It’s Juniors S7E5 - pastry day for Heat A! For bakes this week I took on some oatmeal butterscotch cookies - but with a little twist of my own in how I prepped them.  I had two delicious desserts from local bakers, a cinnamon chop oatmeal cream pie and a chocolate chocolate chip bunny cake with cream cheese icing.

Where are they Now:  This week we take a ride to Season 10. We look at one of the finalists  - Steph (Steph) Blackwell.  Steph struggled in the tent for confidence, but she was an amazing baker that always just brought the goods.  I like to start my research on Social Media and we head to her IG: @stephiblackwell where she has 139k followers.  The last time she posted was in May of 2022 where she was showing us her 2nd book “Bake Yourself Happy” a follow up to her first book The Joy of Baking.  Prior to bakeoff Steph used to be a very strong athlete - all country in hurdles before an injury sidelined her. She was star baker on the show FOUR times. She talks openly about mental health struggles including her own eating disorder that she has under management.  But I’ll be honest aside from that IG post over a year ago the only thing I’ve been able to determine is that she still shares recipes and a column in Chesire Life Magazine. See one published in August 2023. Other than that … that’s it.

Warning. - spoilers below

Two bakes as is typical with Juniors. The Technical brought us the “religious” - which is normally a nun, but Rev threw a curveball and asked them to make a choir pastry Harry with hazelnut pastry cream.  A few didn’t get the pastry right (Lola and Macy) a couple botched the cream.  Quique and Kezia did well with Kecia taking first.  Lola was at the back with Eliza 5th.  Eggs were the key to the choux and over whipping was the cream’s biggest faults.

Showstopper was “Takaway pie” (takeaway is what we call take out in the States.).  First time they had to do Savory.  All the bakers went for short crust.  The key to a great shortcrust is WATER and the amount of working. Some very creative bakes - Lola with a beep dish “alliteration pie”, Macy with Korma. Bothe Quique and Eliza took on “Chinese” - one with pork the other with duck. Kezia did a chicken and lamb doner pie.  Lola did well, Macy had some constructive comments but not bad, Quique was a bit underbaked but good on flavor, Kecia knocked it out of the park, and Eliza ran short on time and was underbakes and her duck was over cooked. 

Eliza impressed me again with her kindness and maturity, but alas it wasn’t enough… she was sent home.She was crying at the end, but ultimately was a good sport and left with dignity. She will be missed. Kecia - always humble - took a very well deserved Star Baker. I am shocked that both of the youngest two made the finals for the heat. (Lola and Quique)

Next week we see Heat B for the first time.

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