The Great British Baking Show Season 14 Episode 9 Recap: The Semi Final
We’ve reached patisserie week, also known as The Great British Baking Show Season 14 Episode 9, “The Semi Final.”
On this week, the bakers need to bake a fancy French signature, create a humble apple tart, and face a puff pastry show stopper. And with spots in the finals on the line, every decision matters!
Signature Challenge: Financiers
The signature challenge this week is financiers.
While financiers are generally a really simple looking sponge, this is the semi-final of The Great British Baking Show and so, they’re given two hours to make two batches of 12 financiers.
The bakers’ financiers need to be highly decorated and look like they’ve come from the window of a Parisian shop and walk the line of being moist and light. Generally, they need to be moist, elegant, and taste great.
Dan creates a pistachio and matcha and orange and vanilla. Paul is not happy with the introduction of matcha to the financiers, because he is not a fan of the flavor at all. It leads to an interesting conversation with Noel.
Noel: Not only are you trying to win this but you’re trying to break Paul Hollywood.
Dan: Well he’s done a good job of breaking me, so I’m trying to fight back.
Meanwhile, Josh is going back to classic flavors. The first being inspired by a Bakewell flavored and the other will be chocolate, hazelnut, and orange.
Matty is working on a tiramisu-inspired financier and contrasted it with a coconut, mango, and lime financier. Prue and Paul are excited for the two contrasting flavors.
At Tasha’s table, she’s looking for redemption after her poor performance during The Great British Baking Show Season 14 Episode 8, “Party Week.” Tasha is going for hazelnut and coffee and rasberry and pistachio.
The tent is tense during this challenge as everyone pipes and bakes their financiers. There’s some apprehension as everyone walks the fine line of how long to bake their sponges and prepare their toppings.
As the bakers work on their decorations there’s a lot of reflection on how far the bakers have come. Matty and Noel chat for a second about how his piping has gone from “not to good” to “less bad.”
On the other hand, Tasha is contending with curdled buttercream and Dan’s mousse is lumpy.
And soon, it’s time for judging.
First up is Matty. Paul praises how uniform his financiers look, and the coffee flavor is very strong. However, it’s overbaked. The mango, lime, and coconut flavor is better. Prue and Paul suggest that next time, he uses less batter to get a better ratio of cake to topping.
Next up is Tasha. While her financiers look great at first glance, Prue says that when you look closer it looks like she dropped one or two of them. It’s almost of echo of Paul saying, “Did you sit on it,” during the vertical layer cake challenge.
Paul calls the coffee and hazelnut “absolutely delicious.” However, her pistachio and raspberry is slightly overbaked, a sign that she should have taken the sponge out sooner.
Josh’s financiers are next. His Bakewell-inspired financiers have too much almond essence, which the judges find overwhelming. The hazelnut and chocolate is delicious, but the financier is slightly dry.
Last is Dan, and his matcha financiers. Prue and Paul say they look beautiful. They start with the matcha-inspired one first and Paul loves the way the flavors work together. Shock! His peach, orange, and raspberry financiers earn him a Hollywood Handshake.
Meaning all semi-finalists have now gotten a handshake.
Technical Challenge: Apple Tart
Up next is the technical challenge! For this week’s technical challenge is set by Prue, and it’s a humble apple tart in two and a half hours.
However, remember it is The Great British Baking Show, so while they can’t go wrong with the flavor, they’re going to be looking for exquisite presenation and perfectly baked pastry.
Prue mentions that the biggest challenge is going to be baking it three times to make sure the layers all set together. The bakers will also need to make the apples thin enough so that they are evenly baked and they look polished.
As an added test, the frangipane also calls for brandy. Prue hasn’t told them how much to do in the recipe and so the bakers are going to have to guess how much they can put in safely.
As the bakers start rolling out their dough Tasha notes that her dough is really crumbly. More concern comes with the instruction to arrange apple slices in a “concentric circle.”
The final results very in presentation as a result.
Soon, it’s time for the judging.
Dan’s tarte looks clumsy and the frangipane isn’t strong. Matty’s is very neat and beautifully arranged, but the pastry could have used a bit longer in the oven. Tasha’s tarte is classified as a “disaster” with an underbaked pastry. Josh’s tart has a bit of a split, but his pastry is baked well and it presents well.
Paul and Prue then rank the tarts. Tasha comes in fourth. Third is Dan. Second is Matty. First is Josh. This is Josh’s first time taking first place in technical.
Showstopper Challenge: Millefoglie
The last challenge asks the bakers to make a millefoglie in four and a half hours. For this pastry, they are looking for four layers of proper puff pastry, which means the lamination is the biggest concern.
And there is no hiding, cos the layers are on display for everyone to see.
Dan is making a millefoglie inspired by tiramisu, in the shape of an electric guitar.
Tasha is working on a mint and mango millefleur and she’s doing inverse puff pastry where she encases the pastry in butter instead. Early on, this method proves to be more time consuming, putting her behind on her first inverse fold.
Matty has gone all-in with a boozy millefleur that involves limoncello, masala, and amaretto. The overall look will be a three-tiered wedding cake inspired shape with a mix of liquers and fruit flavors.
Josh is doing another tribute to his Nan with lemon, blackberry, and blackcurrant. He’s going for a yellow, purple, and pink color scheme reminiscent of the colors he associated with her a lot.
As everyone starts progressing through the showstopper challenge, Tasha cuts into her pastry to begin baking and realizes there are no layers in her dough. Noel encourages her to bake it anyway to see if something miraculous might happen in the oven.
The bakers are all working hard on their curds, and Tasha’s pastry does eventually materialize with layers.
Noel: See, I told you weird stuff happens in the oven. We don’t know what’s happening in there. It’s a box with heat.
There’s a manic rush as all the bakers work on their decorations and soon time is called with Tasha just barely making it over the finish line.
Showstopper Judging
The millefoglie will now be scrutinized by Paul and Prue.
Josh is up first. His millefoglie presents beautifully and Paul loves that his pastry is flat and not dipping and Prue says she “want(s) to clap.” The only criticism that Paul had was that the pastry was slightly overbaked by just a few minutes.
Dan’s guitar-shaped millefoglie is next. Paul comments that there’s a bit of a squeeze on his layers cos the chocolate is heavier than his cream and he should have flipped them. Dan acknowledges that he realized this the second he stacked his layers.
Overall, Prue and Paul love Dan’s flavors and think he was successful in achieving the tiramisu-like feel. However, Prue was not a fan of his mirror glaze, finding it a little too rubbery.
Matty’s three-layer confection is up next and definitely presents like a showstopper. Prue notes that Matty made a small mistake in using a cake tin to cut the pastry.
Paul comes right out and says that he does not like Matty’s puff pastry because it’s too rubbery and it should have been flakier. Otherwise, his flavors were on point.
Last is Tasha’s millefoglie. Immediately, Paul comments on her strong pipework but notes that the overall look of the cake is not square. She explains that she had to get her pastry cool as quickly as possible before Paul mentions that the lamination was really good.
However, her mango curd ends up being really lumpy, unlike her other two which took her down a few notches.
Elimination
Going into the elimination the bakers are all tense. It feels like anyone could go home. It’s Josh and Dan in line for Star Baker leaving Matty and Tasha on the chopping block. Prue and Paul go in for another taste test before the final results.
Noel announces the Star Baker for the week, and it’s Josh. This is Josh’s second Star Baker award, and it was well-deserved.
Since Alison is absent this week, Noel also has to deliver the bad news. Tasha is going home this week. While it’s clear why Tasha is going home, it’s also sad that this happened to be her birthday.
Thankfully, Tasha understands that even though her journey on this show has come to an end, she’s made friends for life in the tent.
Plus, they’ll all be together again for the finals next week anyway.
There are tearful goodbyes and hugs as they say goodbye and celebrate being in the final. Josh is especially emotional.
Josh: I can’t believe it at all. Star Baker semi final that is, I think, incredible. The final, my nan would be so happy. She would have come down next week as well, so yea, really chuffed.
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Lauren Busser
Lauren Busser is an Associate Editor at Tell-Tale TV. She is a writer of fiction and nonfiction whose work has appeared in Bitch Media, Popshot Quarterly, Brain Mill Press Voices, and The Hartford Courant.