Rosemary & Olive Oil Opera
GBBO 2024 Bake Along, Week 9 - Patisserie Week
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Hello, and welcome to Week 9 of our GBBO bake along, we’ve made it to the SEMI-FINALS! This week, it’s Patisserie Week in the tent, and, oh my goodness, the challenges were... well, challenging! I’m so impressed by all of the bakers this year, I can’t wait to see what they make for the finals next week.
Signature
For the signature challenge the bakers had 3 hours to create breakfast pastries. THREE HOURS for laminated pastries is absolute madness and, honestly this task really annoyed me. It’s just not possible to produce good pastries in this time frame “but Paul said he could blah blah blah…” no he couldn’t. I spent the entirety of this task in an absolute rage, the comments from Paul made me see red “it needed more proofing” GIVE THEM MORE TIME THEN. I have nothing to say other than that, the bakers did their best given the totally unreasonable circumstances.
Technical
For the technical challenge, we have Opera cake! I thought this was a really good technical task to test the bakers' knowledge and layering skills. I was quite surprised by the results (no spoilers), but I can imagine that by this point in the competition, the bakers are knackered, and something going slightly wrong can just tip them over the edge. Thank god Allison was there for a bit of emotional support, I love her!
We’ll be focusing on Opera for this week’s recipe! I’m keeping the elements fairly classic but switching up the flavours to create a rosemary, olive oil, and orange Opera. If these flavours sound a bit too crazy for you, don’t worry! I’ve linked my chocolate & hazelnut slab cake recipe below, it’s along the same lines as an Opera cake and very delicious.
Chocolate & Hazelnut Slab Cake & Rosemary & Olive Oil Opera (recipe below)
Showstopper
The showstopper featured fruit-shaped entremets. I have to admit that these aren’t really for me; I’m not a huge fan of fruit mousse, and I find that these kinds of desserts are often a lot of mousse and compote with not much else. I couldn’t believe how hard the bakers pushed themselves in this challenge, with most of them making not one but two different fruits - madness! I thought all of the bakers did incredibly well in this challenge and was sorry that any of them had to go home.