Recap of Great British Baking Show Episode 4: “Caramel Week”

This episode will be the most controversial episode in Britain. It will tear families apart like Brexit. It will create a tabloid sensation like Meghan Markle. It will send Twitter into a frenzy like the dreaded Mexican Week. Yes, I’m talking about my imaginary lover Dylan’s hat, which looks like something out of a high school production of Oliver exclamation mark. What kind of hat is that anyway? Is it a Billy Bathgate or something? Is it a Great Gatsby? What do I call it? It’s a bit chubby and incredibly attractive at the same time. Should we call it Lizzo? Dylan has it all: a cute outfit with baggy pants, a standout top that’s just the right amount of louche, and a face that never refuses. So what does he do? Plus a chapeau with the inscription “Oh no!” but alternatively: “Oh yes!”

Wait, this show is about baking? It’s not about hats? Should I talk about the challenges? OK, good. It’s caramel week, which means there’s a lot of sugar breaking, coagulating and burning in the tent. The special challenge is making a “caramel cookie,” and many bakers opt for a Millionaire’s Shortbread. This is basically a Twix bar: shortbread cookie, caramel on top, covered in chocolate. If you’re looking for a Twix in an English supermarket, go for the biscuits and not the chocolate bars. These people have no idea how to classify food.

That’s quite a challenge, although most bakers make giant treats that look like a complete dessert rather than a “cookie” that can be dipped in tea or eaten one at a time. Christiaan’s is most similar to cookies because he makes stroopwaffles, a Dutch treat you can buy at most Starbucks that will definitely piss off your dentist. Luckily he didn’t screw it up, and both Paul and Prue love that he added a layer of praline crunch to the usual treat. A way to make your nation proud.

I was particularly proud of Andy’s, which looked like absolutely perfect Twix bars, but a little chunkier, a little smoother, and (dare I say it) a little more gourmet. You’d expect to order one of these at a fancy restaurant in Brooklyn that would put its own spin on Twix. The judges loved them, but not as much as Georgie’s, which was basically the same thing except with peanuts and nougat. Paul wanted to shake her hand, but then pulled away because some of her cookies broke when they were taken out of the molds. Paul loves to tease Georgie. If he does it again, she should be able to amputate that hand and keep it in her living room where she can shake it whenever he wants.

However, not all of them were great. Sumayah had a rare misfire, with hibiscus-flavored caramel that didn’t set – but still looked great. Mike makes chocolate orange millionaire shortbread, which is as English as putting peas in your tea. Paul doesn’t like that they’re a little too thick in the middle and tells Mike he should be more worried about his bulge. Hello, HR? We would like to open a ticket.

The technique involves making a tarte tatin, a French pastry-based dessert that is almost always made with apples. However, the bakers have to make it with pears. A pear tart tatin? What will they think about next? A banana pudding made from grapes? Light up! Again, this might be just as controversial as Dylan’s hat, but Tarte Tatin is trash. I can’t explain it, but it’s like a casserole posing as a dessert. Let the French keep it.

The bakers seem to really struggle with this, especially our dreamboat Nelly. As Noel and Andy play baseball with a ball of extra dough, Noel’s bat (a rolling pin) sends Nelly’s remaining caramel flying across the floor. While she does more, he vacuums up the glass container he broke. I don’t know if Nelly will love him so much now. Luckily it ends up in the middle of the group, among a lot of burnt or underbaked, too dark or too light tarte tatins. Ew. Gross. Nobody likes it anyway.

The trick is to bake a caramel mousse cake, but unfortunately none of them had antlers. Come on, guys. I thought this show was supposed to be weird. This is one of those super layered desserts that I’m not sure what it’s even supposed to be. I don’t think I’ve ever eaten a mousse cake, seen a mousse cake or smelled a mousse cake, but I love cake like Noel loves an original sweater.

The best of the bunch, at least visually, is Andy’s and he has a tree made of isomalt (a type of hardened caramel often used for decorations), especially on Bake Off: The Pros) with apple cotton candy for the leaves of the trees. His cake is essentially a banoffee pie, an English dessert made with bananas, caramel, cream and pastry. It’s okay. Prue absolutely hates the taste of apple, but it’s a good idea for Andy.

Sumayah bakes a deliberately banoffee-flavored cake and the decoration is inspired by Dale Chihuly, the worst thing to come out of Seattle since Stephen slapped Irene The real world Seattle. Everything he does looks exactly the same. Her cake looked amazing even though she brat– The colored mirror glaze looked sickly. It didn’t just look sick; It even stuck to the knife when Paul tried to cut it. Damn, I picked Sumayah for the final three. Why is she fumbling with the bag so late in the game?

Nelly tells a sweet story about how her cake was inspired by her husband, who believes in her even when she doesn’t believe in herself. After a disastrous technical situation (thanks Noel) and an equally bad signature, the chocolate cake and mousse combination saved her from going home. Thank God, because we need the comic relief.

Christiaan used isomalt to create a huge wave on his tropical themed cake and I was sure that along with his stroopwafels he might be the star baker, but the judges missed him once again. What does this guy have to do to get her attention? Does he need some (I’m sorry) Dutch courage? In fact, my darling Dylan is on the list of celebrity bakers whose cake is inspired by Amalfi lemons because he apparently spends too much time on TikTok, where everyone only posts about the Amalfi Coast. (It’s cool and all, but don’t Americans know there are more places in Italy?) Paul calls him the taste king, but he gets scolded because his cake is a little too small.

Georgie receives the same criticism for her beautiful red cake, which looks like the inside of a Chinese lacquer box and has a giant sugar rose on top. I don’t care if it’s small. If someone brought this to the table at my meeting, I would stand up and applaud. It’s a chocolate cake with a hazelnut praline mousse. Paul says it’s a good first draft and he wants to try the second, perfected version of the cake, which Georgie says she’ll never make again, especially not in four and a half hours. Still, this first draft is enough to win her the star spot for “Star Baker.”

Since Nelly manages to save herself, it’s clearly up to Sumayah and Mike, who bakes an espresso caramel popcorn cake inspired by his favorite cocktail at his local movie theater. He’s worried the judges might be upset that his mousse is split, but they don’t seem to notice. It could be because there weren’t enough of them. Paul says it’s more like a tiramisu cake (which in my opinion is the only dessert worse than tarte tatin) rather than a mousse cake. Then Mike got his train ticket back to the farm and we will never see him again. John was away last week and Mike this week; it seems like they’re after the gays. Christiaan should be more careful during pastry week… only then can he attract the attention of the judges.