Gretch Runs

For the third year in a row, I'm going to be baking along with the Great British Bake Off technical challenges! This is something I started in 2020 as a way to have something to look forward to each week, and it's become my favorite tradition every fall. This year, I'll be doing monthly roundups instead of a dedicated post for each bake. If you want to follow along in real time you can see me baking each week on Instagram! Here are the first 4 weeks of bakes- Cake Week - Red Velvet Cake This was a recipe that I've never made, but have of course heard of. I'm not a huge cake fan so I usually don't make them myself or order them if I'm at a restaurant, but I knew this was a chocolate based cake with red dye and cream cheese frosting. I ran into my first issue when I was making the dough. Every time that I have to make something with food dye, it never seems to get as colorful as it should be! I used up the rest of my food dye and it was still pretty neutral, s...

It's a sad time of year- Great British Bake Off is over for another year! This was my second year in a row doing all of the technical challenges, and it was so much fun again. I liked all of the variety and getting to challenge myself with different techniques and flavors that I've never tried before! I'll be sharing thoughts on all of my bakes like I did last year , but first I have to recap my Finale bake. The final challenge that the bakers (and I!) had to make was a Belgian bun. These look really similar to cinnamon rolls, but the filling was a homemade lemon curd and sultanas (I used raisins instead since I had some on hand).  This was a pretty easy process of just making the dough, letting it rise and making lemon curd. Then I just had to roll out the dough, add the curd and raisins, roll it up and slice into individual buns. I think the challenge here was that none of the steps were written out for the bakers- they were just told to make Belgian buns! Since I had all...

It's hard to believe that this season of Great British Bake Off is officially over! I watched the finale over the weekend and now I can definitely say that this was my favorite season ever. I loved the contestants, the challenges- everything! I'm getting ahead of myself though, because I'm a few weeks behind on my baking posts. Today I'll be talking about the Semi-final, which was Pâtisserie Week. The bakes in this week are all about technique and skill- it's always such a big challenge but fun to watch. The Signature Challenge was to make 8 Pâtisserie-style slices (think layered cake with different types of filling, but very fancy), and the Showstopper was a themed banquet display. They all looked amazing, and I personally loved what Juergen made! The torii gate was incredible. The Technical Challenge that I made was called a Sable Breton Tart, which I had never heard of before! Apparently the bakers hadn't either, because none of them really nailed it. Luckily...

It's getting down to the wire on Great British Bake Off- we have sailed on into the quarterfinals and the competition is getting FIERCE. This week was a very fun theme called "Free From Week". Odd wording, but each bake was a different challenge that removed a common ingredient. For the Signature, the bakers had to do a dairy free ice cream sandwich. There were some coconut, soy, and tofu ice creams and some looked absolutely divine! The Showstopper was a gluten-free Celebration Cake, so the bakers had to use a grain-free substitute (like rice flour, coconut flour, etc) to make a beautiful and intricate cake. And finally- for the Technical Challenge the bakers removed all animal products in order to make a vegan Sausage Roll. I was so excited to make this and got started right away! The first step was making a vegan puff pastry. I've never made this before but always thought the process looked like fun. Using vegan butter, I made a basic pastry, then grated on even mo...

I'm a bit behind with my Great British Bake Off baking and watching, but I'm back today with Week Seven! This was Caramel Week, which intimidated me a bit because caramel is VERY hard to get right. I've only been able to make it properly once before (when I had to make sticky toffee puddings ), and even then I got it wrong a few times. The challenges for this week were tough, since we're getting towards the end of the series. The Signature challenge was caramel tart (sign me up for that!) and the Show Stopper was a domed or sphered caramel dessert. Both of these really seemed to trip up the bakers, and there were a lot more fails than usual! Even the Technical Challenge (10 caramel biscuit bars...aka a Twix) really messed them all up and there were no stand outs. The process itself wasn't too challenging, and it mostly came down to timing it properly and making everything very neat. We started by making the shortbread biscuits for the bottom of the bars, which were ...

It's Pastry Week on Great British Bake Off, which is synonymous with the famous "Soggy Bottom" saying on the show. We only got a few mentions of that, but back in the day it was a very popular thing for the bakers to worry about and mention a lot. Luckily, it seemed like most of them did pretty well this week (minus a few collapsed pies at the end). I definitely want to try to make a chouxnut like the bakers made for the Signature- they looked so fun and delicious! The Technical Challenge is a Baklava, which is something I've tried many times in the past but have never even wanted to try to make. It seemed very daunting and time consuming, even if you use a pre-made filo pastry dough. But of course, since this is Great British Bake Off, we had to make our own! The process to make the filo was actually pretty simple and a bit therapeutic. Lots of kneading the dough, followed by dividing into 6 equal pieces, and folding it into a smaller and smaller square to get those ...

It's time for another Great British Bake Off challenge and we are officially halfway now. I've finally gotten Dan to watch the show with me and he is just as invested as I am in the bakers- we are both fully on Team Giuseppe and Lizzie- who are you rooting for? This week was German Week which was really exciting for me! Last year I loved Japanese Week , so I knew we would have another fun challenge and it definitely delivered. For the Signature, the bakers had to make two types of biscuits which all turned out really well (I especially want to try the mulled wine biscuits!). The Showstopper was a tiered yeasted cake which didn't excite me that much but was still fun to watch.  The Technical was definitely my favorite of the three bakes- a Prinzregententorte, which is an 8-tiered sponge cake with layers of chocolate buttercream and covered in chocolate ganache. Sign me up!! The process started by making the sponges. This was pretty much whipping up a TON of egg whites into a...

We are moving right along with this season of Great British Bake Off! It's almost the midway point of the season (which is insane) and this week the difficulty definitely got taken up a few notches. After all- it's dessert week! The first challenge for the bakers was a pavlova, which is a dessert that always looks incredible and beautiful, but has never really intrigued me enough to try one or bake one myself. Let's hope that won't be a technical challenge sometime in the future- it seems so finicky and difficult to absolutely nail! On the other hand, the showstopper seemed a lot more fun and had room for creativity- Joconde Imprime Dessert, which basically seemed like layered cake with lots of fun flavors and textures, surrounded by a beautifully decorated collar. Might have to try that out for myself sometime. What I made this week, as usual is the technical challenge- Prue's Sticky Toffee Pudding. I've heard of this dessert before but have actually never made...

It's bread week on Great British Bake Off, which is when I always say things get real  on the show. In the past, the person who has won this week has usually gone pretty far (winning a lot of the time as well!). It seems like the people who know how to cook bread properly are just better all-around bakers! The challenges for this week were tough- first up the bakers had to make a focaccia (most of which looked amazing and delicious - I'm especially intrigued by Crystelle's roasted grape and feta! She's becoming one of my favorites for her unique flavors). Then was the technical, which was cheese and onion ciabatta breadsticks, and finally the Showstopping bread sculpture. It always blows my mind the amazing things the bakers can create out of bread! For the technical, I was excited to try out these breadsticks! I love olive and cheese, so these just sounded delicious from the start. To begin the recipe, I made the dough (and had to mix it by hand since I don't have ...

We are moving right along into Week Two of the Great British Bake Off! This week is all about the biscuits- aka cookies. I love making them (and eating them) and always love the interesting and creative creations that the bakers come up with for the Showstoppers. First challenge for the bakers was a Brandy Snap- which sounded like a delicious test and one that I might try out myself. The Showstopper was a childhood toy recreated in biscuit form with some sort of interactive feature. I really loved Crystelle's vanity and Chig's snooker table- so clever and well made! In between these two bakes was the Technical, which was a Jammy Biscuit. This sounded really delicious and somewhat easy to make- two shortbread cookies with some buttercream and homemade raspberry jam in between. Yum!! Overall this was another pretty easy bake, but was all about timing and keeping the dough chilled. There's a lot of butter in the cookies, so if it's too soft the butter will all melt away an...

It's the best time of the year- baking season! I wait all year long for Great British Bake Off to return to my Netflix screen and it's officially here. One of my highlights of 2020 (not that there was much to compete with...) was baking along with the episodes and trying out all of the technical bakes! Of course I have to do that again this year. Week one is starting out with cakes. The bakers were asked to make mini rolls for the Signature Challenge, and an Anti-Gravity Illusion Cake for the Showstopper. What I'm focusing on today (as usual) is the Technical- a Malt Loaf . Something I've never heard of but sounded so tasty and perfect for the cool, crisp days of fall that we're finally getting! The process was pretty simple but very interesting- I started by soaking dried fruit in hot black tea- using English Breakfast of course- and steaming it in the microwave. Once it was out I added baking soda which caused a chemical reaction (not sure exactly what happened b...