Fans ended up loving the recent Mexican Week on The Great British Bake Off. The show, known as The Great British Baking Show in the USA and Canada, has been airing for more than a decade now and fans can't get enough of it. It has become a staple of British reality TV, and it is only gathering more steam with each new season.
Over the years, other than the entertaining remarks from judges and baking mishaps, the show has also taught a ton of baking tips and tricks to casual amateur bakers. While an avid baker might be aware of most of them, these tips can change the baking game of most regular people.
The "Windowpane" Test For Checking Dough
Whenever someone is in the middle of kneading their dough, it can be really tough to figure out when should they stop. While the regular stretch test can help, it's not always enough.
Kimberly Wilson from season 2 demonstrated another effective technique called the "windowpane test." While kneading the dough, if one stretches it and holds it in front of a light source, and if the light is able to through the dough, it indicates that enough gluten has properly developed and it is ready.
Blind Bake Your Pie Crust
There is nothing worse than a pie with a soggy, wet, and moist bottom crust. The worst part is that pies can take hours to prepare and people only figure out that it has a soggy bottom once the baking process is finished, that's hours of work down the drain. Mary Berry, one of the judges on the show, says that there is no excuse for a soggy bottom, and yet she sees them quite a lot throughout the show.
The trick to avoiding this is by blind baking the crust for a short time to partially cook it before putting in any wet ingredients. One thing to do, as well, to add some kind of weight before baking it to prevent the crust from bubbling up. People use special baking beads or even uncooked rice or beans to do this.
Use The Middle Rack
Even if someone has followed the recipe to the T, it doesn't mean that the final result is going to be perfect, and a cake with a burnt outer crust can ruin the whole cake. Over the years, Mary Berry has repeatedly said that people can avoid this and it is these tips that make GBBO one of the best baking competition show out there.
It is always recommended to place the uncooked cake on the middle or lower rack in the oven to avoid it being exposed to very high heat from the top element. Some pre-made cake mixes do specify this, but it's not common and people often neglect this part.
Keep Puff Pastry In The Fridge Before Baking
Whenever contestants on the GBBO have to make a pastry, they have to do it from scratch. And when it comes to puff pastry, they have to wrap a block of butter in the dough and keep folding and rolling until the layers have properly mixed with one another. The puffiness comes from the different layers rising due to the heat and the butter melting.
But in some cases, the butter can just melt out of the dough, especially if it is put into the oven warm. This is what season 6 winner, Nadia Hussain, discovered during Patisserie Week when she ran out of time on the show and did not keep the pastry in the freezer for a couple of minutes before baking it.
Only Decorate Cakes Once Cooled
Decorating a cake is one of the most fun and creative parts of baking, but there is nothing worse than the entire decoration just becoming a big blob of a mess. When bakers have to create an architectural wonder during the weekly Showstopper event based on the week's theme, many have run into this issue.
The trick is quite simple, just wait for the cake to cool down before putting on any icing or decorations. This way, the buttercream frosting and other materials won't melt away. A good rule of thumb is to wait for at least 10-15 minutes after taking the cake out of the oven, but that would be the bare minimum.
Certain Pastries Require Over-Baking For Structural Integrity
It is very common for people to stick to the indicated baking time religiously only to get a not-so-satisfactory final result. One of the Showstopper challenges in season 6 was a religieuse a l'ancienne, which is a tiered centerpiece consisting of eclairs.
Most of the contestant's eclairs couldn't hold the structure together for a long time, such dramatic moments in the show make it one of the best reality shows out there. But the ones who slightly overbaked the eclair were successful. This is because slightly overbaking the pastry gives it a bit more crunch and structural integrity, along with a darker color.
But Under-Bake For Malleability
Just like slightly overbaking will result in a crunchier, sturdier, and darker pastry, underbaking a cake can do the opposite. This was seen during the Alternative Ingredients week in season 7 when contestants had to make a cake for an ice cream roll.
While some unlucky GBBO contestants couldn't roll their cakes, the trick was to just slightly under-bake the cake to make it more malleable. This is tricky to perfect, as under-baking can also easily lead to it being raw in the middle.
Follow The Measurements Exactly
Baking is a precise art -- every amateur baker has heard this at least once. Many professional bakers have stated before that while people can play around and experiment with the ingredients and their quantities while cooking, baking comes down to the exact science of mixing sugar, eggs, and flour, among other things.
Paul Hollywood often reminds the contestant that precise measurements are not optional and even slight variations can lead to a completely different dish.
Something Is Better Than Nothing
How many times does a bake not go according to plan? Bakers all over the world have gone through the trauma where they just want to throw the entire thing away rather than serve it to people. This also happened in season 1 when Iain Watters tossed his Baked Alaska into the trash.
Iain was also eliminated in the same episode because judges did not like his attitude of throwing something away just because it did not look good. He deprived them of being able to taste his food. This was also one of the biggest baker meltdowns on the GBBO.
There Is No Shortcut For Proofing
For the un-initiated, proofing refers to letting the dough rest. This is done for multiple reasons, one of the most common being to let it rise. Some recipes call for a longer proofing time and people don't always have the time for it.
Bakers outside the show and even contestants on the show have tried time and again to shorten this proofing period. Some contestants have kept the dough in a warmer area, while others simply started baking before the full proofing period was complete. This has never worked on the show or in real life.