The Great British Bake Off (2010) s09e01 Episode Script
Biscuit Week
Sandi, We've Got to Get Back to the Future! OK But first, you gotta dress like Marty McFly! That's pretty much how I dress anyway.
To the car! Why are we going back to the future? Is something terrible about to happen? Terrible! Is Donald Trump getting that peace prize? It's worse.
No! Are One Direction getting back together? It's worse than that.
Oh, no! Yeah! Prue's about to tweet the name of this year's winner! What are you doing, Prue? We've got to get back to the future! It's a really peaceful, lovely place.
I just wish I felt peaceful inside! It is very nerve-racking.
Not as stressful as writing my thesis, but quite there.
It's just completely surreal to be here.
It's the tent, like the actual tent.
The Bake Off tent.
More people have been in space than been in that tent.
It's the ultimate.
This is like being a professional footballer and playing at Wembley in t'FA Cup Final.
It's crazy, though.
This is something you've seen on TV and thinking, actually, this is It's quite real.
12 new bakers I believe that I'm gonna be good under pressure.
Ha! Very close to a heart attack.
Very close.
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30 brand-new challenges set by judges Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith.
I'm really excited to be back.
I know what to expect now.
I will be a bit tougher this year.
I would like to see more imagination, more colour and, above all, more delicious things to eat.
Prue and I have set some pretty awesome challenges.
Some they would have heard of before, some they definitely have not.
I cannot wait to get started.
I'm quite creative, I love the unusual.
The competitive part of me wants to see how good I actually am.
Could be out in week one, who knows? I love being a stay-at-home parent, but sometimes you don't get to feel successful.
If I could get Star Baker once, I could leave here very, very happy.
In 2018, who will win the Great British Bake Off? Happy! We're back at the home of the Bake Off - Welford Park in Berkshire.
Its biscuit week, and over the next two days, the bakers will face three challenges, after which one of them will be named our first Star Baker and another will be asked to leave.
Hello, bakers.
Welcome, for the very first time, to the Bake Off tent and your first ever Signature Challenge.
The judges would love you to make 24 regional biscuits.
Hilarious! Biscuits with funny accents.
Yeah, no, they don't have to speak, they just have to be traditional to a town, village or region in Britain.
They can be sweet or savoury, you know, depending on their history.
But the biscuits must mean something to you.
For example, if it was Sandi, she'd probably choose shortbread.
Yeah.
Don't start, it's the first day.
OK! So your biscuits need to be uniform and identical across the batch, but with your own unique take.
You have two hours.
On your marks, get set, bake! Oh, I cannot believe we are here.
Oven, oven, oven.
Turn the oven on.
This year, we're kicking off with biscuits - not cakes.
Now, that's slightly unusual for the Great British Bake Off.
But don't kid yourselves, biscuits are difficult to make properly.
In you go.
We're asking them to create something that's a regional speciality.
Something that celebrates the bakers themselves.
Something that's unique.
The difficult thing for these bakers is that, although we want them to put their own stamp on this biscuit, it still must be recognisable.
So, if they tell us it's a shortbread, then it should be melt in the mouth.
If they tell us that's it's a ginger snap, it should snap.
I'm looking for regional perfection.
Good morning.
Hello.
Hello, Briony.
Hi.
Do you feel nervous? Yeah, a little bit.
Tell us about your regional biscuit.
I'm making Empire biscuits, which are regional to Northern Ireland and Scotland, which is where my family's from.
But I'm giving them a Bristol twist, which is where I'm from.
So, it turns out Bristol doesn't have a regional biscuit.
But now Bristol will have a regional biscuit? Briony - a full-time mum to two-year-old Norah and puppy, Archie - took up baking five years ago.
For that Bristol touch, she's using apple cider jam, instead of traditional raspberry, between her vanilla shortbreads.
And what's that in the pan? So, I'm boiling some eggs for my for my biscuits.
Boiled eggs? Just the yolks, which you sieve into the dough itself and it gives them a really short structure.
Have you tried it without? Yeah.
Oh, I haven't tried it without, but Well So, you don't know the difference? No, but I've never heard of that.
Don't start straight away.
I'm just asking a question.
She's just arrived.
It sounds lovely, Briony.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Don't let him do anything to you.
Like Briony, most of the bakers are basing their biscuits on shortbread.
I'm making lemon Shrewsbury.
It's a very rich, crumbly biscuit.
This works every time at home.
Like, it's never gone wrong so I don't really know why I'm panicking.
Stay-at-home dad Dan took up baking to lavish his children, Barnaby and Constance, with tasty treats.
Yay! We have fish.
His sandwich biscuit, featuring strawberry jam, is a family favourite.
Hello.
Hello.
How are you? I'm all right, I'm all right.
That doesn't sound like you're all right.
No.
Sort of panicking a bit, but you know Is baking your chill time? Yeah.
And you've now turned it into a nightmare.
Yeah.
But you have entered a competition! It is my own fault.
Sort of your own fault! You're on the Great British Bake Off.
Our next baker is using an ingredient they hope will deliver perfect melt-in-the-mouth shortbread.
Clotted cream.
I love cream.
Oh, yummy! Mum was like, "No, it's too" You know, "Don't eat it.
" And then when I came to England and they were like, "Oh, I'm just gonna spread some cream on the top of my scone," I was like, "Yeah, this is a thing!" Londoner Manon grew up in France on her family's egg farm, where she began baking aged three.
She's bringing Gallic flare to her Cornish shortbread with hazelnuts and chocolate.
I'm from Brittany in France, and Cornwall really reminds me of home, so I had to do it.
For her clotted cream shortbread, Ruby is ripping up the rule book.
I am making some masala chai Devon flats.
I'm using a cream substitute.
I know it goes against the whole Devon clotted cream business.
I hope that doesn't come and bite me in the bum, because it was fine at home.
As well as knockout bakes, project manager Ruby likes to pack a punch in the ring.
I need a break.
She's hoping a killer combo of cardamom, clove and cinnamon will floor the judges.
What sort of texture are we looking at? Are they gonna break, crack, crumble? They'll be in between.
Soft, medium.
Medium You're winging this, aren't you? How many times have you actually made this? They've been soft, medium and hard.
Erm, I have practised it a lot actually.
Right.
I'm not winging it, I swear.
Whatever texture they're aiming for Want quite a snap on the biscuit.
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overload their dough with flavours Ah! .
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or colours Beautiful.
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and it will radically alter the bite of their finished biscuits.
In India, we have quite a lot of home-made sweets with coconut and fennel.
So, I'm just going to combine both of those two flavours in my biscuit, and my mum really likes this biscuit.
So, in Calcutta, my family's still there, and I came to the UK about seven years ago to do PhD in Loughborough.
Do I need to get comfortable? Yeah, I love to talk, as you probably realise.
Rahul, a nuclear scientist, Skypes his mum and dad back home every day.
Baking three big biscuits, which will cut into 24, Rahul's fusing Indian and Scottish flavours.
There is nothing that should be overpowering.
You should taste shortbread, but there should be a hint of coconut and a hint of fennel behind.
And I'm keeping the fennel seeds whole, so I don't really want to overpower anything with anything.
I just want everything to go in harmony.
Well, I'm afraid we don't have time to talk to anybody else now.
This is my problem! It's the end of the show! When I start talking, I don't stop, and that's a problem.
I am making flakemeal biscuit from Ireland.
Traditionally, these biscuits wouldn't have been flavoured at all, so I have, kind of, put my own twist on it, with cherries and white chocolate and coconut.
Former teacher Imelda lives in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland, with her teenage son, Piers.
Her hearty farmers' biscuit will feature oats and wholemeal flour.
That'll keep you regular.
Yeah, that's Never thought about it like that.
I can feel movement happening already.
I've chosen a Yorkshire gingernut as I'm from Yorkshire, so, representing! Looking to inject some zip, Luke's flavouring with lime.
Gives it a bit of a citrusy vibe.
So, it just, kind of, works really nice with the ginger.
By day, he's a civil servant for the Department of Education.
By night, a DJ on the Sheffield club scene.
To ensure it punches through, he's adding lime to his biscuits and his filling.
It's all about that balance between the ginger and the lime.
I've been doing a lot of practising at home, cos what I want is the lime to come through first and a few seconds later, like, the heat of the ginger come through.
Um, so, hopefully Look forward to it.
Thank you, Luke.
Thank you.
All right.
Am I in the light? What's my line? One hour.
What's my motivation? Perfect.
Bakers, you have one hour left.
It disappears quite quickly, doesn't it? I thought I was good.
That was excellent.
OK.
So, I'm just rolling out my shortbread.
Just making sure it's the same thickness.
Each and every biscuit should be uniform in shape It's good.
.
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and size.
I'm just weighing out each of these balls.
15g each.
Wouldn't normally do this at home, but we have to get them identical.
But for the five bakers making sandwich biscuits, it's twice the work.
I'm making 48 cookies! I'm really hoping I get that done in time.
Bengaluru-born Antony is a banker, whose love affair with Bollywood even influences his baking.
Wow, that's proper spicy.
He's sandwiching mango chilli jam between colourful biscuits.
We haven't danced.
Isn't now a good moment? Yeah.
OK.
You go the hands first.
Yeah.
It's the bulb on top.
OK.
This leg needs to go up.
Yeah, and then we go down.
And then we go up.
Yeah, there you are.
OK.
That's Bollywood.
You are definitely the most fun person.
I'm just stamping up my shortbread so they say "York", and then I'm gonna chill this tray.
That goes into the fridge.
Their dough may be resting, but the bakers can't Right, where are we at? .
.
with decorations and fillings still to make.
I get requests every year for strawberry jam.
Hopefully they'll like it.
Oh, chilli.
Oh, the mango.
These Indians know how to do it, don't they? Just making butterscotch sauce to go in my Swiss meringue buttercream.
I'm baking an Aberffraw biscuit.
I want to go for something Welsh for the first week, being as I'm Welsh.
Jon's love of baking is matched only by his passion for sailing with his children and wife, Debbie.
He's updating the 13th-century Aberffraw with a butterscotch filling to satisfy his sweet tooth.
Too sweet, it's like being too good-looking, I find, you know? Lush.
So, this is just a glaze.
I'm gonna also add a bit of orange blossom.
Kim-Joy's also flavouring with a personal favourite she discovered in the bath.
I bought a hair conditioner and it smelled really nice, and I looked at what's in it and it had orange blossom.
So, I thought, "Yeah, that's like a piece of me in my biscuit.
" A mental health specialist working with students, Kim-Joy's a huge fan of oriental flavours.
Her orange blossom York biscuit will be topped with the county's emblematic white rose.
These look beautiful.
Sort of getting the urge to call you Lovejoy is that OK? "Lovejoy"? Oh, is that like a flower? No, it's not! It's an antiques dealer.
Detective? He's like a sort It doesn't matter.
I've heard of Lovejoy.
How old are you? About 12? You won't know who he is.
Our next baker's also decorating with white roses.
Oh, gently, gently.
But she's making hers from scratch.
They take longer than you think.
But obviously, for this challenge, I thought perhaps I ought to have a little go.
Grandmother Karen works part-time Strawberry, young man? .
.
as a product promoter at her local supermarket.
Juicy? She's basing her biscuits on a traditional Yorkshire Perkin.
So, are you a Yorkshire lass? I am.
Wakefield.
Wakefield.
Shakey Wakey.
You're looking very Elvis-fied.
Elvis/Shakin' Stevens.
Or, as Sandi says, KD Lang.
Our final baker's topping his biscuits with mini works of art.
I'm gonna try and recreate 24 identical little lambs.
When he's not painting or sculpting, keen artist Terry takes to the great outdoors.
Walk on, Amy.
His shortbread will feature oatmeal topped with chocolate decorations.
I'll make chocolate wafers.
The lambs, hopefully Oh, it's a lamb? I think it's cos it's upside-down.
Hopefully they'll be tidied up from this.
Right, I'll get them in the oven now.
Perfecting 24 identical biscuits with a single oven This is the next one.
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will require this year's bakers to navigate a timing and temperature minefield.
First ten in.
We're off, we're off.
These are going in the oven for eight minutes.
Misjudge either across any of their batches 23 minutes at 165 degrees.
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and they can kiss goodbye to even textures and colours.
Yeah, I just need to rush a bit because this takes 40 minutes to bake.
I'll put six minutes on the clock and hope for the best.
I can't keep my eyes off them, because I'm just like, "Don't get too brown.
" You don't really want any colour on them.
Look.
The back ones are a little bit more brown than the front, so I'll probably leave them in a little bit longer.
I think they need four more minutes.
I'm looking for a wee bit of browning on them.
They're looking a bit pale.
I'll not panic just yet.
Soon, but not yet.
Bakers, you have just half an hour.
I do radio as well as television, you know.
Waiting for my first load to come out the oven, then put my second load in.
Yeah, they look good.
Nice golden brown colour.
Beautiful.
Happy with that.
Yeah, I think they're done.
Mixed results on that one.
There's a few duds.
So that's batch one done.
Second lot in.
They just jumped off the tray.
Now I'm just adding the jam to make sure that the paisley sticks on.
Ah! Fudge! So I think I need to speed up a little bit.
It is hot in here.
Chocolate's not good in this heat.
It's not setting quickly.
Just piping around the flowers.
Decoration has to be so uniform.
You just have to be better than one other person, don't you? They look so pretty, though.
It would be a shame if one of them fell on the floor Erm! OK, how long have we got? Bakers, you have five minutes left.
Sweet baby Jesus.
Oh, my God.
I am so running behind on time.
Finished.
24 biscuits.
Definitely last-minute dash.
I've not got one decorated biscuit yet.
Would you like a crisp? I would like nothing that involves taking my eyes off this table.
Don't want to rush it too much, cos they're already spreading a little bit.
I don't want to make them look messy.
They're not set.
I am making some masala chai tea, and it works really well with the biscuit.
Come on, release! Chocolate, in this weather.
I shouldn't have done it.
I am rushing the decoration.
Do you want me to help you put them on? Thank you, yeah.
Cool.
Right, shall we do this one, yeah? How many have I got? One, two, three, four 8.
10, 18.
How many do I need, 24? This is ridiculous.
They don't even look like lambs! Just one more.
They're still melting.
Bakers, your time is up.
Please put your biscuits at the end of your benches.
Done! I'm going out.
Hey, this is one of three.
I know.
No, this is one of three.
I know.
We did it.
We've done it! Yes! The bakers now face the judgment of Paul and Prue for the very first time.
Hello, Antony.
Hello, you guys.
Fascinating looking biscuit.
Those colours are incredible.
Brilliant, they are quite psychedelic.
Love that.
I think they look like little modern art, they're so pretty.
Prue, you just like them cos they match your outfit.
You know what? That texture is beautiful.
Melts in your mouth.
And that chilli jam blends gorgeously with it.
That's a, that's a great biscuit.
Thank you, Paul.
Boom! Absolutely.
I'll take that.
Simply wonderful.
I have to take one away with me.
Cheers.
Well done! I think your piping work is beautiful.
It does look amazing.
Nice and spicy.
Very chewy.
I don't like the texture.
It's like a very, very small cookie.
Didn't blow me away.
Well, I'll take a lot back from that anyway.
That's it.
They are absolutely exquisite.
Aww! I just love them.
Beautifully balanced biscuit, you break into it and then it instantly starts to melt in your mouth and the beautiful flavours come out.
There's enough acidity from the orange to make your mouth water.
Well done.
It looks quite pale.
I do think it is a tiny bit under-baked.
It's quite bland.
It is down to the bake, it needs another three, four minutes.
Cheers.
First of all, they are extremely neat.
I like the look of them.
Ooh, very nice.
The biscuit is beautifully baked.
It melts in the mouth, it's buttery.
I love chocolate and I love hazelnut, so you've just ticked two boxes there for me.
That's a fantastic biscuit.
Thank you.
Would be nice with a glass of milk too.
Well, it's there.
Well done.
Well done.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Good.
Thank you.
I like this, it's like owl feathers.
But it has a lot of flavours in it.
Yeah, it has.
I don't think the fennel has quite the punch you thought it has.
OK.
Yeah.
Thank you.
The reason why you've got 25? I'm bad at maths.
Do you know, they taste a little dry.
It's like a dried sponge rather than a biscuit.
It's very difficult to eat.
OK.
Do you want to taste the tea, Paul? Yeah, that's wet.
They're dry.
Great.
Phew! They are quite pale looking.
That is tough.
Is it? It's a bit chewy.
That's not a shortbread.
It needed longer in the oven.
The flavours are great.
And that jam's delicious.
Just don't like eating it? Everything else, terrible.
Thank you.
OK.
Hello, Terry.
Hello, Paul.
Right, OK, this is interesting.
Um Not my finest hour.
My lamb is not good, is it? Love it.
It's like a Warhol print.
Yeah.
I don't like the colour, I don't like the look of them.
They're not neat enough for me.
Yeah.
Right.
They are a little bit hard.
Great flavour.
It's just that, you know, the execution is a bit of a mess.
It's a rough old biscuit, that one.
Never mind.
Thank you, Terry, thank you.
Live to fight another day, perhaps.
Onwards and upwards.
Indeed.
You can do it.
You can be the comeback kid, you'll be the comeback kid.
Let's hope so, Noel.
I think they look great.
They look like a proper gingernut.
Mm, ginger's lovely.
Just right.
The lime, however, it just isn't there.
It does need a bit more lime.
Nice, though.
You can breathe now.
They look very neat.
I'm scared.
Break well.
That's a delicious biscuit.
Very oaty.
Yeah, feels healthy.
Well done.
No, it's not.
Thank you.
But it is worth the calories.
Absolutely.
Hello, Briony.
Hello.
Looks good.
Thank you.
And they're pretty uniform in colour and size.
I know, yeah.
They're very neat.
I certainly like the scalloped edges.
I think that looks beautiful.
Right.
The shortbread is really melt-in-the-mouth and crumbly.
What do you think about the egg yolk? I think it's probably the best shortbread here today.
I'm gonna try.
Oh, good! It's a crumbly, soft, buttery biscuit and then that bite which comes from the apple, the cider and the caramelisation on the top, the sweetness, it just blows your mind.
It's a great biscuit, there.
Oh, thank you! Well done.
Really good.
Oh, I'm shaking.
Pretty overwhelmed, actually.
And for Prue to say she's then gonna use the yolk technique Oh, my gosh, wow! Not in the place I would have liked to have been, but, you know, wrong biscuit, wrong day.
Paul said it was beautifully baked.
OK, it's a good start.
It's my whole school life.
Could have done better, really.
I mean, I thought biscuits were meant to be dry! The bakers were able to practise their first challenge.
Every week, their second will be a mystery shrouded in gingham.
Hello, lovely bakers.
It's time for your first technical challenge, which today has been set for you by the lovely Paul.
This was a real favourite of mine when I was a kid.
Please don't mess it up.
As usual, the challenge is judged blind, so Paul and Prue are not going to be lingering in the tent.
OK, off you two go.
Thank you very much.
What are they up to today? Bouncy castle.
Aw, that's nice.
For your technical challenge, Paul would like you to make his version of the iconic Wagon Wheel.
You have to make eight and you have two and a quarter hours, so you have to get your wagons rolling.
On your marks Get set .
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bake.
Well, that was unexpected.
Do not panic.
The iconic wheel-shaped chocolate biscuit was launched in Britain 70 years ago.
I do know what a Wagon Wheel is.
Hurrah! Have I made one before? No.
I have absolutely no clue what these are.
To make them, the bakers have all been given the same ingredients from Paul's pared-down recipe.
I've never made a Wagon Wheel in my life.
But, yeah, I love 'em, so let's go for it.
So, Paul, this is the first technical challenge.
Why have we got Wagon Wheels? I think there's many different elements to a Wagon Wheel that's quite tricky.
You've got that biscuit, which is crunchy, it's about getting the marshmallow right.
Not something that's rubbery, not something that pours out.
And then the chocolate coating must be nice and even over the top.
The chocolate should be firm enough to hold that marshmallow.
It's really beautiful.
The difficulty is putting all that together without panicking.
It's the Great British Bake Off, you've got to test 'em.
"For the biscuits, tip the flour, salt and butter into a bowl.
" Takes me back to my teacher days where I'm like, "Read the question, underline what they're looking for.
" I did OK at exams.
So, cool as a cucumber! Rub the butter into the flour I made a few mistakes this morning, so I'm hoping to not do that again, especially in the technical as well.
The first technical's always gonna be a tricky one.
Stir the sugar, vanilla paste, add the egg yolk I did something wrong already.
I didn't rub the butter into the flour.
But we just got to go on with it.
Have you made these before? I've eaten lots of them, never made them.
There's a few people here who've never even heard of them, so you're ahead of the game.
I've never had one.
Really? You've never had a Wagon Wheel? No, darling.
What? Have you even lived? No Wagon Wheels? Uh, I I'll be honest with you.
I was 55 before I tried a Pot Noodle.
Wellwell, what can you? It's possible I've missed out.
You can't come back from that.
I've missed out.
OK, so what do I do now? Bring the dough together.
It's important not to, sort of, knead it.
You'll lose that shortness in it.
Not mess with it too much.
Just need to get the jam on now.
Raspberries.
In you go.
Add the sugar and bring to the boil.
The jam you want it, you want to get some heat in there.
Get that jam cooking away, bubbling up to thicken a little bit.
It's not looking how I would like it to look.
It seems a little watery.
Right, what's next? Bit that scares me about this is the marshmallow.
Tip the sugar into a medium pan, add the glucose, the water I've never made marshmallow before.
Still, I'm hoping that Yeah, we'll see.
Look at me.
It's gonna be great.
See, look at that! Huh? Is that working? Wellno.
As soon as the sugar syrup reaches 120 degrees, remove from the heat.
A little off there yet.
I need it to cook, but it isn't.
My sugar isn't cooking.
So, there we are, you see? It's starting to get syrupy.
I'm just following the recipe and it's going OK.
You've got to be kidding me.
I did something stupidly wrong, yeah.
I just need water.
Whisk the egg white in the bowl of the stand mixer until firm.
Pour the sugar syrup over the egg whites.
You want to pour it down the side and it magically turns into fluffy marshmallow.
Well, that's what's hopefully gonna happen.
Ah, pretty good.
Happy with the marshmallow.
Bakers, that is one hour gone.
On a lightly floured surface, roll out the biscuit dough.
Cut out 16 seven-centimetre circles from the dough.
They were much larger in my day You were smaller.
.
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and then they got smaller.
No, you were smaller.
And now they're smaller Yeah, that's probably, you're probably right.
You were small, it looked big.
The whole world still looks big to me.
I wish I was still small, things would look bigger and then You're like a giant amongst men to me.
Aw, thank you.
Oh, no, it just says, ".
.
and then bake.
" Going in, guys.
On 160 for I don't know how long.
Let's say 12 minutes.
I'll keep a little beady eye on those.
I am really battling time.
Come on, biscuits.
I see them gently cooking.
That's going in.
I'm falling behind now, I need to run, run, run, run, run.
OK, I think I'm gonna take them out.
Looks pretty good.
They're looking tanned.
They're cooked and they're circular.
Just gonna need them to chill a bit before I put the chocolate on them.
Cos otherwise the chocolate will just slide off.
The chocolate's my worry.
Having the disaster this morning with chocolate.
Why you doing that? I'm just trying to cool the chocolate a little It's because you're French, isn't it? You like to sort of No, no! It's the French way of stirring.
The English people are all doing this.
"To assemble, spread some of the melted chocolate over the base of eight of the biscuits.
" Just trying to make them as beautiful as possible.
Trying to get a nice smooth finish on it.
My hands are starting to shake.
Right, just get those in the freezer.
Bakers, you have 30 biscuit baking minutes left.
Come on, come on.
Pipe the marshmallow over the remaining eight biscuits.
Trying not to pipe too close to the edge, because I know when they sandwich, I don't want, like, serious spillage.
Oh, dear.
Marshmallow's over set.
My piping bag's split because it's so thick.
All right.
I need to assemble.
It's been a while since I've had a Wagon Wheel, so I can't remember how much jam is in them.
Sandwich the biscuits together.
Coat the biscuits with the remaining chocolate.
It's quite vague, innit, this? Yeah.
You know why, don't you? Yeah.
Paul.
Yeah, I know, he's a so-and-so.
He don't give much away.
I'm trying to figure out how to do full coverage.
This is the stage I'm really unsure about.
Just gonna do it like this.
Dear, dear, dear.
It's gonna be shabby.
I'm gonna go for a full coverage.
Cannot get the chocolate to come around the side.
So annoying.
I think it's coated all the way through.
Just doesn't want to flood that gap.
Desperate measures.
I need this to be a sprint finish.
All coveredperfect.
Put them in the freezer I think just to chill quickly.
Gives those a couple of minutes and see how we get on.
It's not doing it for me.
Disaster.
How long we got to go? Bakers, you have one minute.
What? Run, run like the wind.
Oh, sugar plum fairies.
Proper disaster.
Horrendous.
Right, bakers, that's it.
Your time is up.
Boom.
First technical done.
Please bring your Wagon Wheels to the gingham table and place them behind your own visage.
Paul and Prue are expecting eight identical Wagon Wheels with two crunchy biscuits sandwiching fluffy marshmallow and tart raspberry jam, coated in smooth chocolate.
And they'll have no idea whose is whose.
Right, shall we start over here, Prue? OK.
They are all coated.
They're all coated.
Let's have a look inside.
It's rather good.
Actually, it's pretty good.
The biscuit's got a bit of crunch to it, the marshmallow's silky and they're all equal.
Moving on.
Now these haven't quite set, and obviously, there was an issue because the chocolate's not gonna bond with the bottom.
It's a time question.
If we left it, they'd be glued to the plate.
OK, what has happened? Big rush job, this one.
I'm not sure that counts as a Wagon Wheel.
I think this is also going to be a timing issue.
It's totally detached from the bottom.
Yeah.
Moving on.
It's neat, biscuit's nice and crunchy, nice depth of biscuit.
Good taste.
Good texture.
That's very good.
It's a bit rough but it is set.
It's been spread rather than poured or dipped.
And the marshmallow's good.
We wanted the sides covered.
I think it's probably a bit too much marshmallow.
That's what happens if you don't cover the chocolate.
These are very good.
Nice and smooth.
I think this is the best-looking we've seen.
Holds together well.
Nice and tart, the jam, smooth marshmallow.
Very good.
OK.
There's a lot of chocolate on that.
Is this for a chocoholic? Wow.
If you were a kid, you'd be delighted.
I am quite delighted! OK.
They are set.
Very little marshmallow.
Feels quite rubbery.
Right, never sealed up the marshmallow around the side.
Not quite set.
This is the messiest job.
This is not a job.
This one looks good.
Got almost that Wagon Wheel look to it on the top.
Cuts well, biscuit nice and deep.
Nice, thick layer of marshmallow.
That is really clever.
It's very good.
Prue and Paul have made their decision.
In 12th, we have this one.
Who's that? Antony.
It wasn't finished, no coating on the edge.
Disaster.
In 11th position, we have this one.
Whose is this? Bit of a rush and you ran out of time.
Kim-Joy is tenth, Terry ninth, Luke eighth, Rahul seventh, Karen sixth, Jon fifth and Dan is fourth.
In third position, we have this one.
Whose is this? Very well done.
Have you seen these before? Chocolate's excellent, nice and smooth.
Yeah, I think it's a great job.
Thank you.
In second position we have this one, who is that? Briony, they are absolutely delicious, they're the right thickness.
They're a really good Wagon Wheel.
Thank you.
So, in first position, we have this one.
Lovely shine on the chocolate, nice and smooth, marshmallow is good.
That's a nice Wagon Wheel, well done.
Thank God.
I was feeling pretty rubbish this morning, so yeah, really happy about that.
It was such a high at the start of the day and now second last, that's pretty crap.
A little deflated.
Tomorrow I need to pull back something from a disastrous day.
Really lucky, had no idea what was a Wheelie Wagon.
What is it called? Wagon Wheel? Wagon Wheel.
One challenge remains before someone is crowned this week's star baker and another becomes the first to leave the Bake Off tent.
Morning, bakers.
Welcome to your very first Showstopper Challenge.
Today, Prue and Paul would like you to make a spectacular biscuit selfie portrait Honestly, not words I ever thought I'd say in the same sentence.
Your selfie should be constructed from layers of decorated biscuits and sandwiched together with fillings of your choice.
Your portrait needs to be of you somewhere memorable.
You've got four hours to complete your Showstopper Challenge.
On your marks Get set Bake! Right.
This Showstopper is a fiendish test of our bakers' biscuit-making ability.
Not only must they engineer a giant biscuit canvas, but also make multiple intricate elements to bring their portraits to life.
This is the first opportunity these bakers have had of showing us artistry, skill, imagination.
We want the selfie to be built up with layers of biscuits because we want some depth to it.
We want a proper portrait displayed on an easel, so obviously, the biscuit sliding is the big problem.
They could use caramel, they could use royal icing.
They're the perfect things to bond with biscuit and withstand the force of gravity.
Importantly, we don't want style over substance.
If they don't taste like the most beautiful biscuits you've ever eaten, they're not going to get anywhere.
It is a monumental challenge.
A lot of time pressure, and after falling victim to that yesterday, I don't want to be in the same position today.
I need to be at the top of my game.
Famous last words.
As well as a dough that results in biscuits sturdy enough to construct a 3D work of art My biscuit dough is a bit of a shortbread texture, but it's got to be a little bit firmer because it's got to hold it up.
.
.
it must also deliver exquisite flavours.
I'm making a cinnamon and orange biscuit.
I really like cinnamon and orange.
They go well togetherand I wish I hadn't done so many oranges.
This is really hurting my arm now.
Featuring a lemon curd sun and buttercream choppy seas, Jon's selfie was inspired by a family sailing trip.
We had a lovely, placid journey over to Tenby.
Force six storm in the middle of it.
I thought it was idyllic sailing conditions, but my wife thought otherwise.
Hence coming back on the train.
Back on dry land My biscuit selfie is, what a shocker, me in Bristol.
Briony will showcase her hometown's landmarks in lemon and poppy seed biscuit.
You've practised it? Yes, I did it in, like, four and a half hours, but that was with my daughter and my dog around, so I think It's the same thing.
You've got me, Prue I'm the dog.
Good luck, Briony.
Thank you very much, thank you.
If I'm gonna be your dog, what kind of dog have you got? A Cockapoo.
A Cockapoo.
OK.
Cos, you know, I'm a method actor, so I need to know.
For his selfie, Rahul's heading down memory lane.
First time when I came to UK, I went for a walk.
It was lovely, everything was green, flowers were coming out.
So this is basically on that memory.
To recreate his springtime stroll in gingerbread, he's got a detailed blueprint.
These are the trees and the canal and the bridge, and then it's me.
I got about 23 pieces.
It is very, very ambitious design.
But with a triple-layered 40-biscuit design, Ruby's taking ambitious to the next level.
My portrait is me finishing the London Marathon.
Decorated with numerous toppings, her marathon selfie involves a marathon to-do list.
I'm not gonna tell them this.
I have never finished it in time.
I've never even finished it.
Let's hope that's not the case today.
I am just rolling out my dough, starting with the the base biscuits, because they take the longest to cook.
OK, let's go.
Getting the giant biscuit canvas baked early is critical.
So I've done four of these squares.
That'll be the background and everything'll be stuck to that.
The longer it takes, the less precious oven time they'll have for their smaller biscuits.
This is cherry blossom trees.
They are my glasses.
These are the waves.
Just come to check on you.
Just very sweaty at the moment.
You were sweaty yesterday.
Is that a thing for you? Yeah.
Mr Sweaty? I'm always Mr Sweaty.
I don't know if that makes me more attracted or less.
I'm gonna go with less, Jon.
Stand next to me, you'll always look less sweaty.
Aah, there's so many pieces! Shattered.
I love the mountains, so I climbed Kilimanjaro.
The selfie itself is right on top of the peak.
Antony's ascent of Africa's highest mountain will be realised with royal icing and biscuits flavoured with local spices.
Ginger and cinnamon, you will get that bang on as soon as you put a cookie in your mouth.
Like Antony, half the bakers are basing their selfies on trips abroad.
It's set in my favourite place, which is in France.
We've got a holiday home there.
Karen's doubling down with two flavours that often divide opinion.
Rosewater and cardamom together? Yes.
I can see the eyes rolling.
No, I absolutely think that is a wonderful flavour combination, I really do, as long as the rosewater isn't overpowering.
This is the trouble, isn't it? It's all the balance.
Good luck.
Thank you.
I'm gonna moonwalk away from you now.
See ya! This is gonna be Palm Springs.
Me and my husband actually had our kids, uh, with the help of a surrogate in California.
So we stayed in Palm Springs for a month just getting to know our kids and it was just amazing.
It just was the best moment in my life.
Don't tell my husband that.
Dan's journey into fatherhood, featuring his first-born, will be made with almond sugar cookies.
When it's all decorated with royal icing, it's gonna be me holding a baby.
Luke's also heading stateside, but his trip was strictly adults-only.
I went to Las Vegas with my friends a few years ago.
We basically went on a bit of a mad night out.
The inspiration, that's where it came from, a bit of a drunken night out with my friends on holiday in Vegas.
He'll be flavouring his biscuit Sin City with orange zest and cinnamon.
For some reason I associate cinnamon with America, so I thought I'd try and keep the flavours, sort of paying homage to America, if you like.
Going in.
Pop these in for eight minutes.
Those are my little eyeballs.
Bye-bye, good luck.
Those are all the glacier mints.
They should melt in the oven, so it's gonna create glass bits.
Stressed.
Just feel like I won't have enough time.
But maybe I'm panicking, I don't know.
Buttercream next.
I'm making the royal icing.
This is just gonna make a right old royal mess.
Gin time, it's gin o'clock.
This is my flour buttercream.
This should be like a thick custard.
It's just not right.
Ohhhh! Scramble your eggs in your lemon curd.
I'm gonna try and salvage it.
So we have some matcha, which is, like, Japanese green tea.
I went to Japan last year, so this is a picture of me in front of the Mount Fuji.
Not only will Manon use matcha ganache to bond her biscuits, but also to decorate them.
I just want to carry on what I've started and just finish on a good day.
Mmm, yep.
Good.
She's not the only one taken with the land of the rising sun.
It's a portrait of me at Miyajima shrine in Japan.
I was there at sunset.
It was really peaceful.
To offset her tranquil backdrop, Kim-Joy is flavouring with a trio of punchy spices.
The ginger tends to come through a bit more than the cinnamon.
It's quite strong on ginger, I hope.
Got to do the time call.
Time call, time call.
We've got to do the time call.
Bakers, we're halfway through! OK, your serve.
Is that my alarm? So, these babies are coming out.
That bad boy's going in.
They still look pretty anaemic.
Yesterday I slightly underbaked my biscuits, so I'll risk them being a little brown, just to make sure that they're definitely baked.
To add depth to their selfies, most bakers are making robust biscuits which they'll layer on top of each other.
Yeah, they're looking good, actually.
Terry is taking a very different approach.
We're doing a brandy snap biscuit.
I'm using it because of its qualities as a mouldable material.
When it comes out of the oven it's still quite liquid, but you have got a very small window to play with it.
This is just a three-dimensional surgical plaster face cast.
It will cool very quickly when it hits the mould.
After a disappointing first day in the tent, Terry's summoning all his artistic talents.
So you're using the brandy snap as your main feature and then the background is using what, exactly? It will all be brandy snap, laminated with raspberry jam and flour buttercream, mixed into three primary colours and then I'll just paint a picture.
Sit and do what I do well.
I am not arty at all.
I'm hoping I'll be able to argue with Prue and Paul that yeah, it actually does look like me.
Imelda's celebrating a fun day out in Mayo with lemon and ginger biscuit.
It's an opportune moment for you to come along.
How's it going? Horrendous.
Oh, really? What? It's burnt.
No, darling, it just looks, umcolourful.
Not the look I was going for.
I'm stressed.
One hour to go.
Oh, dear, dear, dear, dear.
We are way behind.
Right, let's make some magic.
I am sticking backboard biscuits to the backboard.
This is just like royal icing to glue the big biscuit.
And then there's gonna be other biscuits which are raised on the other biscuits.
So, building and building it.
This is my mountain.
It's overbaked.
I just hope I can decorate it enough so that they don't realise.
Oh.
Oh, my goodness.
But you know Paul and Prue, they're gonna know.
They'll know to look at it.
Oh, that one's gone.
Just working on the buttercream.
I need to start assembling.
I amlate.
I am using caramel because I think it'll be a firm bond.
I just hope it stays together now.
I've got a lot of worries about this slipping.
If I had a couple of days for it to set, I'd be a lot happier.
Looking around, people are making some decent progress.
I think I've shot myself in the foot a little bit.
Way too over-adventurous.
If I get this done, it's gonna be an absolute miracle.
So this is a matcha ganache.
So the buttercream is gonna become, like, the sky and the mountains and some foliage.
It's so time-consuming cos there's so much biscuit to ice.
Some bits are a bit scruffier than I'd want.
Can I have a piece of your biscuit? I know what you're gonna say, you're choking, right? Oh, ow! Took your tooth out? Yep.
No, it's delicious.
I'm about to do the sky.
I'm doing it like a painting, basically.
I'm like a mad artist when I get to this bit.
It's different every single time.
I think it depends on my mood.
Oh, I've had some severe breakages.
Oh! Bakers, you have half an hour left.
I think the next thing to do is get me on the board.
I can start my painting now.
Just making my skin colour.
I've got my large hooter there, which I've always been very proud of.
Ah, I look like the Joker.
Stop panicking, stop panicking! Wow, look at you.
You look a bit like Bjork in that picture.
That's all right.
You do have a bit of a Bjorkness to you.
Has anyone ever said that? No.
Someone told me I looked like Michael McIntyre once, though.
All my biscuits are cut out now, but doing my marshmallow fondant is a real messy business.
Oh! Oh, my God.
This looks like a horrendous mess, but I'm hoping it's gonna come together.
I'm starting to panic, like, I've got some sort of shake on.
This is, like, a grassy bit.
Here's me holding a baby.
My hands! That's beautiful.
Hey, Ruby.
You OK? I'm losing it, Noel.
I know, you look a bit frantic.
The face is coming now.
Oh, no, it's cracking.
Bakers, you have one minute, just one minute.
Ohhh! Fondant.
Genius.
Burst pipe.
Oh, Rubes.
Bakers, your time is up! Dear God.
That's the end of your Showstopper challenge.
Oh, my goodness.
Please put your selfies at the end of your workstations.
I just ran seriously out of time.
They're gonna judge it on biscuit, right? Yeah.
What are you holding? A baby.
Oh, I thought it was something else.
Dan, please bring up your biscuit selfie.
Artistically, it's great, colourful, three dimensional.
I question the baby though.
It looks like a massive prawn.
I think the colours are fantastic.
The palm trees are definitely swaying in the wind.
You can feel the heat.
Certainly get the passion fruit.
I get the almond in there as well.
It's delicious, the blend between the two.
It's a nice biscuit.
The biscuit is excellent.
Phew! You've done a great job.
I think it's amazing.
You can see immediately it's sunset.
I think you've done a really great job.
The colours are really well balanced.
Could do with a tiny bit more spice.
I thought so, yes.
But it's very nice.
It has a Vegas feel about it.
I love the depth.
It's not very often you get cinnamon and orange together and it works.
I think the biscuit's a bit underbaked.
The biscuit is a bit soft.
Very neat, very precise.
You can see it's you.
Well, it's certainly gingerbread.
You've got a gorgeous balance between the cinnamon and the ginger.
Really good.
There's some lumpy lemon curd there.
Yeah, it went slightly wrong.
Lumpy sun.
Got a little bit overcooked.
The flavours are absolutely lovely.
I love that chocolate with that orange and cinnamon and that biscuit is spectacular.
Rahul, would you like to bring up your biscuit selfie, please? Well, you've certainly succeeded with this explosion of the English spring and I'm fascinated by your portrait.
Where's the stubble on the face? Oh, that was like 7.
5 years ago.
I was clean-shaved at the time.
So, I'm taking it back.
I think it's definitely recognisable.
Nice and short, isn't it? Hmm.
The ginger comes through beautifully in a well-baked biscuit.
That, with the design that you've done, even your little chubby face, it's fantastic.
I think you've done a great job.
Well done.
Well done.
Thank you.
Thanks a lot, cheers.
You look like a cross between Dame Edna and Su Pollard.
That's been said a few times.
Oh, really? Yes.
Oh, right! Can't get the rosewater.
Really? You get the cardamom a little bit but very little, you definitely can't get the rosewater.
Got scared with the bottle and obviously didn't put enough in.
It's a shame cos it looks great, but you expect a bit more A bit more oomph to it.
.
.
more kick to it, you know.
Yeah, yeah.
It's quite simple.
I'm trying to recognise you in that picture.
I suppose you could say, yeah, it is.
You can't eat her! He's just going to chop your head off now.
Paul, it looks like you enjoyed that a bit too much.
The biscuit's a little bland.
Quite thick and a little dry.
It's a bit like a stale shortbread.
You get the lemon, you say ginger as well? Hm.
Definitely not getting the ginger.
OK.
Thank you.
Thank you.
I can see what you were trying to do.
Yeah, was too ambitious.
I think it's too much.
All that work has meant that you didn't finish yourself Yeah.
.
.
and this is supposed to be a selfie and it's supposed to be recognisable and I don't think it quite is.
OK, let's try this biscuit now.
It's cinnamon and ginger.
Yeah.
It's a strange taste of ginger.
Youyou do get the cinnamon and it's almost like they're fighting each other for supremacy.
Right.
The biscuit's a bit soft.
A little bit dry.
Oh, you guys.
It's not the best ginger biscuit I've ever eaten.
It's a shame you didn't finish it.
Yeah.
Brutal.
I love the colours on it and your portrait really works as well.
I love the balloons.
Can we eat a balloon? Yeah, please do.
Nice thin icing.
I like that.
I'd like to have had more flavour in there.
OK.
It's a nice biscuit - just needed more of a punch.
OK.
That's good.
Excellent! Thank you.
So detailed and so neat.
It's just exquisite.
I was nervous that the matcha would be overpowering but it's not at all, it's just a hint.
Hm.
Wow.
The biscuit is delicious, but the balance of flavours and textures, I think you've done I think you've done an amazing job.
Well done.
Really good.
Thank you, Manon.
Terry, please bring up your biscuit selfie.
Ingenious.
Oh! I think your face is brilliant.
I've got chocolate, brandy snap, buttercream and jam.
It's absolutely delicious.
Lovely.
It's quite tricky to work with brandy snap in that sort of size, but to manage to get that 3D mould of your face and then the colour in there as well.
I think the whole thing is very clever.
Well done, Terry.
Well done.
Thank you, Paul.
Thank you.
Congratulations.
Well done, Terry.
The comments were much better than I would have hoped for, to be honest, um, or expected.
If I've done enough, it's a scrape through.
That's two pretty poor bakes.
Even though I've done my best, I feel like I've just let myself down.
I feel like I'm just back at the bottom again.
I'm just hoping they can kind of see that whatever happens, this week was just first week nerves.
I'm Yeah.
Hoping for a bit of a miracle.
Paul and Pru, must now decide who will be our Star Baker, and who will be the first to leave the tent.
What a fantastic dozen we've got! Aren't they amazing? Feel like we've got to know them quicker this time.
Maybe that's just cos we've got their portraits in front of us.
So who's rising towards the top? Manon.
The style of her baking, it's very classically French in many ways.
Yes.
Everything's precision.
It's just completely wonderful.
I think Briony's really impressed me this weekend, a proper, solid Showstopper.
She's definitely in line for Star Baker as well.
And who's struggling? Coming into today, Terry was in trouble.
And then he sort of pulled a rabbit out of a hat, didn't he? That brandy snap was like an impressionist painting.
Has he done enough to save himself over the three challenges, not just the one? Imelda, she struggled in the technical.
Terrible technical.
I think today the biscuit wasn't good.
I think she had a lot to prove and I think the pressure got to her.
Ruby, first in the technical, but her other two were really not good.
This one, she didn't finish.
I think what's astonishing is we've just met these 12 and I would already be sorry to lose any of them.
Yeah.
No, agreed.
Now, I have the pleasure of announcing the first Star Baker, the Star Baker who had a wonderfully nutty first round and whose attention to detail was unbelievable.
The Star Baker is .
.
Manon.
So that means it falls to me to deliver the sad news.
The person going home is .
.
Imelda.
Aww.
I'm so sorry.
You did a great job.
Oh, Lord.
OK.
OK? Yes.
You all right? I'm so sorry.
That must've been, like, the tightest call ever.
I'm so sorry.
Frustrated, because I know I can do better but, at the same time, one of the best experiences of my life.
I'm sorry, Prue.
I can do so much better than that.
I feel really bad, because part of me feels like it probably should've been me.
You were very lucky.
I know, I know.
But I'm, like, completely relieved.
Terry, well done.
Week one done.
Kick up the backside, I guess, and so I've got to pull my socks up.
Yes! We're through, we're through to next week! It's been the most awesome, intense, terrifying, wonderful weekend, and I'm really excited that I get to do it again.
Excellent work.
Thank you.
Excellent.
Thank you very much.
More of the same, please.
Papa.
PHONE: Oui? Congratulations.
A dream start.
We'll see what comes next.
Next time, it's cake week Ruby's stealing my ideas.
Whoa! Whoa, whoa.
.
.
kicking off with a signature tray bake I really hope they taste OK.
So do I, cos they look hideous.
.
.
the technical that turns the bakers green OK, yeah, that's the weirdest thing I've ever done for a cake.
.
.
and as the temperature rises It hasn't set.
.
.
an ambitious Showstopper gets them hot under the collar.
Whoa! Paul and Prue will be saying, "I thought this was Art Deco.
" More like art nightmare.
To the car! Why are we going back to the future? Is something terrible about to happen? Terrible! Is Donald Trump getting that peace prize? It's worse.
No! Are One Direction getting back together? It's worse than that.
Oh, no! Yeah! Prue's about to tweet the name of this year's winner! What are you doing, Prue? We've got to get back to the future! It's a really peaceful, lovely place.
I just wish I felt peaceful inside! It is very nerve-racking.
Not as stressful as writing my thesis, but quite there.
It's just completely surreal to be here.
It's the tent, like the actual tent.
The Bake Off tent.
More people have been in space than been in that tent.
It's the ultimate.
This is like being a professional footballer and playing at Wembley in t'FA Cup Final.
It's crazy, though.
This is something you've seen on TV and thinking, actually, this is It's quite real.
12 new bakers I believe that I'm gonna be good under pressure.
Ha! Very close to a heart attack.
Very close.
.
.
30 brand-new challenges set by judges Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith.
I'm really excited to be back.
I know what to expect now.
I will be a bit tougher this year.
I would like to see more imagination, more colour and, above all, more delicious things to eat.
Prue and I have set some pretty awesome challenges.
Some they would have heard of before, some they definitely have not.
I cannot wait to get started.
I'm quite creative, I love the unusual.
The competitive part of me wants to see how good I actually am.
Could be out in week one, who knows? I love being a stay-at-home parent, but sometimes you don't get to feel successful.
If I could get Star Baker once, I could leave here very, very happy.
In 2018, who will win the Great British Bake Off? Happy! We're back at the home of the Bake Off - Welford Park in Berkshire.
Its biscuit week, and over the next two days, the bakers will face three challenges, after which one of them will be named our first Star Baker and another will be asked to leave.
Hello, bakers.
Welcome, for the very first time, to the Bake Off tent and your first ever Signature Challenge.
The judges would love you to make 24 regional biscuits.
Hilarious! Biscuits with funny accents.
Yeah, no, they don't have to speak, they just have to be traditional to a town, village or region in Britain.
They can be sweet or savoury, you know, depending on their history.
But the biscuits must mean something to you.
For example, if it was Sandi, she'd probably choose shortbread.
Yeah.
Don't start, it's the first day.
OK! So your biscuits need to be uniform and identical across the batch, but with your own unique take.
You have two hours.
On your marks, get set, bake! Oh, I cannot believe we are here.
Oven, oven, oven.
Turn the oven on.
This year, we're kicking off with biscuits - not cakes.
Now, that's slightly unusual for the Great British Bake Off.
But don't kid yourselves, biscuits are difficult to make properly.
In you go.
We're asking them to create something that's a regional speciality.
Something that celebrates the bakers themselves.
Something that's unique.
The difficult thing for these bakers is that, although we want them to put their own stamp on this biscuit, it still must be recognisable.
So, if they tell us it's a shortbread, then it should be melt in the mouth.
If they tell us that's it's a ginger snap, it should snap.
I'm looking for regional perfection.
Good morning.
Hello.
Hello, Briony.
Hi.
Do you feel nervous? Yeah, a little bit.
Tell us about your regional biscuit.
I'm making Empire biscuits, which are regional to Northern Ireland and Scotland, which is where my family's from.
But I'm giving them a Bristol twist, which is where I'm from.
So, it turns out Bristol doesn't have a regional biscuit.
But now Bristol will have a regional biscuit? Briony - a full-time mum to two-year-old Norah and puppy, Archie - took up baking five years ago.
For that Bristol touch, she's using apple cider jam, instead of traditional raspberry, between her vanilla shortbreads.
And what's that in the pan? So, I'm boiling some eggs for my for my biscuits.
Boiled eggs? Just the yolks, which you sieve into the dough itself and it gives them a really short structure.
Have you tried it without? Yeah.
Oh, I haven't tried it without, but Well So, you don't know the difference? No, but I've never heard of that.
Don't start straight away.
I'm just asking a question.
She's just arrived.
It sounds lovely, Briony.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Don't let him do anything to you.
Like Briony, most of the bakers are basing their biscuits on shortbread.
I'm making lemon Shrewsbury.
It's a very rich, crumbly biscuit.
This works every time at home.
Like, it's never gone wrong so I don't really know why I'm panicking.
Stay-at-home dad Dan took up baking to lavish his children, Barnaby and Constance, with tasty treats.
Yay! We have fish.
His sandwich biscuit, featuring strawberry jam, is a family favourite.
Hello.
Hello.
How are you? I'm all right, I'm all right.
That doesn't sound like you're all right.
No.
Sort of panicking a bit, but you know Is baking your chill time? Yeah.
And you've now turned it into a nightmare.
Yeah.
But you have entered a competition! It is my own fault.
Sort of your own fault! You're on the Great British Bake Off.
Our next baker is using an ingredient they hope will deliver perfect melt-in-the-mouth shortbread.
Clotted cream.
I love cream.
Oh, yummy! Mum was like, "No, it's too" You know, "Don't eat it.
" And then when I came to England and they were like, "Oh, I'm just gonna spread some cream on the top of my scone," I was like, "Yeah, this is a thing!" Londoner Manon grew up in France on her family's egg farm, where she began baking aged three.
She's bringing Gallic flare to her Cornish shortbread with hazelnuts and chocolate.
I'm from Brittany in France, and Cornwall really reminds me of home, so I had to do it.
For her clotted cream shortbread, Ruby is ripping up the rule book.
I am making some masala chai Devon flats.
I'm using a cream substitute.
I know it goes against the whole Devon clotted cream business.
I hope that doesn't come and bite me in the bum, because it was fine at home.
As well as knockout bakes, project manager Ruby likes to pack a punch in the ring.
I need a break.
She's hoping a killer combo of cardamom, clove and cinnamon will floor the judges.
What sort of texture are we looking at? Are they gonna break, crack, crumble? They'll be in between.
Soft, medium.
Medium You're winging this, aren't you? How many times have you actually made this? They've been soft, medium and hard.
Erm, I have practised it a lot actually.
Right.
I'm not winging it, I swear.
Whatever texture they're aiming for Want quite a snap on the biscuit.
.
.
overload their dough with flavours Ah! .
.
or colours Beautiful.
.
.
and it will radically alter the bite of their finished biscuits.
In India, we have quite a lot of home-made sweets with coconut and fennel.
So, I'm just going to combine both of those two flavours in my biscuit, and my mum really likes this biscuit.
So, in Calcutta, my family's still there, and I came to the UK about seven years ago to do PhD in Loughborough.
Do I need to get comfortable? Yeah, I love to talk, as you probably realise.
Rahul, a nuclear scientist, Skypes his mum and dad back home every day.
Baking three big biscuits, which will cut into 24, Rahul's fusing Indian and Scottish flavours.
There is nothing that should be overpowering.
You should taste shortbread, but there should be a hint of coconut and a hint of fennel behind.
And I'm keeping the fennel seeds whole, so I don't really want to overpower anything with anything.
I just want everything to go in harmony.
Well, I'm afraid we don't have time to talk to anybody else now.
This is my problem! It's the end of the show! When I start talking, I don't stop, and that's a problem.
I am making flakemeal biscuit from Ireland.
Traditionally, these biscuits wouldn't have been flavoured at all, so I have, kind of, put my own twist on it, with cherries and white chocolate and coconut.
Former teacher Imelda lives in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland, with her teenage son, Piers.
Her hearty farmers' biscuit will feature oats and wholemeal flour.
That'll keep you regular.
Yeah, that's Never thought about it like that.
I can feel movement happening already.
I've chosen a Yorkshire gingernut as I'm from Yorkshire, so, representing! Looking to inject some zip, Luke's flavouring with lime.
Gives it a bit of a citrusy vibe.
So, it just, kind of, works really nice with the ginger.
By day, he's a civil servant for the Department of Education.
By night, a DJ on the Sheffield club scene.
To ensure it punches through, he's adding lime to his biscuits and his filling.
It's all about that balance between the ginger and the lime.
I've been doing a lot of practising at home, cos what I want is the lime to come through first and a few seconds later, like, the heat of the ginger come through.
Um, so, hopefully Look forward to it.
Thank you, Luke.
Thank you.
All right.
Am I in the light? What's my line? One hour.
What's my motivation? Perfect.
Bakers, you have one hour left.
It disappears quite quickly, doesn't it? I thought I was good.
That was excellent.
OK.
So, I'm just rolling out my shortbread.
Just making sure it's the same thickness.
Each and every biscuit should be uniform in shape It's good.
.
.
and size.
I'm just weighing out each of these balls.
15g each.
Wouldn't normally do this at home, but we have to get them identical.
But for the five bakers making sandwich biscuits, it's twice the work.
I'm making 48 cookies! I'm really hoping I get that done in time.
Bengaluru-born Antony is a banker, whose love affair with Bollywood even influences his baking.
Wow, that's proper spicy.
He's sandwiching mango chilli jam between colourful biscuits.
We haven't danced.
Isn't now a good moment? Yeah.
OK.
You go the hands first.
Yeah.
It's the bulb on top.
OK.
This leg needs to go up.
Yeah, and then we go down.
And then we go up.
Yeah, there you are.
OK.
That's Bollywood.
You are definitely the most fun person.
I'm just stamping up my shortbread so they say "York", and then I'm gonna chill this tray.
That goes into the fridge.
Their dough may be resting, but the bakers can't Right, where are we at? .
.
with decorations and fillings still to make.
I get requests every year for strawberry jam.
Hopefully they'll like it.
Oh, chilli.
Oh, the mango.
These Indians know how to do it, don't they? Just making butterscotch sauce to go in my Swiss meringue buttercream.
I'm baking an Aberffraw biscuit.
I want to go for something Welsh for the first week, being as I'm Welsh.
Jon's love of baking is matched only by his passion for sailing with his children and wife, Debbie.
He's updating the 13th-century Aberffraw with a butterscotch filling to satisfy his sweet tooth.
Too sweet, it's like being too good-looking, I find, you know? Lush.
So, this is just a glaze.
I'm gonna also add a bit of orange blossom.
Kim-Joy's also flavouring with a personal favourite she discovered in the bath.
I bought a hair conditioner and it smelled really nice, and I looked at what's in it and it had orange blossom.
So, I thought, "Yeah, that's like a piece of me in my biscuit.
" A mental health specialist working with students, Kim-Joy's a huge fan of oriental flavours.
Her orange blossom York biscuit will be topped with the county's emblematic white rose.
These look beautiful.
Sort of getting the urge to call you Lovejoy is that OK? "Lovejoy"? Oh, is that like a flower? No, it's not! It's an antiques dealer.
Detective? He's like a sort It doesn't matter.
I've heard of Lovejoy.
How old are you? About 12? You won't know who he is.
Our next baker's also decorating with white roses.
Oh, gently, gently.
But she's making hers from scratch.
They take longer than you think.
But obviously, for this challenge, I thought perhaps I ought to have a little go.
Grandmother Karen works part-time Strawberry, young man? .
.
as a product promoter at her local supermarket.
Juicy? She's basing her biscuits on a traditional Yorkshire Perkin.
So, are you a Yorkshire lass? I am.
Wakefield.
Wakefield.
Shakey Wakey.
You're looking very Elvis-fied.
Elvis/Shakin' Stevens.
Or, as Sandi says, KD Lang.
Our final baker's topping his biscuits with mini works of art.
I'm gonna try and recreate 24 identical little lambs.
When he's not painting or sculpting, keen artist Terry takes to the great outdoors.
Walk on, Amy.
His shortbread will feature oatmeal topped with chocolate decorations.
I'll make chocolate wafers.
The lambs, hopefully Oh, it's a lamb? I think it's cos it's upside-down.
Hopefully they'll be tidied up from this.
Right, I'll get them in the oven now.
Perfecting 24 identical biscuits with a single oven This is the next one.
.
.
will require this year's bakers to navigate a timing and temperature minefield.
First ten in.
We're off, we're off.
These are going in the oven for eight minutes.
Misjudge either across any of their batches 23 minutes at 165 degrees.
.
.
and they can kiss goodbye to even textures and colours.
Yeah, I just need to rush a bit because this takes 40 minutes to bake.
I'll put six minutes on the clock and hope for the best.
I can't keep my eyes off them, because I'm just like, "Don't get too brown.
" You don't really want any colour on them.
Look.
The back ones are a little bit more brown than the front, so I'll probably leave them in a little bit longer.
I think they need four more minutes.
I'm looking for a wee bit of browning on them.
They're looking a bit pale.
I'll not panic just yet.
Soon, but not yet.
Bakers, you have just half an hour.
I do radio as well as television, you know.
Waiting for my first load to come out the oven, then put my second load in.
Yeah, they look good.
Nice golden brown colour.
Beautiful.
Happy with that.
Yeah, I think they're done.
Mixed results on that one.
There's a few duds.
So that's batch one done.
Second lot in.
They just jumped off the tray.
Now I'm just adding the jam to make sure that the paisley sticks on.
Ah! Fudge! So I think I need to speed up a little bit.
It is hot in here.
Chocolate's not good in this heat.
It's not setting quickly.
Just piping around the flowers.
Decoration has to be so uniform.
You just have to be better than one other person, don't you? They look so pretty, though.
It would be a shame if one of them fell on the floor Erm! OK, how long have we got? Bakers, you have five minutes left.
Sweet baby Jesus.
Oh, my God.
I am so running behind on time.
Finished.
24 biscuits.
Definitely last-minute dash.
I've not got one decorated biscuit yet.
Would you like a crisp? I would like nothing that involves taking my eyes off this table.
Don't want to rush it too much, cos they're already spreading a little bit.
I don't want to make them look messy.
They're not set.
I am making some masala chai tea, and it works really well with the biscuit.
Come on, release! Chocolate, in this weather.
I shouldn't have done it.
I am rushing the decoration.
Do you want me to help you put them on? Thank you, yeah.
Cool.
Right, shall we do this one, yeah? How many have I got? One, two, three, four 8.
10, 18.
How many do I need, 24? This is ridiculous.
They don't even look like lambs! Just one more.
They're still melting.
Bakers, your time is up.
Please put your biscuits at the end of your benches.
Done! I'm going out.
Hey, this is one of three.
I know.
No, this is one of three.
I know.
We did it.
We've done it! Yes! The bakers now face the judgment of Paul and Prue for the very first time.
Hello, Antony.
Hello, you guys.
Fascinating looking biscuit.
Those colours are incredible.
Brilliant, they are quite psychedelic.
Love that.
I think they look like little modern art, they're so pretty.
Prue, you just like them cos they match your outfit.
You know what? That texture is beautiful.
Melts in your mouth.
And that chilli jam blends gorgeously with it.
That's a, that's a great biscuit.
Thank you, Paul.
Boom! Absolutely.
I'll take that.
Simply wonderful.
I have to take one away with me.
Cheers.
Well done! I think your piping work is beautiful.
It does look amazing.
Nice and spicy.
Very chewy.
I don't like the texture.
It's like a very, very small cookie.
Didn't blow me away.
Well, I'll take a lot back from that anyway.
That's it.
They are absolutely exquisite.
Aww! I just love them.
Beautifully balanced biscuit, you break into it and then it instantly starts to melt in your mouth and the beautiful flavours come out.
There's enough acidity from the orange to make your mouth water.
Well done.
It looks quite pale.
I do think it is a tiny bit under-baked.
It's quite bland.
It is down to the bake, it needs another three, four minutes.
Cheers.
First of all, they are extremely neat.
I like the look of them.
Ooh, very nice.
The biscuit is beautifully baked.
It melts in the mouth, it's buttery.
I love chocolate and I love hazelnut, so you've just ticked two boxes there for me.
That's a fantastic biscuit.
Thank you.
Would be nice with a glass of milk too.
Well, it's there.
Well done.
Well done.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Good.
Thank you.
I like this, it's like owl feathers.
But it has a lot of flavours in it.
Yeah, it has.
I don't think the fennel has quite the punch you thought it has.
OK.
Yeah.
Thank you.
The reason why you've got 25? I'm bad at maths.
Do you know, they taste a little dry.
It's like a dried sponge rather than a biscuit.
It's very difficult to eat.
OK.
Do you want to taste the tea, Paul? Yeah, that's wet.
They're dry.
Great.
Phew! They are quite pale looking.
That is tough.
Is it? It's a bit chewy.
That's not a shortbread.
It needed longer in the oven.
The flavours are great.
And that jam's delicious.
Just don't like eating it? Everything else, terrible.
Thank you.
OK.
Hello, Terry.
Hello, Paul.
Right, OK, this is interesting.
Um Not my finest hour.
My lamb is not good, is it? Love it.
It's like a Warhol print.
Yeah.
I don't like the colour, I don't like the look of them.
They're not neat enough for me.
Yeah.
Right.
They are a little bit hard.
Great flavour.
It's just that, you know, the execution is a bit of a mess.
It's a rough old biscuit, that one.
Never mind.
Thank you, Terry, thank you.
Live to fight another day, perhaps.
Onwards and upwards.
Indeed.
You can do it.
You can be the comeback kid, you'll be the comeback kid.
Let's hope so, Noel.
I think they look great.
They look like a proper gingernut.
Mm, ginger's lovely.
Just right.
The lime, however, it just isn't there.
It does need a bit more lime.
Nice, though.
You can breathe now.
They look very neat.
I'm scared.
Break well.
That's a delicious biscuit.
Very oaty.
Yeah, feels healthy.
Well done.
No, it's not.
Thank you.
But it is worth the calories.
Absolutely.
Hello, Briony.
Hello.
Looks good.
Thank you.
And they're pretty uniform in colour and size.
I know, yeah.
They're very neat.
I certainly like the scalloped edges.
I think that looks beautiful.
Right.
The shortbread is really melt-in-the-mouth and crumbly.
What do you think about the egg yolk? I think it's probably the best shortbread here today.
I'm gonna try.
Oh, good! It's a crumbly, soft, buttery biscuit and then that bite which comes from the apple, the cider and the caramelisation on the top, the sweetness, it just blows your mind.
It's a great biscuit, there.
Oh, thank you! Well done.
Really good.
Oh, I'm shaking.
Pretty overwhelmed, actually.
And for Prue to say she's then gonna use the yolk technique Oh, my gosh, wow! Not in the place I would have liked to have been, but, you know, wrong biscuit, wrong day.
Paul said it was beautifully baked.
OK, it's a good start.
It's my whole school life.
Could have done better, really.
I mean, I thought biscuits were meant to be dry! The bakers were able to practise their first challenge.
Every week, their second will be a mystery shrouded in gingham.
Hello, lovely bakers.
It's time for your first technical challenge, which today has been set for you by the lovely Paul.
This was a real favourite of mine when I was a kid.
Please don't mess it up.
As usual, the challenge is judged blind, so Paul and Prue are not going to be lingering in the tent.
OK, off you two go.
Thank you very much.
What are they up to today? Bouncy castle.
Aw, that's nice.
For your technical challenge, Paul would like you to make his version of the iconic Wagon Wheel.
You have to make eight and you have two and a quarter hours, so you have to get your wagons rolling.
On your marks Get set .
.
bake.
Well, that was unexpected.
Do not panic.
The iconic wheel-shaped chocolate biscuit was launched in Britain 70 years ago.
I do know what a Wagon Wheel is.
Hurrah! Have I made one before? No.
I have absolutely no clue what these are.
To make them, the bakers have all been given the same ingredients from Paul's pared-down recipe.
I've never made a Wagon Wheel in my life.
But, yeah, I love 'em, so let's go for it.
So, Paul, this is the first technical challenge.
Why have we got Wagon Wheels? I think there's many different elements to a Wagon Wheel that's quite tricky.
You've got that biscuit, which is crunchy, it's about getting the marshmallow right.
Not something that's rubbery, not something that pours out.
And then the chocolate coating must be nice and even over the top.
The chocolate should be firm enough to hold that marshmallow.
It's really beautiful.
The difficulty is putting all that together without panicking.
It's the Great British Bake Off, you've got to test 'em.
"For the biscuits, tip the flour, salt and butter into a bowl.
" Takes me back to my teacher days where I'm like, "Read the question, underline what they're looking for.
" I did OK at exams.
So, cool as a cucumber! Rub the butter into the flour I made a few mistakes this morning, so I'm hoping to not do that again, especially in the technical as well.
The first technical's always gonna be a tricky one.
Stir the sugar, vanilla paste, add the egg yolk I did something wrong already.
I didn't rub the butter into the flour.
But we just got to go on with it.
Have you made these before? I've eaten lots of them, never made them.
There's a few people here who've never even heard of them, so you're ahead of the game.
I've never had one.
Really? You've never had a Wagon Wheel? No, darling.
What? Have you even lived? No Wagon Wheels? Uh, I I'll be honest with you.
I was 55 before I tried a Pot Noodle.
Wellwell, what can you? It's possible I've missed out.
You can't come back from that.
I've missed out.
OK, so what do I do now? Bring the dough together.
It's important not to, sort of, knead it.
You'll lose that shortness in it.
Not mess with it too much.
Just need to get the jam on now.
Raspberries.
In you go.
Add the sugar and bring to the boil.
The jam you want it, you want to get some heat in there.
Get that jam cooking away, bubbling up to thicken a little bit.
It's not looking how I would like it to look.
It seems a little watery.
Right, what's next? Bit that scares me about this is the marshmallow.
Tip the sugar into a medium pan, add the glucose, the water I've never made marshmallow before.
Still, I'm hoping that Yeah, we'll see.
Look at me.
It's gonna be great.
See, look at that! Huh? Is that working? Wellno.
As soon as the sugar syrup reaches 120 degrees, remove from the heat.
A little off there yet.
I need it to cook, but it isn't.
My sugar isn't cooking.
So, there we are, you see? It's starting to get syrupy.
I'm just following the recipe and it's going OK.
You've got to be kidding me.
I did something stupidly wrong, yeah.
I just need water.
Whisk the egg white in the bowl of the stand mixer until firm.
Pour the sugar syrup over the egg whites.
You want to pour it down the side and it magically turns into fluffy marshmallow.
Well, that's what's hopefully gonna happen.
Ah, pretty good.
Happy with the marshmallow.
Bakers, that is one hour gone.
On a lightly floured surface, roll out the biscuit dough.
Cut out 16 seven-centimetre circles from the dough.
They were much larger in my day You were smaller.
.
.
and then they got smaller.
No, you were smaller.
And now they're smaller Yeah, that's probably, you're probably right.
You were small, it looked big.
The whole world still looks big to me.
I wish I was still small, things would look bigger and then You're like a giant amongst men to me.
Aw, thank you.
Oh, no, it just says, ".
.
and then bake.
" Going in, guys.
On 160 for I don't know how long.
Let's say 12 minutes.
I'll keep a little beady eye on those.
I am really battling time.
Come on, biscuits.
I see them gently cooking.
That's going in.
I'm falling behind now, I need to run, run, run, run, run.
OK, I think I'm gonna take them out.
Looks pretty good.
They're looking tanned.
They're cooked and they're circular.
Just gonna need them to chill a bit before I put the chocolate on them.
Cos otherwise the chocolate will just slide off.
The chocolate's my worry.
Having the disaster this morning with chocolate.
Why you doing that? I'm just trying to cool the chocolate a little It's because you're French, isn't it? You like to sort of No, no! It's the French way of stirring.
The English people are all doing this.
"To assemble, spread some of the melted chocolate over the base of eight of the biscuits.
" Just trying to make them as beautiful as possible.
Trying to get a nice smooth finish on it.
My hands are starting to shake.
Right, just get those in the freezer.
Bakers, you have 30 biscuit baking minutes left.
Come on, come on.
Pipe the marshmallow over the remaining eight biscuits.
Trying not to pipe too close to the edge, because I know when they sandwich, I don't want, like, serious spillage.
Oh, dear.
Marshmallow's over set.
My piping bag's split because it's so thick.
All right.
I need to assemble.
It's been a while since I've had a Wagon Wheel, so I can't remember how much jam is in them.
Sandwich the biscuits together.
Coat the biscuits with the remaining chocolate.
It's quite vague, innit, this? Yeah.
You know why, don't you? Yeah.
Paul.
Yeah, I know, he's a so-and-so.
He don't give much away.
I'm trying to figure out how to do full coverage.
This is the stage I'm really unsure about.
Just gonna do it like this.
Dear, dear, dear.
It's gonna be shabby.
I'm gonna go for a full coverage.
Cannot get the chocolate to come around the side.
So annoying.
I think it's coated all the way through.
Just doesn't want to flood that gap.
Desperate measures.
I need this to be a sprint finish.
All coveredperfect.
Put them in the freezer I think just to chill quickly.
Gives those a couple of minutes and see how we get on.
It's not doing it for me.
Disaster.
How long we got to go? Bakers, you have one minute.
What? Run, run like the wind.
Oh, sugar plum fairies.
Proper disaster.
Horrendous.
Right, bakers, that's it.
Your time is up.
Boom.
First technical done.
Please bring your Wagon Wheels to the gingham table and place them behind your own visage.
Paul and Prue are expecting eight identical Wagon Wheels with two crunchy biscuits sandwiching fluffy marshmallow and tart raspberry jam, coated in smooth chocolate.
And they'll have no idea whose is whose.
Right, shall we start over here, Prue? OK.
They are all coated.
They're all coated.
Let's have a look inside.
It's rather good.
Actually, it's pretty good.
The biscuit's got a bit of crunch to it, the marshmallow's silky and they're all equal.
Moving on.
Now these haven't quite set, and obviously, there was an issue because the chocolate's not gonna bond with the bottom.
It's a time question.
If we left it, they'd be glued to the plate.
OK, what has happened? Big rush job, this one.
I'm not sure that counts as a Wagon Wheel.
I think this is also going to be a timing issue.
It's totally detached from the bottom.
Yeah.
Moving on.
It's neat, biscuit's nice and crunchy, nice depth of biscuit.
Good taste.
Good texture.
That's very good.
It's a bit rough but it is set.
It's been spread rather than poured or dipped.
And the marshmallow's good.
We wanted the sides covered.
I think it's probably a bit too much marshmallow.
That's what happens if you don't cover the chocolate.
These are very good.
Nice and smooth.
I think this is the best-looking we've seen.
Holds together well.
Nice and tart, the jam, smooth marshmallow.
Very good.
OK.
There's a lot of chocolate on that.
Is this for a chocoholic? Wow.
If you were a kid, you'd be delighted.
I am quite delighted! OK.
They are set.
Very little marshmallow.
Feels quite rubbery.
Right, never sealed up the marshmallow around the side.
Not quite set.
This is the messiest job.
This is not a job.
This one looks good.
Got almost that Wagon Wheel look to it on the top.
Cuts well, biscuit nice and deep.
Nice, thick layer of marshmallow.
That is really clever.
It's very good.
Prue and Paul have made their decision.
In 12th, we have this one.
Who's that? Antony.
It wasn't finished, no coating on the edge.
Disaster.
In 11th position, we have this one.
Whose is this? Bit of a rush and you ran out of time.
Kim-Joy is tenth, Terry ninth, Luke eighth, Rahul seventh, Karen sixth, Jon fifth and Dan is fourth.
In third position, we have this one.
Whose is this? Very well done.
Have you seen these before? Chocolate's excellent, nice and smooth.
Yeah, I think it's a great job.
Thank you.
In second position we have this one, who is that? Briony, they are absolutely delicious, they're the right thickness.
They're a really good Wagon Wheel.
Thank you.
So, in first position, we have this one.
Lovely shine on the chocolate, nice and smooth, marshmallow is good.
That's a nice Wagon Wheel, well done.
Thank God.
I was feeling pretty rubbish this morning, so yeah, really happy about that.
It was such a high at the start of the day and now second last, that's pretty crap.
A little deflated.
Tomorrow I need to pull back something from a disastrous day.
Really lucky, had no idea what was a Wheelie Wagon.
What is it called? Wagon Wheel? Wagon Wheel.
One challenge remains before someone is crowned this week's star baker and another becomes the first to leave the Bake Off tent.
Morning, bakers.
Welcome to your very first Showstopper Challenge.
Today, Prue and Paul would like you to make a spectacular biscuit selfie portrait Honestly, not words I ever thought I'd say in the same sentence.
Your selfie should be constructed from layers of decorated biscuits and sandwiched together with fillings of your choice.
Your portrait needs to be of you somewhere memorable.
You've got four hours to complete your Showstopper Challenge.
On your marks Get set Bake! Right.
This Showstopper is a fiendish test of our bakers' biscuit-making ability.
Not only must they engineer a giant biscuit canvas, but also make multiple intricate elements to bring their portraits to life.
This is the first opportunity these bakers have had of showing us artistry, skill, imagination.
We want the selfie to be built up with layers of biscuits because we want some depth to it.
We want a proper portrait displayed on an easel, so obviously, the biscuit sliding is the big problem.
They could use caramel, they could use royal icing.
They're the perfect things to bond with biscuit and withstand the force of gravity.
Importantly, we don't want style over substance.
If they don't taste like the most beautiful biscuits you've ever eaten, they're not going to get anywhere.
It is a monumental challenge.
A lot of time pressure, and after falling victim to that yesterday, I don't want to be in the same position today.
I need to be at the top of my game.
Famous last words.
As well as a dough that results in biscuits sturdy enough to construct a 3D work of art My biscuit dough is a bit of a shortbread texture, but it's got to be a little bit firmer because it's got to hold it up.
.
.
it must also deliver exquisite flavours.
I'm making a cinnamon and orange biscuit.
I really like cinnamon and orange.
They go well togetherand I wish I hadn't done so many oranges.
This is really hurting my arm now.
Featuring a lemon curd sun and buttercream choppy seas, Jon's selfie was inspired by a family sailing trip.
We had a lovely, placid journey over to Tenby.
Force six storm in the middle of it.
I thought it was idyllic sailing conditions, but my wife thought otherwise.
Hence coming back on the train.
Back on dry land My biscuit selfie is, what a shocker, me in Bristol.
Briony will showcase her hometown's landmarks in lemon and poppy seed biscuit.
You've practised it? Yes, I did it in, like, four and a half hours, but that was with my daughter and my dog around, so I think It's the same thing.
You've got me, Prue I'm the dog.
Good luck, Briony.
Thank you very much, thank you.
If I'm gonna be your dog, what kind of dog have you got? A Cockapoo.
A Cockapoo.
OK.
Cos, you know, I'm a method actor, so I need to know.
For his selfie, Rahul's heading down memory lane.
First time when I came to UK, I went for a walk.
It was lovely, everything was green, flowers were coming out.
So this is basically on that memory.
To recreate his springtime stroll in gingerbread, he's got a detailed blueprint.
These are the trees and the canal and the bridge, and then it's me.
I got about 23 pieces.
It is very, very ambitious design.
But with a triple-layered 40-biscuit design, Ruby's taking ambitious to the next level.
My portrait is me finishing the London Marathon.
Decorated with numerous toppings, her marathon selfie involves a marathon to-do list.
I'm not gonna tell them this.
I have never finished it in time.
I've never even finished it.
Let's hope that's not the case today.
I am just rolling out my dough, starting with the the base biscuits, because they take the longest to cook.
OK, let's go.
Getting the giant biscuit canvas baked early is critical.
So I've done four of these squares.
That'll be the background and everything'll be stuck to that.
The longer it takes, the less precious oven time they'll have for their smaller biscuits.
This is cherry blossom trees.
They are my glasses.
These are the waves.
Just come to check on you.
Just very sweaty at the moment.
You were sweaty yesterday.
Is that a thing for you? Yeah.
Mr Sweaty? I'm always Mr Sweaty.
I don't know if that makes me more attracted or less.
I'm gonna go with less, Jon.
Stand next to me, you'll always look less sweaty.
Aah, there's so many pieces! Shattered.
I love the mountains, so I climbed Kilimanjaro.
The selfie itself is right on top of the peak.
Antony's ascent of Africa's highest mountain will be realised with royal icing and biscuits flavoured with local spices.
Ginger and cinnamon, you will get that bang on as soon as you put a cookie in your mouth.
Like Antony, half the bakers are basing their selfies on trips abroad.
It's set in my favourite place, which is in France.
We've got a holiday home there.
Karen's doubling down with two flavours that often divide opinion.
Rosewater and cardamom together? Yes.
I can see the eyes rolling.
No, I absolutely think that is a wonderful flavour combination, I really do, as long as the rosewater isn't overpowering.
This is the trouble, isn't it? It's all the balance.
Good luck.
Thank you.
I'm gonna moonwalk away from you now.
See ya! This is gonna be Palm Springs.
Me and my husband actually had our kids, uh, with the help of a surrogate in California.
So we stayed in Palm Springs for a month just getting to know our kids and it was just amazing.
It just was the best moment in my life.
Don't tell my husband that.
Dan's journey into fatherhood, featuring his first-born, will be made with almond sugar cookies.
When it's all decorated with royal icing, it's gonna be me holding a baby.
Luke's also heading stateside, but his trip was strictly adults-only.
I went to Las Vegas with my friends a few years ago.
We basically went on a bit of a mad night out.
The inspiration, that's where it came from, a bit of a drunken night out with my friends on holiday in Vegas.
He'll be flavouring his biscuit Sin City with orange zest and cinnamon.
For some reason I associate cinnamon with America, so I thought I'd try and keep the flavours, sort of paying homage to America, if you like.
Going in.
Pop these in for eight minutes.
Those are my little eyeballs.
Bye-bye, good luck.
Those are all the glacier mints.
They should melt in the oven, so it's gonna create glass bits.
Stressed.
Just feel like I won't have enough time.
But maybe I'm panicking, I don't know.
Buttercream next.
I'm making the royal icing.
This is just gonna make a right old royal mess.
Gin time, it's gin o'clock.
This is my flour buttercream.
This should be like a thick custard.
It's just not right.
Ohhhh! Scramble your eggs in your lemon curd.
I'm gonna try and salvage it.
So we have some matcha, which is, like, Japanese green tea.
I went to Japan last year, so this is a picture of me in front of the Mount Fuji.
Not only will Manon use matcha ganache to bond her biscuits, but also to decorate them.
I just want to carry on what I've started and just finish on a good day.
Mmm, yep.
Good.
She's not the only one taken with the land of the rising sun.
It's a portrait of me at Miyajima shrine in Japan.
I was there at sunset.
It was really peaceful.
To offset her tranquil backdrop, Kim-Joy is flavouring with a trio of punchy spices.
The ginger tends to come through a bit more than the cinnamon.
It's quite strong on ginger, I hope.
Got to do the time call.
Time call, time call.
We've got to do the time call.
Bakers, we're halfway through! OK, your serve.
Is that my alarm? So, these babies are coming out.
That bad boy's going in.
They still look pretty anaemic.
Yesterday I slightly underbaked my biscuits, so I'll risk them being a little brown, just to make sure that they're definitely baked.
To add depth to their selfies, most bakers are making robust biscuits which they'll layer on top of each other.
Yeah, they're looking good, actually.
Terry is taking a very different approach.
We're doing a brandy snap biscuit.
I'm using it because of its qualities as a mouldable material.
When it comes out of the oven it's still quite liquid, but you have got a very small window to play with it.
This is just a three-dimensional surgical plaster face cast.
It will cool very quickly when it hits the mould.
After a disappointing first day in the tent, Terry's summoning all his artistic talents.
So you're using the brandy snap as your main feature and then the background is using what, exactly? It will all be brandy snap, laminated with raspberry jam and flour buttercream, mixed into three primary colours and then I'll just paint a picture.
Sit and do what I do well.
I am not arty at all.
I'm hoping I'll be able to argue with Prue and Paul that yeah, it actually does look like me.
Imelda's celebrating a fun day out in Mayo with lemon and ginger biscuit.
It's an opportune moment for you to come along.
How's it going? Horrendous.
Oh, really? What? It's burnt.
No, darling, it just looks, umcolourful.
Not the look I was going for.
I'm stressed.
One hour to go.
Oh, dear, dear, dear, dear.
We are way behind.
Right, let's make some magic.
I am sticking backboard biscuits to the backboard.
This is just like royal icing to glue the big biscuit.
And then there's gonna be other biscuits which are raised on the other biscuits.
So, building and building it.
This is my mountain.
It's overbaked.
I just hope I can decorate it enough so that they don't realise.
Oh.
Oh, my goodness.
But you know Paul and Prue, they're gonna know.
They'll know to look at it.
Oh, that one's gone.
Just working on the buttercream.
I need to start assembling.
I amlate.
I am using caramel because I think it'll be a firm bond.
I just hope it stays together now.
I've got a lot of worries about this slipping.
If I had a couple of days for it to set, I'd be a lot happier.
Looking around, people are making some decent progress.
I think I've shot myself in the foot a little bit.
Way too over-adventurous.
If I get this done, it's gonna be an absolute miracle.
So this is a matcha ganache.
So the buttercream is gonna become, like, the sky and the mountains and some foliage.
It's so time-consuming cos there's so much biscuit to ice.
Some bits are a bit scruffier than I'd want.
Can I have a piece of your biscuit? I know what you're gonna say, you're choking, right? Oh, ow! Took your tooth out? Yep.
No, it's delicious.
I'm about to do the sky.
I'm doing it like a painting, basically.
I'm like a mad artist when I get to this bit.
It's different every single time.
I think it depends on my mood.
Oh, I've had some severe breakages.
Oh! Bakers, you have half an hour left.
I think the next thing to do is get me on the board.
I can start my painting now.
Just making my skin colour.
I've got my large hooter there, which I've always been very proud of.
Ah, I look like the Joker.
Stop panicking, stop panicking! Wow, look at you.
You look a bit like Bjork in that picture.
That's all right.
You do have a bit of a Bjorkness to you.
Has anyone ever said that? No.
Someone told me I looked like Michael McIntyre once, though.
All my biscuits are cut out now, but doing my marshmallow fondant is a real messy business.
Oh! Oh, my God.
This looks like a horrendous mess, but I'm hoping it's gonna come together.
I'm starting to panic, like, I've got some sort of shake on.
This is, like, a grassy bit.
Here's me holding a baby.
My hands! That's beautiful.
Hey, Ruby.
You OK? I'm losing it, Noel.
I know, you look a bit frantic.
The face is coming now.
Oh, no, it's cracking.
Bakers, you have one minute, just one minute.
Ohhh! Fondant.
Genius.
Burst pipe.
Oh, Rubes.
Bakers, your time is up! Dear God.
That's the end of your Showstopper challenge.
Oh, my goodness.
Please put your selfies at the end of your workstations.
I just ran seriously out of time.
They're gonna judge it on biscuit, right? Yeah.
What are you holding? A baby.
Oh, I thought it was something else.
Dan, please bring up your biscuit selfie.
Artistically, it's great, colourful, three dimensional.
I question the baby though.
It looks like a massive prawn.
I think the colours are fantastic.
The palm trees are definitely swaying in the wind.
You can feel the heat.
Certainly get the passion fruit.
I get the almond in there as well.
It's delicious, the blend between the two.
It's a nice biscuit.
The biscuit is excellent.
Phew! You've done a great job.
I think it's amazing.
You can see immediately it's sunset.
I think you've done a really great job.
The colours are really well balanced.
Could do with a tiny bit more spice.
I thought so, yes.
But it's very nice.
It has a Vegas feel about it.
I love the depth.
It's not very often you get cinnamon and orange together and it works.
I think the biscuit's a bit underbaked.
The biscuit is a bit soft.
Very neat, very precise.
You can see it's you.
Well, it's certainly gingerbread.
You've got a gorgeous balance between the cinnamon and the ginger.
Really good.
There's some lumpy lemon curd there.
Yeah, it went slightly wrong.
Lumpy sun.
Got a little bit overcooked.
The flavours are absolutely lovely.
I love that chocolate with that orange and cinnamon and that biscuit is spectacular.
Rahul, would you like to bring up your biscuit selfie, please? Well, you've certainly succeeded with this explosion of the English spring and I'm fascinated by your portrait.
Where's the stubble on the face? Oh, that was like 7.
5 years ago.
I was clean-shaved at the time.
So, I'm taking it back.
I think it's definitely recognisable.
Nice and short, isn't it? Hmm.
The ginger comes through beautifully in a well-baked biscuit.
That, with the design that you've done, even your little chubby face, it's fantastic.
I think you've done a great job.
Well done.
Well done.
Thank you.
Thanks a lot, cheers.
You look like a cross between Dame Edna and Su Pollard.
That's been said a few times.
Oh, really? Yes.
Oh, right! Can't get the rosewater.
Really? You get the cardamom a little bit but very little, you definitely can't get the rosewater.
Got scared with the bottle and obviously didn't put enough in.
It's a shame cos it looks great, but you expect a bit more A bit more oomph to it.
.
.
more kick to it, you know.
Yeah, yeah.
It's quite simple.
I'm trying to recognise you in that picture.
I suppose you could say, yeah, it is.
You can't eat her! He's just going to chop your head off now.
Paul, it looks like you enjoyed that a bit too much.
The biscuit's a little bland.
Quite thick and a little dry.
It's a bit like a stale shortbread.
You get the lemon, you say ginger as well? Hm.
Definitely not getting the ginger.
OK.
Thank you.
Thank you.
I can see what you were trying to do.
Yeah, was too ambitious.
I think it's too much.
All that work has meant that you didn't finish yourself Yeah.
.
.
and this is supposed to be a selfie and it's supposed to be recognisable and I don't think it quite is.
OK, let's try this biscuit now.
It's cinnamon and ginger.
Yeah.
It's a strange taste of ginger.
Youyou do get the cinnamon and it's almost like they're fighting each other for supremacy.
Right.
The biscuit's a bit soft.
A little bit dry.
Oh, you guys.
It's not the best ginger biscuit I've ever eaten.
It's a shame you didn't finish it.
Yeah.
Brutal.
I love the colours on it and your portrait really works as well.
I love the balloons.
Can we eat a balloon? Yeah, please do.
Nice thin icing.
I like that.
I'd like to have had more flavour in there.
OK.
It's a nice biscuit - just needed more of a punch.
OK.
That's good.
Excellent! Thank you.
So detailed and so neat.
It's just exquisite.
I was nervous that the matcha would be overpowering but it's not at all, it's just a hint.
Hm.
Wow.
The biscuit is delicious, but the balance of flavours and textures, I think you've done I think you've done an amazing job.
Well done.
Really good.
Thank you, Manon.
Terry, please bring up your biscuit selfie.
Ingenious.
Oh! I think your face is brilliant.
I've got chocolate, brandy snap, buttercream and jam.
It's absolutely delicious.
Lovely.
It's quite tricky to work with brandy snap in that sort of size, but to manage to get that 3D mould of your face and then the colour in there as well.
I think the whole thing is very clever.
Well done, Terry.
Well done.
Thank you, Paul.
Thank you.
Congratulations.
Well done, Terry.
The comments were much better than I would have hoped for, to be honest, um, or expected.
If I've done enough, it's a scrape through.
That's two pretty poor bakes.
Even though I've done my best, I feel like I've just let myself down.
I feel like I'm just back at the bottom again.
I'm just hoping they can kind of see that whatever happens, this week was just first week nerves.
I'm Yeah.
Hoping for a bit of a miracle.
Paul and Pru, must now decide who will be our Star Baker, and who will be the first to leave the tent.
What a fantastic dozen we've got! Aren't they amazing? Feel like we've got to know them quicker this time.
Maybe that's just cos we've got their portraits in front of us.
So who's rising towards the top? Manon.
The style of her baking, it's very classically French in many ways.
Yes.
Everything's precision.
It's just completely wonderful.
I think Briony's really impressed me this weekend, a proper, solid Showstopper.
She's definitely in line for Star Baker as well.
And who's struggling? Coming into today, Terry was in trouble.
And then he sort of pulled a rabbit out of a hat, didn't he? That brandy snap was like an impressionist painting.
Has he done enough to save himself over the three challenges, not just the one? Imelda, she struggled in the technical.
Terrible technical.
I think today the biscuit wasn't good.
I think she had a lot to prove and I think the pressure got to her.
Ruby, first in the technical, but her other two were really not good.
This one, she didn't finish.
I think what's astonishing is we've just met these 12 and I would already be sorry to lose any of them.
Yeah.
No, agreed.
Now, I have the pleasure of announcing the first Star Baker, the Star Baker who had a wonderfully nutty first round and whose attention to detail was unbelievable.
The Star Baker is .
.
Manon.
So that means it falls to me to deliver the sad news.
The person going home is .
.
Imelda.
Aww.
I'm so sorry.
You did a great job.
Oh, Lord.
OK.
OK? Yes.
You all right? I'm so sorry.
That must've been, like, the tightest call ever.
I'm so sorry.
Frustrated, because I know I can do better but, at the same time, one of the best experiences of my life.
I'm sorry, Prue.
I can do so much better than that.
I feel really bad, because part of me feels like it probably should've been me.
You were very lucky.
I know, I know.
But I'm, like, completely relieved.
Terry, well done.
Week one done.
Kick up the backside, I guess, and so I've got to pull my socks up.
Yes! We're through, we're through to next week! It's been the most awesome, intense, terrifying, wonderful weekend, and I'm really excited that I get to do it again.
Excellent work.
Thank you.
Excellent.
Thank you very much.
More of the same, please.
Papa.
PHONE: Oui? Congratulations.
A dream start.
We'll see what comes next.
Next time, it's cake week Ruby's stealing my ideas.
Whoa! Whoa, whoa.
.
.
kicking off with a signature tray bake I really hope they taste OK.
So do I, cos they look hideous.
.
.
the technical that turns the bakers green OK, yeah, that's the weirdest thing I've ever done for a cake.
.
.
and as the temperature rises It hasn't set.
.
.
an ambitious Showstopper gets them hot under the collar.
Whoa! Paul and Prue will be saying, "I thought this was Art Deco.
" More like art nightmare.