Episode 50!!! Very excited to bring the show to you - it’s fun and I love talking about this topic. Tell your baking friends to come along for the ride!  Follow us on IG @scrummyhandshakes

So I made a little investment in my baking journey.  Alison turned me on to Christina Tosi of Milk Bar fame - she also does a show on Netflix called Bake Squad - 10 out of 10 must watch if you love GBBO. I kept seeing a “masterclass” kind of thing for her on a platform called Studio.  She teaches 3 of Milk Bar’s famous recipes - Cornflake Choc Chip Marshmallow cookie, Milk Bar Pie, and Birthday Layer Cake - but she also teaches her process for recipe creation, prototyping, etc. Something like 16 hours of classes.  So  - I decided I wanted to up my learning and I got it!  Started on the cookies and these look exciting. There is a sub recipe for the “cornflake crunch” aspect of the cookie and just that is a fantastic mix in that could be used for a ton of stuff. I bet you could top ice cream with it and it would be amazing. Very excited to see how these things go!

Bake off news:  it’s starting soon!  Expect to see the line up of bakers ANY day now!  ALSO - big format changes! Reading several articles on the subject and and it appears that there will be no “national themed” weeks this year based on feedback from the fans.  This is probably for the best as there have been a few cringe moments sprouting from those weeks.  Best to play it safe. New theme is “Party Cakes”.  It also appears the bakes will be more “approachable”. Paul says “In a way we’ve returned to the philosophy of the first three series”.  I like it already!

In where are they now this week, let’s take a look at series nine and someone that I very much enjoyed on the show Briony Williams. She was one of the only bakers I can recall that had a visible physical “difference” - she has no fingers on her left hand - It in no way should be called a disability at all - she rocked in the kitchen and nothing slowed her down. 

Post bake off she was a presenter for Channel 4’s “Food unwrapped” as well as “Escape to the Country” and writes columns for publications such as BristolLife. Follow her on her Instagram along with her 150k followers @brionymaybakes where she posts a lot about her life and adventures as well as tons of recipes.

Bread week for Heat B! First comment - I just love Rav and Liam as judges. They almost look like a "couple" they are so comfortable with each other. The bakers kick things off with a pull apart bear bread with spicy harissa and parmesan with tapenade side. This is a non-yeasted bread and Aisya knew right away what to do with it. She gave almost a mini-tutorial. Fraser and Mia had strong looking bakes, while Sasha dropped a couple of hers. D'vonte and tomos were "ok" along with Gabriel. Taking technical was Aisya took the top spot followed by Mia and Fraser. D'vonte at the 7th slot with Gabriel last. Over blitzing the tapenade and not baking the bears "together" were the two big challenges.

In showstopper it was your best day in focaccia! They were allowed to make dough the day before (I wish they would show that footage!). These were pretty straight forward with a few nuances - Fraser went sourdough - a bold move that paid off. D'Vonte made 2 types but gave up the send proof - a gamble that did NOT pay off. Aisya's was gorgeous. Mia's had lots of promise but she should have cooked her sausage first. Gabriel did one with veggies and chili salt, but the chili wasn't present - only the salt.... salma did a nice job but had a way to go from being 5th in technical.

Star went to Fraser... not crazy that he won (must have been delicious) but I thought Aisya was stronger as a whole. They sent D'vonte home - that 2nd proof miss... but honestly ... I felt Gabriel deserved to go more. Last in technical and over salted with poor design. Will see when actual new bake off starts but will continue with Juniors until then!