Its Alternative Ingredients week, a.k.a.
baking for those with allergies.
Think cake with no sugar, bread without gluten, and ice cream without diary.
Credit: PBS
Think a whole lot of confused faces among the bakers.
With that in mind, gluten is your drinking-game word for the opening hour.
And lets jump right in.
I wish it could be like that all the time, he laments.
Splodge seems the most fitting word to describe it.
And not just any bread.
The challenge is to make 12 identical gluten-free pita breads in two hours.
Of course, no one has made pita bread before, let alone the gluten-free kind.
Tamal takes one look at the instructions and yelps, What the hell?
Ugne has never made gluten-free bread before in her life, but she did just make a gluten-free cake.
How different can it be?
The challenge is designed to test them on their base knowledge of gluten-free flours.
Bread connoisseur Paul Hollywood is looking for a consistency thats more sticky dough than wet dough.
No one really achieves this.
The bakers present their slabs of gray, dense bread for the judges to taste.
For the first time ever, Im glad Im not a judge on this show.
Alvin comes in last, but at least he now knows what pita bread is.
Nadiya takes first place for the first time in a Technical Challenge.
Ian is nervous while Ugne is hopeful.
Lets see how long that feeling lasts as we move onto the Showstopper challenge.
After last weeks 3-D bread sculpture, this weeks ice-cream roll doesnt seem so crazy.
The bakers must make dairy-free ice cream, covered in homemade jam and wrapped in a light golden sponge.
Paul expects to see magic in the tent: Thatll do baking is not good enough, he warns.
Paul-Not-Hollywood steps in to help him.
They cut away at the lurid-green ice cream together until it fits.
Six of the bakers are inlaying designs to leave a pattern on the sponge.
Its incredibly technical and intricate work precisely what weve come to expect from a Showstopper challenge.
Come judgment time, Nadiyas idea to add strawberry-and-lime mousse running through her chocolate ice cream pays off.
Unfortunately, the same cant be said for Ugne.
Once again, her dessert seems to have collapsed.
Putting the jam inside her peanut-butter ice cream rather than on the outside was a mistake.
The judges, while sympathetic, arent pleased with the aesthetic.
In the end, however, flavors not enough to save Ugne.
Sometimes she goes a little bit wild, offers Paul by way of explanation for sending her home.
Its time for the adventurous bodybuilder to hang up her apron and leave the tent for good.
Will she keep her newly claimed lead when it comes to pastry week?
We can find out right now because lucky us its another double bill.
First up is the Signature Challenge, which is a frangipane tart.
The bakers have two tented hours to produce this almond-flavored cream encased in shortcrust pastry.
You want it to break and almost melt in the mouth, but strong enough to hold the frangipane.
But the real test here?
In the infamous words of one Mrs. Mary Berry: Not to get a soggy bottom.
There are a lot of nerves now that there are only seven bakers left.
With nerves comes the need to take risks and stand out.
Nadiya is bringing bay leaf, rong tea, and pear to her frangipane mix.
Even she admits its a gamble, since not one of these ingredients has a strong flavor.
Some tent members blind-bake their pastry to avoid the feared soggy bottom.
Alvin is having time-management problems and decides to use less filling so theyll cook faster.
His eyes look a little red.
Mats crust has shrunk.
Nadiyas tart looks lovely due to some very even pear slicing, but she has the dreaded soggy bottom.
Mats looks effective, but the rum flavor doesnt really come through.
Maybe he drank it all instead?
The pastry Technical Challenge is Flaounes.
Its a cheese-filled pastry made in Cyprus and eaten to celebrate the end of Lent.
The bakers have just two hours to make 12 identical pastries with a thin crust and high dome shape.
Glancing at the instructions, pretty much everyone mumbles the words What is this?
Even Mary tells Paul shes never heard of them and declares this the toughest challenge yet.
To which Paul responds, Great, isnt it?
(I doubt the bakers agree, though.)
The ingredients one of which seems to smell pretty terrible are perplexing.
Thats like some industrial-strength cleaner, says Nadiya after taking a whiff.
Bet youre salivating at the thought of Flaounes now.
No one knows whether the dough needs to be kneaded.
Acing the Showstopper is now Alvins only hope to stay in the tent for one more week.
The bakers have three hours and 45 minutes to make 24 vol-au-vents.
They must make two different types of these small hollow cases of puff pastry, 12 of each.
PSA: Do not watch this next section while hungry.
Vol-au-vents might be the most scrumptious-looking treat on the show so far.
The main challenge here is making sure the pastry is just right.
The many layers of dough must be paper-thin.
The process is then repeated multiple times.
The more folds, the better the puff.
For their fillings, most of the bakers go for one sweet and one savory option.
Ambitious Flora decides to make chocolate pastry.
Ians adding squid ink to his, something his wife warned him not to do.
Clever Mat listened to his wife, who suggested smoked trout and horseradish for one of his fillings.
Tamals taking inspiration from something close to his heart, too: A sandwich he once enjoyed.
Its not just any sandwich, however; its one of the top two sandwiches of his entire life.
Its pulled pork fried with fennel and rosemary.
(Anyone else dying to know what the no.
1 sandwich he ever tasted is?)
There are pastry problems aplenty as the time ticks away.
Nadiya and Mat are encountering lumps of butter in their dough.
Mat declares he doesnt have time to start over, but Nadiya decides its worth a shot.
In the end, it turns out it wasnt.
She has 48 vol-au-vents to fill in five minutes and its just not possible.
Hey, itstechnicallystill everything they asked for.
Luckily for Nadiya, her mix of clementine and cod is flavorsome enough to save her.
Choosing to stick with his first batch of pastry, lumps and all, works for Mat.
Theyre raw on the bottom.
Cue more apologies from Alvin and hugs from the other bakers when hes told hes heading home.
Ladies and gentlemen, behold the power of baking.
