The Great Irish Bake Off (2013) s01e04 Episode Script
Episode 4
Welcome back to the beautiful, if slightly windswept, Clonabreany House here in County Meath.
We have nine bakers remaining but by the end of the show one or more of those bakers will be going home in the lashing rain.
And parting this week really will be a sweet sorrow because this week's challenges are all about desserts.
This is the Great Irish Bake Off.
Last week our bakers had to prove themselves with a feast of yeast in the bread challenge.
(GASPS) Are you joking me? Are you joking me? Paul's party bread was the task they faced in the technical challenge.
This is going to really test the bakers.
Ooh! Stephen was the star baker.
Looks impressive.
But for Tom it was time to leave the kitchen.
My biggest fear is that it stays doughy.
I don't want that to happen.
It's doughy, Tom.
Yeah.
There's something not right with the recipe.
Now the judges expect higher standards with every week that passes.
Well done.
The competition's heating up but you're proud of everyone cos you're like, 'Go, team.
' Yes! The person who is the best baker is the one who keeps going up and up and up in ratings.
Myself and Biddy's expectations haven't dropped in any way.
Bit bland, no? The pressure is on.
Don't come over.
I will cry.
Always knew it was going to be my toughest and it was disaster.
So annoying.
It's back to the Bake Off tent for this week's challenges - desserts.
I said if I got through the bread it'd be out of the frying pan into the fire.
I just want to get through this week unscathed.
I haven't felt very confident going into either round so this is probably no different.
I think I've been hanging on by the skin of my teeth.
I'm hoping to recreate more of bread week and less of tart week.
That's the goal for dessert week.
They're about to face two challenges set by Biddy and Paul - starting with the technical challenge.
Hello, bakers, and welcome back to the Bake Off tent.
This is your technical challenge.
We're looking for skill, flair and attention to detail because, by the end of the day, we want to find our star baker.
Your recipe for today is cider and apple warm pudding with elderflower custard.
Sounds delicious.
But your pudding needs to be perfect because it's Biddy's own recipe.
Biddy, do you want to tell us about this pudding? This pudding is a very ancient Irish tradition.
It's a festive pudding.
I've put my few individual little spins on it but really it is traditional, and in particular in the use of cider in the cake.
And, of course, the lovely wild elderflower in the custard.
Sounds fantastic.
Now, Paul, last week the standard of baking was incredibly high.
What can they do this week? I mean, first of all it was just amazing.
Last week you really, as bakers, have set the bar at a very, very high level.
And now it's really up to everybody here to keep it there.
Myself and Biddy are not going to accept anything below that now.
This challenge is blind judged so I'm going to ask Biddy and Paul to leave the tent.
Good luck.
Good luck.
Out into the rain.
So, bakers, you have two hours to see if you can cook the mustard with your custard.
On your marks, get set, bake.
In a technical challenge the bakers all have the same basic recipe.
It's a test of skill and technique so they need to follow Biddy's instructions to the letter for a perfect apple and cider pudding with elderflower custard.
Make the custard.
Mm.
Ooh, that's gonna be tough.
This is the first technical challenge set by Biddy and she's passionate about its traditional roots.
The hard bit possibly for them is to get the presentation of the top right.
The crucial thing there is to have a design in your mind before you start.
The reason I chose the egg custard is it seems like a lost craft and it too has its technical difficulties.
Oh, that's beautiful, isn't it? That's the way I like it.
That's lovely.
I can taste the elderflower coming through.
I can taste the orchard syrup, I can taste the cider.
Lovely complexity.
Yeah, a beautiful combination.
With two hours to master this lost craft and create this festive pudding step one is sieving the flour and bicarbonate of soda.
Next, add nutmeg and cinnamon.
Then put the eggs and butter in the mixer.
It was a great boost to get number one in the technical challenge last week but a big responsibility.
I feel it puts the focus on me a bit more and that's quite scary.
Maryanne has come in at quite a high standard.
She has set that standard.
Now I'm expecting, and Biddy, a higher standard from her.
I never cream mixtures like this and I can't get it to not curdle.
I would never cream in one of these mixers, you see.
I always do it in a liquidiser.
So I'm thinking I'm going to break the rules and break the recipe that Biddy gave us.
What's the approach to this week? Normal.
Wing it.
Biddy's the harder judge at the moment because she shoots from the hip.
She'll tell you how it is.
Steve is a wonderful home baker.
He bakes for his family and he bakes instinctively.
Well, he's not baking now to the family taste.
He's got to bring a level of sophistication into his ingredients and his presentation.
Were you thrilled to be back? I was thrilled and shocked.
Did you think you were going? Yeah.
Looking forward to doing some puddings.
Mm.
Biddy is fussy about her pudding, particularly the taste of that cider and apple syrup.
Does that look like 25ml to you? I think it's right.
I've mixed it with a bit of the cider.
That's actually gorgeous.
See who I'm going to marry.
A, B, C, D, E, F, G.
G.
Somebody with G.
Before the pudding is placed in the oven it needs to be topped with apples in a design of the baker's choice.
The presentation of this, what do you think Biddy is after? I get the feeling she's not as pernickety as Paul can be about, you know, arranging your slices or mixing your seeds.
I tell you now, I think Paul will just give you a look.
Biddy will crucify you.
Oh.
BIDDY: The tricky thing is the topping.
It calls for wedges of apple across the top of the cake and the trick is to make the outside of the wedge wide, the inside thin, put it on the cake at the very last second so that it doesn't sink and it has a nice, slightly caramelised look when it comes out.
But you can still see the apples.
What way did you put yours on? Lines and then fanning them between the lines.
Oh, that's clever.
I'd love to get star baker again.
I'll always go for star baker cos that's the best thing to get every week and you just want to stand out as much as you can.
Let's see yours.
You can't see it, the lining's too high.
Strategically high.
(LAUGHS) I'd love to be star baker.
I don't know if it'll happen.
Everyone's so good.
I'll settle for 'not quite star but pretty much up there' baker.
Hi, gorgeous man.
How are you getting on? Go away.
I'm worried about the custard.
I've never made custard.
Have you not? Loving the instructions - 'make custard'.
Whisking will turn the custard to foam.
Perfect custard should be carefully stirred.
Bakers, you have one hour left.
OK? One hour remaining.
Do you do it over a bain-marie? No.
Oh.
The way I make custard is Everyone wants to help out everybody and it's brilliant.
Using a wooden spoon, you stir it.
Now, saying that, as the weeks go on you don't know whether you're getting the right information back.
Tip the milk into your eggs Very slowly.
Whisking, whisking.
It's wide open now.
Anybody is, you know, up for star baker, up for number one in the technical challenges.
It's exciting now.
Are you nervous about this? I am about the custard.
OK.
Have you made custard before? Yeah, from the powder.
So you've never made fresh custard? No.
Barbara, you look like the perfect housewife.
Just Desperate Housewives.
Mother of four, Barbara, is a stay-at-home mum.
Her dream is to one day open a cafe with her sister.
I'm shocked and just thrilled that I'm here and I hopefully will do OK in the baked desserts.
I've eaten custard before.
I'm trying to get it to look like the custard I ate.
It's just not thickening.
I'd have always have added a bit of cornflour in but sure Messed about enough with Biddy's recipe to go changing this.
You've your idea of what it should be like.
It's probably entirely unlike what the judges think it should be like.
I really don't want, in this technical challenge, to see our bakers playing safe.
It's time to stretch their wings and fly.
Biddy's short for Beatrice, is it? Bridget.
Bridget.
Is it? Yeah.
Oh.
I didn't know that now.
Our bakers are halfway through Biddy's technical challenge of apple and cider pudding with elderflower custard.
It's quite liquidy so I might give it another seven minutes.
Seems like a good number.
They know that they can't cover up their mistakes.
Any mistakes and they could leave.
So they're bound to concentrate more.
A bit concerned that it's underdone in the middle.
It's very hard to tell whether the skewer's going in because it's touching off an apple.
It's kind of springing back.
And the greatest test is to listen.
It's the three Ss.
It should spring back, it should be silent and it should be slightly shrunken from the sides.
Top tips.
That's how you can tell if a kind of sponge-based mix is ready or not.
Had you hit 35 yet? Not quite.
I was a minute off 35.
So I've put it on for eight there.
It'll be 34 plus 8 which is 40 (SNIGGERS) 2? I'm going to make my maths teacher really proud.
With some puddings resting and others still in the oven, it's time to finish the elderflower custard.
And remember, no whisking.
I think I've ended up with a custard foam.
It's too foamy.
It'll settle down.
You think? I'm happy that I've got through and because of that there's a little less pressure on me cos I'm past the point that I never thought I'd get to.
It'll coat the back of your spoon eventually.
Just keep going.
It's annoying.
I know how custard's supposed to look but it's really, really runny.
The easiest way is just get a powder, mix it with milk, I'll be happy.
You have your evil look on you today.
No, I don't.
I used to have.
The elderflower syrup is a concentrate so the bakers need to judge carefully to get the right amount of flavour.
Oh, it is disgusting.
I don't like it.
The danger with the elderflower is not getting enough of a taste or getting too much in there.
I don't know if they want a hint, an aftertaste, or if they want it to be very much like a prominent flavour in the custard.
Ooh.
How much of the the elderflower are you putting? I don't know.
How much would you put into your custard? Maybe a teaspoon.
OK.
A teaspoon.
One more of these lads.
Bakers, you have 30 minutes remaining.
OK? That's 30 minutes left on the clock.
It looks like a cappuccino.
An eggy cappuccino.
Is everything OK? Yeah, I think it's kind of curdled a bit.
It definitely has.
It wasn't getting thick.
Stephen, I've got more ingredients for you.
Thank you.
It's curdle central here at the moment.
It is.
Barbara's went a bit wonky.
Yeah, so I heard.
What happened to yours? It's only very slightly At home it would be fine for me, to be honest.
But because you want to give the judges the best of your ability I'd just rather give them something that represents me more rather than substandard.
Perfection.
Well, yeah.
That's it.
I'm going for the final taste.
Stand back, everyone.
It'll do.
Custard-tastic.
I love custard.
The only thing is you make a pint of custard I could eat the whole thing out of the pan.
I love custard.
My girlfriend hates custard.
But I love it.
It's one of my favourite things.
A bowl of custard even at the end of a meal.
Instead of a piece of cake even.
I'll eat that.
I think I'm going to accept that this custard is the way it is.
It does seem to be coating though.
It's good enough for me.
Bakers, you have five minutes remaining.
OK? Five minutes to go.
Pressure.
Darn it.
The puddings must be coated in icing sugar, served on a black slate with the custard in a pouring jug.
I'm going to judge on their appearance.
I'm looking for extremely high standards.
It's what on the plate in front of us - facts.
It looks high, nice and high.
You're doing good, kid.
It's thickening up.
Keep stirring.
But there's really only 30 seconds, guys.
Bakers, step away from your puddings.
Time is up.
I'm a bit worried about how the judges will react to my design.
I decided that it was Biddy's challenge but I'd bring Paul into it by arranging my apples in a circular fashion.
But they were quite thick in the centre so I'm not sure if they'll be happy with the centre.
My main worry is probably the custard.
It didn't really thicken as much as I would have liked.
And the arrangement of the apples probably wasn't as precise or as particular as it could have been.
It wasn't as, dare I say it, technical, as I thought it was going to be.
I'm not going to go saying that I did brilliantly because you never know.
As soon as they cut it it could all go drastically wrong.
The bakers have baked their best efforts.
Now all they can do is wait.
The judges have been very critical already.
I'm at the end of that criticism every time so, hopefully, what I produce isn't as bad or is a lot better than what I have been producing.
Paul and Biddy do not know which baker has created which bake.
Hello, bakers.
We are here to judge your cider and apple warm pudding with elderflower custard.
Well, to me that looks amazing.
I love the top.
But it's kind of small.
It's nice and moist.
Wow, that looks great.
Beautiful smell off that.
Yeah.
Real egg custard.
OK, let's have a look.
On the back of the spoon it's kind of nice.
Nice pouring consistency.
Little bit bland, no? I'm not really getting elderflower much.
It's not very strong in that particular custard.
But still that's a beautiful flavour.
Let's have a look at this.
That's nice.
Looks good.
Good colour.
Now, look at this one.
This is quite a different consistency.
This to me now has split.
Oh, dear.
Mm-hm.
I'm getting the elderflower.
More so, yeah? Oh, yes.
I like the flavour.
It's a nice moist cake.
Yeah.
Let's have a look.
Nice crumb on that.
Yeah.
Very nice.
Probably light on the spice.
The elderflower's not coming through in that sauce.
That could have done with more of the orchard syrup, a little bit more spice and definitely more elderflower cordial.
Yeah.
Now, what do you think of that? A difference in colour in the sponge.
Nice and light, isn't it? This is quite liquidy this one.
Ooh, very thin.
It's not really custard.
It's not really cooked.
Good flavour to the cake.
There is.
It's nice and moist, this cake.
Really moist, yeah.
Ooh, this looks good.
Doesn't it? Lovely open texture.
Beautiful.
Really beautiful.
No.
The flavour's gone.
I'm getting vanilla but not elderflower.
No.
That's a nice crumb.
I like the cake part very much.
Yeah, it's beautiful.
It's kind of a bit haphazard, the arrangement of the apples.
They're so much bigger up there than they are here and it's just a bit of a muddle.
You can see the air bubbles on top of it and also it's scrambled slightly.
It's eggy.
This cake seems a bit dry to me.
Yeah, that's quite dry that one, the texture.
Bit disappointing.
This one has too little apple.
Custard inspection.
Straightaway it's shaking like water.
Can you see that, Biddy? Yeah.
That's a shame.
Like a vanilla milkshake.
I can't taste the egg.
It's just vanilla.
That's lovely, yeah? The sharpness of the apple coming through is beautiful.
That's moist.
Yeah.
The design is good, I think.
You like the apples? I like the apples because it's evenly done and you can see.
OK, they've sunk a bit on this side.
Yeah.
But the design principle is there to see.
Very light coloured.
Yeah, it is.
Not enough spice.
The sauce Just straightaway it looks like it's overcooked as well.
And split.
And whisked.
You get elderflower off it though.
That's the positive.
That's true.
That's actually very nice.
It's nice and moist.
Good cake.
It's a good design this.
It's a pity that the apple slid off the edges there.
OK, yeah.
But the actual idea behind this is good.
There's a beautiful smell off that.
Beautifully risen.
One thing about the sauce, that's the best flavour I've tasted.
That's elderflower.
That's really coming though.
It is.
Time for the judges to mark the bakes from nine to the winner at number one.
The rain is back.
Well done, bakers.
It's been a really long day and you've done a terrific job.
At the beginning of this challenge Paul asked you to keep the bar raised.
So, Paul, have they succeeded.
For me, I'm a little bit disappointed in just one element of this challenge.
For me, the cooking of the custard.
In some cases it wasn't cooked at all, in other cases it was overcooked, almost scrambled.
So just a little bit disappointed on that particular element.
I thought some of you were just a little bit cautious in using the spices.
Nevertheless, the flavours were good and it's still a lovely puddin'.
OK, so shall we give out the marks? Yeah.
Who made this one? Bridget.
Yes.
Could have felt a little bit more use of spices in it.
It's very light in colour and a slightly bland colour.
Also just for me this is one of the sauces that just wasn't cooked.
So, taking all that into consideration, you're in ninth place.
Who made this one? Me.
Yeah, your sauce again is a little bit watery.
When it came to the cake it didn't quite taste enough of the orchard syrup and it was as case more of the flavours not coming out in that one.
You're in eighth place.
Oonagh comes in seventh, Maryanne is sixth, Aoife is fifth, fourth place to Steve and Barbara is number three.
Who wants this one? Stephen.
I like the look of this cake.
They were beautifully even apple slices.
The cake itself was a very good texture.
And the custard? You've really whisked the life out of your sauce.
Yeah.
You used a whisk? Yeah, I did.
Who did this one? Well We thought this cake was a little small.
We felt that it should have risen a little bit and a be bit more open in texture.
We liked the flavour of it greatly though.
Your custard - again, quite a nice custard.
Nicely cooked.
So, taking all that into consideration, this is our winner today.
Stephen, well done.
(APPLAUSE) I could actually hear my heart beating waiting for the decision to come up.
I didn't think I'd get that high but I'm delighted.
I must be on a roll, doing something right, anyway.
First in cake week for the technical and then star breaker last week and first again.
So I just hope to keep going on it.
I'm not talking about star baker.
To be here next week is all I want.
The bakers are about to face the show-stopper dessert challenge and the pressure is on to create something spectacular.
A bit nervous about the show-stopper challenge.
I didn't do well in the technical bake.
I think my nerves got the better of me.
I have a lot of ground to make up so even if they are quite good it may not be enough.
So I need to push the boat out and do very well today in order to stay in the competition.
We're after a trio of desserts.
The first must be a crumble, the second a roulade and the third must be bread based.
If you can pull this off, life really will be sweet.
Bakers, you have five hours.
On your marks, get set, bake.
As long as they create one dish from each category, they can choose any recipe they wish.
With a three-part dessert show stopper we don't want the same textures, the same flavours, and the same ideas coming through all three.
What we want to see is good flavours, good presentation and some imagination.
We want to drag the flair out of our bakers this week.
It's not a good start.
Oonagh is making banana and bourbon pudding with butterscotch sauce followed by a strawberry pistachio crumble tart and then a matcha green tea roulade with lime curd and mascarpone filling.
Lovely colours there.
Isn't it great? Matcha power, I bet.
That's right.
Matcha is a type of green tea and it's from Japan.
I've got a lime curd with this and I think that kind of enhances the green freshness.
But then I've put a bit of mascarpone with it to mellow it out.
Did not think I'd get to week four, no.
Thought I would be gone breads, to be honest with you.
Bread was my worry so I'm just delighted to be here now, yeah.
Steve has a sweet story about meeting his wife Linda.
He threw a paper plane at her to get her attention.
It worked.
And his artistic talent goes beyond his baking.
He painted this mural for the local creche.
Steve's show-stopping trio is an orange, banana and ginger crumble, a lemon curd with raspberry meringue roulade, and a chocolate bread pudding with a drop of the nation's best-loved tipple.
Have I seen Guinness somewhere in your recipe? Yeah, it's a chocolate soda bread and Guinness bread pudding.
Sounds like it's going to be quite heavy or rich.
I'm making a caramel nut sauce as well then to go with it.
Sounds intense.
It kind of gets to the point where you can't get any worse.
The worst I can do now is to remain at the bottom.
To recover from a difficult technical challenge, Bridget's tasty trio is butterscotch brioche, lime, coconut and passion fruit roulade and rhubarb, ginger and orange crumble pie.
I see something interesting on your countertop.
Triple Chocoholic beer, is it? It's stout, I think, yeah.
It's going in my butterscotch sauce.
In your sauce? Tell us how you are going to work that.
Well, it's a salted butterscotch, so just a half cup of the stout in it at the end.
Right.
There's chocolate in the brioche so the chocolate stout works nicely.
Desserts are always people's favourite part of a meal so I love baking more than cooking.
People prefer to eat something they're more familiar with sometimes.
So I love kind of like homely baking.
25-year-old Aoife, currently studying for her accountancy exams, loves a challenge.
She bakes something new every week.
Aoife, ever since the first signature bake with her cupcakes, that just put a smile on my face.
She had a lot of imagination.
Since that she's been up and down - good weeks and bad weeks.
I'll be watching her carefully with the desserts.
She's got a good opportunity to shine.
Aoife has chosen a potentially eye-catching dessert trio.
Maple syrup buns with a sticky pecan topping, blueberry, raspberry and apple layered crumble jars and a hazelnut meringue roulade with chocolate rum cream.
What are you doing now? This is the dough for my pecan maple swirl buns.
Can I show you a little trick? Yeah, go for it.
So you obviously work it.
When you think it may be ready pull off a small bit.
You're trying to get a nice stretch on the dough.
If it doesn't break like that you're ready.
Cool.
Thank you.
Have you got anything in? No.
I've only just stuck my roulade in.
My three desserts today are lemon and passion fruit meringue roulade, a baked strawberry cheesecake and a Bailey's inspired bread-and-butter pudding.
Look at the state of me.
It'll be a challenge to make it look show stopping.
There's only so much you can do with a bread-and-butter pudding.
(TIMER BEEPS) Just going to check on my brioche.
That looks promising.
It may not look promising to you but it does in yeast terms.
Give it a few minutes in the oven.
Talking to your ingredients again? That's pears for my pear crumble.
Feed it to me.
(LAUGHS) Sick.
Mm, that's lovely.
Ooh.
Jarek is making pear crumble.
His roulade will be Bailey's and chocolate.
And, finally, for his bread-based dessert, his mama's strudel.
But you have yeast in this? Yeah.
I've never seen yeast in a strudel.
Oh, really? Never.
Oh.
With yeast you get almost like a bready like a pizza kind of a rise on that, you know.
Mm.
So you're going to roll it really thin? Yes.
It's going to raise until that high and that length.
Ah, OK.
With a - I'm looking forward to seeing it.
My show stopper for desserts is a sticky tear-and-share bread which is very 'of the moment' after Paul's.
It's a cinnamon-based pull-apart bread, more or less.
You're doing a tear-and-share bread.
In Holland it's called zelan bread.
I'm doing the dessert version of it which should look like an accordion.
Sounds like you're getting more confident.
Hopefully.
Great.
Can I check my meringue over your head? Yes, please.
It works.
Unlike the technical challenge, the bakers picked these recipes themselves.
Now the pressure is on to deliver.
Everyone's really brought their endgame to this competition.
So, yeah, it's getting hot, anyway.
Hey, Stephen.
Hi.
Are you taking something out? Yeah.
I'm just about to take out my roulade.
Do you think it's ready? I might just give it 30 more seconds.
Stephen is hoping to sweeten up the judges with banana and butterscotch crumble, followed by toffee pecan roulade and finally a tiramisu bread pudding.
Tell us about the tiramisu.
It's my favourite sort of pudding.
Toffee - love, chocolate - love, rum - love.
So I thought that it'd be nice to try and work that into a bread pudding.
What's happening there? That's my yeast.
Jarek lives in Kilkenny with his partner Jerry.
Jarek does all the cooking in the house.
Jerry does all the tasting.
Paul was saying he'd never heard of a strudel, you know, having yeast in it or it being pastry based.
Are you worried about him saying that? I'm never going to make him happy, I think.
Oh, you are.
Jarek for me has been up and down.
Some good weeks, some bad weeks.
He's got a great opportunity to impress this week and he really needs to step up because the standard is so high.
He can't be just in the middle ground any more.
He has to step up.
OK.
Time to take this out.
For a baked cheesecake to rise correctly, timing is crucial.
Stop the clock.
Who has made baked cheesecake before? Anybody? Kind of Polish tradition.
We don't have cheesecake like here.
We bake everything.
Bakers, you have one hour to go.
OK? Just one hour.
Disaster.
I never greased the tin for that pastry and it just stuck.
Is it cracked or stuck to the tin? It's about to fall apart.
Can you put something around it? A crumb around the edges? I'll do something.
I'll figure something out.
One of the most delicate desserts of the trio is the roulade - a thin-rolled sponge or meringue filled and then rolled into a tube shape.
It's being rolled.
You can get away with it.
Did you cut that in half or is it thinly baked? That's thinly baked.
They only take eight minutes to do.
Wow.
With the filling in place the roulade needs to be delicately rolled.
OK, now this is the horrible bit.
What'll I do? Kind of just get a really tight start and then just keep going with it.
I need about four hands.
It has to crack cos it's a meringue roulade.
But you don't want it cracking too much.
Aoife, well done.
Don't say that until I've stopped rolling.
Now, here's the second scary part which is putting this on the plate.
It's going OK so far.
I've just got the roulade on the decorating plate.
That looks stunning.
Ooh.
Beautiful.
It's a little bit small.
No, it's stunning.
It's absolutely perfectly shaped and everything.
Star baker again this week.
Some of the recipes that the others have for the baked desserts are seriously impressive.
After last week's technical challenge I did come number one but Stephen had really pushed the boat out.
You're very fancy.
This looks brilliant.
Yeah, very fancy.
Absolutely Cool.
Bakers, you have 30 minutes remaining.
That's 30 minutes left.
I will cry.
Please don't come over.
I'm having a cracking day(!) Now my roulade has cracked as well.
Fun times.
Maryanne, you've got two fabulous cakes, desserts, left.
OK? You've got two fabulous If you keep coming over you're going to push me into If you leave me I'll be fine.
OK, OK.
So, yeah.
You want me to leave you be? Yes, please.
OK.
Thank you.
All right.
She's not happy.
Where our bakers are working on their show-stopping trio of desserts.
Soon they will face the judges but what they don't know is that there will be a double elimination.
I'm looking for extremely high standards.
Nice colours, nice toppings, nice garnishes and, most of all, nice flavours.
If they use their imaginations it shouldn't be too difficult to do three really complementary but entirely different bakes.
What is it? Chocolate rum.
Oh, yeah.
Ha! When you introduce moisture into the oven it means that the crust won't go as hard on the brioche.
And because it's a bun tin and there's crust inside and out you don't want it to be too hard.
So hopefully it'll prevent that from happening.
Bakers, you have five minutes to go.
Five minutes to go.
They look amazing.
They look brilliant.
Bet you Paul had a deeply traumatic childhood incident with bows and he hates them.
I'm after putting an icing-sugar clown on my slate.
(LAUGHS) Jarek, can you come over and blow my plate for me? This is the way I like to present things.
Not fancy but appetising.
It's rhubarb, ginger and honey and it's an orange crust and an orange and almond topping.
And I look a 1950s advertisement with a pie.
The show stopper needs to be baking of the highest order with a touch of showmanship.
I'm happy but, I mean, that's me.
I don't know what Paul and Biddy will be.
Jeez.
It's perfect.
It's not.
No, it's not.
They look fantastic.
They all look very show stoppery.
Jesus, this bloody thing.
OK.
It came out.
Bakers, there is one minute remaining.
No.
It's coming apart a bit.
It's too hot.
Let that down.
It's so annoying.
It was going well.
Bakers, time is up.
Stop baking.
It was looking good.
The baked desserts was just never going to be a good one for me and I've proven it.
This show stopper was tough.
They're getting tougher now with the judging so that's in your mind when you're setting out a plate.
You look around the room and see some amazing presentations.
Mine are basic enough so I hope they don't think I've gone too simple today.
They'd impress somebody if you brought them to the kitchen table but as something to stand out on their own and a show stopper, they were not that.
These dishes are the bakers at their best.
But now their fate lies with Biddy and Paul.
Tell us about this one.
This is a red velvet roulade and it has a hint of rosewater in the sponge and then the filling is a cream cheese/white chocolate.
Ohh! That's delicious.
Isn't it? It tastes very good.
What am I expecting? Rhubarb custard and ginger.
That to me now could maybe do with a little bit more sugar.
Just a little bit too tart with the rhubarb.
OK.
I like that, actually.
I think it's lovely.
That apple is it's just perfect because it's not too sweet and it cuts across it beautifully.
That's really nice.
And I love the texture.
It's a hazelnut meringue roulade and then it's filled with a chocolate rum cream.
Biddy, what do you think? I think it has too little meringue and the proportion between the meringue and the filling isn't coming quite together for me.
But I like the flavours.
My only concern is that there's so much crumble on top.
Yeah.
You know, you're trying to push, push, push the whole time.
Yeah.
The best bit is really at the bottom.
Yeah.
Tell us what we've got.
This is a butterscotch chocolate brioche with a butterscotch and chocolate stout sauce.
That's beautiful.
Thank you.
The crunch that you're getting and then the soft dough.
A lovely contrast.
It looks spectacular.
That plaiting is just fantastic.
Beautiful.
You didn't butter your dish.
Gee.
Is there ginger in that(?) Yeah.
I like ginger.
It's stinging my tongue.
Too much.
OK.
That's gorgeous, isn't it? Phew.
The flavour is so unusual.
It's quite different from anything I've ever tasted before.
Basically you pass it person to person at the table.
Pass me, pass me.
No, no.
Wow.
That lemon is great on top.
That's lovely.
This a lemon meringue, fresh cream and raspberry meringue roulade.
I'm getting a smell of egg.
OK.
It's just a bit undercooked.
I wouldn't be mad on the presentation.
For me it doesn't look very appealing.
That's not really for me, Steve.
OK.
It's very bland.
It looks tasty but it doesn't look particularly Show stoppery? Yeah.
In the presentation for me now.
Yeah.
Wow.
That's sweet.
Mm.
Too sweet? I think it's too sweet.
Maryanne, come on over.
Hi, Maryanne.
Hi.
It's not my finest hour.
How are you feeling? Disappointed.
Take a minute.
Thought I was going to be fine.
I'm sorry.
Just take a second.
I'm getting a smell of egg.
So it needed longer in the oven.
Yeah.
Right.
Yeah.
It is a little bit dry.
Yeah, I can see it.
I can see it.
You definitely need a custard or something to disguise that.
Yeah.
Well done.
She did a good job.
Tough day.
Tough day.
A tough day and soon some tough decisions.
We have this fabulous roulade from Barbara, Biddy.
It looks like a proper roulade.
You can see the spiral coming around.
And it tasted good.
What did you think, Paul? Barbara's flavours were fantastic.
The raspberry, the rosewater, white chocolate.
Excellent.
Well done.
Somebody who's normally really strong this week hit a bit of a speed bump.
And that was Maryanne.
Sometimes the pressure gets a little bit too much and nothing seems to go right or turn out right.
Everything goes wrong in a situation like that.
Kicking myself.
But it was a tough challenge.
I set myself a lot in the five hours and it just didn't pay off.
I'm still at a point whereby I'm waiting to see how they are thinking or what they're thinking because I've had a couple of bad rounds in previous weeks so I'm not 100% confident when I go up there.
Not my best challenge.
We all have our bad days and today's mine.
Bakers, you were set a couple of very difficult challenges by the judges.
I think you did a fantastic job.
They also think you did a really fantastic job.
So well done.
Congratulations to you all.
We have found our star baker this week.
This person has impressed the judges with their skill and also their level of improvement.
So our star baker this week is Will.
Rumours of a double elimination have been abounding and, unfortunately, it's true.
Two of you will be leaving us this week.
The first person to be eliminated from the Great Irish Bake Off this week is Bridget.
Thank you.
It's horrible but somebody else has to go home as well.
And the second person to be eliminated is Steve.
The standard in there is unbelievable.
They're fantastic and good luck to them.
They're all as good as each other.
I'm delighted to get as far as I have.
Like I said, the final 12 was good enough for me so to be I can't even remember where I was so, yeah, just in the middle will do.
Coming last in the technical bake was the final nail in the coffin.
I wouldn't say I'd given up but I did feel that hope was fading.
I'm going to bake at home without a stopwatch, without TV cameras and without any judges except my own family.
You're listening to everything I say.
But you need to really up it now, yeah? Paul actually shake my hand and said I'm getting better and better and I've proved myself and MAN: Spot on! That's brilliant, Jarek! Good man! I'm excited.
Actually, I'm crying.
I think they're feeling fairly tired, pretty vulnerable, the ones that are left.
But I'm really looking forward to next week.
There's seven bakers left in the competition.
The bakers themselves have set the standard and it's a high standard.
And with that in mind next week we'll have to step it up a notch.
Next week on the Great Irish Bake Off A guilty pleasure - chocolate.
This'll really test the bakers.
You're wicked.
Disaster.
Come on.
Well played, Mr Kelly.
This is a nasty one.
Ooh.
We have nine bakers remaining but by the end of the show one or more of those bakers will be going home in the lashing rain.
And parting this week really will be a sweet sorrow because this week's challenges are all about desserts.
This is the Great Irish Bake Off.
Last week our bakers had to prove themselves with a feast of yeast in the bread challenge.
(GASPS) Are you joking me? Are you joking me? Paul's party bread was the task they faced in the technical challenge.
This is going to really test the bakers.
Ooh! Stephen was the star baker.
Looks impressive.
But for Tom it was time to leave the kitchen.
My biggest fear is that it stays doughy.
I don't want that to happen.
It's doughy, Tom.
Yeah.
There's something not right with the recipe.
Now the judges expect higher standards with every week that passes.
Well done.
The competition's heating up but you're proud of everyone cos you're like, 'Go, team.
' Yes! The person who is the best baker is the one who keeps going up and up and up in ratings.
Myself and Biddy's expectations haven't dropped in any way.
Bit bland, no? The pressure is on.
Don't come over.
I will cry.
Always knew it was going to be my toughest and it was disaster.
So annoying.
It's back to the Bake Off tent for this week's challenges - desserts.
I said if I got through the bread it'd be out of the frying pan into the fire.
I just want to get through this week unscathed.
I haven't felt very confident going into either round so this is probably no different.
I think I've been hanging on by the skin of my teeth.
I'm hoping to recreate more of bread week and less of tart week.
That's the goal for dessert week.
They're about to face two challenges set by Biddy and Paul - starting with the technical challenge.
Hello, bakers, and welcome back to the Bake Off tent.
This is your technical challenge.
We're looking for skill, flair and attention to detail because, by the end of the day, we want to find our star baker.
Your recipe for today is cider and apple warm pudding with elderflower custard.
Sounds delicious.
But your pudding needs to be perfect because it's Biddy's own recipe.
Biddy, do you want to tell us about this pudding? This pudding is a very ancient Irish tradition.
It's a festive pudding.
I've put my few individual little spins on it but really it is traditional, and in particular in the use of cider in the cake.
And, of course, the lovely wild elderflower in the custard.
Sounds fantastic.
Now, Paul, last week the standard of baking was incredibly high.
What can they do this week? I mean, first of all it was just amazing.
Last week you really, as bakers, have set the bar at a very, very high level.
And now it's really up to everybody here to keep it there.
Myself and Biddy are not going to accept anything below that now.
This challenge is blind judged so I'm going to ask Biddy and Paul to leave the tent.
Good luck.
Good luck.
Out into the rain.
So, bakers, you have two hours to see if you can cook the mustard with your custard.
On your marks, get set, bake.
In a technical challenge the bakers all have the same basic recipe.
It's a test of skill and technique so they need to follow Biddy's instructions to the letter for a perfect apple and cider pudding with elderflower custard.
Make the custard.
Mm.
Ooh, that's gonna be tough.
This is the first technical challenge set by Biddy and she's passionate about its traditional roots.
The hard bit possibly for them is to get the presentation of the top right.
The crucial thing there is to have a design in your mind before you start.
The reason I chose the egg custard is it seems like a lost craft and it too has its technical difficulties.
Oh, that's beautiful, isn't it? That's the way I like it.
That's lovely.
I can taste the elderflower coming through.
I can taste the orchard syrup, I can taste the cider.
Lovely complexity.
Yeah, a beautiful combination.
With two hours to master this lost craft and create this festive pudding step one is sieving the flour and bicarbonate of soda.
Next, add nutmeg and cinnamon.
Then put the eggs and butter in the mixer.
It was a great boost to get number one in the technical challenge last week but a big responsibility.
I feel it puts the focus on me a bit more and that's quite scary.
Maryanne has come in at quite a high standard.
She has set that standard.
Now I'm expecting, and Biddy, a higher standard from her.
I never cream mixtures like this and I can't get it to not curdle.
I would never cream in one of these mixers, you see.
I always do it in a liquidiser.
So I'm thinking I'm going to break the rules and break the recipe that Biddy gave us.
What's the approach to this week? Normal.
Wing it.
Biddy's the harder judge at the moment because she shoots from the hip.
She'll tell you how it is.
Steve is a wonderful home baker.
He bakes for his family and he bakes instinctively.
Well, he's not baking now to the family taste.
He's got to bring a level of sophistication into his ingredients and his presentation.
Were you thrilled to be back? I was thrilled and shocked.
Did you think you were going? Yeah.
Looking forward to doing some puddings.
Mm.
Biddy is fussy about her pudding, particularly the taste of that cider and apple syrup.
Does that look like 25ml to you? I think it's right.
I've mixed it with a bit of the cider.
That's actually gorgeous.
See who I'm going to marry.
A, B, C, D, E, F, G.
G.
Somebody with G.
Before the pudding is placed in the oven it needs to be topped with apples in a design of the baker's choice.
The presentation of this, what do you think Biddy is after? I get the feeling she's not as pernickety as Paul can be about, you know, arranging your slices or mixing your seeds.
I tell you now, I think Paul will just give you a look.
Biddy will crucify you.
Oh.
BIDDY: The tricky thing is the topping.
It calls for wedges of apple across the top of the cake and the trick is to make the outside of the wedge wide, the inside thin, put it on the cake at the very last second so that it doesn't sink and it has a nice, slightly caramelised look when it comes out.
But you can still see the apples.
What way did you put yours on? Lines and then fanning them between the lines.
Oh, that's clever.
I'd love to get star baker again.
I'll always go for star baker cos that's the best thing to get every week and you just want to stand out as much as you can.
Let's see yours.
You can't see it, the lining's too high.
Strategically high.
(LAUGHS) I'd love to be star baker.
I don't know if it'll happen.
Everyone's so good.
I'll settle for 'not quite star but pretty much up there' baker.
Hi, gorgeous man.
How are you getting on? Go away.
I'm worried about the custard.
I've never made custard.
Have you not? Loving the instructions - 'make custard'.
Whisking will turn the custard to foam.
Perfect custard should be carefully stirred.
Bakers, you have one hour left.
OK? One hour remaining.
Do you do it over a bain-marie? No.
Oh.
The way I make custard is Everyone wants to help out everybody and it's brilliant.
Using a wooden spoon, you stir it.
Now, saying that, as the weeks go on you don't know whether you're getting the right information back.
Tip the milk into your eggs Very slowly.
Whisking, whisking.
It's wide open now.
Anybody is, you know, up for star baker, up for number one in the technical challenges.
It's exciting now.
Are you nervous about this? I am about the custard.
OK.
Have you made custard before? Yeah, from the powder.
So you've never made fresh custard? No.
Barbara, you look like the perfect housewife.
Just Desperate Housewives.
Mother of four, Barbara, is a stay-at-home mum.
Her dream is to one day open a cafe with her sister.
I'm shocked and just thrilled that I'm here and I hopefully will do OK in the baked desserts.
I've eaten custard before.
I'm trying to get it to look like the custard I ate.
It's just not thickening.
I'd have always have added a bit of cornflour in but sure Messed about enough with Biddy's recipe to go changing this.
You've your idea of what it should be like.
It's probably entirely unlike what the judges think it should be like.
I really don't want, in this technical challenge, to see our bakers playing safe.
It's time to stretch their wings and fly.
Biddy's short for Beatrice, is it? Bridget.
Bridget.
Is it? Yeah.
Oh.
I didn't know that now.
Our bakers are halfway through Biddy's technical challenge of apple and cider pudding with elderflower custard.
It's quite liquidy so I might give it another seven minutes.
Seems like a good number.
They know that they can't cover up their mistakes.
Any mistakes and they could leave.
So they're bound to concentrate more.
A bit concerned that it's underdone in the middle.
It's very hard to tell whether the skewer's going in because it's touching off an apple.
It's kind of springing back.
And the greatest test is to listen.
It's the three Ss.
It should spring back, it should be silent and it should be slightly shrunken from the sides.
Top tips.
That's how you can tell if a kind of sponge-based mix is ready or not.
Had you hit 35 yet? Not quite.
I was a minute off 35.
So I've put it on for eight there.
It'll be 34 plus 8 which is 40 (SNIGGERS) 2? I'm going to make my maths teacher really proud.
With some puddings resting and others still in the oven, it's time to finish the elderflower custard.
And remember, no whisking.
I think I've ended up with a custard foam.
It's too foamy.
It'll settle down.
You think? I'm happy that I've got through and because of that there's a little less pressure on me cos I'm past the point that I never thought I'd get to.
It'll coat the back of your spoon eventually.
Just keep going.
It's annoying.
I know how custard's supposed to look but it's really, really runny.
The easiest way is just get a powder, mix it with milk, I'll be happy.
You have your evil look on you today.
No, I don't.
I used to have.
The elderflower syrup is a concentrate so the bakers need to judge carefully to get the right amount of flavour.
Oh, it is disgusting.
I don't like it.
The danger with the elderflower is not getting enough of a taste or getting too much in there.
I don't know if they want a hint, an aftertaste, or if they want it to be very much like a prominent flavour in the custard.
Ooh.
How much of the the elderflower are you putting? I don't know.
How much would you put into your custard? Maybe a teaspoon.
OK.
A teaspoon.
One more of these lads.
Bakers, you have 30 minutes remaining.
OK? That's 30 minutes left on the clock.
It looks like a cappuccino.
An eggy cappuccino.
Is everything OK? Yeah, I think it's kind of curdled a bit.
It definitely has.
It wasn't getting thick.
Stephen, I've got more ingredients for you.
Thank you.
It's curdle central here at the moment.
It is.
Barbara's went a bit wonky.
Yeah, so I heard.
What happened to yours? It's only very slightly At home it would be fine for me, to be honest.
But because you want to give the judges the best of your ability I'd just rather give them something that represents me more rather than substandard.
Perfection.
Well, yeah.
That's it.
I'm going for the final taste.
Stand back, everyone.
It'll do.
Custard-tastic.
I love custard.
The only thing is you make a pint of custard I could eat the whole thing out of the pan.
I love custard.
My girlfriend hates custard.
But I love it.
It's one of my favourite things.
A bowl of custard even at the end of a meal.
Instead of a piece of cake even.
I'll eat that.
I think I'm going to accept that this custard is the way it is.
It does seem to be coating though.
It's good enough for me.
Bakers, you have five minutes remaining.
OK? Five minutes to go.
Pressure.
Darn it.
The puddings must be coated in icing sugar, served on a black slate with the custard in a pouring jug.
I'm going to judge on their appearance.
I'm looking for extremely high standards.
It's what on the plate in front of us - facts.
It looks high, nice and high.
You're doing good, kid.
It's thickening up.
Keep stirring.
But there's really only 30 seconds, guys.
Bakers, step away from your puddings.
Time is up.
I'm a bit worried about how the judges will react to my design.
I decided that it was Biddy's challenge but I'd bring Paul into it by arranging my apples in a circular fashion.
But they were quite thick in the centre so I'm not sure if they'll be happy with the centre.
My main worry is probably the custard.
It didn't really thicken as much as I would have liked.
And the arrangement of the apples probably wasn't as precise or as particular as it could have been.
It wasn't as, dare I say it, technical, as I thought it was going to be.
I'm not going to go saying that I did brilliantly because you never know.
As soon as they cut it it could all go drastically wrong.
The bakers have baked their best efforts.
Now all they can do is wait.
The judges have been very critical already.
I'm at the end of that criticism every time so, hopefully, what I produce isn't as bad or is a lot better than what I have been producing.
Paul and Biddy do not know which baker has created which bake.
Hello, bakers.
We are here to judge your cider and apple warm pudding with elderflower custard.
Well, to me that looks amazing.
I love the top.
But it's kind of small.
It's nice and moist.
Wow, that looks great.
Beautiful smell off that.
Yeah.
Real egg custard.
OK, let's have a look.
On the back of the spoon it's kind of nice.
Nice pouring consistency.
Little bit bland, no? I'm not really getting elderflower much.
It's not very strong in that particular custard.
But still that's a beautiful flavour.
Let's have a look at this.
That's nice.
Looks good.
Good colour.
Now, look at this one.
This is quite a different consistency.
This to me now has split.
Oh, dear.
Mm-hm.
I'm getting the elderflower.
More so, yeah? Oh, yes.
I like the flavour.
It's a nice moist cake.
Yeah.
Let's have a look.
Nice crumb on that.
Yeah.
Very nice.
Probably light on the spice.
The elderflower's not coming through in that sauce.
That could have done with more of the orchard syrup, a little bit more spice and definitely more elderflower cordial.
Yeah.
Now, what do you think of that? A difference in colour in the sponge.
Nice and light, isn't it? This is quite liquidy this one.
Ooh, very thin.
It's not really custard.
It's not really cooked.
Good flavour to the cake.
There is.
It's nice and moist, this cake.
Really moist, yeah.
Ooh, this looks good.
Doesn't it? Lovely open texture.
Beautiful.
Really beautiful.
No.
The flavour's gone.
I'm getting vanilla but not elderflower.
No.
That's a nice crumb.
I like the cake part very much.
Yeah, it's beautiful.
It's kind of a bit haphazard, the arrangement of the apples.
They're so much bigger up there than they are here and it's just a bit of a muddle.
You can see the air bubbles on top of it and also it's scrambled slightly.
It's eggy.
This cake seems a bit dry to me.
Yeah, that's quite dry that one, the texture.
Bit disappointing.
This one has too little apple.
Custard inspection.
Straightaway it's shaking like water.
Can you see that, Biddy? Yeah.
That's a shame.
Like a vanilla milkshake.
I can't taste the egg.
It's just vanilla.
That's lovely, yeah? The sharpness of the apple coming through is beautiful.
That's moist.
Yeah.
The design is good, I think.
You like the apples? I like the apples because it's evenly done and you can see.
OK, they've sunk a bit on this side.
Yeah.
But the design principle is there to see.
Very light coloured.
Yeah, it is.
Not enough spice.
The sauce Just straightaway it looks like it's overcooked as well.
And split.
And whisked.
You get elderflower off it though.
That's the positive.
That's true.
That's actually very nice.
It's nice and moist.
Good cake.
It's a good design this.
It's a pity that the apple slid off the edges there.
OK, yeah.
But the actual idea behind this is good.
There's a beautiful smell off that.
Beautifully risen.
One thing about the sauce, that's the best flavour I've tasted.
That's elderflower.
That's really coming though.
It is.
Time for the judges to mark the bakes from nine to the winner at number one.
The rain is back.
Well done, bakers.
It's been a really long day and you've done a terrific job.
At the beginning of this challenge Paul asked you to keep the bar raised.
So, Paul, have they succeeded.
For me, I'm a little bit disappointed in just one element of this challenge.
For me, the cooking of the custard.
In some cases it wasn't cooked at all, in other cases it was overcooked, almost scrambled.
So just a little bit disappointed on that particular element.
I thought some of you were just a little bit cautious in using the spices.
Nevertheless, the flavours were good and it's still a lovely puddin'.
OK, so shall we give out the marks? Yeah.
Who made this one? Bridget.
Yes.
Could have felt a little bit more use of spices in it.
It's very light in colour and a slightly bland colour.
Also just for me this is one of the sauces that just wasn't cooked.
So, taking all that into consideration, you're in ninth place.
Who made this one? Me.
Yeah, your sauce again is a little bit watery.
When it came to the cake it didn't quite taste enough of the orchard syrup and it was as case more of the flavours not coming out in that one.
You're in eighth place.
Oonagh comes in seventh, Maryanne is sixth, Aoife is fifth, fourth place to Steve and Barbara is number three.
Who wants this one? Stephen.
I like the look of this cake.
They were beautifully even apple slices.
The cake itself was a very good texture.
And the custard? You've really whisked the life out of your sauce.
Yeah.
You used a whisk? Yeah, I did.
Who did this one? Well We thought this cake was a little small.
We felt that it should have risen a little bit and a be bit more open in texture.
We liked the flavour of it greatly though.
Your custard - again, quite a nice custard.
Nicely cooked.
So, taking all that into consideration, this is our winner today.
Stephen, well done.
(APPLAUSE) I could actually hear my heart beating waiting for the decision to come up.
I didn't think I'd get that high but I'm delighted.
I must be on a roll, doing something right, anyway.
First in cake week for the technical and then star breaker last week and first again.
So I just hope to keep going on it.
I'm not talking about star baker.
To be here next week is all I want.
The bakers are about to face the show-stopper dessert challenge and the pressure is on to create something spectacular.
A bit nervous about the show-stopper challenge.
I didn't do well in the technical bake.
I think my nerves got the better of me.
I have a lot of ground to make up so even if they are quite good it may not be enough.
So I need to push the boat out and do very well today in order to stay in the competition.
We're after a trio of desserts.
The first must be a crumble, the second a roulade and the third must be bread based.
If you can pull this off, life really will be sweet.
Bakers, you have five hours.
On your marks, get set, bake.
As long as they create one dish from each category, they can choose any recipe they wish.
With a three-part dessert show stopper we don't want the same textures, the same flavours, and the same ideas coming through all three.
What we want to see is good flavours, good presentation and some imagination.
We want to drag the flair out of our bakers this week.
It's not a good start.
Oonagh is making banana and bourbon pudding with butterscotch sauce followed by a strawberry pistachio crumble tart and then a matcha green tea roulade with lime curd and mascarpone filling.
Lovely colours there.
Isn't it great? Matcha power, I bet.
That's right.
Matcha is a type of green tea and it's from Japan.
I've got a lime curd with this and I think that kind of enhances the green freshness.
But then I've put a bit of mascarpone with it to mellow it out.
Did not think I'd get to week four, no.
Thought I would be gone breads, to be honest with you.
Bread was my worry so I'm just delighted to be here now, yeah.
Steve has a sweet story about meeting his wife Linda.
He threw a paper plane at her to get her attention.
It worked.
And his artistic talent goes beyond his baking.
He painted this mural for the local creche.
Steve's show-stopping trio is an orange, banana and ginger crumble, a lemon curd with raspberry meringue roulade, and a chocolate bread pudding with a drop of the nation's best-loved tipple.
Have I seen Guinness somewhere in your recipe? Yeah, it's a chocolate soda bread and Guinness bread pudding.
Sounds like it's going to be quite heavy or rich.
I'm making a caramel nut sauce as well then to go with it.
Sounds intense.
It kind of gets to the point where you can't get any worse.
The worst I can do now is to remain at the bottom.
To recover from a difficult technical challenge, Bridget's tasty trio is butterscotch brioche, lime, coconut and passion fruit roulade and rhubarb, ginger and orange crumble pie.
I see something interesting on your countertop.
Triple Chocoholic beer, is it? It's stout, I think, yeah.
It's going in my butterscotch sauce.
In your sauce? Tell us how you are going to work that.
Well, it's a salted butterscotch, so just a half cup of the stout in it at the end.
Right.
There's chocolate in the brioche so the chocolate stout works nicely.
Desserts are always people's favourite part of a meal so I love baking more than cooking.
People prefer to eat something they're more familiar with sometimes.
So I love kind of like homely baking.
25-year-old Aoife, currently studying for her accountancy exams, loves a challenge.
She bakes something new every week.
Aoife, ever since the first signature bake with her cupcakes, that just put a smile on my face.
She had a lot of imagination.
Since that she's been up and down - good weeks and bad weeks.
I'll be watching her carefully with the desserts.
She's got a good opportunity to shine.
Aoife has chosen a potentially eye-catching dessert trio.
Maple syrup buns with a sticky pecan topping, blueberry, raspberry and apple layered crumble jars and a hazelnut meringue roulade with chocolate rum cream.
What are you doing now? This is the dough for my pecan maple swirl buns.
Can I show you a little trick? Yeah, go for it.
So you obviously work it.
When you think it may be ready pull off a small bit.
You're trying to get a nice stretch on the dough.
If it doesn't break like that you're ready.
Cool.
Thank you.
Have you got anything in? No.
I've only just stuck my roulade in.
My three desserts today are lemon and passion fruit meringue roulade, a baked strawberry cheesecake and a Bailey's inspired bread-and-butter pudding.
Look at the state of me.
It'll be a challenge to make it look show stopping.
There's only so much you can do with a bread-and-butter pudding.
(TIMER BEEPS) Just going to check on my brioche.
That looks promising.
It may not look promising to you but it does in yeast terms.
Give it a few minutes in the oven.
Talking to your ingredients again? That's pears for my pear crumble.
Feed it to me.
(LAUGHS) Sick.
Mm, that's lovely.
Ooh.
Jarek is making pear crumble.
His roulade will be Bailey's and chocolate.
And, finally, for his bread-based dessert, his mama's strudel.
But you have yeast in this? Yeah.
I've never seen yeast in a strudel.
Oh, really? Never.
Oh.
With yeast you get almost like a bready like a pizza kind of a rise on that, you know.
Mm.
So you're going to roll it really thin? Yes.
It's going to raise until that high and that length.
Ah, OK.
With a - I'm looking forward to seeing it.
My show stopper for desserts is a sticky tear-and-share bread which is very 'of the moment' after Paul's.
It's a cinnamon-based pull-apart bread, more or less.
You're doing a tear-and-share bread.
In Holland it's called zelan bread.
I'm doing the dessert version of it which should look like an accordion.
Sounds like you're getting more confident.
Hopefully.
Great.
Can I check my meringue over your head? Yes, please.
It works.
Unlike the technical challenge, the bakers picked these recipes themselves.
Now the pressure is on to deliver.
Everyone's really brought their endgame to this competition.
So, yeah, it's getting hot, anyway.
Hey, Stephen.
Hi.
Are you taking something out? Yeah.
I'm just about to take out my roulade.
Do you think it's ready? I might just give it 30 more seconds.
Stephen is hoping to sweeten up the judges with banana and butterscotch crumble, followed by toffee pecan roulade and finally a tiramisu bread pudding.
Tell us about the tiramisu.
It's my favourite sort of pudding.
Toffee - love, chocolate - love, rum - love.
So I thought that it'd be nice to try and work that into a bread pudding.
What's happening there? That's my yeast.
Jarek lives in Kilkenny with his partner Jerry.
Jarek does all the cooking in the house.
Jerry does all the tasting.
Paul was saying he'd never heard of a strudel, you know, having yeast in it or it being pastry based.
Are you worried about him saying that? I'm never going to make him happy, I think.
Oh, you are.
Jarek for me has been up and down.
Some good weeks, some bad weeks.
He's got a great opportunity to impress this week and he really needs to step up because the standard is so high.
He can't be just in the middle ground any more.
He has to step up.
OK.
Time to take this out.
For a baked cheesecake to rise correctly, timing is crucial.
Stop the clock.
Who has made baked cheesecake before? Anybody? Kind of Polish tradition.
We don't have cheesecake like here.
We bake everything.
Bakers, you have one hour to go.
OK? Just one hour.
Disaster.
I never greased the tin for that pastry and it just stuck.
Is it cracked or stuck to the tin? It's about to fall apart.
Can you put something around it? A crumb around the edges? I'll do something.
I'll figure something out.
One of the most delicate desserts of the trio is the roulade - a thin-rolled sponge or meringue filled and then rolled into a tube shape.
It's being rolled.
You can get away with it.
Did you cut that in half or is it thinly baked? That's thinly baked.
They only take eight minutes to do.
Wow.
With the filling in place the roulade needs to be delicately rolled.
OK, now this is the horrible bit.
What'll I do? Kind of just get a really tight start and then just keep going with it.
I need about four hands.
It has to crack cos it's a meringue roulade.
But you don't want it cracking too much.
Aoife, well done.
Don't say that until I've stopped rolling.
Now, here's the second scary part which is putting this on the plate.
It's going OK so far.
I've just got the roulade on the decorating plate.
That looks stunning.
Ooh.
Beautiful.
It's a little bit small.
No, it's stunning.
It's absolutely perfectly shaped and everything.
Star baker again this week.
Some of the recipes that the others have for the baked desserts are seriously impressive.
After last week's technical challenge I did come number one but Stephen had really pushed the boat out.
You're very fancy.
This looks brilliant.
Yeah, very fancy.
Absolutely Cool.
Bakers, you have 30 minutes remaining.
That's 30 minutes left.
I will cry.
Please don't come over.
I'm having a cracking day(!) Now my roulade has cracked as well.
Fun times.
Maryanne, you've got two fabulous cakes, desserts, left.
OK? You've got two fabulous If you keep coming over you're going to push me into If you leave me I'll be fine.
OK, OK.
So, yeah.
You want me to leave you be? Yes, please.
OK.
Thank you.
All right.
She's not happy.
Where our bakers are working on their show-stopping trio of desserts.
Soon they will face the judges but what they don't know is that there will be a double elimination.
I'm looking for extremely high standards.
Nice colours, nice toppings, nice garnishes and, most of all, nice flavours.
If they use their imaginations it shouldn't be too difficult to do three really complementary but entirely different bakes.
What is it? Chocolate rum.
Oh, yeah.
Ha! When you introduce moisture into the oven it means that the crust won't go as hard on the brioche.
And because it's a bun tin and there's crust inside and out you don't want it to be too hard.
So hopefully it'll prevent that from happening.
Bakers, you have five minutes to go.
Five minutes to go.
They look amazing.
They look brilliant.
Bet you Paul had a deeply traumatic childhood incident with bows and he hates them.
I'm after putting an icing-sugar clown on my slate.
(LAUGHS) Jarek, can you come over and blow my plate for me? This is the way I like to present things.
Not fancy but appetising.
It's rhubarb, ginger and honey and it's an orange crust and an orange and almond topping.
And I look a 1950s advertisement with a pie.
The show stopper needs to be baking of the highest order with a touch of showmanship.
I'm happy but, I mean, that's me.
I don't know what Paul and Biddy will be.
Jeez.
It's perfect.
It's not.
No, it's not.
They look fantastic.
They all look very show stoppery.
Jesus, this bloody thing.
OK.
It came out.
Bakers, there is one minute remaining.
No.
It's coming apart a bit.
It's too hot.
Let that down.
It's so annoying.
It was going well.
Bakers, time is up.
Stop baking.
It was looking good.
The baked desserts was just never going to be a good one for me and I've proven it.
This show stopper was tough.
They're getting tougher now with the judging so that's in your mind when you're setting out a plate.
You look around the room and see some amazing presentations.
Mine are basic enough so I hope they don't think I've gone too simple today.
They'd impress somebody if you brought them to the kitchen table but as something to stand out on their own and a show stopper, they were not that.
These dishes are the bakers at their best.
But now their fate lies with Biddy and Paul.
Tell us about this one.
This is a red velvet roulade and it has a hint of rosewater in the sponge and then the filling is a cream cheese/white chocolate.
Ohh! That's delicious.
Isn't it? It tastes very good.
What am I expecting? Rhubarb custard and ginger.
That to me now could maybe do with a little bit more sugar.
Just a little bit too tart with the rhubarb.
OK.
I like that, actually.
I think it's lovely.
That apple is it's just perfect because it's not too sweet and it cuts across it beautifully.
That's really nice.
And I love the texture.
It's a hazelnut meringue roulade and then it's filled with a chocolate rum cream.
Biddy, what do you think? I think it has too little meringue and the proportion between the meringue and the filling isn't coming quite together for me.
But I like the flavours.
My only concern is that there's so much crumble on top.
Yeah.
You know, you're trying to push, push, push the whole time.
Yeah.
The best bit is really at the bottom.
Yeah.
Tell us what we've got.
This is a butterscotch chocolate brioche with a butterscotch and chocolate stout sauce.
That's beautiful.
Thank you.
The crunch that you're getting and then the soft dough.
A lovely contrast.
It looks spectacular.
That plaiting is just fantastic.
Beautiful.
You didn't butter your dish.
Gee.
Is there ginger in that(?) Yeah.
I like ginger.
It's stinging my tongue.
Too much.
OK.
That's gorgeous, isn't it? Phew.
The flavour is so unusual.
It's quite different from anything I've ever tasted before.
Basically you pass it person to person at the table.
Pass me, pass me.
No, no.
Wow.
That lemon is great on top.
That's lovely.
This a lemon meringue, fresh cream and raspberry meringue roulade.
I'm getting a smell of egg.
OK.
It's just a bit undercooked.
I wouldn't be mad on the presentation.
For me it doesn't look very appealing.
That's not really for me, Steve.
OK.
It's very bland.
It looks tasty but it doesn't look particularly Show stoppery? Yeah.
In the presentation for me now.
Yeah.
Wow.
That's sweet.
Mm.
Too sweet? I think it's too sweet.
Maryanne, come on over.
Hi, Maryanne.
Hi.
It's not my finest hour.
How are you feeling? Disappointed.
Take a minute.
Thought I was going to be fine.
I'm sorry.
Just take a second.
I'm getting a smell of egg.
So it needed longer in the oven.
Yeah.
Right.
Yeah.
It is a little bit dry.
Yeah, I can see it.
I can see it.
You definitely need a custard or something to disguise that.
Yeah.
Well done.
She did a good job.
Tough day.
Tough day.
A tough day and soon some tough decisions.
We have this fabulous roulade from Barbara, Biddy.
It looks like a proper roulade.
You can see the spiral coming around.
And it tasted good.
What did you think, Paul? Barbara's flavours were fantastic.
The raspberry, the rosewater, white chocolate.
Excellent.
Well done.
Somebody who's normally really strong this week hit a bit of a speed bump.
And that was Maryanne.
Sometimes the pressure gets a little bit too much and nothing seems to go right or turn out right.
Everything goes wrong in a situation like that.
Kicking myself.
But it was a tough challenge.
I set myself a lot in the five hours and it just didn't pay off.
I'm still at a point whereby I'm waiting to see how they are thinking or what they're thinking because I've had a couple of bad rounds in previous weeks so I'm not 100% confident when I go up there.
Not my best challenge.
We all have our bad days and today's mine.
Bakers, you were set a couple of very difficult challenges by the judges.
I think you did a fantastic job.
They also think you did a really fantastic job.
So well done.
Congratulations to you all.
We have found our star baker this week.
This person has impressed the judges with their skill and also their level of improvement.
So our star baker this week is Will.
Rumours of a double elimination have been abounding and, unfortunately, it's true.
Two of you will be leaving us this week.
The first person to be eliminated from the Great Irish Bake Off this week is Bridget.
Thank you.
It's horrible but somebody else has to go home as well.
And the second person to be eliminated is Steve.
The standard in there is unbelievable.
They're fantastic and good luck to them.
They're all as good as each other.
I'm delighted to get as far as I have.
Like I said, the final 12 was good enough for me so to be I can't even remember where I was so, yeah, just in the middle will do.
Coming last in the technical bake was the final nail in the coffin.
I wouldn't say I'd given up but I did feel that hope was fading.
I'm going to bake at home without a stopwatch, without TV cameras and without any judges except my own family.
You're listening to everything I say.
But you need to really up it now, yeah? Paul actually shake my hand and said I'm getting better and better and I've proved myself and MAN: Spot on! That's brilliant, Jarek! Good man! I'm excited.
Actually, I'm crying.
I think they're feeling fairly tired, pretty vulnerable, the ones that are left.
But I'm really looking forward to next week.
There's seven bakers left in the competition.
The bakers themselves have set the standard and it's a high standard.
And with that in mind next week we'll have to step it up a notch.
Next week on the Great Irish Bake Off A guilty pleasure - chocolate.
This'll really test the bakers.
You're wicked.
Disaster.
Come on.
Well played, Mr Kelly.
This is a nasty one.
Ooh.