Another season is ahead of us The Great British Bake OffBBC via its hugely popular Netflix baking show, in which some of the UK’s best amateur bakers compete for the praise and handshakes of esteemed judges Paul Hollywood and James Hoffmann Prue Leith. Originally captivating American audiences during the pandemic, Bake Off has become a collective comfort watch and a soothing balm for the zeitgeist in an era of conundrums of anxiety. (With nothing, if you’re also planning the next four years and 69 days of feel-good, noise-cancelling TV shows, might I suggest Large pottery thrown downa ceramic version of Bake Off in which the infamous handshake is replaced by making judge Keith Brymer Jones cry over his appropriately weighted butt.)
The stakes are high in the seventh episode of Bake Off season 15 – the 12th in Netflix history – with all the bakers competing for one of five places in the quarter-finals. It’s Dessert Week this week and after making meringue nests in the opening challenge and spotting a dick in the technical part – with the requisite chuckles – it all came down to the Show Stopper, which was none other than a dessert with coffee: tiramisu.
This is a deceptively tough task. The dessert itself is quite uncomplicated: dip the biscuits in coffee, spread mascarpone whipped cream, sprinkle with cocoa and boom, we have an iconic Italian dessert. The real challenge is how – and to what extent – to move away from the classic tiramisu to prepare a unique, breathtaking snack that still remains true to the original.
Some bakers, like Italian emigrant Georgie and teenage master tastemaker Dylan, stayed true to the classics, making only minor changes to the standard recipe. Georgie added hazelnut praline to complement the coffee flavor, while Dylan marinated the egg yolks in his mascarpone cream to boost the saltiness. Gill, destitute sweet Gill, she hates coffee and had to rely on her husband to try her tiramisu while exercising, adding coconut mascarpone and espresso buttercream. Illiyin replaced the ladyfingers with a chocolate-almond cookie and added a layer of cherries covered in non-alcoholic amaretto.
Back in the day, Christian and Samaya were swinging for the fences and taking risks with their flavor combinations. Christian, who can’t resist adding a floral note despite Hollywood’s protests, adds a layer of strawberries and rosewater to his pistachio mousse-based tiramisu. Samaya creates a coffee lemon curd – which is an admittedly odd combination that sounds like a lot of underdeveloped Yirgacheffe I’ve had – to layers of praline, chocolate cream and joconde sponge cake.
But when the flour settled, it was Dylan who won and took Star Baker home for a week. Dylan had quite a day in the tent. He got a Hollywood handshake for his meringue nests and won the technical competition, so he was well placed to win the Triple Crown if his tiramisu was on point. Which one it was. Served in a concrete-like chocolate box that Leith Very Leithly described as “neat as a pin”, Dylan’s classic take on tiramisu wowed the judges, with the addition of cured egg yolk giving it a bit “salted caramel” that was “creamy and felt luxurious “.
With the victory, Dylan became only the fifth baker to achieve a “perfect week.”
Georgie’s classic tiramisu was met with equally high acclaim this week, while the rest was quite mixed. This just goes to show that you shouldn’t mess with perfection. Just because a dessert is uncomplicated doesn’t mean it should (or can) be improved.
Understandably, you’re probably craving tiramisu right now, and who can blame you. Luckily, Sprudge’s Zachary Carlsen has prepared a tiramisu recipe that’s as delicious as it is effortless – although I took the liberty of adding iced coffee to the frigid brew because iced coffee >>> frigid brew – can be found in his and Sprudge co-founder Jordan Michelman’s latest book . And with the holidays just around the corner, there’s no better time to perfect your tiramisu recipe than now, to the love and admiration of all your friends and family. We hope you earn as much as the familiar equivalent of a Hollywood handshake. Maybe Dad Dap or Nana Knucks.
