Original subtitles

Last time...

..it was dessert week. Ah!

And whilst Jasmine's stunning Showstopper...

Take it away before I eat any more.

..secured her fourth Star Baker,

disaster struck for Toby. Oh, no.

But Iain's trifle... It tastes like water. Does it actually?

..meant his time in the tent...

Short king! No.

Oh! ..came to an end.

This time... You need to hop the fence.

..it's the tightest semifinal.

You know what's happening, don't you?

..ever. So close.

But who will perfect patisserie...

This is about intricacy...

It all burst. ..and delicacy.

..and who will fall...

Squeaky bum time! ..at the final hurdle?

Oh! No!

I cannot believe I'm in the semifinals.

Good luck. Have fun.

I've had it in my head that the final is gonna be Jasmine,

Aaron and Tom, so I'm feeling a little bit nervous this week.

Patisserie is a very accurate discipline.

That's what I'm going to be trying to focus on today

is a little bit of that refinement that maybe sometimes I don't have.

Jasmine excels at the neat and the precise.

Tom is good creatively, and Toby's a great technical baker.

And really, for patisserie, you need all three of those things.

I'm also not someone to go down without a fight,

so I will be fighting to the bitter end.

Hello, bakers.

Welcome back to the tent and congratulations

for getting through to the semifinal.

Yeah. Well done. And whatever happens,

just know Noel, myself and the judges adore you, don't they?

Probably not Paul, but the rest of us.

OK, for your semifinal signature,

the judges would like you to bake two batches

of six elegantly decorated cream horns.

Your horns should consist of a laminated pastry cone

filled with a delectable, creamy filling.

Each batch should have at least two complementary fillings.

You have two hours and 45 minutes to give us the horn.

On your marks...

Get set. You are so childish.

Bake!

So many opportunities for innuendos today.

Feeling horny. What gives me the horn is completing this challenge!

Today, it's all about speed.

When I finished it at home, I had two minutes left.

It's the semifinal and it's patisserie week.

We're looking for finesse, delicacy, great flavours

and this signature challenge is cream horns.

This is a really difficult challenge.

We want to see perfect rough puff pastry.

It's going to get hot in here. It's annoyingly warm in here.

One of the problems with the heat is keeping that butter cold.

If they don't, it will infuse into the dough and you'll end

up pouring butter all over the baking tray,

and none will go in the pastry itself.

And it's the steam from the melting butter

that creates these beautiful layers.

That is ice cold water.

For me, patisserie week is all about perfection.

It is baking nirvana.

It's all about finding out who has got what it takes

to get to the final.

Good morning, Star Baker. Hello.

So tell us all about your cream horns.

What are you doing?

One of them's going to be coffee with a dark chocolate ganache.

And then the other one is going to be a raspberry,

pistachio and white chocolate.

Pistachio again. I love pistachio.

I can see that. Yeah.

Jasmine's pistachio and white chocolate ganache

will join raspberry cream diplomat,

whilst her mocha cream horns will combine

a coffee cream diplomat

and dark chocolate ganache.

When you've practised this, do you manage to do it all on time?

It's really tight getting the lamination

and getting the fillings done.

Being a semifinal, we are going to be particularly brutal

with the judging.

What, because you've been really kind for all the other weeks?

Mr Bad Guy comes out today.

Paul, there's Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde,

and there's also Dr Hyde and Mr Hyde. That's you!

Changes from a monster into a monster.

So I'm literally just doing first batch here of folds.

We used a similar pastry recipe,

I think all of us, for the sausage roll.

The bakers have already tackled laminated pastry

once before in the tent.

They really did like my pastry week.

This pastry recipe isn't too different,

so I'll just repurpose it to make it sweet.

On that week, my one was a bit on the thick side.

I'd love not to do that this week.

After I did proper puff last time, Paul absolutely slated me for it.

Told me it's not possible, stupid idea,

so rough puff this time.

This week, Toby's gone back to the drawing board.

I'd never made rough puff.

First time I tried it... Yeah. ..didn't go that well.

Don't tell Paul - used his rough puff recipe.

Didn't work very well, so I had to switch to Gordon Ramsay.

If he likes it, say it's his recipe. See what he says.

Toby and Gordon's rough puff will be filled with

a chocolate coffee ganache and coffee liqueur cream.

His second batch will see lemon curd and thyme mousseline

topped with meringue.

How much do you want to be in the final?

Do you know, at the start I was thinking,

"I'm just happy to be here," but, no. Now you want it.

I desperately want to.

As Jon Bon Jovi once said, go down in a blaze of glory.

That's it. Take everyone else out with you.

Good luck, Toby. Cheers.

It feels cold, which is good.

Reaching the final requires mastery of lamination.

Every time I'm rolling it out,

I'm just making sure that we're getting

a nice layer of pastry around the butter.

I put it in the freezer,

so then you get the butter and the flour separate,

and that's what gives you the layers.

But if the butter isn't kept cold...

Roll it, fold it, back in the fridge.

..every carefully crafted layer...

Temperatures are climbing. ..will be lost.

Just checked the temperature of the butter in the pastry,

just to make sure that it's not so warm

that it could be integrating.

Hello, Tom. Hey, guys. How are we doing?

Can I just see your fingernails?

Yes. All right, they are still there.

Because you've been hanging on by them for a while now.

HE GASPS Wow!

Tom hopes to claw his way back into contention with cream horns

combining lemon cream cheese diplomat and raspberry gel

alongside a second batch filled

with dark chocolate salted mousse

and clementine curd.

It's quite conventional, not your usual twists and turns.

Yes, I know. A wise man once said to me,

"Go back to the drawing board and focus on your flavours."

So that is what I've done this week. Well, good luck.

Thank you. I can't believe you called

Paul a wise man.

Wait. I'll call him a queen tomorrow.

So I'm making my fillings in between the folds of the pastry.

My first one will be caramel.

Now we're into the multitask phase.

I love a mocha, coffee and chocolate.

I feel like they're just classic flavours.

Clementine curd. Like it? Yeah.

Oh, that made me go weak at the knees.

My cream horn's exploded. Yeah!

Lemon and thyme is like a classic timeless combination...

THYMEless!

But while most are sticking to familiar flavours...

Things stand the test of time for a reason.

I'm not the guy to mess with that.

Yeah, don't mess with it. I'm not Aaron.

..once again, Aaron's daring to be different.

I put a bay leaf in my lemon jam.

I mean, it wouldn't be me if I wasn't putting something floral

or botanical in there.

My cream horns are inspired by puddings,

one with the flavours of a treacle tart,

and the other will be vanilla, nectarine and cherry.

Aaron's matching nectarine and cherry compote

with vanilla Chantilly cream in one horn,

and chocolate and caramel ganache

with lemon and bay leaf jam in the other.

I'm glad you've done original flavours, though.

I feel like everyone's playing it safe apart from you.

I could die on that hill. What a hill to die on.

Maverick Hill. I died on that hill many years ago.

Now we need to do more pastry. Folds three and four incoming!

I'm just doing envelope folds.

The more folds the bakers make...

Four book folds in total. ..the flakier the pastry.

How many folds have I actually even done?

But more layers means more chilling...

I've done two turns.

I might attempt a double one.

I like to just feel how the pastry is before I make that decision.

..and less time for their horns to bake and cool.

If you put anything in a hot horn, it's gonna go soft.

I've got the layers of pastry.

Not as many as Aaron will get

because he's just a pastry king.

In practice, my puff pastry's actually been quite good.

Aaron sent us a photo this week of his lamination,

while I was holding one of my cream puffs

that I could have hammered a nail in with.

So that was a lovely moment.

I feel like that was a sick joke.

AARON LAUGHS

The lamination was absolutely insane.

Bakers, you are halfway through!

Agh!

One last chill. It feels like a race.

It's getting so warm in here.

The heat and my stress are rising exponentially.

Do one last half fold.

Hopefully, I've got time.

While Aaron's aiming for the flakiest possible pastry...

You can see the layers.

..the rest of the bakers have finished laminating theirs.

Oh, look at that. It's nice and thin.

But the challenge to now shape their cream horns...

I am so sweaty.

Oh, my gosh! ..is reaching boiling point.

I'm so hot. Let's hope that it's not turned into shortcrust.

It feels like the butter's melting as I look at it.

Ooh. That's nice. Nice and melty.

It's just so hot in here already.

Pastry's got to stay cool,

so I've got to work super fast.

A few minutes behind old Jas, who's somehow, like, flying through.

Go, go, go, go, go, go, go.

That girl works fast.

Oh, this is taking longer than I want it to.

Ah. OK. I need to start rolling.

Look at this. Like, it's just wet butter.

Look at you doing it freehand, no measurements.

I saw Toby rolling, and I realised I needed to roll.

OK. Top four best bakers.

How do you feel? Paul's in there as well, obviously.

He's 149.

He hasn't baked for many, many moons.

Doesn't need to. He's got people to do that for him now.

Into the freezer.

It's cos you're watching!

Bakers, you have one hour left.

I want to get these in the oven. Ten minutes at 200.

I just want to get that...that rise.

So I'm baking it at 190 and then take it down

so we don't get too much colour.

Butter is not meant to leak out.

I've done everything that I can to make it not leak.

It was literally frozen going in.

How you getting on for time, mate? A little bit behind,

but this butter is a little bit melty.

Wow. That's a lot of butter coming out of those, isn't it?

I put mine in the oven. The butter just went...bleugh.

I can see layers, so hopefully

they don't do me dirty today.

I've gone for 190.

14 minutes.

May be good, may be bad.

HE GROANS

Should have got them in the oven sooner.

At home they've taken 30 minutes. So, decoration.

Are we pushing for the final? Please say you are.

Would love to be in the final. It'd be incredible.

But I've got three very, very talented people up against me.

There's four. There's you as well, bab.

Oh. There's you as well.

Bakers, you've got half an hour left.

That's not great.

Need to get my cream horns out pretty soon.

Checking out my horn?

I've got the puff.

There's lamination.

Coming out the oven.

OK, I'm coming out.

You know, it's not like big laminated layers.

We can't all be Aaron, so why try?

I can see layers. I think there's too much butter leakage,

but we'll find out.

I got the puff which is literally all I wanted.

Your horns are out on display. My horns are out.

Oh, my God, look at how puffy your pastry is.

Um, they're not neat. Yeah. Mine is more like shortcrust.

Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God.

It's just gonna have to come out, isn't it?

Mm. They're not as perfect as they could look.

Ooh!

Pastry doesn't look anywhere near as good as normal.

I'm gonna swap them around.

I think I'm gonna take them out in five minutes.

I know that Paul likes good colour,

so I'm gonna take it as far as I dare.

It does look a bit underbaked.

I've been slagging off Paul's puff pastry recipe,

and this one's not worked as well.

Once I've dipped these, then I'll fill them.

I just love these colours.

Oh! They've, like, stuck to the tray.

Oh, I hate this so much.

I think I'm happy.

I just really need them to cool down a bit.

Don't want hot horns and cold cream.

Ugh!

This technique is working.

Can I get a time call? Just five minutes left.

A little dunk.

Toby's not filled his yet,

so I think I'm safe for a little while.

This is my dark chocolate

and clementine curd.

Raspberry creme diplomat.

It's soft, but I hope it will hold.

Vanilla meringue on top.

Uncontrollably shaking.

Cherry and nectarine.

That one could be better.

Bakers, you have one minute left.

Ah!

Come on, Jas.

That's not good.

# I wish I had more time. #

They're really messy.

I'm not completely happy with these.

Bakers, your time is up.

That was such a rapid end.

Oh!

So tight!

Oh, my goodness.

They all just look absolutely gorgeous.

And I feel like mine are, like, a little rough.

Cheers, babe. Mate.

Look at the size of that!

Aaron's got a big horn!

It's judgment time for the semifinalists' cream horns.

Hi, Toby. Hello.

I love the look of them, the fillings.

I like the way they spill out.

It's like the old-fashioned cream horn

you used to get in the bakeries. A bit concerned about the colour.

Think it needed longer.

Just get your chops around that.

That's how you eat a horn.

You can see the lamination,

but you can also see where it hasn't baked enough.

It's got a little bit of rawness down at the bottom. Oh, yeah.

Your lamination is there a little bit,

but you've lost a lot of butter.

Hmm. But the flavour of the lemon is delicious

with the meringue on top, works beautifully well. OK.

The flavour of the coffee is delicious.

It's nice and punchy, married with the chocolate.

Flavour is lovely, but the texture's...

Yeah, sure. ..too hard.

It is Gordon Ramsay's recipe. He didn't go for your recipe.

Do you think it could be that reason why? Absolutely.

LAUGHTER

Never listen to a chef.

Thank you, Toby.

I quite like the look of these.

I quite like the blend of the colours.

I'm just wondering whether your horns needed longer in the oven.

OK.

If you get both the fillings, it's absolutely delicious.

The clementine brings a bit of acidity and cuts the chocolate.

I do like the fillings.

I think the pastry,

you haven't got a lot of lamination on that.

You can see it's almost like a shortcrust.

It's not flaking. Yeah. Yes, it's a bit cakey.

Yeah. Let's have a look at your...

So this one is raspberry gel

with a lemon cream cheese creme diplomat.

Mm. That's delicious.

Flavour of that creme diplomat and the gel,

beautifully balanced together.

But, again, the horns are a bit too dry

because you've lost all the butter.

Thank you, Tom. Thanks, Tom. Thank you so much, guys.

Quite like the look of them. They look really interesting.

I'm more interested in looking at them than eating them.

OK. And I think that's because they're all melting.

But I do think that the pastry looks good.

These ones are Dulce chocolate whipped ganache with lemon jam.

Filling tastes delicious.

The caramel works really well with the citrus.

That's really good rough puff. Thanks. It's really nice.

Lamination is there. And it's baked right through. Yeah.

I think you've done a great job with that one.

Right. This is a nectarine and cherry compote

with vanilla mascarpone cream.

Both of those flavours are absolutely delicious,

but I don't think they go very well together.

OK. Nectarine sits in the back note against the cherry,

so that sort of works for me.

The pastry's lovely.

And kept that lamination, which is decent.

So well done. Cheers. Thank you very much.

Well done, Aaron. Thank you. Thank you.

They look lovely. They look interesting and neat.

We'll see what they're like when we cut into it.

These ones are a coffee creme diplomat

with a dark chocolate centre.

Nice flake! Really flaky.

Really lovely, strong coffee flavour.

Simply delicious.

You have a lovely lamination on that

and it tastes great.

Those ones are a raspberry creme diplomat

with white chocolate pistachio centre.

Well done, Jasmine.

That is a really good balance of flavours.

The raspberry's great. Pistachio's terrific.

And I think the pastry is nicely baked.

I think you've done a really good job.

Thank you. And they look pretty.

And created a nice horn there.

Well done. Well done, Jasmine.

I have to have another bit.

You're loving it!

I'm feeling really good.

He cut into them and I heard the flake and I was happy.

That's all that I can ask for!

Me and Jasmine had good pastry.

Was Jasmine's better than mine? I hope not.

There was a clear divide in the room.

Jasmine and Aaron did exceptionally well.

Me and Tom not quite as good.

Pastry was definitely the worst out of the four.

Full stop. Move on. Next challenge.

For one of our semifinalists,

this will be their last technical challenge.

Hello, bakers. Welcome back to the tent.

It's time for your technical challenge

set for you by someone called Paul Hollywood.

Paul, have you got any words of advice for our semifinalists?

This is about intricacy and delicacy and you can make a mistake very,

very easily.

As ever, this task will be judged blind,

so we're going to ask these two poppets to fly out of the tent.

We miss you already.

So for your technical challenge, Paul Hollywood

would love you to make his take on the exquisite French framboisier

inspired by his many trips to Paris.

Now, the judges are looking for a light genoise sponge

filled with a pistachio cream mousseline and fresh raspberries.

But that's not it.

Paul would also like you to make an exquisite

sugar glass dome to house your dessert,

inspired by his many trips to Centre Parcs.

He loves a water slide.

You have 2.5 hours.

On your marks... Get set. ..bake!

Paul's framboisier.

It sounds erotic.

I feel really scared and stressed.

This is the most complicated technical of the competition so far.

I've never heard of a framboisier. And Paul has left few instructions.

I feel so serious today. I don't like feeling this serious.

Paul, I know it's semifinal week, but this

is perfect French patisserie, isn't it?

What could possibly go wrong?

The issue is going to be the mousseline.

Basically, it's a custard.

The blending together of the custard and the butter,

that's what makes the mousseline.

If you try and add the butter to a warm custard, it will collapse.

It will not set at all.

I think that dome is going to be a problem too.

One of the big issues with the sugar, if you don't take it

to a hard crack, which is 150, it will never set.

We are pushing our bakers to the limit.

That's the point.

Take a slice.

The mousseline's holding its shape, but only just.

Ah!

Such a perfect summer dessert.

Quite moreish, isn't it?

I'm actually looking forward to when we go and eat another four of these.

I'm not stopping, I don't care.

Step one says make the genoise sponge.

Yeah, I can make a genoise, I think.

HE GROANS

So, I'm heating eggs and sugar,

and then I'll whisk them up and then sieve in the flour.

What's so great about this technical is

that I don't know how to do step one.

So instead, I'm just doing the cheat's version,

which is just whipping up egg whites and egg yolks separately.

So this is a terrifying start.

Have you ever made a genoise sponge before?

Last time I made one, Paul said it was unpleasant to eat

and it was well overbaked.

You used to be the technical king. I can try. I know.

Let's replace the crown.

Technical king! It's a bit big.

I do like this kind of baking. Yes!

Things that look like an actual cake,

rather than a cake that looks like a football.

Or a cake that looks like, I don't know, Paul's head.

Exactly. Who's got time for that?

He's like, "Can you please make me a cake

"the shape of one of my many cars?"

I'm like, "Can I just make a cake?"

I'm trying to keep as much air in the sponge as possible.

Definitely most worried about this sponge

because it's the base of the entire thing

and I don't know how to make it.

I'm not pleased with that.

But hate making genoise sponges.

Going in.

Check it in 15 minutes.

The next step is make pistachio paste

and then it's make creme mousseline,

and incorporate the pistachio paste.

HE SPEAKS GIBBERISH

I have never made a mousseline in my life.

Essentially, what you're making is a creme pat base.

This is cornflour. This will be the thickening agent

for the creme patissiere.

I'll mix this with the butter and the pistachio paste.

And then once the creme pat cools a little

I'll add softened butter through.

Um, what do I do with the butter?

I have no idea if there's a knack to adding the butter.

I'm just adding it in lumps.

If their custard isn't cool when they add the butter...

How am I supposed to cool it?

..the bakers' mousseline could split and fail to set.

I'm going to put it into a bowl to cool down a bit.

I've done hot custard. Put the butter in,

but I'm just...I'm getting in my head about

whether or not it should be slightly cooled first, but...

It tastes really nice.

Bakers, you are halfway through.

Going to check my cake.

Certainly baked, so I don't want to bake it much longer.

Oh, BLEEP me!

I've made a genoise.

Eight weeks ago, I didn't even know what a genoise was.

Oh! Now, how does one assemble a classic framboisier?

I need to cut that cake in half.

I do feel quite strongly that it will be just one big base of cake,

rather than having it with a lid on.

But now that I'm saying that everyone else has

cut their cake in half.

I'm just gonna stick to my guns.

It's very vague. It just says "assemble".

Oh, OK. Come on.

Assemble the framboisier.

Do you feel stressed? Yeah. It's a flipping stressful situation.

And it's only flip-a-dee-doo-dah, flip-a-dee-day.

It's not that stressful, though, is it? No, it's not.

It's just putting fruit into a sort of creamy green substance.

Exactly.

It's actually a really nice consistency.

Five minutes in the freezer. Then I'll put it in the fridge.

Even if they've assembled their cake...

There we go. ..Paul's recipe demands a delicate fondant flower...

I think this is the best one I've ever made.

..and an even more delicate sugar dome.

Number eight says, "For the sugar dome,

"make the syrup and heat to hard crack stage."

They've taken away our jam thermometers.

Our jam thermometers say what hard crack is.

That is sick.

Sugar syrup reaches the hard crack stage at 150 degrees.

Anything less and the bakers' domes won't set.

I would assume that that would be

shortly before it would start to caramelise,

which would be about 130 degrees.

And then once it's at 150,

I will pour it on here once it's cooled slightly.

I've seen those videos where people put clingfilm

over something, you pour it on

and, like, the heat of the caramel forces the clingfilm up, I think.

Going to drizzle quite slowly.

I don't know how to do this.

This is so tricky. I just have no idea.

Maybe I should have put more on.

Yeah. It's hot through the gloves.

Oh, I can get more of a dome on it.

Why has it gone frosted?

I don't think I can move.

You want me to help you out?

Actually, I'm starting to get cramp.

Am I even helping you?

What do you want me to do? Do you want me to hold you there?

Well, I'm trying to put pressure down.

It's like the film Ghost. Oh, gosh!

Nope. I'm gonna have to do this again.

It needs to be more liquid, I think.

I don't have enough of the syrup.

Oh, God. Get out.

OK, let's do one more.

I hate this.

Whoa! There it goes. And I've cracked it.

We are gonna go again with the sugar dome.

Bakers, you've got 15 minutes left.

Oh, my goodness me.

I don't know if this is even gonna set in that time.

It's literally losing air. Why is it losing air?

This is horrible.

Oh, it's like all my hopes deflating.

I think it's a bit too domey.

Can someone open my freezer? Oh, I can do it.

DOME CRACKS Oh, no!

I smashed it. As I put it in, it hit the shelf.

That's absolutely gutting.

Almost felt like that was gonna work.

How much time do we have?

Bakers, you only have five minutes left.

Do you know what? I need to stay here for,

like, another few minutes, I think.

But I just don't have time.

The dome is just going to have to go.

Tried it twice.

Don't think I'm gonna have time to do this.

The mousseline doesn't look very set.

Ohh.

Oh... No!

No!

Oh, God.

Can I save it?

It's awful.

It looks like the mousseline's split,

so there's nothing I can really do.

HE EXHALES SHARPLY

I'm just not meant to do technicals.

It's not quite what I wanted it to look like, but it's all right.

Jasmine's is perfect.

I just have to get it right this time.

Bakers, you've got one minute left.

Oh, my God. Oh, my God.

It's literally not going to set. I don't think it's going to.

No.

Tom, has your mousseline set? Yes.

Has yours? I don't think so.

Oh, it's bursting the seams already.

It's falling. It's gonna be a puddle.

Oh, it's completely falling apart.

Ha-ha-ha! How funny. How funny.

Your time is up.

Look at this.

Oh, my God, how is that so set?

Guys, what the flip! Oh! That was awful.

It's judgment time for the semifinalists' framboisiers.

Time to welcome back our judges.

Paul and Prue are looking for a perfectly set pistachio mousseline,

filled with fresh raspberries

and sandwiched between two delicate genoise sponges,

all topped with a fondant flower and crystal-clear sugar dome.

OK, this is quite neat, actually.

Yeah. Mousseline looks decent. Sponges look OK.

And that looks as if the mousseline's held.

Where's the sugar dome? It's so thin you can't see it.

There it is, crack!

That looks really good. It does look nice.

Mm. It's well baked, isn't it? Mm. The mousseline's nice.

That is delicious.

There's nothing wrong with the cake, except it's missing its dome.

We go from the sublime...

..to the slime. What is this?

There is a sponge there.

I think the mousseline's been the issue.

Aren't there meant to be two layers of sponge?

Let's not beat around the bush, shall we?

If you put that all into a bowl... It's a trifle.

Very good trifle. Similar issue, but it hasn't gone quite as bad.

Well, this one's split. So, it's curdled.

But there is a sugar dome.

There is a sugar dome. Not a very good one. Not the best sugar dome.

Nice flavour. That mousseline's had the big problem.

Moving on to number four. That's pretty decent.

Yeah. Sponge is there. Mousseline looks good.

Sponge is nice and thick.

It tastes lovely. Very nice cake. Mousseline's good.

The flower's nice. Where's the dome?

The framboisiers will now be ranked from fourth to first.

You won't be surprised to hear that in fourth place,

we have this one. Toby, it's a bit of a disaster.

In third place, we have this one. Whose is this?

Aaron, a bit of a problem with the mousseline.

But you did have a sugar dome. Well done.

Thanks. In second place, we've got this one.

Who is this?

Tom. This is a really nice cake.

I'd say it's pretty well faultless, but there's no dome.

In first place...

APPLAUSE

Excellent. Loads of raspberries.

Really neat on the outside.

Mousseline was nice and shaped.

What happened to the sugar dome?

I tried it three times and then I gave up.

I can't believe I came first without a sugar dome!

Wow.

I'm honestly not even that gutted that mine smashed

because I don't know how I was ever going

to get it out of the... out of the mould.

That was a shambles, wasn't it? It looked like a pond.

It's down to the Showstopper.

Hate being in this position.

Just one challenge remains before we crown this year's last

Star Baker and discover who will miss out

on a place in the grand final.

All right. Good luck, guys.

What did you make of their bakes yesterday?

The technical was a bit of a surprise.

I mean, we had a couple of real disasters there.

You know what? Tom did make a really good sugar dome,

and it shattered like a windscreen.

Jasmine's the only one that's in a fairly safe position.

I think the one that's in the most trouble is Toby.

Toby's technical. If he'd have done a dome,

he could have poured the liquid into it and...

Turned it upside down, had a trifle.

Whereas Aaron's was split.

It was like scrambled egg.

The final is just in sight.

The pressure today is palpable. You're going to feel it.

Makes your job really difficult,

because the last thing they want to do is chatter to you.

Cheers, Prue. They want to concentrate on winning

Great British Bake Off. Yeah, get your coat.

Great.

Welcome back to the tent, bakers.

This is your last chance to win a place in this year's final.

For your Showstopper challenge, the judges would love you to make

a macaron centrepiece, depicting something meaningful to you.

It needs to be bold and impactful.

And there need to be at least 30 filled macarons.

You can do this. We believe in all of you.

We do. You've got 4.5 hours for this.

On your marks... Get set. ..bake!

I'm trying to remain as positive as possible,

but inside, thinking it'll be an absolute miracle

if I get this done.

Macarons are notoriously finicky.

Yeah. Semifinals, so, you know, can't make it easy.

I wing it, trust my instincts.

Hope for the best and drink some coffee.

Today's Showstopper challenge is a macaron centrepiece,

using, possibly, a biscuit to create the frame

to hang the macarons on or stick them on.

It has to be 45cm high

and everything must be edible.

In this weather, I wouldn't suggest using chocolate.

It could be anything, but predominantly

it needs to be macaron.

It is all about getting the right bake.

If it's underbaked, it goes soggy.

If you overbake it, it can crack and you can taste that it's burnt.

It's a very specific thing, a perfect macaron,

and it's very difficult to achieve.

I want colour, I want great flavours.

Above all, I want a beautiful macaron.

Three of our finalists are in there, so we want to see baking perfection.

Good morning, Toby. Good morning.

Right, Toby, tell us all about your macaron centrepiece.

So I'm doing a crate stack filled with lemons

like you would find at a fruit market.

When I went to Colombia, we went into a supermarket

and it was just filled with the most colourful fruits I've ever seen.

Toby's only chance to reach the final involves perfecting

lemon and poppy seed macarons,

filled with white chocolate ganache and lemon curd,

and constructing gingerbread crates

covered in chocolate macaron,

filled with a dark chocolate

and hazelnut ganache.

It wasn't your best day yesterday. Yeah.

You have to produce today. Yeah.

Just saying this, I did work in a macaron factory for a day,

so if anyone needs any tips.

For a day? For one day, yeah.

Oh, for a day? You were on day release.

To support their macaron centrepiece,

most of the bakers are using biscuit.

So this gingerbread was actually inspired by Pui Man.

So shout out to Pui Man for helping me out.

And whilst Toby hopes to reach the final with the help

of some absent friends...

Honestly, I already feel ridiculous.

..Tom's Showstopper...

Tom, that is...

Oh, my! ..is all Tom.

Tom's turned into a chocolatier.

Go on, Tom!

My macaron centrepiece is a beehive.

This is the dark chocolate which is going to be the beehive itself.

How much chocolate have you got there?

Just about 12 kilos of chocolate in there.

Oh, my God! What are you doing? I know.

Tom's love of bees has inspired

a giant chocolate hive,

home to two swarms of bee-shaped macarons,

one filled with mango ganache

and a lemon and mango sauce,

and the other with

salted dark chocolate ganache

and a sour cherry gel.

I'm glad you're using loads of chocolate.

I want to see a spectacle.

I want you to cover Paul Hollywood,

produce his entire head and body in chocolate.

I do... Which part would I need 12.5 kilos for?

Morning, Jasmine. Morning, hello. Hello, Jasmine.

Tell us about your sculpture.

I am going to make a macaron Christmas tree.

Very festive. Because it's the season!

Jasmine will celebrate her favourite time of the year

with a gingerbread Christmas tree,

decorated with macaron baubles

filled with raspberry

and dark chocolate ganache.

And that's not all.

The sides of the tree are

all covered in green macarons, if that makes sense.

And I hope that the macarons all kind of blend in

and it's just a green background.

So you've definitely got no pistachio in there today?

There's no pistachio. Oh, that's nice.

Thought I'd change things up a bit, you see.

So this is going to be a sloth because I call my boyfriend sloth

because he ambles around like a sloth.

AARON LAUGHS

Aaron's boyfriend Anthony inspired a sugar cookie and macaron sloth.

He's the only semifinalist attempting

three ganache fillings

with grapefruit and mint, yuzu and pear,

and salted popcorn.

Your boyfriend's a sloth? Yes.

Does society frown on that relationship?

I suppose it depends where you live.

We live in different times now. If it's quite a woke area,

it's fine. East London.

It's this guy's right to date a sloth.

Leave him alone.

I'm just doing this for fun. To torture myself for an hour

before I get to do anything else in the challenge.

Whilst Tom's structure is still a work in progress...

Say a little prayer.

..everyone else can move on to the main event.

I'll just put these in the fridge and then I'm doing my macaron.

The key to getting macarons right? That is a great question.

People spend years trying to perfect them.

Perfect macaron begins with a precisely whipped meringue...

It's the fear of failing

and the missing out on the final that terrifies me.

..which then has to be carefully folded with ground almonds.

This is not yet macaronage.

This delicate mixture is one of the most volatile in all baking.

So the process of macaronage does actually happen

while you're folding this in.

So I want to get out some of the air, but not so much

they're flat.

If it holds too much air in the oven, it will just explode out.

It's a fickle process...

We're tempered. ..that Tom has yet to worry about.

Ooh. BLEEP!

That's so heavy.

It's very Tom. Need to move fast.

Go on, Tom.

Oh, my God! Oh, God.

The tape has torn.

We did not want a ripped bucket.

As Tom makes emergency repairs

to his chances of reaching the final...

Nervous about time now.

..everyone else is already planning for the worst.

How many are you doing? As many as I can do.

Prue and Paul have demanded that each centrepiece...

It's just chocolate marks everywhere.

I'll just leave footprints everywhere.

..is covered with at least 30 filled macarons.

One macaron, there's actually two shells,

plus the fillings.

You're having to make in excess of 60.

Oh, hello.

Gonna end up making, like, over 100 macarons.

I'm just gonna do some "just ins" -

just in case the other ones don't work.

But there could be another way of securing a place in the final.

Let me grab a brick.

I don't know if you've ever watched this show before,

but there's a character called Mr Spoon.

Unfortunately, he's been in a fire. He's in hospital.

This is his second cousin, Mick.

He fixes the photocopier.

So you know the rules. What are the rules?

If you kiss Mick, you get in the final.

# Dee-dee-dee-dee-dee. #

Yes!

God, I really, really need to be moving.

Don't worry, I'll literally take 30 seconds of your time.

Yeah. What do I have to do to get an extra 45 minutes?

To get into the final, you just have to give him a respectful kiss.

Oh. Wait. I'll take...

I'll take all the luck I can.

Three for three. There you go.

You know what's happening, don't you?

Respectfully.

That felt quite respectfully.

He said it was quite sensual.

Where else can I kiss him?

Where else can you kiss him? I don't know.

It's not that kind of show, Jasmine. It's not that kind of show.

- Bakers, you're halfway through. - Yippee!

And then the pain stops. ALISON LAUGHS

Now macarons become even more temperamental.

They have to be left to form a skin in about 20 minutes

so that the air doesn't pop out the top.

Basically, you should be able to really gently rub

your finger along the top without it sticking.

I'm gonna get on and make another batch straight away,

because I can't wait to see if these ones fail

to then make another batch.

Then I'm going to get onto my fillings.

Paul and Prue are expecting two separate fillings.

Hazelnut and peanut praline,

and I'm going to start making lemon curd.

I'm doing a dark chocolate ganache

and a raspberry white chocolate ganache.

But with a place in the final at stake...

So, grapefruit and mint, yuzu with a bit of pear...

..Aaron's sloth will have three.

..and salted popcorn.

Actually, I think they're all based on cocktails.

Some of my best work has been whilst I've been drunk.

Mm. One more minute.

It's going to go in now, actually.

The semifinalists now face the toughest juggling act

of the competition so far.

TIMER BEEPS Not only will they have to precisely

time the bake on multiple batches of macarons...

OK. ..there's still fillings to perfect...

First batch of macarons.

..and fragile, intricate centrepieces to construct.

Squeaky bum time.

Whilst Tom's hive may finally be getting some bees...

There was no chance I was waiting, I'm afraid.

It all burst.

Every single one.

The macarons for Aaron's sloth...

Um... ..may have hit the oven too soon.

Those, I can't use.

I'm gonna have to do them all again. This is not ideal.

I'll just do what I was going to do before.

Just carry on with the ones I was already going to do.

How's it going, bab?

I can slowly feel my place in the final slipping away.

Why are you saying that?

I think I might not have left them long enough to dry.

Have we got enough time to do them as well?

Um, maybe.

Whilst Aaron faces remaking an entire batch...

Whoa!

They are massive.

..Toby and Jasmine seem to have struck macaron gold.

They've got massive feet.

You see how it rises and has, like, a gap?

That's the feet of the macaron.

You don't have them, it's not a macaron.

Let me just look at them.

Oh, my God, the feet aren't great.

But now Tom's macarons...

The feet are spreading out.

..don't seem to be faring much better than Aaron's.

Just gotta keep moving. The second batch is in.

Yeah, baby.

Yeah. Don't love this batch.

As Aaron tries to get back on track...

I don't like giving up.

..Jasmine is already constructing.

The supports are going to interlock,

and then I'll put stars on top to make the tree.

BLEEP!

That was less than ideal.

I'm not an engineer, I'm a medic.

I'm just piping my lemon sign, so I'm making a giant macaron

that'll say "lemons".

Love that sign. Yeah. Look at the sign.

It looks all right, doesn't it? Looks perfect.

Happy? He's not going out without a fight.

He likes to fight. He likes to fight.

Should we have a fight?

Yeah, but it's not me that likes to fight!

Get off me!

Oh, my God! Is there anything we can do to help?

Yeah, exit, I think.

What if we just hang out here? Further.

You need to hop the fence.

Ow!

Oh!

SHE LAUGHS I'm stuck.

Cover me up.

Come here, stand there.

SHE SCREAMS

Here - is this better?

A bit further? No, that's all right, to be fair.

Noel, if you can join her, that'd be great.

I can't get over that fence in these trousers.

Bakers, you've got one hour left.

Not great. They're doming on the bottom.

Great feet.

Put them on FeetFinder.

They're terrible.

Aaron is in danger of presenting a naked sloth.

I hate macarons!

I think the first batch were a little underdone.

And Tom's bees are currently homeless.

Just got to get the chocolate out now. All right, come on.

God.

I'm gonna pull this big one out.

Big feet on the lemon sign. Look at that. It's sick.

Yeah! Second bucket out.

There could be some cracks

because of that leak coming through.

Can create a weakness in it.

We have a beehive!

There are so many elements here.

Got so much gingerbread still to bake and everything.

I might quad shelf. I think I'm gonna have to.

Oh, this is gonna be so tight!

Look at Tom's - it's impressive. I'm not gonna lie.

What's more impressive is Iain's inside that.

I'm just painting the whole thing now and then

I need to get on to decorating my macarons

because my bloody macarons are nothing.

Every batch is just as rubbish as the others.

I'm thinking maybe under-macaronage.

Maybe I've left them too long?

That's good. I want as much time as possible to assemble it.

Just got to keep slowly plodding.

Bakers, you have half an hour left.

These are terrible as well.

What if we just added half an hour for everyone?

Start assembling! This needs to go in.

Whoa!

Ah! I'm putting the macarons on the side of the tree.

So there's one more batch to go in the oven.

I don't think I've got 30. One, two, three,

four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten.

I think I'll just...just do it. Go on, Aaron!

Oh, my God, that is so heavy.

Go on, Tom. Deep squat. You got it, mate.

Wow. That is insane!

Is it falling over? Oh, no.

It's never fallen over before.

I need to get 30 macarons on that.

I need to fill all of my many macarons.

This is the raspberry and white chocolate one.

If I manage to pull this back to something looking half decent,

I will be shocked.

Whoa! Look at Jasmine's.

That looks amazing.

When you're under this much pressure,

your hands just shake because you're in a rush so much.

Oh, these look good! They're not burnt.

No, they look good. They're burnt? They look GOOD!

Oh, thank God for that.

Yeah, these are good.

I can bake, you know?

It's not a total write-off.

I've made filling them easier by just doing one.

It was going to be ganache and lemon curd.

And now it's just lemon curd ganache.

Time, time, time, time, time.

This is my yuzu.

That's the dark chocolate ganache with some salt.

Then we'll have cherry sauce in there as well.

Just gotta keep moving.

Tom, your caramel smells like it's going.

Oh, BLEEP! Thanks.

This is the grapefruit.

Now we move on to the mango ones. Do you know what?

I think I'm going to be so close.

One more time.

I think I might just be able to get it fully finished.

I need to work on my caramel drip.

So, the popcorn. How long do I have left?

Ten minutes left.

Ten minutes left. Ten minutes is insane.

It's so hot, the ganache is starting to melt.

Get this googly eye.

It's starting to look more like a sloth.

Gotta get the big lemon sign on.

Tom, have you got any spare freeze spray?

There you go. Thank you.

It's snowing.

What's it all for, if I don't get the lemon sign?

Merry Christmas, Jasmine. And a happy new year.

What's the time check, please? Five minutes left.

It's definitely not going to be covered.

There's nothing else I can do now. It's gonna be precarious.

And that is 30 macarons.

That's an ugly sloth, but it is what it is.

Please don't shatter. Please!

Oh, my God.

That was a really pretty one. Come on.

Is it possible for me to get to the back of this?

Oh! That is BLEEP annoying.

That is so annoying. How much time? One minute left.

Ten seconds per one. One, two, three, four.

This is tense, this is.

Feel for them.

I don't think I'm gonna get enough coverage

and I think they're going to complain. 30 seconds.

Freeze spray, freeze spray, freeze spray!

Bakers, your time is up.

Please step away from your Showstoppers.

Can I just...?

You've done it, bakers.

Oh, she looks great.

I had to redo my macarons so many times.

You did it! I'm so happy you did it.

Aaron, you did it!

Just about! Yes!

He's like a sad monkey!

It's judgment time for the semifinalists' Showstoppers.

Jasmine, would you like to bring up your Showstopper, please?

So this is my macaron Christmas tree.

It's neat as a pin. You have a lovely dome on these.

The pink ones, not so much, but the lighter ones, you do.

But they are smooth and extremely neat.

And when you look at it in detail, you realise you've covered almost

every inch of the biscuit with macaron.

They look lovely. So all they have to do now is taste great.

There's raspberry ones which are the pink ones,

and then the white ones are filled with a dark chocolate ganache.

If you like dark chocolate, which I do,

that's perfect. Lovely flavour.

Makes it heavy, but nevertheless it is a dark chocolate macaron.

That's what it tastes like.

The raspberry one's not as delicious as the chocolate one.

Should have put pistachio in them. Thank you, Jasmine.

Just for you!

Well done, baby girl. Well done, Jazzy.

Nice one, Jazzy Jay.

SHE SIGHS

Aaron, would you like to bring up your macaron Showstopper?

This is my sloth. I'm impressed with the amount of macaron.

They completely cover your structure.

I don't know if he looks much like your boyfriend, but he's...

There are a few smashed macarons here, which is a pity.

The filled ones don't look too bad.

A bit flat, you've lost a bit of the dome on there.

The yellow ones down the front,

you've lost all of the dome. A lot of the dome.

There are three flavours of macarons.

One which is a white chocolate ganache with grapefruit jelly,

salted popcorn, and yuzu with some pear.

It tastes delicious. Quite chewy. Mm.

Grapefruit is delicious.

But they're not your best macarons.

I like the flavours, actually,

but the standard of the macaron is not as good as I expected.

Cheers, guys.

Toby, it's time for your macaron centrepiece.

This is my Crate of Lemons sculpture.

The structure itself is gingerbread. It's very clever.

There is a lot of gingerbread. Yeah.

I like what you've done with the design on the macaron.

I think it's worked out really well. Thank you.

So, we have lemon and poppy seed macarons on the top with lemon curd,

white chocolate ganache, and the macarons on the front

have dark chocolate ganache and hazelnut and peanut praline.

They are so chocolaty. They're delicious!

Got a proper little foot. They're very good.

Love the chocolate ones. Not too dry on the mouth.

It's delicate, which I really like.

The lemon ones are a bit dry for me. Oh, OK.

Probably needed a little bit of gel or something in the middle

just to lighten it. Cos that would have made a big difference.

Yeah. I think that, obviously, if you've eaten that first,

I mean, that is extremely flavoured

and that's mildly flavoured, so it suffers a bit.

Is this label all macaron? Yes.

Yeah, that is. Well done. That's nice, that, yeah.

I think you showed good pipework with the macarons there,

which I'm quite impressed with.

And I do love the chocolate one.

And the construction's excellent. It's very neat.

I think you've done a good job.

Well done, Toby. Well done, mate. Well done, mate.

Cheers. The sign is...

I'd just never even try a sign like that.

It's also so big. Like macaron at that size. Honestly.

Tom, are you ready for your centrepiece?

Can I get a bit of help?

I'll carry a brick.

Yeah, if I give you a brick.

You all right?

We might get there.

Well, I have to say, it looks absolutely astonishing.

It's so dramatic.

I think it really looks like a swarm of bees coming around.

What do you think? I'm going to be a little bit more critical.

If it was chocolate week, I'd accept it.

I can't accept that when it's a macaron challenge.

The macarons look fairly flat, the painting's rudimentary.

But the main thing I'm looking at is that.

And this.

It's very Tom. I understand that.

You should have made that smaller and then covered all of it.

It's two flavours. We have mango and white chocolate ganache in one.

And then we have a dark chocolate salted ganache with a sour cherry.

I get the chocolate and the cherry.

Bit longer in the oven.

Too soft. Hm.

Very good strong mango.

Beautiful flavour. Again, they're very pleasant.

But again it needed longer in the oven.

Thank you, Tom.

I feel chopped down like a tree.

BLEEP!

It's so lame, I can't believe I'm crying.

Oh, I just worked so hard this week on that.

Oh.

I feel like the judges were quite pernickety today.

Like, any element that wasn't perfect, they really picked apart.

Jasmine got a piece of criticism. Never heard it before.

Do you know what? I really don't know where I stand,

but I'm so proud

that I've pulled it back to a place where I'm just not quite sure.

With the other two lads,

I think there's a possibility any one of us could go home.

So the Showstopper, did anyone blow you away?

No. Oh, that's a shame.

But I think we can talk about Jasmine.

We can take her out of the equation.

She's through. What's more important is which two

are going through to the final with Jasmine.

This is where it gets a little bit sticky.

I really didn't think the design of Aaron's was particularly good.

But you actually said that you liked it.

No, they tasted good.

Tom hasn't been doing well for a few weeks.

We saved him last week.

Do you think we could save him again?

What he did was a chocolate sculpture.

But it's not a chocolate challenge.

Toby was doing the worst when we came into the Showstopper.

However, his chocolate macaroons were delicious.

I like the shell for the lemon, but I didn't like the flavour.

Obviously, next week is the final.

You've got a really big decision to make.

All I can say is good luck, guys.

It's really impossible, this.

We could ask for a volunteer to go home.

Well done, bakers. I've got the great job this week

of announcing the Star Baker.

And this week's Star Baker

has already won the Star Baker four times.

This is your fifth Star Baker, Jasmine.

That is a joint record, isn't it, Paul? It is.

With just one other person. Well done. You're through to the final.

Sadly,

I've got the job of announcing who is going to be leaving today.

But before I do that, I've got to say

this has probably been the toughest decision across

the whole of the series so far.

But the person who's going to be

leaving the Bake Off tent today is...

..Toby.

Fair enough.

Well done, mate. Well done.

Guys... Thanks, bro. I'm so sorry.

No. No worries, no worries. Thank you.

Oh.

It's tough to come back from serving a puddle of mousseline, isn't it?

I had a good comeback today.

The fact that I made it a tough decision today,

I think was...was great.

We looked back on it when we were looking back at it,

and all of a sudden I remembered your framboisier, and I went...

Yeah. It was pretty memorable, wasn't it? Yeah.

Yeah.

Oh, it's the good bits I find hard to talk about.

The best thing about being in the tent is definitely the people.

The handshake was good, the Star Baker was good,

but, yeah, people was definitely the best bit.

So sorry, man. It's all good. Did so well. Yeah.

It took a while for Prue and I to discuss everything.

It goes to show how tight things are on Bake Off.

It came down to that one mistake on the framboisier,

and that, unfortunately, was the downfall of Toby.

I think Toby, in a way,

was our least confident baker when we started.

He has learnt so much. He's a really talented baker.

Well done. Thank you so much. Well done.

Obviously, like, I know it's coming. It just sucks.

Yeah, it sucks that Toby's gone.

It's just sad that I didn't get to do the final with him.

I thought that was it. Getting a spot in the final,

I just, I feel so blessed.

I'm just... I'm glad I really persevered.

I'm glad I didn't give up.

Can we have one more Polaroid?

Do you want me to do it of you all?

To be able to get here and have the opportunity to try and win,

that's what I'm here for.

Toby said this really sweet and sad thing

in there where he was like,

"You just think it's never going to end."

Oh, I'm so lucky that it gets to go on.

It's just baking.

Next time...

What a final it has been. This feels completely impossible.

Don't know if I've ever worked this fast in my whole life.

Very, very quickly.

The winner...

..of The Great British Bake Off....

It's gonna be so tight.

..is...

Wait! Oh, my God, oh, my God.

There's an issue somewhere.

Are you a Star Baker in the making?

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