It’s Juniors S7E3 - Bread day for Heat A! Kick off with some GBBO news - our friend Giesseppe Dell’Anno from Season 12 has a new book - Giessupe’s Easy Bakes available for Pre-order. This is his 2nd book - the first was from about a year ago. I’m tempted to get it
Where are they Now: Hermine Dossou - Season 11. From west Africa and moved to London in 2001 for education. Has been baking her own things since age 8 and kept on rolling. She loves high end French baking, and it showed in her style and flair on the show… but she was just shy of making it to the finals. So what is she doing NOW.
Well she has a new book available for pre-order - The Thrifty Baker. She posted this on instagram - bakealongwithhermine - back in May. She hasn’t really been active on the channel despite almost 100k followers. 2021 interviews - Hermine is an accountant prior to bake off, with one child. She was a semi-finalist and was also on the holiday episode of bake off. She did a special food truck tour this year called “Give peas a chance” which supported an effort to help farming families in Malawi become more self-sufficient. The country was recently hit with a massive cyclone that left over 500,000 without homes and destroyed many crops at their peak.
Two bakes as is typical with Juniors. The Technical brought a steamer to the tent for the first time (in Juniors). Panda steamed buns. They gave them an hour to make these mushroom and ginger filled concoctions. It involved black food coloring and the messiness did not disappoint. Some challenges with making neat pockets of dough, proofing and steaming times. Lola had the toughest go of it - she barely rolled out her dough so not much filling which left her at the end. Kezia had great forming technique and flavor earning her the top spot in this round.
I do have to say Eliza impresses me not only with her cool head, but in her willingness to help others - she does it multiple times each episode. What a great example of a kid!
In the showstopper, they had to make their heroes in a sweet bread. They were allowed to start their dough the day before to proof overnight. Some that had a sweeter dough like brioche… that was a lot of proof time.. Eliza’s looked like a bread blob spilling over the bowl onto the pan. Interesting takes by several - there were two Frida Kahlo takes. Eliza’s had three types of flavors in it, and Mia’s had a honey dough, but both come out really well. Though Eliza’s lack of a second proof left hers a little tight. Lola did Captain Tom in bread, filled generously with Hazelnuts and chocolate spread. Looked great. Quique had the MOST adorable story of how his was his teacher - the way he described her melted my heart. His result was good, but a little under proofed. Will had some challenges - skipped a 2nd proof, and burned a part of the design so had to remake. Macy kept it simple in her brioche and icing sugar Toni Duggan and it paid off. Kezia did a strong bake in her brioche tribute to Jemma Wilson.
Will’s weak showing in the showstopper sent him home despite a reasonably strong 3rd in the technical, and Kecia brings home Star Baker.
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