Jessica's Bake Off Challenge

This apple cranberry pie is a double-crusted fruit pie, and thus satisfies the signature bake from The Great British Bake Off  Series 4, Episode 4. I made two of these pies for friends for Pi Day. Both seemed to enjoy the pie. It is not a particularly difficult pie to make, but can be slightly time-consuming between the preparation and the bake time. The first step is to prepare the crust. This is a slight variation to my standard shortcrust pastry- I add a tiny bit of sugar. The addition of vodka or rum helps the crust come out nicely flakey, since it adds liquid to help the dough roll nicely without activating gluten (which can make the crust leathery).  It is important to make sure the dough is cold before baking. Most recipes call for completely chilling the dough before rolling it out, but I personally find that it's extremely difficult to roll if it's too cold. I chill for about 15 minutes, roll it out, and then chill a further 20-30 minutes once in the pie dish. This pi...

Welcome back! This post and the next two posts will reflect challenges that I completed for Pi Day a month ago. Of course, Pi Day is my absolute favorite holiday of the year... And Vincent's and my anniversary. Yes, we did have wedding pie instead of cake. We usually have a Pi Day party every year. It didn't happen this year due to the pandemic. However, I did still manage to bake pies for a few local friends and neighbors. Today, I am sharing my experience baking Mary Berry's tarte au citron, the technical challenge from Series 2, Episode 2 of Great British Bake Off . Tarte au citron is just French for lemon tart. I absolutely love a good lemon tart, so I made this as one of the two pies for Vincent and me to keep. When I go back to a bake from one of the early series of GBBO , it is immediately evident that the show creators did not yet know how obscure or technically-difficult they could push the contestants. By my standards, this tarte au citron was incredibly simple. T...

 Wow. I have had quite a hiatus from this blog... from baking as a whole, really. My entire world has turned upside down since October 2019. I got pregnant shortly after that point, and my early pregnancy nausea and sensitivity to smells definitely caused me to cut back on my baking for a little while. Once I was over that, the pandemic started. As much as I love baking, I prefer not to bake when I cannot give the finished products away. Now I have a wonderful 6-month-old baby, who takes up all my time. I made some cookies the other day, and it took most of the day to bake and decorate them due to the fact that I had to keep stopping to take care of the baby. I still am not baking that much. It's too much that I cannot share easily, and it typically takes more time and/or energy than I have. I will, however, try to make something and post it every once in a while. We just might not have any massive showstoppers until I can invite some people over to partake. I did, however, bake a ...

Today I am going to share with you three of the random-ish bakes I did over the summer. All three were meant to fulfill Bake Off challenges... Except I didn't write down the recipes. Regardless, one was nearly a complete failure, and only one came out amazingly well. Therefore, it is no loss that I shall have to try to recreate them, and in one case, very much improve on it. I will try not to distress you too much, dear readers, so I will start with the bake in the middle of the pack... a white peach and raspberry pie. This bake was meant to fulfill the double-crusted fruit pie signature challenge from Series 4, Episode 4. I was very excited about this pie because I love white peaches. They are only available during summer months, so I went a little crazy with them for a while. For the double-crusted white peach raspberry pie, the fruit is mixed with white and brown sugar, a little lemon juice, some spices, and a little cornstarch as a thickening agent. The slits are cu...

Orange French Silk Tart This Orange French Silk tart was made for the Series 6 Episode 9 signature challenge of Great British Bake Off- a signature chocolate tart. You may remember that I made this tart for my Pi Day party, but didn't remember the recipe I created for it. Vincent's coworker's boyfriend liked the tart so much that I decided to make the next rendition of the tart for just the two of them. Vincent's coworker, who is a self-proclaimed pie hater, texted me later to say it is the best thing she thinks I've made. The classic French Silk tart is made with a sweet shortcrust pastry crust, a silky smooth creamy chocolate filling, and a whipped cream topping. It is rich without being overpowering, it is creamy smooth, it is refreshing on a nice hot day. I altered the basic French silk pie only slightly, adding orange to the flavor profile. Orange and chocolate is a common flavor combination in England (such as in Jaffa cakes), and works much bette...

I am finally getting around to posting a little bit about my annual Pi Day party (March 14, 2019). Pi Day is my favorite secular holiday- and it might even beat out a few religious holidays. It is also Vincent's and my anniversary. And yes, we did have wedding pie instead of wedding cake. Be prepared to see more Pi Day party posts in future years. I made a lot of food. In previous years, I have served only pie, but I did set this party around suppertime. Therefore, I served some savory food as well... Including some savory pies. Since I keep kosher, and cannot serve dairy and meat products simultaneously, this was a fully meatless shindig (albeit with some fish). I served appetizers of mushroom and tomato basil bruschetta, inarizushi, sushi, three types of deviled eggs, and Greek salad. I also made a pasta primavera as a non-pie main dish and a side of asparagus. And then there were the pies (not all of which are seen above). Unfortunately, I was super busy and did not ac...

Hello everyone! I know it's been a quiet couple of months... I've been focusing a lot on my schoolwork, and haven't been able to post any of my bakes since Pi Day. Yes, I have been baking (albeit less frequently), but it is amazing how much time it takes to edit photos, write an article, and compile the recipe! Also, I bake for stress relief and for a break from writing. I have a little bit of a backlog of recipes, although I am going to post a "fresh" recipe today. I baked this rhubarb, cinnamon, and cardamom custard tart earlier today, and want to write about it while it is still fresh in my memory. I have been wanting to do this bake for quite a while, but couldn't do so until rhubarb was in season. I finally found it at the supermarket a few days ago, so here the tart is! This tart is my attempt at the signature bake from Series 5, Episode 5 of Great British Bake Off . The challenge is to make a signature family-sized custard tart. Due to the fact th...

This is just a public service announcement to remind all my subscribers that tomorrow (March 14) is Pi Day! Please remember to eat some pie and do some fun math! Jessica

At my Dad's request, I made cream horns- the signature bake from Series 6, Episode 8. The challenge is to make 12 each of two different flavors of cream horns- 24 cream horns total. I chose to make tiramisu flavored cream horns and peach, blood orange, and basil cream horns. So what are cream horns? Cream horns are sort of like puff pastry cornucopias. The puff pastry is swirled around a conical mold before baking. After they are baked, the mold is removed and the pastries are completely filled with a cream filling. The traditional cream horn is merely filled with whipped cream, but the filling can be made with different consistencies and fillings.  The cream is quite simple to make; the more difficult part of this challenge is the pastry. Anytime there is a pastry challenge on GBBO, there is always the moaning and groaning about which pastry to use- rough puff or full puff. Rough puff pastry merely requires the incorporation of small chunks of butter into a flour dough b...