• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Kerry Cooks

Recipes and inspiration from the sweeter side of life

  • Home
  • Rainbow Cake
  • Recipes
    • Rainbow Cake
    • Cookies and Cookie Dough
    • Cakes
    • Bars and Brownies
    • Brunch
    • Cupcakes
    • Nutella
    • No-Bake
    • Seasonal
      • Valentine’s Day
      • Easter
      • Summer
      • Autumn
      • Halloween
      • Christmas
    • Healthy Choices
    • Savoury Recipes
  • Baking 101
    • How to’s
    • Cupcake Academy
    • Baking Essentials
    • Baking cheat sheets
  • On the Side
    • Beauty
    • Reviews
    • Blogging
    • Things I love
  • Get in Touch
    • Work with Kerry
    • Disclosure

Great British Bake Off: Series Five Episode Two Recap

August 6, 2014 By Kerry Cooks 5 Comments

It’s bake off time!! And it’s biscuit week. First up are savoury biscuits, (they need to go with dough, and Mary says they must snap!) so the contestants are going all out with cheesy, herby goodness! And we meet Jordan’s pet yeast, Yorick!

Diana is trying something different and using pastry dough for her biscuits… could this backfire or be a triumph? Let’s see! Meanwhile Norman is doing the polar opposite and making a plain biscuits with no flavouring at all… hmm! Which approach will win the day?

A few minutes later and the bakers are very nervously watching their ovens – the biscuits are so thin that they can overbake very quickly. Richard is up first for judging and his rosemary biscuits get a good review. He’s followed by Jordan with his slightly overbaked but tasty biscuits. Chetna, Luis, Nancy and Martha all get rave reviews, but Kate, Ian, Diana and Enwezor get a bit more constructive criticism. So how do Norman’s plain biscuits fare? Paul and Mary love them! Norman can do no wrong. He’s going to sell them for a farthing each – Norman, I’ll take a dozen!

*Food learning interlude* – time to learn about gelato! I ate my body weight in it at an amazing galeteria in Sardinia one summer…. I have no regrets! 

Back to the Bake-Off! The technical challenge this week is one of Mary’s recipe – and it’s florentines! Mary talks us through how to make a perfect one, and oh they do look divine! I’m not a fan normally but I’m sure homemade are a whole different thing… 

Florentines are made by adding fruit and nuts to a caramel dough – lots of the contestants are flummoxed by the dough and how big to make the cookies. Cue lots of nervous oven watching! Once the florentines are liberated from the ovens, there’s lots of debate on how to apply the chocolate, but there don’t appear to be any florentine disasters. 

Judging time, and Martha will surely get loads of points for her zig zagging… although her florentines are pronounced a little small. Jordan does well (hurrah!) and Mary cautions against cutting out your florentines. Ian is pronounced the worst florentine maker, followed by Norman, while Nancy and Richard come out on top! 

Showstopper time! The contestants will make a 3d biscuit scene – the Bake Off is so challenging this year! Enwezor is not making his own fondant… Mary is displeased. Martha is making a ski village scene with flavours of the mountains like hot chocolate… it sounds amazing! I can really see her winning this whole thing…

Nancy is making a hansel and gretal scene which sounds super ambitious… good luck Nancy! Ian knows he may well be getting the boot unless he pulls it out of the bag in this challenge… I reckon he’s going.

Jordan time! He’s making a monster scene with skyscrapers and custard and bourbon biscuits. What a cute biscuit monster! Norman has made his own cookie cutter for this challenge…. oh Norman! Uh-oh, Jordan’s biscuits are stuck to the tray. 

Oh my gosh, Enwezor is amazing! Direct quote = “I drew a dinosaur for my daughter and it was so awful she started crying.”

 Judging time! Ian has seemingly saved himself from elimination with his horsey scene! Diana’s cake is praised for it’s construction by Mary – another fan of old fashioned baking! Next up is Richard with his pirate scene and it’s bloody bloody amazing! He’s put his building skills to good use! And it even tastes amazing – is Richard another possible winner?

Jordan is next! The monster is so adorable! Paul has issues with the tidiness of the scene, but the biscuits taste fantastic. Go #teamjordan! Chetna’s design is good but the biscuits are burnt…. ๐Ÿ™

Nancy also receives lots of praise, along with Kate… and now it’s Enwezor’s turn… once again the issue of him not making the fondant comes up, as well as his biscuits being under-cooked. 

Luis’s George and the Dragon scene is absolutely incredible!  For once Paul can’t find enough good things to say… they’ve pretty much all done great this week! Norman is next and his simple approach lets him down for once… the judges feel he should have shown off more of his talents as his showstopper is a bit too simple.

Martha’s mountain top scene is beautiful (with a hanging chairlift!) and everyone loves it – go Martha!

So who is star baker and who will go home? It’s Richard bless him and he looks so chuffed! Hurrah! Enwezor is going home… the standard of the contestants this year is just so excellent that one slightly poorer week will see you go home… crazy!

Recipes from this week’s episode – 

  • Norman’s Farthing Biscuits
  • Pumpkin Sunflower Seed Biscuits
  • Mary’s Florentine Recipe
  • 3d biscuits

Are you tempted to make florentines? Who do you have pegged as an early possible winner? Meet you back here next week for bread! You know Paul will be on point!

x Kerry

 

 

Share the love!

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • Reddit
  • Tumblr
  • Print

Filed Under: Great British Bake Off Tagged With: gbbo, Great British Bake Off

Previous Post: « Honeymoon snapshots: New York, baby!
Next Post: Snapshots from my week »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Helen says

    August 15, 2014 at 12:49 pm

    I caught up last night and now need to buy some florentines ASAP. I’m not sure I could make them myself ๐Ÿ™‚ Love your write ups!

    Reply
    • Kerry Cooks says

      August 15, 2014 at 1:43 pm

      Aw thanks Helen! I bet you could!!

      Reply
  2. Sue says

    August 13, 2014 at 9:35 pm

    Precis. Diana was a train wreck, boom boom!
    Jordan is soooo sweet. Enwezor should not have gone, that is all.

    Reply
    • Kerry Cooks says

      August 13, 2014 at 11:05 pm

      Haha! Mary loved her! They’re all so good that you don’t have to be particularly bad to go this year

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

CommentLuv badgeShow more posts

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

Hi, I'm Kerry!
Cookie-dough addict, rainbow cake lover, friend to cats, never met a pizza I didn't like. VERY enthusiastic human. Homebody and adventurer. Nice to meet you!

Read more about Kerry...
Kerry Line
Facebook 11,405Fans
follow
Twitter 2,369Followers
follow
Instagram 1,800Followers
follow
Pinterest 7,344Subscribers
subscribe
Post 1,118Posts
edit
Comment 8,256Comments
comment
Kerry Line
Kerry Line

A note about links

Some of the links on this site are affiliate links, which means that if you click on it and go on to buy something, I might earn a few pennies (and it will cost you the same!).
Kerry Line
Kerry Line

Footer

Work with me!

I love telling my audience about products I love! Get in touch -> Read Moreโ€ฆ

  • Bloglovin
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter

Kerry Cooks Privacy Policy

See it here!

Get Kerry Cooks posts direct to your inbox!

Enter your email address below to get new posts by email, it's FREE!

Join 14,776 other subscribers

Foodies100 Index of UK Food Blogs
Foodies100

Copyright © 2022 Kerry Cooks

X
Subject:
Message: