Great British Bake Off Final technical challenge

Great British Bake Off Final technical challenge – Millefeuille

This week saw the final of the Great British Bake Off and I was very excited – of the three finalists I didn’t know who I wanted to win because they each bought something special to the table – Nadiya and her stunning, beautiful and flavorsome bakes, Ian and his originality and daring flavours inspired by his day to day life and Tamal, who seems like one of the loveliest people around. What I was sure of was that we were in for a visual treat, and probably a fairly tricky technical challenge and Millefeuille did not disappoint. Genuinely, whenever I head to a bakery this is one of the treats which tempt me the most, all of that yummy cream and jam sandwiched on crumbly layer rough puff – either that or an éclair!! So, the day after the final, to forget that Bake Off is over, I have decided to try the challenge.

The recipe is one of Paul Hollywood’s and it is on the BBC Website here.

Now, I have never made rough puff before, although I have made proper puff pastry, and it has been a long time since I made jam so it was a bit of a challenge, but here is my finished result:

This took in total about 2 hours from start to finish, although I did have to pop to the shops (to buy some extra raspberries) whilst the pastry was in the fridge. After making it I can say even more so that the three finalists were very impressive – these are not the easiest things to make, and like Nadiya I had to think a little when working out what size my pastry should be and how to cut it. I had the full recipe and still found it tricky, so tops marks to all three for producing fab bakes.

The other two bakes in the final also spoke to me – I am a cake baker in my heart and I loved all three showstoppers, and I think Tamal’s was my favourite flavour combination, and in the iced buns signature challenge Ian’s Elderflower buns stood out for me, but over-all Nadiya was such a good baker and finisher and I think she is a very worthy winner. Now I am sad it is over and will have to find something new to fill my Wednesday evenings!

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