There was more drama in the Great British Bake Off tent last night, as the contestants took on “Biscuit Week”.
But while there was the usual combination of hurried re-bakes, dough-based disasters and impossibly high expectations, the result rarely looked in doubt.
Since it shouldn’t really have been in doubt last week either, though, the programme still kept me on my toes!
Biscuit Week began with in a suitably sweet manner: the bakers were tasked with creating chocolate bars.
Being encouraged to invent your own chocolate bar might be a small child’s daydream. Baking them from scratch, however, does look rather stressful.
Jamie didn’t seem worried, but he probably should have been.
His plan to rely on the caramel of his millionaire shortbread to keep his broken base together . . . didn’t go to plan.
When judge Paul compared the young fella’s fig rolls to sausage rolls after the technical challenge, it was starting to look rather like his goose was cooked. More than his biscuits were, anyway.
Some on Twitter saw the inevitable coming:
I'm still not entirely sure Jamie knows where he is….#GBBO2019 #GBBO #GreatBritishBakeOff pic.twitter.com/gCEh94DowE
— Marie McWilliams (@MarieMcWblog) September 3, 2019
Jamie 100% applied for Bake Off for the bants and did not expect to be accepted #GBBO2019
— Amber (@ambernicolebax) September 3, 2019
Uh-oh…I think Jamie's going! Back to the field fella 😋 #GBBO2019 #GBBO pic.twitter.com/ZZHUfwZUyF
— Dom Kay (@DomTFFT) September 3, 2019
And then it came to pass.
Despite some significant (and surprising) wobbles from Priya and Amelia, Jamie was asked to leave the oven.
Geography teacher Alice was named Star Baker, thanks in part to unnecessarily cute biscuit sheep in the showstopper.
The bakes
The bakers first tackled a chocolate bar (or biscuit bar, as they were obliged to call it during Biscuit Week).
This was followed by fig rolls in the technical challenge, and a frankly ludicrous feat of crunchy, snappy, sugary sculpture for the showstopper.
Cookery Editor Marion hasn’t yet attempted any of the above, but we do have plenty of biscuit recipes on our website— including these butter cookies, a delicious shortbread recipe from 1915, and even Christmas tree cookies.
Why not try them for yourself while we wait for our next Great British Bake Off fix?
To read about last week’s episode, click here.