Original subtitles

Rahul continued to impress.

That chickpea was unbelievable.

But it was Kim-Joy's bold approach...

I love the colours.

..that won her Star Baker.

Despite Ruby's collapse...

Oh, man.

..Jon just couldn't convert to veganism...

Can we have a kebab week soon?

..and left the tent.

It's been amazing, it really has.

This week, it's the quarterfinals...

SHE BREATHES DEEPLY

..and a Bake Off first - Danish week.

Ha-ha! Ooh!

A Scandi signature...

Ouch.

..a tricky technical...

The whole thing is burned.

..and a great Danish showstopper, culminating in a Viking onslaught...

A-Argh!

It's just burnt, you left it in the oven too long.

I don't deserve to be here any more. Oh, God.

..as the bakers battle for a place in the semifinals.

That was a bit brutal.

Sandi, I'm so excited, it's Danish week!

I know! What are the chances? I'm Danish,

and Bake Off decide to have their first ever Danish week.

Hey, listen, thanks for getting the costumes.

I just want everything to be perfect for you.

I've even come up with some jokes. Oh, yeah?

Danish jokes. OK.

Why did the Viking buy an old boat? I don't know.

Because he couldn't afford a new one.

No, he couldn't A-FJORD a new one.

That's even better! How do Vikings send messages?

I don't know.

Morse code. No, NORSE code.

That is fantastic.

Go on, say "It's Danish week" in Danish.

SHE SPEAKS DANISH

Brilliant. How do you even do that?

I just speak. I love that beard.

What a week to lose your tweezers.

It's week eight, and only five bakers remain.

In tribute to Jon, who left last week, the bakers have decided

to leave their Viking wear behind and don Hawaiian shirts.

It's the blooming quarterfinals. Let's do this. Game on.

Come on.

I think Kim-Joy, she's the baker to beat.

She's a dark horse.

So, yeah, little cute Kim-Joy, she's like,

"I'm going to make you the best cake ever."

I'm all prepared, yeah.

There could be a Scandi drama.

What do I know about Danish baking?

Erm...

I've never done Danish baking before.

I think...

Is "croshos" Danish?

Kosher? Crochons.

Croissants? Croissants. Hmm...

Hi, bakers. Wow, look at you!

Did not get the memo about this week.

It's like a Beach Boys convention.

It's Danish week.

Now, for your Signature Challenge today, the judges would love you

to bake a rye bread, and from it,

create two perfectly executed, delicious open sandwiches.

They're called smorrebrod.

Open sandwiches,

which must be presented alongside your rye loaf.

The judges would like you to make your own personal rye bread recipe,

but, you know, it had better be good.

You have three-and-a-half hours.

On your marks... Get set...

SHE SPEAKS DANISH

The traditional Danish rye bread used for smorrebrod

is dark and dense and takes 24 hours to create.

The bakers must be inventive to produce a loaf

with a similar texture and flavour.

So one of my really good friends is Danish.

It is one of the hardest languages, because you have to...

..R-R-R!

You know, make your throat, like... Smorrebrod, smorrebrod.

Smorrebrod. Smorrebrod, smorrebrod.

When I say that, I sound like I'm trying to be Welsh.

Smorrebrod.

Now, basically, what it is, it's an open sandwich.

The base of the open sandwich is rye.

Lots and lots of seeds in it, on top of which -

strong flavours, normally pickled or smoked.

Big hitters.

Oh!

I think the trick is beauty combined with simplicity.

It must be a little work of art on a small piece of very thin rye bread.

This is the quarterfinals now.

Any problems, I'll be on them.

Good morning, Rahul. Morning.

So, it's quarterfinals, Rahul. I don't want to think about that,

I'm just thinking it's a normal week.

Well, we want to know about your open sandwiches.

There is going to be one with smoked salmon,

I'm going to serve it with remoulade. It's basically carrot,

celeriac and shallots, chopped up really nicely,

then reduced down in a pickling liqueur. Little bit of curry powder,

mix it with mayonnaise, and then I'm going to pickle some cucumber

as well, then lemon, a few asparagus spears and some dill leaves.

I'm going to make some home-made cheese, and do pickles -

candied beetroot, golden beetroot,

normal beetroot - and arrange it on the top.

Your time's up, now you've described that! Sorry?

Somewhere under all the home-made toppings,

Rahul is attempting to pull off a traditional dense and seedy

rye bread, which takes the Danes 24 hours to produce.

See, see, this is what happens.

I think it's just getting there.

Sandwiches have names, so you ought to name your sandwiches.

Yeah, mine's really boring at the minute.

There's a very famous sandwich shop

where they have a sandwich named after my father.

So there's a Claus Toksvig sandwich. No way!

Yeah! How cool is that?

So you could have the Hollywood sandwich or...

No, OK. No, you don't want that.

Ruby would rather name her smorrebrod after a treadmill

than Paul.

Inspired by her favourite post-gym snacks, she is creating

a Mediterranean breakfast and a tandoori chicken lunch.

Her base will be a lightly seeded rye bread.

How much flour? What's the weight of flour?

I've gone 200 for each.

Water, how much water?

250.

250? Millilitres of water, yeah.

No other liquid in there at all? 250 to 400?

Oh, God, why? That's just how I practised.

Should I put more in?

OK. Why, what should I...?

What would you...? I'm not going to tell you, am I?!

NOEL: Making one rye bread is tricky enough...

It's like super-duper sticky.

..but to stand out from the rest,

Briony is taking a massive risk by attempting two doughs.

You get, you know, the usual nausea that kicks in about now,

the blind fear of having to bake bread for Paul Hollywood.

You know, standard.

Briony is out to impress by marbelling her dark and light doughs

into a decorative loaf.

She is spanning the EU for her Danish sandwich toppings, with a

Spanish meat feast on one and a West Country platter on the other.

It's all about the display for me, this. Yeah, absolutely.

Well, they're both going to look like little gardens.

The chorizo and the Iberico will be in little flowers.

This is Briony the artist.

I'm going to have a tomato swan.

Tomato swan! Yeah, you wait.

OK, all right. Thank you very much.

It's not terrifying at all having to knead in front of Paul Hollywood.

Timing's critical, so there's no more time to knead.

Need to prove it.

Rye dough can be tricky to prove.

The bakers must judge time and temperature precisely.

Right, rise, my little pretty.

Too much, and the bread will lose its tight rye texture.

Under prove, and it'll be dense and stodgy.

Normally, I don't put it in the proving drawer.

It's 30 degrees now. Think I'll just reduce it slightly.

We're going to start cooking.

AMERICAN ACCENT: We got sweet potato, we got normal potato,

we got fig jam, we got beetroot smoking.

NORMAL VOICE: It's all happening, it's all happening.

All the bakers have chosen savoury toppings,

some more than others.

So just making some cheese, as if I'm not mad enough.

But Manon is adding a little sweetness to her smorrebrod.

It's just mascarpone and Gorgonzola.

In France, we don't actually eat cheese with sweet stuff.

I'm really excited about these flavours,

because it's so cheesy and creamy and delicious.

Mmm!

If there's any left,

Manon's cheese fest will be married with fresh fruit.

She's taking a punt on a light rye bread, and instead of using

a traditional tin, she's relying on her trusty saucepan

for an artisan crust.

It's not going in a tin, it's just going in that pan?

Yeah, mm-hm, so it's round.

When you put it in the pan, does it actually reach the sides?

No. It doesn't, it just sits in the middle? Yeah.

Any problems with the dough being slightly raw in the middle?

That's why this is good.

And also, I tried to do it in the tin, and it would not cook.

Oh, yes!

Yes!

Once I saw those, it was all over.

Swan tomatoes.

Are you going to make a radish goose?

Not today. Leave it at swan tomatoes.

I wonder what Paul will make of them.

I know. I think he's going to...

Cos he loves decoration, small animals, girlie stuff.

Yeah, I mean, it's his favourite thing ever, right?

He's in his trailer now...

Actually, as I was coming here, I just peeked in through the window,

and he was in a tutu, and he was doing a sort of

really weird drawing of a unicorn.

And then he pretended...

When he saw me, he threw away the unicorn picture,

and he picked up a car magazine.

These are boiling, I'll just give them...

Because I've got 26 seconds, I want them to be hard-boiled,

because they've got to turn into bumblebees.

So they can't be soft-boiled bees.

Kim-Joy's delicate boiled egg bees will buzz amongst cheese flowers,

and an intricate cucumber and radish fish will swim

above a seabed of wholemeal sourdough.

So that's actually got quite a good rise for a wholemeal bread.

I'm quite happy with that.

It's done all right. It's been about...

Just under double, I think.

Oh, yeah. That'll do nicely.

I'm just going to knock it back.

Oh, dear me.

This is just not right.

My bread doesn't rise at all!

Did yours rise?

Did you put it in...? Yeah, but I have a lot of wet flour.

Do you want to give him a little tip?

Just rolling it up gives it a good oven spring,

especially for, like, this kind of shape.

I'm marbling my loaf, so I'm putting together the two doughs.

Beautiful.

I decided to put quite a lot of rye in it.

Yes, it's rye bread!

I know, but rye bread needs lots of time to prove.

Who's going to announce my name? Last week...

Er... Oh, it'll be Noel. Last week, Jon, so...

Yeah, Noel has to say goodbye to you. Yeah.

I'll go get him ready!

OK.

Yes!

Looking good.

The bakers will need to gauge when their loaves are just baked through.

It's beautiful!

If they remove it too soon, their bread will be doughy.

Too long, and the rye will be dry.

So, it's going to go for half an hour.

Oh!

Can't really do anything now!

I've done my timings, and it leaves me with about...

..25 minutes to cool, and about 15 minutes to put the toppings on.

I need half an hour to cool...

..ish.

If I bake it for half an hour, that means three hours.

Yeah, I just have to...

No.

Yeah.

I don't really have much time.

Oldest flag in the world.

Danish. Really? That one there?

No, not this specific...

Bakers, you have one hour left!

Bakers' loaves are in the hands of the oven gods.

Oh, dear.

In a matter of minutes, they'll discover if their prove

will prove too much or too little.

It's about that much.

Ooh, that looks good!

That looks really nice.

It looks a bit different to the one I did at home.

Oh, dear me.

Mm!

I'm happy.

Right, so the rise isn't actually as much as I originally hoped.

It's actually quite small.

It'll be fine.

So now I'm going to let it cool.

How are you? Are you doubting yourself?

I've got a baby loaf compared to everyone else's.

A baby loaf? It's quite small.

How small? About that, and it's not as...

Why don't you say it's in the distance?

Kim-Joy, Ruby and Manon have allowed their bread crucial cooling time...

I just hope they're not going to say it doesn't look like a rye bread.

..but Briony and Rahul are playing a dangerous game.

They'll have to cut their loaves when they're still baking hot,

which will make cutting a thin slice extremely tricky.

I think I have to take it out now.

It's just not ready yet.

I'm going to crumble now, because I don't have time to cool now.

HE SIGHS

Come on.

Looks good.

Hot, hot, hot, but good, good, good.

Bakers, you have 15 minutes, just 15 minutes.

Showtime.

My slices are quite thin, but I thought that's what...

Yeah, you know what? I'm going with what I'm going with.

In record time, the bakers will need to work out how to transform

their Danish rye into an exquisite open sandwich.

I'm going to do these, and then I'm going to cut.

I think it's just not cooked enough.

Like, how do you make a sandwich look good?

I just want to eat it!

I love a salmon sandwich.

So that's goat's cheese.

Bakers, you have five minutes, just five minutes.

Oh, what am I doing?

It's probably a little bit thicker than I was going for!

Going to be a bit of a doorstop sandwich.

This is a home-made cheese I made.

How do you get this stuff to look nice?

It has got a big stinger.

This is, like, a layer of roasted butternut squash.

Where did I put my salad?

Let's get the swans on.

Oh!

Oh, no! My swans!

Oh, my little swans...

You know, they've looked better.

Bakers, you have one minute, just one minute.

Oh, well.

Stop falling off.

Oh!

Let's get these on.

Oh, my hand is actually shaking.

I'm just worried that the egg bumblebees look a bit dried out now.

That is the end.

You are out of time.

HE SIGHS

HE SIGHS

The bakers' smorrebrod face quarterfinal judging

by Prue and Paul.

Hello, Ruby. Hello. Hello, Ruby. Hi.

Oh, God.

That's how thin it should be and that, actually,

is the right structure. That is nice. Mm.

Well done. That's what I expect.

I think that's a very good colour.

So, that's tandoori chicken and some raita is sitting on the bottom

and some cucumber ribbons.

I think the flavour of that is good.

I think it works together as a sandwich. OK.

Very well balanced. There's a little bit of chilli there. Yeah.

I like it all.

And, what, this is the avocado on there as well?

Yes, avocado, asparagus,

chorizo and quails' eggs.

It's a real celebration of rye, particularly in that one.

Good. It's very good.

It's like the Mediterranean meets Denmark. Thank you.

Well done. God, I'm sweating.

I'd like to have seen more colour on it. OK. Inside, yeah?

Erm, and more dense and filled with seeds, preferably. Yeah.

Right.

So we have goat cheese, roasted beetroots,

some strawberries, some glazed vinegar.

The flavour of your rye is not strong.

Also, I think it lacks savouriness.

It's so sweet. OK, sweet. Uh-huh.

It almost needs seasoning, doesn't it? It does.

Otherwise it's just like, erm... Cheesy. ..pudding.

The chutney, the walnut, the cheese, as a sandwich, it's great.

But as a Danish open sandwich?

Do you know what bread that is?

Pain de campagne. Oh, really?

Yeah, you've made a French loaf.

You've definitely got a rye in there and it is baked well.

OK. And this is a very beautiful looking texture.

I hope it tastes as good as that.

They are beautiful-looking sandwiches.

The flavours are good.

I can really taste the rye.

I think the dill makes it authentic, and so does the fish

and the avocado and the capers. Mm.

I just, it just needs to be a little bit stiffer, more seeds

and I think you would've been nearly there, to be honest.

Yeah, it was all right. It's fine.

Can you imagine, Prue... Yes.

..walking into a little coffee shop?

Is that Prue walking? Is that how she walks?

She walks in and says... Yes.

AS PRUE: "Excuse me, would you mind making me a sandwich?"

So you turn round... Yeah. ..and give her that. Yeah.

To be honest with you, I just... Yeah, I appreciate they're too big.

OK. I do apologise on that front. They're too big. Yes.

Let's try and judge them anyway.

What is this? Chorizo, iberico ham and sweet potato with a fig jam.

I tasted the white rye by itself and it doesn't taste much of rye.

Right, OK.

It's more like a malted loaf than a rye. OK.

This is even more difficult to...

Started building my own sandwich here. Mm.

I would've thought the smoked mackerel would've been perfect

but it's quite dry and... OK.

It's not rye enough, it's not dense enough,

it's not at all like an open sandwich bread.

So you're in another challenge. It's a shame.

It's just gone really soggy.

It's so dense, it's almost like a cake there.

There's no air holes in it at all.

But it does look, to be honest, Rahul, a bit of a mess. Yeah.

Erm..

Oh, dear. Oh no.

Not for me, mate. The bread's awful.

It's actually turning back into a dough in my mouth.

Paul is right, it's...

Very stodgy. ..very heavy and gluey.

It was the proving and you know that. Yeah.

I knew that it was the proving.

Actually, that reminds me of a flavour of a sandwich I had

in Copenhagen.

I'm avoiding eating the bread

because I don't think it's entirely edible. Yeah.

I think you just did too much. You tried too hard.

WHISPERS: It's OK.

They're really harsh today.

That's not bad, is it? A real celebration of rye.

Cheers for that, Paul, on a rye bread challenge.

I mean, what more could I want?

It just shows how bad it is

that Paul Hollywood did not eat the bread

because it's so bad.

Yeah, it was not my best.

So I'm middle but middle below kind of thing.

If I think that I felt like my comments were the worst,

I think I'd be crying.

CRYING: That was a bit brutal.

That was harsh, yeah.

Get back up. Get back on it.

That's just who I am.

For the first challenge,

the bakers could practice as much as they liked,

but they're going into this second one blind.

Right, bakers, welcome back to the Technical Challenge,

which today has been set for you by Paul,

although I'm pretty sure he got the idea from my house, just saying.

Paul, any advice? There's a technique in this recipe

you're going to have to learn and learn quickly.

Oh, wow. Right, thank you very much. Off we go.

Now, for your Technical Challenge today, Paul/Sandi,

would like you to make 14 Danish aebleskiver.

Your 14 aebleskiver need to be perfect

with a distinctive spherical shape.

Your aebleskiver must be filled with cinnamon spiced apple

and served with a strawberry jam dipping sauce.

You have one hour for your challenge.

On your marks... Get set... Bake!

Right, OK.

Ooh.

This looks fun.

So I actually know what they are.

Have I heard of these before? Nope.

Have I seen them before? Nope.

Paul, why aebleskiver?

I've never had one and I've never made one

and I think they sound incredibly difficult.

The best way to show you what an aebleskiver is, is cut one open.

So what you have is an aerated dough inside

and then you have this pocket of apple and cinnamon.

You want these beautiful, smooth, spherical pancakes, if you like.

It's a lovely, light batter, isn't it?

Oh, yeah. Oh, it's delicious.

This is the tricky bit.

They've all got these metal plates with indentations,

it's like semicircles.

What you've got to do is pour this batter mixture in.

Once you see the edges firming up, you've got to rotate it.

Once you rotate, you end up with a hole in the middle

and this is where you put your apple and cinnamon,

then you finally rotate and the batter covers that.

Sounds hugely difficult.

I just hope for their sake that they are cooked

cos Sandi's going to kick off, big time.

Before making the all-important batter,

the bakers have two elements to rustle up.

What you doing now? Jam sugar. I'm just making the apple now.

What's that? Looks like baby sick.

A delicious apple and cinnamon filling and strawberry preserve.

How does that even work - a jam dipping sauce?

Get it up to 105 degrees is generally the best thing to do.

Briony's using a thermometer in her jam.

Actually, she's taken hers off.

I'm going to take mine off and leave it to cool now.

For the batter, whisk the egg whites and sugar together.

It's not the same as a pancake you'd have on Pancake Day,

like, it's got buttermilk in it. It's a bit posh.

I think I'm looking for a nice, smooth consistency,

something that's not too sloppy.

Are you happy with this? I've actually seen it before.

You've seen it before?

Cos my sister dated a Danish guy for, like, two years.

Your sister dated a Danish dude. Yeah.

Sounds like a porn star, I'm not going to lie, and he made this?

So you've seen it? Yeah. Yeah, I've seen it before.

This is yours. Yeah, we'll see.

Don't want to knock out too much of the air that I've just whisked in.

I'm going to guess it needs to be nice and smooth.

I'm not very good with time constraints.

Bakers, you have half an hour left.

OK, I better get moving. I'm going to go for it now.

Oh, my God, that's heavy.

Just greasing these balls.

I don't really know what I'm doing

but it just says, "Spoon the batter into the holes

"until they are three quarters full."

Is that three quarters full or is that too full?

I'm just going to start and learn as I go.

"Cook until the edges begin to firm."

Begin to firm. So it's not letting it cook fully.

"Turn the aebleskiver 90 degrees using two wooden skewers."

Oh, it says 90 degrees.

Is 90 degrees like that?

Turning 90 degrees. So what does it mean by turn it 90 degrees?

What do you think it means?

Turning, so I guess like that?

But that's 180 degrees, innit?

What does turn mean?

Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh.

Right, so you go like that.

"Spoon a little of the spiced apple into the hole of the batter

"and then turn it another 90 degrees to close."

Really don't know how I'm meant to be doing this but...

Oh, OK.

But there's no bloody hole to put the thing in.

Oh, these are not going well.

Wow, that's hard. OK.

Wow, look, it's a little pancake!

Yeah, I mean, it's a little spherical pancake

with apple stuff inside.

Uh-oh. Very quick, isn't it? That's just not good at all.

Oh, I don't actually have that much batter.

This is going to be quite challenging, guys.

I have no idea what hole you're talking about.

Oh. What hole? What hole are we talking about?

SPEAKS IN DANISH:

Oh, no, no, no. The whole thing's burnt.

I think it's just the heat's too high.

I tried to reduce it but it's just not working for me.

I'm going to have to put the apple in somehow.

I'm going to have to spoon it in afterwards.

They will never know.

Ouch!

I think I've lost some batter and now they just look very, very small.

They're really cool.

Having never seen one before, I'm thrilled.

Come at a bad time? Yes, maybe, but that's fine.

We're trying to make you proud, Sandi. Very good.

Doing our best.

I have no time for this nonsense.

Bakers, you have five minutes left.

There's only five minutes left and I have to finish seven of them.

What am I doing? Get in there.

I've got eight and how many do we need? 14?

My aebleskiver are made,

so I'm just sieving through my jam so it's super smooth.

Oh, it won't even get in there now.

It's literally horrible. Going everywhere. Burnt.

Bakers, you have one minute.

That's not the best.

They're definitely not what Sandi was looking for.

Thank God I had a decent Signature, eh?

Bakers, that is the end. Your time is up.

They're not looking good.

Please bring your aebleskiver

and place them behind your photograph on the table.

Prue and Paul are expecting 14 perfect aebleskiver.

Spheres of light batter, filled with cinnamon spiced apple,

accompanied by a strawberry jam dipping sauce.

Interesting.

Right, shall we start with this one? Mm-hm.

Hang on a minute. Yes.

Hang on a minute!

Now, these look as if they've been torn open to be filled...

They have. ...like doughnuts, you know?

Cutting it and putting apple in it is not the way.

It's a bit stodgy. Someone struggled really rotating them.

Mm.

Very nice cinnamon flavour though and apple.

But the sauce is not a dipping sauce.

Yeah, this is a bit too thick.

It's a shame.

Now, moving on, these look a bit neater.

There's the apple filling.

Quite chunky apples, which I don't really mind that much, to be honest.

It's good dipping sauce, that. Mm.

They're pretty good. It's quite aerated, you can see from inside.

Mm. Just the right texture.

Mm. You've got a bit of bite there, haven't you? Yeah.

Look at the colour, the colour difference. Yeah.

They're not a perfect set. They're not.

So if we go for one in the middle.

Little bit of aeration. Got a lot of apple in there, actually.

Bit stodgy inside.

I like the amount of filling though. It's rather good.

The strawberry dipping sauce isn't too bad at all.

These have had serious issues.

It's split.

This is to do with the heat.

What's happened with this, it's browned very quickly

without the batter cooking. Yeah.

You can taste the burnt on that as well. Mm.

It's very like a burnt pancake.

Moving onto our last one.

Bit of a difference here in size. Yeah.

Erm... Yeah, that one is a walnut sized one. Look at that.

There's loads of apple in there, Prue.

It's aerated enough, I just think they struggled with the,

again, with the temperature and the consistency.

OK.

Prue and Paul will now rate the aebleskiver from best to worst.

In fifth, and last place, are these.

Rahul, you can taste the burntness.

Unlucky. Yeah.

In fourth place is this one.

Manon, they were sort of all different sizes,

but they tasted good.

In third place is this one.

They were a little bit stodgy

but the overall appearance is better than the other two. OK.

However, cutting them with a knife

and filling them with a bit of apple sauce?

I could not understand what hole you were talking about

so I was just, like, just get it in there.

PRUE LAUGHS

So, in second place is...

..this one.

Kim-Joy, they were nice and even.

Really they were a pretty good shot at it.

Which means in first place...

Obviously you've got a nice bit of aeration,

a good bit of apple in there as well. The sauce is good.

Well done. Thanks, Paul. Thank you.

Yay!

It can be as stodgy all it likes, I mean, it got me third place.

I didn't come last.

It's really bad.

NOEL: One last challenge.

A final chance for the bakers to earn their place in the tent

and to claim Star Baker.

Can I just say? I've loved having Danish Week.

Can I just say, for the record, when are we having a Halloween Week?

You know, Horror Week? Cos, you know, we've had Danish Week.

Every week that we look at you, darling, every week.

I think, one week, we maybe do a Goth Week. Goth Week, surely!

I think Goth Week. Black fairy cakes.

So, all five bakers turned up yesterday -

hilarious Hawaiian shirts, very jolly

and I think, suddenly, reality actually set in.

Yeah, it's semifinals next week.

It's tight, isn't it? I mean, we're talking about...

It is very, very close.

I mean, Ruby and Kim-Joy are both in the Star Baker position

at the moment. So Briony in the middle?

Briony's one of those people that could leave or could be Star Baker.

It's a bit up and down.

Manon is a very French baker.

Look at that bread she made.

That bread, if it was French Week, was perfect, but it wasn't right.

And Rahul, oddly, is in a little bit of danger.

I think he's run out of confidence.

He got hit hard for the first time yesterday,

where we were quite critical about his baking.

Genuinely, I do not know today whose gonna get the crown

and who's gonna go home. No. None of us do.

Hello, bakers. Welcome back to the tent.

For your Showstopper Challenge today, Paul and Prue would like you

to make kagemand, or kagekone.

Kagemand, or kagekone, is a cake traditionally served at

a birthday celebration in Denmark,

so the cake is shaped like a boy or a girl

and the best bit is that the whole party is supposed to scream

when the head gets cut off.

Oh, I love that.

LAUGHTER

OK. Your kagemand must be perfectly baked

using yeasted Danish pastry and must be intricately decorated.

And as if that wasn't enough, your decoration is to include

at least three different confectionary making skills.

You have four and a half hours.

On your marks... Get set...

Bake!

TIMERS BEEP

The bakers must make their kagemand, or kagekone, in the form of

somebody recognisable to them, give or take a little artistic license,

and, just as they do in Denmark,

create it from delicious Danish pastries.

What I would like to see is Danish pastry that is

actually filled and then glazed so that it's a little bit shiny.

So, shiny, delicious, sweeties on top...

Mm, lovely.

You want a golden, flaky pastry,

beautiful and soft inside, and luxurious butter layers.

I think Danish pastry's a great way to test the bakers.

They have to get that Danish pastry right.

NOEL: To be master of their Danish pastry,

the bakers must achieve perfect lamination...

It's pretty satisfying.

..the creation of delicate layers of butter within the dough.

Et voila!

BRIONY: So you want to keep the butter as cold as possible

for this to work. Cos if not, then it all melts out.

Over the next few hours...

Oh, it's just taking ages.

..the bakers repeatedly roll, fold and chill

to create a perfect dough, which, in a searing tent...

I'm so hot.

..will be easier said then done.

That's just one fold done.

One of four.

Good morning. Hello, Briony.

What about your birthday cake?

So I'm doing my Nana Pat, as she's an amazing woman.

She's 93. Still touches her toes every morning and she...

I can't do that now. I know. Neither can I.

Is this her picture? Yeah, sorry.

This is her on her wedding day in 1948.

She looks lovely. But I'm doing her in the 1940s.

Nice square shoulders. Yes, nice square shoulders.

She was just very glam and she still is a very cool lady.

Nana Pat will be accessorised with

toffee heels and a sherbet handbag.

Briony's traditional Danish swirls

will have a novel filling of

blueberries with a ginger creme patissiere.

Nana Pat has tried this. She gave me the big thumbs up.

She's just amazing.

Still drives.

Oh, my God. Look, it's literally walking.

If you got through to the semis, would you be really excited?

Yeah!

Mega excited. Imagine getting through to the final.

Oh, my God. I can't even think about it.

I mean, I'm not even sure I'm getting through to the final.

It's touch and go for me.

So I'm doing a kagekone, I think they call it, and that is my sister.

She was a gorgeous child!

And there's a picture of her at my brother's birthday

and they looked like they were having the most amount of fun,

so it's modelled on her.

To make sister Nic picture-perfect,

Ruby is assembling her Danish by Danish,

and covering each one with

a neat circle of marzipan

before adding her

confectionary clothes.

The marzipan's just sitting on top of the frangipane Danish? Danish.

Yeah. Will you be able to see the Danish?

No. I can show some of it if it needs to.

Don't let him put you off.

I'm trying to not let him get in my head. He's making me...

Look at me. Look at me. ..doubt everything again.

Ignore. Ignore. Yeah. No. Just look at me. I've got you.

Good, good. Good luck.

He's not doing that to me today.

Marshmallows.

Whoa. I'm gonna be sticky.

I'm so sticky.

I'm just making my marshmallow.

Hopefully.

Looks a little bit runny at the minute, but we'll see how it goes.

NOEL: This Showstopper's been designed to test

a whole range of skills.

It's gone quite gelatinous.

It's no good.

To earn a place in the semifinal, the bakers must produce

more individual elements then ever before.

Ouch. I can't afford to lose any single minute today.

So many things that you really want to get right today.

Basically everything.

I believe in you.

You know, like... Have you seen Star Wars?

No. You're Luke Skywalker now and I'm Yoda.

What are you talking about?

HE IMITATES YODA: Strong in the baking, are you!

Who is Luke Sidewalker?

Have you seen... Who? Luke who? Luke what? Sky...?

Skywalker. Oh, I don't know.

He's a Jedi.

You were too busy probably, studying science,

while I was pretending to be a Jedi.

Rahul may not want to be a Jedi,

but today he will be the King of India -

bejewelled with fruit jellies

and handmade chocolates on top of

his traditional Danish.

So, basically, twisted knots and then filled it with creme pat.

And then the whole thing will be covered with marzipan

and then I'm gonna put a layer of buttercream. Wow.

Hang on. On top of the Danish pastry, which is gonna be crispy,

you're covering that with buttercream?

The only reason being, sometimes because of the Danish shape,

it can be a little bit up and down.

Remember - celebrate the Danish.

One baker is celebrating their Danish by stripping it right back.

I'm actually going for quite a plain Danish pastry.

I don't like...

I just like to eat just the pastry on its own.

So that's why I just wanted to do plain croissant.

OK, I think it's gonna be enough.

Manon's recreating her friend Stina.

She's going above and beyond,

decorating with four types

of confectionary and showing off her

French patisserie skills by adding pain au chocolat arms and legs.

What butter are you using?

So I'm using Danish butter.

Yes.

Why do you look like that, Paul?

It's not a go-to butter professionally that you'd use...

..ever. It's French.

You should have gone French... Really? ..with the butter. Yeah.

It has a higher melting temperature.

So when you're developing the dough... OK.

..they don't melt as much.

Can I just say, Paul? This is no time to tell her this.

She has made her pastry. Yeah.

I'll just do this really quickly. I know it's really warm in here.

It's not ideal.

Ooh!

Paul's gonna be very watchful over the layers, over everything,

so you've just got to work quickly, but not to the detriment

of the dough, really.

I need to relax.

I'm so stressed.

I don't know what I'm doing now. Hang on a minute.

So this is my crystallised ginger,

which I'm putting into the honeycomb.

Honeycomb covered in chocolate is one of my sister's favourite...

..chocolates.

With half the bake gone and time of the essence,

the bakers must decide where to focus their energies.

While Ruby, Manon and Rahul are concentrating on their sweets...

I've got white chocolate for my ganache.

SHE EXHALES

Chocolate rain.

..Briony and Kim-Joy are prioritising decoration.

I'm not gonna lie, it's not an exact representation of Nana Pat.

I can't mess it up, otherwise Charlotte will go,

"Why am I getting a face like that?"

Oh, she's starting to come to life?

Yes, she's a living, living lady.

Oh, look at that face!

It's gorgeous. It's quite creepy.

Do you paint? It is a little on the creepy side.

In real life, Kim-Joy's friend Charlotte isn't at all creepy,

she's an opera buff

and will be dressed to impress

in an elegant ball gown.

I like intricate stuff.

I like being able to take my time over it.

What is this bit, then?

So this, I'm just doing her skirt... Right. ..and her top.

So I'm just putting on the base and putting little roses on it.

OK. I'm being very stupid, is this cooked already?

This is just marzipan. Oh, it's marzipan. OK.

Looked like very underdone dough.

Can you tell how much I've learnt in the time I've spent in the tent?

Yes! Yes. I can tell. You are... Yeah.

What are you doing in there? Sorting out my truffles.

That one's a bit sad, isn't he? Which one? This one?

Yeah. No, the one at the back. It's a bit small.

Yeah, it's a little baby one. Is it?

Is he gonna like that, Paul? He'll go, "They're not the same size."

It is a competition. He is the judge.

It's up to you, though. Go your own way. Fine.

What you doing? Making them all a bit smaller.

Don't listen to me!

You got in my head.

Bakers, you have two hours left.

Doomed.

Do you want a bit of herring?

Hmm? Herring? Do you want some herring?

I've got something stuck in my teeth.

OK, so I just need to think, because obviously I need to

have enough dough for all of it.

Oh. As you can see, I am a little bit stressed.

Ready or not, the bakers must now shape their Danishes...

I'm gonna turn this into twisted knots.

One leg.

..to ensure they don't run out of time for proving,

baking and cooling.

I'm just really conscious that I want them to be nice, tight rolls.

So these bigger ones will be more so for the body.

I should... I think I need about 17.

I have to make one head.

Obviously. Humans have one head.

Yes, I really don't want to make the head too big

cos it is gonna rise.

Just doing Nana Pat's hair.

Oh, gone way too big!

SHE LAUGHS

I just need to finish it as soon as possible

because I actually need to prove it.

The bakers face a critical decision -

how long to prove their dough?

If it's not given long enough, the pastry will be too heavy and dense.

Too long and they risk the butter leaking out.

I'm probably gonna give them half hour. They haven't got much time.

That looks like Operation. Do you know Operation? The game?

The game! Oh, yes. You have to... Yeah.

We call it Docteur Maboul.

What's that mean? That means "crazy doctor".

Crazy doctor? Yes.

God, I'm so hot.

I just wonder if I should just, you know, bake it.

It's just so hot in here and...

..yeah, I think I should just bake it.

Kim-Joy's friend has been proving for 15 minutes.

It's so hot in here, I'm already gonna lose lamination.

I'm just gonna bake it now.

I'm just filling my chocolate bon bons

and then I'm gonna put it in the freezer for a little bit.

Tastes like sherbet.

SHE COUGHS

Once this is done, I have made my marshmallow, my caramel.

I only have to do my chocolate and my nougatine.

Nana Pat is in.

Don't move. Don't move. Please don't move. Please don't move.

Oh, OK.

So they're going in now for 15 minutes.

Danish pastry requires a short bake.

In a matter of minutes, the bakers will know if their hours of

tireless work have been in vain.

You don't want it to brown too much on the outside, but you want it to

cook nicely on the inside so you've got to be careful.

They look really flaky and puffy.

Look, there's lots of butter leaking.

Oh, dear me.

The pain au chocolat has opened a little bit.

A lot of pressure.

OK.

It looks really flaky and gigantic.

Erm, it's not as...

It's not as delicate and small as I thought it would be.

Just got to...

..make it work.

Ah! I haven't even got a sword.

Ah! I haven't even got a sword.

Well, that's not my fault. Ah!

Ooh.

Ooh. Do the time call. Bakers...

Ooh. Do the time call. Bakers...

SHE WHISPERS: One hour.

..you've got one...

..hour...

..left.

And you've got less.

I'm loving this week.

I'm loving it.

I'm gonna open the door.

These are looking good.

Maybe a little bit crispy round the outside, but...

..yeah, I'm happy with those. Lovely, lovely lamination.

It's a nice colour, it's a nice golden brown. So, happy with that.

I think this has risen in a weird way.

It's crispy on the top, but very bready inside.

I'm just worried it's still gonna be a bit doughy inside.

Come on, Manon.

Ah.

Tiny bit more. Literally, like, two minutes.

Come on. Last effort.

Gonna wait till this...

The main thing is that it's out and it's cooked and I like it

and it's good.

We'll just cover it with raspberries on the top and, you know,

it'll all be distracted.

I'm just gonna put it for another five minutes

and then I'm just gonna take it out.

Can I taste this bit? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Go for it. Are you sure?

That bit's probably a bit crunchy, but...

..but, yeah.

Mm!

That is delicious.

Good. Wow.

Come on.

Smells like something's burning.

Oh, no.

Oh.

Tried your best and that's it.

OK. That is coming out.

Ah!

Bakers, you have 15 minutes, just 15 minutes.

Go, go, go.

Shoo, shoo, shoo, shoo, shoo.

OK.

This is the leg.

It's hard to make a big slab of pastry look good.

Victory rolls have gone a bit wonky.

Ta-dah!

We've got this, OK?

Oh, wow. Great.

It's not going to work how I want to work, but I'll just have to

do it now, in whatever way I can.

Well, it's not as good as I wanted it to look.

The braid is just... Yeah, just need to arrange things cleverly.

She likes to wear a lot of bright colours.

Believe it or not, I'm actually the quietest in my house.

Beautiful.

It's the two hands of the maharajah.

I like fresh raspberries.

Yeah, all right. She's coming together, she's coming together.

Oh, dear me.

My hands are shaking so bad,

I can't even bloody cut.

Bakers, you have five minutes left.

Urgh, bah!

Scissors? Scissors? Scissors? Scissors? Scissors anywhere?

Belt, face.

Bag. Ooh, toffee, toffee, toffee.

After this, I'm going home.

Breaking it into pieces cos it will sit on my skirt.

Ah, yes. That was so satisfying.

I'm not sure how proud she'd be of this pearl necklace,

but she's getting it.

These are with raspberry jam.

I guess they look like feet, really, don't they?

Maybe I should keep them as feet?

Doesn't really look that good.

That's it. Oh, BLEEP.

Right, bakers, your time is up. Please place your Showstoppers

at the end of your work stations.

It's rubbish, but it's OK.

The bakers' Danish Showstoppers

now face the judgment of Paul and Prue.

Ruby, please bring up your kagekone.

And this is your sister?

This is my sister when she was younger.

She's got a very fun, bubbly personality.

It's absolutely sweet.

Aw. It really is.

The Danish pastries look like Danish pastries.

See the layers, how tight they are together.

There's butter still in there.

It's crispy on the outside.

If you'd glazed it, it would have been nicer.

Oh, really? With apricot jam. Apricot jam? Apricot jam.

Right, OK. Fine.

I think the pastry's lovely

but Paul is right about the apricot glaze.

Not just for its look...

Yeah, for the taste.

..but because you need a little bit more sweetness in it. OK.

But it's buttery. I can feel that on my tongue.

Yeah. You have your honeycomb.

Mm. Yeah, the ginger works.

That's delicious. Thank you.

Overall, I think it's really nice.

I think the design's effective. It's really nice.

Yeah, simple and effective.

I must say, I think that the way that you've done the skirt

with the plaiting of the marshmallow,

and the face, and the bow on top, is all beautifully done. Lovely.

So, what filling have you put inside your Danish?

So I just have a bar of chocolate

and the rest is just plain.

I like it plain.

Hmm, is that a Danish or is that a pain au chocolat?

One, two, three.

THEY SCREAM

THEY LAUGH

It is a little undercooked in the middle

and overcooked on the outside.

Your oven was too high and you kept it in there for too long.

The first thing that happens in a Danish pastry

is butter leaks away from the Danish,

soaks onto the tray, gets drawn up from the bottom of the pastry

and that flashes with the heat.

And it fries at the bottom.

The bottom's fried. Yeah. So that's what's happened there. Yeah.

And it's not just happened on this,

it's happened on all of them.

I mean, that's been sitting in a pool of butter

and now it's solidified. It's congealed.

And these chocolates.

Mm. It's good.

The sweets are very, very good.

Very professional looking, actually.

Your pastry, however,

I have a big issue with.

I think your baking was pretty poor on this.

Thank you.

I don't think I've ever seen

more exquisite piping.

Thank you. It's amazing.

Um, so it represents my friend Charlotte

and it's her wearing, like, a gown.

The design of it is impeccable.

I mean, it's very, very good.

However, for me, you've had issues with the butter.

It's all gone. Yeah. It's dry.

You see the big gaps?

That's where the butter's gone. Ah.

So what you're left with is just the dough.

It's definitely, sort of,

underbaked or soggy.

You've under-proved this thing.

I think I worried that, um, it was quite warm

so the butter might be getting too warm,

so I baked it sooner.

Hmm.

Shall we do the other filling? This one. Hmm.

What have you got in that, um...?

Is that creme pat? Mm-hmm.

What's in there? Um, with...

Almond liqueur creme pat?

Mm.

It's OK. It's OK.

It's very nice and strong.

I love that.

Marzipan's good, chocolate's good.

The jellies are nice.

The pastry, not so.

Mm-hm.

Thank you, Kim-Joy. Thank you very much.

Can I help you? Let me help you.

It's OK, sweet. It's all right.

You did great. It looks beautiful.

I'm good now. I'm fine.

Just let it out.

SHE LAUGHS AND SNIFFLES

In the Danish pastries,

you've got ginger creme pat with some dried blueberries.

And then it's got vanilla marzipan,

and then there's some sherbet

and some toffee on her shoes at the bottom,

and a marshmallow necklace as well.

It's not a beard!

It's a necklace.

It's got a lovely flavour. Oh, good.

Mm. I quite like the blueberries in there and the colour's nice.

See the colour? That's the colour you're looking for. Good.

And this just sherbet, is it? Yes, that's sherbet on the bag, yep.

BRIONY LAUGHS

It is, yeah. It's good, isn't it?

Overall, it's got a nice flavour.

You're the closest one to get the Danish pastries.

It's just burnt.

You left it in the oven ten minutes too long.

Probably, yeah. Just... Yeah.

But I love the way you've used the round ones for the buttons

and it looks positively Indian and jewelled.

Uh-oh, here we go. Are you ready?

THEY SCREAM

Bring this over.

It's tough.

And very dry. Hm.

Really dry.

Um, marzipan's lovely.

Very nice. It's got a nice flavour.

Shall we have a jelly sweet?

Yeah.

Perfect. Ooh, yeah.

Very nice.

And that one is summer mixed berry.

That's nice, too.

And the hard buttons are basically, uh, filled with raspberry jam.

Mm.

Well, I love all of your sweets. Yeah.

The pastry is a bit disappointing.

Yeah.

Thank you, Rahul.

Yeah, thank you.

I need a hug.

Stop saying that. Everyone...

No, no, no, Rahul. Don't say that yet, OK?

I don't deserve to be here any more

so I just need to be kicked out.

I don't know if I can talk about it.

SHE SNIFFLES

Hmm...

It's fine.

SHE SNIFFLES

There's been a lot of movement, hasn't there?

I mean, in terms of the rankings.

I think some did better than others.

I think Briony's picked herself back up. I also think Ruby's done well.

I think Kim-Joy's slipped down...

..in contention of leaving,

as well as Manon and Rahul... are in serious trouble. In trouble.

Yes, I mean, Manon did spend, for me,

far too much time making beautiful sweets

and not enough time filling her pastry,

which would have made a huge difference. What about Rahul?

He burnt it, basically, yeah.

If you overbake a pastry and all the butter runs out...

I think I know who's going to be Star Baker.

We need to talk about that. But who's going home?

You guys have another cup of tea? I'll put the kettle on.

I've got a bottle of fizz for myself.

Right, my lovely bakers, I have loved Danish Week.

I thought it was great.

And I have the pleasure of announcing the Star Baker.

This is getting harder and harder, but there can only be one,

like there can only be one mermaid in Copenhagen Harbour.

So the Star Baker this week is...

..Ruby!

OTHERS CHEER

Aww. Oh, man.

That means that I've got the horrible job

of sending one of you home, and...

Yeah, this is going to be a nightmare.

The person who's leaving us this week is...

..Manon.

It's OK.

What?

Manon, you know what? You should be proud of yourself.

I mean, to get this far is amazing.

SHE SIGHS

WHISPERS: It's going to be OK.

Oh, Manon.

It's just baking.

You did really well, Manon. I'm so sorry.

Thank you.

Ironically, it was on a pain au chocolat.

SHE LAUGHS

I've learned so much,

so many things I didn't even think I would be able to actually make.

I'm a stronger...stronger baker,

and hopefully a stronger person.

PRUE: I am sad to see Manon go.

She's a really good French baker.

She's just not a very good Danish one.

Next week, Rahul, start upping it up.

I'll try. I promise I'll try.

I didn't expect that. Just... Just, like... Yeah.

Congratulations. Thank you. Thank you.

It sounds so silly in my head

that I've reached the semifinals. Like, what?

See you next week. Oh, my God.

Well done, Ruby. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you very much.

Ruby's done it. I'm very happy for her.

If there was a time to get Star Baker, this is when to get it,

going into the semifinals. It gees you up.

I got Star Baker!

CHEERING THROUGH SPEAKERPHONE

I told you, I'm the quiet one.

I told you I'm the quiet one.

Next week...

..as the end of the competition draws nearer...

Semifinal, semifinal, semifinal, semifinal. Aaagh!

..the bakers take on Patisserie Week...

Fwe, fweel, fwee, feuilletine.

..with a deceptively difficult Signature...

There's no time to even breathe.

..a lavishly layered Technical... I don't know what I'm doing.

..and an epic five-hour Showstopper...

He can say what he wants to say.

..to reach the final... No, it's not good.

..of The Great British Bake Off.

HE PANTS