It’s pastry week so cue the first references to soggy bottoms and thick pastry.
For some reason Mary Berry objects to thick pastry, which is half the point of a good pie.
Bakers started the day with a signature custard tart.
Brighton mum Kate Henry sounded confident: “I love custard tarts.
“I always make custard tart on its own but I’m jazzing it up a bit.
“She went for rhubarb and custard tart with a rosemary pastry.
Kate knelt by the oven, concerned her custard was not setting.
After helping Martha remove her tart from its tin, Kate’s creation was ready.
Paul Hollywood’s verdict? “It’s custard. Your taste buds are picking up the tang but not the flavour of rhubarb.”
Mary was better, “It’s beautiful pastry and well decorated,” she said.
The technical challenge of mini pear pies has Kate exhaling at the prospect.
It was a challenge to test bakers’ timing.
Looking at the ingredients Kate opted to make a rough puff pastry.
It all took much longer than she thought to wrap her pears in the very thin pastry.
“I’m going for 15 minutes and whacking up the oven,” she concluded.
They came out brown, which is half the battle.
Paul said: “This ones got a bit of colour, the pear could have done with a bit longer.”
Mary said: “It’s got a good swirl and after tasting, it’s acceptable.”
It was enough to put Kate into third place out of six.
Another solid performance in the first two rounds.
Once again Paul considered her a prospective star baker as her custard was great.
To finish a show-stopper self-supporting tiered pie.
Kate went for a three-tiered hot water crust pastry as it is strong and self supporting.
“I love a hot water crust pastry, it’s such a nice pastry to work with,” she said.
Her filling was pork, prune and rhubarb creating a pie she loves at home.
Paul praised the colour, look and shape of the three pies decorated with flowers.
“Very good, I like the texture and the flavour, too”
“That’s a great looking pie that,” Paul added.
“The pastry has a great texture,” Mary said.
It was a consistent good bake across all three pies.
Kate was in her comfort zone and came through with the hot crust.
Mary and Paul put her up with Nancy in contention for star baker.
Kate has performed consistently better than Nancy over the past four weeks and it was enough to secure the crown.
As Sue Perkins said: “Our star baker is a long time bridesmaid, but never the bride.”
It was a wonderful moment for Kate who said it was a “shivers down the spine moment”.
Next week European cakes and a step closer to the final for Kate.
Grand Betisier is worth watching