From one series first to another, The Great British Baking Show is ramping up and delivering one hell
of a mid-season run. First Ryan had his remarkable turnaround in “Pies,” going
from barely escaping elimination in “Desserts” to Star Baker one week later. The
very next episode, in another Baking Show
first, no one is eliminated. The judges are explicit that this reprieve will
only last one episode and that two will be going home next time, but after
growing fond of all of these bakers and watching their dramatic ups and downs
these past few installments, it’s a relief to not have to say goodbye to anyone.
The twist ending of “Puddings” would be a welcome surprise in just about any episode,
but the producers and editors make a lot of smart choices to ensure viewers are
particularly invested in the results of these bakes, and particularly elated
that, just this once, everybody lives (to bake another
day).
After some classic Mel and Sue banter, “Puddings” dives
right in with the signature challenge: The bakers must make six each of two
different sponges, each with their own sauce. It’s a straightforward brief,
but one that leaves plenty of space for the bakers to experiment and show off their
flavors. This seems like it should be a fairly routine challenge, but perhaps
due to time management problems or multitasking issues, no one knocks it out of
the park. Dry, slightly overdone bakes are a consistent problem and most of the
bakers get strong marks for one of their puddings and negative critiques for
the other. It’s a rarity on Baking Show,
but Paul and Mary split on a couple bakes, Mary defending Cathryn’s puddings to
Paul and Paul standing up for Sarah-Jane’s sticky toffee pudding. It’s fun to
see these usually in-sync judges spar a bit and both this and the
end-of-episode bickering between Paul and Mary over Danny’s puddings is
particularly entertaining.
Heading into the technical, the mood is tense. Danny is
relieved the judges weren’t harsher on her for dropping two of her puddings on
the floor, but no one received purely positive comments. Usually there’s at
least one baker breathing easy at this point, recharged from some well-earned
praise. There’s no such relief this episode. For the technical challenge, the
bakers are tasked with making the Queen of Puddings, a tiered dessert with a layer
of custard topped by a layer of homemade jam, and finished with a crispy, marshmallowy
meringue. As in the signature bake, the brief seems fairly straightforward, but
as Sarah-Jane describes, it’s actually a surprisingly tricky one. First the
bakers need to make sure their custard comes together just right, then they
need to gauge the precise thickness of the jam so that it’ll spread evenly over
the custard without sinking into it (but also without being too runny), and lastly
they need to make sure their meringue comes together with beautiful stiff peaks
and absolutely no weeping. The clear baking dishes the judges have provided leave
little room for error- the bright jam is stark between the light custard and
meringue, a distinct band that must be even all the way around the dish, and
any weeping meringues will leave the unsightly yellowish tinge of raw egg
whites between the rich red of the jam and white of the meringue.
The Queen of Puddings is a smart choice of technical challenge,
but the execution of the segment on a production level is even better. The cameras
catch many of the bakers thinking out loud, capturing the feeling of being in
the kitchen with these bakers as they puzzle out a half-remembered recipe. It’s
exciting to watch them use their expertise and to see how each baker responds
differently to the challenges they’ve all identified. In a few cases, we even
get to see different bakers reach the same fork in the road, respond
differently, and then find out from the judges whose approach worked best. It’s
an engaging and educational technical, and one made much more accessible due to
the creative team’s smart editing and producing choices.
After the first two rounds, Brendan is in good position and
the judges scrap over Danny, who Mary also feels is in contention for Star
Baker. James, Ryan, John, and Sarah-Jane are all in trouble and potentially up
for elimination, so once again, it seems the result will be down to how the contestants
execute their showstoppers. You can tell the showstopper challenge, to bake a
sweet or savory strudel, is going to be a beast from the gleam in Mary’s eyes.
She all but cackles when discussing it, and this is definitely the most fired
up Mary’s been for a challenge this season. Even the great Mary Berry confesses
she doesn’t bother making her own strudel pastry, as it’s such a tricky and
delicate task, so this promises to be an exciting bake. The voice over walks
viewers through the pitfalls of strudel and the bakers get to work, discussing
how they plan to work and stretch their pastry.
For once, Paul gives a demonstration, showing Sarah-Jane his
preferred flick method to work the dough and build up the gluten. James is
unimpressed, however, preferring the mixer over Paul’s more traditional approach.
When Cathryn tries out Paul’s dough flick, at Sarah-Jane’s urging, she winds up
flinging her dough onto the ground, so point James? Someone could probably
figure out a way to fling dough out of a mixing bowl, but it would take a
concerted effort. After the strained and stressful first two bakes, Cathryn’s
all-too-human mishap is a wonderful break in the tension. Sarah-Jane and Danny
rush to console and help her, all but crying “Five second rule!,” but Cathryn
insists on starting over. “I’m not serving Mary Berry green carpet!” Her
reaction, forlorn but determined, shows why she’s become a fan favorite. Many
bakers would shut down at such a setback, but Cathryn lets herself feel the
full weight of what’s happened, then picks herself up and moves on.
Cathryn isn’t the only baker having a bad day. John nicks
his finger early in the bake and quickly cleans the wound, grabs a rubber
glove, and moves on. With the glove on and his head entirely in his strudel, though,
he doesn’t notice how deep the wound is and when he goes to check on it later, it’s
still oozing blood and his entire hand is stained crime-scene red. It’s ridiculous.
If this were a scripted show, the images of John’s discolored hand, red right
down to the wrist, where the glove stops, would seem campy and over the top.
Danny hurries to help once again—it’s good news for John and the producers that
there’s a doctor right in the tent—and keeps John’s hand elevated while the
producers call over their medical team to assess whether he’ll be able to
continue. In a less hands-on challenge, he’d likely be fine, but this is
strudel. He’ll need to roll out and hand-stretch his dough, and aside from the
ick factor of bleeding on your dough
through your rubber gloves, as he likely would have, the doctors
advise that he shouldn’t use his finger until he’s gotten it more properly
looked at, and perhaps gotten stitches. John is devastated, certain he’ll be
eliminated based on his first two bakes and inability to finish the third, and
this leaves the judges in an unusual position.
Brendan wins Star Baker again, for his beautiful and
well-executed spinach, cheese, and walnut strudel with lattice topper, but the
question of who to eliminate is tricky. This is not a case of a baker refusing
to finish or present a bake, this is a temporary physical impairment stopping a
baker from competing. Their decision, to mulligan the week entirely and have a
double elimination next episode, is the right call and sets a wise precedent.
It also makes for particularly entertaining television without feeling
manipulative or manufactured and paints the judges as benevolent and the show
as kind. As Sarah-Jane remarks, this episode is a roller coaster, one steered
into rather dramatically by the producers. Yes, it makes for an engaging
installment, but it’s not something the show can necessarily sustain. Once in a
while, though, a little excitement can be fun, and with a double elimination
next episode, we’re due just a bit more before the show returns to its usual
steady and satisfying rhythms.
Stray observations
- As an American viewer, it’s interesting to see how the show
classifies different baked goods. No one baked anything close to the most
stereotypical of American pies, apple pie, for the previous episode’s “American”
pie challenge and none of the bakes in “Pudding” are what most Americans would
identify as pudding (basically, custard). The series was of course made with a
British audience in mind, but for the confused Americans in the PBS viewership,
a quick Mel and Sue explainer on dessert versus tart versus pudding versus
pastry would be helpful. - I’m 100 percent Team Ryan about his signature bake. The
judges were definitely looking for his pudding to taste different- if the bake
is required to be sauced, tasting it without the sauce, to help ferret out a potential aftertaste, is cheating. - “Pudding” is one hell of an episode for Danny, and hopefully
Paul will start giving her her due soon. - Two great Mel moments this episode: Mel as emotional support
host to Danny and her banter with John. Brendan is indeed The Bakingator. What
will it take to bring him down? - Some of Paul’s behavior this episode carries the whiff of sexism. Why the surprise when Cathryn presents her signature bake? “These
look impressive, actually.” Stopped being surprised that Cathryn knows what she’s
doing. And while Sarah-Jane may have wound up appreciating the strudel dough
demonstration, he seems too comfortable taking over her work station for my
taste.