. Next was the dreaded plaited braid loaf. Interesting discussion to start with Paul saying you can use cool water for the bread … and that it will have more flavor! I’ve always heard “warm” so that the yeast will rise faster - which is true - but Paul has added a new thing for me to research. Paul uses a lot of oil in his work - as opposed to flour. He has a wooden work surface and it gets me all kinds of worried about what I would use as I don’t want to wreck my kitchen. I’ve decided that I need a “portable and sacrificial” work station for these things… Paul talks through kneading in this episode as well, so if you want some tips I highly recommend watching this one. Important to remember to not use a lot of flour when rolling out the strands either as you need these to STICK together! The process of braiding I’m not going to lie seems a little daunting, but man it’s pretty. Treacle tart was next. A British classic, but not something we really make here in the US. Tip #1 was the putting of the heavy baking sheet in the oven to create an even bake (I might use a pizza stone). Labelling tins with a marker - tip 2. Egg washing lattice before putting on the tart - good idea. And letting the tin do the cutting were all good tips from this section. Bonus: Paul teaches us how to spin sugar… I fear this. Creme caramel is the one I fear the most. Caramel sends fear into me. Key tip - do NOT use a non-stick pan or it will crystalize! Stir a little at first to dissolve then Do NOT stir until it’s boiling and clear. Cleaning the pan after? Put some water in it and boil - boom. Learned about why water baths work so well (even and limited temp), and when a custard is done. When making this, do NOT butter the ramekins before putting in the caramel! Let it set up and then butter the REST of the ramekin. Finally - Hand raised pies. Won’t spend time on a lot of this as it’s very similar to pies from last episode. I do have a couple of ideas on how to prevent some of the failures that the bakers experienced!

Another Sheldon solo - the next several weeks are going to be hit or miss for Alison as her work is needing her to focus on some things - but no fear! Sheldon will do his best to keep the squad entertained. This week we dive back into Season 2 for the second Master class episode - S2E10. Four bakes in this one, all were technical challenges in the season and lots of lessons. Pork Pies using Paul's hot water crust - key tips: lessons in the power of flour. Lard and butter - a match made in flavor.Importance in getting thickness right and working this crust when warm. Be careful with your choice of bacon. Don't refrigerate pork that hasn't cooled first! Next we move to chocolate roularde. A delightful rolled cake that intentionally has a cracked outer surface. key lessons: butter below the parchment keeps it from slipping. Whipping egg whites - be careful not to OVER do it or they get dry. Add whipped egg whites in TWO stages, the first third to "slacken" the batter, otherwise you will lose a lot of your desired air.Put down confectioners sugar when you flip the cake onto parchment or else it will stick and you'll have a mess.Must be COOL before rolling with whipped cream. Mary had an interesting trick of intentionally breaking off about a 1"strip to make rolling easier. A lot of contestants thought the cracking meant they messed up - joke was on them! On to another British treat that we've never heard of - Iced fingers. These are a bread based delight and we got to see Paul in his element. They are filled with whipped cream and jam.For this he used strong (bread) flour as it gave the yeast more to eat. Tricks learned: be careful not to let your salt directly land on your yeast or it will kill it. Mix the salt in first. when adding milk, warm it a bit as cold milk will also slow the ability for the yeast to do its job. this recipe had two proof stages and he showed what a proper proof looked like. Finally, the sacher (maybe pronounced "sacker"?) torte. A dense cake with a nice mirror glaze and scripted writing on top. Mary used a special tinthat the bottom popped out - would certainly make this bake easier - but the cake is robust so as long as you grease well it should turn out ok. she also used a parchment round in the tin - these can be purchased! If you are making lots of cakes - a good choice for sure. Other tips: use caster sugar - finer granules that will completely dissolve more easily. FIVE eggs in this one and again Mary demonstrates the egg while fold in method to slacken the batter. she uses lower cocoa chocolate to prevent bitterness and ads ground almonds for stability.... I am assuming this is the same as almond flour? Her ganache method is perfect - but the one question I am still having is "how cool do you let it get before pouring". I'd like to see a number for temp. The piping on top to me is the most intimidating part, apparently the key is to just continue to roll with it like handwriting. I see a disaster in my future hahaha.